Why are Buddhist concepts so difficult?

Question: Why are Buddhist concepts so challenging for people to understand? What do people who  understand know that  average people don't know? What are some of the barriers to the understanding of Dharma? What facilitates understanding of Dharma?
Comment: Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/99965/discussion-on-question-by-lowbrow-why-are-buddhist-concepts-so-difficult).
Comment: part of the reason is that there's so many conflicting opinions
Comment: The concepts are difficult because of the nature of Reality. It's not something that can be blamed on anyone.
Comment: when reading, anything not just buddhism, best ask yourself what you are trying to achieve from doing so, whatever it is, even if that's slow reading and verbal comprehension
Answer: They both "are" and "are not" difficult to understand?
For example I just told my mum what the four or five precept are, starting with "no killing" -- because when we met in the morning we agreed that it had been a full moon overnight, and I mentioned it's a Buddhist holiday world-wide on full moon days, and she asked how Buddhist celebrate -- so I explained the five and the eight precepts, that monks have 227 rules, that lay people practice 5 all the time, and practice 8 on holy days, to be like monks -- some lay people practice the 8 all the time, many practice just on holy days (like, Christians go to church on Sundays, while Christian priests go to church every day).
She said she wouldn't be able to remember 227 rules -- I told her that people are trained, before and after ordination! -- and that for lay people, there are only 5.
The 5 are easy to remember! "No killing", "no lying", "no sexual misconduct", etc. I think those are easy to understand, someone will do that anyway even without being Buddhist.
And after that: generosity, kindness, reserve, maybe prudence, good social behaviour. Not rocket science, amirite?
And then the noble truths and so on.
I find two or three big difficulties. Two are linguistic:

Some people or texts use words like "mindfulness" without explaining them, like I'm supposed to know already what they're talking about, but perhaps the word means something different to each person. Normally when you learn a word like "cat" or "dog" it might be with reference to an example (of a cat or dog) -- demonstrating "mindfulness" isn't so easy, it's a bit intangible/abstract or requiring definition, and/or examples.
My mum at least won't put up with Pali. Couldn't you explain it in English? :-) Not that she's never learned another language, but it isn't easy (to do so) and why should she.

The third of course are the real difficulties, i.e. what you might call Mara or something ...

... which I'd also know as: ignorance, foolishness, lack of discipline, bad habits, rationalisation ('voice of temptation'), and what not -- projection, identification -- denial -- and what might be understood as logical mistakes such false dilemmas, faulty generalisation. Also lack of energy, lack of joy, and so on ...
... these (like "the seven factors of enlightenment" and so on) are, kind of, the diagnoses or prescriptions of the Buddhist teaching. I guess they're "difficult" in the same way as it's "difficult" to be doctor! Different beings, seemingly with different problems ... and the general advice doesn't always work for them, and "concepts" can be difficult to convey (perhaps especially at moments when people think they have real problems).
We're not all trying to be full-time doctors though, maybe, so, perhaps it's not that difficult?
Or maybe it doesn't seem as difficult as it used to, when you're relatively well, "not so bad".
I'm a bit mindful of this advice I got from MatthewMartin, the last time I asked about this topic -- How to explain what Buddhism is? -- one bit of it was,

If someone really has no problems, that's great, they are Enlightened! The historical Buddha (According to Stephen Batchelor's retelling) said as much on his death bed, when he asked if anyone had any questions left, no one did, so he said, well you all must be enlightened then. People need Buddhism when their current raft has sunk. If there is food on the table, a comfortable place to sleep, and they have no complaints about their daily routine, then our jobs as Buddhists is to rejoice in their success (mudita).

You may or may not agree, I think it helps me to reconcile the difficult Buddhist concepts with the daily life of people who aren't overtly Buddhist.
Comment: @Davor, a pretty good rule of thumb is "If you're asking yourself whether or not it's sexual misconduct, it probably is."  ;)
Comment: Who defines what "sexual misconduct" is? A bunch of virgins in a mountain?
Comment: @Davor I think it's defined in the Dhamma (the doctrine) as for example, something like, somebody seducing your wife, or your children -- harming families.
Comment: Yeah, the teaching can seem so contradictory. I agree, especially with the value of  reconciliation.
Answer: Agreed with Dhammadhatu.
Buddhism is incomprehensible when it is based on hearsay, cargo cult, and book knowledge.
Buddhism is simple and clear when you learn from the first-hand experience of the basic principles.
If your teacher shows you how to practice "no ego" and "suchness", and if you really "get" the practice, then all theories - both from the Pali Canon as well as from Mahayana - make perfect sense.
Comment: +1 this is the first answer to mention a teacher -- which is relevant to the question. Also the OP's profile says, "Looking for a teacher".
Answer: If you understand it as gradual training it is much easier to follow Buddha's teaching. The only way you can eat an elephant is only one bite at a time. some people think that they have to eat the elephant in one bite.
The journey is more important than the destination.
Comment: *The journey is more important than the destination.* - you sound almost like a taoist here *chuckle*
Comment: If the destination is so important the Arahant will commit suicide immediately after his attainment.
Comment: I never said it is; I wholeheartedly believe it's the Road that counts. I only pointed that noticing the importance of the Road is a belief inherent to taoism (which, actually, predates Buddhism, and was a foundation for Gautama's views).
Answer: Mainstream Buddhism is often complex because many of the teachings are not about real things due to misinterpretions and embellishments. If a student starts with the right foundation, Buddhism won't be too difficult. The Buddha said:

Bhikkhus, the Dhamma well proclaimed by me thus is clear, open, evident and free of patchwork.
MN 22
Answer: Are they that difficult?
There are a variety of concepts in Buddhism, some easier to grasp "Don't kill" or "Don't steal" (which are hopefully easier to grasp), and some harder, as more profound (e.g. emptiness). One cannot say that all Buddhist concepts are hard as they are all different.
The moral prescriptions of Buddhism have parallels in other religions, and other religions have most likely equally difficult concepts; worldly religions have similar amounts of adherents. Thus, if such a great quantity of individuals follow moral paths, their concepts cannot be that hard.
As to profound concepts as emptiness: attachment and self-grasping might be a factor, as developing emptiness counters this. More so, if occidental civilization has a theist bias, emptiness -- which questions such independent, intrinsically existent entities -- goes against this bias. But, as emptiness even in Nagarjuna's day was misunderstood, leading to conclusions that 'nothing exists', one might wonder if there isn't something proper to emptiness hard to understand.
I will try to give an answer to the difficulty of emptiness and no-self as I believe it is one of the most difficult Buddhist concepts. Why do people mistake its meaning? What about emptiness is difficult to understand?
As the Dalai Lama and others suggest, one grasps emptiness by reflecting on all its meanings acquired via teachings. Thus, different sources may all provide an understanding of emptiness, suggesting the necessity for synthesis. If categories, which are often countered by non-dual approaches of emptiness, pose a barrier to seeing different teachings as reflecting the same thing, then the tendency to see things as very different, as categorical, might hinder understanding emptiness.
More so, in Stages of Meditation by Kamalashila, emptiness is at first considered analytically, but then one focuses on its feeling, focuses single-pointedly on the conclusion. This implies that emptiness is distinct from the words, the literal statements linked to its understanding. It appears rather that emptiness isn't the literal meaning, but rather the interpretative meaning required in all the suttas about emptiness itself, e.g. Heart Sutta, Lotus Sutta. This may be difficult for some because, if independent from the words themselves and the literal meaning, people have nothing concrete to understand emptiness by.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, emptiness is difficult to grasp perhaps because you cannot 'grasp' it in the normal sense. It develops in the mindstream, and even then. As Nagarjuna mentioned that those seizing emptiness as a view were hopeless, it seems that understanding emptiness is certainly not acquiring a fixated variant of it. Rather, emptiness itself is 'empty', lacks intrinsic essence.
Hence, overall, I believe the main cause of difficulty of understanding Buddhist concepts may be attachment which one doesn't want to relinquish, but also in a summary of the paragraph of emptiness, belief in a 'fixated' self. In a sense, the irony is that causes obstacles towards Buddhism's concepts appear to be the opposite of the three marks: attachment (not seeing things as suffering), permanence, and self-grasping. This, I believe, would make some sense, given it is what the concepts counter. I feel that difficulty in adopting concepts is proportional to the possession of mental traits these very concepts clash with.
Hope this helps!
Comment: Great Points! I found I made progress with some reading when I started taking "emptiness" and other terms non-literally. Still more in trying to avoid false-dichotomies. Sometimes I feel like I'm truly understanding some statement. Other times I very much do not. Upon revisiting something I thought I understood, I find still more.
Answer: Buddhist concepts are challenging for most people to understand, beacuse I think, when you say people, you have in  mind people who have been trained/brought up in western categories of thinking  (whose roots go back to Ancient greek). The western categories of thinking, for one, falls in either of the two extremes of reification (eternal substance, god, etc) or annihilation (nothingness, radical skepticism, etc.) For another, the purposes are very different- western thinking is aimed at knowledge, while buddhist thinking is just another (one of the most important and difficult certainly) skillfull means, which goes hand in hand with practice, aimed at the benefit of all beings. Therefore, the culture in which language develops and therefore the concepts, would seem very strange, odd, difficult, etc. to someone who suddenly encounters them, coming from an entirely differently conceptualized culture.
The people who understand, understand the same world as the people who don't understand, but in a conceptual scheme that does not fall in either of the two extremes. Therefore, they do no cling to those things which people who do no understand cling. The more one understands (through cultivation of wisdom and practice) the more unclinging one becomes, and the more one understands what other people who cling more don't. There is nothing mystical about it.
The barriers are only conditions that either make access to the Dhamma impossible or break up the practice of dhamma. All barriers are to be overcome by us as we walk on the path of dhamma. They are only barriers- not impasses.
Philosophically, one could say that the two barriers are thinking in terms of a reified concept or thinking there is nothing.
Meditatively, there are many barriers as such which can all be overcome by cultivating the paramitas.
This is not in any way a systematic list. Certainly you can look at the works of Candrakirti (e.g. Four Illusions: Candrakirti's Advice to Travelers on the Bodhisattva Path) and likewise find many suttas in Abhidhamma Pitaka which make a mention of hindrances that a meditator faces and how to overcome them.
Persistent practice of the technique and generation of boddhi citta, by developing valid cognitions, greatly facilitate understanding of dhamma.
Comment: Sounds right to me but are the Abhidhamma scriptures called suttas?
Comment: @Lowbrow Suttas are the records of the words of Buddha. Abhidhamma, like all later schools use the suttas as the authority. However, unlike later schools, Abhidhamma does not philosophise over the suttas- that is, it does not seek to interpret them. It takes them at face value.
Comment: The Suttas are used more like a framework for the Abhidhamma?
Answer: While Buddhist concepts do involve special technical concepts with its domain-specific lingo/vocabulary, I don't think it's as difficult as quantum physics or theoretical math. The part that is difficult is how to implement those theoretical concepts in one's daily life. One can recite all the teachings about greed, hatred, and delusion, but can s/he apply/incorporate those teachings into their daily life? That's the difficult part.
Comment: Physics and maths aren't too special -- they are a gradual training, given teachers, half the classroom time listening to the teacher lecturing, half supervised practice-exercise to learn to use the newly-taught techniques, plus homework. Buddhism is useful in a different way, and more often. Math tests at school are simple questions, usually designed to require/demonstrate a specific technique which you've just been taught, and designed to have a right answer. People don't explicitly use a lot of math in daily life except professionals and students.
Answer: The discourse at the Vipassana course (Goenka) I go to annually says you need equal parts knowledge and practice.  Reading, learning, should be paired with an equal amount of meditation.  This has helped me to learn and understand a lot of concepts at an experiential level.
Comment: @Lowbrow Thanks!  :-)
Comment: Welcome to BuddhismSE
Answer: Buddhist concept is difficult..
You are saying right
 buddha  want to don't flow  his way beacuse his way croupt  like river.
River is very pure  but his way in the city  so river are impure and dirty.. human make river so dirty  so dirty.We can't  drink water.
Cloths,urine,toilet, in river
Buddhist path is impure like river
Answer: They are easy to understand and practice but if you want to "be a buddhist" then it comes with a lot of baggage which is complicated.  Four precepts, living in the moment and a bit of meditation.  That is all there is to it.  Who said what in which translation is just a distraction that misses the whole point of buddhism.
Answer: If all phenomena are mind made then they are reasonably spawned in that their coming into play would be based on philosophical principles of mind.
Understanding the Dhamma requires a person to understand what can be understood about thinking and language by using thinking and language.
People try to look for phenomena like consciousness, trying to observe it but i would claim that the thing they are trying to observe is closer to a philosophical principle rather than an observable entity.
I think that obviously Intellectual capability plays a role and I think easily grasping the Dhamma requires a favorable pre-disposition and a lot of development along the lines of inquiry, critical thinking, general semantics and experimental physics if anything.
Dhamma isn't easy to understand and Buddha reprimanded Ananda when he expressed that Dhamma was easily grasped by him and "as clear as clear can be";

As he was sitting there he said to the Blessed One: "It's amazing, lord, it's astounding, how deep this dependent co-arising is, and how deep its appearance, and yet to me it seems as clear as clear can be."
[The Buddha:] "Don't say that, Ananda. Don't say that. Deep is this dependent co-arising, and deep its appearance. It's because of not understanding and not penetrating this Dhamma that this generation is like a tangled skein, a knotted ball of string, like matted rushes and reeds, and does not go beyond transmigration, beyond the planes of deprivation, woe, and bad destinations.

Also here Buddha explains why Dhamma is hard to understand;

"Then the thought occurred to me, 'This Dhamma that I have attained is deep, hard to see, hard to realize, peaceful, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced by the wise. [3] But this generation delights in attachment, is excited by attachment, enjoys attachment. For a generation delighting in attachment, excited by attachment, enjoying attachment, this/that conditionality & dependent co-arising are hard to see. This state, too, is hard to see: the resolution of all fabrications, the relinquishment of all acquisitions, the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding. And if I were to teach the Dhamma and others would not understand me, that would be tiresome for me, troublesome for me.'

At least to some extent i think people have a lot of preconceived notions about the world that they bring with when they come to study the Dhamma. If these notions are false in their nature they will hinder penetration of meaning until they are known as such.
On the comprehensible nature of the world;

"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility…The fact that it is comprehensible is a miracle."
Answer: Buddhist concepts are at a very high level of intelligence. On the Einstein level of intelligence. People who understand the teachings of Buddha can understand (actually, see) why and how are people suffering and how to help them.
Barriers to understanding Dharma are impurities in your heart. By cleansing your heart with Metta you gain intelligence for understanding the Dharma, and Dharma becomes attractive to you.
Metta facillitates the underatans od Dharma. Wihtout regular Metta, you will noly have mental speculations.

Why are Buddhist concepts so difficult?


Are breathing/tonguing techniques for melodica the same as for woodwinds?

Question: Since I've never played a wind instrument, I'd like to know how to begin practicing with proper technique. The generation of sound for drums lies on the control of the stick (grip, bounce, etc ...); the generation of sound for classical guitar lies on the right hand (angles of attack, length of the nail, etc...) and so on. I imagine breathing and tonguing would be the fundamentals of wind instruments and I want to ask for tips/materials in these 2 areas for a total beginner (but not in music) specifically concerning melodica. For example, I noticed I run out of breath more easily than I would like. I've read several sources that recommend breathing through the mouth and not the nose, which is completely weird to me, since the mouth is already being used to blow the instrument. Also the idea of using the tongue, like spitting a seed, instead of just blowing seems to give me very little difference in sound and less dynamic control.
Answer: Yes, breathing and tonguing are effectively the same, though it's not as critical to do them well on melodica.
You breathe through the mouth because you can take a full breath much more quickly than through the nose.
Articulation is important to get a clean start to the note. Simply move your tongue as if you're saying "ta" To illustrate how important this is, try playing a fast string of notes without tonguing ("ha ha ha ha ha" or whatever) vs. tonguing ("ta ta ta ta ta"). I bet the latter is far easier and cleaner.
Answer: Try to tongue behind your teeth, not between your lips.  Use it to 'kick' the airflow, not to completely bottle it up.  And yes, you can get a lot more breath in a lot quicker through the mouth - it's a bigger hole!   Nothing weird about using it as a two-way passage.
Unlike a brass instrument where your lips produce the vibration, or a woodwind where your lips touch the reed, you don't have actual contact with the sound generator on a melodica.  So it isn't a subtle instrument.   But a lot of wind instrument technique is applicable.


Is it ok to bleed a fish in muddy water

Question: Sometimes I go to a secluded lake and want to take some table size Catfish home. However, the lake is particularly muddy and dirty, the water is actually brown. Is there a problem with bleeding fish in it?
Answer: If the water is sufficiently clean that you are willing to eat the fish, it's clean enough to use to bleed the fish.  Dirt as such isn't poisonous.  Clear water isn't necessarily safe.
Two ways come to mind:

Use a pail of river water.  This will at least keep most of the local critters nibbling on it.
Wrap in wet burlap, and set up a can to drip on it.  The evaporation of the water on the burlap will gain you another 5-10 degrees cooling (dpending on humidity)
Answer: I would follow the same rules as drinking water.

The water was not standing, i.e.

it comes from a stream that is rather fast and
the stream is big enough that it is not just a connection of puddles or ponds where the water rinses from one to the other.

There are no sources of contamination upstream. As you mention, thinkable sources are

agricultural areas where fertilizers or herbicides could have been used
meadows, where cattle was present
mining
(quite unlikely) the water runs through some geologic formation where harmful stuff gets washed out.

If your not confident enough to drink it I wouldn't be confident enough to place any food into it.
Comment: Even if you were confident enough to catch the food out of it in the first place? Cooking at sufficient temperature covers a multitude of sins (kills a multitude of obnoxious little critters).

Is it ok to bleed a fish in muddy water


If I save as RAW+JPG, which of the two is shown on the screen of a Canon 600D?

Question: I've set up my Canon EOS 600D to save my photos as RAW+JPEG. What file is shown when I preview the images on the back screen of the camera?
Comment: @fennec yes, but I tagged it EOS 600D because I want to know it for this camera model.
Comment: The answer isn't going to be the same for all cameras. Some cameras will display the saved RAW separately from the saved JPEG.
Answer: You are almost certainly seeing a JPEG preview file. Even if you only save RAW files, the vast majority of cameras generate a preview or thumbnail JPEG and that is what you see on the LCD on the back of your camera.
RAW files contain monochromatic luminance values for each photosite. Since the sensor is masked with a pattern of filters that allow different colors of light to pass through adjacent pixel wells (usually Red, Green, and Blue), there is no color information until the RAW data is demosaiced so that an R, G, and B value can be interpolated for each pixel.
With most cameras if you only save to JPEG what you see on the rear LCD is also a smaller thumbnail preview of the full JPEG. Most cameras have sensors with much higher resolution than the LCD on the back of the camera.
Comment: I'd bet the OP means to ask if he is seeing the embedded thumbnail JPEG from the RAW file, or _the_ JPEG file. Saying it is _a_ JPEG showing in the rear display is not quite answering the question.
Comment: Most JPEGs also have embedded thumbnails and most cameras have sensors with much higher resolution than the LCD on the back of the camera. But the question seems to me to reflect the mistaken assumption that the LCD shows either the actual JPEG or the actual RAW file, when in reality it shows neither.
Comment: A mistaken assumption is a possibility. And yeah, there is a preview thumbnail in many JPEGs. Actually I was hoping my bet (the first comment) would win, because this would then be the question that I was tempted to ask when I was shooting in RAW+JPEG mode.
Answer: It depends on the camera, but generally the JPEG is shown and the histograms correspond to the JPEG as well.  RAW isn't actually an image file, it is sensor data.  Without further image processing it can't be displayed as a particularly meaningful image since it would lack color information and would not be true black and white either due to color filters on the sensor.
Comment: Yes, but for practical purposes, it is not an image in the way anyone asking this question would think of it. :)
Comment: For most people, they would expect an image to be something that looks like what the photo is of.  Just because you can map a set of data points to a set of pixels doesn't necessarily make it an image in the way most people would think of it.
Answer: As already answered, it depends of the camera (I know mine is using the jpg because if I shoot in raw only, the preview isn't available).
If you really want to know, you may test it easily:

take two easy to tell apart picture (ie one of the sky and one of the ground)
transfer the jpg files to your computer
rename each of them with the name of the other one
transfer the files back to your camera
check the preview:

if they still are correct, your camera preview is using the raw file.
if they are switched (preview of the sky picture shows the ground and vice versa), then your camera preview uses the jpg file.

But as stated, both the raw and jpg file embed a lower resolution jpeg thumbnail, and I'm pretty sure that's what the camera is using for practical reason (it's faster to decode and display a small jpg than a big one or a raw file, and on your camera LCD, you couldn't probably see the difference)
Now, if you really really want to know about this, you could corrupt the jpg or raw file with an hexadecimal file editor.
If you change some bytes in the middle of a jpg, it should look very corrupted. If you put it back on the camera, you will know:

if the preview looks fine, then the camera is using the thumbnail
if the preview is corrupted, then the camera is using the full image

I never tried that on a raw file, but I assume they are still compressed (with lossless compression) so this may work.
If you go the full way to answer your question, please post the result (we know how it is probably done, but it won't hurt to know for sure :o) )
Answer: RAW is a data format. It is not an image. Anything you see in the preview is an image. If you shoot JPEG, the choice is obvious. If you shoot RAW. what you see is the data transformed into an image by the camera processor and stored for convenience as an embedded JPEG in the file.
As for your question, you see, it does not matter. Whichever one is being viewed is exactly  the same except that it may come from the separate JPEG or the embedded one. In any case, the camera shows you an image which looks identical. Nearly every camera also calculates the histogram from that and so you may see clipping that is not actually happening in the RAW file.


How long will my print take?

Question: If I have a stl file is there a good way to estimate how long it will take to print on a given printer? I know there are a lot of things that go into print speed, such as the speed of the printer, the size of the print, etc. I was wondering if anyone knows of perhaps an application that you could enter your printer's specifications and the stl that you want to print, and it could calculate the print time?
Comment: Try to use your slicer to get the gcode, then you can realize that the software has a lot of information you can take in count; the programmers are genius.
Answer: The duration of a print is affected by the print properties. Speed, nozzle diameter (or line width), layer height,  amount of perimeters, infill percentage, combing, support structures to name a few important parameters.
So, the only way to tell how long the printer will be printing a certain STL is by loading the STL file into a slicer and slice the model with those settings. The most common free slicers are Ultimaker Cura, Slic3r and payed slicer Simplify3D. Alternatively, when you already have G-code files and do not have the STL anymore or don't want to slice it again (e.g. because you cannot remember which settings you used), you could upload your G-code here and it will calculate it approximately for you (as it does not know the dynamics of the printer).
Note that these times are approximations of the real time it takes to print the object as it integrates the tool path and speed to get the time. Sometimes these calculations are off as the actual printer may behave differently than projected by the slicer. From experience I can tell that the Ultimaker Cura slicer predicts fairly accurate print times for the Ultimaker 3, so they have tuned their slicer software to their machines. For your own build or other brands this may result in different/inaccurate print time estimations.
Answer: All commonly used slicers (e.g., Cura, Slic3r, Simplify3D,...) give an estimation of the print time.
Answer: I use Repetier software with the Cura slicer and the print time estimate tends to be about 10 % longer than the actual print.

How long will my print take?


What water profile should be used for a Maibock?

Question: I have been using Martin Brungard's Bru'n Water spreadsheet to build up my water profiles from distilled water. This has worked very well for the dozen or so ales I've made. This weekend, I'll be brewing a Maibock (my first lager), and I'm not sure which water profile to aim for. The "yellow malty", "yellow balanced", "amber malty", and "amber balanced" sound close, but I'm not sure which one is the best fit. Also, there is an "american lager" profile, but no other lager-specific profiles. So, my question is, what water profile should I use? If it makes any difference, I'm using the Angel Wings all-grain recipe from Brewing Classic Styles.
Answer: The spreadsheet gives color ranges for "yellow" and "amber", so after you put your recipe together you select the color profile.  Malty or balanced will depend on the recipe, also.  In general, though, I think you could go with either and be OK.
Comment: Thanks. I was starting to come to the same conclusion, but it's nice to get a confirmation. The recipe comes out as 7 SRM, so I could probably go either way. I think I'll go with "yellow balanced." I can always tweak it next time if it doesn't come out just right this time.
Comment: You can always email Martin and ask him, too.  He's a great guy and very responsive to emails.
Answer: I've not brewed a maibock, but I've brewed plenty of Munich Helles which the BJCP says the maibock is a stronger version of. Since it's a malt-forward style, mostly on account of the large amount of malt and proportinally less hops.
I would use a neutral profile or one that accentuates the malt, and achieve the hop balance in the quantity of hops used, rather than trying to eek out more hoppiness by adding sulphates. A little carbonate may be helpful, as is typical of Munich water, to help offset the darker munich malt.
Answer: You could look-up the water profile from Einbeck north Germany, where the style originated.  You'd get some authenticity points too.  The reason they used the malts they did, in many cases, was to help out with controlling the pH of the mash, so by using some of those profiles, you're actually making it harder to convert in the mash.  But that 'struggle' might just be what gives the beer it's character.


Sharing an Exchange account... tracking users?

Question: So, I have multiple mac users that currently sharing an exchange e-mail account.  So far, this has worked out fine, as they're in a prepress department at a printing company and they need to share information with the other employees in their department.  However, for security reasons, I would like to be able to track who is sending out an e-mail, even if it's coming from the common account.  Is this possible?
Answer: Exchange 2003 / 2007 / 2010?  I take it these Mac users are running Entourage?
Out of this box I'm going to say it isn't possible, I suggest trying a product like eMailTrackerPro (haven't used it myself)
Comment: Exchange 2007.  Emailtrackerpro doesn't really sound like a solution.
Answer: As far as I know this isn't possible.  You would need to set them up each with their own mailbox and give them a DL that people can email that goes to all of them.


Unique and valuable gift for drinker?

Question: I want to give a close friend a unique and memorable liquor-related (his stipulation) gift. He's particularly fond of whiskey and beer but drinks most anything. What are some ideas, not necessarily limited to actual liquor? In the past I've given him special whiskey glasses, a $100 bottle of whiskey, a home brew kit, and a bottle of chartreuse. He's got a pewter stein he bought himself. Think big, between $100 and $200.
Comment: Hi eewanco, because the answers to this question are simply going to be a never-ending list of things you might buy, and no way to determine what might be a good or the "best" answer as individual tastes will vary, it's not a good fit for the StackExchange format.
Comment: What's his tipple of choice? My dad is fond of lots of different booze so I have gotten him a variety of gifts in the past. He was a big fan of [this wine purifier](https://ullowine.com/) which you can also buy the decanter along with. My next aim (will need to be a big birthday) is to get him one of [these, a wine saver so that you can pour out one glass at a time and store the wine again after](https://www.wineware.co.uk/coravin-model-one-grey-blue)
Answer: While:

this might not be the type of drink they like
this was a numbered birthday present
this website is in the UK

Nonetheless, it might spark off some ideas: https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/18434/grahams-40-year-old-tawny-port
It was his 40th birthday, so a 40 year old port with a custom engraved bottle. He's a Tolkein fan, so the inscription read: "Such an excellent and admirable hobbit"
Answer:
A wine cooler. It would be memorable if he doesn't plan on getting one himself.
[VIP] tickets to a high-end wine/whisky tasting event.
Membership to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Maybe you'd even be able to find a particular bottle (or two - given your price range) whose description memorializes some aspect/episode in your friendship.
Answer: Unique and valuable gift for drinker?
The following suggestion I have already done as a gift. It is awesome.
It may not be the price that makes it valuable or unique. But a Crown Royal with a personalized label would definitely be an unique item to say the lest. And yes do not forget the custom bag(s).
For example:

Crown Royal Northern Harvest label goes for only $3.00

CROWN ROYAL RESERVE BAG goes for an  additional $9.95
Then of coarse you must buy your appropriate bottle of Crown Royal to go along with your label and/or customized bag.

Unique and valuable gift for drinker?


How can I get a Sharepoint calendar to send a notification email to users involved in an event?

Question: I'd like to have all attendees to be notified via email that they have been invited to an event from a Sharepoint calendar. How can I do this?
Answer: Here is my implementation of Vedran's answer:
First, in a feature receiver, I swapped the Event content type with the Schedule content type to take advantage of the Attendees field (and the cool Free/Busy field!):
SPList list = lists["Calendar"];
SPContentType newContentType =
    list.ContentTypes.Add(list.ParentWeb.ContentTypes[SPBuiltInContentTypeId.Schedule]);
SPContentType oldContentType = list.ContentTypes[0];
string name = oldContentType.Name;
string description = oldContentType.Description;
oldContentType.Delete();
newContentType.Name = name;
newContentType.Description = description;
newContentType.Update();

The form now looks like this:

Second, I added an Event Receiver that sends the notices:
public override void ItemAdded(SPItemEventProperties properties)
{
    SPList list = properties.List;
    SPListItem item = properties.ListItem;
    SPFieldUserValueCollection values = item[SPBuiltInFieldId.ParticipantsPicker] as SPFieldUserValueCollection;

    List<string> emails = new List<string>();
    foreach (SPFieldUserValue value in values)
    {
        SPUser user = value.User;
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(user.Email))
        {
            emails.Add(user.Email);
        }
    }

    if (emails.Count > 0)
    {
        StringDictionary headers = new StringDictionary();
        headers.Add("to", string.Join(";", emails.ToArray()));
        headers.Add("subject", item.Title);
        SPUtility.SendEmail(web, headers, body);
    }
}

It works great.
Comment: +1 because I like Free/Busy field
Comment: Definitely. A gem hidden in plain sight! It's the main reason I posted this as an answer.
Answer: You could create a column for the calendar that is "attendees" that is a people or group type column. Then you can create a very simple workflow that will send an email to those people who are entered. This could be done with SharePoint Designer.
Comment: Default calendar list already has column Attendees (internal name: ParticipantsPicker). For some reasons beyond my knowledge this column is not attached to default Event content type.
Answer: One of solutions is to add new people type column (or use OOTB Attendees column) to calendar for storing meeting attendees.
Then you can write custom event receiver for calendar list that handles email notification(s) according to meeting changes (attendee added, deleted, meeting canceled etc.).
This approach is not simple but has some benefits (you can easily redeploy solution to affect other calendars).
I need to point out that SharePoint calendar doesn't provide OOTB function to easily receive auto meeting responses (like eg Exchange). This makes most of the new SharePoint users quite unhappy.
Comment: Thanks. Yes, this was a direct request from a customer, so I am looking into ways of giving a similar function to exchange. It looks like they will have to adapt or keep their old practices.
Answer: When you create the event/meeting you can optionally create a meeting workspace.  Within the meeting workspace you can add attendees.  Once added, they receive an email notification and from there can choose to accept or decline.
I can give you step-by-step instructions if needed.
EDIT: We had implemented an intranet a couple years back at a former employer and managed our client meetings with workspaces.  I thought the emails were sent automatically when the item was added to the Attendees list, but after a closer look it appears someone added a workflow to the Attendees list to send the email when a new Attendee is added to the list.  Per Lori's answer you could extend the calendar list with a column and attach a workflow or attach a simple workflow to the Attendees list...either approach would work.
Sorry if this sent you down the wrong path.
Answer: Since calendars are just lists users can create a User Alert for the list item by using the Alert Me function on just that item/event. This offers an opt-in solution for emails instead of pushing emails out to all attendees. It does, however, rely on the user to perform an action to get the alerts. If this isn't how your events are set to run, then it might not be for you.


Banned IP on website using Tor

Question: I tried to visit a legitimate website while using TOR browser, and it couldn't load as the IP of the exit node was "banned due to illegal activities". Then I tried to use "new identity" (another exit node) and eveything worked well. However, I am slightly worried about having accidentally used this suspicious exit node, which was maybe used by other Tor users for some crimimal activities! What should I do?
Answer: If you were using the Tor Browser in the recommended way, then there's nothing to worry about; your real IP address won't have been exposed, and the site could only have seen the IP address of the exit node. The fact that the site blocked access means you didn't get as far as doing anything that might have made you traceable, like logging in with your personal details.

"banned due to illegal activities"

What is legal and not legal is dependent on various factors. What is legal in my country might not be legal in yours. By extension, what is legal in the country where the site is hosted might not be legal in your country. And so on.
In all likelihood, the term "illegal activities" is being used in the context of the site's rules, rather than the context of the general rule of law, but without knowing the context, we're really just speculating.
Note that far more internet traffic flows through the clearnet than the Tor network, and it's likely a much larger amount of "illegal activity" is actually through nodes (routers) on the internet that everyone uses, rather than just Tor users. However, if sites blacklisted these "normal" nodes, rather than just specific IP addresses, they'd lose far more traffic than they do by blocking Tor nodes (which appear as single IP addresses, but which actually translate to many more users).
In short: the internet is full of "illegal activity", it just makes more economic sense to more often block Tor exit nodes.
[Caveat: I haven't included any sources.]
Comment: I think it's also of note that your indistinguishability from "criminals" is part of the protection of your anonymity set. If the site can't tell you from the "criminal", it's working. You and the "criminal" are as likely to use the same exit node as each other.
Comment: I understand the idea but isn't this even more dangerous as one could get mistaken for the criminal using the same exit node?
Comment: Possibly but if you live in a legal jurisdiction where such arbitrary accusations hold weight you have bigger problems.

Banned IP on website using Tor


How should I match Pantone / CMYK / RGB colors for my designs?

Question: I am going to buy Pantone (C/U) and CMYK (C/U) patterns. How should I choose the colors for my designs? First CMYK, then Pantone and RGB last?
Comment: Are you going to produce digital designs or will you be using your designs as print?

Can you please elaborate a bit more, what is the outcome you want to achieve ?
Comment: I design for print. I think if CMYK color space is the smallest I should choose CMYK color as first. Then i should find the matching Pantone color. At the end I need to check what sRGB color match to Pantone. Are these steps correct?
Comment: I don't think you need any RGB related colours. Because In RGB colours there are colours that the CMYK don't even have, you will get all confused. I advice you to get a pantone book or just look it up online what colours you want and copy the exact colour code into your designs.
Answer:
Pick your Pantone colours. It's important to pick these in a light that you will view them in typically. If your designs will be viewed outside, see what they look like in daylight (if you can, at different times of the day as the light will change and time permitting on a cloudy / sunny / rainy day).
Once you have picked your Pantone, then you should the be able to make your CMYK match too.
Now you pick your RGB. Remember that so far we have picked colours that your eye see with reflected light and RGB is projected light (see this for more info). Don't try to get an exact match, remember different monitors have different contrast and lightness settings, so these can effect your colours quite a lot. Pick you colour that work well over multiple monitors (and if possible check it on a TV as well, I recommend this as you never know when your logo will appear on a TV or projector at an event).
Comment: Pantone colors are dependent on the surface. CMYK colors are dependent on paper, ink, etc. RGB colors are dependent on the size of the color space and displays..
How should freelancer work?
The best way is not choose colors. The printing house should do it, but I have to do before them. Unfortunately, I don't know what paper/material/plastic/metal will be use. What should I buy (pantone/cmyk guides) and how should I work as a freelancer (logos and stationery)?
Comment: You can never have complete control over everything, at some point you need to accept sometimes stuff will be ever so different. All colours are surface dependant, not just Pantone. You can CMYK print on to metal, glass etc. I'd just by the Pantone one for now if you are worried about cost and then when you go to print, let your printer know that you want to match as close to Pantone XYZ and trust them to do their job.
Answer: The short answer is, pick Pantones first and then test, test, test!
Pantone helpfully supply conversion breakdowns to both CMYK and RGB (via their colour bridge swatch books, their app or their website). Use these as a starting point, then test.
For RGB, test the colours across different screens and devices, including any 'key' screens for the brand (if you have access to them). Adapt RGB breakdowns to get the best average colours across all the screens.
For CMYK, test across a variety of print processes and substrates – litho coated, litho uncoated, digital and newsprint would be my recommendation as a minimum. As with RGB, if there are any print processes and substrates relevant to 'key' touch-points for the brand, then you should also consider testing these. If the cost of 'wet proofing' is not an option, then use a colour-calibrated proofing system such as a GMG RIP combined with a multi-ink ink jet printer. My preference is to use a GMG enabled proofer first to pick optimal colour breakdowns before verifying the colours with wet-proofing.
A few pointers on the above…

Pantone-recommended conversion breakdowns are a good starting point
but usually need adjusting slightly to get the best results for some
colours
If a CMYK Pantone-recommended breakdown includes low percentages (1%,
2%, 3%), I'd usually rationalise the breakdown down to 0%. The same
applies to very high percentages (95%+), I'd usually rationalise
these to 100%. The reason being to reduce the amount of inks and
printed screens/dots
The importance of the colour testing stage in a brand re-design is
often vastly under-estimated and under-scoped. The relative low-cost
of testing compared to brand roll-out costs should be obvious, but is
often only realised after expensive mistakes!
The exception to this process is if you are designing for a
digital-led brand, whose presence is predominantly going to be
on-screen. In this instance, consider starting with RGB so you get
the benefit of the brighter colours and larger colour-gamut available
on-screen.
Answer: Printing method is the determining factor, and the only thing that matters. Are you going to print with RGB colors? No, of course not. Are you going to print with Pantone colors? Are you sure? The vast majority of commercial printing, from newspapers to magazines to flyers to direct mail cards to books to postcards --  is web or sheet fed offset with process colors (CMYK). If that's the method you'll be using for printed materials, that is the color system to work in. It's vital to have a swatch book that is printed with the method you will use, on similar paper stock. Look at Focoltone and especially TRUMATCH for CMYK.
The idea of starting with Pantone and converting to CMYK is a fresh-from-art-school mistake. That is not how production designers with real press experience work, because it's not accurate. You must use actual print samples -- and get matchprints, and do press checks -- if you don't want nasty surprises in process print jobs.
If you really are doing a lot of spot color (like Pantone) printing, then make sure, again, to match the paper stock, screen frequency, and brand. Don't specify Pantone colors using Pantone swatch books, and then go to a press that uses different brands of ink.
Answer: I don't think it matters which order you pick your colors in since they're all used differently.
The point of Pantone is that you get the exact color you pick every time it's printed anywhere.  CMYK can vary from printer to printer and RGB can vary from display to display.
Also, you can't just pick a Pantone color in Illustrator/Photoshop, then change the color system to CMYK/RGB to get those values and think it will be equivalent.  The conversion color values will vary depending on your color profile.  It's an ok way to start, but you'll have to test and probably tweak them to make sure they work for your artwork.
Comment: To be clear, Pantone matches exactly only because Pantone swatches are printed with Pantone ink, and you then use the same ink on the printing press. If you don't use Pantone spot color ink, there's no point in picking Pantone colors. You don't decide you like a Rustoleum Gold spray paint and then ask the paint guy to make the same color for you but using Behr color tints.
Comment: Usually the conversion values are in the printed Pantone pattern itself
Comment: True, but it's really only there for convenience. You still have the problem of differently calibrated monitors and the various printers inks and papers.  Not to mention all their colors that can't even be reproduced in CMYK or RGB.


How does Google know how much traffic a website gets?

Question: They obviously know how much traffic they send to it. But how do they know of the rest of the traffic to it? Is it only if it has Google Analytics installed, or do they get their information in some other way as well?
Comment: can i ask what is the purpose of asking this? is this related to how google ranks your page even without GA being installed?
Comment: Statistics teaches us you can confidently assume things about a population based on a sample.
Comment: @reikyoushin That's the idea. Yes.
Answer: First, let's clear up a misconception in the other answers: Google search does not use Google Analytics in any way for ranking.
Matt Cutts at Google confirmed this years ago. And if you think about it logically, for the most part it does not make sense for them to use that data for two reasons: (1) most sites get most of their traffic  from Google, so looking at their GA stats is meaningless; (2) it would definitely be seen as an anti-competitive and monopolistic move (forcing all sites to use GA in order to get good rankings in Google search).
They may use some other sources like Joshak suggested, but many of those would fall into category 2 above.
In reality, they don't need to know how much actual traffic a site is getting. The PageRank algorithm approximates that very well - i.e. more links from higher quality sites = more traffic. There are cases where a web site is well publicised in "real life" such as in TV and newspaper adverts and other promotions. But again, that will end up equating to more links and a bigger online presence anyway.
Answer: EDIT: your question is a bit misleading, but as per the comment you gave on your question.. here is my answer.
Page Views / Traffic is only tracked via Google Analytics, but that doesn't mean that your site wont get indexed anymore. You will gain page rank even without google analytics via the amount of link backs (other sites linking back to you) thus your site will then get crawled by google because of that. then google will be aware that your site exists. adding GA would speed up the process of google discovering your website but it is not required, though recommended.
But take note that google search is also being tracked so if your site is always being clicked on a search result.. it sort of acts the same way as an inbound traffic.
Answer: Google has a lot of ways to collect data about you and your website. They can tell how much traffic you get via Google search and Google analytics (as you mentioned) they also have android, gmail, chome browser, chrome OS, Google reader (for a little longer at least), youtube, and Google plus just to name a few sources. You don't need to rely on GA to get your site noticed... they will find you ;-)


Planet with no rain, only fog, like Chile's Atacama Desert

Question: I'm trying to design a planet with weather conditions similar to the Atacama desert in Chile- mainly in that there's no rain, only fog. From what I understand, in Chile, this is caused by a rain-shadow effect? But I'm not entirely sure. I'd like for the entire planet to be this way, not just on one side of a mountain range, but am not sure if/how this is possible. Thank you!
Comment: Single weather planets like this are not realistic.  A planet will have a temperature variation with latitude even if it's smooth as a marble and rotations and axial tilt will introduce e.g. wind patterns and cyclical variations in weather.
Comment: See this Sci Fi question and it's answers. https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/18750/why-arent-alien-planets-as-varied-in-climate-as-the-earth
Answer: You simply can't get the right prevailing conditions on an entire planet to get a single weather system worldwide, what you can do is have a world that has very little land suitable for habitation so the few areas that can be colonised all have the same characteristics.
The fog watered west slope of the Andes, which includes but isn't limited to the Atacama, is the result of the fact that sun on the mountains creates a local low pressure system that draws wet air off the sea which forms fog and supplies water in an area where rain bearing wind is blocked by those same mountains.
So the question isn't how to create a world with only fog, it's how to keep people away from areas where it rains. For example the relatively dry conditions of the rain shadow zone, the area that's fog watered, could keep out certain toxic plants, microbes, and/or animals, that would otherwise kill off any colonising effort. Alternatively if the upper atmosphere is toxic, because reasons (as in that's a whole different question), then only areas where rain doesn't fall can support life at all. Such a world would be broken into three types of land; poisonous rain-swept wastes, bone dry deserts, and a few scraps of mountain fringed coastline where rain doesn't fall but fresh water vapour from the ocean supplies enough moisture for life.
Answer: Let's toss the rain-shadow effect concept in the bin, since it's reliant upon it raining elsewhere, and thus would have to eliminated. But this isn't actually that hard, if you take a step back and think about it. What is fog? Fog banks are simply surface-level, low-lying cloud formations. Specifically, stratus clouds; the flat or sometimes ragged non-convective stratiform type. Only very weak precipitation can fall from these clouds, usually drizzle or snow grains; and whenever a low stratiform cloud contacts the ground, it's classified as fog, so long as the prevailing surface visibility is less than 1 kilometer (though radiation and advection types of fog tend to form in clear air, rather than from stratus layers). If the visibility increases to 1 kilometer or higher in any kind of fog, the visible condensation is termed mist instead.
So, to achieve this, you simply need to give your planet conditions in which you only have stratiform clouds, in which these stratiform clouds come in contact with the ground across the entire planet's surface at some point, and with visibility reduced to less than a kilometer as a result when they do. These stable stratiform cloud decks, aka as 'fog', tend to form when a cool, stable air mass is trapped underneath a warm air mass. So, there's your answer- give your planet an atmospheric boundary layer at a relatively low altitude, where temperatures are lower below that boundary than they are above it. Unlike on Earth, where the temperature gets colder as the distance above the earth increases, by about 6.5°C per kilometre. How can we do this? By siphoning off a decent portion of the insolation received by this planet at its atmospheric boundary layer, resulting in it never reaching the surface.
The most extreme example of this, which would have resulted in a planet which would have no rain, and would only have fog? That of The Matrix, courtesy of Operation Dark Storm. But there's a relatively simple, far less extreme solution; instead of a shroud of unstoppable, all-consuming self-replicating nanites, why not simply give your planet blooms of buoyant aerial algae instead? These essentially create the atmospheric barrier, at the altitude at which the density of the atmosphere gives them neutral bouyancy- let's say, 0.5-1km above sea level (with your planet smooth enough to lack any peaks tall enough to poke through this layer); and even if 90% of the sun's energy still gets through, that difference'll still be more than enough to turn this layer into a heat sink, trapping the cooler, more stable air mass beneath it.
Thus, limiting your planet's water cycle to only low-lying fog banks, and limiting precipitation on its surface to fog drip. But your planet wouldn't necessarily have to be relatively dry as a result of this, not at all. My advice, if you're building this planet as a setting, and intend it to be an habitable, inhabited world? Abandon the fog desert ecosystem model, and the Atacama desert analogy. Instead, look at cloud forest ecosystems as a better, more realistic and hospitable model to use as your template.


Labelling a Snow Flake Graph to Attain Minimum Sum

Question: Label the vertices (or nodes) of this graph with positive integers so that any two nodes are joined by a edge (or line) if and only if the corresponding integers have a common divisor greater than 1 (i.e. they are not relatively prime). Do so in such a way that the total sum of the 13 numbers is minimum.
Comment: @Omega Kyrpton: By necessity!
Comment: [tag:computer-puzzle]? Hmm, maybe this is harder than I was expecting.
Comment: must the numbers be distinct? thanks!
Comment: Can't I just make every number 2?
Comment: @stuartstevenson if every number were two, then every node would be directly connected to every other node.
Answer: Edit: I made an assertion previously about the minimum which turns out to be wrong due to a bug in my code. The strategy of Bass is the right one and using the reasoning of 2012rcampion, we must put the smallest numbers in the centre
Here is the best answer I have found so far using this strategy

For a total of

 $79685$

Breaking these numbers into their prime factorisations looks as follows

It seems as though this is still not optimal, as suggested here so please feel free to keep investigating.
Comment: See my solution of 79627 below...
Answer: My best (manually)

With a sum of

 79623

Update:
An exhaustive search of all 28.74 billion distinct arrangements with the lowest primes in the center has confirmed that this is the optimal solution. The C code for this search can be viewed here.
Comment: Nice job. How long did it take to run this code?
Comment: With the smallest prime numbers in the edges of the center of the graph and leaving the prime numbers 2, 59 and 61 fixed (as they are in your configuration), I obtained the same result. In addition, with this same configuration but exchanging 59 with 61, we get the same result as @DrXorile (currently, 79627) but with a different partition.
Comment: @DrXorile The total run-time was about 25 minutes.
Comment: @FreddyBarrera DrXorile's solution differs from mine in that the $(7,23,53,3)$ diamond is flipped.
Comment: Yes. I wanted to say is that if we exchange 59 with 61 of your solution, we get 79627, with a different partition than the partition that gave Dr Xorile. That is, 79627 has at least two different solutions.
Comment: @FreddyBarrera Exactly two solutions, and there are 8 other solutions with sum less than 79650.
Comment: +1 Nice job, Daniel.
Answer: To get started, let's see what the final answer must look like:

 Since there are no fully connected triangles in the graph, each edge must be represented by a distinct prime. That gives us this basic shape:

          bd

ar   abc      def    fg

   pqr  cehknq    ghi

op   mno     jkl    ij

          lm

 (Each letter a-r is a distinct prime.)

Then, you take out a computer, and find the best assignment for a-r. I didn't, so I did this instead:

 Take the primes from 2 to 61.

 1. Put the six smallest primes in the middle.
 2. Arrange the same on the concave corners so that the differences between "neighbours" are big.
 3. Pair the smallest concave corners with the largest remaining primes.
 4. Repeat.
 5. For the points, pair small with big, and midsize with midsize

 The basic idea is to avoid multiplying big by big, because that's what makes huge numbers fast. To further improve the result, steps 3 and 4 should really be combined, so that the products at the concave spots are as close to each other as possible, but that seemed too tedious to do by hand. (If you do that, the optimal order for step 2 might change, too.)

That gave me this:

                 61,17

37,47    2,61,37         13,41,17    31,41

   7,47,23   2,3,5,7,11,13     3,59,31

53,23     5,53,29        11,43,19    19,59

                  29,43

Which, when multiplied out, looks like

              1037

1739    4514        9061    1271

    7567     30030      5487

1219    7685        8987    1121

              1247

For a baseline sum of

 1037 + 1739 + 4514 + 9061 + 1271 + 7567 + 30030 + 5487 + 1219 + 7685 + 8987 + 1121 + 1247
 = 80965.
Comment: +1 Good job, I completely messed up what I was trying to do earlier.
Answer: Using the labeling provided by Bass we have that the sum is equal to:
$$b d + a r + a b c + d e f + f g + p q r + c e h k n q + g h i + o p +
 m n o + j k l + i j + l m$$
We want to find an assignment of unique primes to the variables $a$ through $r$ such that the sum is minimized.  It is easy to see that we must use the smallest 18 primes ($p_1=2$ through $p_{18}=61$) to minimize the sum, so the problem reduces to finding a permutation of the first 18 primes.
We can reduce the search space by testing what happens if we interchange two numbers.  We'll assume we have the optimal solution, so any change will increase the sum (or keep it the same).  For example, swapping $a$ and $b$ gives us
$$
b d + a r + a b c \leq a d + b r + a b c
$$
(Note I have kept only the terms containing $a$ and $b$, as the others do not change.)  We can reduce this to $b(d-r) \leq a(d-r)$.  Since all the variables are positive and distinct, this means that either $b<a$ and $d>r$, or $b>a$ and $d<r$.
Doing this for an outer edge and its adjacent inner edge, $a$ and $c$ for example, gives us:
$$
c < a \equiv r < e h k n q \\
$$
Note the form of the second half, comparing one variable to the product of five variables.  If we compare the largest prime, $p_{18}=61$, to the five smallest primes, $p_1 p_2 p_3 p_4 p_4=2\cdot 3\cdot 5\cdot 7\cdot 11=2310$, we can see that this inequality must always be satisfied.  Therefore the first half must be true, and all outer edges must be larger than their adjacent inner edges.
Swapping an outer edge and a non-adjacent inner edge, e.g. $a$ and $e$, gives:
$$
e < a \equiv b c + r < d f + c h k n q
$$
To see if we can violate the right-hand inequality we'll ignore the uniqueness constraint between terms and test $p_{18}c + p_{18} < p_1 p_2 + c p_1 p_2 p_3 p_4$, i.e. $61c+61<6+210c$, which yields $c>\frac{55}{149}$.  Since $c$ must be at least $p_1=2$, this inequality cannot be violated.  Therefore, all outer edges must be larger than all inner edges.
This confirms that hexomino's answer is optimal.
Answer: I have got a slightly lower answer than either @hexomino or @FreddyBarrera in this question. @DanielMathias did an exhaustive search and found one slightly better (I confess I didn't even try  the exhaustive approach once I ballparked how many permutations there were).
My answer is: 79627
\begin{align}
a &= 7\\
g,h &= 23,43\\
b &= 5\\
i,j &= 31,47  \\
c &= 13  \\
k,l &= 29,19  \\
d &= 2  \\
m,n &= 59,61  \\
e &= 11  \\
o,p &= 17,37  \\
f &= 3  \\
q,r &= 41,53\\
\end{align}
Then
$abcdef + agh + bij + ckl + dmn + eop + fqr + hi + jk + lm + no + pq + rg = 79627$

But, you may ask, how did I find this marvel of optimization?
I'm glad you asked. :-)
My intuition told me that we need to balance the "middle" nodes (agh,bij,ckl,...). The product of all these numbers is simply the product of the first 18 primes or 117,288,381,359,406,970,983,270. The 6th root of this is about 6996. So I figured that picking triplets such that the product was close to 6996 would be a winning idea.
So I generated all the triplets and ordered them by how far the product was from 6996.
eg
<code>   5,   23,   61,   19
   7,   17,   59,   25
   7,   19,   53,   53
   7,   23,   43,   73
  11,   17,   37,   77
  13,   17,   31,  145
   3,   43,   53,  159
  13,   19,   29,  167
   5,   29,   47,  181
   2,   59,   61,  202
   5,   23,   59,  211
   3,   37,   61,  225
   ...
</code>
where the first three are the primes and the 4th is the absolution value of the product minus 6556.
Then I treated these as nodes in a maze and used dijkstra's algorithm to find the shortest route (using the abs(product-6996) as the distance to each node).
This led to:
[[7, 23, 43], [11, 17, 37], [13, 19, 29], [2, 59, 61], [5, 31, 47], [3, 41, 53]] (Total distance from 6996 is 1285).
Finally, I ran through the possible permutations (there's not too many) which led to the solution shown.
Comment: I have already provided a solution with lesser sum of 79623, though I do like your approach.
Comment: Nice. Sorry, I didn't see your answer before. I'll edit my response to include it.


What is the background about the tattoo around Jellal's eye?

Question:
Why does Jellal have the red tattoo around his eye? Where did it come from? Is there anything special about the shape of the markings?
Comment: Incidentally, it's the same tattoo with [Sieghart from Rave Master](http://ravemaster.wikia.com/wiki/Sieghart)
Comment: @Darjeeling Not incidentally as the mangaka of Rave Master is the same as Fairy Tail, that is Mashima Hiro.
Comment: `Sieg and Jellal are both based on same character named Magic Illusion from Mashima's one-shot 'Magician', with both appearances and mastery of magic.` - [Rave Master Wikia](http://ravemaster.wikia.com/wiki/Sieghart)
Comment: @AyaseEri I'm fully aware of that
Answer: Fun fact, this is actually a reference to Hiro Mashima's (the author of Fairy Tail) other series "Rave Master." In that show, there is a character named Seigrain, who has a tattoo over his eye, which is the same as Jellal's. This character also looks very similar to Jellal's.
Sometimes Mashima sneaks in stuff from Rave Master. Such as Plue, who he describes as his own pet who he can use in whatever he likes. So, that's probably why Mashima put it in there.
Comment: None so far. Also note Jellal infiltrated the council using the same name, Siegrain.
Comment: So it's only there as an Easter Egg? There is no in-story explanation for it?
Comment: Add a Rave Master picture of Siegrain!
Answer: I think it's before the tower of heaven happened. He was in a village or something and they did a ceremony for the most powerful child (most magical energy) and they gave that child a special mark to note that he is the strongest; maybe they were going to use him to fight wars (until he was taken by the people at the tower of heaven).
I know that it's also a reference to Rave Master which was made by Hiro Mashima, the author of Fairy Tail.
Answer: The ceremony thing isn't possible, its likely that he was born with the markings and my evidence is mystogan/prince jellal of edolas as it's a parallel universe where everyone is opposite.


Unwrinkle paper

Question: I was writing on a sheet of paper for something important. I used the eraser and accidentally scrunched up the paper a bit, not ripping it but wrinkling it. Is there a way to fix the paper and make it beautifully flat, not just curved by rubbing it over a table edge?
Answer: One thing you might try is to iron it. It works pretty well, but you have to be careful, or you might end up burning it. Generally, you put a piece of fabric over it and iron it gently to avoid tearing it.
Comment: Also, keep an eye on your steam. The paper lives through an ironing no problem, but the ink can smudge if you aren't careful. It's not like a shirt! If it's a really important paper, try it out on a few test sheets first!
Comment: @interwebz no problem
Answer: Place the sheet of paper inside a heavy book or between two heavy flat surfaces, leave it for a few hours..viola..this technique is used in flower pressing
Comment: You should increase the humidity a bit for best effect, holding it over a steaming pot should do it and impart a nice curry smell.  Also I would advise placing it between two fresh clean sheets of paper into the book lest the ink transfer onto the damp paper.

Unwrinkle paper


What other Star Trek series did the main TNG cast show up in?

Question: I'm referring to Picard, Riker, Data, Worf, Geordi, Dr. Crusher, Wesley Crusher, Chief O'Brien and family, Deanna Troi, Guinan. I know Picard and Worf show up on DS9, though I haven't seen it myself. I'm curious what happened to the characters after that last episode of TNG?
Comment: I'd check Wikipedia and other Star Trek wikis for a good summary.
Comment: It's "Picard" and "Deanna Troi".
Comment: Gosh, what a wordy title.
Answer: Miles O'Brien: Ends up transferring to DS9 after accepting a posting as Chief Operations Officer for the station. His wife, Keiko, and daughter, Molly, follow him and live on DS9 as well. Appears in multiple seasons of DS9.

Lt. Cmdr Worf: Transferred to DS9 to Command Division following destruction of the Enterprise-D (Star Trek: Generations film). Eventually accepted position as Federation ambassador to Qo'nos. Appears in multiple seasons of DS9, as well as multiple TNG-era films.

Wesley Crusher: after resigning his commission with Starfleet, he opts to live on Dorvan V to learn from "The Traveler" to journey to other planes of existence. Appears very briefly in Star Trek: Nemesis in a Starfleet uniform, at the wedding. (A cut scene includes dialog with Picard.)

Dr. Beverly Crusher: Serves as Chief Medical Officer on Enterprise-E under the command of Cpt. Jean Luc Picard. Does not appear on any other Star Trek series, but does appear in the TNG-era films.

Cpt. Jean Luc Picard: Appears on DS9 a few times in the beginning season. Still in command of Enterprise-E after the loss of the D vessel (Star Trek: Generations), and appears in all TNG-era films. Name is mentioned during Voyager.

Lt. Cmdr. Data: Did not appear on DS9, although did interact with Dr. Julian Bashir from DS9 while Enterprise-D was in orbit of the station during a TNG episode. Appears in all TNG-era films.

Killed while in service aboard Enterprise-E, by sending Picard back from the exploding Reman vessel instead of himself, sacrificing his life and ending his career.

Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge: Serves aboard Enterprise-E as Chief Engineer. Does appear in Star Trek: Voyager in command of his own vessel in an alternate future timeline. Also appears in the TNG-era films.

Cmdr. William Riker: Continued to serve as First Officer to Cpt. Jean Luc Picard even during DS9 until after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. Eventually leaves the Enterprise-E to command the USS Titan as Captain. Appears in the TNG-era films, in Enterprise (holodeck episodes) and once on Voyager (thanks to Q).

Guinan: Serves as bartender in Ten-Forward on Enterprise-D. Does not appear in any other Star Trek series, except the TNG-era film Generations. Not clear what Guinan does after the D is destroyed.

Cmdr. Deanna Troi: Continues service aboard Enterprise-E as Ship's Counselor. Appears in the TNG-era films. Appears in Voyager and in Enterprise (holodeck episodes). Eventually marries Cpt. William Riker and follows him to the Titan where they have a child.

Related Characters
Q: Included due to his multiple appearances across multiple series. Q appears quite frequently in TNG, Voyager, and DS9. Spreading his mischief and exploring what it means to be a "petulant" human from a Q's perspective, Q simply IS. Even after TNG, he IS. Period.

Thomas Riker: Created by a freak transporter accident years before Will Riker's posting on the Enterprise-D, Thomas Riker eventually resigns his Starfleet commission and enters into rebellious alliance with the Maquis. He appears in DS9 during the episode "Defiant", where he surrenders his Maquis ship and crew, spending the rest of his life (presumably) in a Cardassian labor camp.

Lt. Reginald Barclay: Serves aboard USS Enterprise-D and E. Eventually transferred back to Earth to San Francisco to work on the Pathfinder Project.

Ends up contributing majorly to opening communications to Voyager in the Delta Quadrant and helping them get back to Earth.

Source: https://www.startrek.com/database
Comment: I'd change O'Brien's section to say *all* seasons, as he was a main character in virtually every episode from the very first onward.
Comment: Might also be worth mentioning Riker's transporter duplicate appearing in DS9.
Comment: It's "Deanna Troi".
Comment: It's been a while since I watched it, but I don't remember Picard appearing on DS9 after ep1. Nothing mentioned on Memory Alpha either.
Comment: Remember? During the Dominion War the Enterprise was dispatched to fight. I thought he appeared briefly (just a transmission not in person)
Comment: Think Guinan appears in Nemesis during the wedding scene (might be the deleted scene version)
Comment: Data was mentioned in the episode where Belanna accidentally awakens a murder-bot
Comment: Thank you sir-excellent answer and even a bonus too. I absolutely love TNG-and i'm a little surprised about 1 character in particular....
Comment: When did Picard show up during the Dominion War? I can't find any reference and don't recall his appearance. [Memory Alpha doesn't](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Character_crossover_appearances#Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation) either. Q only appears once in DS9, as well.
Comment: Why did you reverse the edit? Why are you okay with misspelling Bashir's name?
Comment: I didn't reverse any edits. I didn't even get notified of one.......but now that you've at least shown me the correct spelling I fixed it myself.
Comment: Although Wesley Crusher's dialog scene in *Nemesis* with Captain Picard was indeed cut, he still appeared at the wedding. [Memory Alpha](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek_Nemesis#Cast_trivia) (which is very particular about canon) provides  [a screenshot](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/File:Riker-Troi_wedding.jpg) and the following text - - *Although Wil Wheaton's (Wesley Crusher) only scene in the movie with any dialogue was cut from the final film, he can be seen sitting to the left of his mother at the far end of the front table during the wedding celebration.*
Answer: Here is everything I can remember, written to avoid spoilers as much as possible.
Captain Picard was in "Emissary", the pilot episode of DS9.
The Enterprise stopped at DS9 in "Birthright Part 1" and so several DS9 characters were guests in that TNG episode, which I guess is the reverse of what you asked about.
Worf was a DS9 regular character in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th seasons. Miles O'Brien and his family moved to DS9 in "Emissary", and O'Brien became noted for the many bad things which happened to him in various episodes.
A duplicate of Will Riker appeared in a DS9 episode,
One of the regular TNG characters was killed during the first season but sort of kind of returned in a few later episodes, one of the regular TNG characters was replaced by another one during the second season and then returned in the following seasons.  Wesley Crusher went to Starfleet Academy but returned in a few episodes and made a major life decision in one of them.  At Starfleet Academy Wesley and some fellow cadets were involved in a scandal.  One of those cadets later served on the Enterprise in one episode, while many fans think that another one changed their name and was a regular on Voyager.
"All Good Things" the last episode of TNG, saw Q return for a final confrontation with Picard, and Picard found himself jumping in time from the time of "Encounter at Farpoint" to his present and to 25 years in the future of "All Goods Things", and saved all life on Earth or more.
So "All Good Things" showed what the future of the characters would be for 25 years in the future.  Except that it showed one possible future out of many (see the episode "parallels" to see a multiverse of many alternate universes), and two TNG movies contradicted it in a couple of major details, thus showing that the TNG movies and the 25 years in the future scenes are two separate and different possible futures of "All Good Things".
The TNG cast appeared in four movies: *Star Trek: Generations", Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek: Nemesis and there was a marriage and the death of a major character in one of them.
Q brought Riker to Voyager in one Voyager episode, and Deanna Troi and Reginald Barclay (an engineer in several TNG episodes) communicated with Voyager in several episodes.
And Riker and Deanna Troi appeared in "These Are the Voyages", the last episode of Enterprise, as others have mentioned.
Answer: The new Star Trek: Picard series features some of the former TNG crew, besides of course the titular character Jean-Luc Picard.
Data

Data appears in the fisrt episode, playing Poker with Picard in a dream sequence.

 He also make another and final appearance in the last episode, when he asks Picard in a "quantum simulation" dream-like sequence to have his consciousness be terminated, thus letting him be free to finally "die".

Riker & Troi

In the seventh Episode, Picard meets William Riker and Deanna Troi in their house on planet Nepenthe, where they now live with their daughter.
Answer: The last episode of Enterprise featured Riker interacting with the characters of Enterprise via a holodrama based on them.  However that was supposed to be the Riker from the TNG episode "The Pegasus".  What is soon supposed to happen is a sequel series streaming on CBS Online which will reveal what happens to Captain Picard after his time as captain of the Enterprise is over.
Comment: @PaulD.Waite - It's spelled "broccoli".
Comment: Troi and Barkley appeared on Voyager also (and Will Riker, not transporter Riker, is mentioned). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathfinder_(Star_Trek:_Voyager) Worf, O'Brien, and O'Brien's family were regulars on DS9. There's probably more I'm not remembering. There's also the TNG movies, which take place (or mostly take place) after the series, chronologically.
Comment: Riker turned up on Voyager; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyyMPIuXrqw
Comment: Not to mention Picard is getting his own sequel series, coming soon to CBS All Access. =)
Comment: It's "Barclay". Why everyone be spelling all the names wrongly?


How can I post some of the pages from google books preview?

Question: I heard someone cannot view the page that I can view in Google books,
But sometimes I may have problems inside the book, how can I paste the image or page from Google books to this website?
Answer: Different people have different opinions about this. Personally, I do not like to see images of book pages. I strongly prefer questions and answers where the relevant passages are retyped and reworded.
I don't see any reason not to retype the question in our own words, add your motivation in asking it, say what you have tried so far, and summarize any non-standard definitions. That makes a question that I want to answer and it lets me focus my response on the actual issues the asker describes in the question. When I see an image of a book page, I don't know what the asker has tried or what aspect of the question they are stuck on.
Comment: I totally agree with your opinion Carl. And may I add, I think that in most cases the true reasons for posting questions just using images from a book or with a link to google books and saying something like "Solve problem X in page Y" or "Explain concept X in page Y" is nothing more than laziness and a lack of effort on the part of the person asking the question.
Comment: I say this because I looked at the OP's profile and saw some questions that were downvoted and even closed because they were asked in a poor way. And it seems from the comments that the OP has been politely encouraged to improve the quality of his posts by different users. So I see this question as a reason to try to avoid making the questions self contained. Of course it is easier to just give a link to a book than actually taking the time to write everything down using some markdown, but that's not very well received from the majority of users of the site I guess.
Comment: @Adrián: For related analysis, see http://meta.math.stackexchange.com/q/1805/6179
Answer: I agree that ASCII text from a book is superior to an image of text from a book, but how to get there..
I had very good results pasting in a Google Books image into http://www.newocr.com/ to produce a summary, as you can see here:
Non-unital rings: a few examples
Of course Fair Use is still absolutely in play, so obviously we only support this for brief excerpts that are relevant to the question.
Answer: I am not sure, but I understood the OP's question in this way: How can I download the image from the google books preview, so that I can put it into my post. (I am not saying that this should be encouraged in general, but in some situations it might be useful and some people might not know how to use it.)
First thing is to get to the page you want, it might be good to zoom in to get better resolution. What do you do next depends on your browser:
Mozilla Firefox: Tools -> Page info -> Media
Then find the picture you want and click on "Save As".
Internet Explorer I guess there is better way to do this. But the only one I know is this one: I display page (or several pages) in the browser (with sufficient zoom). Then I go into the folder "Temporary Internet Files". (The location of this folder is system-dependent, for me it's "C:\Users\martin\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Low\Content.IE5\".) I search for book*.png;book*.jpg (or *.png;*.jpg) and order them either by date or by size. (I prefer size to get the files with better zoom first.) Then it should be relatively easy to find your file.
It might be useful to delete the whole content of "Temporary Internet Files" before doing this. (So that you do not have so many files to look in.)
Comment: On Firefox, I used to use the [ScrapBook](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/scrapbook/) extension to grab pages from Google Books...
Comment: What happened to good-ol' screencap?


Nagios suddenly stops working

Question: I have configure passive checks on one my host system
for this i am using nsca.
it was running fine.
suddenly host is showing down on the monitoring. but host was fine and running
when i check the logs on the host
showing
[1347941895] Warning: Attempting to execute the command "/submit_check_result host.example.com 'Current Load' OK 'OK - load average: 0.69, 0.53, 0.42'" resulted in a return code of 127.  Make sure the script or binary you are trying to execute actually exists...
i restarted nagios services many times but still it is showing the same error.
can anyone help me regarding this.
thanks in advance..
Answer: i found it was the configuration of nagios.cfg file eventhandlers were not enabled.

Nagios suddenly stops working


I need to record some datas in user params when submit login

Question: I have a login page and I need to perform some styles for users choice.
Then, when user select some preset style, the website changes the style.
I need to do it recording as some user params or in another component or table.
Comment: This sounds like a request for free work to be done or a third-party product to be recommended. (This normally gets smacked down on StackOverflow, but Joomla Stack Exchange is a bit gentler/welcoming in its dealings.) Please post what you have tried, what research you've done, what pages are similar on JSE, and try to narrow down the support that you require. Do you have any working parts implemented in your project? Please specify more details and make your question easier to answer.
Answer: Here's what you can do to accomplish what you want:

Override the login page to include the additional fields (such as the styles, etc...)
Create a different login plugin (just copy the authentication/joomla plugin) and use that plugin instead of the default one. In the onUserAuthenticate function of that plugin, just add the code to store the additional fields in the database when the authentication is successful. You can also store this information in the session in order to prevent querying the database for the custom user settings on each page load.


How should I treat poison ivy?

Question: If I'm struck by poison ivy, what should I do? Is there a way to suppress the itch?
Comment: [Read this question to read more about preventing getting poison ivy.](http://outdoors.stackexchange.com/q/119/46)
Answer: Have you tried Dock Leaves? They're well known as a way of soothing Nettle stings and might help.
Comment: +1 for Dock Leaves. I always used them as a kid when I inevitably was stung while chasing cows in the fields. I used to think they were called Doc Leaves, short for Doctor!
Answer: I use both cortisone and benedryl cream.  One reduces swelling, the other reduces the allergic reaction.  Make sure to only use water soluble creams!  Petroleum based lotions will block the skin from naturally expunging the poison ivy oil.
Comment: I have heard anecdotally that excessive use of (or the use of high potency) topical Benadryl can cause some adverse reactions. I personally got what appeared to be (at least presented like) hives after treating my poison ivy rash with very strong cream. Anyone heard that or have any real evidence for it?
Answer: Benadryl cream works about as good as anything for me.
Answer: I realize that an answer has already been chosen, but as a frequent sufferer of poison ivy, I feel obliged to answer.  The best way to treat poison ivy, is to not get it in the first place, with avoidance as the first step, but a blocker works as well.  The best blocker I've found is IvyBlock, which is a lotion.  However, I am more likely to use IvyX which comes as towelettes.  I keep a box in my truck and since they're handy and easy to apply, I'm more likely to use them.
However, once you get poison ivy, the best treatment I've used is a product called Zanfel.  It is a wash, in paste form, that bonds to the urushiol, then is washed away.  This stuff is amazing, but very expensive.  I have seen generic versions, but I have been reluctant to try them since Zanfel works so well.
Some folks have mentioned Benedryl cream/pills, which does help with the itching.  However, it does not treat the root cause of the poison ivy, the urushiol oil.  If I feel that I might have been in contact with poison ivy, I wash with dish soap (Dawn) as it breaks up the oil.
Answer: Jewelweed should do the job, if you have it locally. It usually grows close to the poison ivy.
Answer: Plantain weed not to be confused with the bannana like fruit.Crush the leaves and rub it on.It is usually growing on the edge of roadways or compacted trails.
Answer: I believe ice can help. It's a local anesthetic, reduces swelling, and closes the pores, keeping the poison out. Of course, it can be hard to find ice..
Answer: I'm not going to repeat any of the good advice given in earlier answers.  However, creams, lotions and salves will not work if you have a massive case of poison ivy.  Then there is nothing to do but go to your doctor or to a walk-in clinic and get a prednisone shot and/or tablets.
I had a horrible case of poison ivy many years ago -- hands, arms, legs, face, and, I don't know how, around my waist -- unendurable.  I got a shot of prednisone plus a course of prednisone tablets.  Within 24 hours, the eruptions and itching were totally gone.
Ever since then, I have been a fanatic about watching out for poison ivy and washing my hands thoroughly with Lava Hand Soap very soon after I even suspect I have touched it while gardening.  This has worked.
Prednisone is a powerful drug, and not one you want to ask for casually or use frequently, but when your body is covered with poison ivy, Over-the-Counter remedies are useless and you need prednisone or a similar steroid prescribed by a doctor.
Answer: Know how to identify it and avoid. that is the only way. Long pants and socks will help, but if you get it on them and use your hands  in contact, surprise .. and then ...
Homeopathic remedies sound fun but the only way to over come poison ivy is with the expensive soaps that enzymatically break down urushiol oil, the oil that causes the irritation. Anything else is going to cause it to spread.
Comment: None of the remedies listed here are homeopathic in nature.
Comment: You may be confused about what homeopathy is. I suggest you read up on it. It is confirmed quackery, unrelated to natural remedies (some of which, but not all, are quackery).
Comment: so what would you call

Plantain weed crush the leaves and rub it onIt is usually growing on the edge of roadways or compacted trails.
or
Jewelweed should do the job,if you have it locally. It usually grows close to the poison ivy .... these sound like hill medicine to me besides they simply don't work. poison ivy reactions are entirely due to urushiol oil until you break down the chemical it will continue to inflamed the skin.
Comment: and dock leaves. sound pretty homeopathic to me.
Comment: the point is that if you really want to get rid of poison ivy you have to get the EXPENSIVE ENZYME solution. $30. other wise you just spread it around with either moms, grand moms or commercially available quackery.

How should I treat poison ivy?


stdout and key press

Question: when in console, if I press a key, some interrupt controller sends code of that key to CPU, which looks into some table and than represent that keypress by printing some charracter to stdout. But, is keyboard sending an ASCII code of that key, or just some standardised code? Since there is so many languages and extra characters, OS must further translate its code into some character according to user selected scheme, I guess. I ask, becouse I am from Czech Republic, and we use some characters that do not exists in standart ASCII code. So I was thinking, if I enter this character into a console, and then print it, lets say in C++ using cin and cout, and I have set locale to Czech, stdin must actually send some non-ASCII code of the character I pressed to input stream. Am I right?
Comment: What platform? Windows, Linux or Mac OS X?
Answer: For the first question: keyboards send scancodes, not ASCII or Unicode.
Software on the computer then interprets the scancodes, e.g. the BIOS during boot or the operating system. E.g. in Linux scancodes and shifting state are interpreted by kernel key maps that translate keycodes to 16 bit numbers, which are normally Unicode/ASCII characters.

stdout and key press


Unity: Sending OSC messages to MSP/PD client

Question: I am using the UnityOSC library by Joe Garcia to send OSC messages from the Unity Game Engine with the AngryBots demo with help from Joe Garcia's manual on using the library. I am a little confused as to how the files are to be used. Do I just import the files into the current Unity Project, or are they somehow installed as a specific library?
Once imported into the project, do I then create a new C# asset and call functions or do I just attach the OSCHandler script to the object I want to send OSC from. When trying to create a new C# asset, I get compiler errors when trying to use the functions like OSCHandler.SendMessagetoClient(); as requiring an object reference for a non-static function. I prefixed 'static' to the functions in OSCHandler, but it just brings up more similar errors in the Unity Console, and it doesn't seem to be the right way of getting around the problem.
Answer: You need to call those functions through a non-static instance of the class, which you can access with OSCHandler.Instance i.e.
OSCHandler.Instance.SendMessageToClient();


how to use my internet 3G of my blackberry with my computer?

Question: I've bought a blackberry bold 9700, and I have 3G service. how can I use the internet with my computer?
Answer: Many phones support what's called USB tethering which essentially means that the phone shares its Internet connection with whatever USB host it is attached to. I'm not familiar with Blackberry devices, but USB tethering is a keyword you can search for in the manual and in the phone's settings.
For reference, USB tethering was deliberately left out of the iPhone for several years (although it could be done by "jailbreak" it), but eventually Apple realized that it's a smart feature to offer. Android also offers USB tethering, so I'm sure that Blackberry can do it too.
Look in your phone's network settings for something you can turn on.
After that, the computer should be able to detect the shared Internet and just use it. Look in System Settings > Network.


Sync _all_ music in Google Play Music to local storage

Question: This might sound a little crazy, but I'd like to sync my entire Google Play Music collection to my external SD card on my Galaxy S5. Is there a setting in Google Play Music which will sync everything? I know I can specify where I'd like things to go, but is there a global sync all setting?
Comment: Is it currently downloaded into the internal memory? What do you mean 'everything'? Everything already downloaded? If you select 'External Storage' it will automatically move all downloaded music from internal to external and any future downloads to the External.
Comment: When you buy music from the play store, you wil be able to listen to on google music play, that allows you to sync your music on your phone but you can't have access to it in your phone storage or anything else. So I think that @Naftuli Tzvi Kay is asking if it is possible to have access to the music downloaded from the play store elsewhere than in google play music.. Am i clear?
Comment: Yes, I've uploaded all my music to Google Play Music, and I want to configure the app to download _ALL_ of that music and keep everything synced to my device's storage for offline playback.
Answer: If I have well understood your question, I will recommend you to have a look at this question where I have explained how to do what you want : sync your music on your local storage.
Comment: I'd have to do that for every artist, not a small task with over 200-300 artists, and I'd have to remember to do it every time I added a new artist.
Comment: go in your Goggle play music -> playlist -> free and purchased -> an then click on the little arrow and it will sync all your music
Comment: "this question" is 404 here; possibly the question has been deleted?
Comment: This doesn't answer the question: my music was not purchased with Google but uploaded via the app.
Comment: So go in playlist -> last uploads -> an click on the arrow, I think it will sync your music. If not, I don't see how.. Or I maybe don't understand your question..
Answer: There is an auto playlist called "Recently added", if you sync that it will contain your entire library.
Comment: Please link the app
Comment: No, it won't. It will sync last 500 songs added into the library. Or am I missing something?
Answer:
Step 1: Go to the play music desktop site
Step 2: click the 3 bar menue on the top left
Step 3: Scroll down until you find "Download Library"
Step 4: click download
Step 5: save the files wherever you want them.
Answer: This is not correct answer, as it is not sync and it could be hard work. But probably best what man can do.
You can download for offline use every playlist available on the device (Download in context menu of the playlist). Problem is that playlist is limited to size of thousand songs. So what you can do:

if having 500 songs or less => download Last added songs playlist
if having 1000 songs or less => Shuffle all songs and then save that queue as playlist => download the playlist
if having more, more work is needed:

Use web UI of Play Music, switch to all songs and create one playlist for every ~1000 songs. You can choose one song by click, and last by shift+click. Then right click "Add to playlist/new".
On phone, download playlists.
Also choose of download for Last added playlist, so new (up to 500 new) added songs are downloaded automatically.
Periodically add songs of Last added playlist into other non-full playlist selected for download. You have to do this at least every 500 new songs – so probably not so often. ;)
Answer: I just found a solution that is not so clean but works. Using the web interface, in the tag where there are all your songs you can select packs of them using shift-click an add them to a play list.(you have to do groups of 1000 songs because is the maximum) then you have a free play list containing all your library is easy to sync in your phone.


Wiring new range hood exhaust fan motor

Question: Now, my current range hood exhaust fan motor has 3 wires coming from the harness, a red wire, a white wire and a black wire. The NEW motor only has 2 black wires coming off of it- how do I hook it up?
Answer: The old motor had two hot wires in addition to the white (neutral) so that the SPDT switch could select high or low speed. The new motor is one-speed, though you could replace the switch with a variable speed fan control if you want to adjust the speed and noise level. N.B. The link is just for illustration, that particular control might or might not be suitable.
If you don't mind a one-speed fan., then simply wire one or both switch wires to one black motor lead and the other black motor lead goes to the white (neutral) wire. If you connect both, there will be two ON positions and one OFF, but if you connect the wire for the middle position and cap the other lead, then there would be two OFF settings and one for ON.
Comment: Not if he's only replacing the motor.
Comment: it might be a variable speed fan with an electronic speed controller in the hood assembly, I've been seeing those now.

Wiring new range hood exhaust fan motor