How to identify which application is trying to access the unixbuild server?

Question: The error message I am seeing is:
<code>Failed publickey for raj from 10.*.*.** port 34355 ssh2
Mar 18 05:22:34
unixbuild sshd[16956]: [ID 1000034 auth.info] Failed password for raj from 10.*.*.* port 34355 ssh2
</code>
Answer: the user Raj has tried to connect from IP address 10...*
You cannot see from this what application is connecting but you can identify the machine.
If you do not already know what machine holds this IP address you can trace it via IP address or MAC (arp -an)
You can also prevent access from this machine and see what breaks. You can prevent access either via iptables or more simply use
route add 10...* reject
this will reject all traffic to this host so it cannot talk to the unixbuild server


How do I obtain exponential moving averages using the MtGox API?

Question: To calculate EMAs, do I need to be recording all of the data coming through MtGox's websocket firehose and manually calculating it myself, or are there static calls I can make to the HTTP API to obtain these figures on demand? How can I obtain an EMA for historical data before I begin recording websocket-streamed data?
Answer: Found an answer almost straight away - the answer is to get the data from the BitcoinCharts.com API, rather than MtGox - http://bitcoincharts.com/about/markets-api/
Further info here: Bitcoin Charts API Data


How is Nichiren Buddhism different from other branches of Buddhism?

Question: Nichiren Buddhism is a branch Mahayana Buddhism founded by Nichiren in the 13th century Japan. How is it different from other sects and branches of Buddhism? What are it's tenets, philosophy and practices? Do they venerate Buddha as a God or as a great personality and spiritual master?
Comment: No, Nichiren Buddhists do not venerate Buddha as God. The word "buddha" means "awakened one" and in Nichiren Buddhism this refers to the the possibility that all human beings can "wake up" from a fundamentally mistaken view of reality. In other words, buddha is one way people can choose to live. Nichiren is considered to have attained buddhahood and is therefore accorded a great deal of respect as is Gautama Siddhartha (Shakyamuni).
Answer: Nichiren Buddhism differs from other schools of Buddhism in focusing on this world, and in its view that it is the only correct tradition. It also emphasises the importance of individuals taking responsibility for improving themselves. Although it can be seen as a highly self-focused religion, followers of Nichiren Buddhism believe that individual empowerment and inner transformation contribute, in turn, to a better and more peaceful world.
Beliefs: instant enlightenment
Instant enlightenment is one of the key elements of Nichiren Buddhism. It teaches that enlightenment is available to everybody. One writer has encapsulated this idea as a "shortcut to salvation". The essence of enlightenment is opening a person's innate Buddha-nature in this world.
Nichiren, the founder, came to believe that he was living in a degraded age, an age of mappo (very similar to the English term "end times") where Buddha's teachings were misinterpreted and as a consequence many bad things were happening. Nichiren followed the Lotus Sutra in his teaching that all living beings could attain enlightenment on earth and could do this through chanting and 'human revolution'. Nichiren emphasised the Lotus Sutra to the extent that he taught that it was the only way that could lead to true Buddhahood, and create a truly good world. He taught that other Buddhist practices no longer provided a road to enlightenment, and that it was the neglect of the Lotus Sutra that was responsible for the evils of his time; including such things as earthquakes. Nichiren was not just a scripture scholar, he was an activist. Having worked out what was wrong with contemporary Buddhism he did something about it. He engaged in shakubuku. This Japanese word means "to break and subdue".
The main practice of Nichiren Buddhists is chanting, primarily the mantra Nam Myoho Renge Kyo which means 'I devote my life to the law itself'. Chanters repeat this mantra to enter more deeply into the spiritual tradition of the Lotus Sutra.
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo is both the heart and title of the Lotus Sutra, which teaches the enlightenment of all living beings. Believers also recite sections of the Lotus Sutra as part of their daily practice. The chant is performed in front of a scroll called the Gohonzon. Chanting is usually performed for about 30 minutes night and morning and is believed to bring about changes in a person's life and reverse bad karma.
Nichiren Buddhists specifically believe that everyone can change their destiny and bring about the effects they desire. Followers are encouraged to write their personal goals down on a piece of paper and have it in front of them while chanting. The aim of the practice is to establish high states of self-development. As Yukio Matsudo writes, it "works as a regular and constant inspiration to manifest the qualities of the Buddha in one's daily life."
Chanting versus prayer: This chanting tradition is very different to the tradition of chanted prayer in many other religions. Those who practice it believe that the chant is "an influence at work in the metaphysical economy" and actually changes the force and action of karma.


Conflicts in svn

Question: What's the correct procedure to merge a branch to trunk in svn in command line?
Currently I just commit at branch, then switch working copy to the trunk, and merge the brwhen merging branch to trunkanch to working copy, at last, commit the changes to trunk.
While I am merging the branch to working copy at trunk, there are always conflicts I have to edit myself.
This seem to be annoying. Is the procedure correct? Could I avoid the conflicts?
Answer: Ya, conflicts are part of the process, there are some graphical tools out there that will help you resolve these conflicts.  However if you need to do it command line, there is a good tutorial here: http://www.duchnik.com/tutorials/vc/svn-conflicts
Its really quite simple actually, once you understand the basics of what is going on.
Answer: Conflicts surface whenever the differencing logic can not make an educated assumption on the expected behavior during the merge. Instead of fouling up the merge it forces the decision to the user and allows them to make an educated decision to force the desired outcome.
A walk through for what you describe can be found here. Keep in mind however that conflicts are inevitable and can not be avoided.

Conflicts in svn


Is it absolutely necessary to count the notes?

Question: I am a beginner and I am learning to play the violin. So far,  from what I've seen,according to the teaching of Western classical music you count as you play. if it's a 3/4 measure then you count 1,2,3 or 1& 2& 3, 1, 2&, 3, etc. depending on the rhythm and notation. However, I have seen musicians(outside of western classical) who don't necessarily count like that as long as they know the notes they feel the rhythm and play the song WHILE enjoying it. On the other hand, I noticed that if i try to count and play, I really cannot enjoy music, instinctively following the rhythm is more gratifying (someone who started learning with me has already decided to stop counting) not only that, it's easier to pick up the song with just unconsciously following the  rhythm and looking at the notes in the score (and not consciously counting their value rather instinctively following them)
So, can anyone clarify to me why is it necessary to count?
Comment: How do you know they don't count?
Comment: @davidstrachan I know this by working with them. I even formally asked one of them, who learned eastern classical and subcontinental music. Also, before violin, I used to learn guitar and my teacher, though taught me a bit about measures like 4/4, 3/4 he never taught me how to read sheet music (only guitar tab) and performed music through feeling the rhythm.
Answer: When learning a piece it can be useful to count the meter out like you describe, but when people are becoming used to the material, I think most people aren't counting each bar like that. In an orchestra, the conductor is indicating the tempo, when a new measure starts, with a band the drummer is keeping the rhythm.
I don't know which non-western type of music you are referring to, but for almost all music I would say it's important to know where in the form you are at each point in time. When beginning, counting the beats could be a good way to achieve this.
So to wrap this up into some kind of answer, keeping the beat is very important, to always count each beat explicitly is probably rare.
Comment: I said in my question "outside of western classical" meaning it is not necessarily "non-western". I learned a little bit of guitar from someone who follows modern western music and he also followed the same principal as you, "keeping to the beats" but did not count individual notes. So based on your answer I'm concluding counting each beat separately is not necessarily important, so thanks. And as for "non-western" i guess I also meant "Indian classical music/subcontinental music"- they have their own grammar and all but as far as I know they don't necessarily count each beat.
Comment: Even within Indian music is there a system of counting beats. See Takadimi: http://www.takadimi.net/FAQs.html . While it is quite different (and altogether more elegant) than a traditional western style of counting, in the end they strive for the same goal of being able to interpret, or feel, the rhythm.
Answer: If you are unfamiliar with a piece of music then it is necessary to count it out to understand how the phrasing would be. Once you understand the phrasing then you can perform it without actually counting and enjoy it.
Comment: I see. could you also tell me whether you count 32nd notes and above consciously? my violin teacher told me that he does not count them (not even 16th note) but rather punches  them in the beat.
Comment: I would say he is feeling it. If you practice with a metronome with 16th and 32nd notes, you will begin to feel the rhythm without actually counting it. Just trust yourself and practice. People who dance can feel the rhythm without counting, it is natural.


Is it possible to run Tor in virtual machine with only 256 Megabyte of RAM?

Question: I would like to know if it is feasible to run Tor in virtual machine with 256 MB of RAM.
If so, which flavor of linux minimal enough to run it?
Comment: From the tag I guess that you would like to run the Tor Browser Bundle (TBB) in the VM. Am I right? --- I think that **256 MB of RAM is too low** for Firefox included in TBB. See http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/27.0/system-requirements/. --- You should also probably add additional information to the question: CPU architecture, virtualization solution you would like to use etc.
Comment: sorry myanswer may not be exact,I will be using virtualbox ,which ever is not resource hungry I am ok with it
Comment: This question really doesn't provide enough information to be useful. Are you wanting Linux to be the virtual OS or the host OS (or both)? What sort of hardware are you using? Does your chipset provide hardware virtualization (most CPUs do these days)? etc.
Answer: Any distribution which doesn't ship too much rubbish. Don't use a 64-bit OS, because that uses more memory.
Debian can easily run Tor on x86.
But if you wanted a GUI, you are going to have to be patient. Or use Windows XP (although 256M is still pushing it a bit).


Travel in the Schengen area with only Carta d'identita and Permesso di soggiorno?

Question: I am a non-EU student in Italy. Recently I have left my passport at the UK embassy for visa. However I have a ticket to for Greece in the next days (with Ryanair) and  I the embassy doesn't give me a clear answer whether I will receive my passport by then. Now I would like to know whether I can travel to Greece with only my permesso di soggiorno and Carta d'identita Italiana (and no passport)?
Comment: I am not sure about the answer, but be careful with Ryanair. They often are more restrictive on documentation than needed. For example, I used to fly with my Spanish identification card between Spain and Belgium (I am Italian) but Ryanair insisted that only my Italian identity card (or a passport) will do.
Comment: @Rmano Because you are Italian, your Spanish ID isn't proof of nationality and therefore is neither a "national ID" nor, for the purpose of EU law, a "travel document".  (Legally, it doesn't matter whether Spain considers you to have Italian nationality, after all; only Italy is competent to make that determination.)
Comment: You need to stamp your boarding card at visa check desk by Ryanair. Since you do not have the passport, most likely you cannot get the stamp and will be refuse to board.
Answer: Generally speaking travel documents for travelling within Schengen zone are: passport or EU/EEA national ID card. Officially none other documents are accepted, however some airlines might be more relaxed in their requirements. RyanAir is not one of these airlines, and RyanAir will not let you travel with just residency permit (I'm also speaking from personal experience).
Carta d'identita Italiana is not valid travel documents for non-EU citizens.

Cittadini stranieri non comunitari
Occorre presentare il permesso di soggiorno in corso di validità e il
  documento rilasciato non costituisce titolo valido per l'espatrio.
  (wiki)
Comment: the answer is correct, Italian ID cards released to non Italian nationals are not valid for travel outside Italy.


non-exempt software engineering position

Question: I'm an embedded software engineer with  about 4 years of experience. I'm currently looking for my next role and received a job offer. Unfortunately, neither the recruiter  nor HR had a correct job description so I can't verify exactly what the job entails are. The job offer is for a software engineering role that is non-exempt and pays hourly 45 dollars per hour, which means it will pay overtime. I've never heard of a full time engineering job which has an hourly rate. Is this common practice? Also, what kind of "software engineering" work can I expect to receive if the job is non-exempt? (isn't the definition of a exempt software job one where you have to use reasoning skills, in others words, it's a job where you design and write code)?
Comment: "neither the recruiter nor HR had a correct job description" - Ask for an interview with the man or woman who will be your boss. That person should be able to answer.
Comment: hourly rate sounds more like a short term contracting/free lance position than a full time long term position in the company.
Comment: I'm assuming this is in the US?
Comment: Are you sure it is a full time job? It sounds like it could be part time
Comment: Is full-time non-exempt common? Yes. Other than that there is no way we can guess what you will be doing on the job. You need to ask the company, not us.
Answer:
Unfortunately, neither the recruiter nor HR had a correct job
  description so I can't verify exactly what the job entails are.

I think it would be foolish to accept an offer for a job when you have no idea what you would be doing.
I also think it's odd that you could go through interviews and be offered a job without ever having discussed the details of the job other than "It's embedded software engineering, non-exempt and $45/hr."
Something seems fishy here.
But either way, just ask for another interview with your future manager, HR or whoever else can discuss the job details. This time - ask questions. And don't stop asking until you understand what you would be getting into and can make an informed decision.
If for some odd reason the company won't give you another interview, then just walk away and look for another job.
Answer: The software industry in the US is an odd animal.   One of the quirks I've run into at nearly every job I've had is that even if I'm "exempt" and "salaried", I still am forced to record my hourly activity.   Some places would like you to be able to record to the nearest 1/10 of an hour.  On my current job I'm officially on a 40 hour week but "strongly encouraged" to work 44+ hours.  Some jobs pay you overtime even if you are exempt, others don't.
If you are non-exempt, that does sound more like a contracting job than employee.  In practice, it might not make a difference.  A lot of companies bring in contractors as a probation period before they hire them or because they don't want to deal with HR in-house.  But it's good advice to double check on that.
Sometimes it varies depending on state or industry.  Department of Defense contracts operate very differently than a gaming company.

Is this common practice?

The best answer I can give to that is: It's not uncommon.  Recruiters and HR usually don't mind if you come back with more questions.   In fact, it could be seen as a sign you are really interested in the job.  I'd call up and ask for clarification.
Comment: @JoeStrazzere   I've had that argument with management, HR, payroll, everyone many times at many companies...I agree that I'm not treated like a salaried employee, but on all the paperwork and our HR employee information page it says clearly "FLSA: Salary Exempt"
Comment: @JoeStrazzere Actually...that depends.  For example, I'm on a contract (in the US) but was required to be a W2 with the supplier, as per their contract with the end customer.  They pay me by the hour; I'm exempt in name only, not in practice.  As bluegreen said, the software industry in the US is an odd animal.
Comment: @JoeStrazzere  No, it affects my paycheck.   If I work a 50 hour week, I get paid for 50 hours.   If I work a 35 hour week, I get a 35 hour check (I just double checked).  It balances out over time.
Comment: @bluegreen Then they're either lying or incompetent.
Answer: It isn't necessarily a problem that the job has an hourly, non-exempt rate. I work for a large, US organisation and our, more junior, US positions are quoted with an hourly rate although they're, in reality, salaried i.e. they're paid for a set number of hours. Up until a year or so ago the junior positions were also paid overtime although that was stopped in favour of a bonus scheme.
Having said that, you should confirm with the recruiter/HR what your minimum contractual hours will be and expectation for overtime. If there's no minimum then that would be a red flag for me.
I would be very cautious about accepting an offer without confirming what the actual job is with someone directly familiar with the role i.e. not HR or the recruiter. Your prospective direct manager would obviously be preferable but, at the very least, the hiring manager or an engineering representative of the department you will be working in.


SharePoint 2013 Workflow Task Outcome Approve / Reject Buttons no longer display

Question: I created a simply custom workflow that up until recently had the approve and reject buttons on edit task form.  Now I have a approve or reject drop down.  How do I get the buttons back?
Answer: As per my understanding, Your task is created of "Task" content type.
You will need to add "Workflow Task(2013)" content type in your task list and then create task of "Workflow Task(2013)" content type.
So it will automatically give you Approve- Reject buttons.
Please refer this link.
Answer: Please make sure that following features are not deactivated by mistake:

Site collection features > SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure
Manage Site Collection features > Publishing Approval workflow feature
Answer: You should have Task outcome as the last column in the column order to get the outcome as buttons
To do that, you need to goto

List settings-> click on the content type name(workflow task 2013) ->
  click on column order -> Make the task outcome as last column and
  click ok

Now if you refresh your task edit page, you should be able to see the Approve/Reject as buttons
Answer: In addition to having the 'Task Outcome' as the last column in the Content Type, you will have to ensure 'Task Status', '% Complete' and 'Priority' are not hidden.


Are books a threat to memory and reasoning?

Question: I've heard that an ancient philosopher (probably Aristotle) feared that the apparition of books was a threat to human memory and thus on reasoning capability.
Is the assertion valid? What was the exact reasoning please?
Comment: Could you more precisely cite your source? Otherwise, this will just breed spitball answers :P
Comment: too much of anything is bad for you
Answer: It is not Aristotle who makes that argument but Plato, in the Phaedrus.
If you are not interested in reading the entire dialogue, you can read a summary of the argument on the relevant Wikipedia page.
Answer: I'd suggest that the fear is related to the fear in contemporary discourse where the internet is seen as a threat & atomisation of reasoning & discourse. In fact there is a short story by E M Forster written in 1909, The Machine Stops which is a previsioning of the internet, people copying & pasting knowledge etc. It presents a dystopian vision, but eventually the community awakes from the mirage, when the machine stops. They reassert the sovereignty of the human community.
I'd suggest that part of this fear is correct, that it exerts a centrifugal & separating force, even if its also a democratising force.
The Brahminic class in ancient India passed on its understanding via a guru-student relationship (similar to that of the relationship between that of a Phd supervisor & that of his student). Books were seen as an aide de memoire, presumably. Its one of the reasons as to why, for example Nagarjuna Madyamika is so cryptic. It requires a mentor to help tease out the real understanding. The Brahminic class was against writing their classics down, for many centuries it was done purely orally.
Also, there speech was in verse. So it was sung, or perhaps more akin to the performed spoken-word poetry today; and that needs a Guru (I'm speculating here).
Tagore, complained about the european seminar; which to him was against the spirit of communication. It represented to him a kind of master-slave relationship. (And having been in maths classes, where the lecturer is furiously writing on the board, the students furiously copying it down; and very few raising real questions - presumably no-one wanted to look stupid  - it reminded me more of the description of how scribes would make copies of books, more than a dialogue. :) )
knowledge & understanding, should have a genealogy.
One should become the master of books; and not become mastered by them.
One should also note that the great religous leaders, did not write books.  Mohammed is commonly taken to be illiterate (whether in fact he was or not, theologically speaking, he was to have been directly inspired by Allah; although that is not quite right either).


Which Lens Should I Use For A Single Lens Solution On Sony a6500?

Question: I plan on buying a Sony a6500 (APS-C sensor) camera within 60 days. I want very much to work with just one lens, either the Sony DT 18-135mm (27mm -203mm) f/3.5-5.6 SAM, or the Sony E PZ 18-105mm (27mm - 158mm) f/4G OSS. This will give me a reasonably compact system that I wish to use for the following actives of my grand children. These activities  are Football and Soccer (outdoors) and swimming and theatre (indoors)….The DT18135 may need an adapter? I realize that neither of these lenses are preferred for these activities. Am I asking too much of these lenses? I am open to an alternative lens, but wish to stay with a single lens solution. Also, for outdoor Football and Soccer, …..Would a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter be helpful?  I am an older guy and wish to keep my system as light and easy as possible, yet, I am hoping to get decent quality.
Comment: Why buy an interchangeable lens camera if you desire a single lens solution? The whole point of an ILC is to give a choice between different lenses that can be optimized for a particular task, rather than a single lens that is optimized for nothing in particular.
Answer: The Sony E PZ 18-105mm (27mm - 158mm) f/4G OSS is a better lens optically than the Sony DT 18-135mm (27mm -203mm) f/3.5-5.6 SAM and the difference in prices reflect that.
You are correct that you would also need an adapter to use the A-mount lens on your E-mount body. Adapters can also introduce miniscule alignment issues that can actually be perceptible in photographs. From a blog entry by Roger Cicala at lensrentals.com titled "There Is No Free Lunch, Episode 763: Lens Adapters"

One thing that has always bothered me, though, is the idea of doubling the number of lens-mount interfaces. When you look at the thick metal pieces on the front of the camera and the back of the lens, and then consider that they have to be lined up exactly parallel to the image sensor, it's kind of amazing it works.
Although it doesn't always work. Lloyd Chambers first reported years ago that with high-quality, wide-angle lenses you could detect very small misalignments in the camera-lens mount. Misalignment of 10 microns from side-to-side was enough to cause blur on the sides of the image. Since then a lot of other people have confirmed the same thing.
So when I hear people cavalierly talking about putting an adapter on their camera I tend to cringe. When a single camera-lens interface has enough variability to sometimes be visible, adding another large piece of metal with another mount interface seems a recipe for problems.

Within the limits of the focal length ranges each lens you suggested offers, either one would probably give you acceptable results for outdoor daylight use. Even with a quality 1.4X TC the 18-105mm f/4 might do well at longer focal lengths in sunlight. Keep in mind that most wide angle lenses don't do well at all with TCs. There's never been a real impetus to design TCs that work well with wide angle lenses because most photographers already have normal focal length lenses that give better performance than what a WA + TC could possibly produce.
I'm not sure either of your suggested lenses would fare well with indoor sports. f/4 is fairly slow to shoot sports under artificial lights, f/5.6 is intolerable. For theatrical use, anything slower than f/2.8 is not likely to give you anything you'll be happy with. Fast primes with f/2 or wider apertures are the best way to shoot theater, although f/2.8 zooms can usually handle it well enough in the hands of a skilled photographer. Shooting theater is one of the most challenging forms of photography there is both in terms of the demands on the photographer's skill and knowledge and in terms of the limits of the equipment.
You'll also likely find that 105mm or even 135mm on an APS-C camera is not going to be long enough for shooting soccer or football from the sidelines and even less useful if you're shooting from bleachers further back. You're going to need to get in the 200-300mm+ range. Anything past 300mm for an APS-C or larger sensor camera is really going to start costing some money or the maximum aperture and/or image quality is going to start to suffer. Lower priced offerings at 200mm+ focal lengths have fairly narrow maximum apertures of around f/5.6-6.3 so they are pretty good in bright light but aren't very useful for sports/action under lights or indoor sports and they're near useless for theatrical work.
The entire point of an interchangeable lens system camera is to allow you to use different lenses that are better or even great at one thing but unsuitable for other things. Fixed lens cameras force you to use a single lens that is mediocre or worse at a lot of things but better at nothing. Insisting on using a single lens for everything on an interchangeable lens camera is not much different than a fixed lens camera. In some cases the fixed lens camera may meet your needs better than an ILC with only one lens.
The best lenses are all prime lenses. That means a single focal length. No.Zoom.At.All. They're really good when they provide the field of view and other characteristics you need. This is because they can be optimized to do one thing at one focal length. A good flat field 100mm macro lens is different from a good 85mm, 105mm, or 135mm portrait lens. But they are not very flexible, so you need a lot of them for various different things. Some are pretty good for not much money (e.g. EF 50mm f/1.8 STM @ $120). Others are incredibly good for a boatload of cash (e.g. EF 400mm f/2.8 L IS II @ $10K). Most fall somewhere in between.
Compared to their zoom lens counterparts, in addition to equal or better optical quality at a lower price prime lenses can also be smaller/lighter, have wider maximum apertures, and often still be much cheaper.
Short ratio zoom lenses, that is zoom lenses with a less than 3X difference between their longest and shortest focal length, can also be very good. But the best ones cost a lot. A lens like the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L II runs around $2K and can match the image quality, if not the maximum aperture, of a $120 EF 50mm f/1.8 STM. It's also built a bit better and can shoot at 24mm (with near the same IQ as a mid-priced 24mm prime) and 70mm and anywhere in between. The Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM would be a comparable E-mount lens when used in an APS-C E-mount camera.
When you move outside of the 3x limit is when image quality really starts to noticeably go down. Some 4-5X zoom lenses that fall entirely in the telephoto range can be pretty good. But when you start trying to design a lens that goes from wide angle to telephoto and covers a 5X-10X or more zoom range, that is when it really starts getting difficult to keep it affordable and manageable with regard to size and weight and still provide excellent image quality. You'll usually get better image quality and spend less buying something like an 18-55mm and a 55-250mm pair of zoom lenses than you would get with an 18-200mm 'all-in-one'.
The other thing you must consider is that larger sensors require larger lenses to get the same field of view. Your 27-203mm equivalent superzoom is really an 18-135mm lens in front of a sensor that is 1.5X smaller in linear measurements and covers an area less than 1/2 the size of a FF sensor. There are tradeoffs with low light ability, noise level even when shooting in daylight, image sharpness, particularly at the telephoto end, etc. that were made to give you that "7.5X zoom." Even with the higher quality 18-105mm f/4, there are similar tradeoffs made to give you that "5.8X zoom."
Answer: From Michael Clark's answer:

In some cases the fixed lens camera may meet your needs better than an ILC with only one lens.

Speaking only about indoor swimming, since that's what I'm most familiar with, this seems to me to be one of those cases. With your proposed lenses, or with any large-sensor setup you can realistically purchase, for that matter, you are probably not going to be able to get shots of your grandchildren resembling those, because you can't get a lens long enough to provide such a narrow field of view.

(Sony RX10 M3, 220mm (600mm equiv.), 1/800s, f/4, 3200 ISO)
So you could compromise and go with a smaller sensor setup, so you can have the narrow FoV with a shorter lens. Fortunately, your budget is not so small as to force you to go microscopic, and you can go with a "mid-size" one (smaller than APS-C but larger than Joe Average's point-and-shoot) like the one in my RX10. Yes, image quality will probably suffer somewhat, but it's a trade-off you might find acceptable.


Travelling to USA with Saudi Arabian airlines

Question: I am an Indian citizen and will be traveling to USA on a B2 (tourist visa). Will I face additional scrutiny if I fly with Saudi Arabian airlines? The tickets are like $300 cheaper so. There is a 3 hour halt at Jeddah Intl airport, Saudi Arabia. Will I face problems at the port of entry in USA?
Comment: Short answer: no. Flying Saudia is just like flying any other airline, from the perspective of a US immigration official.
Comment: Also, Saudi Arabia is a Mecca for Muslims. Literally.
Comment: Saudi Arabia is one of the staunchest allies of the USA, not sure why you'd face any problem.
Comment: @AndrewGrimm +1 for the pun :)
Comment: I guess the scrutiny might more come from the places where you have traveled (ie spent few days with a stamp on your passport) rather than the places where you have transited...
Answer: No; you will not.
You may face extra scrutiny based on your travel profile, but definitely not the airline - you also cannot "fix" your travel profile by flying on Emirates, Gulf, Etihad, Kuwait Airways or Qatar Airways in lieu of Saudi Arabian Airlines.
You will be scrutinized just as anyone else would based on your unique profile; the details of which are only privy to the authorities.
Answer: As long as you don't enter the country where your layover takes place, it doesn't matter how you travel from A to B. So just make sure to stay airside at the layover airport. What Border Patrol cares about is what countries you actually spent time in.
For example, recently many travelers originating in Istanbul were flagged for SSSS and had to endure extra screening once in the USA.


User testing, simple flow testing

Question: I am going to run a user testing for a bank in order to evaluate ''be our customer'' flow. Which starts with collecting basic information then connecting with a representative to finalise the application. The flow is very simple, it has only one CTA for each screen and dropdown selection & basic input text fields to collect information, hence I believe task completion rate etc is not right criteria to focus. I would like to investigate how the logic of questions to collect basic information laid on the flow and how confident the user to give information on that flow to be a customer.
What type of methods you would do?
Answer: Since you are basically testing for motivation and how the logic of the questions matches up with the mental models of the users, a basic paper form will still do the job.
An higher fidelity of this approach will be to use a basic HTML form and then install Hotjar to do a form field analysis. The insights this will give you include "time spent on field", "blankout rates" e.t.c
Visit here for more data points Hotjar offers: https://help.hotjar.com/hc/en-us/sections/115002610667-Forms
Answer: During each in-person usability session I'd encourage the tester to think out loud, so that you gain both insight into their immediate impression and understanding of each page, as well as their thought patterns and realisations as they go through the motions.
Answer: "be our customer" - the account creation process itself or the use of the service - can have a comprehensive client decision-making process:

reference?
advertisement?
economic considerations?
brand?

I think it's worth focusing on quality in this case. Suppose there are 60-70 banks - why did the customer choose this particular one?
The possible methods are:
(source:https://www.questionpro.com/blog/qualitative-research-methods/#Qualitative_Research_Methods_with_Examples)

One-on-One interview
Focus groups
Record keeping
Process of observation

User testing, simple flow testing


What does the abbreviation "RAW" mean?

Question: I have seen the abbreviation RAW several times now, what does it stand for?
Comment: Related: [What RPG concepts does "rules as written" encompass?](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/104165/what-rpg-concepts-does-rules-as-written-encompass), [What does "Rules As Interpreted" mean and how is it different to RAW and RAI \(from D&D\)?](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/158028/what-does-rules-as-interpreted-mean-and-how-is-it-different-to-raw-and-rai-fr), [Where does the term Rules as Tweeted \(RAT\) come from?](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/138714/where-does-the-term-rules-as-tweeted-rat-come-from)
Answer: Rules As Written, sometimes contrasted with Rules As Intended or Rules As Interpreted (both entirely separate concepts, unfortunately ambiguously abbreviated to RAI)
Answer: RAW stands for "Rules As Written"
When you read the rules and form an understanding, that understanding is of the rules as they are written.
RAW is often used as a noun to mean "the rules as they are written". When someone says "by RAW, X" they mean "the rules say, X".
Reading the rules is the default way to understand the rules, but it isn't the only way
RAW is the primary way to understand rules. More broadly, reading a text is the primary method of understanding any text.
Starting with RAW, there are other things to consider that may increase your understanding:

RAW (Rules As Written) What the rules say. There may be some different interpretations, but they are all based on reading the rules; "the rules say roll 1d6, so you should roll 1d6."
RAI (Rules As Intended) What the designer meant. Sometimes the designer mistakenly writes something or didn't communicate clearly enough; "the rules say 1d6 but it was meant to say 1d8."
RAF (Rules As Fun) What would be cool. Rules are great and all, but they are a means to an end, and that end is fun (for games at least); "1d6 is lame, at my table we roll 10d10."
RAI (Rules As Interpreted) What sounds good. Another "RAI", but this is a very rare abbreviation and you probably shouldn't use it. It doesn't have a strong definition, but it is usually means something like 'this makes sense to me'; "1d6 is too much, realistically it should be 1d4, that would be fairer and make a higher quality game."
Answer: RAW stands for "Rule as Written".
In games where the distinction matters, it means "what we can understand about how things work in this game just by looking at the rules themselves". In these games, RAW often turns out to be one or more of the following...

nonsensical (when different rules contradict);
impractical (when the result of applying the rules... as written makes the game unfun);
dissonant (when it turns out that the world's physics are not working as we would expect);
useless (when the rules say nothing about a specific case).

It is important to define this because people have started using RAW to mean something more bland.
At its heart, indeed, RAW is all about the literal meaning of what is written, driven to the most extreme consequences, without peppering the matter with the slightest dose of common sense.
The concept of RAW as defined above is used for mainly two reasons.

proving that your idea about how to rule something in the game and someone else's idea are not incompatible because they both build on the same RAW;
building theoretical characters or challenges that almost never see play because they don't take the additional, local rulings into account.

Most people use different definitions of RAW that, as a general rule, include some rulings in order to exclude those things that the authour is highly unlikely to have meant.
This is a source of endless problems, because one person will say something is RAW and a different one will say it is not and discussion will ensue, as it always happens when people use different definitions. Since there's no way to norm where "this is what the author probably wanted to do" and "this is not what the author wanted to do for sure", sticking to the former definition of RAW is safer. (As with every definition on the Internet, expect people to contrast or ignore it if it serves them to prove a point.)

Compare with RAI, Rule as Intended, which is defined as "what the authors said was the intent of the rule", which is often used as "non RAW", including "we don't have the slightest idea of their true intent but it would be nonsense if they didn't mean this".
Comment: I don't think this serves as a useful or particularly accurate primer on the topic, and I don't think bringing up RAI is useful (ever, really).
Comment: This would have been a quick upvote if it had stopped at the 1st paragraph. The rest of the answer suffers from mixing possibly-useful fact observations with personal opinions and seems to not know which are which. It would be improved by removing everything after the 1st paragraph, if cleaning out the personal opinion isn't feasible.
Comment: The tone of this answer is very negative, and I don't think it's very appropriate as a useful answer to the question.
Comment: @user47897 nobody "holds RAW as religious gospel" in actual gameplay except for the most annoying rules lawyers that you don't want to play with anyway. As for online discussions, you can't realistically account for the house rules of every single table so RAW provides a common starting ground that people can at least mostly agree on.
Comment: I upvoted because this is correct. +1 for not holding RAW as religious gospel
Comment: I think this was very helpful. Granted, I have a background in philosophical hermeneutics,  but the resemblance this has to ALL legal interpretation (for Americans, think esp. Constitutional Law) is clear and striking.

What does the abbreviation “RAW” mean?


Is voting for a third party really a 'wasted vote'?

Question: There are lots of undecided voters in what perhaps is the strangest election I've ever witnessed. People from both sides are saying voting for a third party is a wasted vote. If all of the undecided voters and Bernie supporters voted for a third party, what the chances of them getting elected?
Comment: What's a "wasted vote"? Voting for someone who came third in a single position election? Voting in any election where the victory margin is more than one vote? Related Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protest_vote
Comment: Just to add a historical note, the major parties almost always claim that voting for a third-party candidate is a "wasted vote."  Republicans will see a vote for Johnson as a vote they should have and Democrats will see a vote for Stein as a vote they should have.  It was the same with Perot and Nader.
Comment: For what I say,  it is not.  But  it depends on the count of voters that vote. Right now,  people are sheeps with their votes lmao
Answer: The most likely way that this could happen would be for the election to go to the House and for the Democrats (who are a minority in the House) to join with some disaffected Republicans to elect the third party candidate over Donald Trump.
It is conceivable that this could happen through tactical voting as well.  If a third party makes it into the debates and spoils the anti-Trump vote in enough states, it is conceivable that they could switch from Hillary Clinton to a compromise candidate like Gary Johnson.  Then we'd be talking about a vote for Clinton being a vote for Trump.
It seems like you may prefer a candidate like Bernie Sanders.  That seems highly unlikely, as Sanders isn't working for either scenario.  And the former scenario would require Democrats to vote for the primary loser over the primary winner.  And Sanders is unlikely to get more support from Republicans than the more moderate Clinton.
Jill Stein (actually running) has the same problem.  She might make for a spoiler in Trump's favor, but she couldn't draw Never Trump Republicans.
In order for a third party to win, the candidate will have to appeal to both Republicans and Democrats.  If Sanders and Ted Cruz weren't able to win the primary, then why expect them or candidates like them to win a general election over the more moderate Trump and Clinton?
Note:  Trump is often described as an ultra-conservative, but by Republican terms he is actually rather moderate:  for Planned Parenthood; for increased domestic spending; against foreign interventions; against free trade.  Those are all positions associated with Democrats and some moderate Republicans.  And that's ignoring his past positions on healthcare, taxes, and gun control that he has since repudiated.  His conservative positions are on immigration and law enforcement.  Admittedly his rhetoric is often more radical than his other positions would suggest.
Answer: If the short-term outcome of preventing your least popular choice from attaining power is the priority, then, yes, voting for a third party is a wasted vote.
If the short-term outcome is to get that third party into power that election cycle, then, yes, probably it's a waste to cast your vote for someone who has little to no chance of winning.
If the longer view is to help to build a party to where it becomes a more viable option and eventually can be viewed as a #1 or #2 option, then, no.  The ability of third parties to be taken seriously, get funding, be included in debates or even get onto the ballot is often driven by the level of support shown for those parties. The only way they get enough support is for enough people to "waste" their votes and make them part of the discussion.
If the longer view is that you want one of the major parties, closer to your own viewpoints, to move to espouse you viewpoints more strongly, then, no, it's not a wasted vote.  If a party assumes a level of support based on "we don't need to change our platform, what are they going to do, vote for the 'evil' choice, or not vote against the 'evil' choice?" and then they lose to a candidate they considered to be an inconceivable choice, then the reality that they can't assume support from people by ignoring their priorities and being marginally better than the worst choice hits home. This could spur that party to actively court those votes by putting in a platform, policy initiatives and leadership that speaks to the disaffected voters' priorities.
The problem with applying that to the OP's specific scenario, is that undecided voters will have different reasons for being undecided, and the spectrum of Bernie or other third-party supporters all prioritize behind very different third parties, candidates and agendas. For them to unite monolithically behind a single candidate (which is what it would take to get them elected) who probably does not represent the same priorities, for many of them, would be to defy the very traits that make them independent, third-party or undecided in the first place. If those priorities could be set aside for some other goal, then they'd possibly be, for many, supporting the major party that aligns closer to their views.
Comment: A fine answer to a slightly broader (and in my opinion more interesting) question. Perhaps you should edit the question to make it align better if you think you can without making the existing answers seem silly.
Comment: @notstoreboughtdirt - added a paragraph at the end for you.
Answer: The rule of plurality in individual states makes it essentially impossible. The only scenario that seems to even come close is where another member of a major party enters and wins enough states to keep both candidates from winning 270 electoral votes and then the house selects the person with only a few electoral votes. This was discussed this year in reference to Romney entering to do nothing but win Utah and then be selected by the house.
In any case, it would take a lot of maneuvering after the votes were counted to even convince the house electing someone who only won one or a handful of states should be nominated.
Answer: The best way to answer this is to look back at the last time a third party defeated an established party. The Whigs who ended in the mid-19 century was the only time this happened (I assume you are referring to presidential elections as there are senators, congressmen and governors who are independent).
I would submit that unless all the ingredients present in that event are present now, a third party vote is a waste if electing an independent is the goal.  It is not a waste if you are hoping to make a statement (e.g. Ross Perot)
In order for a third party to triumph though, one of the other major parties must collapse so that you have both politician leaving that party and voters angry enough to abandon the party and vote for the third party (recent examples of people abandoning a party resulting in low voter turn-out, not active participation)
What does it take for a party to die (according to historical events)? I will list the ingredients that killed the Whig party and current analogs.  I will give examples that both major parties are similarly vulnerable to dying.

The party is stuck re-playing oldies but goodies: The Whigs became protectionists and opposed expanding into the west, The democrats at the time proposed moving west and annexing Texas.  Recent analogs: The Clintons for the democrats: look at the good ole days of prosperity in the 90s and continuing the Obama legacy, for the Republicans: a litany of candidates that have also ran before and wouldn't win (Guiliani, Mccain, Kasich, Romney)
A mayor historical issue where the status quo is not a choice: The Whigs were luke warm to a solution to slavery even though the writting was on the wall. They stayed on the fence with compromise after compromise. There is no analog to slavery in the current climate but the question of immigrants and racism is major enough, it is even a world problem. The traditional answer from "establishment" (not Bernie) democrats is closed their eye and hope for the best for example DACA, democrats let these people in the country and then did not give them outright resident status but made them return and re-apply every 2 years.  Establishment Republicans wanted to return to the oldie of amnesty but no permanent solution.
The Whig's poster boys died and there was no substitute: Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, leaders of the party died and the popular General that replced him wasn't all that popular.  Clintons are not dead but may be tainted, Kennedys are dead (as far as those that would be in presidential politics).  The establishment Republicans are in their 80s and 90s and while not dead, would any republican vote for McCain knowing his medical issues?

So the ingredients are there but may not be strong enough or may take longer than I will be alive, but historical forces often surprise contemporaries. The other thing to remember for those who care is that a large group of establishment Whigs became republican (Don't look at the name, it was just the third party at that time) so beware of establishment politicians bringing back the Bad-Old-Days.
Bonus Ingredient: Populist Candidates put the final nail in the Whig coffin. Frankling Pierce, hated by both Whigs and Establishment Democrats started doing radical things. Particularly filling posts with people from both parties in an effort to unite Americans.  This went badly for him in the newspaper as both sides of slavery issue accusing him of being pro-the-other-side.  Currently we have Bernie and Trump (I know Bernie didn't have a prayer in the primaries but he is still very much in the minds of average people).  Two politicians that don't want the establishment in power anymore. They want to do things.  They are both not idealist in their own parties but are populist.  That is getting the support of the voters and not the elite. A further word about Bernie, he is tainted and it is doubtful that he will ever win a primary, but Zuckerberg is just as radical and a populist that does not owe anything to the establishment.  The republicans do not have a Zuckerberg, but a lot of things can happen in 3 years.
3.
Answer: Votes, protests and promotions are iterative energetic things, they wax and wane over time, (i.e. in the course of a populace's voting lifespan).  Relative to such energies, politicians are like phototropic plants, and as plants need light to exist, so do parties and their pols grow or wither by where we direct our votes.
It seems more irrational to expect things to never change, or believe that significant and necessary changes must either occur ex nihilo, or not at all.  Most social changes tend to come about somewhat gradually, or do but appear to be sudden after the public reaches its tipping point.
Comment: This answer isn't immediately popular, and yet posting this to a relatively dormant question seems to have inspired an additional two new and useful answers.


Dominar 400 engine coolant level

Question: I just bought the new Bajaj Dominar 400. When I got my bike the engine coolant level was almost half. After riding 200 plus Km the coolant level is just above the minimum marker and it has not lowered after that. I am planning a small trip around 300 km in this coming week after which it would be time for the first service. Do I need to refill the coolant before the journey or can I wait till the first service?
Image for the engine coolant level
Comment: Did you find any change in engine oil color?
Comment: You can also get it topped up from the nearest bajaj service center. It is a five minutes job and they do it for free. I would not trust on the coolant level too much since the bike is in run in period. I went to the service center when coolant touched minimum line. But when I reached service center I found it to be at the same level as yours. Probable difference in day time time temperature and evening time temperature plays a role. No harm in extra precautions.
Answer: As long as the coolant does not drop below the minimum level, it will be fine.
Assuming this is a brand new bike, or the coolant was just changed, the cause of what you're describing is likely air in the system. When the fluid is drained air enters the system, and when it's refilled small pockets of air will remain in the system. In order to get them all out, you need to run the engine for a while. As the coolant circulates the air will rise to the top of the system and be pushed out into the reservoir. As the system cools and contracts, fresh coolant from the reservoir will be sucked in and the level in the reservoir goes down.
Again, if the level doesn't continue to drop and it's measuring above the minimum line when measured per the instructions in your owners manual, it will be fine. On the other hand, if it does continue to drop you need to find out where the coolant is going.
Comment: So I don't need to refill the coolant before the journey right? (It will be almost a 300 km journey)
Comment: As long as you're checking it properly (bike probably has to be upright, check your owner's manual) there is nothing wrong with it right now. It's above the minimum line which is where it should be. Just keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't keep going down.

Dominar 400 engine coolant level


Modifying a called in test case

Question: How do you modify a test case that has been used as a call in for other tests?  In other words, if I have a test case that I want to modify or delete, how can I tell if it has been used as a call in for another test?
Comment: Well .. one way is to delete the test case and run the rest of the test cases.

Depending on the IDE you are using, you may be able to trace a method call.
Answer: Since you tagged this question with Quality-Center I am going to assume that you mean a Call to Test as in the example test case below which has several steps that are calls to other Tests.

There is no straight forward way to do this.  However, you have either access to the database or a version of Quality Center which has the Dashboard you can query the data you are looking for.  Just as an FYI in QC 9.2 and before the Dashboard was an add-on that needed to be purchased separately.  As of HP ALM 11 it is included in the product.  I'm not sure about in between.
So to answer your question:

If I have a test case that I want to modify or delete, how can I tell
  if it has been used as a call in for another test

Go into the Dashboard Analysis View and Add a New Item [New Excel Report].

and insert the following query:
SELECT TS_TEST_ID, TS_NAME, DS_DESCRIPTION
  FROM [td].[DESSTEPS]
  JOIN [td].TEST
  ON DS_TEST_ID = TS_TEST_ID
  WHERE [DS_LINK_TEST] = 8751 <*Your Test ID here*>

This will give you the Test ID and Name of every test which calls the Test in question (if any do).
TS_TEST_ID  TS_NAME                                 DS_DESCRIPTION
8935    Throughput - Purge Location Records_482K    Call <System Test R14 Configuration>
8938    SCOUT Usability - Template Reports          Call <System Test R14 Configuration>
8818    CLI - system password setting               Call <System Test R14 Configuration>
8816    CLI - SST                                   Call <System Test R14 Configuration>
8817    CLI - GPSD                                  Call <System Test R14 Configuration>

You can Change the Where clause to is not null to get a list of all of the test cases that call a test case.  Or you could use the following query to get a list of all test cases that are called by others.
SELECT DISTINCT TS_TEST_ID, TS_NAME
  FROM [td].[DESSTEPS]
  JOIN [td].TEST
  ON [DS_LINK_TEST] = TS_TEST_ID

Answer: It depends on the testing tool you use, if it creates a copy when you add the same test case to the suite or just link it. For example, in Microsoft's Test Manager you cannot verify in which testing suite was the test case created/used, only if the suite is a User Story/Product Backlog Item.
I would suggest you to test first your testing suite with a simple method.

Create a test case
Create Suite 1, 2, 3
Add the test case to the three suites.
Remove the test case from the second suite
Verification point: verify the first and the third suites if the test case still remained there
Delete the test case from the third suite
Verification point: verify the first suite if the test case is still there.

Please note the difference between delete and remove. Normally I would except from a remove action to delete the test case from the current suite but to let it in the other suites; and from the delete action to delete completely the test case from all of the suites you added it. But, as I said, it depends on the testing tool.
If you went through the uppers steps, you already should know: does the delete/remove action delete all of the test cases from all of the suites? If none of the delete and remove actions deletes all of the test cases, the situation is a little bit sad: you have to go through all of the suites and remove the test case one by one.
I would suggest the same to test the modification of a test case.

Modifying a called in test case


How to download a granted Russian patent?

Question: I want to download a patent granted in Russia. But I am not able to download it from http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/Registers/ website.
Please let me know the correct format to put the patent no. in the provided field.
Answer: First, choose a right category for the patent document to be downloaded (patent or patent application, invention or utility model, etc.)
Second, put a registration number into the search field (number only, no RU prefix).
Third, find and click a publication link (usually in the upper left region of the screen); note that earlier publications may not be available in pdf format, so you will have to separately copy text and download images and then combine them in order to get the whole document.
In some cases, only published claims may be found in the registry, not whole document. In such a case you'll have to contact Rospatent with a request for a patent document and pay a corresponding tariff for copying and postal services.
You may also contact a Russian patent attorney who is able to get the document for you (not for free, of course).
Answer: Try https://worldwide.espacenet.com/ . The european site is very forgiving when entering patent numbers.
Or google patents, they have documents too.


How do I get a Genius iLook 300 webcam to work?

Question: please help me install webcam Genius iLook 300 v1.4 in ubuntu 10.04.
lsusb show this:
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 093a:2628 Pixart Imaging, Inc.

Answer: OK so I noticed a question that needed an answer. This one is one of those weaker points when it comes to linux not a problem as such you just need to look a bit deeper for a solution. So I eventually found a blog half in French half in English lucky as my french is basic. Stemp Blog on gspca drivers
It is quite a technical walk through and it is for Karmic 9.10 but not everything in Linux changes that fast (if it ain't broke don't fix it) and I have seen a few mentions of people using the same process in Lucid 10.04, so it should be fine to use the process in Maverick 10.10. One Final comment that is mentioned later in the blog post is that not all programs use v4l2 and you will need to force them to use v4l1 compatabilty module using this command eg.
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

Instead of just
skype

Just means you will need to update a few short cuts. Had a similar problem with a creative webcam so its not unique.
Hope this helps


What do you call the walking lanes in lecture rooms?

Question:
What do you call the walking lanes in lecture rooms? You can't call it a stair, because it's not really a stair, you can't call it a corridor either. The only word I can think of is walking lane, but I doubt it's called that. Isn't there a more specific word I can use?
Comment: What would you call it? and what does your (bilingual) dictionary call that?
Answer: This (and any similar "lane") is usually called an aisle (pronounced "eye-ll"):

aisle (n): 1. A passage between rows of seats in a building such as a church or theatre, an aircraft, or train. 1.1 A passage between cabinets and shelves of goods in a supermarket or other building.

Example:

Carelessly tapping away on her cell phone as she entered the lecture hall, the student stumbled off of the top stair of the center aisle, and might have fallen headfirst all the way to the bottom if her friend hadn't caught her by the arm.

Side note:  The etymology of "aisle" is a definitive illustration of why English spelling is so bizarre.  "Aisle" originally derives from the old French ele (wing) from the Latin ala (presumably from the way it separates the people in a large room like the wings of an army).  So far, so good.
At some point in the 15th century, "aisle" became confused with the Middle English "ile" (island), and, some time after, both gained a silent "s" (possibly to re-associate "isle/island" to the Latin insula).  Shortly after, "aisle" gained an "a" to match it with the updated French spelling aile.
Perfectly logical, right?
Comment: @GregBacon  German spelling bees would go on so long because it takes forever to spell each word.  Half the audience would have fallen asleep before the first contestant got finished spelling *Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft*  :D
Comment: Plural: `aisles`. There is often more than one aisle in a large room, including along the sides.
Comment: A former work colleague once observed that the only reason spelling bees are interesting is because English is, as he put it, such a bad language. A German spelling bee in comparison would be incredibly dull and might go on for weeks!
Comment: @Andrew - which google helpfully translated to "Danube steamship electricity main factory construction substation" German is *amazing* in creating words like this spell!
Comment: 'He took his bride-to-be up the aisle'. Better than clambering over seats?


F1-OPT taxes with Husband on H1B - Filing Jointly or Separate

Question: I am on an F1-OPT and asked my employer not to withhold my FICA taxes(social security and medicare) and they have not. My husband is on an H1B and we were thinking if we can file our return together making me a resident alien using the Substantial presence test. How to we pay the FICA taxes not deducted before and is it advisable to do so? Do i need to inform my payroll team to deduct my FICA taxes for the previous year?
Comment: Also can i actually use the Substantial Presence Test as i am on an F1-OPT which classifies me as an exempt individual.
Answer: Based on my understanding, if you are exempt from FICA taxes due to being a nonresident alien and in one of the statuses where nonresidents are exempt from FICA, you are still exempt from FICA taxes even if you use Nonresident Spouse Treated as Resident, based on a sentence on this page:

However, for Social Security and Medicare tax withholding purposes,
  the nonresident alien may still be treated as a nonresident alien.


Can I store bread dough overnight?

Question: I would like to bake bread as soon as I get up.

Would it be possible to store bread dough overnight, perhaps in the fridge?
For how long could I store it?
Would it need to rise again next morning?
Comment: I'm going to assume that by 'as soon as you get up', you're still giving a good 30 min for preheating the oven, and allowing the bread to warm back up from the fridge.  If so, see the answers to a question I asked about baking as soon as I get home : http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/14184/67
Comment: Possible duplicate of http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/63999/is-there-a-bread-you-can-mix-in-the-evening-leave-overnight-and-bake-in-mornin
Answer: Yes, it is possible, and in fact usually results in better bread, because the yeast has more time to work and develop flavour. It depends on the recipe, but you should usually reduce the amount of yeast being used to prevent overproofing. You can keep most doughs for a couple of days in the fridge, depending again on the amount of yeast and how often the fridge is opened.
Simply mix and knead your dough as normal, cover it tightly with plastic wrap over the bowl, then put it straight in the fridge. You will usually need to allow a couple of hours the next morning for the dough to 'wake up' and finish a full proof, but if your dough has fully risen in the fridge (ie it has grown 1.5-2 times) you can go straight to shaping.
Answer: I had a recipe for bread dough that was even supposed to be stored in the fridge for up to a month for developing flavor. My dad and I have also made pizza a lot and that dough can also be safely stored in the fridge, just let it warm up before using it.
Though word of caution, the dough will continue to rise in the fridge so make sure that the dough has adequate space otherwise it will overflow it's container.
Answer: You can even form bread rolls from the dough, and put on an oven tray, in the fridge. Then, when you get up in the morning, take the bread out of the fridge, switch on th oven, and ten minutes later shove the bread in there.
It's not ideal, and you may need to play around a bit with the parameters as the yeast will work at very different speed depending on the temperature. Another problem is that the bread surface tends to dry out in the fridge. I have a tin that I put upside down on the tray, with a small bowl of hot water, to keep the vapour pressure up for a while. The water typically condenses on the bread, and other things, fairly quickly.
You can also play with using a slightly lower temperature and longer time in the oven, if the dough is very cold.
One thing that I sometimes do is that I leave the bread in the fridge at night, and then if I wake up in the middle of the night (around 4AM) I transfer the tray to the oven. With the over door closed, it turns into a pretty good proofing cupboard. (Especially if you also add a bowl of hot water.)

Can I store bread dough overnight?


What specialised additions do we need to append to our FAQ?

Question: What specialised additions to the standard StackExchange FAQ do we need to append to our FAQ?
Answer: A vital statistics blurb could be beneficial to our faq.  This might help us get the details we need to keep some questions on topic.
This name and format is an example only, it will need to be tweaked:

Have you given us your pet's vital statistics?

Age?
Sex?
Neutered?
Breed/s?
Nature: placid, nervous, aggressive,...?
Background: rescue? breeder? puppy mill? rehoming?
How is your pet homed:

indoor, outdoor, apartment, house, rural...?

If it is a training issue or behavior problem:

Do you have other pets?
General behavior
When does the problem occur?
Where does the problem occur?
What have you tried?
What were the results?
Comment: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+use+lmgtfy
Comment: I totally understand a need for clarity - the more we know, the more we can help them, and that totally makes perfect sense. I think that both the FAQ and Meta should be used together to help guide users, as one does not and should not replace the other. We do want to try to avoid a long drawn out FAQ, though, as it will quickly discourage askers from attempting to use our site. I am not saying this is the case here, I am just concerned that this long list of required bits might be a turn off in some cases. Not all of them, certainly, but the risk may be there.
Comment: I think having the FAQ provide a more consolidated sample set of factors a question poster should be expected to be able to provide about their pet is a good idea.  And to have it known that providing these beforehand could expedite an answer is also a good idea.  I agree with at least age, gender, breed, training, known health issues, and presence other animals and their A/G/T/H.  So far it's been very common to have to ask to have several of these things from posters.
Comment: This seems somewhat long and drawn out, and I don't think it will be entirely beneficial to insist the information be with every post. For example, people didn't need to know that much about my cat before being able to answer why he was patting my face. THe more information we insist people MAKE SURE they put in every question, the more complicated we make the process, and the less likely people will want to go through all of that to ask questions here.
Comment: @AshleyNunn it is a guide to help keep questions on topic like http://sscce.org/ It would not be applicable for all questions, but if the question is specific a situation with a pet it is useful and will only assist in raising the quality of answers, and help prevent the revolving door of closing/reopening questions. As we go public, it is better to minimise this the off-topic debate so as to encourage newcomers to stay.
Comment: I understand that, but I don't agree that it needs to clutter the FAQ. It might be good as a meta resource we could point to, but even then, people can often ask the right clarifying questions in comments, and usually people will give us as much information as possible.
Comment: @AshleyNunn what would be the problem with drafting something, as how to write a good question -> link to -> `vital statistics`, tips for keeping questions on topic. Most people are not aware of the Meta resources, we want to give people the info when they land, so they understand clearly what is on topic. This is why we have the opportunity to append to the FAQ, as every site is different
Comment: I realize we can append the FAQ, but we can only change the "what sort of questions should we ask here" section, and I am not sure that really fits into that category. I may be wrong though.
Comment: @AshleyNunn this is what I am proposing. Maybe I am confusing you about where to place it in the FAQ, I am not suggesting we change SE, I am suggesting we insert it into the appropriate place SE allows in the FAQ. If we want to inform people about the site in the FAQ of what is on topic, it woul dbe a good idea to append it, don't you think? Or would you prefer people go by the stock SE FAQ, then come to Meta for guidance? I prefer the idea of adding clarity, as some people need simple steps
Comment: @JoshDM very interesting timing of this comment, I was about to propose a meta question, do we need to keep emphasizing the use of other tags in our tag wikis? I think a link to FAQ might be better.. /would u like to propose this Q?
Comment: Too late.  Burma shave.
Comment: @JoshDM Burma shave? huh?
Comment: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=burma+shave
Comment: @JoshDM how did you do that? ^^
Comment: @JoshDM hahahahahahhahahahahahhahaha too funny
Answer: One thing to remember is that most of the FAQ (now the Help page) cannot be edited - we are only allowed to edit (if I remember correctly) the "what questions are allowed here" section.
Keeping that in mind, some sort of over-arching definition of what we consider pets might be useful (whether or not livestock are included in the definition, and so on), along with any question types we have deemed completely unanswerable (because they are too specific, or because they are out of the depth of knowledge that we can legally provide, etc). Basically, I can see that it might be helpful to avoid any sort of question that could lead to a pet owner actively blaming this site and its community if anything should happen to their pet based on specific advice they got here. It is important to note that we are not a replacement for veterinary care.
Once the community determines those sorts of things, it will be easy to create a useful guide to what sort of questions we want on our awesome site!
Answer: No lolcats or other pet meme images in posts. That's what chat is for.
Exception: unless the image is explicitly used to demonstrate a behavior or symptom. See a valid example in the chosen answer to Why does my dog sing along to Final Jeopardy?


How to get colors right with Nikon D300?

Question: With my Nikon D300 I have been photographing dahlias. I have been unable to get accurate colors of some of the flowers particularly in the magenta-violet range. I have adjusted white balance manually as well as tried adjusting it in Auto with fine tuning on the G M axis. I am shooting in Raw. Any suggestions?
Comment: Have you tried a UV filter?  Perhaps the Nikon is reacting to excessive UV.
Answer: I have a D300 and have exactly the same problems.  I utilize a combination of the Picture Control System and then post editing using Nikon's NX2 RAW editing software to adjust contrast and saturation until I can see the detail which the colour depth is losing.
Also check out my answer to the following as it is very pertinent to this question .. Why do bright red flowers end up without details?


Some startBrowsingForNearbyPlayersWithReachableHandler questions

Question: I'm trying to get local matchmaking working in GameKit using [[GKMatchmaker sharedMatchmaker] startBrowsingForNearbyPlayersWithReachableHandler:]. Essentially, I'm trying to implement interface-less local matches: as long as there's a player in my local vicinity, I want to connect and start a match. Importantly, I only want to do this for local players: I never want to match automatically over the internet.
I've enabled Game Center for my app in iTunes connect and signed up for a different sandbox account on every device I'm using to test.
I've tried both matchmaking with GKMatchmakerViewController (after authenticating the local player) and programmatic matchmaking with startBrowsingForNearbyPlayersWithReachableHandler:, running the same code on an iPhone 4 and an 4th gen iPod Touch sitting next to each other on my desk. Neither ever finds the other; when using GKMatchmakerViewController the interface for finding nearby players remains at the

Finding Players...

spinner, and when using startBrowsingForNearbyPlayersWithReachableHandler:, the notification block never gets called.
Here's my current block of testing code:
-(void)connectLocal
{
    if( ![GKLocalPlayer localPlayer].isAuthenticated )
    {
        // authenticateLocalPlayer calls connectLocal again after authentication is complete
        [ self authenticateLocalPlayer ];
        return;
    }
    [[GKMatchmaker sharedMatchmaker] startBrowsingForNearbyPlayersWithReachableHandler:^(NSString *playerID, BOOL reachable) {
             NSLog(@"Reachability changed for player %@", playerID );
        } ];
}

The docs are a little sparse & confusing on the subject, especially when it comes to the difference between local mulitplayer and matches over the internet. For instance, it seems to be necessary to authenticate the local player and create a match before finding players to join that match (Creating Any Kind of Match Starts with a Match Request). However this little nugget seems to suggest otherwise:

The standard user interface allows players to discover other nearby players, even when neither player is currently connected to Game Center directly.

Additionally, in the flow described in Searching For Nearby Players, a match request isn't created until step 3, after finding players via the notification block passed to startBrowsingForNearbyPlayersWithReachableHandler:. Unfortunately, I've never got that far.
So, the questions:
1) Am I right in thinking I can call startBrowsingForNearbyPlayersWithReachableHandler: before authenticating the local player? GameKit doesn't throw an error, so I'm assuming it's OK. This may be a rash assumption. Whether I authenticate or not doesn't seem to make much difference.
2) Has anyone successfully implemented local auto-matching using [GKMatchmaker sharedMatchmaker] startBrowsingForNearbyPlayersWithReachableHandler:? Is there good example code anywhere that illustrates the complete flow, from browsing for players to starting a match, all programmatically?
3) There seem to be conflicting reports on the web over whether GameKit-enabled apps can be tested in the iOS Simulator. General consensus seems not, and it's better to test on iOS hardware. I've been using a iPhone 4 & an 4th gen iPod Touch. For those who have successfully tested local multiplayer, what testing setup & methodology did you use?
Comment: Hmm. No answers at all. I have the exact same issues.
Comment: I have asked Apple tech support about this now, .. hopefully they know the answer.
Answer:
1) Am I right in thinking I can call startBrowsingForNearbyPlayersWithReachableHandler: before authenticating the local player?

No.  startBrowsingForNearbyPlayersWithReachableHandler works by both advertising the existing player and browsing for other players but, most importantly, the information it uses to identify players is the playerID... which won't be available until the player authenticates.

3) There seem to be conflicting reports on the web over whether GameKit-enabled apps can be tested in the iOS Simulator. General consensus seems not, and it's better to test on iOS hardware

GameCenter authentication, achievements, and leaderboards work in the simulator, everything else should be tested on real hardware.  I actually recommend the simulator for authentication testing, since it avoids the sandbox/production switch which can make detailed auth testing on devices somewhat confusing.  Everything else can only be tested on devices.  The simulator doesn't have great support for receiving push notifications which breaks match setup and the general hardware configuration is different enough that match communication isn't unlikely to work right anyway.
Answer: So, keep in mind the differences between iOS7 and iOS8. This code will work on either version and call 'updateNearbyPlayer' in turn.
if ( IS_IOS8 )
{
    [[GKMatchmaker sharedMatchmaker] startBrowsingForNearbyPlayersWithHandler:^(GKPlayer *gkPlayer, BOOL reachable)
     {
         NSLog(@"PLAYER ID %@ is %@",gkPlayer.playerID,reachable?@"reachable" : @"not reachable");
         [self updateNearbyPlayer:gkPlayer reachable:reachable];
     }];

} else {
    /*
     *  iOS 7...
     */
    [[GKMatchmaker sharedMatchmaker] startBrowsingForNearbyPlayersWithReachableHandler:^(NSString *playerID, BOOL reachable)
     {
         NSLog(@"PLAYER ID %@ is %@",playerID,reachable?@"reachable" : @"not reachable");

         [GKPlayer loadPlayersForIdentifiers:@[playerID] withCompletionHandler:^(NSArray *players, NSError *error) {
             NSLog(@"Loaded: %@, error= %@",players,error);
             GKPlayer *gkPlayer = [players objectAtIndex:0];
             [self updateNearbyPlayer:gkPlayer reachable:reachable];
         }];
     }];
}

With some delay due to the underlying Bonjour services, this mechanism works great. However, it needs to be balanced with an appropriate call to:
[[GKMatchmaker sharedMatchmaker] stopBrowsingForNearbyPlayers];

Whenever you use one of the GKPlayers/PlayerIDs reported to establish a match or to add it to an existing match, you should stop browsing. Once the match has been finished, closed or cancelled, start browsing again. Otherwise, on the second attempt to connect to a nearby device, you'll fail.
Answer: You need to do these things in this order:

Authenticate the local player
Install an invite handler
Start browsing for nearby players

Authentication is required - this registers your app with Game Center and logs the player in.  In most cases, you won't even need internet access to do this.
Installing the invitation handler is also required, and I think this is the step you're missing.  This lets your app know what to do when an inbound invitation is received.  If you don't do this, a device won't register as being nearby.
Only start browsing once you've done the above two.
Here's some sample code to get you going.  Call this method after the app launches:
- (void) authenticateLocalPlayer
{

    static BOOL gcAuthenticationCalled = NO;
    if (!gcAuthenticationCalled) {
        GKLocalPlayer *localPlayer = [GKLocalPlayer localPlayer];

        void (^authenticationHandler)(UIViewController*, NSError*) = ^(UIViewController *viewController, NSError *error) {
            NSLog(@"Authenticating with Game Center.");
            GKLocalPlayer *myLocalPlayer = [GKLocalPlayer localPlayer];
            if (viewController != nil)
            {
                NSLog(@"Not authenticated - storing view controller.");
                self.authenticationController = viewController;
            }
            else if ([myLocalPlayer isAuthenticated])
            {
                NSLog(@"Player is authenticated!");

                //iOS8 - register as a listener
                [localPlayer unregisterAllListeners];
                [localPlayer registerListener:self];

                [[GKLocalPlayer localPlayer] loadFriendPlayersWithCompletionHandler:^(NSArray *friendPlayers, NSError *error) {

                    //Do something with the friends

                }];

                //iOS7 - install an invitation handler
                [GKMatchmaker sharedMatchmaker].inviteHandler = ^(GKInvite *acceptedInvite, NSArray *playersToInvite) {
                    // Insert game-specific code here to clean up any game in progress.
                    if (acceptedInvite)
                    {
                        //This player accepted an invitation.
                        //If doing programmatic matchmaking, call GKMatchmaker's matchForInvite:completionHandler
                        //to get a match for the invite.  Otherwise you need to allocate a GKMatchmakerViewController
                        //instance and present it with the invite.

                    }
                    else if (playersToInvite)
                    {
                        //Your game was launched from the GameCenter app to host a match.
                    }
                };

                //Now you can browse.  Note this is the iOS8 call.  The iOS7 call is slightly different.
                [[GKMatchmaker sharedMatchmaker] startBrowsingForNearbyPlayersWithHandler:^(GKPlayer *player, BOOL reachable) {

                    NSLog(@"Player Nearby: %@", player.playerID);

                }];

            }
            else
            {
                //Authentication failed.
                self.authenticationController = nil;
                if (error) {
                    NSLog([error description], nil);
                }
            }

        };

        localPlayer.authenticateHandler = authenticationHandler;
        gcAuthenticationCalled = YES;
    }
}

* IMPORTANT *
If you're using iOS8, you don't install the invitation handler.  You instead register an object as listening for the protocol GKLocalPlayerListener, and implement these methods:
-player:didAcceptInvite:
-player:didRequestMatchWithRecipients:

If you don't implement these methods on iOS8, it won't work!
You then link GKMatchmaker to that object by calling this after authenticating the local player:
[localPlayer registerListener:self];

Make sure the object that's implementing the protocol is declared like so in the .h file:
@interface MyImplementingObject : NSObject <GKMatchDelegate, GKLocalPlayerListener>

If you do all this and it still isn't working, make sure that you have your bundle ID set correctly in your app (Click the app, click 'Targets', make sure Bundle Identifier and Version are filled in), then click the 'Capabilities' tab (XCode 6), and make sure Game Center is on.
Go to the Member Center and make sure that the app using that bundle ID also has Game Center enabled for its Provisioning Profile.  Download and reapply your Provisioning Profile if necessary.
Make sure the sandbox switch is ON in your Settings under GameCenter, and also make sure that 'Allow Invites' and 'Nearby Players' switches are turned ON.
Finally, make sure you go to iTunes Connect and verify that Game Center is enabled for your app there as well.
Comment: For those new to Game Center, you can also see my sample Game Center app on GitHub - it is a vanilla app that just authenticates Game Center, connects to nearby players and initiates voice chat.  There are some current bugs with voice chat in iOS8, and this app was created to demonstrate those issues - https://www.github.com/sbudhram/GameCenterDemo


Do you absolutely need personas before any usability/user tests?

Question: I know that personas are effective during the design and development stage. They help take focus away from requirements and deliverables so we can focus on the user's goals. But if you don't know who you should test for, you can't actually test anything, right?
Answer: Fundamentally, you should have some idea of this before you've built the software/hardware. Whether you've got marketing personas or user personas, there should be some semblance of this information.
This will help you test some of the right things with the right people (users).
But, I'm not quite certain what you are looking for in your question. You can always test something, whether it's relevant depends on the goals and the users. But you can test.
So perhaps the question is: are the results of user testing conducted without personas useful?
I'd say yes, in fact, I'd say they can further inform your personas. Would personas help you better conduct testing? Probably. But this can be an iterative cycle.
If you are tasked with testing (software, hardware) but you have NO idea who will be using it, and aren't able to glean this information from business requirements, functional requirements, or even your own knowledge of the product, then you need more information, for sure. Is it personas? Maybe. Target audience? Yes.
Comment: Since the question was do we 'absolutely' need to use the persona approach, it seam that you answered "no" and the outcome is usually predetermined when doing so. Did I understood it right?
Answer: You don't need full-blown personas to test your product.  You should have some idea of the characteristics and goals of your target user(s) for your product.  This could be a persona, but could be much less well-defined and fleshed-out than that.  Once you have defined those characteristics and goals, you use them to screen for participants in your user experience research.
Some user research is better than no user research.  I wouldn't let a lack of personas block me from conducting user research.  Do the best study that you can with the understanding that you currently have, and use what you learn in that study about both your product and your users to build a better product and a better understanding of who your users are and what they want to accomplish.
Comment: You're right Nadyne. We should have a basic understanding of who we are designing for at least at work with that.
Answer: In most cases its best to have personas but it also depends on what your testing and why. If you have a design that you just want to know if it makes sense in general then personas are not an absolute requirement. But if your design specifically addresses tasks meant for a specific persona then I would say they are required.
Answer: In my opinion, yes you do. Even if you don't have a working product to gather user feedback, you should perform some market research to determine the needs of potential users, and who those users would be.
That being said, in my experience, you should not be spending a ton of time on user personas. You just need to have the fundamental idea about who the user is, getting into the extreme details is unnecessary.
Answer: The answer is context-dependant. Look at Bloomberg terminal. So the key point is who your users are.

If your system is not shaped for specific users, my recommendation is to make some system exploration, which helps you to form some user model in your mind. Then write some scenarios of common use cases.
Then, perform heuristic evaluation (no users need at all!). Having the some user model in your mind, it's more preferable to invite more specific users for summative user test, while formative test could be fruitful even with average users.
So, what you absolutely need for user test are users, not person.
Answer: Like all things - it depends.
Persona are an artefact. They're the output of a period of user research. They're there to help you align the team, communicate research results, etc.
Are they always necessary? What happens if your team is talking to real users every week? Are the persona going to do a better job than regular contact with actual users? Possibly not.
What about the scenario where you're doing user testing as part of the user research that's helping you figure out your persona?
What happens when you're incrementally building and refining your persona during the product development process?
Persona are a particular practice that has certain benefits in certain contexts. They're not an automatic good.
Are they good in your context? I don't know. Think about what you want to do. Will persona help?


Issues with transcoding to a MXF container

Question: I'm new here, so hi to all :).
I'm new to FFmpeg too, and I'm trying to transcode a HEVC file to a mxf file and I'm having some issues. The original file is a rip I made from a Bluray HDR movie a while ago, its container is mkv, and I honestly didn't remember the codec I used and all that stuff, but Mediainfo is telling me that it's HEVC, UHD, main 10, level 5, RC. 2020, cbr, 4:2:0, 10 bit. The thing is that I want to make a trailer in Adobe Premiere Pro, which I've been using for a while and now I'm dealing with its 2020 version (which, to be honest, it's not so good because of random crashes). I intend to export an HDR video, even knowing that Premiere's internal monitors don't support REC. 2020 yet.
Since Premiere doesn't accept mkv files, and I want to lose the less amount of quality possible (hence, I don't want to make too many transcoding steps), I tried to take the proxy approach, but after trying many times I couldn't make them sync with the original footage (the proxy was always a couple of seconds late or early compared to the original file, which defeats its purpose for editing). The only ones that didn't have this issues where the ones made with DNxHD/DNxHR (I guess it could be related to them being cbr as the source files, while Prores is vbr. Idk, it's just a theory), but even though they are synced with the footage, I get stability issues with them as proxies (the program hangs when trying to manipulate them, even moving a clip or making a cut many times caused a crash).
Well, after all this, I decided to try to edit with a high rip of the original file, with a non long-OP format but with high quality, so I could export directly from it (hence, no proxies). The choice was between a Prores flavor, or a DNxHR flavor, and I decided to go for DNxHR because, idk, I've always preferred cbr for streaming and quality purposes. File size is not an issue for me, and I have a beast of a PC to handle them. Since I want to retain the most quality from the original, I used FFmpeg to transcode to a DNxHR RGB 444 10 bit file into a mxf container (which I've read it's better than MOV for editing purposes) from the original mkv file, but after trying many times I read that on the audio side the mxf container only accepts pcm audio, and my mkv file has two streams, both DTS 5.1. Apparently that's why my FFmpeg command worked for the video part, but always gave an error on the audio part. This was my initial command:
ffmpeg -i 1.mkv -map 0:0 -c:v dnxhd -profile:v dnxhr_444 -pix_fmt yuv444p10le -c:a \
   -map 0:2 aac -b:a 640k 1.mxf

(audio stream 2 is the one I need, hence the 0:2. I need a single file for editing, with only one language, which is the second stream).
Well, that command didn't work, and I realized that it worked only if I changed the extension of the output file to MOV, so it's a container limitation I guess.
Here's my problem: I could easily create a mxf file with the video as DNxHR 444 10 bits and the audio as uncompressed pcm in 6 channels (the source file is 5.1), with this command:
ffmpeg -i 1.mkv -map 0:0 -c:v dnxhd -profile:v dnxhr_444 -pix_fmt yuv444p10le -c:a copy 1.mxf

It sounded like the ideal command to me, because I want to retain the 5.1 audio, and just copying the stream sounds like a good idea to me. Ffmpeg did its job, but when I imported the file to Adobe Premiere Pro, I could see that the audio couldn't be placed in a 5.1 track, but in 6 individual mono tracks. I could use this, but it's really annoying having to edit with 6 separated tracks for every single cut or clip. In other words, I wanted to edit with a DNxHR 444 10 bits and 5.1 audio with their tracks being recognized by Premiere as a true 5.1 audio, and showed as only one 5.1 track. If I rip the original mkv movie to, let's say, h.264, it creates a 5.1 audio track without issues, but editing in h.264 is not ideal at all.
The question is simple. What would you do? I'm still trying to do this with DNxHR 444 10 bits, but I'm starting to assume that I won't be able to incorporate the audio inside a mxf file without it being separated into individual pcm tracks.
Ideas that I had, and wanted to know your opinion, or if you have a better idea:

Create a DNxHR 444 10 bits only with the video stream, no audio. Create a m4u file for the audio stream using aac or ac3 as codec, with -channel_layout 63 command. That way, I guess I'm going to be able to import the video file, the audio file, and link them inside Premiere. The editing, color grading and exporting would be done directly from those files, not the originals. Not ideal at all, but could be an idea at least.
Use ffmpeg to create the master file with DNxHR 444 10 bits and copy the audio stream or transcode it with aac or ac3, but to a MOV container, which seems to support those audio formats. Could be an option, I've not tried it yet to see if the audio is recognized as a single 5.1 track inside Premiere.
Give up on DNxHR, and use a Prores flavor. I've read that it's not the best format to encode when working on a PC (I'm not a Mac guy), and that because of it being vbr, sometimes the dark areas could suffer some quality loss (remember that I want to export in HDR). The original footage is cbr too.
Edit with the separated six tracks. I really want to avoid this.
Somehow go with the proxy route, but like I said, the sync problem is always present unless I use DNxHD/DNxHR, and when using them I see the 6 separated tracks, which is one of the things I want to avoid. I don't know how to go with this route.

Any ideas? This is my first hdr project and I'm having this elemental issues. What would you do? Thanks in advance.
PD: I used the last version of FFmpeg , and have an AMD 2990WX cpu, with 64 GB ram, a Nvidia GTX 1070 card, Windows 10 with the latest drivers and latest version of K-Lite codec pack. Using Adobe Premiere Pro 2020, and sometimes Adobe Media Encoder 2020. Adobe Premiere is optimized for memory use, not performance. Sadly, I still have a sdr monitor for the meanwhile.
UPDATE: A friend of mine, after telling him about the issues I'm having, said to me that I should stop worrying about the container, so his suggestion was to use FFmpeg to transcode the original mkv file (h.264 main 10, level 5, REC. 2020, cbr, 4:2:0, 10 bits) to a mov container, with DNxHR 444 10 bits and AC3 as codecs (or just copy the original audio stream), because for this purpose having the master file in mxf or mov container is not going to make a difference in quality or performance. Is that so? I'm still learning all I can but I've read more than once that mov should not be used as often, as it's an old type of container with certain limitations (I don't know what they are. I still have a lot of reading to do, but I've read that mxf is a better container in other forums too). If that's a good idea, the command would be the following (please correct me if I'm wrong):
ffmpeg -i 1.mkv -map 0:0 -c:v dnxhd -profile:v dnxhr_444 -pix_fmt yuv444p10le -c:a aac -b:a 640k -map 0:2 1.mov
Would you do that? Would it work if I just copy the audio stream (in that case, after -c:a I would just add "copy -map 0:2 1.mov")?
IN SUMMARY:
My main goal with all of this is having a non long-GOP file with the highest quality for editing, color correcting and exporting directly from it, preserving all the hdr data, and keeping the audio as 5.1 that can be recognized by Premiere Pro as a single 5.1 track and not six individual tracks. I was going for DNxHR 444 10 bit (cbr as my original file), but can't figure out the audio issue with a mxf container, and I could transcode to a mov container without problems. I'd like to know if there's some catch with using a mov container instead of mxf, and also I would like to know what would you do in my situation (and if there's an extra idea about how to use proxies with my original file without having sync issues, please let me know).
Thanks again.
Answer:
I could see that the audio couldn't be placed in a 5.1 track, but in 6 individual mono tracks

I just ran a quick test on my machine, and while a 6 channel mxf does import by default into Premiere with 6 mono tracks, if you right-click and run modify > audio channels on the imported clip, you can can change the clip channel format to 5.1 and the number of audio clips to 1, which should then let you add the clip to the timeline in the way you want.
Answer: You should be able to use FFMPEG to reassign the channels such that Premiere be able to recognize it as 5.1 channel layout.
ffmpeg \
  -filter_complex \
    "[0:a]pan=FL|c0=c0[a0];[0:a]pan=FR|c0=c1[a1];....;\
    [a0][a1]..[a5]amerge=inputs=6[aout]" \
  -c:a pcm_s24le \
  -map "[aout]"

Documentation: https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/AudioChannelManipulation