The Golden Bird and The Ocean

Question: The golden bird can only fly at 5 mph. That is the only way the bird can move. The bird must stop flying and rest its wings for 5 hours immediately after every hour of flying it does. That is the only way the bird can rest so it can continue flying. The ocean is 6 miles wide. The golden bird flies over the ocean and makes it to the other side without resting. How is this possible?
Comment: Congratulations, your question has made it to the top of today's hot network questions:  http://stackexchange.com/questions?tab=hot
Comment: @Twinkles That would be true if the bird were flying in outer space. The atmosphere rotates with the earth, and so would the bird. That's why we don't have permanent 1040mph winds :)
Comment: The bird crossed a time zone, so while the difference in local starting time to local stopping time was one hour, the bird's actual range was ten miles.
Comment: Is gliding allowed? Is that "resting"? This site says [some birds can glide for 20 metres for each metre of lost altitude](http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/554notes3.html), so in the first hour it would only need to reach an altitude of 264 feet or so, ignoring thermals, etc.
Comment: Hey, cool, network question status! :D
Comment: If the golden bird flies westward at the equator, the earth will rotate beneath it with a speed of ca. 1040 mph.
Comment: Nautical miles. 1nm = 1.2m so 5nm = 6m.
Comment: The ocean is located on the back of a large golden tortoise. The tortoise is moving in the opposite direction at 1 mph.
Answer: The bird's speed is 5 mph. If

 the speed of the wind across the ocean is greater than or equal to 1 mph towards the direction the bird is flying*, the overall speed of the bird will be greater than 6 mph,

and it can easily reach the other side of the ocean without resting.
So that means

 the speed of the ocean wind at that time must have been at least 1 mph in the same direction the bird was flying.

And hence the bird reached the other side of the ocean without resting.
This picture illustrates the point:

*Or greater than or equal to √2 mph to any angle not more than 45˚ from the direction of bird's flight. If greater than 45˚, it needs to be more than √2 mph, depending on the angle.
Comment: +1 this is how passenger jets save time on long-haul flights.
Comment: I did it with pixlr.com/editor/ (an online tool similar to photoshop). In my office pcm there is no Photoshop available, and so I use pixlr editor for my image editing needs at office. ;)
Comment: Too easy to be true, and not alwzys true !
Comment: Yes. It's not always true. But whenever there is a wind with the mentioned speed, it will be true and more practical too.
Comment: Nothing here really needs to be spoiler-hidden. Nonetheless, I've suggested an edit to keep the kernel of your answer disguised. Hiding the entire answer doesn't really help readability, because then I can only see all or nothing of the answer.
Comment: @AeJey , what program did you make that photo in? I want to possibly make my future answers high quality by adding photos similar to this. (I would pm you but there is no pm on SO.)
Answer: "The other side" meaning, "the heavenly realm" - i.e. the bird didn't make it across the ocean but died in mid-air.
Comment: @Aura OMG I've heard that joke so many times and never got it until now... :O
Comment: "Why did the chicken cross the Mobius strip?" "To get to the other ... oh, forget it!"
Comment: Same punch line as "Why did the chicken cross the road?".
Comment: @LordScree I have to admit the same thing - I never realised there was another meaning to "The Other Side" in that old joke - just thought it was supposed to be "Why else would it cross the road, stupid?". But I think you're right!
Comment: I doubt there's any deeper meaning to the chicken joke, as the original was an example of "'quips and quillets' which seem actual conundrums, but yet are none". The original wording was also "get on the other side" which makes the death euphemism less likely: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_did_the_chicken_cross_the_road%3F
Comment: @LordScree It's actually kind of dark.
Comment: @BiscuitBaker Good research! So, it looks as though both myself and LordScree were NOT incredibly dense, this meaning was never intended at all.
Comment: @Aura - You got at least four people going with that new interpretation of an old joke! Good trolling :-)
Answer: While this particular ocean is 6 miles wide, its length is considerably less.
Comment: `Length: the measurement or extent of something from end to end; the greater of two or the greatest of three dimensions of an object.` Wouldn't length have to be in this case more than the width? When you mention an ocean the width should be the smaller one and length the longest one, right?
Comment: As much as I agree with @SinanSamet on this, I feel the definition of `ocean` is the real problem for @Mew: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/ocean and http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/expanse are my sources.  `"A large continuous area"`, suggests it would be less likely to be significantly wider or longer in one dimension.
Comment: @LordScree, good point, but it is strange enough that the ocean is only 6 miles long, so not too far a stretch to have a tiny ocean in the bizaar universe this question resides in.
Comment: Ah, okay. I find it a hard subject to go on with after researching a little more and it seems to be an opinion based thing. Still I would like to share this information just because I kind of find this interesting.
http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/57801.html and another "math dictionary": http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Length.html
Comment: Good point Sinan.  Luckily a found this definition:  "the linear extent or measurement of something from end to end, USUALLY being the longest dimension or, for something fixed, the longest horizontal dimension" so length may only USUALLY be the longest dimension ;)
Answer: The golden bird flies without rest inside the cabin of an airplane or helicopter, which takes less than one hour to fly over the ocean.
Comment: This violates "That is the only way the bird can move".
Comment: Lol, this is exactly the same I answered, but then without all the backstory :P and @randal'thor: It doesn't violate that, as the bird is still moving only by flying, it's just that it's reference frame for it's speed is different (due to less air resistance and stuff).
Comment: @user3155415 Option 1: the bird is flying around in a loop; option 2: the plane is very long; option 3: the plane is very fast; option 4: for a scientific proof, have a look at http://physics.stackexchange.com, just don't use the _word-problem_ tag ;)
Comment: @DavidMulder and GOTO0: Oops, I missed the word 'flies' in this answer! Sorry.
Comment: How exactly is it possible to have a bird flying 5 mph in a helicopter flying > 6 mph for any reasonable amount of time?  I would love a better explanation as to how this works (and scientific proof, if necessary).
Answer: The Golden Bird is obviously the bird captured by the prince (see the wiki link on "The Golden Bird" at the beginning). What the Grimm brothers missed out on though was that after the Golden Bird the Golden Cat came first, before the Golden Horse. So, when the Golden Bird explains to the prince that to get the Golden Cat the Golden Bird has to fly to the other side of the 6 miles wide ocean without resting, the fox advises the prince to use the wooden boat in the castle and peddle it at a speed of at least 6mph whilst the bird peacefully will fly inside its cage1. Sadly the prince fails, as he ignores the foxes advice and instead uses the Golden Boat, which is far too heavy to peddle that fast, but that's not important now.
1 Of course the cage is covered by a piece of cloth, otherwise air resistance would make this impossible.

And just for the record and for fun: The answer I originally wanted to give was the following:
The Golden Bird is obviously from a fairy tale (before I realized that it really was from a fairy tale). And as commonly known fairy tales do not happen on this earth, so they must have happened on another earth. And as commonly known other earths are not necessarily round, nor does gravity necessarily behave in the same way, so in this particular case the bird simply flew over the mini ocean that was located in a deep hole.
Answer: The bird speed is expressed in Irish miles, with 1 Irish mile = 2.048 km.
The ocean's width is expressed in normal miles, with 1 mile = 1.609 km.
The bird flies at 5mph for one hour and covers 5 * 2.048 = 10.240 km to cross the ocean that is 6 * 1.609 = 9.656 km in width.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile
Comment: Will also work for knots then: one knot is one nautical mile per hour. One nautical mile is 1.852 km.
Answer: The bird is on a artificial small planet (gravity doesn't matter but lets say its artificially the same as on earth) it has only 2 land masses and a ocean, the two landmasses are a small island (where the bird is) and a bigger continent. The island is located on the ocean like so that its 6 miles away from the main land on one side and only 5 miles on the other side. So it just flies in the other direction.
Answer: The bird flies up, it doesn't go parallel with the ocean. When it should rest, it just falls down in the direction of the land side, so it falls to his death at the other side. But at least it's there.
Comment: +1 OP didn't say the bird was alive at the other side.
Comment: ... but... the OP did say the only way the bird can move is by flying.  So we have to assume it stops mid-air instead of falling.
Comment: Well, the discussion is, what exactly is 'rest its wings'. If it means sitting down, then this answer is wrong. But by falling down, it doesn't use its wings, meaning it's resting.. but that's open for discussion :-)
Comment: I know where you're coming from, but `falling` is still moving, and the OP explicitly said that the only way for the bird to `move` is by `flying`.  Still a good, morbid answer :)
Comment: I think you're right. I'll keep the answer just for fun :-)
Comment: This is the best answer.
Answer: Could it be that the Earth is round, so the bird just gonna fly in parallel with the diameter of the earth to reduce the distance to 5 mph.
Edit: Analysis to completely trashed this idea of mine.
Suppose the radius of Earth $R=6371\mathrm{km}$. To obtain the arclength $C=6\mathrm{m}$, we need to travel $\theta=6/6371000=9.417\times10^{-7}\mathrm{rad}$. So if the bird fly parallel to the diameter of the Earth, it will be $L=2R\sin{(\theta/2)}=5.999\mathrm{m}$. If you use common sense and think about this physical world, this should be obvious too. Maybe I've not been going out to the real world for too long, and I lost my common sense about the world. Probably.
Comment: +1 for math although answer is not viable. I think a side-effect of hanging out on puzzling.se is losing common sense about the world so you can come up with subtle answers...
Comment: It depends, can you support that answer with a little math? (note that by commenting I am not validating your answer, but am merely interested in another, less intuitive answer than the one I had).
Comment: Edited to completely trashed my solution.
Answer: Try this one on for size:

The Golden Bird only moves 5mph - but it can choose the reference point! Normally we would expect it to fly 5mph relative to the ground / the planet it's on. But that means (assuming earth) the Golden Bird is moving ~67,000mph relative to the sun. That's ~492,000 mph relative to our galaxy. So we need to know what it's moving at 5mph in relation to - and the answer is: it chooses. If it can choose to move at 5mph relative to an airplane which is itself moving at >= 1mph across the ocean (relative to the ocean, of course), than the Golden Bird will cover the 6 miles (relative to the ocean) in just a single hour.
Answer: The bird is flying normally with 5 mph and it mades it to the other side of the ocean, because the water underneath is moving. For example, a high tide starting at the same time as the bird's flight and with development direction opposite to the bird's flight direction. If the high tide has a peak in an hour and the water displacement is about 1 mile, there you go, the bird succeded in its adventure.
Comment: Flying is the only way the bird can move. Please remove answers 1+2 unless they can be made to fit the prompt.
Comment: if you insist..
Comment: Sorry, just trying to keep answer quality up. +1'd for creative tidal answer.
Answer: A few ideas:

Bird flies for 1 hour, then dies and falls in the ocean.  The tide washes her up on the shore.
The golden bird is owned by a prince, who sails the ocean in his luxury yacht.  The bird doesn't even need to fly, but the prince lets her out for a fly near the end of his journey, so the bird flies over the ocean and makes it to the other side without resting.
The golden bird flies for an hour (making five miles' progress in the air) and then glides down to land on the other side.  Gliding is not the same as flying and it's reasonable to assume that an ocean bird can glide for 1 mile.

None of the above answers satisfy the <code>"that is the only way the bird can move"</code> criterion.
EDIT: JUST THOUGHT OF A FORTH!

The bird flies at 5mph, but the earth is rotating towards the bird at >= 1mph, therefore the bird travels 5 miles in the time it takes the earth's surface to travel 1 mile or more = 6 miles or more and the bird lands safely.
Comment: #3 was my suggestion, too.
Comment: That triple negative... "not unreasonable ... cannot" => "not reasonable ... can" - seems to be the opposite of what you mean. Try dropping the `not` - and make the other two positive for ease of reading.
Comment: @Bob cheers, I don't disagree with your comment and have adjusted accordingly.
Comment: "None of the above answers satisfy the 'that is the only way the bird can move" criterion.' - if they don't fit the prompt, I would suggest that you delete them as they are not answers to this question.
Comment: @user3155415 thanks for the comment - it does depend on how strict you were being with that part of the question - many of the other answers given here also did not satisfy that requirement and there are many answers on SE that do not provide a complete answer to the question, but are still of use, or offer an alternative viewpoint.  Technically, the accepted answer also violates the movement constraint given that the bird is effectively being _pushed_.
Comment: @lordScree Just trying to make sure the quality of answers  for this question don't get progressively worse. And about the accepted answer violating the constraint, I considered that before accepting it, however it is correct because the bird is still moving via flight.
Answer: Well everyone has already answered all the good serious answers.  The only serious one that appears to be missing is

The bird can rest it's wings by gliding, which is exactly how birds that fly over large expanses of water rest.  He builds altitude during his hour of flying, and glides, slowly burning altitude, while resting his wings.

alternatively

the bird lived on an island in the center of the ocean all his life.  When he finally chooses to cross over the ocean to the other side he finds it takes nearly 50 minutes to fly from his island all the way to the far side of the ocean, sure is good he didn't live on the other coast or he would never have made it!

or, to take the last answer to an even more annoying extream

The golden bird one day decides to fly over the ocean.  Flying part way there he decides to rest by landing on the water and floating awhile, being a golden duck and all.  After awhile he gets bird and starts up his flight again.  When he decides to fly again he flys over the ocean and to the other side without any rest that flight.

Of course if we really want to be annoying we can start playing with pronouns and proper names:

the bird's 5 MPH is defined as his total average speed for a long trip.  Meaning that he is taking an hour of travel, 5 of rest, then repeating over and over.  Because of this the speed he travels at while in motion is actually 30 MPH, making it quite easy to cross the ocean.
"the other side" is the name of a popular party boat, currently in the middle of crossing the ocean.
5 MPH is the name of the only ocean at which the Golden Bird is capable of flying.  He can, however, manage quite fast speeds over the "5 MPH" ocean.
The Golden Bird can only fly 5 MPH and crosses the ocean.  His friend The Bird (who's feathers are not nearly as brilliant) must rest after every hour of flying.  It is a good thing that The Golden Bird can fly much longer then The Bird can.
The ocean is the name of a huge moving lava flow.  The bird flys for 5 hours to cross it, luckily the lava flows more then 1 MPH the other way at the same time.
'IT' is the name of The Golden Bird's BFF the albatross.  The Golden Bird must rest after It the albatross has flown for an hour, because 'It' gets tired easily and the Golden Bird would never leave his tired friend.  Sadly one night while flying over the ocean It the albatross was shot down by a ship full of hunger lateral thinking puzzlers (who all have a strange uncontrollable fear of tasting soup).  The Golden Bird is so shocked seeing his friend It killed after only 30 minutes of flying he keeps flying for hours crying!.  Wanting to get away from the horrible memory he flys all the way to the other coast, which he was never able to reach while he had to rest with IT every hour.  In his outrage The Golden Bird swears to force all future puzzlers to figure out the story behind how his doomed voyage, in hopes that they will learn to leave poor easily-tired albatross alone, and also stop being cannibals of course.

yeah, okay sorry I got carried away there.  I've had an image of an albatross in my head that I needed to get out since reading this puzzle!  My apologies to all those that don't get the allusion.  Lets move away from messing with names and pronouns, that's just too easy.

The bird flys five miles across the ocean before landing on the ocean and floating while because his wings are growing tired and he is hungry.  However, his landing isn't the restful Fishing reprieve he had hoped for. A storm blows in even as he starts diving for fish, and it rapidly grows. The poor bird finds himself paddling for dear life just to stay above the waves and turbulence.  He tries fishing for hours, despite the difficulty in catching fish in such turbulent waters, in hopes of settling his gnawling hunger.  He keeps hoping the storm will die out as quickly as it started so he can start flying again, but after 5 hours of none stop paddling just to try to keep his head above the water he comes to realize this storm isn't going to end any time soon. The poor bird is exhausted from his time at sea, and doesn't know how he can manage any strain on his weary body, but he realizes the only hope of surviving this storm is reaching dry land, no matter what that takes!  The only good news is that muscles of his wings have recovered slightly from the strain of flight during the hours trying to wait out the storm, if only he had the energy in the rest of his body for the exertion of flight!.   With an exhausted and desperate strain he somehow manages to climb into the air, though he doesn't know where he finds the energy.  He drives on through the ferocious storm towards dry land and safety.  He is so tired he doesn't know how he finds the energy to beat his rested wings, but the need to survive drives him.  Finally he seen land, with one last deperate dive he swoops in to the safe dry grown, too exauhusted to even try to find a try to rest on; he can only hope no preditors come to find him sheltering against the storm before he recovers enough to start searching for a safer place to stay.  He can barely believe he made it through the hours long ordeal without a rest, he will never try crossing that ocean while it's raining that's for sure!  The poor tired bird tucks his head under his golden wing and settles in for his first rest in over 6 hours.
Answer: On its journey it gets hungry and looks for food on the back of a stationary whale for more than one hour.

The bird was looking for food, therefore not resting.
The OP didn't mention that the bird should not stop flying.
Comment: "that is the only way the bird can move" - by flying. This violates that criteria.
Comment: @user3155415: the whale is stationary. This doesn't violate anything. It takes its 5 hours rest sitting on the whale. I was about to post this.
Comment: The whale does not seem stationary, as is evidenced by "heading the same direction". A good edit could fix that, though...
Answer: I'll go along the lines of what others have said about the planet being peculiar. The atmosphere of said planet is very low and the bird can survive outside of the atmosphere. Additionally, the said planet spins rather fast. This means the bird flies out of the atmosphere, the planet spins, moving in the opposite direction the bird is flying in. So the bird travels at most five miles, while the planet spins the missing distance.
Comment: there is so many things wrong with this m8
Comment: @Vajura Would you mind pointing out where I broke the rules of the question? My logical answer would have included wind (AeJays answer), but that was already taken.
Comment: If the bird would leave said planet it would still move in the direction of the rotation
Comment: @Vajura Good point. Maybe a weaker gravity would solve that problem.
Comment: Gravity doesnt matter in this equation rather hard to explain over here. Go check out why space rockets go at a hard angle when they leave the orbit. The same principle would apply here. Lets say the sun is directly above the bird at all times and you can see the birds shadow at any distance. The shadow of the bird will always stay on the same spot even after it leaves the athmosphere because it will keep moving in the direction of the rotation.
Answer:
 The ocean is six miles wide only at its widest, or on average. It can be five miles wide or less at some other point, allowing the bird to cross the ocean at this narrower point.

The Golden Bird and The Ocean


How to deal with inhouse technical group manager?

Question: Regarding to management of a multi-task IT project;
How to deal with technical group manager who risks the completion of the project in time by not respecting weekly work-schedule?
Comment: What is your role on the project? Are you accountable for the project timeline or is the "group manager"?
Answer: What you can do:

Deal with the risk first: you have identified a clear problem impacting your project so if you haven't done so, formalize risk identification and qualification through your controlling processes/mechanisms (e.g. record the risk in the risk log, evaluate impact/likelihood, assign it to the technical group manager and communicate to the relevant people). Address the risk with the group manager to verify (s)he is aware of it, its impact and what his/her options are to mitigate it (more time, budget, resources, technical knowledge, etc.?), what kind of support (s)he needs.
Keep it neutral and factual: especially if you are an external resource managing the project with inhouse project team members, you need to be careful not to antagonise or alienate the latter. Keep the problem management to facts: what the problem is, how it affects the project, how to resolve it. Try not to make it a "I have problem with this person" kind of things.
Escalate the problem: if the group manager is not willing to address the risk and you don't have authority over him/her, you need to escalate it through your decision-making channels (e.g. your boss or your project sponsor) so that people with the appropriate authority level can help resolve the problem. Keep the group manager in the loop though - again, stick to facts, stay away from making it a personal thing and follow your process.
Answer: "...not respecting the weekly work schedule" implies a malicious intent by this group manager.  Is that true or is he unable to comply with the schedule.  If the latter, was he part of the estimating, planning, and scheduling process?  If the former, does he have buy-in with the project itself?
Angeline offers great advice, but on top of this, if he was not part of the scheduling process as he should have been, do not hesitate in returning to the planning process and establishing a new schedule with his input and buy-in this time, go through the process change control process and cut a second baseline.
It is not rare for someone to maliciously sabotage a project with which they do not agree; however, my dollars are on the fact the he cannot meet the schedule given his other priorities.  Rescheduling is a bit more win-win in this situation, IMO.


Should sensitive data ever be passed in the query string?

Question: Should sensitive data ever be passed via the query string as opposed to the POST request?   I realize that the query string will be encrypted, but are there other reasons to avoid passing data in the query string, such as shoulder surfing?
Comment: @TomMarthenal But the pertinent part (for this question) is that the *query string* is encrypted during transmission.
Comment: Re: the SO question you linked to: yes, the URL is encrypted, but a man-in-the-middle can often still tell what website you are visiting based on the IP (and other metrics, such as amount of data transferred). If you have SNI enabled (your browser probably does), the domain is actually sent in plain text before upgrading to SSL.
Comment: agreed, just wanted to throw that out there for anybody else reading.
Answer: If the query string is the target of a user-clickable link (as opposed to a URL used from some Javascript), then it will appear in the URL bar of the browser when the corresponding page is loaded. It has the following issues:

The URL will be displayed. Shoulder surfers may see it and learn things from that (e.g. a password).
The user may bookmark it. This can be a feature; but it also means that the data gets written on the disk.
Similarly, the URL will make it to the "history" so it will be written to disk anyway; and it might be retrieved afterwards. For instance, if the browser is Chrome, then a lunch-time attacker just has to type Ctrl+H to open the "history tab" and obtain all the query strings.
If page is printed, the URL will be printed, including any sensitive information.
URLs including query strings are also frequently logged on the web server, and those logs may not be secured appropriately.
There are size limitations on the query string, which depend on the browser and the server (there is nothing really standard here, but expect trouble beyond about 4 kB).

Therefore, if the query string is a simple link target in an HTML page, then sensitive data should be transmitted as part of a POST form, not encoded in the URL itself. With programmatic downloads (the AJAX way), this is much less of an issue.
Comment: also the URL will be printed out if the user goes to print that page.
Comment: You can also add that if bookmarks are synchronized across devices, the sensitive information goes along.
Comment: URLs with qstrings are also frequently logged on the web server, and those logs may not have the best security applied.
Comment: Transmitting sensitive data in forms isn't a silver bullet either, in the event you have a XSS flaw anywhere in your site that can reach that form.
Answer: In addition to the other answers here, the query string is also stored in the webserver's logfiles, HTTP Proxies, and can even be seen if SSL is used in conjunction with a SSL monitoring tools like Bluecoat.
No, sensitive data should not be sent via a HTTP "GET" and should always be sent via "POST"
Edit:
One more reason you should use a POST is because GETs are more susceptible to CSRF attacks
Comment: Nice!  I forgot all about the IIS logs.  Shame on me!
Comment: Thanks DavidStratton - though I learned it from @drjimbob on this similar Sec.Se question here: http://security.stackexchange.com/a/12535/396
Answer: Sensitive data should be passed either:

Secure HTTP-only cookies (secure meaning SSL only; and HTTP-only meaning javascript can't access) (e.g., a random token identifying that you have logged in), or
POST variables (over SSL).

Three reasons:

Your computer by default typically logs the query string (in the browser history),
The webserver at the other end by default logs the query string.  This is bad if say passwords are being passed around that the webserver smartly only stores strong  key-strengthened cryptographic hashes with random salts (e.g., bcrypt) to prevent the passwords being inadvertently obtained by attackers.  Obviously, its not hard to log POST variables if you need to, but its not typically done.
Sensitive data should generally only be passed when an action of some sort is being done based on that sensitive data; and in cases where you are doing some sort of action (like logging in; passing secure data to be stored/acted on in a database) you should use POST versus GET.

Generally the rules that prevent cross-site request forgeries (CSRF also known as XSRF) only get triggered for POST requests.  GET is the intended HTTP request method for retrieving data from a web server that has no other effect (besides benign stuff like populating a log file saying this page was requested); POST is the protocol for a user to send data to do some action (e.g., like order something from a website; transfer money from your bank account; change your password).  That is a random CSRF token typically is required by most frameworks for GET requests, but will often be required for POST requests.
(And while Thomas Pornin and makerofthings7 touched on 1 and 2, respectively I've mentioned both previously in a somewhat similar question. )
Comment: I was looking for that answer!  In fact I give all credit to you since that answer is where I learned of this IIS issue first.
Comment: I'm guessing passing sensitive data in headers over SSL would also be safe? and perhaps should be added as no 3.
Answer: If it can be avoided I always avoid it.  It's just one more attack surface that should be left closed unless there's a legitimate need to allow data to be passed in the query string.
There's always also the off chance that you or a future developer won't properly filter/sanitize the data, and open the attack surface even wider.  Even in an insecure app, if you accidentally allow for an injection, a malicious attacker and inject XSS and XSRF script into your DB and use your non-sensitive app to attack others, so it's just best to play it safe.
Shoulder surfing is another legitimate concern, depending on the environment.  If your app is going to be used in a place where it's possible (a library, a cubicle that someone can look into, and office with a desk facing the wrong direction, etc) it's a potential concern.  If the people using your app are all in rooms where the desk is pointed  so that shoulder surfing isn't a problem, don't worry about it.  but if you don't know that for sure, and you don't know that it will always be that way, it's a concern.
Answer: Based on OWASP REST Security Cheat Sheet https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/REST_Security_Cheat_Sheet.html

In GET requests sensitive data should be transferred in an HTTP
Header.
Answer: It is worth noting that in many ways query strings are just as secure as other parts of the request

Query strings are encrypted with HTTPS - without an https MITM no one else will see it outside of the users computer

Post data is visible to the end user, in the developer tools

Headers are also visible in the tools.

Its not uncommon to pass sensitive data in query strings

Nearly very OAuth2/SAML process will send an access token back from the IdP to the SP in a query string - these tokens tend to be short lived/single use - as the SP will replace it using a server to server POST request.

Password reset links in email will have a token, but its normally invalidated after use.

Magic login links, used by Slack and others, again have single use tokens in the query string.


Is it true that Chinese speakers have troubles with 'r's and 'l's in English words?

Question: It is such a sterotype that Chinese speakers mix up 'r's and 'l's that I always assumed it to be true. Is this the case and, if so, why? The tongue position is totally different.
Comment: @Louis Rhys: In his excellent book *Japanese in Action*, at the end of the "Fractured English" chapter, Jack Seward writes that when Douglas MacArthur was being promoted as a presidential candidate, "his Japanese well-wishers arranged for a mammoth banner to be displayed in downtown Tokyo ... [which] read: 'We Play for MacArthur's Erection.'"
Comment: I thought the r thing was only in speech, not in writing
Comment: In my experience, vendors of Vietnamese lumpias mix them up as well. But, even though their food is advertised as Vietnamese, the vendors might very well be Chinese. I don't think they could be of any other origin.
Comment: ...I was googling for something, and clicked on this link because the little description underneath looked promising...And to my surprise found myself here. I feel incredibly proud for some reason. :)
Comment: @Cerberus [Hoa people](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoa_people) - ethnically Chinese people from Vietnam.
Comment: @Flux: How do you know?
Answer: As I understand, in at least some major dialects of Chinese (maybe all, I don't know), the /l/ and /r/ sounds exist but are prosodically restricted.  The /l/ can only appear syllable-initially while the /r/ appears syllable-finally.  This means that a Chinese speaker would have more trouble with an /l/ sound at the end of a word and also with an /r/ sound at the beginning of a word.  This means that a speaker should be able to pronounce the /l/ in "ladder" but have difficulty with "red". This agrees with Jon Purdy's examples of yimier for "email" and luōqièsītè for "Rochester".
Korean has the opposite going on; that is, their /l/ and /r/ are in allophonic variation such that /r/ shows up syllable-initially and /l/ syllable-finally, meaning they would have more trouble saying the /l/-sound in "ladder" than in "feel".
In both cases, it would not be trivial for a native speaker of these languages to distinguish the differences between English /l/ and /r/.
It may seem strange that a language would have no difficulty pronouncing a sound in one position in the syllable but extreme difficulty pronouncing the sound elsewhere.  However, in English, we have similarly restricted consonants.  For example, the consonant /ŋ/ (the "ng" sound in "hanger" — yes it is only one sound, unlike "finger" which has the sequence [ŋɡ]) is only produced syllable-finally in English.  But, in many other languages, words commonly begin with /ŋ/ (e.g. Swahili).  So the difficulty you would have pronouncing "ngapi" (/ŋapi/) is the same type of difficulty Chinese and Korean speakers run into with /r/ and /l/ in certain places.
In Japanese, there is only one sound that appears in all positions within the syllable.  Their /r/ sound is something between /l/ and /r/, and so every English /l/ sound comes out sounding like something "r"-ish.
Comment: Well, if you are talking about the fact that some languages have distinct /l/ and /ɫ/ phonemes, whereas in English they are just allophonic variants depending on whether you are in the beginning of the syllable or the end of the syllable, then yes, it is kind of like that.  An English speaker would struggle to distinguish /l/ and /ɫ/ in a language where this was crucial, even though we make both sounds.
Comment: @Mr. Shiny and New: While that sound *can* be articulated as a retroflex approximant, it's usually a voiced retroflex fricative, which isn't really rhotic at all. It's only transcribed /r/ in Pinyin for convenience, because of the myriad other fricative and affricate sounds.
Comment: in Mandarin, there is an r sound that occurs syllable-initially, which is different from the l sound that can also occur initially. Consider 人 (ren).
Comment: As a data point, it's the same for Italian; a local working here at a Chinese restaurant in Italy pronounced "grazie" as "gelazie", which initially confused me as being another word, as am I not a native Italian speaker, but I later realized was a speech imperfection. I expect this falls in the category of "r at the beginning of a word".
Comment: In Asian languages like Thai, Vietnamese... initial /ŋ/ ng is very common. One example is Vietnamese [Nguyen surname](https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-pronounce-the-Vietnamese-surname-Nguyen?redirected_qid=3204). [How to pronounce Initial Ng in Asian Languages - Stuart Jay Raj](https://youtu.be/ttA8ukm8lwI)
Comment: r appears syllable-initially in Mandarin, but only before certain vowels
Answer: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE5D7163EF93BA35750C0A96E948260
I believe the reason is that, in Japanese at least, there is no Western L sound, therefore a native Japanese person won't learn to pronounce it (at least the Western way) at an early age.
In my Japanese language guide, the following pronunciation guide is given:

r - between l and r, example: gorufu
Take Off In Japanese, Oxford University Press

(gorufu is Japanese for golf).
So it would appear that the closest pronunciation to Western L is 'Japanese R', hence it sounds to Western ears that Rs are substituted for Ls.
The overall effect is called lallation.
Comment: Do you mean rarration? (Sorry!)
Comment: It is a nice word :) It is also called lambdacism.
Answer: Mandarin Chinese has both sounds, and there's typically no difficulty differentiating them. It's a Japanese stereotype (based on the fact that in Japanese these two sounds are allophones) that has grown to be applied to speakers of other East Asian languages. It might be compounded by the existence of facetious Chinese transliterations of English words, such as yimier for email instead of the literal diànzĭ yóujiàn, "electronic message".
Some dialects of Chinese have little to no erhua, the tendency to suffix words with an R sound, so they may have difficulty pronouncing an R sound syllable-finally, because their own speech never calls for it (compare Standard Mandarin nàr, "there", versus more Southern nàli). In addition, L is frequently used in transliterations in place of R syllable-initially, as in luōqièsītè for Rochester.
So it's not so much that these sounds are confused, but that they're just used in different contexts, and a Chinese speaker might conceivably have some difficulty with that. But again, this probably affects Chinese speakers less than Japanese speakers, who might find it difficult to differentiate between the sounds in the first place.
Comment: Are you saying that the li of nali is because they can't put the r there? I would find that surprising.
Comment: @Mr. Shiny and New: No, on later inspection I definitely need to re-word that.
Comment: In Mandarin, /l/ never occurs syllable-finally, and /l/ and /r/ have different restrictions in terms of what vowels they occur before.
Answer: In east/central Africa (I'm assuming most Bantu languages), the R's and L's mix up as well. I, like the question asker, at first thought this was very confusing as R and L sounds for me as a native English speaker had nothing in common.
Unlike Asian languages, Bantu languages often use the same alphabet as English (minus perhaps a few odd letters like Q and X). In fact, the Bantu dialect I'm studying has native words with distinct R sounds and others with distinct L sounds. For other words, however, the R and L are completely interchangeable.
After many years of puzzling over this point and living in Africa, then Asia, then Africa again, I've come to this conclusion about the Bantu R/L swap: it is not so much a tongue position as a bit of a pinching in the back of the cheeks for both letters and a tendency to roll R sounds. If you roll an R, you will see how surprisingly close it comes to an L. When the L or R comes right before or after certain vowel or consonant sounds, it will almost always come out in the way we expect. Some English examples are paper, shirt, car, call, relevant, and hurry. Others, like my favorite "manicule and pedicule" place, the church where I "play", and the "riblaly" where I check out books are opposite examples. I think other West African languages may share this characteristic.
Answer: Chinese has many completely different dialects. It's so different in pronounce that I completely cannot understand most of all, such as Cantonese and Min Nan . But all those dialects share almost the some characters.
In my hometown, They cannot make a difference in 'n' (not 'r', our dialect hasn't this pronounce) and 'l'. But for me or most of the Post-80s, We learn Mandarin since the childhood. So we can make the difference.
Answer: Mandarin Chinese have "l" and "r" at the initial place of a syllable but not the end place.
The Chinese "r" is in fact different from English "r" or French or German; and in some dialect there is no "r", the mandarin "r" is pronounced as "n" or "y", e.g. Riben (=Japan) can be found pronounced as niben or yiben (compare Japanese "Nippon", Korean "Ibon", and English "Japan"). A lot of dialect have trouble with "l" and "n", in my own dialect I can differentiate "li" and "ni", but not "lan" and "nan".
Basically, Chinese can differentiate the initial "l" and "r" unlike Japanese (surprise and supplies are perfect example, I know such a joke about Japanese).
As the "r" and "l" in the end of a syllable do not show up in Chinese, many Chinese, including me, have trouble with this. I do not known how to pronounce "here" and "hill" properly. Hopelessly, I think other people like Google pronounced the same.
Comment: Ren. Ru. Is that spelled nen and nu?


How to get water out of ears?

Question: I have looked and I cannot find an answer to this!
Is there a quick way I can get water out of my ears after being in the pool without earplugs? I will accept the safest, fastest, and most useful answer.
Comment: You can also use rubbing alcohol on a q-tip to help dry the inside of your ears.
Answer: One of my lifeguarding buddies shared this one with me. Just turn your head sideways (so your ear is facing the ground) and jump up and down a couple times. Comes right out, and it works pretty quick, usually on the first jump or two.
Comment: If I have water in both ears, would this make the opposing ear worse?
Comment: That's a really good question @Carl. In my experience it hasn't, although I'd suggest doing it with gentle hops if that's the case. It doesn't take much force for the water to come right out
Comment: @Carl, it'll have no effect.  The water in your ears is already as far in as it will get.
Answer: Here are some tips for you to get water out of ears. An easy way is to chew or yawn. If you want to use gravity, there should be some steps:

Tilt your head sideways
Hold the ear that the water got into parallel to the ground
Place the palm of your hand against your ear
Press it hard for a couple of seconds
After that, remove your hand quickly.

The fluid will be dislodged by a temporary vacuum that has just formed.
Remove the water draining from the ear by a cotton ear bud very carefully.
Note: Do not insert the ear bud in the ear.
Comment: I'm sure how much you value your dignity, but when I was younger, I used to tilt my head and jump up and down which worked everytime...
Comment: Tilting my head sideways always does the job
Answer: Use gravity.
Place your head flat upon a pillow or a towel with your head to one side. Within a few minutes, the water will drain out of its own accord. Then, turn your head to face in the other direction with your other ear down to drain that one.
It's that simple. It's safer that putting anything into your ear. It works.
Comment: Sorry, i was unclear. I sort of want a quick way.
Comment: @Adamawesome4 I understand. Yes, of course. Why would you want to try a way that took longer than you need? This might be the fastest way, after all. Good luck.
Answer: Heat therapy or hot compress is yet another good answer if you want to know how to get water out of your ears. It opens the Eustachian tubes (where the water usually gets stored) and frees the fluid from the ears quickly.
Answer: If you have a problem with swimmer's ear, which can lead to bacterial infection, use a mixture of one part vinegar and one part alchol (10ml vinegar, 10 ml alcohol).  Drop about 5 ml in the ear and allow it to drain out.  My daughter sometimes gets ear infections from playing in the bathtub or swimming.  This was suggested by our pediatrician.
Answer: This may sound stupid, but it works. Scoop with your hand some water and pour into the ear that is already flooded. Let it stay for a few seconds so as the new water connects with the existing water inside the ear. Then quickly tilt your head the opposite direction sideways, causing the water to flow out of your ear due to inertia.
Answer: I have faced this issue and triggered its solution myself that worked for my friends too.
Follow these steps:

Move your face 90 degree rightwards so that your chin is directly above your right shoulder.
Gently bend down so that air passes through your ear hole and throw the water out.

Repeat the above steps for your left ear. If you did not get it on first try, repeat it. The hidden advantage is that it brings back rhythm of breathe for asthma patients.
Answer: A hair dryer should evaporate the water. Just point it at your ear at the warmest heat setting you can handle (which might not be very warm!!), and let the air blow into your ear for a few minutes.
Be careful that the sound of the hair dryer's motor, or just the wind rushing into your ear, is not too loud, because that could either leave you with a ringing ear or possibly even damage your eardrum.

How to get water out of ears?


add_query_vars and add_rewrite_rules

Question: I am looking for some clarity on what add_rewrite_rules does.
If I type in, or submit variables from a form, is it supposed to change the query variables to the pretty url?
Currently when I type in the pretty url, the page acts how I want. When I submit a form which redirects to a page with the query variables in the url, it also works fine. But I had thought that if I had typed in a url with the query variables, it would switch to the pretty url. It does not do that. Should it? Am I doing this wrong?
function add_query_vars($aVars) {
    $aVars[] .= 'var_state';
    $aVars[] .= 'var_clubs';
}
add_filter('query_vars', 'add_query_vars');

function add_rewrite_rules($aRules) {
    $aNewRules = array(
        'rv-clubs/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$' => 'index.php?pagename=rv-clubs&var_state=$matches[1]&var_clubs=$matches[2]'
    );
    $aRules = $aNewRules + $aRules;
    return $aRules;
}
add_filter('rewrite_rules_array', 'add_rewrite_rules');

Any help would be appreciated.
Answer: You can see in this answer how add_rewrite_rules is being used, I don't think it applies to your case at all.
What you need to do is to redirect urls generated from the search from (I'm assuming something like site.com/?s=term) to a pretty URL. This article do it http://www.wptavern.com/how-to-make-the-wordpress-search-url-pretty

add_query_vars and add_rewrite_rules


Applied stain to deck and still not dry after a week, what can I do?

Question: I decided to restain my deck last week since it was looking pretty worn after a New England winter. The deck is only 1 year old since we bought new construction. I contacted the builder and purchased a can of the same stain they used: Cabot's Mahogany Flame oil based stain. The week before had been sunny and dry. For prep I powerwashed the deck and then waited 24 hours to apply the stain. It's been a week, with warm and dry weather and parts of the deck still look wet and are tacky and sticky to the touch. How can I fix this? Also, what is the proper way to prep a deck before staining?
Comment: I would contact the manufacturer of the stain to get their opinion. The stain may have reacted with something that was on the deck, or may just have been old.
Comment: I don't think it's brand related, because I'm reading this because I put down Behring stain and it's over a week later and it's still not dry. I power washed and sanded the deck before staining, so I believe the surface was ready for the stain.
Answer: When ever I prep a deck for restaining, I clean it with a mixture of TSP, bleach and water. I apply the mixture, scrub it with a stiff broom and rinse it well with water or a power washer. Let it dry well, then apply stain. The cleaning solution helps remove the dirt, grime, spills, etc. Pretty basic stuff, I admit.
As far as why your stain doesn't want to dry.  There may be several reasons for this. First thing that comes to mind is that the stain may have not been mixed well before application. The solvents and drying agents can separate from the oils and pigments in stain. The oil tends to stay at the top of the can, and the oil won't dry well without the solvents mixed in.
Another reason may be other sealers, grease or spills that have sealed the skin of the wood, not allowing the stain to penetrate.
Sometimes, one can get a little carried away and apply way too much product. This will saturate the wood and the access will sit on the top of the surface.
If after a couple weeks of good drying weather, you still have sticky or tacky spots, I'd be tempted to remove this excess with a cloth wetted with mineral spirits. This should thin the sticky stain, remove some and distribute it to help it dry.
Answer: I have had some experience with coatings and solvents over the years, and two weeks ago during a 90F June heat spell I recoated my small redwood entry deck with one coat of "deck finish" from the local hardware store. I had replaced the steps with new redwood and they dried well with the one coat, so I added a second - not heavy, and it dried well, also. The main parts of the deck had been oiled many years before and after pressure washing I felt that it would take a light coat of the "deck oil." It looked great and I wiped up the excess, just like the directions said to do. Stayed tacky/sticky for a week. No joy. Figured that I needed to scatter a solvent over it, so I used a pint of 91% isopropyl and then broomed it around good. It softened up the surface in 15 minutes, so I hosed it and scattered TSP lightly over the whole deck, and waited another 15 min. and then hosed that. Deck was dry the next morning and looked like it could use a VERY light dab of oil, which I will apply with a damp rag, after it is thinned with lacquer thinner. Lots of joy, now. Northern CA location, up in Sierras. Hot and dry summers, and 4ft of rain in winter. Wood needs care here.
Answer: It soundless like the previous layer of stain was not ready for re-stain.  That is why the new stain is not drying.
It will eventually dry (maybe a month) but you will be unable to use deck in meantime. oops.
Next time try a water-test to see if stain is actually absorbing or repelling water.  If water beads-up on it still you cannot stain yet.
Answer: I have used Behr Oil based stain for the first 5 years on a flight of stairs outside and 3 decks and an entry area on my home.  It always dried within 4 hours.  6th year I thought I'd try another brand and two weeks later still sticky.  They tried to tell me I was suppose to strip my decks every year. Whatever defective product.  I purchased another gallon of Behr went over the other product and it dried in 4 hours.  now in year 10 Behr has discontinued their oil base at home depot in the redwood.  I was forced to buy yet another brand.  It was suppose to dry in 24hrs.  Well that was 5 days ago with the temps here in the 80's and dry.  Still tacky better then the other brand that would not dry.  I personally think it is the manufacturers.  I stain my decks and stairs every year.  We get a lot of rain here and I like to keep things I own in top shape.  Behr brand is thicker and tends to go on more like a paint.  I am very dissapointed that Behr decided not to continue this product.  If you are listening Behr please bring it back.  If this doesn't dry they do have a clear oil base stain that I will be forced to put over this last brand.
If your brand does not dry try the Behr brand.  Put it right over the top.  It will seal it and dry.
Answer: If you didn't wipe over stain/oil as you worked, there would undoubtedly be stickiness/tackiness.  Directions when staining and oiling say to wipe dry with cloth after applying.  You can start again by power washing.  Lightly sand if needed.  Wash deck with TSP/bleach solution.  Let fully dry.  Stain/oil again, wiping as you go. Shouldn't be sticky or tacky after 48 hours.
Answer: I am also used to oil based stains.  The deck for the house we just purchased was overdue for staining. Sept 2017 I used one coat of Behr Transparent Waterproofing Wood Stain which was absorbed and one coat of Behr Waterproofing Stain and Sealer which stayed mostly on top and was left to dry; both applied with a foam brush.  That was Monday. Wednesday could walk on it with my socks with nothing coming off, but my shoes left a print.  Today is Saturday and I can walk on it with my shoes with no print left but, as the oil loving guy said, it was STILL tacky. (like someone spilled soda pop on it.) So BEING A WOMAN I took a soft tee shirt rag and, continually applying Pledge FURNITURE POLISH on the rag, wiped off my deck.  I Waited 30 minutes and Presto! my deck is no longer tacky.


What type of Insect Egg is this?

Question: Can you please tell me what type of insect eggs these are? I found them in the corners of my office kitchen behind boxes and cardboard. Found them in between the broom bristles. Found them along the edge of the wall. There are quite a few of them.
If you could please provide me some tips on how to avoid getting these eggs or killing off the main insect would be helpful.
Comment: I doubt they're eggs, but possibly larvae. Call an exterminator.
Answer: These are probably cockroach cases, or oothecae, that may contain up to 50 eggs, depending on species.

It looks like they are oothecaes of German cockroaches.
You can read more about baby cockroaches here.
Answer: I think these are cockroach oothecae. These are small casings that contain many eggs.

Quoting from wikipedia

Female cockroaches are sometimes seen carrying egg cases on the end of their abdomens; the German cockroach holds about 30 to 40 long, thin eggs in a case called an ootheca. She drops the capsule prior to hatching, though live births do occur in rare instances. The egg capsule may take more than five hours to lay and is initially bright white in color. The eggs are hatched from the combined pressure of the hatchlings gulping air. The hatchlings are initially bright white nymphs and continue inflating themselves with air, becoming harder and darker within about four hours. Their transient white stage while hatching and later while molting has led to claims of albino cockroaches.[22]Development from eggs to adults takes three to four months. Cockroaches live up to a year, and the female may produce up to eight egg cases in a lifetime; in favorable conditions, she can produce 300 to 400 offspring. Other species of cockroaches, however, can produce far more eggs; in some cases a female needs to be impregnated only once to be able to lay eggs for the rest of her life.[22

You can find more about their control here
Cockroach oothecae
Answer: perhaps it's a fly chrysalis. If you had a mouse that died, that would do it. put them in a jar and wait. https://www.insectes-net.fr/pieride/images/pier159gf.JPG

What type of Insect Egg is this?


Repairing crack on edge of windshield

Question: I was replacing my windshield wiper motor (after asking about it here) and while putting in the new windshield wiper motor, I hit it on the edge of the windshield causing a few cracks. I asked a couple people about fixing it. The one person told me to put silicone on it, while the other person (a windshield repair guy) told me to not put silicone on it (because the acid in it will eat away at the car) and that there's nothing I can do except watch the crack get bigger. I'm wondering if there is any way I can fix it? And if there's nothing I can do now, is there something I can do if cracks start to appear? It is a new windshield and I really don't want to replace it again. Also, it's a 2003 Toyota Camry LE.
Comment: you can repair smaller chips but not cracks
Answer: The windshield repair guy is correct: there is no way to repair cracks in the windshield. I don't know what the laws are in Alberta, but here in Virginia, if the cracks are on the driver's side of the windshield, it needs to be replaced. Considering that you were replacing the wiper motor and it is on the DS of the vehicle, I will assume this is your case. I will also assume you are still experiencing cold nights there in Alberta, so night/day temperature differential will expedite the cracking which will occur.
For edification purposes, if a windshield has a bullseye type rock impact site, these can most often be repaired by windshield repair person. This can occur even if small cracks occur around the bullseye. Your situation is much different.
Comment: That's not the answer I was hoping for, but I guess I'll have to accept it.
Answer: My insurance company (and others, perhaps almost all) want a window to be repaired if the pit/crack is small enough to fit under a dollar bill.  So when I had a rock thrown up at my windshield and it resulted in a crack growing 4 inches later that day, they insisted upon having a repair instead of replacing the entire window.
I am very skeptical of such a crack being successfully repaired, but I assume that their policy has some kind of success rate that makes it worthwhile.  The cost of repair is about $60 (completely covered by insurance) and the cost to replace would be several hundred dollars (my glass deductible is $50; this varies very widely by company and policy).  If repairing such a large crack did not work, then their policy would simply be adding $60 to their payout for the replacement.
I am unable to say of the repair would have worked, because by the time it was inspected by the glass company, the crack had extended another several inches, well outside the "dollar" limit, so the windshield was replaced.

Repairing crack on edge of windshield


I'm totally new to Tai Chi How to learn it and where to learn it?

Question: I recently came to know about Tai chi and I'm interested in learning it. Unfortunately, there are no Tai chi classes around. Can I learn it through internet or any other medium? If so please guide me.
Comment: Hi, welcome to MartialArts.Se. You're question is almost a duplicate of this one: [*Martial art for a complete newbie - can i learn on my own?*](http://martialarts.stackexchange.com/q/1981/70), see if it answers your question.
Comment: If you don't care about fighting applications or self-defense, any tai chi DVD would be fine. If you do care about self-defense then the answers to the other question would be helpful.
Answer: You're probably wrong about not being able to find Tai Chi.  You probably just don't know where to look.  Google is a skill ;)  Make sure your google-fu is strong.  Tai Chi is a very popular martial art and it is taught in a lot of places.  Check your local gym or fitness club.
Don't try learning Tai Chi from the internet.  There are too many subtleties.  You need a teacher there to correct your posture for every slight mistake.  If you honestly can't learn Tai Chi from a qualified instructor, learn something else from a qualified instructor.  This will at least give you the balance and gross body movements that will aid you in learning Tai Chi later on when/if it becomes available.
Finding a good instructor is a whole different topic, which I won't address, since that's not what you asked.  I did, however, want to make sure to throw this advice in: learn what to look for in a qualified instructor.
I know the temptation is strong to ignore this advice and learn from the internet/DVDs, but you'll only be wasting your time.  You could find yourself having practiced what you thought is Tai Chi for years, only to realize you have no idea what Tai Chi is when you come into contact with a real Tai Chi person.
Answer: I would agree with the others - find a reputable instructor near your area if at all possible.
If you truly can't find anyone in your area, Richard Clear has produced a number of DVDs. Thought I can't personally vouch for the DVDs, I attended one of his seminars, and my instructor routinely praises Mr. Clear's work in spreading the word about tai chi chuan, Hsing-i chuan and internal arts in general.


how to download a file by just visiting a website?

Question: I'm talking about getting a file download to computer without letting user know any files have downloaded, just like a virus.  Some virus are getting downloaded without asking a user if you wanna download a file it just download it self.  I'm trying to create an simple antivirus.  How do they do that
Comment: it sounds more like you're creating a simple *virus* than a simple anti-virus...creating an antivirus program is a huge undertaking!
Comment: well...When i know how to create the virus i know how to stop it right?
Answer: nope you cannot do that. even the virus they need to be executed after downloaded.
as far as i know, when I did browse some web I just got cookies that contains spying me when I clicked on some websites. cmiiw
Answer: The only way that I would think that this could be done is by exploiting a buffer overflow and executing arbitrary code once the stack's been smashed (to execute the file download).
Having said that, I very highly doubt you'd be able to find any present day browsers that have any such vulnerabilities. These days, browser-caused viruses (virii? ;)) only run rampant on systems that have users that execute the downloads/installs manually.
Edit: I'll also mention that actually getting this to work takes a high level of skill (as the "arbitrary" code is usually processor-specific assembly instructions). It takes an even higher level of skill and knowledge to protect against it.
Answer: Maybe parsing your program to javascript and inserting to your site?
Or insert to another site and then put an iframe in your site to avoid blacklisting by AVs.

Aso I have read somewhere that WMF-files can be exploited.


How to get rid of black lines in top screen [ubuntu 12.10]?

Question: I have recently started with installing ubuntu 12.10 (x64) next to my windows 8 (x64) install. But since installing the amd proprietary drivers I got weird black horizontal lines in top of the screen. See the 11sec video I made with my phone to know exactly what I mean:
http://youtu.be/OULpUYKPjj0
I had to install the proprietary drivers because with the opensource drivers I couldent login after first restart from fresh installation. I only got a black screen and a mouse.
This are my specs:
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 (rev. 1.3)
AMD radeon hd 6950
Dell UltraSharp U2312HM (connected with DVI)
I currently run the latest beta drivers from amd, but with the stable I had the same problem..
The strange thing is when I boot the computer, I get the black lines. But I found out that when I log out, and log back in, the black lines are gone! This however is not really an ideal situation.
How can I fix this problem to completely get rid of these black lines?
Comment: I got the same issue, it doesn't occur every time, haven't find out what causes it yet. I think it is simply bug in the drivers and there won't be a simple solution.
Comment: It looks similar when I have installed "Pardus 2011" on my Machine (Now using Fedora 17). This is very strange. I think it is a driver issue.
Answer: Turning on "Tear Free Desktop" (Catalyst Control Center -> Display Options -> Tear Free) seems to make the dashes less frequent.


Who exactly is running the One Piece government?

Question: I'm a bit confused here - who is running the world government? Only those five un-named people who only get screen time when a catastrophe happens? Do we know their names or backgrounds?
Answer: Your question in the title and in the message aren't the same so I'll answer the first one.

The World Government is a political organization comprised of the
  majority of the world at large, ruled by the Gorosei.

The Gorosei is composed of 5 members and on the wiki they say :

The Gorosei (literally meaning "Five Elder Stars") are the heads of
  the World Government, and as such, they essentially rule the entire
  world. They are the five men who rule above the Marines, Cipher Pol,
  and the ones who made a pact with the Shichibukai, making them one of
  the main antagonists of the series.

As you said :

So far, none of their names have been revealed.

And about their screentime since they are the organization recruiting the Shichibukai, we can guess they will be the last organization that Luffy's team will fight. But this is just a guess since your question can't be answered until the manga is finished.
Here you can check my source and learn more about them : http://onepiece.wikia.com/wiki/Gorosei


Questions seeking how to bypass security, off-topic?

Question: Recently, this question appeared asking how to bypass a firewall using Ubuntu. What should we do about questions which seek out how to use Ubuntu to bypass security implementations?
Comment: @JorgeCastro Security.SE mods say this is on-topic as the methods can be used just as much for educational purposes as it could malicious. Identify weak points in security, for whatever reason, is still a valid question.
Comment: Can this be rephrased to 'Questions about how security works' instead? If you intend to help circumvent a rule, that's no good. If you are just explaining how things work, that's probably better. What someone does with the info later is on them.
Comment: How do serverfault, superuser, unix, and other SEs handle this? Surely we can't be the first ones to deal with this.
Answer: On-topic
I believe these questions are on-topic, nevermind the motive behind the question, as long as the question doesn't break or interfere with any laws these questions should remain open.
Comment: This answer seems a bit dismissive, especially since there very well may not be enough information in the question to determine that what is being attempted is legal. Never mind that questions of legality are tied to jurisdiction. The legality of the question could change from location to location and organization to organization (think government security measures vs. home security measures). So your condition of "as long as [it] doesn't break ... laws" isn't a very good measuring stick for determining whether or not a question should remain open.
Answer: There is no correlation between who has the firewall or bypasses it, and who has the high moral ground. Sometimes the firewall is protecting a private network from intrusion, sometimes the firewall is enforcing censorship, and sometimes it's just a dumb IT choice that prevents you from doing your job. I'll reiterate what I wrote on a related topic on a related site: concentrate on the technical merits of posts, don't try to guess what the legal or ethical situation may be (the next person with the same question may be in the opposite camp anyway).
How it's done on other sites:

Super User: Handling questions that are clearly trying to break some kind of policy, TOS, etc?, Legal basis for restriction of discussions? If the request is evidently highly likely to be illegal and immoral, then the question is up for deletion. But merely violating some policy does not make one immoral.
Server Fault: Handling illegal/immoral questions and answers On Server Fault, if you don't make IT policy, you're not one of "us". This attitude is not friendly even on a site for system administrators (sometimes you're the local administrator and you have to dodge around central IT), and it does not make any sense on a site for everyone like Ask Ubuntu.
Unix & Linux: It doesn't seem to have come up, but I can assure you that if it does, one vocal user will strongly defend judging questions on their technical merits alone.
IT Security: How do we provide value to white and grey hats?, where it's widely noted that much of the information that's useful to black hats is also useful to white hats and vice versa.

Regarding the particular question you cite, I'm not against it on moral grounds; how to bypass a firewall is a perfectly legitimate question. But the question itself is vague, we don't know what kind of firewall is being used (we do need to have some idea of what it blocks to provide a useful answer). This isn't a good question, but for technical reasons, not for moral reasons, and it can improve if the asker provides more details.
Answer: Off-topic

This question is about bypassing web-filtering (a type of firewall) on the questioner's network (possibly a university campus, but could be anywhere).

This would then allow him/her to reach objectionable content, download pirated content (movies, music), and/or carry out communications otherwise blocked or monitored for this location.

This is breaking the law, although it may be only a minor criminal act in some jurisdictions.  We should NOT be encouraging, endorsing, or discussing such functionality.

This type of action is problematic, because the institution or business is legally (and criminally) responsible for the actions of persons using its network.  They therefore have the right to mitigate or limit their exposure.  This is NOT censorship, but more like self preservation.

This is NOT about Ubuntu.  The chosen methodology (some method of proxy bypass) may involve the installation of software, but would more likely involve identifying and/or connecting to an external 'facilitating service'.
Comment: You should not forget about the fact that people may want to know ways how to penetrate a security system in order to harden it or to learn what to pay attention on in case of successful penetration of their system.
Comment: This is not illegal in any US laws, if I've missed one please provide the link.
Comment: @OctavianDamiean if someone were asking to gain pentesting knowledge, that would make it off-topic. Let's face it, if you're studying penetration testing, Kali trumps Ubuntu. To say that pentesting questions are on-topic in a forum dedicated to Ubuntu is a bit of a stretch unless those questions are directly related to hardening Ubuntu.
Comment: 'illegal' in bullet point 3, refers to actions in bullet point 2 ..


How is a realtime BiQuad/IIR possible?

Question: I was thinking, if a realtime system is one in which the processing time is shorter than the sampling period, how does a feedback filter such as a biquad perform the computation without waiting for, say, in the case of the biquad, two additional samples?
Answer: You are confusing "processing time" with "latency".
Real-time filters are able to generate output samples at the same rate as they receive inputs.
They would however induce latency, meaning that the bulk of the energy generated for an input appears later in time with respect to that input.
Consider for example the following input/output:
<code>time  : 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
-----------------------
input : 1 2 3 2 1 0 0 0
output: 0 0 1 2 3 2 1 0
</code>
The output is generated at the same rate as the input is received, so the system can perform in real-time. However, there is a latency of 2 samples in the output when comparing with the input.
Whenever the expression of the filter relies on past samples which have not yet been received (at the start of an input sequence), initial conditions are assumed (often assuming that those previous values were zeros).
Comment: This was very helpful, I did not understand the distinction before but now it's crystal clear (:

How is a realtime BiQuad/IIR possible?


Best icon to represent "I need help to remember this"

Question: I am building a flashcard web application and I want to give to the users the possibility to ask some help (mnemonics) to remember of something.
I'd like have a little icon that would represent in the best way possible "I need help to remember this".
The icon size will be very small, like the star in the screenshot :

Also like the star, there will be only the shape won't be filled (to avoid reading distraction), so that's why I would need a very simple, representative shape.
I thought to a lifesaver, but at such a small size we don't really understand what it is. I also thought to a question mark but I think that it's too general.
Have you got any idea ?
Answer: I think the star or question mark both work. If someone is looking for help, the question mark is a dead giveaway as to where it's located. If it's merely a "remember this for later" the star works well there.
Some possible additional ideas:

Flag or Tag icon (i.e. flag this for later review)
Box / Checkmark
a stylized "r"
(somewhat trite) finger and ribbon
A speaker (if the mnemonic is audio in nature)
An (i) icon
A (+) icon
Comment: Thank you for your answer, I see more the star as a way to "bookmark" a word that the user might like, in fact, in user interface, I think that it historically more represents a "save to the computer memory" function than "save to my brain" function, same thing for the flag/tag/+.
Comment: But I think that I just found a radical way to solve my problem, I'm gonna update my post about that.
Answer: A pin might fit well with your current design.
As in 'put a pin in it for later', also popularised by Pinit. There should not be any legal problems as the concept comes from a physical act that's probably existed since the creation of pins.
Something like this:

Image from here.
The flag idea was from Scott I just included it as it was the best image I could Google quickly.
Comment: Thanks for your answer, I answered my own question about that.
Answer: So you want to offer the user a hint to find the answer for the current card. Why not just say "hint"? Put some subtle text down there rather than the icon and no one will ever have to guess.
Comment: I did tried to replace the icons on the flashcard with some text, but sadly, because of the little amount of text on the card (2 words), the fact to add other words is doubling the quantity of text on the flashcard, because of that, in my tests, even a subtle text was disturbing for the reading...
Comment: It's all in the styling.
Answer: If I understand you properly, you need some "matching/solving" icon.
In my opinion the left lower icon can be clearly understood by users as "Press me and I will give you a hint -

Answer: Diter Rams says "Less, but better." and I think that it's actually the best way to solve my problem : I think that a user will need some help only if he have some difficulties to remember of something, and In fact, I can detect automatically if he have got some big difficulties, in that case, I will display some help automatically, only if he really needs it, which might not be often the case given the way flashcards are working.
About the star, I'm also reconsidering it's integration to my web app, I will see if It's a really useful feature.


Modular arithmetic congruence class simple proof

Question: I have the following question but I'm unsure of how it can be approached by a method of proof. I'm new to modular arithmetic and any information on how to solve this would be great for me.

(b) Let $t,s\in\{0,1,2,3,4,5\}$. In $\mathbb Z_{25}$, prove that $[t]\,[s]\neq[24]$.
Answer: Imagine trying everything. Clearly $5\cdot 5$ is no good. All the other choices give (ordinary) product $m$ between $0$ and $20$, so it is clear that $25$ cannot divide $24-m$.
Answer: First note that $24\equiv -1\pmod{25}$ and hence we are trying to show that $ts\not\equiv-1\pmod{25}$.  Suppose for contradiction that $ts\equiv -1\pmod{25}$, then multiplying through by $-1$ we get $-ts\equiv 1\pmod{25}$ so $t$ or $s$ is invertible, say $t$ with inverse $-s$.  Therefore $\gcd(t,25) = 1$  (why?), and hence $t = 1,2,3,4$.  There is a unique value of $s$ corresponding to each of these (why?), each of which should give you a contradiction.
Comment: very nice, well put ! im still getting my head around it though so this might take me a while
Comment: so is [t] [s] just any values within the set?
Comment: $[t][s]$ refers to the product of the equivalence classes of $[t]$ and $[s]$ taken modulo $25$
Answer: Hint $\ $ If $\rm\:a\:|\:b\:$ in $\Bbb Z$ then so too in every ring, and the quotient is unique if $\rm\:a\:$ is not a zero divisor. Also, divisors of units are units, so $\rm\: mod\ 25\:$ the divisors of $\:24\equiv -1\:$ are units, so coprime to $5$.


Continuous preferences definition

Question: Suppose consumption set $X=R_{+}^N$. According to the definition preferences are continuous if for any $x\in X$ sets $(y\in X:x\succeq y)$ and $(y\in X:y\succeq x)$ are closed. It is clear that preferences represented by utility function $u(k_{1},k_{2})=k_{1}+k_{2}$ are continuous. But now lets take some bundle x=(1,1). Then set $(y\in X:y\succeq (1,1))$ is not closed as it approaches infinity. My question is how to handle with this contradiction?
Comment: I think you may be confusing **boundedness** with **closedness**. Note in particular that the half-open interval $[1,\infty)$ *is closed*, although it is *not bounded*.
Answer: It appears that you are conflating a "closed interval" with a "closed set". Certainly, (multidimensional) closed intervals are closed sets, but the concept of a closed set is wider.
A closed set is, well, only closed, and not necessarily bounded.
I understand that the everyday-meanings of the terms "closed" and "bounded" can indicate that "being closed is a stronger property than being bounded" (i.e. that being closed implies being bounded), but this is not true in mathematics. Neither property implies the other.
Yes, a set can be bounded and yet it may not be closed. Standard example: Consider the set of rational numbers  in $[1,3]$ . This is a bounded set. Now consider the sequence of rational numbers
$$x_{n+1} = \frac {x_n}{2} +\frac {1}{x_n},\;\; x_0 = 3$$
The sequence remains in the $[1,3]$ interval, but its limit is $\sqrt 2$, which is not rational. So this set of rationals in $[1,3]$ is bounded but it is not closed, because it does not contain a limit point of a sequence that can be constructed in it, stay in it, except its limit point.
So, what "closed set" means then in mathematics? There are various ways to look at it:
A closed set is a set whose complement is open.
A closed set is a set that coincides with its "closure".
A closed set is a set that contains all its limit points.
Try them out mentally and stick with what is more intuitive to you.
Comment: "A closed interval is a closed and bounded set, i.e. it is a compact set". Being closed and bounded is necessary but not sufficient for a set to be a closed interval (I am sure that you know this and that it is not a mistake, but this formulation is a bit ambiguous and might be understood by some readers as a definition instead of a necessary condition).
Comment: @Oliv Thanks for spotting this. I deleted the sentence since it was not central to the issue.

Continuous preferences definition


Failed online test for job application, want to request retake

Question: I'm applying for jobs and had to take a online test which was on sql.  I did not know the subject of the test ahead of time (although sql was hinted in the job description) and although i had sql on my resume, I didnt touch it since I graduated from college and did horribly.  Would it be reasonable to email the hr and ask for a retake after I had some time to prepare?
Comment: @MechMK1 Any normal human being would take some time to remember things they haven't thought about in a while, and possibly need some reminders. Expecting candidates to be able to answer basic questions about anything on their resume during an interview is reasonable, expecting them to be able to pass a test on that topic without preparation is not. Although it being on the job description should tell you to prepare.
Comment: @Cypher that's exactly what this question is asking about doing.
Comment: @AlexM Sort of, but there is a small difference between applying again from the start sometime in the future (fill out application, send resume, and go through the whole process from the start), and just re-taking the test (so not filling out a new application, and not sending a new resume, etc). The difference (aside from time) is that re-applying does not require permission, but the other does. Hope that clarifies.
Comment: I know SQL, C#, JavaScript and Python... but I'm an Expert in C# and SQL and Novice with JavaScript and only know Python in passing. Does your resume reflect these concepts (as mentioned by others)? I "know" python but not really...
Comment: @Cypher That makes sense, I do see the distinction.
Answer: I suggest you take this as a learning experience and not beg for a re-take.
What technologies they have listed on the job posting are things they could potentially ask about in the test.  You should have prepared in advance.
I highly doubt this opportunity is going to go anywhere even if you do re-take the test as first impressions are usually key.
Comment: Another learning: clarify as good as you can upfront what the interview will be like. Many companies will openly tell you whether it will just be a nice talk or some sort of test. If it is some sort of test, better come as prepared as you can be wrt the job description / what you advertise on your resume. (feel free to ake any of that over into your question if you feel it enhances it, or not if you don't^^)
Comment: I think it's also worth adding that if this is a dream company opportunity, it is possible to reapply to the same company 6 months or a year from now with the benefit of additional experience.  Totally agree that there is 0% chance of success for immediately reapplying though.
Comment: @FrankHopkins - Yes, they should have asked what the application process was going to involve up-front. And if they tell you there's a test, there is nothing wrong with asking politely what the test is about. They might not tell you, or they might be vague, but there is nothing wrong with asking.
Answer: No.
The point of such tests is to determine if you know the subject matter well and therefore would make a good candidate for the job.  "Cramming" to pass the test is nearly as bad as not passing the test - they're not looking for "I managed to pass the test" they are looking for a knowledgeable professional. There's limited ways to do that other than taking a candidate's word for it - tests, takehome projects, whiteboard coding... All designed to see if you will be successful in the role based on the skills needed, not as ends unto themselves.
A request for a re-take, for reasons other than "I was really sick and whacked out of my mind on barbituates," will cause you to be looked at even more negatively. Wait and apply for the next similar position that you are confident you qualify for and (ideally) pass the test/interview/project.
Comment: Don't be deliberately dense.  They are looking for someone that knows SQL.  How do  you want them to verify a candidate knows SQL?  Beyond 'taking their word for it', there's a limited set of options all of which people whine about (tests, takehome projects, whiteboard coding...). Interviews aren't done to find people who ace interviews, they are done to find people who will be good at the job, but there's only so many ways to validate that in a limited amount of time.
Comment: @TheBatman the point is likely that "passing the test" is not a sufficient criteria and in particular passing by force (e.g. retaking until you pass) is not gonna help at all, because they don't look for how good you can be if you know the topic and type of test but how good your general level is. (And yes, being able to get up to speed is also a valuable trait, but not the one they are looking for with the test).
Comment: "they're not looking for "passing the test" they are looking for a knowledgeable professional" Pretty much disproven by the fact that their screening mechanism is a thorough practical exam that's administered without advance notification, no?
Comment: `they're not looking for "passing the test"` if that were true then failing the test wouldn't disqualify the candidate but that's clearly what happened here.
Comment: @mxyzplk-SEstopbeingevil I used to give trick tests to see how well people really knew C++, I worked at Bloomberg where we gave 45 minute tests with someone on the phone with you.  None of these "ambush" tests are good indicators of ability.  If you want to know how good someone can be.  Give them a little project that utilizes those skills you want to know if they have.  If you don't pass their "test" you don't ever get a chance to show them what you could be.  They want trick ponies, let 'em hire trick ponies.  Go find a company without ambush tests.
Comment: @AlexM Why are you assuming it was a "thorough practical exam"? For all we know, they could have been questions like "Write a query that selects all values from the column 'foo' in table named 'bar'". If the applicant can't come up with `select foo from bar` without prior preparation, they are likely not suitable for the position.
Comment: Sure, see the previous questions about doing "little projects" as part of a hiring process and see everyone whine about "the company demanding free work from them..."  Everyone loves to hate every possible technique to qualify candidates, in this case it appears to have worked as designed.  If you have infinite job prospects feel free and refuse interviews with tech tests or any other whim you have; otherwise learn to cope.
Comment: @boatcoder Imho there is no assertion by OP that it was a trick question test. I agree that very specific questions for language details the average coder needs once in their lifetime don't belong in most tests - unless perhaps that area is crucial to the employer and then it still needs care - but there is plenty of test questions you can ask that anyone claiming to be proficient should be able to sufficiently answer. An interview test typically isn't black and white anyway. Sure the test might have been crap, but OP never indicates that's the issue.
Comment: @chepner fair point, on re-reading I see that you're right! I assumed that "a online test which was on sql" that it's possible to fail "horribly" would be a practical exam, but there's actually no reason in OP to believe that.
Answer:
Would it be reasonable to email the hr and ask for a retake after I had some time to prepare?

It's not unreasonable.
It's also perfectly possible that the HR decides not to let you retake the test.
As such, I suggest you also consider looking for other job options while you wait for their answer. Learn from this, and next time try to prepare if you see hints of topics that may come in the evaluation.
Comment: I would also add that if you need time to prepare for a test on a skill, it probably has no place to be on your cv.
Comment: @TymoteuszPaul Harsh, but also not an unreasonable take.
Comment: @TymoteuszPaul depends on the test, make up of your CV and such. You can differentiate between basic knowledge and expert level knowledge and the same can be true of what tests look for. Both need not necessarily match. I'd put it the other way around: "If you put something on your CV, expect people to ask you about and assume you know it in detail. If you don't, make that clear on the CV."
Comment: @TymoteuszPaul you are quite right
Answer: No, that would defeat the point of the test.
The point of these tests isn't to evaluate your level of skill in a programming language. The point of these tests is to cheaply provide the HR department with a metric with which they can use to justify tossing your resume in the bin. They've got hundreds of applications for each job, and they need something that can cut that number down to something more reasonable without costing them a lot of employee man-hours and thus money.
Job applications are a numbers game; rather than getting hung up on failures, just keep spamming your resume to employers in response to their job openings and eventually you'll hopefully get lucky and get a job.
Comment: …  And take a moment to run through your CV, and brush up on most of the skills you list there.
Answer: Just ask.
If you want to work there, ask.
The answer will go one of two ways:
They'll say yes, you'll retake the test, and get another shot.
They'll say no, and you'll probably never talk to them again.
It's not a strange thing to really want to work somewhere, or to believe in yourself, so it's not likely anyone would hold that against you in a way that might damage your reputation externally to that interaction.
Answer: Yes, if…
For the sake of balancing other answers, I would highlight in which circumstances it would be OK to ask for a re-take (and detail a bit more Dukeling's comment).
Indeed, I think it's alright to have your SQL skills a bit "rusted" and been caught off-guard if you didn't prepare for it. I feel comfortable listing skills on my CV that I don't, right now, remember on the tip of my fingers but that I could retrieve within a few hours/days refreshing. (It seems reasonable to be proactive about the refresher if it's listed on the job description, though.)
So I think that asking for a retake is acceptable if you can justify you have been caught off-guard.
This is the case for an in-person interview where you can't really say: "Let me go through this tutorial quickly so I remember how it works, and I'll answer you" — wasn't your case, though. The other situation is a time-limited online questionnaire; where, similarly, you don't have time to browse documentation.
However, if you'd been given couple days to answer an off-line exercise, I wouldn't bother, because in such case you have had time to get up to speed and successfully complete the challenge.
In any case, remember that arguing you have been caught off-guard when SQL was listed in the "required skills" of the job description doesn't show you in a strong position I am afraid.
Answer:
although i had sql on my resume, I didnt touch it since I graduated from college

Perhaps you should update that in your resume that you took college courses in SQL. Don't list it as a "skill."

Would it be reasonable to email the hr and ask for a retake after I had some time to prepare?

It doesn't hurt to do a follow up email and explain SQL is not your strong suit. It's unclear what position you applied but given they are testing your SQL, it's a sure bet the position may be heavily invested in SQL and as such may pass on your current skill level. I'd say you have a 0% chance of going forward with a re-take on the test but at least you can follow up with a simple thank you and explaining sql is not your strong suit.
However, it's not uncommon for programming position to want SQL. At the very least you'd be writing procedures and queries. It's a good idea to invest time into this area if it is not your best. You're probably not expected to know db admin but at least you should be able to write queries and procedures to get back data set and know how to parse that data set into meaningful tables or rows in the programming lanuage.
Comment: The problem with resumes is the uneducated gate keepers that require you to play bingo.  Whoever solves that one is going to make a lot of money, but as long as you have to play bingo and ambush testing, this kind of crap is going to keep on keeping on.
Answer: Do it!
Enlightened organisations, their HR and hiring managers included, will rightfully see you coming back to try again as a very positive signal.
It's impressive when a person has the tenacity and the willingness to put their ego aside to not be perturbed by initial failure, learn what's required to succeed and confidently try again. Indeed, those characteristics are exactly the ones you'll need to excel in any technical role.
Yes, it's possible they're the type of organisation that take a more cynical view or have rigid process that obliges them to refuse, but if they do it doesn't matter, you wasted no effort by asking and there's no downside for them either.
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take!
Answer: As a hiring manager, I wouldn't consider you for a hire even if you passed on second try with 100%. When a skill is requested, the assumption is that you have the skill ready, to an advanced level (not necessarily perfect), not that you are 'able to refresh or learn it'.
Consider they would have asked for 'english speaker', and you fail and say 'well if I would have known I would have refreshed my english'.
Comment: Most of the time, the list of skills in job posting is of very little value.  I literally laughed out loud when I read the bit about "the assumption is that you have the skill ready, to an advanced level" - that's not at all true for job posts in the United States.
Answer: I'll give a reason not to ask for a retake in your situation. You say you feel you were caught out. I haven't read the job advert but as I see it there are two possibilities. Either you misunderstood it, or the advert was misleading about what the job entails. In the former case, that happens, it's not the job for you, move on. In the latter case, do you really want to work for a company that advertises a job as doing X and it turns out to be 90% doing Y?
Comment: "In the latter case, do you really want to work for a company that advertises a job as doing X and it turns out to be 90% doing Y" - that happens all day, every day, at virtually every company.
Answer: Don't ask for a retake.
It's one thing to fail a test. This happens to everybody.
But failing to accept that you failed would make you look childish.
Failing at exams happens even to the best. You could be perfectly prepared and fail because of a headache or stress with your girlfriend/ boyfriend. These things happen. Just accept it, don't look for excuses.
In this way, you can try to find another position at the company and maybe even get it. By not accepting that you failed and asking for a retake you come across as not knowing the rules of the game.
One more thing. I have taken plenty of tests for jobs. Normally, I was notified of what the topics of the test was to be. Is it possible that it was mentioned and you forgot or didn't pay notice? If not and you were just sent a link, you could have asked about the subject.
But yes, if SQL is included in the requirements on the position, you should be prepared to demonstrate it spontaneously e.g. during the interview.
Answer: I asked for retake ones, explaining that I had internet disruption during the test.
But it was actually true, because we had power outrage in our part of city.
You can use the same reason.


How do you say "allowance" in mandarin?

Question: Google Translate says it is 津贴, but my mom says it is 零用钱. Apparently 津贴 doesn't mean allowance, so what does each character mean? My book and google translate say 零用钱 is pocket money. How does that mean allowance? Also what is 零花钱?
Comment: I am not sure which country you are in, but when you are a kid, (say between 7 to 17 of age), you get "pocket money", but when you attend college you get an "allowance" though both come from your parents. Perhaps that's why "pocket money" & "allowance" are synonymous in English in this particular context?
Comment: Please note that I am not sure about the AE/BE usage distinction that I mentioned, I am not even a native English speaker. I just thought that it might be helpful and perhaps explain part of the confusion.
Comment: "Pocket money" seems to be British English, and the use of "allowance" in this context American English.
Comment: @CarstenS oh my mandarin book refers to it as pocket money
Comment: Allowance has multiple meanings in English, which may correspond to different words in Chinese. Baggage allowance for example is neither 零用钱 or 津贴.
Answer:
Pocket money is a synonym of allowance and it is translated: 零用钱 or 零花钱.

Allowance, akin to subsidy, can be translated as 津贴 or 补贴.

Disability allowance for instance would be translated: 残疾补贴.
Answer: Allowance (pocket money) for kids is translated as 零用钱 or 零花钱. It is not the same as 红封包/ 利是 (lucky money contained in a red envelope).
Kids get 零用钱 on a regular basis but only get 红封包 on New year or special occasions
津 - additional
贴 - allowance, subsidy
津贴 = allowance, subsidy. e.g. 伤残津贴 (disability allowance); 书本津贴 (textbooks subsidy)
More example of 津: 薪津 = 薪金 + 津贴 (salary and additional allowance) = 'paycheck, pay'

How do you say "allowance" in mandarin?


How to make RSS Feeds for my Google+ Profile?

Question: After the shut down of http://plusfeed.appspot.com is there any way to make RSS Feeds for my Google+ profile ?
Answer: I've been planning on generating an RSS feed of my Google+ posts with https://github.com/jacoby/Plus2RSS
Answer: After a lot of searching I found this http://plusfeed2.appspot.com
Comment: That's likely to eventually suffer the same fate, though, since large-scale use of Google APIs is not free.  Another option is to set up your own instance of it, there's a link to the source code on the original Plusfeed site.
Comment: Plusfeed2 is now gone. :-(
Answer: For a fee, you can sign up for http://www.pluss.es and get an RSS feed of your public Google+ posts.
As of this writing, under "Settings", it says:

For a single, once off payment of US$15.00 you will receive a Vanity
  URL of your choosing (subject to availability) and an RSS feed.

See http://www.pluss.es/103697821787469756035/rss.xml as an example RSS feed from the creator of Plusses, Daniel Treadwell.
Answer: Although this is not a way to create RSS feed but you can try BazQux Reader which directly supports reading of Google+ pages.