What is the fastest way to get money in GTA San Andreas?

Question: There are quite some houses and clothes for sale, but I do not have any money. What is the fastest way to get money in GTA San Andreas?
Answer: Running taxi missions can get you a small nest egg, which you then want to invest in the horse races - the odds of winning are pretty unrealistic.  I seem to remember it being the same odds of success regardless of the odds on the horse.
Save your game before you start, and then bet the max you can on the longest-shot horse.  If your horse wins, save, if not, reload your old save.  In a couple of runs at this you'll have enough cash to clear the rest of the game easily.
Comment: I always just used the casino, never even tried the horse races. EVER.
Comment: @Ender, I think the casino's kinda decent too (since again, the odds are nowhere near realistic), but the horse races are crazy.  You can end up with millions in a half hour or so.
Comment: I completed the game to 100% and didn't know there were horse races. Where's the bookmakers?
Comment: @ColonelPanic, that's probably better as it's own question, since I'm sure others might want to know.  Rest assured they do exist, though :)
Comment: Taxi missions are the least profitable (per time) of all missions.
Comment: How does this method differ from using cheats or even mods? "Save/load cheating" isn't good advice.
Answer: There aren't really more ways to earn lots of money as fast as possible. The most effective is the horse race technique.
For users which don't know this trick:
<code>1. Go to a horse race bet machine.
2. Save the game.
3. Place the highest possible amount as a bet on a horse.
4. If your horse wins, save. If not load the previous savegame and try again.
</code>
The other ways are as you said to do missions or murder drugdealers. They usually have something like 2000$ in their pocket.
Without cheating there's no other "very fast" ways to earn money.
Other optional ways to get money are:

Ambulance Job - Bringing people to the hospital.
Taxi Job - Bringing people to places they chose.
Killing prostitutes.
Get a Pimp Mobile and transport girls to and from their work zones.
Trucking Job - Do what truckers do.
Firefighter Job - 5 Firefighter missions give you like 10.000$.
Casino - Black Jack, etc.
Quarry - Clear ruble and they pay you.

Feel free to add more if I forget options to earn money.
Comment: @Vik2015 I always completed missions and never worried about money. You never need to buy cars, since you can easily steal them, and to get weapons and bullets I always killed enemy gang members (which gives me the opportunity to conquer territories). Once you reach Las Venturas you can use the Casino to earn tons of money. Playing Black Jack is way more fun than betting on horses ;)
Comment: And what are other ways? I'd like to know all the ways to earn money, not only the fast one :)
Comment: added other opportunities to earn money.
Comment: @LukasWarsitz, btw, AFAIK you can only save the game at the Safe House. So every time you bet, you have to go to your safe house, save the game, and then go back?
Comment: Yes you must go to your safe house or if you are on pc, you can use a quicksave mod. Just google for it and you will easily find one.
Comment: I usually use the Firefighter mission. It's not cheaty and it's imo a lot of fun and pretty easy ( if you start out in the middle of the city, so the later levels aren't too far spread out ). I get about 100,000 in about 15 minutes. Not the best way, but it's intended and nice way.
Answer: Roboi's Food Mart Courier Mission is the first thing I do when I start a new game.
It'll get you around $10,000 each time you do it, and up to $2,000 in passive income once you've completed the mission once.
Answer: If you have no problem with using cheat codes, this cheat adds full health and armour, and gives you $250,000!

HESOYAM
Answer: One pretty easy way is to finish all the challenges in flight school. Once that is done, a Hunter (modeled after the real life Boeing Apache Helicopter) will spawn at your air strip. When you attempt the vigilante missions you'll get $100,000 once you reach level 50 and the amount goes up for every level.
The vigilante missions mainly involves the destruction of three slow moving cars with stupid gangsters inside whilst the helicopter is armed to the teeth with a self-targeting machine gun and two unguided missiles and it is extremely durable.
It is really easy once you get used to the controls and I made $100,000,000 [$100M] in just 40 MINUTES!
Try it and see for yourself.
Comment: It's not awarded for just finishing, but for finishing with **gold**. This is very difficult, especially on PC.
Comment: I used to do this when I played and didn't want to cheat. BEST method. I used to play with my brother and we would do 10 levels each on the helicopter and help eachother get gold in everything in the flight school. Also if you do lose the heli you can get a new one at the desert airfield by driving or flying back in a law enforcement car/heli.
Answer: Two things I use to make money really quickly (other than what the other answers cover) are:

Burglary missions, and
Taking Gang Area

Burglary
If you park the van relatively near two houses/ apartment doors, you can alternate between them, as the state of a house is reset when you enter another one.

Only steal TVs, as this nets you the most cash per item.
Don't bother sneaking. The TV is in front of you and you get 10 seconds to leave once you've woken them up.
Jog in, grab TV, leave, drop off TV, go to other door. Rinse and Repeat.

I've gotten upwards of $20k in a 'night' like this
Gang Area
Taking over gang area not only nets you a greater passive 'gang' income (next to your house), but you can pick up the money that the Ballas/Vagos drop when you kill them.
This has the added benefit of upping your skills with guns. In the harder areas (more filled colour) the enemies drop SMGs and AK-47s by the last wave - I'm usually maxed out in at least these two guns (possibly machine pistols as well) by the time I leave for San Fierro.
If you have trouble taking over area, I've got a few tips:

Start with the lighter-shaded areas (mostly the industrial areas below Grove Street, but also in the shopping district (away from the residential area) and the beach in the south-west of Los Santos) The enemies will be fewer in number and usually wont get assault weapons (SMG, AK-47) on the third wave.
Take enemies from a distance - if a few of them have reached a range from which they can fire at you, you'll die quickly. Try to kite them as much as possible.
Enemies spawn behind you - Mostly. They always spawn along the footpaths out of your line of sight (behind the camera)

This includes side streets behind you as well.
They will also tend to stick to footpaths until they are in range of hitting you - use this as an early warning to back away.

Collect what you can at the end of a wave, and face away from where you want them to spawn.

For most roads I tend to alternate ends to fight on, this way I can run through all the ammo/money and health/armour pickups whilst the enemies begin to spawn behind me.

Complete the Ambulance missions if you feel like you just don't have enough health. It'll take around 30-40 minutes (real-time) but it completely maxes out your health bar, with an added 50% extra. Worth it for most of the game, not just gang area.

Try to grab armour pickups as well. you can also up armour to 150% by completing Police missions, but this isn't as useful as the Ambulance missions.

Switch to your other weapon, it's faster than reloading. (Thanks Sgt. Foley) The game doesn't keep track of magazine status. If you use a gun down to 1 bullet left, and switch out and back, the magazine is reloaded. Take advantage of this. It is actually faster than reloading.
Answer: The fastest way is to steal a tank from the military base play the 'Vigilante' missions.
I earned half a million in under half an hour doing this, without cheating.
Answer: I think this question needs answer that focuses on what is actually fast and efficient, not what is just fun or interesting way to get money.
Missions to earn money
1. Firefighter missions ($45,000 for level 12 + Fireproof CJ)
Reason why this is number one is that:

Firetruck is available anytime in the game
This mission is hard to fail
Firetruck is much more durable than other mission related vehicles

To get a firetruck, just start a fire by making a car explode. However, do not shoot it to explode as this will award wanted level. Instead shoot it until it starts burning, then wait. Firetruck will arrive. This can easily be done as soon as you have any firearm.
Finishing the missions makes you fireproof forever in addition to cash reward.
2. Vigilante missions (Unlimited money + armor increased at level 12)
This option is number two because, unlike Firefighter missions, requires unlocking Las Venturas and obtaining Rhino or Hunter to be pulled of easily. You can try this mission in any police vehicle, but police vehicles cannot be repaired at Pay'n'Spray which means you need to be a really good driver. I did not manage to pull it off with police motorbike or car.
With Hunter or Rhino, you an keep going with this mission forever - your vehicle is basically indestructible. The profit increases with each level up to infinity, but the difficulty does not - it stops increasing after level 12.
There is a glitch too. If you enter a fast food your targets will often die and you'll get the reward.
3. Paramedic missions (over 9000 and increased max. health)
Unlike firefighter missions, paramedic ones are tightly bound to location of single hospital. I would recommend west Los Santos or Las Venturas locations, since they have flat terrain and simple road design.
The profit is not so big with those but still significant. However it's quite easy to accidentally run over patient and fail the mission.
4. Courier missions
Every city has a store which can become your money generating asset if you pass four levels of it's respective delivery missions. They all follow the same pattern - you ride a two wheeled vehicle and throw packages into drop off coronas (red rings). You gain money for each level, about $25,000 total. Upon completion, the related business will generate up to $5,000. Quite frankly, that's not so much money compared to to missions mentioned above.
The missions are:

Los Santos - Roboi's Food Mart - eat some food before this one, because you will be riding a bicycle
San Fierro - Hippy Shopper
Las Venturas - Burger Shot

Unless you're very skilled, always stop or decently slow your vehicle before throwing. Missing will cost you much more than you could ever gain by hurrying.
5. Burglary (approx. $4,000 per night)
This one is not so efficient, or fast or easy, but it's quite fun, so if you find repetitive missions boring, this one is for you. This mission will be introduced to you during the first phase of the game. It requires specific car and can only be started after 20:00.
Few hints:

If you're detected you can still re-enter the building and nobody will remember a thing
If you are detected and you do not leave the building in 10 seconds, you get three wanted stars. Do not let this happen. The door leaving cut-scene counts in the time required to leave, do not leave at last second
Obliterating/killing house's inhabitants does not prevent cops from coming, but after reentering the empty building, you no longer can be detected
Once you grab an item, don't bother with stealth, since you will get out in time even if detected

5. Pimp missions ($16,500 and you get paid for whoring if you finish)
Those are quite boring because you repeatedly visit same locations. You will be a personal driver for two prostitutes, who will share their profits with you as a reward. The gain is increased with each level. Upon completion, you get money for using prostitute's services.
It requires special pimp car called Broadway found mostly around the Los Santos airport.
Situational options
Killing crack dealers (min $2,000 per corpse)
Those guys will spawn a lot arounnd Los Santos after the Dooberman mission.

Each will drop at least two thousand dollars. They can defend themselves, so either take them down with a quick headshot or run into them with chainsaw.
Gambling (after unlocking Las Venturas)
Collecting Horseshoe collectibles increases your chances of winning a gamble. If you have collected enough of them, this is quite recommended option.
Ways NOT to earn money

Killing random pedestrians - soon, police will be after your sorry ass, not recommended
Taxi driver missions - Contrary to what top answer here suggests, this is the least profitable and most boring sub-mission. It's however required for 100% completion.
Comment: It's worth noting that the highest voted answer uses taxi missions only to get "a small nest egg" in order to then "invest" in the primary goal - the horse races. Also, while Firefighting missions may be easy for returning players - I know from both my own experience and watching friends play that sometimes precise camera movements to control the water jet are needed in order to 'catch' the burning NPCs as they run away from the car.
Answer: The best way is in a place called "Inside Track" - The horseracing establishments. I started with $4000 and after an hour betting I ended with $5,510,028.
Answer: If you start at the downtown hospital, head right, then turn right at the first road, on your left-hand side you'll find an outdoor "mall" or concourse. In here, you can hide from the police helicopter, and cars cannot get at you. There's also a soda machine that you can use to heal yourself.
Run around in circles here, taking out everyone and all cops; you'll get a pile of handguns, and money from all the citizens wandering around, and if you're careful, you'll never get wasted.
Answer: Step 1: Go to Los Santos Tower with a BMX
Step 2: Bike into yellow marker at the base
Step 3: Bike fast and bunny hop off the tower
Step 4: While falling, hold S to do backflips
You will get an insane stunt bonus that pays around $500 each time
Answer: Just try to win the one million dollar prize on wheel of fortune at the four dragons casino. Hopefully you'll be lucky enough to win!
Answer: I'd recommended Black Jack, it's slow at first because you have to build up your gambling skills in a casino to get to the high end tables however here's what i did

Save in front of the Four Dragons Casino
Go in and find a Black Jack Table with the highest limit with only the dealer (if your desired Table isn't there then reload)
Bet as much money as you can
Win
Leave the Casino and Save

obviously if you loose you reload but you effectively double you money if you don't bet the maximum amount and i'm pretty sure one table you can bet a maximum of 10,000,000 (correct me if i'm wrong, i know there's a 1,000,000 table).
Black Jack is relatively easy to play and you are in a bit more control, more so with the results since what you bet is doubled after 1 win which 1 game can take a couple of minutes.
of cause much like other casino money gathering methods it requires luck and since the method requires a single dealer on the table (no players apart from yourself) you can get in at times, find the table you want and see that there are other players, you can still risk it with them but i choose not to.
the majority of the time spent in this is from saving/loading/looking for a table, i did this on the X-Box and from having no gambling skill took me about 20 minutes to get from ~400,000 to ~4,000,000 (i spent alot on houses and enough ammo to supply the US Military for a few years).
Answer: You can kill drug dealers for a quick influx of cash - They drop anything up to $2k. Note however that (despite cleaning up the streets) you actually lose a point in respect for each dealer you kill. This doesn't add up to much, you can kill enemy gang members to make up for it, but just be aware.
The dealers that I know of are:

White guys wearing white hoodies (He is mostly found around Grove Street).
A Black guy with checked shirts. He is difficult to find though, as he looks very much like civilians.
Another Black guy wearing a beanie and black t-shirt.

If you stand near them, they will say something like "What'cha need?", which you can respond positively or negatively. They're usually armed with a pistol, so if you plan on taking them out, do so quickly.
Answer: The fastest way to get money in GTA Sa is: Roulette, of course.

Put your bet in 50/50 like: Red/Black, Even/Odd.
You can win 1 million dollar in 1 seconds.
Here is the one million dollar trick: If you win, save game, if you lose, don't save.
Comment: PS: If you're so unlucky that even the 1 million dollar trick above can't save you, and you in debt 1 million dollar, you can use the cheat "SZCMAWO" to avoid the debt collectors.


Should I trigger an 'unsaved data' dialog on the cancel link?

Question: Here's a question for the group. We are setting up our dirty fields checks for a multi-page form. We are setting it to be triggered when the user tries to navigate away, close tab, etc. One case that came up is the case of cancel. I am of the opinion that if someone clicks on cancel, they are implicitly saying that they want to leave and abandon (not save) all of their work. So asking them "do you want to save" adds an extra (and extra-annoying) step. Members of my team, however, are concerned about the possiblity of users canceling out accidentally and losing their work. This is a fair concern, but I suspect that the number of folks who explicitly want to leave the page without saving and who, thus, would be annoyed by the extra dialog, would be much bigger than the group that accidentally hit 'cancel' accidentally. What do you all think?
Answer: A simpler solution would be just auto save the form data at regular intervals so that even if your users accidentally click out and then return they can continue using the form at the state they were at.
Smashing magazine has this nice solution on how you could ensure autosaves on forms - Auto-Save User's Input In Your Forms With HTML5 And Sisyphus.js
However in the case of cancel since its an explicit instruction to abandon a form, asking a person to confirm it would annoy them even more and prevent them from leaving immediately which was their expected behavior. That said, design your from in such a way that cancel is not accidentally clicked while the user was trying to submit a form or go to the next page.
That said I strongly recommend reading this article on UX Movement which recommends against the cancel button on forms. To quote the article

Cancel buttons don't belong on forms for a couple of reasons. One
  reason is that it gives users the opportunity to accidentally click on
  it when it's mistaken for the Submit button. Removing the Cancel
  button completely removes the chances of this mistake happening.
A Cancel button may also communicate to users that the Back button
  doesn't work on the form page. Of course, the Back button does work,
  but the Cancel button can give users the impression that the only way
  out of the form page is through the Cancel button.
Most users have a habit of relying on the Back button when they land
  on a page they don't want. A form page should not change that. The
  Back button is what users are comfortable and familiar with. Because
  of that, maintaining that consistency on every page is important. Form
  pages should look and function like any other page. There's no room
  for Cancel buttons on forms, but they do have a rightful place in
  other user interface situations. There are two situations where Cancel
  buttons are proper.
Comment: Thanks for the answer @Mervin. We are likely stuck with the cancel link at present, but the additional resources you shared will be good food for thought if we rethink the value of them on the page in the future.
Answer: Cancel is really only needed if there's a strong reason to navigate back to where you came from. If that's needed, then I agree with you, there's (usually) no need for a 'are you sure?' type of annoyance.
If the concern is people accidentally selecting 'cancel' when they meant 'save' then this is perhaps a visual design challenge. Make sure there's no visual confusion between the two and that they aren't so close in proximity that stray clicks/taps are an issue.


Sun's Stellar Class at Birth?

Question: The Sun currently has a stellar class of G2V. However, since its birth, the Sun has brightened significantly. What would the Sun's class have been when it was born ~4.6 gyr ago?
Comment: Mass does not determine spectral type, since for almost all stars the mass is unknown (other than by appealing to relationships between mass and spectral type!)
Comment: Since the spectral class is really determined at birth from its mass, its spectral type has always been G2V - the path that it takes throughout is lifetime is similar to the paths taken by other G2V stars... I don't think that the spectral class system really applies to protostars.
Comment: @MystaryPi Ok, interesting. So stellar classification is less an indication of surface temperature/luminosity, but rather determined strictly by mass?
Comment: Mass is one of the major factors that determine the spectral class of a star when they're born.
Comment: @MystaryPi Thanks for your answer. Do you know whether it is possible to determine a star's Surface Temperature and Luminosity if you know its Mass and Age?
Comment: I have posted my answer below. Hm.. I'm not sure about that, I'll do some research and perhaps edit my answer.
Answer: Spectral type is determined by (and is an indicator of) photospheric temperature and surface gravity. The classification of G2V applies to a star with a photospheric temperature of about 5800K and a surface gravity of about 100-1000 m/s$^{2}$.
The Sun's temperature and gravity have not changed greatly since it first appeared on the "zero age main sequence" - it has got a little bigger and more luminous and a little bit hotter (by about 170 K- Schroder & Smith 2008) - so maybe it was a G3V-G4V star at the zero age main sequence (Mamajek 2018).
However, there were much bigger changes during the 20 million years or so before the Sun reached the ZAMS. It was cooler and briefly much larger. This would be reflected in a spectral classification that was something like K5IV- M0IV; indicating a subgiant-like gravity and a temperature of about 4000K. As it aged, it would then shrink and become hotter, passing through the G5V-K5V spectral types before reaching the main sequence.
If you can synthesise these two diagrams in your head, you can see what I mean.
Pre main sequence evolution in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram

Spectral types on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
Answer: It is true that on the main sequence, where most stars spend most of their lifetimes, mass is the main determining factor of all stellar parameters, with metallicity and angular momentum distant second-most important factors.
However when a star is born, from the moment it becomes detectable, it moves through several stages of structural evolution, which surely do not classify as the stellar class that it later has on the main sequence.
The evolutionary stages of this pre-main-sequence (PMS) star can be described in the astronomer's favourite diagram - the HR-diagram - via the Hayashi track.
The Hayashi track is for any star of given mass the sequence of colour-luminosity values that it attains during its PMS evolution.
As colour gives the stellar class, there is an evolution in stellar class for all stars, even on the main sequence.
However

since its birth, the Sun has brightened significantly.

is incorrect. Once the sun arrived at the main sequence, it still brightened, yes, but that means there was an increase in Luminosity. As the wiki page on the sun's evolution clarifies in the figure seen below, the temperature however didn't change much during that time, therefore also not the stellar class.

Summarizing
During the pre-main-sequence of a star the stellar class evolves significantly, on the main sequence it doesn't.
Answer: Mass is one of the major factors that determine the spectral class of a star when it is born.
During a star's protostar stages, a spectral class determines the length of its protostar stage and other factors such as its lifetime. Even though a spectral class is not physically assigned to them, the life stages that they undergo are essentially determined by their spectral class at birth.
So even though protostars don't have a spectral class determined by scientists, the star that it ends up becoming in its main sequence is really what its spectral class is.
So in this case, the Sun in it's protostar stages still was on the G2V route - it was taking the same (or at least similar) life cycles as stars in the G2V spectral class.
Hope that helps!

To the 2nd part:
Check out this website, especially from page 18: http://www.astro.umass.edu/~myun/teaching/a100_old/Astro100Mar25.pdf. There's a lot of equations on there.
There's also more information here on the luminosity-mass relationship: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/astro801/content/l7_p3.html
On a side note, looks like someone asked about the luminosity+temperature and mass relationship on here as well: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/12589/are-there-formulae-for-calculating-stellar-luminosity-and-effective-temperature
If I find more information, I'll comment it or edit it onto my answer. Hope that helps!
Comment: Spectral type is measured from a spectrum. It is determined by temperature and to a lesser extent surface gravity. It is related to mass but not determined by it.
Comment: Two stars of different mass, but the same temperature and gravity would have the same spectral type. Other permutations of the same sentence would not.
Comment: Also note that the above link about the M-L relationship gives the oft-seen yet completely wrong explanation "Since higher mass means a larger gravitational force, higher mass must also mean that higher pressure is required to maintain equilibrium. If you increase the pressure inside a star, the temperature will also increase. So, the cores of massive stars have significantly higher temperatures than the cores of Sun-like stars."  High mass MS stars have weak gravity and low pressure, so the explanation is wrong.  M-L has little to do with nuclear fusion (stars have that L prior to the MS).
Comment: Oh I didn't know that... I read from somewhere that the mass affects spectral class as well... Must have been incorrect... Looks like your answer seems to have it right - I will upvote it :)
Comment: Mass only affects spectral type insofar as it affects gravity which affects the spectrum.
Comment: Oh... So it does affect spectral class, it's just not the main cause of it. Thank you so much for helping me understand :)

Sun's Stellar Class at Birth?


How much does using a monitor hurt server performance?

Question: I've recently gotten into web development and my site got enough hits that I decided to take the leap and buy my own server, static IP, and bandwidth. I'm a little worried about performance though. Last week, I disconnected the monitor I had plugged into the server and apache didn't even crash once. This might just be luck, but it brings up an important question: does something like a physical monitor actually eat up enough CPU/RAM to be significant?
Comment: Is this a serious question?
Comment: @DLux yes, it is
Comment: Short answer: No.
Answer: I'm assuming you're just talking about plugging in a monitor to a video-out port, and not about putting a video card in the system.
Having a monitor connected makes no difference to the operation of PC-based server computers. It doesn't consume any CPU, RAM, etc. I suppose it's possible that you've got some strange electrical situation occurring that might be causing something to happen, but that seems pretty remotely possible.
If you're running some kind of program to display something on the monitor that you're not normally running when no monitor is attached, that's a different story.
Comment: +1 It takes CPU cycles in coordination with your video processor to generate a signal, but beyond that the CPU doesn't give a rip one bit what actually consumes that signal.  It don't care if there's something plugged into the card or not.
Answer: Well, it might, depends on what your configuration is of course. Do you run Xorg? Do you use a graphical shell with, some compiz/beryl effects to spice things up? Othet than that, I can't think how a plain old ssh connection could affect your server performance. After all, all that is exchanged that way is text.
I'd say search for real reasons why Apache crashes rather than blaming monitor for it.
Answer: Having a monitor powered on, powered off, or not physically attached should not affect your server in the slightest.  If anything does happen when you plug/unplug/power on/off a monitor then you should be looking at electrical problems.

it brings up an important question: does something like a physical monitor actually eat up enough CPU/RAM to be significant?

Running a graphical desktop will eat a small amount of memory and CPU.  My desktop of 1920x1200x32bit colour takes less than 9MB.  Double or triple that for the applications and if you're having RAM problems the you should look at buying more RAM.  That said, on unix and linux you can shutdown the graphical display to reclaim that small amount of memory.
Answer: HAHAHAAH More like your server is just a little bit flakey, and removing the monitor made whatever connect a bit better.  Wiggle the box more and see if it crashes.  Consider showing us the crash messages too.   Have you considered running memtest for a day or so?
Answer: As others have already said, it makes absolutely no difference whether a monitor is plugged in or not, nor whether it's switched on or not. Even if your system uses "plug and play" to detect monitor features that only kicks in for a very short time when the monitor is first plugged in and takes up pretty close to zero resources.
"apache didn't even crash once"
Apache is perfectly capable of running continuously without crashing, as demonstrated by several million web servers. I've had it run for a bit over 2 years on one machine. It was only shut down when the office was relocated.
If you are experiencing Apache crashes, as your message suggests, you really need to investigate why but I can assure you it has nothing to do with your monitor unless that monitor is very seriously defective electrically and is causing spikes or overloads on the video port.
Answer:
Last week, I disconnected the monitor I had plugged into the server and apache didn't even crash once

Err, if you left the monitor plugged in, would it have crashed? Pretty much any OS can run happily with no monitor attached. The only related problem I can think of is some motherboards refuse to boot if no video card is installed.
There should be no performance difference between having a monitor connected, and not.
There is a difference between running X11 and not (say to run Gnome, or KDE etc). The X server takes up memory and CPU cycles like any other process.. Disabling it is a good idea for a server, since most tasks can be done easily over SSH (or on the local terminal)
Answer: The computer does sometimes communicate with the monitor a little bit (querying
capabilities, etc) so I guess it's theoretically possible that a really funky
video driver could be crashing things when the monitor is present.
Really very unlikely though, I'd say it's most likely that something else is
wrong and the monitor being present or not is just coincidence.
Oh, unless there's a loose connector or the video card isn't sitting right so
the act of plugging/unplugging the monitor causes things to move around inside,
which could cause all sorts of nastiness on the bus.


Description of "Unimportant" Details

Question: People advise to keep description to a minimum, or to make it worthwhile to the audience. I'm talking about description that isn't really necessary/important to the plot but is necessary/important to the characterization of the character (which might make it necessary to the story). For instance, in The Catcher in The Rye, Holden Caulfield describes a lot of stuff that don't really matter other than that his description also tells of his reaction/perception of that stuff, which in turn informs his characterization. Seeing this idea used in TCITR, I'm wondering if characterization could serve as a valid reason to describe otherwise "unimportant" details.
Answer: I think you answer your own question.  The details are not 'unimportant' in your question because they form part of the characterization.  If something is properly 'unimportant' then it can be cut without affecting anything else (and should be).
Answer: The purpose of fiction is to give pleasure. The question, therefore, is not whether a detail is important but whether it gives pleasure. Different types and levels of detail will give different kinds of pleasure in different kinds of works. The details of military technology in Tom Clancey, the details of legal procedure in John Grisham, the details of time and place in John Steinbeck, the fantastical details of the wizarding world in Harry Potter, all gives pleasure to different kinds of readers. For some works, a secondary cottage industry grows up dedicated to nothing but additional details, which is why you can get detailed plans for the Millenium Falcon or an encyclopedia of Dr. Who monsters.
This does not mean that all details give pleasure in all circumstances in all works, or to all readers. (Some readers will find the above mentioned details tedious in some of the above mentioned works. Personally the wizarding world had exhausted my patience by the end of book two. And I never did care where Chewie went to the bathroom.)
The litmus test for details, I believe, is how the contribute to the pace and mood of the work at any given moment, and as a whole, and whether they increase the reader's immersion in the scene or distract them from focusing on what matters in the scene. Details are neither good nor bad, they are good or bad in context.
Answer: Personally, I like to think of details as being filtered through some character's perception, and revealing something about the character's relation to the world at that particular moment.
Done right, this can reveal character, give a sense of the character's surroundings, and progress the plot (since the details the character notices can reveal that character's intentions).
For me, what bothers me is when a writer starts describing things that would either be so commonplace or so irrelevant to the viewpoint character that they wouldn't consciously notice them.
That said, this is probably a matter of opinion to some extent. Different readers will almost certainly have different ideas about how much (and what kind of) description they're OK with.

Description of "Unimportant" Details


Rules of Misdirection in Stories

Question: I am wondering if there are any rules for misdirection like how would you tell if a misdirection was done right or wrong in a story? Are there do's and don'ts or a point where you can over do it when misleading readers and if so why?
Comment: Misdirect your protagonist, not your readers.
Answer: This should follow the same rules as for making a good plot twist.

A story without a twist (or up to the twist point) should be also compelling and interesting to the reader.
Misdirection should not contradict "direction" - they both should look valid from different point of view.
Audience should be more satisfied with post-twist direction rather than original misdirection.

If you look at the classic examples of misdirection, like "Fight Club", or "Sixth Sense", you see that lot of the plot is lined out to develop "misdirection", but then switch to "main direction" feels rewarding rather than upsetting.
Answer: Kurt Vonnegut is famous for saying,

Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Misdirections can be helpful because the reader doesn't want it to be terribly obvious what's going to happen next. However, the real direction the plot is heading should be more sensible/compelling than the misdirection, if the reader were to stop and think about what you've told them about the character(s) and plot.
Answer: Robert Heinlein said 'the best way to lie is to tell the truth so no one believes you.'
I think this applies to foreshadowing in storytelling.  If you can foreshadow what is going to happen in your story, but the form and structure ensures that it will be taken out of context and misconstrued, then you have a wonderful misdirection that will hold up at the end of the story.
As far as rules of misdirection,
Only unreliable narrators can lie so by contrast your reliable narrator can never deliberately mislead the reader.  They can be wrong and make mistakes, but that means the narrators discovery of their error needs to coincide with the discovery of the truth.  I think this is difficult to do with out it feeling like a cheat.
You can as much misdirection in your story as you want as long as it doesn't interfere with telling the story.
The best misdirects are the small aside events in a story that be confused with revealing character or establishing setting and scene.
Comment: SPOILER! READ AT OWN RISK! The novel *Too Many Magicians* has a tight third person point of view, and right at the beginning it's from the POV of a man surveying the scene of a murder and concluding there's no clue or hint present as to who the killer was. This character/narrator is not lying, and every scene from his POV in the book is completely accurate as to his thoughts and actions. The twist, of course, is that the man was making sure there's no clue *he* left behind, having just killed the victim. Every time he does lie in the book are in scenes where another character has the POV.

Rules of Misdirection in Stories


Choosing a Video Camera

Question: I am videoing myself giving instructions against a 10' x 10' green screen. I am about to purchase lights and now I need to select a video camera that will give me the best videos which will be put on a web site.
I have a $200 camcorder. Do I need to get a DSLR in order to get quality videos?
Thanks,
JB
Answer: Getting good, bright lights that can evenly illuminate a green screen is half the battle.  The other half is using a camera that will give you a clean key by not blending together too many pixels in its macroblocks.  Many low-end camcorders use 4:2:0 chroma sampling, which means the border between your key and your subject is going to be at least two pixels wide, and difficult to properly clean up.  Higher-end camcorders user 4:2:2 chroma sampling, and the best use either 4:4:4 or RAW encoding.
You can see for yourself how these different chroma sampling systems affect the edges you are trying to key.  If you are doing your own post-production for fun, and you have the time to futz with fuzzy edges, you can certainly spend time in place of money and get results that make you happy.  But if you are trying to do a live broadcast and you need keys that "just work", then 4:2:2 is probably the minimum color spec that you will want to work with.
Comment: And since the OP mentioned DSLRs it's worth noting that DSLRs generally shoot compressed 4:2:0, though there are some 3rd party hacks around which can improve this.

Choosing a Video Camera


Can we represent all algebraic structures in First-Order logic?

Question: Can we represent all algebraic structures in First-Order logic?
Comment: What, no background? Lame.
Answer: The subject of universal algebra is the study of algebraic structures as classes of first-order structures in languages having only function symbols as opposed to relation symbols. This subject is regarded by many as much closer to algebra than the rest of model theory, allowing one to combine methods from model theory with a stronger category-theoretic perspective. A central concern are the classes of algebras, called varieties, defined by a system of algebraic equations.
For example, Birkoff's theorem states that a class of algebraic structures is a variety of algebras if and only if it is closed under homomorphisms, subalgebras and products.
A similar corresponding theorem in first order logic is due to Kiesler and Shelah: two structures are elementary equivalent if and only if they have a common ultrapower, and one can use this to characterize which collections of algebras form an elementary class.
Answer: I am not sure I understand your question. If, by definition, an algebraic structure consists of a set $A\ne\emptyset$ (or a family of such sets) together with a collection of finitary functions on $A$ (functions $f:A^n\to A$ or even ${\mathbf f}:A^n\to A^m$), finitary relations (subsets of $A^k$), and constants (elements of $A$), then 'algebraic structures' are precisely the structures that first-order concerns itself with (you have to use a multi-sorted version of first-order if you want to appropriately work in the setting of "families of sets").
Any such structure can be axiomatized in a first-order language as long as you are willing to allow enough function, relation, and constant symbols into your language.
Of course, the Lowenheim-Skolem theorems will prevent you from uniquely characterizing infinite structures unless you impose additional conditions that are not first-order (like "completeness", for the reals).
But perhaps you mean something else. If you are interested in families of such structures, which is more natural, then the answer is no in general (simple groups, for example). And many interesting "structures" that appear in algebra are second (or higher) order in nature, and typically first-order falls short to capture them explicitly.
Answer: No, you cannot.  Fuzzy subalgebras cannot get represented in first-order logic since the background logic for a fuzzy subalgebra consists of a multivalued or infinite-valued logic.
Comment: It is not clear to me whether the question concerns what you call "fuzzy subalgebras", but I am just curious since I do not have any idea what you have in mind: all structures I am familiar related to fuzzy logic (MV-algebras, Post algebras, etc) are indeed algebraic ones. To be more precise: What do you mean by fuzzy subalgebra? Can you give an explicit example of a "fuzzy subalgebra" that is not an algebraic structure in first-order logic (using an adequate signature)?
Comment: I haven't looked at that sort of stuff in a while now, and I don't have any books on hand for more details.  I'd see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzy_subalgebra, here http://www.amazon.com/Fuzzy-Commutative-Algebra-Pure-Mathematics/dp/981023628X, and here http://books.google.com/books/about/Fuzzy_mathematics.html?id=kz9qOzUMJOAC


Morning blessings without Tefillin, Tallit, or Tzitzit

Question: If a person doesn't have Tallit, Tzitzit, or Tefillin, does a person say the morning blessings regarding them during Shacharit?
Comment: Which morning blessings regard Tallit, Tzitzit or Tefillin? "Oter Yisrael beTifarah"?
Comment: What would be the rationale to say "...להתעטף בציצית" when one isn't wrapping himself in a tallit? Same goes for the others. Rule is: "all blessings for mitzvot are recited before their performance" (BT Pes. 7b).
Comment: @Oliver I'm not sure that adage is universally true regarding *Birkot Hashachar*. As I understand, one says *Al Netilat Yadayim* even if one did not wash his hands in the morning. Likewise, *Asher Yatzar* is said even if one did not use the rest room.
Comment: @DanF You are right to the extent that some (unfortunately -IMHO- many) recite those 2 blessings in shul, but 1) it's not so halachically preferred, and more importantly 2) those can be classified as birchot ha'shvach.
Answer: Not all the morning blessings are said every morning.
Those that thank Gcd for awakening from sleep, like Elokuy Neshomo, are skipped if one didn't sleep.
Asher Yotzar is not said if one didn't go to the bathroom.
Blessing for Tallit, Tzitzit and Tefillin are said when one puts them one. If one doesn't put them one then one can't say them. For example, On Tisha B'Av we skip the Brachot for Tallit and Tefillin in the morning and only say them at Mincha, since we only put on Tallit and Tefillin at Mincha.
Source: Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 7.
Comment: Fyi some say to say asher yatzar in the morning even if one didn't use the restroom, although the MB recommends using the restroom first.


What is the difference between a polar molecule and polar bond?

Question: I don't understand the difference between a polar molecule and a polar bond. Please explain what the difference between those two is.
Answer: A polar bond is one where the charge distribution between the two atoms in the bond is unequal. A polar molecule is one where the charge distribution around the molecule is not symmetric. It results from having polar bonds and also a molecular structure where the bond polarities do not cancel. For example, water has polar bonds and its bent geometry means that there is a non-zero dipole moment. On the other hand, carbon dioxide has two polar carbon–oxygen bonds, but they are such that the polarities cancel out, so there is zero dipole moment.
Comment: I would also amend that chemists use 'polar' synonymous with dipolar; other disciplines might consider any molecule with any kind of x-polar moment as polar. For example carbon dioxide is a quadrupolar molecule. In general, that way is more accurate in terms of explaining reactivity, but in general, the used terminology has served us well for a long time already.
Comment: But even those non-polar molecules like CO2 do have a transitional dipole moment when distorted by vibrations such that the individual dipole contributions from each bond do no more cancel out. This is the reason why we can even observe a greenhouse effect with carbon dioxide: in order for the molecule to be able to absorb infrared radiation at a certain frequency it requires to have an oscillating net dipole vector upon distortion (e.g. bending  away from linear to angled geometry and back).
Comment: @user1573870 No argument there. On time average though, there is no net dipole. Based on OP's question, I don't we need to worry about those factors at the moment.
Comment: I agree this is an advanced topic, but it's relevant nevertheless since the question was also about polar /bonds/. E.g. we wouldn't have such an oscillating dipole e.g. in diatomic molecules consisting of only one type of element (N2, O2…), whose bonds are non-polar.
Answer: Just because a bond is polar doesn't mean the molecule will be
All bonds where the atoms in the bond are not the same will be polar (in the sense that the electrons will be unevenly distributed between the two atoms resulting in a dipole). Some bonds (like C-H bonds won't be very polar, but they will have some polarity.
Molecules, though, are not polar just because they contain polar bonds. carbon tetrachloride ($\ce {CCl4}$) is a non-polar molecule that contains 4 polar bonds. But the polar bonds have dipoles that are symmetrically arranged around the carbon as a perfect tetrahedron and those dipoles therefore cancel each other out leaving the molecule with no net dipole moment. Chloroform ($\ce{CHCl3}$) where one of the chlorines has been replaced by a hydrogen, breaking the symmetry, is a fairly polar molecule. Likewise carbon dioxide is non-polar as the structure is linear and therefore the dipoles in the two polar bonds cancel. Carbon monoxide also has a polar C-O bond but there is no second oxygen to cancel out the dipole so it is polar.
So for molecules to be polar they need to contains bonds that are polar but they also need to be asymmetric enough for the bond dipoles not to cancel each other out.


Is it possible to get website shortcuts in the dock?

Question: Is it possible to include web shortcuts in the dock? LauncherFolders does that in Unity for Ubuntu. I like this possibility very much.
Answer: If you're using Midori, you can easily create an App from a webpage (a web app).
Click on the "Settings" button (The Cog symbol in the menu bar) from Midori and select "Applications".
From here, you can create a "New App" from the current page.
This App will appear in the Applications menu, and you can right-click and "Add to Dock"
Answer: Another possibility: Webby
Works very similiar to the Midori Feature
Answer:
For Firefox:
You can use SaveLink add-on.
Usage:
Go to the web page you want to create shortcut, right click, click and select SaveLink

Save the link to a particular folder and place the folder in dock.
Note:
Before that, make sure the file default application is a browser.
For that, go to the folder, select the file --> right click --> open with --> other applications -->view applications --> select the default browser. (This has to be done for first time, from next time you can directly launch from dock )
Alternatively you can use deskCut  for this purpose, but its not working for me.

For chrome:
Go to system settings --> More tools --> Add to desktop..
Now you will see it in app menu,like:

Now right click on it, add to dock.

For midori see emjaySX answer
Answer: google chrome has add to desktop feature in more tools.
Answer: Webby is my favorite application for "sites as applications". However, I find that is is slow and unresponsive on my Acer C720. I also am unable to download linked files with it. That being said, websites that render with Webby, look much cleaner than Google Chrome or Firefox. I am not sure what it is - maybe the fonts, maybe the css engine, but webby's web engine is beautiful.
For sites that I think I might want to navigate a lot, download stuff, or are resource intensive, I will use Google Chrome Apps. Midori is also acceptable.


Level name: is my completion guess right?

Question: Kaizo Mario World 3 has a level called NABANA NO SATO. I tried to interpret it as Japanese, since it's clearly not English and it is in an English version so the only logical guess was it wasn't translated from it Japanese original. But I could not make sense of NABANA as is in any way. So I guessed it is a "cropped" HANABANA, and so the Kanji are 花々の里, that is "Village of flowers". But the level has no flowers. So did I guess correctly? Could the "flowers" be the munchers of which the level is full? Or is there a way to make sense of just NABANA NO SATO, and if so what is the Kanji spelling of it?
Answer: This is なばなの里 in Japanese (source), and it seems to refer to a botanical garden located at Nagashima Town, Mie Prefecture (official site). BTW, I believe this garden is not really well-known to Japanese people. And according to this page, なばなの里 was named after 三重なばな, which is the name of a "local vegetable" of Mie Prefecture. This なばな in turn is a reference to 菜の花. So it's short for not 花々 but 菜の花. (We sometimes drop の, but omitting the first character of 花々 doesn't make sense.)
Answer: "Nabana no Sato" is the name of a winter illumination resort in Mie Prefecture (from Google). However, there doesn't seem to be a direct translation for "nabana". Considering that the game is a hacked ROM it very well may be that the true or intended level name was just cut off and it could be 花々の里 as your intuition says or it could be something else altogether.
Answer: I think the intended level name was probably meant to be Nabana no Sato, referring to the winter illumination event in Mie-ken that just recently concluded. The Nabana would most probably just be referring to flowers, Hanabana, as seen from how the winter illumination involved illumination of the flower park, or else having no special meaning at all. If you want to know more about this illumination: Nabana no Sato
There is no kanji for this. it is just meant to be なばなの里。


Moving an object in a circular path

Question: I want to move one object (dot) in a circular path. How should I change the X and Y coordinates to accomplish this?
Answer: You can do that using simple math:
<code>X := originX + cos(angle)*radius;
Y := originY + sin(angle)*radius;
</code>
(originX, originY) is the center of your circle.
radius is its radius. That's it.
This works because the sine and cosine are mathematically related to the unit circle.

Image credit: LucasVB (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. (Scaled down to 70%.)
Comment: @test: If the oval is X or Y oriented, you can multiply corresponding axis position by additional factor. If you need more details, you should ask a separate question.
Comment: What if it's an oval? I.e. no set radius.
Comment: @Anko: I don't think that the animation explains it better, but let it be, for those who need it. Converted to CW.
Comment: @Kromster what about achieving the same result in 3d space?
Answer: You can use the parametric equation as marked by Krom. To understand why we used this formula you have to understand what the equation is. This equation is derived from the Parametric equation of circle.
Considering the circle is drawn with the center on the origin (O) as shown in the diagram below

If we take a point "p" on the circumference of the circle, having a radius r.
Let the angle made by OP (Origin to p) be θ.
Let the distance of p from x-axis be y
Let the distance of p from y-axis be x
Using the above assumptions we get the triangle as shown below :

Now we know that cos θ = base/hypotenuse and sin θ = perpendicular/hypotenuse
which gives us cos θ = x/r and sin θ = y/r
:: x=r*cos θ and y=r*sin θ
But if the circle is not at the origin and rather at (a,b) then we can say that the center of the circle is shifted
a units in x axis
b units in y axis

So for such a circle we can change the parametric equation accordingly by adding the shift on the x and y axis giving us the following equations :
x=a+(r*cos θ)
y=b+(r*sin θ)

Where a & b are the x,y co-ordinates of the center of the circle.
Hence we found x and y the co-ordinates of the point on the circumference of the circle with radius r
Comment: Thanks, really nice and brief answer for this problem, thumbs up
Answer: There's another trick, where you use the sin(x+a) and cos(x+a) formulas, and that allows you to compute sin(a) and cos(a) -- a being the angle by which you want to move from your current position -- only once and do simply multiplication and additions at each step.
sin(x+a) = sin(x)*cos(a) + cos(x)*sin(a), iirc.
Of course, that assumes constant angular velocity.
Beware of limited arithmetic precision, though. I've observed in the past "circular" motion implemented that way that would draw a spiral as a result of occasional rounding down repeated over time. It might be necessary to reset position to (x0, y0) after each revolution.

Moving an object in a circular path


Is it possible to backup apk from an installed application?

Question: I got some huge games which I don't play regularly but don't want to delete either. Is it possible to backup those apps as apk so that I can install them offline later?
I'm not talking about backing up only the app data, many tools exist for that purpose. I want the ability to install the app again offline at a later time.
Also, this is not necessarily an app suggestion request, any method to achieve this is OK with me.
Comment: Android automatically saves all the apk files of installed applications. If you happen to have root access, you should be able to get the APKs from `/system/app` (system applications) or `/data/app/` (user apps)
Comment: Download *Android assistant* app from Play Store. It allows to backup an app as APK.
Answer: A very easy way is ES File Explorer from Google Play Store.
Edit: This app ES File Explorer has been removed from Play Store and is no longer available (the app was sold an the new author added malicious code to the app).
You can browse to your

/system/app folder (for system apps)
/data/app folder (for user apps; requires root to be accessed)

and copy them to your /sdcard (or anywhere else).
Copying multiple files with ES File Explorer is very easy. Just long hold one of the files, then put check marks on all the files you want to copy.  Then browse to the folder (on your sdcard) where you want to place them.
Connecting to your computer via your usb cable will allow you to backup your sdcard content to your computer.
Update (Accessing the protected data/apps area):
I notice the /data/ directory is not readable. You can pull any of the content if you know it by name. I'll describe a command-line (cli) solution to get the names and the files. However, the backup tools suggested by Izzy are the easiest way to go.
This is a step by step method to get the list of packages and pull the packages using the commandline:

Download and Install the Android SDK package (or see Is there a minimal installation of ADB? for a solution requiring much less space, if you're not intending to develop Android apps). While you'll have access to just about everything in the world (Android), don't be too overwhimed... just focus on an immediate objective, and all the other features can be for a different day.

Add a path to these two directories of the package install ([installedpath]/tools and [installedpath]/platform-tools for a full SDK installation).

Now, with the Android plugged in via the usb, run this to get the full list of installed apps:
$ adb shell 'pm list packages'
You now have a  list the names of all your install apps.

Use the -f parameter to get the full pathname of a desired package by specifying a search string found in the previous list:
$ adb shell 'pm list packages -f reader'

Now pull the full pathname of the package you want to get with:
 ## adb pull [filepathname] [destination path] ##
 $ adb pull /data/app/com.ebooks.ebookreader-2.apk ~/mybackupdir

The steps might appear to be complicated, but they are easier done than said.  Once you perform it a few times, you'll find it very easy to pull any app from your device.  You can also write a script to do this as your own personal backup utility.
While there are gui alternatives as mentioned in the alternate answer, I strongly recommend looking at the features of the adb commands which includes full backups... the option for users to select precisely what they want backed up and where.
Installing the full Android SDK will give fuller access to components of your android device (from the commandline).
Look at the commands:
$ adb -help

Look at the backup section (of the help screen):
adb backup [-f <file>] [-apk|-noapk] [-obb|-noobb] [-shared|-noshared] [-all] [-system|-nosystem] [<packages...>]

     - write an archive of the device's data to <file>.
     If no -f option is supplied then the data is written
     to "backup.ab" in the current directory.

     (-apk|-noapk enable/disable backup of the .apks themselves
     in the archive; the default is noapk.)

     (-obb|-noobb enable/disable backup of any installed apk expansion
     (aka .obb) files associated with each application; the default
     is noobb.)

     (-shared|-noshared enable/disable backup of the device's
     shared storage / SD card contents; the default is noshared.)

     (-all means to back up all installed applications)

     (-system|-nosystem toggles whether -all automatically includes
     system applications; the default is to include system apps)

     (<packages...> is the list of applications to be backed up.  If
     the -all or -shared flags are passed, then the package
     list is optional.  Applications explicitly given on the
     command line will be included even if -nosystem would
     ordinarily cause them to be omitted.)

You can use the Android Backup Extractor to explore the compressed backup file created by the adb utility.
Restoring the backup to the android is a simple "-restore" command:
$ adb restore <file>

The Android Backup Extractor provides a way to explore the backup and pick out individual files (such as the apk's as in the OP's objective) to store or preserve.
The explorer package includes a variety of multi-platform tools, such as Java, perl, and cygwin.
You can extract the backup with (using the java extract opton):
## this line converts the android backup into a tar file ##
$ java -jar abe.jar unpack backup.ab backup.tar

Out side of my initial cli answer, the most precise GUI app to accomplish the OP's specific question is AirDroid.  It's free, extremely user friendly and intuitive to use.
To use, run the app. It gives a local IP address for typing into a web browser.  The link will give you a UI that resembles and Android home screen.  Click on the "Apps" icon and select one or more apps to download.  You can install or reinstall the Apps using the same interface.
There are several other GUI alternatives (graphical user interfaces) available, e.g. QtADB (multi-platform) or, for Windows users, also the excellent Droid Explorer by our member Ryan Conrad (see e.g. Full Backup of non-rooted devices; for more, also see our adb tag-wiki).
Comment: Can i access these folders without rooting the phone?
Comment: @BlueFlame Yes.
Answer: There are several apps specialized on this topic. The probably best known is AppMonster, which I use (in the Pro version) for years now, very reliable (and very active dev). For alternatives and more details, please take a look at:

Are APK files saved on my device when I install from the Play Store?
IzzyOnDroid App Lists: Backups: Backup Apps
Comment: @Shayan No. I'd say there's nothing better than TiBu. And I'm not sure whether Grigory is still actively developing AppMonster. I don't use it anymore (though I really like Grigory, knowing him personally).
Comment: Is AppMonster better than TitaniumBakcup? I backed up an app on my LG G3 and copied the backup to another phone and tried "restoring" it although it didn't belong to the second device and it failed.
Answer: Everyone is suggesting closed source softwares here which are perhaps Adware. One should rather use Ghost Commander File Manager  which has an Apps section. Copying apps to mounted (accessible in layman terms) storage is pretty straightforward.
Comment: For readers: poster did not mention it, neither did I see it fit to edit it, but the app concerned is actually an open source app, so that explains why he argued against closed source softwares.
Answer: I've got 'avg antivirus' installed.I just backup files from it and they get stored as apks.
Answer: Why not using SD MAID?
I've been using this tools to backup my Android apps so far. It's lightweight, and easy to use to get the apk from installed apps (without root needed).
Step-by-steps :

Download the SD MAID from Google Playstore
Open SD MAID menu, swipe from the left side.
Choose AppControl to show app that installed on your Android phone.
Tap on that application you want
Then tap Exports the .apk menu
You get you want!

BTW, the default location of the output (APK) will saved in Download folder (internal storage).

Reference Bartolab, How to Export APK File From Installed Apps on Android
Answer: There's APK Export which is good just for that purpose: it's only 112 kB and it's free with no ads or in-app suggestions to get the pro version.
Comment: App link is dead.
Comment: @Robert Yep, you're right. You might be able to find it elsewhere (but I cannot guarantee it's the right one), or I can upload it somewhere and share the link.
Answer: Based on the answer from Mahesh Hegde, I can confirm that Total Commander can also save the apps's APK. It does not require root or any extra settings.
In the main screen, there is the "Installed Apps" section. Simply select and copy the app to any folder in the other tab.
The app is available as a direct download from the developer or from app stores.
Answer: You can use  App Backup & Restore application to get the backup of application as an apk file.
Comment: No, it doesn't backup full app. Only the app data. Didn't work for Fifa14
Answer: Then back up your app data after that go to Settings->Application->->Clear data(Clear the app data). After that you can able to get the apk for the selected application with the use of APK Share/Send application.
Comment: Looks like a great deal: to backup the app, I have to delete my data? Thanks, but I doubt that's a good approach. And why the same answer twice?


Is it worth to buy Canon 650D with 18-55 IS?

Question: Is it worth to buy Canon EOS 650D with 18-55 IS in a kit, or it is better to buy only body and other lens (something more universal 18-135 e.g.)?
Comment: 100% of the time I would say skip the kit lens. As for the remaining 0%, you can probably find a reason for it ;)
Comment: @Itai: Both the EF-S 18-55 and the EF-S 18-135 are kit lenses. Considering the current price at Amazon is $648 for the 650D body only and $649 for the 650D + EF-S 18-55 IS, is there maybe 1% of the time you wouldn't skip the kit lens? By the way, my favorite kit lens is the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM that came with my 5DII for only $700 more than the body only. Should I have skipped that one?
Comment: @ital, the one box rule is no longer true. I bought a Canon T4i and it was cheaper with the kit 18-55 than body-only. It came in two boxes. I sold the 18-55 unopened, new in box.
Comment: This question has already been asked: http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/3280/canon-kit-with-standard-ef-s-18-55mm-is-or-18-135mm-is
Comment: @MichaelClark - The 24-105mm F/4L is an excellent lens, I'd call it a bundle rather than a kit lens. You can tell because you probably got it in a different box than your camera. Kit lenses usually come in the same manufacturer's box with the camera, probably because they do not deserve their own box.
Comment: My EF 24-105mm f/4L IS was inside the same box as the body, battery chargers, strap, etc. On the side of the box it said EOS 5D Mark II. Below that it said "EF 24-105 L IS USM | Kit"  :-)
Answer: I really depends on you and where you are at in your photographic development. If you're just generally interested in photography and don't really know exactly what particular aspect or type of photography you want to do, the kit lens is a good way to get started without spending a lot in addition to the camera body itself.
Even if you know that you are going to want to take pictures at longer focal lengths than 55mm, there are two ways to look at it: 1) Go with only one lens and get the 18-135mm 2) Go with the cheaper 18-55mm lens and add the EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS for your telephoto lens. That would give you almost twice as much reach with two lenses for only a few dollars more than the EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS.
Depending on where you buy it, there isn't that much difference in price between the best prices on the 650D body only and the 650D with the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II. At amazon.com here in the U.S. the current difference is $1 (from $648 to $649). Buying the 650D with the 18-135 raises the price $150 to $799. For about $200 you can pick up the 55-250, which would bring your total to about $850 for the 650D, the 18-55, and the 55-250.
When you read advice about skipping the kit lens and getting a better lens instead, they're normally talking about much higher quality lenses like the EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS that sells for about $1,100, the $500 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 Di II, a fixed focal length lens like the EF 50mm f/1.4 that sells for about $350, or the EF 24-105mm f/4L that sells for around $1,200. There really aren't a lot of image quality differences between the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II and the EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS in the range they share in common. The 18-135 is a little sharper between 35-50mm than the 18-55, but not to the point it would be noticeable in a lot of your pictures at 4X6 or 5X7 print sizes or in images re-sized for web use.
Answer: Different shops sell the 1100D with different prices, as usual. Now, an example from Finland. There is three options to buy Canon 1100D.

Canon 1100D body only = 329 euro
Body + 18-55 non-IS = 299 euro
Body + 18-55 IS = 349 euro

If I was buying this camera now, of course I would take the kit lens with it, the non-IS version, because that is the cheapest option right now. So, if you were living in Finland, you would be asking if it is worth spending 50 euros on an IS kit lens. Is that, what you wanted to know?
Kit lens is good to have for those occasions when your wife or kids want to take a photo or two. Better they abuse the cheap one, than the better lens you reserve for yourself.
Comment: Funny, I'm pretty sure the question was about Canon EOS 1100D, when I started to type my answer. Was this merged to another question?


File one patent or many patents?

Question: If my invention has several innovative features, is it best to file separate patents for each feature, or for the device as a whole, or both?
Comment: Depends. What do you want to achieve, how much money do you have to spend?
Comment: I want to make the strongest case for approval of my patent.  While the device has a similar function to others already available, it accomplishes the purpose in a new way and incorporates components that are my own designs and have not previously been combined in similar devices.  I haven't filed a patent before and don't have any idea of the money required.
Answer: I'll start with a statistical answer. Each patent you file has a certain chance of being rejected, which can be a long drawn out process and you might give up. So if you file several patent applications in parallel, you are likelier to obtain at least one patent covering your system sooner. We often do this when we want to get a portfolio up fast - we file several patent applications, all with a request for expedited examination and hope to get 50% within a year.
There are practical considerations (other than money), as well.  While you may have several innovative features, they may have many interdependencies. It may be difficult to capture these if you have separate patents. If you have a single specification and multiple claim sets, this means that a flaw in the specification can make the whole set of patents fall down.
There are scope considerations as well. If the ideas are independently innovative, you might want separate filings so you can explore and highlight how the different inventions are independent and have a scope broader than just the product.
There are litigation issues as well. Having multiple patents makes it more difficult for competitor to design around, more difficult for competitor to invalidate your patents and easier for you to choose the best patents/claims to sue on. Hopefully competitor will be so scared he will ask for a license. As a general rule, we assume that any give single patent will be invalidated or designed around.
Finally, putting budget aside, your goal is to obtain an granted independent claim for each of the innovative features and for the product as a whole and for various sub-combinations of features. I am assuming, by the way, that when you say "innovative" you actually mean "a patentable feature which is critical for my competition's success" , since we file patents on what blocks competition, not (merely) on what is innovative. Note a competitor will often not copy your product as a whole but rather incorporate one or more of its features.
Of course, budget (and cash flow) cannot be put aside and the overarching question should be: what kind of protection can I both afford and answers my business needs.
Answer: For light bulb Edison's one patent was sufficient to prevent competitors from infringing his invention. But current day where knowledge is abundant and available at finger tips and due to the competition and case law created from numerous patent cases owning single patent would be risky. If Competitors are successful in circumventing the claim you are left with nothing to defend. My suggestion is file a single patent application but before grant file a continuation application or divisional application which would support you to add additional claims upon evaluation of the competitor product.
Comment: You might want to expand on this a bit. It is very possible that the patent examiner might force you to split a patent application into two or more applications if they believe there are two or more distinct inventions. This has happened to me.
Comment: Welcome to Ask patents! This is kinda correct, but lacks a lot of information. A source for the Edison claim would be nice. If your application is bad, having a continuation won't help you. If your claim is good, a continuation is not needed. You're not mentioning the costs of this strategy. What about different inventions, one or more applications? What about formulating a broad claim and deciding on the fly? Etc.
Comment: US223898A is the only patent with only four claims, i couldint find any continuity application data so i assume this is the only patent that have covered electric lamp.
Comment: It might be noted that a incandescent bulb using a tungsten filament would avoid infringement on US223898A so it isn't as strong as you think.

File one patent or many patents?


Why isn't my Minecraft LAN server working?

Question: My LAN server won't let my cousin join me or me join my cousin. It won't show up on the multiplayer screen - it keeps saying "scanning for LAN servers" but it never finds it. I am at his house and we use different computers but it won't connect. How can I fix this?
Comment: Are you using the same username? You can't do that.
Comment: no im using a different one than him
Comment: Possibly related... http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/47267/minecraft-lan-wont-work
Comment: Another thing is that a while back MC LAN servers stopped working without Minecraft Forge to fix their publishing. Does the LAN server, when you start it, say that the IP is `0.0.0.0:` then numbers? Because if it does, that's the problem, and you'll need forge (or, if they fixed it, an update) to make LAN servers work again.
Comment: After the recent 1.9 update me and a few friends all started experiencing this issue too, LAN games just wouldn't show up in the Multiplayer list. The solution which worked for us was to go to Multiplayer > Direct Connect and then enter the IP of the person who chose "open to lan" followed by the port number which you're given after you choose "open to lan".  For us this was 220.127.116.11:51317.
Comment: I've had this on Windows and Mac.  Windows was caused by VirtualBox network adapter, had to disable.  Mac was caused by IPv6.  Disabled via https://gaming.stackexchange.com/a/320864/199492.
Answer: A few problems that can arise when attempting to connect a game. Note that these suggestions are made to minimize issues, I do not mean to imply you have to meet every condition here for it to work. Also I am assuming a LAN game, since non-LAN games introduce a whole host of other issues to resolve.

Lack of connectivity ensure everyone is connected to the home LAN (WiFi or cable), free WiFi or someone else's open WiFi can cause problems. If the server and players are not all connected to the same connection in the same way, cable vs WiFi, that can also be a problem.
Logins everyone needs to be logged into their own Minecraft account
Versions make sure everyone is running the same version, this includes the server software if you are using it
Mods if you are using mods, try it without them to make sure they aren't causing problems, easiest way is to move the folder where your mods are stored somewhere else, including the main jar file
Firewalls make sure that your firewall has an exception for the right version of Java, sometimes you can have a few versions installed, which can cause problems. Don't just allow the Minecraft.exe either, since it is just an updater. If your computer is connected to a network that you have told Windows is "public", there are rules in your Windows Firewall that Java set up that will disallow connections from public networks. Try disabling those rules.
Router rules can sometimes disallow connecting to other computers on the same network by default, as a security feature. There's no one way to fix this that works for every router, so you'll have to research your particular router and how to check/change its configuration.
IP addresses try to have a single IP address for each machine, this means don't connect to the wired and wireless at the same time, it can cause problems
Valid IP addresses If you are running Windows, you can get your IP address by running ipconfig, and if you're running OS X or Linux you can use ifconfig (f instead of p).  Do this on both machines, and look for an address that starts with one of the following:

192.168. (this is the most common)
10.      (this is not rare but not common)
172.     (this is rare!)

These are the beginnings of IPv4 addresses, so a complete address would look like, for instance 192.168.0.25, or 10.10.0.217. (If you're using IPv6 instead of IPv4, then you presumably already know what you're doing, and you don't need a guide like this to help you.)
Make sure that first three digits of the IP address match between the two computers. (This is a slight simplification but is what you want in 99% of cases.  Google subnet masks if you want a more complete explanation).
To run ipconfig, you must open the command prompt (cmd) and type in ipconfig, then press enter.  You can use the "Run..." command from the Start menu.
To run ifconfig in OS X, you can open Terminal.app from the Spotlight search.  (Magnifying glass in the upper right, or command-space.)
If you're on Linux I'll assume you already know how to find your terminal emulator.  (It varies too much from one distro to another to give a single set of directions.  And if you don't know how to find it, then you're on the wrong OS for you.)

Try Direct Connect various problems can prevent automatic finding from working, try typing the address printed when the world was enabled into the Direct Connect link.
Try Re-installing Minecraft in cases where LAN abruptly stops working, reinstalling can help. Make sure to delete your .minecraft folder and clean with a tool like ccleaner. Be sure to clean registries as well, and backup just to be safe.

Hopefully this covers all of the most common issues.
Comment: 192.168.0.0/16 isn't the only private subnet used on lans (just the most common one) there's also  10.0.0.0/8 and 172.16.0.0/12
Comment: I had this problem. We were both on the same network and ip address range. I put both computers to the home network - no dice. I checked the firewall settings via 'allow an app through Windows Firewall" and allowed java on the private network - no dice. I went to the "Windows Firewall"->"Advanced settings", and clicked on inbound rules. Minecraft's java version was set to block. I double clicked on the rule and changed it from Block to Allow. The direct connect now works.
Comment: I would highly recommend **not** running CCleaner or other "cleaner" utilities as they more-often-than-not harm your system by deleting things that really should not be deleted. Especially while cleaning the registry, which is literally a wildcard and not something you can **ever** touch without knowing everything about every program that's ever been installed or run on the machine. **Stay away from CCleaner!**
Comment: You say "make sure everyone is running the latest version" - it doesn't have to be the latest version, it just has to be the same version.
Comment: @mathguy54: I think mentioning that using the latest is a good idea, but can't think of a way to do that without implying that older versions don't work. Went ahead and replaced the reference to show that a match is all that is required.
Comment: If a Mac is trying to connect to a PC you have to use direct connect. For whatever reason PC and Mac do not play nicely together on LAN servers
Comment: It probably counts as part of the firewall restrictions, but make sure your current network's profile is set to **Private** in Windows 10. In my case it was set to **Public** and all other connections between the computers still worked, except for Minecraft.
Comment: **Ruter Rules** was my case, most modern routers have 2 networks .. one "public" that is intentionally not connected to the LAN the second more secure "internal" wi-fi.
Answer: Try using direct connect.

Open up command prompt (type in cmd in the start bar)
type ipconfig and hit Enter.
A list of your available network connections should appear. If you are using wireless to connect to your router (I assume you have one, since you are talking about LAN) then find the heading with "Wireless" in it. If you are connected to it using a wire, find the heading that begins with "Local Area Connection".
Find the numbers after "IP Address." This should be similar to with "192.168.x.xxx", where the x's are other numbers.
Hit the Direct Connect button at the bottom in Minecraft, and put the IP Address numbers (dots and all) from the console into the input box. Hit connect. To copy from the console, you'll need to right click in the console and select "Mark", select the numbers, then right click again and hit "copy."

This should work; if you get an error or can't follow (I'm doing this off the top of my head), leave a comment.
Answer: Further to @Chaosed0 's answer, I had this problem until I noticed that the IP address given by the server wasn't in my private IP range (192.168.*) but was actually on a subnet associated with VMWare's virtual network adapters. As a quick fix I disabled them and the problem went away - I suppose the LAN server is binding to the first interface it comes across and doesn't care which, but I don't know how to select it (or if you can).
So far as answering the question, check that the IP address given on the server is on the same subnet as the client you're trying to connect from, though I don't know what to do if it's not...
Comment: I had a very similar issue. I have Oracle's VirtualBox installed on my machine. No one in the house could connect via LAN until I disabled it in the Network and Sharing Center on my Windows 7 laptop. Then they could connect again.
Comment: I had tried everything, then I saw this stuff about Virtualbox.  I happen to have VirtualBox installed on my computer. I disabled it in "Network and Sharing Center" -> "Change Adapter Settings" and immediately the game started showing up in the list of LAN servers (I had two I had to disable).  Didn't require restart or anything.
Answer: There are a couple of things I would check.

Are they both plugged into the same router? This is the one I would check right away. Ensure that you are somehow not on two different LANs, for example one computer being connected to a modem, and then the other computer is connected to a router or VOIP adapter. If they are both using wireless ensure they are both using the same network. That one computer is not connected to a guest network, and the other the normal network.
What network profile are you using? Is it set for home or office, you want it on office to ensure that your computer is discoverable to other computers. To change this if needed

Open Network and Sharing Center by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type network, and then click Network and Sharing Center.
Next to Connections, click the link for the network connection you want to modify, and then click Properties. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Disable any firewall that you have running
Answer: Go on the world, make it LAN, then there will be a server address at the bottom. Tell your cousin to make a server, then put that address in the server address.
Answer: Make your sure connection is good, and that both of you have have a wifi connection
Make sure your using the same version, as you will not be able to play with different versions
Make sure that the host has LAN turned on, as people can connect, if it is off, the world will not show up
Make sure that your not both logged in into the same username, (simalar things happen to me when I do LAN) As only the host will be able to play
Make sure you are connected to the same router, if not then you will have to make a server
Hope this helped!
Answer: An extension of Guvante's post:

Lack of connectivity ensure everyone is connected to the home LAN (WiFi or cable). Also, if the server and players are not all connected to the same connection using the same medium, cable vs WiFi, that can also be a problem in some cases.
Try Re-installing Minecraft in cases where LAN abruptly stops working, reinstalling can help. Make sure to delete your .minecraft folder and clean with a tool like ccleaner. Be sure to clean registries as well, and backup just to be safe.


Can't enable 3rd monitor after installing ATI proprietary drivers

Question: So, after hearing how Ubuntu 11.10 was supposed to have improved support for multiple monitors, I had to re-install again and give it a try.
I always found Ubuntu gets more done faster related to productivity than windows does, among other things, though video games and the adobe creativity suite prevent me from deleting my windows install altogether.
I had given up trying to work with Ubuntu because of it's lack of multi-monitor support, so now that it has improved...
And it has improved. Only seconds after installation, I had full resolution running on all 3 monitors across a single desktop, and each monitor even has a top bar! The performance left something to be desired, however, and it eventually irritated me enough to try to get the proprietary drivers working.
All 3 monitors working was a surprise, as I am using 1 DVI connection, 1 VGA connection, and 1 HDMI connection on a HD6850. In windows, to enable a third monitor, one of the monitors must be attached through the display port. Thank you for whoever hacked that one.
The problem is, now that I installed the proprietary drivers, I cannot enable my third monitor anymore. AMD CCC gives me an error saying it doesn't know why but it can't be enabled, and something about possible not enough video memory (though its a 1gb card).
Does anyone know if there is some kind of tweak I can perform to get the third monitor working again? I know there are a lot of parameters that can be thrown with aticonfig, though none I have found seemed relevant.
Any help is appreciated.
Comment: I figured out that the default driver is the open source radeon driver, which as it turns out seems to work much better than the proprietary at the moment. Except for ATI's control panel, the open source driver suffices. Search Ubuntu Software Center for 3D Acceleration settings, this helped me with my performance issues.
Comment: Huh.  I'm also surprised that you could do 1 VGA, 1 DVI, and 1 HDMI.  I was under the impression that at least two had to be DisplayPort monitors.  Maybe the DVI and HDMI monitors can be driven with the exact same clocks, though?
Answer: OP answered this question as a comment

I figured out that the default driver is the open source radeon driver, which as it turns out seems to work much better than the proprietary at the moment. Except for ATI's control panel, the open source driver suffices. Search Ubuntu Software Center for 3D Acceleration settings, this helped me with my performance issues.


Making a UIImageView opacity (alpha) change randomly

Question: I'm new to the world of coding and I'm trying to simulate a flickering light effect in my project, to do so I have a background image(image1) and another image (image2) on top of it.
I would like to make the opacity of image 2 change randomly, but I can't figure out how to make the opacity flicker randomly an infinite number of time, I tried with a UIView animation without success.
[self.view addSubview: image1];
[image1 addSubview: image2];

[UIView animateWithDuration:0.2f
                      delay:1.0f
                    options:  UIViewAnimationOptionCurveEaseIn
                 animations:^(void) {
                    image2.alpha = 0.0
                   }
                 completion:^(BOOL finished){
                    image2.alpha = 1.0
                  }];

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Answer: Use the following UIViewAnimationOptions to repeat the animation and autoreverse:
UIViewKeyframeAnimationOptionAutoreverse | UIViewKeyframeAnimationOptionRepeat

To randomize the flickering you can randomize either the duration or delay using the arc4random function:
CGFloat duration = arc4random() % 3 + 1

Example:
[UIView animateWithDuration: duration
                  delay:1.0f
                options:  UIViewKeyframeAnimationOptionAutoreverse | UIViewKeyframeAnimationOptionRepeat
             animations:^(void) {
                image2.alpha = 0.0
               }
             completion:^(BOOL finished){
              }];

This will repeat the animation with the initial randomized value (it will not randomize each time).
If you want to repeat it every time with a random value as you mentioned you will need to remove the UIViewKeyframeAnimationOptionRepeat and UIViewKeyframeAnimationOptionAutoreverse and do a little trick. Create a function to generate your animation (generate random variables, etc) and instead on the completion block call the function to generate random values and run the animation again.
Example:
-(void)generateFlicker
{

[UIView animateWithDuration:0.5
                      delay:0.0f
                    options:nil
                 animations:^(void) {
                     self.view.alpha = (arc4random() % 100)/100.0f; //generates random number 0.0 to 1.0
                 }
                 completion:^(BOOL finished){
                     [self generateFlicker];
                 }];
   }

What this does it generates a random number from 0.0 to 1.0 and sets the alpha to that, completes and then calls itself and sets the alpha to the new generated value.
If you want to generate a random delay, duration or other values you can generate random variables before the animation as well as the function will be called each time it runs.
Comment: The autoreverse and repeat work, the problem is that the alpha fluctuations are not randomized.
Answer: To randomize alpha of the view you have to generate random float between 0.o to 1.0:
#define ARC4RANDOM_MAX      0x100000000

float random_alpha = ((float)arc4random() / ARC4RANDOM_MAX); //use this within animation loop.

A bit more details here
Example:
[UIView animateWithDuration: 1.0
                  delay:1.0f
                options:  UIViewKeyframeAnimationOptionAutoreverse | UIViewKeyframeAnimationOptionRepeat
             animations:^(void) {
                float random_alpha = ((float)arc4random() / ARC4RANDOM_MAX);
                some_image.alpha = random_alpha;
               }
             completion:^(BOOL finished){
              }];


Provisional Patent Confidentiality

Question: As I understand it, the USPTO will not examine the provisional patent until the non-provisional is submitted.   Once filed with the USPTO is there any reason not to share the provisional application with the public?  Family members?  Potential customers?
Answer: For credentials, I am a patent lawyer and am trained as a patent attorney. But this is not legal advice.
I would not do it due to strategy. In Australia at least, each claim has its own priority date. If you have added new claims in the complete application then they will have a different priority date than those based on the provisional patent application.
This may become important later in time if someone applies to invalidate your patent.
Just share the filed complete application - not the provisional application.
Answer: Yes, improvements.
If you file the same application content of the prov. as a non-provisional, you're fine.
If you add a few improvements, they get the filing date of the non-prov. app.
The non-disclosure of the prov. in combination with the priority protects you against having that prov. used as a basis for obviousness. If however you disclose the prov., your improvements (= anything not disclosed in the prov.) can (and often will) be obvious in light of your disclosure.
(I'm ignoring the grace period, because it's US only.)
Comment: you can chose to ignore the grace period in your answer, but the question was about a provisional, providing a very strong presumption that the question is about  U.S., filing. So the logic that you are ignoring it because it is only U.S. doesn't make sense. The question is about the U.S.
Comment: @GeorgeWhite and if OP wants to destroy any chances to go PCT they are of course free to do that. But I'm not putting that in my answer unless specifically asked because I'm in Europe ;)
Comment: @DonQuiKing - wow - I think the context of the question should be the primary context of an answer, not a prospective answerer's location.
Comment: @GeorgeWhite yeah and then when op files a pct comes the great awakening. The grace period is one of the biggest traps the us patent system offers. Plus I don't think the question is about the grace period because then the answer would be *whatever, tell everyone and file within the grace period*.

Provisional Patent Confidentiality


Why do upside down tree leaves mean rain

Question: So I have heard this saying a lot and would like to know if and why this is true because the leaves are upside down now and I have always been confused by this because some have told me nay and some yay.
Comment: I've definitely seen this. I think it's just because of the wind but I don't actually know the answer.
Answer: This is the old saying, "When leaves show their undersides, be very sure rain betides."  From the farmersalmanac.com:

The leaves of deciduous trees, like maples and poplars, do often to
  turn upward before heavy rain. The leaves are actually reacting to the
  sudden increase in humidity that usually precedes a storm. Leaves with
  soft stems can become limp in response to abrupt changes in humidity,
  allowing the wind to flip them over.

So, yes there seems to be some truth to this depending on the tree you are observing.
Comment: In addition, according to this [boating site](https://paddling.com/learn/how-to-forecast-the-weather/), the lower the leaves turn on the tree the more severe the storm will be, meaning that if only the tops of the tree is affected there's less chance of the rain fall being too severe.
Comment: It's also an interesting evolutionary question. There may be a survival advantage in relatively humid areas for leaves that slip over and absorb more moisture. It happens (and is well documented), and a grad student in evolutionary biology who is looking for an interesting dissertation topic would do well to follow up on this.