How do I stop ssh-agent trying all keys with agent forwarding?

Question: Often I'll connect via SSH to VM instances to deploy code from private Bitbucket repositories, cloning repositories via git over SSH.  Today I was getting the error:
conq: repository access denied. deployment key is not associated with the requested repository.
A quick search showed it was the problem described in Repository access denied. access via a deployment key is read-only. The issue is my forwarded SSH agent was trying to connect to Bitbucket with a Vagrant development key that I'd added since I'd last tried to clone a private repository over SSH. (Removing the Vagrant key from my .ssh directory allowed me access to the private repositories again.)
My SSH config is:

Host bitbucket.org
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/bitbucket_key
  IdentitiesOnly yes

and locally this seems to behave as expected. The output of ssh -v email@example.com shows

debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering RSA public key: /home/me/.ssh/bitbucket_key

whereas when I'm connected to another server over SSH:

debug1: Offering RSA public key: steve@not_a_bitbucket_key
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Offering RSA public key: steve@still_not_a_bitbucket_key
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Offering RSA public key: steve@bitbucket_key

Is there some other configuration other than IdentitiesOnly that I'm missing to ensure only the requested keys are sent to particular servers when using agent forwarding?
Running Ubuntu 12.04 with OpenSSH 5.9p1 installed.
Comment: Do you know about `ssh-agent-proxy`?
Answer: Did you try adding ForwardAgent no to your ssh config file for host bitbucket?
Helpful sources:
https://developer.github.com/guides/using-ssh-agent-forwarding/
https://support.ssh.com/manuals/server-zos-admin/55/Disabling_Agent_Forwarding.html
Edit: I reread your question's title (sorry I just woke up), but add ForwardAgent no to your config for all hosts if you don't want it to send to every machine you ssh to and just add ForwardAgent yes to hosts that you wish ssh agent forwarding to be active.


I can update to Linux Kernel 4.9?

Question: how are you?
I want update to kernel 4.9, but I not know if this can cause problems in my computer.
Answer: You can always try to upgrade you kernel.
However, as there is no 4.9 kernel package in elementary OS, you should understand the risks (as in: your system will not boot any more or there will be driver errors; there is only a very small chance of danger as in actually bricking it).
If you are sure to go on with the upgrade, I would start at http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.9/
Answer: I was able to install 4.9 on my machine without issue. I used Ukuu which makes the process fairly painless and allows you to easily revert back if you have issues.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/upgrade-kernel-ukuu-ubuntu/
Answer: I had update my kernel to 4.6 trying to fix some flickering in chrome caused by skylake intel processor but not success. I think you can upgrade to 4.9 carefully.
Answer: I have two machines on Loki - one running latest 4.8 and other 4.9 and both run.  As long as you use the Ubuntu packages, your old kernels will still be bootable via Grub.
Answer: Yeah I upgraded to 4.9 on my skylake laptop with no issues at all. As others said, you retain the ability to boot from the stock kernel with grub.

I can update to Linux Kernel 4.9?


How to make the jump from Web/Graphic Designer to UX/UI Designer?

Question: I've been on the hunt for a new job and am noticing the large ratio of UI/UX Design jobs vs. regular web design jobs.  I really don't have any experience with UI/UX Design (unless you can count responsive web designs with some user testing?)  How can I make the jump? How can I get some experience in UI/UX?  My current employer doesn't do any app or software dev...just websites.  I am not even sure if I can convince someone with a freelance project that I'm qualified.  I know I'm a strong designer and I know I have the capacity to learn...but it seems like all employers are looking for someone with more experience (I do have 10 years web/graphic experience...design and front-end dev...but that doesn't seem to be good enough).  What are your thoughts?
Comment: You should have a look at [this related post](http://ux.stackexchange.com/q/1863/11687), a lot of the advice there applies to you.
Comment: @KitGrose you can write as an answer, short, clear, concise.
Comment: Take a look on the tag [tag:career-development], which provides good answers on similar questions.
Answer: Try out the methods at www.usability.gov, in any way you can. If you can't get "real" work experience on those methods, start up a project in your free time, most of these methods cost very little time and money to try out. Volunteer work is another great way if you're mostly concerned about the experience
Answer: I recommend that you just start reading every UX book you can get your hands on:
http://www.jeremytunnell.com/posts/books-on-user-experience-and-user-interface-design
And then spend a year or so offering your services, basically below-market rates, to do a UX analysis or new product feature.   Look for nonprofits, government agencies, and places that don't have a huge budget for this stuff.
Comment: Nice book list @jeremyt!
Answer: I started out as a web designer and made the transition to a user experience designer. I made the transition by thinking more and more about user experience with my designs versus what looks good right now. A pretty design may get you a lot of likes on Dribbble or Behance, but a smart workflow gains you the appreciation of your users.
Read and learn everything you can. Find designers you admire and ask them questions about why they made the decisions they did.
I didn't hold an official UX designer role  for almost 8 years after I first started as a designer, but it was an approach I always had with my work in some way. Start thinking about the user holistically when designing your websites. Every site has goals and tasks that are trying to be accomplished. A simple date picker is a chance to think about the UX.
Clients may not be contracting you initially for UX jobs, but start showing even on something as mundane as a contact form you're thinking through that experience.
Answer: While you want to design the UI for websites or web applications you should know the principles of the design. However, UI and Graphic design seem the same at first glance, there are some differences you should know.
The differences between UI design and graphic design comes from Interaction Design. As a graphic designer, you probably are good in visual design, but you need to be good in interaction design too.
Answer: I am a UI & UX professional working in MNC. My career has began with web designer role and part time photoshop. I worked for one year in Photoshop and web designing, with HTML, CSS, jQuery and JavaScript, then I moved to mobile app designing. I just took 1-2 months to know things about mobile app designing then I started work on web app UI designing in photoshop. After 2 year's experience I started to research over HCI and UX designing and usability and all. Few steps you can take to become a UI & UX Designer:

Firm with your decision if you want to go in UI&UX because it needs your own acceptance whether you want to make your career in this platform or not.
UI & UX is also kind of Photoshop designing as well as all small works so don't be confused that if you are UI and UX then you don't have such pamphlet designing and all work.
After deciding, go and search something about UX Designing the resource are uxpin.com, pinterest, behance dribble, pattrn.com.
Note what are those things important in UX design. The concept and environment.
Start working on wireframing, take any idea of application and design it in your way by rough sketching but realize what users needs and require. The ease as well as usability.
After wireframing, start to work on Photoshop for mock-up designing.

That's all, actually. Best one is if you get any job with UX Profile that doubles your strength. You will automatically things from your senior or team members. So, it's easy and mind driven, after all.


How do I desalinate seawater?

Question: I know I shouldn't drink seawater (because of the salt it contains), but how can I desalinate it?
Answer: You need to distill it - I'm assuming that freezing is not an option (unless you're camping in the extreme latitudes). This is easiest, as the ice on top is almost pure water.
Where you don't have a freezer available - boiling the water, capturing the steam and condensing it back to water will provide pure water.
Comment: This method can be achieved using a plastic tarp or other impermeable membrane (raincoat). Boil water below, with the tented tarp above funneled into a container.
Comment: If no heat source is available and you have a clear plastic tarp, use the solar energy of the sun to evaporate the salt water and capture the condensation. Make sure to angle the tarp and create a wrinkle for the liquid to drain into a container.
Comment: Distillation doesn't work 100%, the steam also contains some salt... when I was young I grown crystals and once I got for 1 week away. There was a book near the saturated salt solution where the crystals have grown. When I returned from vacation, it was completely covered with salty coating with crystals. So it doesn't work 100%.
Comment: it might not be 100% but it is better than nothing
Answer: Outdoors you can dig a hole and build SOLAR STILL. It is quick and dirty but works very well and it is time tested.

Or you can put big plastic bag over brach with a lot of leaves on it and put rock on the bottom to capture the water. Make sure you don't do it on foliage that is toxic to people.

If you have the bucks you could get a portable Reverse osmosis filter.
Electrolysis turns the salt water into oxygen and hydrogen then recombine them and the result is pure water.
Comment: +1 for the solar still: but how do you 'recombine' hydrogen and oxygen? other than combusting the hydrogen?
Comment: @HorusKol: You burn them, and make a sizable explosion. Hydrogen is _dangerous_, and the danger arises from particular concentrations, which make it detonate, instead of burning. Also careful with the electrolyzed water. That most likely contains a mixture of bleach and lye.
Comment: My recommendation for solar stills is to look for an appropriate dip rather than dig a hole since you'll sweat buckets digging, which rather defeats the object.

The latter does not help with sea water.

How do I desalinate seawater?


Is a "big ego" necessary for a tenure-track faculty position?

Question: I have worked in a few high profile research institutes for my PhD and postdoc, and find myself a little intimidated by the "strong opinions" and arguments that seem to crop up at the principal investigator level.  My personality is somewhat more laid back or agreeable, and I find myself wondering if this would be seen as a "personality flaw" in the somewhat cutthroat funding and scientific world (or at least that part I am exposed to).  I'm sure it helps to have a strong opinion of one's own work, but I sometimes find it hard to do so, as I tend to be more self-critical and more concerned about stating something correctly and figuring out what is "right" than necessarily being self-promoting and overconfident in my own abilities, but I feel like that ends up manifesting as some sort of fundamental flaw in relation to others I see advancing into the faculty ranks.
Comment: A "big ego" is not a prerequisite; self-confidence and a thick skin are _much_ more important.
Comment: No.  At least, it's not a necessary condition in all fields and at all institutions.  It is necessary in some fields, at some institutions.
Comment: @aeismail Hear, hear! I'll also add that academia certainly has a large share of "big egos", but anytime you have a group of people with power to wield, you will likely have a similar situation. Think politicians, lawyers, doctors, CEOs, etc.
Comment: This is a very curious discussion. The OP said, "I see people in academia as having big egos", and then all the replies were "No, we don't, these aren't really egos", etc.
Comment: @che_kid I like the idea of academics wielding power
Answer: I think a "big ego", or at least a healthy dose of self confidence, is necessary for survival as an academic. Our jobs are one of repeated failure. Success rates on grants, publications, experiments, and job applications are often less than 10%. In the face of such frequent failures an abundance of confidence is a require for maintaining ones sanity. Further, many departments verge on dysfunctional and there is generally someone looking to push you down to get ahead (I am not saying everyone is out to get you, but there is generally at least one person in every department looking to get ahead at your expense.) Being confident, outspoken and to an extent self prompting is useful for dealing with these people. The difficult part is not being too self confident and too outspoken and being able to admit when you are wrong.
Comment: I wouldn't necessarily say "big ego." I would say a "thick skin" is a prerequisite.
Answer: It's important to distinguish inner from outer perspectives here. Someone that is perceived as 'having a big ego' might not feel that way inside, and might be compensating for a bad case of Imposter Syndrome. Or they just might have a big ego through and through :).
As others have pointed out, what you really need is a thick skin, in order to deal with the constant rejection you'll face (jobs, papers, grants, awards, ...). You can acquire a thick skin by having a big ego ("People are too stupid to appreciate my genius") or by being bull-headed ("I don't care what people think: I think this is interesting"), or by other coping mechanisms. This is an internal focus: it doesn't matter what you show on the outside.
Occasionally though, it's helpful to project an aura of confidence and assuredness, most commonly when you're interviewing, or when you're psyching yourself to write a grant or pitch a project. Again, this is an external focus: it doesn't matter how you feel on the inside.
Ultimately, you'll (hopefully) find a harmonious balance between what you project to the outside world, and how you feel on the inside. They don't have to necessarily be the same view though: they rarely are.
Answer: I am sure a psychologist could provide an indepth analysis to a large part of this question. I am not a psychologist so I will try to stick to what I think I can answer. First, it is usually the big and loud heads that stick out and are seen, there are probably just as many quieter academics in similar positions that you do not see or hear.
I am sure it is possible to talk yourself into a top position but not without showing excellence in your science, usually reflected in a publication record and funding success (sadly to a lesser extent teaching). But, the academic record on paper is typically what counts and it would only be in an interview situation between two equally talented candidates that things can be swung. But even then, I do not think the ego would necessarily have an advantage. Then there is the question what happens after you are employed and how one develops as a person but that is out of scope for me.
A problem more timid persons experience is to strike the right tone in pushing ones own merits. Taking advice from entrusted clleagues is a good way forward. But, as a whole a "big ego" in the negative sense is not necessary, a good academic record is.
Answer: A "big ego" is definitely not necessary.  Of all the scholars I have interacted with, the biggest-shots were often less egotistical than the average person.  Especially at the highest levels of academia, the strongest work often comes from those who are willing and able to listen to and improve on the ideas of others.
However, you do need to make yourself heard.  You do need to be bold.  I do not know a single successful tenure-track person who sits on ideas until they are sure that they're right.  You don't find out an idea is right by mulling it over.  You find out by formulating the problem rigorously, by testing a hypothesis, and by subjecting it to the most scathing peer-review you can find (not necessarily in that order, as you might do some of these steps multiple times).  There's no harm in being self-critical or unsure that you're right.  There is harm when that hinders you from taking the necessary steps to find out if you're right.
Answer: You don't need an ego. In fact, ego just makes life more difficult in many ways. All you need is to able to project confidence, and the ability to assert yourself. A simple ability to stand your ground and stand behind your opinions, even if quietly so.
Think about the guy or gal you know who doesn't talk too loudly but everyone listens when he or she speaks. Try to emulate that person, not the egos in the room. People generally dislike people with big egos, but they love people with genuine confidence. People will respect the hell out of you for it.
There are many resources online regarding how to project confidence--I suggest looking there.
Comment: Usually, it is the person with the money, or with the administrative influence, who is being listened to in most meetings.
Answer: Academia, as many other fields, is the survival of the fittest game. If you see PIs with big egos (or rather if most of the PIs you see have big egos), then it means that this is the personality trait that academia cultivates, albeit unknowingly, implicitly and subversively.
Academia is a race against time -- if you hesitate about your research idea for too long, and wait to perfect it, you will either be scooped, or will run out of your time in your (presumably rather junior) position. Submitting something that is just "good enough not to disgust the three referees" that you yourself know isn't the greatest paper, and getting it published, gets you the confirmation of "Aha, I am a smart enough person to game the system". Then you learn to salami-slice it to boost your # of publications; then you learn to attribute collaborative teamwork to yourself when your chair asks you, "How many papers have you published this year?" -- all these things sound a lot like "I, me, myself", and occasional big carrots (your R01 grant; your tenure) are obviously about you. When you do this for 20 years in a row, your skin gets so thick that it looks very much like a big ego from outside.
Don't worry, you will see big egos in most other fields at the higher levels -- think real estate development and golf, which are closely intertwined, anyway; you would not find folks in these lines of work very approachable.


Push notification on Samsung Galaxy Note (GT-I717)

Question: Why is there no push notification or some notification for incoming messages in the screen when the phone is in locked state? I am using Samsung Galaxy Note. When my phone is in locked state, and when I click the power button I see the pattern unlocking screen. When new messages flow in, I just see a mail icon in the top status bar, but no other notifications in the screen. What needs to be done for that?
Comment: What other notifications do you expect?
Answer: If you would like something on your screen in addition to the notification in your notification bar, I would suggest using something like GoSMS with WidgetLocker.
If I'm correct in your understanding, this will do what you want: Set up WidgetLocker to be your unlock screen and then place a GoSMS messaging widget on your lock screen, so you can read the messages immediately.
I don't know if this is what you are looking for, but I hope it helps!


facebook invite friend - Track referrer

Question: I am planning to create a facebook app where a user invites his/her facebook friends using fb API and when that friend/s responds to the invitation and lands on the app, i want to track who of my fb friend referred me to this app. In short, I wanted to ask if is it possible on facebook that we can track the user who invites friend/s to an app?
Answer: The only solution I found was to keep track of which friends a user invites using the Multi-friend selector
Prevent other users from inviting the same friend for 7 days.
If the friend signs up, attribute it to the last user that sent him/her an invite.
The problem with this is that it is not 100% accurate. I too am looking for a better solution.

facebook invite friend - Track referrer


Does it make sense to do an emergency landing without nose gear in order to reduce stopping distance?

Question: Would a pilot decide to land without the nose gear down to increase friction if for example all the engines have suffered a flame-out and there is only a very short runway available ?
Comment: You usually can't select the nose gear to be up with the main gear down.
Comment: One of the (several) reasons this wouldn't normally be a good idea is that it kills a lot of your directional control on the ground. Also, if you're planning ahead to land in a place that is so short that you're so concerned about runway overrun that you're considering intentionally crashing the plane, a better plan is usually to land somewhere else instead. :)
Comment: @RalphJ I'd say that's the exception rather than the rule, i know many aircraft where the emergency release or extension system is a single handle or hand pump
Comment: @RalphJ you can, can you? What aircraft are you talking about, pray tell?
Comment: @egid B-737, all variants.
Comment: If you're going to land on a paved runway, nose gear would help you control the plane. If you're going to land off-runway, decreased friction - not increased - from landing without nose gear is likely to be a gentler crash and do less damage to the plane and passengers.
Comment: @RonBeyer  You can manually extend whichever gear you wish, without extending the others. Probably a bad idea, but certainly possible.
Comment: I can't think of a GA aircraft which allows selectable gear dropping.  The normal mode is all or none.
Comment: If landing with the nose gear would be good, wouldn't a full gear-up landing be even better?
Answer: (Source)
That was the case on July 23, 1983 (but not quite).
It was luck the manual gravity-extension didn't lock the nose gear in position. That has been attributed to the shortening of the landing roll/slide.

Two factors helped avert a potential disaster: the failure of the front landing gear to lock into position during the gravity drop, and the presence of a guardrail that had been installed along the centre of the decommissioned runway to facilitate its use as a racetrack.

However, no commercial aircraft is certified for it, because it can do more harm than good. And depending on the aircraft type, separate controls for each landing gear in manual-extension mode may not exist.
A hard landing without the nose-landing gear may rupture the fuselage, center fuel tank, or hydraulic lines. And with the added sparks from the sliding, that's a recipe for disaster.
Instead, a system such as the engineered materials arrestor system (EMAS) may help:
(Source) EMAS.
Answer: To my knowledge, no established procedures exist for any contemporary civilian airliner that would land with any gear up to decrease landing distance.
However, contrary to other answers/comments, in some aircraft (among others, the B737 NG, check out http://www.b737.org.uk/landinggear.htm for a picture of the manual extension panel) it is POSSIBLE to deliberately lower only selected gear by using the manual/alternate extension system, which usually includes manually releasing the gear uplocks to let the gear free fall to its downlock position. By releasing only the desired downlocks, partial extension can be accomplished.
Comment: I added a reference to the B737NG as a minimum example. This probably applies to several other aircraft as well, however, I am not as intimately familiar with their hydraulic systems to comment on any other particular models.
Answer: The answer to this question is best determined in light of risk evaluation.  Undoubtedly, metal on asphalt has a higher coefficient of friction than a nosewheel.  However, there will likely be some level of repair. It is however, not uncommon for nosegearless (is there such a word?) landings to result in amazingly little damage to the aircraft.
Here's the rub (no pun intended): A metal skid offers less control certainty than a spinning nose wheel. Yes, differential braking on the mains can provide steering, but a skid plate is just not the same as a rolling nose wheel. So not only is the behavior, and noise different for the pilot, but the aircraft attitude will be pitch down. The unfamiliar visual presentation, the unfamiliar noise, the unfamiliar handling characteristics, and the lack of experience conducting similar operations create a higher workload for the pilot, and reduce his ability to rely on common cues.  So I would avoid changing things unless there was an extremely compelling reason to do so.
Forget talking about braking on most gliders.
With the nose wheel steering, one can sashay the plane side to side, especially for a light aircraft landing on a wide runway.  That increased maneuvering can help bleed of additional speed.  Think of it as a way to extend your landing roll.
Also, if the nose wheel has steering command (not a free caster), then the nose wheel will consume some energy during the sashay maneuver, as it will present a side load resistance (friction).
While the nose wheel is less likely to heat up like the mains, and there are seldom fuel tanks near the front of the aircraft, there are fuel lines, and they frequently run near the bottom of the fuselage.  So keeping them off the ground can reduce fire risk.
I always do a "brake check" checking the firmness of the brakes prior to landing.  Once, a C-208 failed that check with a bottoming pedal on the left side.  I landed at a 3500 ft strip, and was able to use beta to slow the aircraft down, and used beta and the right brake to get to the ramp.  Of course a C-208 does not have a retractable nose gear, but it was nice having the directional control of the hose gear during the landing and taxi phase. If 3500 ft appeared to be inadequate, my option was to go to a longer field, and face the scrutiny of everyone there, including the FAA.
One additional thought, I had a checkout in a level D simulator where they simulated tire failures.  I don't know if they could simulate failure of a gear extension.
A more specific answer is possible if you were to define the intended aircraft.
Answer: Near as I know, the answer is no, you cannot nor would you want to.  The friction from grinding the nose section of the aircraft may indeed slow the aircraft quickly but sparks and debris kicked up during the landing could create a FOD and fire hazard.  It would probably be best to land w/ all three gear down and locked and execute a revision short field approach using thrust reversing and braking throughout the ground roll.


How do I move my swap file to another disk?

Question: When I installed doth HDDs were recognised but elementary only gave the option to put things on one. I chose my SSD. It insisted on putting the swap file there too. Can I get access to the other drive now and move my swapfile? How do I do that?
Comment: Consider that most modern installations don't require a swap partition.
Answer: You'll want to access the drives when they're not mounted, so install gparted on a "live CD" or thumb drive, where you'll be able to toss your swap on one disk and create one on another.
Now to activate the partition

Boot up elementary OS again and run sudo gparted. Right-click on the swap drive and go to "Properties".
Copy the partition's UUID.
Run sudo nano /etc/fstab and look at the line with "swap" in its third column. Replace the old UUID with the new one, save, and exit.
Enable the swap with sudo swapon --all --verbose
Confirm its existence with cat /proc/swaps
reboot to make sure it loads
Comment: You don't need to use a Live CD here. You might only run `sudo swapoff -a`, fire up `gparted` and create a new swap partiton and continue by step 2.
Answer: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq
This should basically have all the information you'll need.
Basically make a swap partition(or file) on the second drive and then configure swapon to use it.


What causes fruit taste enhancement?

Question: I'm not sure if this is a biology or chemistry question, maybe both? Some fruits, such as quince and quondong, taste of nothing when raw but have an extremely strong flavour when cooked. Why?
Answer: I am a little confused that does the word "cooked" means ripe?If yes, then the question will be easy to answer. Fruit has a kind of ripener, ethlyene. Ethlyene will help fructose break down and make up more glucose. That is why you may taste a strong flavour when fruit is cooked.
Comment: By cooking I mean literally heated with water in a saucepan. I'm not sure about glucose being the answer though. The 'flavour explosion' of cooked quince, in the mouth, seems to me to be far more than merely additional glucose.
Comment: So, when you cooked the quince (which means the quince got a higher temperature), the fructose would take a chemical reaction, polyreaction. And the fructose was transformed into amino acid. So you may taste sourer than before you cooked the quince. How do you think?

What causes fruit taste enhancement?


Why don't JSE moderators trash unnecessary comments like other SE sites?

Question: I make flagging part of my 360° approach to volunteerism to help maintain the SE network.
I was horrified to realize that I have 61 unhelpful comment flags on my JSE account.
Comment flags: 34 helpful out of 95
What in the world?!? This makes me looks like I don't know what I'm doing and that I am unhelpful in my volunteerism.
I decided to compare this with my StackOverflow account...
Comment flags: 2994 helpful out of 3003

So I decided to investigate how I've gotten the flagging SO WRONG...  Here is a short list of some of the most recent comments that I've flagged that were subsequently denied:

"nice technique!"  (from 2014, no value because answer is upvoted and accepted) Disable script loading in head
"exactly what i was looking for, thks" (from 2016, no value because answer is upvoted and accepted) Override category list of K2 frontend item form
"Thorough answer - well done!" (from 2015, no value because answer is upvoted and accepted) Where is class $tableClass defined?
"@MostafaTalebi, you are welcome and I m glad that I helped you." (from 2016, no value because the system auto-purged the earlier "thank you" comment that I flagged) How to connect to DB in module's admin panel
"Thanks, adaptize your answer for my task, it's working." (from 2018, no value because answer is upvoted and accepted; if the "adaptization" was included, maybe that would add value to the page)
Using language constants in external file
"Glad it helped :)" (from 2016, no value because the system auto-purged the earlier "thank you" comment that I flagged) How to create bulk articles by using php script?
"Best quality answer I've seen on joomla.stackexchange.com so far - nicely done and way to raise the bar. Excellent job!" (from 2014, 47 upvotes and is accepted answer; super-glowing praise/thanks is the same value as any other praise/thanks -- if it was magically "worth" more then this would drive users to be more grandiose about the quality of their praise/thanks which only makes no value comments even larger. What is the proper way to make an AJAX call in component?

At the accepted answer on How can I output each item of a multiple list custom field

"That worked, cheers." (from 2018, no value because the answer is accepted and upvoted) (How can I output each item of a multiple list custom field)
"Oof, that was lucky :)" (too chatty, no value to researchers) (How can I output each item of a multiple list custom field)
I didn't yet flag "Well I wish I had that luck I'd ask a lot less questions on here" that follows because I fear my flag will be declined once again.
The comment from Eoin under jamesgarrett's answer is NOT flaggable because it asks for clarity after saying thanks.
The following comment from jamesgarret was actually to an off-topic comment that I made (and have since deleted).  It is not relevant to the page or Eoin's comment and so should be deleted.  Again, I guess I have lost faith in the flagging process here.

Why is it important to purge the "thanks", "you're welcome", "+1", etc. comments?

Synchronicity with other SE Network sites -- most specifically StackOverflow which is certainly the most likely place where our readers will journey to if they don't find a solution here.  When sites in the same network have varying rules/expectations, users will have a hard time of interacting "appropriately".
The SE software has automated processes in place whereby if a volunteer flags a comment that contains certain keywords ("thanks", "+1", etc), the comment is instantly deleted.  https://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/353809/2943403 Why? Because it is useless noise: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/258004/2943403  So why should our human moderation layer have a different take on what is and is not worth saving?
The placeholder text on comment fields says:

Use comments to ask for more information or suggest improvements. Avoid comments like "+1" or "thanks".

So why send a mixed message about how to use the site?  This makes the decision less of an opinion and more of a matter of "If you don't like the rules/expectations around valuable comments, then you should contact the owners/designers of StackExchange and ask them to change the policy that presides over ALL of the sites".
By condoning these comments, some new users believe this is how you "mark" an answer as a preferred solution.  This does not apply to all, but I have seen sufficient evidence of this on multiple SE sites.
When one or more answer - but not all answers - receives a "this worked for me" comment, then researchers may be swayed away from considering later answers that the OP hasn't actually seen (because they haven't revisited the site).
For people who want JSE to be a more social/chatty/informal site, I will urge another channel to be used.  Open a JSE chat room, or start up a Slack group, etc., whatever, I'm not bothered.  Let's just not deviate from the grand design of the SE Network.
For answers that have been accepted/upvoted, the "thank you" comments represent redundant appreciation.  These are the mechanisms designed to issue "thanks".  When a new user does not yet have the privilege to issue these forms of thanks, then consider this quasi-relative post from Jeff Atwood about "paying it forward" https://stackoverflow.blog/2011/01/08/how-to-say-thanks-in-an-answer/
For answers that have NOT been accepted/upvoted, when a "thank you" comment is presented, that should be an instant trigger for volunteers/moderators to educate the user about how to best interact with the community and refer them to links which speak about reward processes.
By retaining all thanks and you're welcome comments, the site culture will come to EXPECT these gestures as standard protocol.  A cycle of site bloat would take effect.  Then, when a user DOESN'T say thanks or you're welcome then they seem rude.

Are these bits of noise overwhelming THIS site? No, not now, not yet, but it does perpetuate behavior that the system is designed to prevent.  I'm not a grinch. Have I ever said:

Good golly, that is an inspired, comprehensive, and professional-grade solution!!!

Yes, yes I have, and will probably will do it in the future.  However, I do so with intent to remove my own comment after I feel that it is received or has lived long enough to be received.  This is MY trash to get rid of.
The overarching design is that all or nearly all comments should be considered to be as disposable as toilet paper.  This is Q&A, not Q&A&C.  It is not a forum.  It is not a social network.  Those services are already provided elsewhere.  Comments have no permanent record or version history (compared to answers).  Bad/incorrect/unnecessary comments cannot be downvoted to devalue/disincentivize them.  If there is a good piece of advice in a comment that should be made permanent, then that would indicate that the answer should probably be edited to include the note.  Comments are second-class citizens.  To train our community's members to act appropriately, we must role model the correct behaviors and remove traces of unnecessary interactions because new users will emulate the behaviors that they witness here.
Effectively, this is a plea to the 3 moderators here to recalibrate their stance on flag acceptance.
If anyone wants to make this community "warmer" / "more human", then I will urge you to take steps to allow this online community to transcend into the offline.  Can JoomlaDay events offer "Not a Robot" badges to JSE users? If we want to treat each other as humans, let's go out and actually be social and congregate in Meetups and Conventions.  You can be absolutely sure that looking someone in the eye and telling them how much time their answer saved you in terms of money and time will resonate deeply. (You might even buy them a beer.)  Offline, REAL friendships can be initiated and nurtured.  This is inclusive.  This is powerful.  This is lasting.  This is Joomla!  Giddy-up!
Comment: I was wondering where all these flags were coming from... as it was not clear to me. Now I know. Personally, I haven't declined your flags in most cases, although I felt that dealing with this all the time was a bit noisy, so after a point I event stopped checking those flags (generally I didn't have much time recently to dedicate on JSE). To be honest, I didn't read all this post - it looks too long to go through it... but anyhow I know what's the case with the thank you comments - but I tend to agree with Lodder regarding JSE.
Comment: If this is the will of JSE moderators, please modify the placeholder text of comment fields because they do not match your collective philosophy.
Answer: I have looked more into the "Thank you" comments on other Meta sites. Some are for, and some are against.
Those that are for have the same opinion as me, in which they believe it's nice to leave a polite comment on the answer as a token of appreciation, in addition to an upvote. So this is my reason for declining your flags.
In addition to this, JSE is not as popular as other Stack Exchange sites so filtering out the "noise" isn't required as much. It's much different when it's 1-2 comments vs 200 comments.
That said, If I saw for example, 10 "thank you" comments on the same answer and you flagged them, I'd delete them.
I would not worry so much about the declined flags. The fact you've taken the time to help out on JSE is much appreciated and shows dedication.
Comment: I agree Lodder - JSE does not have a real problem with this kind of noise content and I also like a few "thank you mate", or "you make my day" type of comments.


Skoda rapid 1.6 diesel, 2013.. engine oil burning

Question: My vehicle just has first service two months back. And then engine was burning the oil. I didn't see any smoke coming backside of my vehicle. There is no mileage problem or pickup or power problems. Everything's fine. I didn't see any leakages too. But sometimes in running randomly the engine doesn't move with the accelerator. It just moves in same speed. It doesn't responds to the accelerator. What will be the problem and how much cost it takes to repair for individual problems? Can you help me with this?
Comment: How much oil is it burning, exactly? If it doesn't respond to the accelerator, maybe the RPMs are too low and you're simply lugging the engine? Does downshifting help?
Comment: Till now I didn't put any pressures on the engine. After the first service I just used it for 2000kms. Then I noticed that the engine was running roughly, I checked the oil lever and it's empty, the oil was just a bit to the lever. Then I put another 4 litres oil in it. Then again after 2000kms the oil was empty. That's the situation now.
Answer: If the oil levels go to the empty mark in just 2000kms, then we definitely have a problem here. Generally the 1.5/1.6 engines run healthy for around 8K-10K kms without oil levels dipping drastically or the oil getting burnt. The only visible difference we get on running on the same oil for 10K kms are that the oil gets black in color and also loses viscosity. Thus, it is advised to change the oil at around 5-6K kms (non-synthetic) and around 8-10K (synthetic).
Coming back to your problem, I would suggest you to look out for these symptoms, for diagnosing whether the oil is getting burnt or its getting leaked:

Engine Temperature-If the engine heats up abnormally after a normal ride (temperature meter above the middle mark towards HOT), then the oil pump may have issues. The oil is not getting circulated evenly across all the nooks and corners on the engine block and thus local regions of engine are getting extremely hot, and thereby the oil is getting burnt.
Color of the smoke from exhaust: If the smoke is black in color under normal acceleration, then there is a high chance of oil getting burnt in the engine.
Fuel Efficiency: If you are burning oil in the engine, then your fuel economy will fall drastically.

So, if you see any of the above points to be present in your car, then you can be sure that the oil is getting burnt in your engine.
However, if you do not see any of the above symptoms, there you do not have the problem of oil burning, now the investigation can shift to finding out if there is any leakage. Here's how you can find it:

Park the car overnight in a clean garage. Check the garage floor on the following morning. If you see oil marks (don't confuse the AC drained water to be oil), then the sump or an oil line is leaking. Easy job, just find out the leak and plug it.
If you do not see any oil mark, then you can put the car in a dyno, rev the engine and check if there any leak from the engine block due to a blown gasket. You will need a trained technician to find it out.

If you still do not find any matching symptoms, then I would suggest you get the compression checked in all cylinders. There may be an issue with the piston rings placement and thus the oil can be leaking from improperly set pistons rings. As you mention that your engine is quite new, there can be a problem with the way the engine was 'run-in' during its 'breaking-in' stage. This problem can be diagnosed by checking the compression of the engine.
All the best!


Android app with basic food and exercise logging per day

Question: I ideally want an app for Android with less focus on calory counting, that simply logs what foods and exercise I've done that day and shows it in the same page.
Comment: I would still go with My Fitness Pal (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.myfitnesspal.android&hl=en_GB)  Simply enter food and exercise and ignore the calories count at the bottom of the page.  It requires no extra effort, the food is clearly displayed, as is the exercise, with the bonus that if you ever change your mind, all of your calorific history is already there.
Answer: health-pie The complete family health app for android user with all the option from

Medication Reminders
Health Information
Vaccination Reminders
Medical Records
Vital Charts Tracking
Comment: Your answer does not address the question's requirements: logging foods and exercise.


Can I Assassinate my queen?

Question: I'm playing Medieval 2: Total War and my king has cuckold as one of his many attributes.  Cuckold reduces his authority by two.  Given that he is the king and has assassins at his disposal, this has raised the question of whether it is possible to assassinate or otherwise "deal with" this troublesome spouse?
Answer: Unfortunately you can't. Queens (and princesses once they are married off), don't appear as characters on the campaign map, so there is no way to interact with them (such as with the pointy end of an assassin).
Answer: You cannot assasinate your queen, in fact, you can assasinate just the princesses on the map(active,not married),just if they are from other countries. So,no you can't assasinate your queen. Better let her pass away.

Can I Assassinate my queen?


Where can I find data sets that have no API?

Question: I am putting together a tutorial on how to build APIs and I was curious if there are any open data sets that do not have an API attached to it.
Comment: On what topic? The web is full of datasets.
Comment: pretty much anything. The tutorial is aimed at programmers and non-programmers to show how easy it is to turn a large data set into an API.
Comment: What do you qualify as 'no-API'?  There are libraries and toolkits for working with existing formats.  Eg, so that you can interface w/ CSV data without having to write the CSV parsing yourself.  If you're looking for data that's available as an existing web service, this may not suffice as an API (and thus, what you're looking for)
Answer: Another option would be to look at the datasets registered to a US government agency on Data.gov and then contract that list against known APIs from that agency.
So - for instance, filter for datasets from the US Department of Transportation on Data.gov and compare that list against the APIs listed for the Department of Transportation on this page (Cmd/Ctrl+F for 'Federal Aviation Administration' and start there).
Disclaimer: I am Sr. API Strategist at the General Services Administration.
Comment: Very nice idea!
Answer: ICPSR at the University of Michigan has a bunch of social science-type datasets, which might work for you.
Answer:
Hackernews' list of on databases: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2165497
US GOV: https://www.data.gov/open-gov/


Mark Safari tabs with different colors?

Question: Is there an extension or a plugin that allows for marking different tabs with colors ?
I want to be able to group together a bunch of tabs that are relevant under one color using Safari.
Answer: Unfortunately the range of extensions available for Safari is pretty limited, and no one has written such an extension at this point.
Also having written an extension or two for myself in the past, there is no way to access the tabs and colour them in any way, so it would not be possible.
It may be worth looking at another browser such as Google Chrome, or Firefox.

Mark Safari tabs with different colors?


Yes/No radio buttons: Vertical or horizontal Alignment

Question: Currently looking at a long form with a lot of "yes/no" options presented as radio buttons. Is there any evidence to suggest that displaying radio buttons aligned vertically or horizontally is preferable?
Comment: I know this is a question about radio buttons but have you though about turning the Y/N radio set into a single check box? Users then only have to read one label and the check the box if they agree with it.
Comment: Not sure I understand what you mean -- aren't radio buttons circular? Could you add a screenshot?
Comment: From [Nielsons AlertBox](http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040927.html) Lay out your lists vertically, with one choice per line. If you must use a horizontal layout with multiple options per line, make sure to space the buttons and labels so that it's abundantly clear which choice goes with which label.
Comment: how many makes many? :)
Comment: Andrew: I mean stacking them vertically as here http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=radio+buttons+yes+no&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1920&bih=1099&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=Q0N8SPUgufly0M:&imgrefurl=http://asciicasts.com/episodes/184-formtastic-part-1&docid=_BoRXL-mrnr9mM&imgurl=http://asciicasts.com/system/photos/220/original/E184I07.png&w=801&h=477&ei=mFypT8HtCM2P4gTgj_TQCA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=229&sig=112512504520275310180&page=1&tbnh=90&tbnw=151&start=0&ndsp=57&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:72&tx=89&ty=49 or horizontally with the yes/no side by side
Comment: Ah, thanks! I think the biggest factor is how many of those questions are in a row -- it might be confusing to have 5-6 of those types of questions in series.
Comment: This has been proposed further down (apologies, not sure who was first!) but as someone else has commented, checkboxes are not so good where explicit choices need to be made, and need more effort from the user who needs to read and understand whether the question implies the current state of the checkbox is yes or no)
Answer: I am not aware of the available studies but here are a few thoughts.
Horizontal display seem to be easier to visually scan for all answers since you have "Yes" on one side and "No" on the other. It also I think makes it easier for the user to check all the answers the same way; you just move your cursor down (check, check, check).  So I am leaning towards horizontal arrangement.
Comment: I agree.  I've created hundreds of Yes/No questions for insurance applications and this is the conclusion I came up with as well.  The only difference is that in my case I position the radio buttons to the right of the question.  But either way works well.
Comment: Nice mockup, makes it clear what you're talking about
Comment: Horizontal as we are taught in the western world to read from left to right so that makes the horizontal option seem more natural.
Comment: From a UX perspective checkboxes are better suited if you just have 2 oposing options.
Comment: Agree with Horizontal alignment is easier to scan. However this may differ in smaller mobile screens.
Answer: I'm not a fan of horizontal layouts for radio buttons for four big reasons:

As soon as you have more than two choices, it becomes difficult to see which label belongs to which radio unless you use a lot of padding. That can cause problems.
Horizontal radio designs do not work if the line wraps. It looks like two questions. This means that you can only add a limited number of options to your radios, and can't translate your app into a language with potentially longer UI text. And because you want to be using the same pattern for all radio buttons in your app, that's a significant constraint. In large projects, constraints are like kryptonite - something to avoid at all costs.
Because users have trouble resolving items buried in rows, horizontal designs aren't great if a user might enter a form looking for a particular option or answer to provide (common in config forms)
You need width, and that's limited on the web. You can expand vertically easily, but you never want to force users to horizontally scroll.
Comment: In general what I've found is that if you're dealing with enough options that you're going to have a problem with wrapping you should absolutely use a vertical layout as you say.  But in the case of a simple Yes/No response, I prefer the options to be horizontal and aligned from question to question.
Comment: @SteveWortham That's fine, but what if some of your questions might not fit this pattern? Swapping between horizontal and vertical is probably bearable between forms, but in a single form things will look inconsistent. You can't guarantee that requirements won't change to make that constraint a problem.
Comment: I totally agree and would have provided the same answer if this one was missing. More to read on radio button alignment: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa511488.aspx
Comment: Point 1 doesn't count in this question as this is about yes/no, nor is Point 4.
Comment: @TomWij - it does, because the pattern the OP implements will have to be used for all radio buttons on the form for  consistency. And you can't guarantee that requirements won't change to make other radio questions necessary - requirements *always* change in unexpected ways.
Comment: @JimmyBreck-McKye - The decision becomes harder at that point.  I could see that becoming a good reason to make everything vertically aligned.  But I've worked on multi-page forms where the Yes/No questions compose the overwhelming majority of the radio button based questions.  So I'll still arrange them horizontally, and the few questions with 3 or more options might be vertically aligned.  If spacing is used correctly, then this inconsistency won't necessarily be a problem.  Everything can still be clear to the user.
Comment: If it weren't for those darn constraints, I could leap tall projects in a single round.
Answer: I agree with Anna Rouben's answer.  However, my layout is slightly different...

The goal here is to maximize readability and scannability.  And this is the layout I've used for hundreds of questions in the past.
A couple notes...

Horizontal Radio Buttons are preferred when the options are short and concise and are guaranteed to fit on the line without wrapping.
I'm right aligning each question in a table cell to make it easier to associate the question with its corresponding Yes/No response.
The Yes/No options are vertically centered within their table cell so they line up nicely with a question, even if that question takes up several lines.
Comment: @J.T.Houtenbos - True, but checkboxes have a default state, meaning that the user can answer without having to do anything at all. This can heavily weight the responses as illustrated in this organ donor example... http://danariely.com/2008/05/05/3-main-lessons-of-psychology/
Comment: Checkboxes are even shorter and more consise.
Comment: that is true. If you need to know for sure someone made a (conscious) choice while filling out the form this is the way to go. Also this way you will know by the blanks if someone skipped a question.
Answer: It should be vertically aligned. Quote from Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines:

Prefer to align radio buttons vertically instead of horizontally.
  Horizontal alignment is harder to read and localize.

Source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa511488.aspx
Comment: When the options are longer e.g "Don't display this list item" vertically aligning makes sense. However in Yes no questions, aligning horizontally makes it easier to read.
Answer: Thanks for all the answers. I think my view is now:

If it is Yes/No only, then side by side can make it easier to check answers assuming the line doesn't wrap, and particularly if there are a lot of responses in this form. This checking could be enhanced by putting a shaded box around the bullet to highlight the response. I agree with Steve that putting the 'positive' answer on the right would be in keeping with the style used elsewhere on the site ("OK" button to the right of "Cancel", "Next" on the right etc.)
For more answers, or answers which we expect to increase in length when the language changes, listing vertically is preferable

I'm not sure how mobile usage would affect this problem but I'm inclined towards vertical as width is typically at more of a premium.
Comment: I would put the choice that is more important first. If there will be lots of No answers, put Yes first, for example, on a New Patient admission form, the listing of medical conditions (dozens of them, few of which any one person has). Then the user can just scan down and hit Yes a few times, with everything defaulting to No otherwise. I suppose checkboxes are better in situations that No is assumed... Oh well.
Answer: If this will ever be used on a mobile device, a horizontal alignment works better for 2 reasons.
One, you'll need to provide adequate space around each radio button so that users aren't likely to accidentally select the wrong one. I think a horizontal layout with generous space between the radio buttons will look more polished than a vertical layout with generous space between the lines. Likewise people are more likely to gestalt-group a horizontal pair of radio buttons with a good amount of space between them than a vertical pair. You could strengthen the connection between them either way by putting some sort of box around or behind them.
Two, your form will take up much more vertical space if you put the radio buttons on separate lines. That may make it seems like it takes forever for a user to scroll through on a mobile phone.
Answer: In a future "Yes/No" will be replaced with "Like", said fb founder (just a joke)
In this case your question: "Do you like drink coffee every day?" Like/Unlike
Comment: Ha Ha, "*Have you ever been in a car accident*?" Thumbs Up!
Answer: Like @AnnaRouben, I agree that the choices are probably clearer and easier to scan when laid out horizontally. However, I would like to add that you should always allow users to select 'No Answer', otherwise some of your data will be meaningless.
<code>Do you drink coffee every day?
(o) No answer    ( ) Yes      ( ) No
</code>
People need the ability to change an incorrect answer back to No Answer if they mistakenly click or do not understand the question, or if neither choice applies to them.
Comment: FWIW, I would use "N/A" or "Does not apply" or something similar rather than "No Answer." I think there is a big potential for confusion using the word "No" here in a Yes/No question format. Also, I would put it *after* the "Yes" and "No" options, since (unless your questions are not well-written) it will be more likely that the question will be answered "Yes" or "No."
But I strongly agree with the above two commenters, and am offering something to consider when a question is well-written and a neutral answer is appropriate.
Comment: I don't think this should be a standard because it really it comes down to the language of question itself. If the question could lead to confusion or ambiguity, fix the question, not the options.
Comment: Since when is there a universal obligation to provide a neutral answer? In some cases it's useful, in others it isn't.
Answer: The horizontal is easier to scan since there's a strong visual differentiation between the Yes and the No. It also forces the choice to be more accurate, because the radios are farther apart. But the vertical is easier to fill, since you don't have to zigzag with your mouse, you just move it down in a straight line.
For speed, stack them vertically. For accuracy, lay them out horizontally.
Comment: I'd be interested to see a study done on a vertical/horizontal layout specifically considering Fitt's law.

In a horizontal layout - Is it slower to move your mouse a little to the right to click on 'No'? Probably. But in a vertical layout, do users accidentally click on one answer when they meant to click on the other because of the proximity? Does it take longer to home in on the correct choice because the two options are closely stacked vertically? Another thing to ask is, will this ever be put on a mobile device? And how will the decreased area affect the accuracy and speed?
Answer: Microsoft lot of funny guys ...
Vertical presentation is preferable as they write and they put horizontal presentation for the question at the end of the article to know if the topic answer the question...
Have a look http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa511488.aspx
So for me, specially for yes and no radio button horizontal is better.  And as it is written try to align them for a list of yes or no to be able to check quickly
Answer: If you have multiple yes/no type of question, I would go with the horizontal layout.
It will speed up the process as the user will quickly notice the pattern and click on the right or left choice without even focusing on the actual text beside the radio
Answer: Does it have to be a traditional radio button if it is only a yes/no?
My answer is no.
Comment: I never thought of a *diagonal-ly* layout.
Comment: You've been drinking too much!
Answer: If it is strictly yes/no you should be using a checkbox. The control exists for a reason, it has both true and false in a single item. Now there is no vertical/horizontal dispute.
Comment: Not true for all situations. If you want people to consciously choose between 2 options a radio works better because it forces a choice, a single checkbox as a choice in this context can't be a required field.
Comment: @Wander You could force the checkbox to an undesirable option so that the user has to click it to turn it off: "*Are you a murderer*?" Uncheck.
Answer: I go with vertical.
It seems more readable on horizontal against vertical, maybe; but the difference comes when you resize a lot the screen or you open it on a mobile phone.
When the controls become very small it's easier to select and option with vertical radioButtonList (although it has only 2 options) against horizontal radioButtonList.
Comment: Why the downvote?


Machatziz hashekel

Question: How much money is a Machatziz hashekel.
Comment: Related: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/5685
Comment: The comments to this question are related: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/16261/chad-gadya-the-price-of-a-kid-goat?lq=1 -- 1/2 Shekel is 2 zuz
Comment: Also related: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/27516
Comment: What is a "Machatziz hashekel"?
Answer: The Shekel in the Torah was a measure of weight of silver.
Rashi (Exodus 21:32) says the Shekel is "half an ounkia as used in Kolonia"; to translate from Old French, half an ounce as was used in the German city of Cologne.  The shekel is generally understood to be about half a troy ounce; the Chazon Ish is quoted as saying the shekel is 0.51 troy ounces.  (See this article for many more details).  So a half shekel is about a 1/4 of a troy ounce.   (That's about the same weight as the new American gold-colored dollar coins.)
Today, silver is worth about $18.70 per troy ounce; taking $18.70 / 4, it looks like right now, a half-shekel's weight of silver is worth about $4.70.
Answer: According to the Rambam (Hil. Shekalim 1:2), a shekel was originally the weight of 320 barleycorns of silver, and this was later increased to 384. So half a shekel would be, respectively, 160 or 192 barleycorns. According to measurements given here a barleycorn is around 1/20 of a gram, so half a shekel would be 8 or 9.6 grams. This comes to about 0.25-0.3 troy ounce.
(For purposes of pidyon haben, where five silver shekalim are required, there are customs to use as much as 117 grams of silver. This would make half a shekel, 1/10 of that amount, 11.7 grams or 0.38 troy ounce.)
Comment: Alex, I think we answered this one simultaneously -- and as you can see, though with different sources, basically the same answer.
Comment: Sort of, although it was my understanding that Rashi and Rambam actually disagree about the weight of a shekel. (Ramban used the proof from the shekel coin that he saw in Israel - discussed in the post at On the Main Line that you linked - in favor of Rashi's value.)
Comment: Yes.  But the figures are all in the same ballpark.
Comment: @Shalom, although I can read barleycorn much more fluently than ounkia ;)

Machatziz hashekel


Replacing Slingshot

Question: Is there any way I can replace the slingshot launcher? I have an old netbook with little screen "real estate" something like the GNOME 2 style menu would be better.
Answer: No, this is not possible as the applications menu is a component that is built to work with wingpanel (the top bar with the clock and the other indicators on the right side) and this is not fundamentally compatible with GNOME menus or components.
There are however some hidden settings (acessible via dconf or elementary tweaks) that allow you to reduce the number of rows and columns of icons shown in the menu by default.

Replacing Slingshot


Difference Between "View" and "Viewpoint"?

Question: Suppose the context is people giving their opinions in a discussion.
How are "view" and "viewpoint" different?  Some dictionaries seem to say they are the same.  What do native speakers think?
Comment: I'm not a native speaker, but when I use the word *view*, I subconsciously focus on *the way* I view that sth., and when I use the word *viewpoint*, I subconsciously focus on *where* I view that sth. from. Kind of when I watch TV, the screen is my view, and where I sit is my viewpoint.
Comment: Which are the dictionaries that say they are the same?
Answer: I think this is a case where most natives don't think that hard about these words and use them almost interchangeably.
Having said that, if I were to draw a distinction, I'd say that a view expresses what is seen and that a viewpoint expresses the position from which the viewing occurs.  Quite often though, what is seen is tightly coupled to where you're looking from.
Therefore somebody's view on a subject lays out their observations and conclusions.  Their viewpoint (in the vernacular- where they're coming from) informs those observations and conclusions.
For example:
Somebody's views on pit bulls might be that they should be made illegal. They might think this because their viewpoint is one of having had a child mauled by a pit bull.
Someone else might have the view that pit bulls are not inherently dangerous and that they can be as sweet or as ill-tempered as any other dog based on how it was raised.  They might think this because they're coming at it from the point of view of having grown up with a pit bull as a family pet that was the "sweetest most well-behaved dog ever".


What do the the different arrowheads mean in a cell signalling diagram?

Question: What do the different arrowheads mean in the figure below? Are there arrows upstream or downstream signalling?
Comment: Hi and welcome to Bio.SE! This is pretty standard notation. The arrowhead is a promotion, and flathead is an inhibition.
Comment: Hi James! Thanks for the answer! Do you happen to know any resources in general for these notion? and other types of pathway like dotted lines and etc?
Comment: i dont know the usage of dotted lines @Tom
Comment: There is an interesting proposal paper by Hiroaki Kitano. However  all books should provide a table of all molecular biology notations and conventions but unfortunately these are not yet available.
Answer: Arrowhead interpretation
As I said in my comment and to add to @AlwaysConfused's answer, the arrowhead is a promotion, and flathead is an inhibition.
Typically, any other notation such as dotted lines would be explained in the figure legend of the illustration.
The below definitions are generally accepted and widely used.
But don't take these definitions for granted; there are no strict usage policies for these diagrams.
Different groups may use different nomenclature and symbols.

These definitions were taken from a legend in cellsignal.com.
Upstream and downstream
The arrowheads are not necessarily linked to up and downstream signalling.
Generally, the direction of the arrow indicates upstream/downstream.
However, at a glance, this has even less standardisation than the arrowheads.
Sometimes, like in the example in the question, upstream is generally at the top, and downstream is at the bottom.
Other times it is from left to right, or right to left.
There are many examples of cyclical events which the only way to tell is by following each arrow "path" for a particular signal.
Comment: Thank you this answer will help me greatly.
Answer: The blunt head arrow means inhibition i.e. suppression.
i. e.
A -----------|  B
means A suppressing B. the factor at the arrowhead is being supressed. The factor at arrowtail is an suppresor for the other factor.
The pointed head arrow means activation or increasing activity.
A -------------> B
means A is increasing activity of B. Factor at arrowhead is being activated. Factor at arrowtail is an activator for the other factor
Answer: The "normal" (green here) arrowheads stand for a positive effect of the upstream factor or protein on the process or protein it points to. For instance, it means amino acids activate TORC1. Instead, arrows that end with a line (red here) stand for inhibition. For instance, rapamycin inhibits TORC1.
Answer: Oxygen, amino acids , energy level and growth factors are activating TORC1 gene (growth factors also cause TORC2 activation).
Then further TORC1 gene  promotes translation, cell cycle and metabolism, but inhibits autophagy. Whereas TORC2 promotes cellular metabolism and cytoskeleton.
Rapamycin and Stress inhibits TORC1.
Green arrow is used to show stimulatory effect and Red flathead  is used for showing inhibiting effect.
These arrows have nothing to do with upstream and downstream signalling.
Read further about this https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/cell-signaling/mechanisms-of-cell-signaling/a/intracellular-signal-transduction


What is the origin of the client server model?

Question: I was wondering if someone knew the origin of the client server model. Where does the term come from (paper, software application, book)?
Answer: This is a good question.
It appears that the term server was commonly used already in 1960s. For example, RFC 5, which was published in 1969, already uses the term, and it seems that it was in a common use already back then.
However, the term client in this context seems to be much more recent; the earliest references that I was able to find are from 1978. The following paper seems to be the earliest hit:

Jay E. Israel et al. (1978): Separating Data From Function in a Distributed File System.

I did not find the full text of this paper. It seems that it was published in the Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Operating Systems Theory and Practice, which was held in October 1978. A preview is available here; I am quoting the relevant part (emphasis mine):

The distributed file system (DFS) is so named because it is implemented on a cooperating set of server computers which together create the illusion of a single, logical system. The other computers in the network that use the DFS for creating, destroying, and randomly accessing files are called its clients (we employ the term "user" to stand only for human users; programs that access the DFS are always called clients).

This looks like a good candidate of the first paper that uses the client-server terminology. Note the way it is written: the authors clearly assume that the reader is familiar with the term "server", but they are here introducing the unfamiliar term "client"—so strange that they have to justify its use.

I checked various resources, including the digital libraries of IEEE and ACM, and I was not able to find any hits that predate 1978. However, already in 1979 there was at least one paper that is boldly using the new term "client" in its title. Unsurprisingly, it is citing Israel et al. (1978).
OED knows the term, but again the earliest use is by Isreal et al.

Edit: Here are some further comments on the term "server". Looking at various papers written in 1960s, it seems that the term "server" was primarily used in the context of queueing theory; there a "server" can be any kind of entity that provides some service.
Whenever a "server computer" was mentioned in computer science papers written in 1960s, it was typically related to the applications of queueing theory in the context of computer systems. Perhaps this is the origin of the term in our field?
I am not sure what is the first instance of a "server" used in this sense without any direct connection to queueing theory.
However, RFC 5 from 1969 that I mentioned above seems to be already using the term "server" in the context of client-server systems and computer networks, without any explicit references to queueing theory. Of course the term "client" was not introduced yet, so they used the words "server-host" and "user-host".
Answer: Originally the "Client-Server" model of computing was a little different to the dumb terminal to mainframe earlier models and the later web browser to backend web server models.
With Client-Server systems there was a sharing of processing between parts of the system, with the server handling the data and the client retrieving this data and then performing additional processing on it and managing it's graphical display.
One of the first examples of this was with Oracle Forms 4.0, released in 1992. An Oracle database server responded to requests over a TCP/IP network from a PC-based client running the Oracle Forms application. Data management and retrieval was handled by the server and the client processed the returned data and the user interface to this.
It was during the development of Oracle Forms 4.0 that I first heard the phrase "Client-Server" used during a customer familiarisation event at Oracle's HQ in Redwood Shores CA in May 1991. The words "server" and "client" were often mentioned but had not previously been coined linked together. Richard Moulding of the British company BT first started to use the phrase Client-Server during discussions. This was quickly picked up by the other participants, it then making its way into product literature and hence into general use in the computing community.
Later web-based client-server systems initially had lighter clients due to the simple web browsers available. The client then being limited to displaying the interface prepared on the server. Later browsers with Java and scripting tools enabled data to be manipulated in the browser, a more similar model to corporate client-server systems like Oracle Forms.
Comment: Telnet and FTP were client-server systems running in the early 1970s, although the RFCs specifying them don't use the word "client". The [DNS](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc882) was specified in 1983 and does talk about both clients and servers. So I don't think Oracle Forms was an early example of client-server computing. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Client%E2%80%93server_model#Early_history](Wikipedia) puts the roots of the term in the 1960s.
Comment: I agree that the roots of term are definitely in the 60s. Lots of talk about hosts, terminals and later clients and servers from the 60s and 70s. Its a matter though of when Client-Server was brought together as a term to describe systems. As I said, I don't remember the term used until the early 90s, though I'd be happy to agree that it could easily have been coined earlier.
Comment: ..oh and Telnet, FTP and even early Web based systems were not what was meant by Client-Server systems originally. C-S systems specifically meant a sharing of an application across the client and the server, with each performing what they were best at. That meaning that the server handled data update and retrieval and the client handled further data manipulation and sorting plus the GUI. Dumb terminal systems (like Telnet) had little or no terminal-side processing.
Answer: Perhaps it's easier to understand client-server computing and distributed processing if one looks at the history of networking. The ARPAnet came into being in the 1960s using Honeywell minicomputers as message processors. By 1973 ARPAnet supported transferring files across the network.
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) released DECnet 1.0 in 1975. It supported network connections (LAN and WAN) between minicomputers and mainframes, providing functionality such as file transfers, remote logins and virtual terminals. In the late '70s, Datapoint shipped ARCnet, a LAN that supported resource sharing and file serving.
Before the IBM PC arrived, a number of companies were selling CP/M systems (8-bit computers). Those micro systems typically had floppy drives. Because hard drives were expensive, there was a demand for a solution for sharing a hard disk. Several companies jumped into the market with file server products that would enable a CP/M computer to share a hard drive. Local area network operating systems from Novell and Corvus supported file sharing by CP/M computers before the IBM PC gained widespread acceptance, and later added disk and printer sharing for PCs.
Novell was founded in 1979 and it initially manufactured and sold hardware, including smart terminals, a dot matrix printer and the Nexus, a high-end CP/M-based workstation ($13-$18,000 dollars).
Novell's claim to fame for the Nexus products was that they would eventually connect to a Novell LAN that was in development. Novell's printers, terminals and Nexus computers did not sell well so Novell's leadership decided to re-organize the company and after 1983 it focused on software, file servers and boards for networking. Novell NetWare sales exploded in the 1980s. Novell had the predominant file server in terms of sales, but it was not the first file server
In 1984 Sybase was founded and it introduced the SQL client-server architecture, distributed processing with the SQL database on a server and applications running on clients that sent query requests to the server.
Comment: Welcome to [cs.se]! This is a nice history but it doesn't actually answer the question, which is about the origin of client-server computing and of that term, not about the whole history of networking. You don't claim that any of the systems you mention was the origin that is being asked for.


1:4 Guanella unun current balun

Question: I am having trouble understanding the 1:4 Guanella current balun here.  So at DC, or low frequencies, I think the current path would be a short to ground.  At higher frequencies, I am getting confused on how the current path through the lower coax's inner conductor, whose return path is along the shield of the outer conductor, behaves.  I get the concept that power is conserved, so if the voltage doubles, the resistance must quadruple (P=V^2/R).  But, why does the voltage double?  Does the extra current returning on the shield of the upper coax lower the ground potential?  Or does it double the returning current on the shield while the inner conductors current is left unchanged?
Comment: Is this from http://home.scarlet.be/on9cvd/E-Transmissielijn%20trafo%27s,%20voorbeelden.htm ?
Comment: Yes I did!  You're explanation below, including your added link really clarifies it.  The on question that confuses me still is the ground that is added on the right side of the lower coax.  The confusion being that current would not flow from ground to ground, nor can there be a voltage drop across it.  Thanks for the help on this!
Comment: Yeah I'm not really sure what that 2nd ground is meant to indicate. Since it's drawn with dotted lines, I'd guess the author is somehow trying to indicate this is "not really" a ground, which is important because the potential there may not be (in practice, probably won't be) equal to the potential at the other ground. I'd just ignore it, really.
Answer: It may help to consider that this:

is equivalent to this:

The lines above the transmission line indicate it is wound on a ferrite. Because only the common mode affects the electromagnetic fields outside the coax, the ferrite increases the common mode impedance but does not affect the differential mode. To simplify analysis we can assume the common-mode impedance is infinite, and so the common-mode current must be zero.
The second diagram indicates two separate windings instead of coax. Because a differential current in the windings creates opposite magnetic fields that cancel, differential current doesn't "see" the core, and differential mode impedance is unchanged, whereas common mode current "sees" the core and a higher (assumed infinite) impedance. The mechanism is slightly different but the effect is the same.
Having accepted the equivalence of these two constructions, you should be able to follow other explanations of a Guanella balun.
Comment: Hi Phil, I have been thinking about the equivalency a lot.  I agree differential current will not see the core in the lower picture.  However, in the coax, you have current traveling down the inner conductor, and in the opposite direction on the inner wall of the shield conductor.  The current that is added to the shield of the coax (from the signal pin of the lower coax) would travel on the outside braid of the shield conductor and not 'see' the inner conductor.  The return current therefore should be 2i and there is not longer a differential current, its would be i going down, and 2i return?
Comment: @ErikMcKee It seems like you are assuming there will be some shield current in the upper coax besides what's drawn in the image, but there is not. The shield current isn't 2i, it's just i. The center conductor is also i but in the opposite direction. There is no common-mode current. There can't be a significant common-mode current, because the common-mode impedance is very high.
Answer: The voltage doubles because the two coaxial cables are connected in parallel on the input side, but in series on the right hand side.
In the diagram, there shouldn't be a little i in the middle of the upper coax, no common-mode current can flow there.
This trick doesn't work with batteries at DC, it just shorts out the supply, but at RF the choke, shown as the dotted lines on the upper coax, effectively disconnects it from the rest of the circuit. The coax through that choke, or wound around that core, is like a magic non-connected tunnel between left and right.
The twin-coax unun has very good high frequency performance because the two coax lines mean that the added voltages on the output are always in phase. The low frequency limit is where the choke no longer provides an impedance that is several times the output impedance, which depends on the ferrite, but within reason there is no impact on the high frequency performance by using a larger core and/or more turns. If the high frequency performance isn't important, say you only need 1.8 to 14 MHz, then the lower coax can be omitted entirely. This is also what you get from a 1:4 bifilar-wound unun on a single core.
Comment: Which little i are you talking about? The top and the bottom coax look identical, so if current can flow in one, why not the other?
Comment: The i in the middle of the upper coax, inside the choke. When the coax is drawn "closed" we have to assume this is common mode current, and there isn't any (top i = 0). The rest are all ok, including the common mode current on the lower coax (which is required of an unun)
Comment: Ah! I hadn't considered to think of it like that at all. Could be worth expanding in the answer.

1:4 Guanella unun current balun


Why do we assume the moment is zero when analyzing a simply supported beam?

Question: When calculating the reactions of a simply supported beam under any type of loading we assume that the moment about the reaction points is zero. What if our assumption is wrong and in actual practice there is a rotational effect about that point? Why do we make such inappropriate assumption?
Comment: @Ethan48's answer is quite sufficient, but just as an aside: the assumption in statics of "sum of moments equals zero" applies to any point whatsoever, not just around reaction points. In a simply supported beam, you can check for moments around each of the supports or around the midspan or even around a point in empty space. We almost always choose to calculate the sum of moments around a support for the simple reason that it eliminates variables since all the force reactions from a support generate no moment around the support itself (though moment reactions must still be considered).
Comment: Awareness of this assumption is important. I was analyzing a canoe with three people in it, and ended up with a non-zero moment. I had assumed the canoe was level. Rotating the canoe to obtain a zero moment produced a tilt that was consistent with empirical measurements.
Comment: Note that we consider equilibrium condition  so sum of Moments = 0
Answer: This rule is typically applied when studying statics. Static means that your structure or object does not move. If the moments didn't all add up to zero, that would mean there was a net force action on the object, which would cause it to accelerate and move. Since it is static and not moving, we know that whatever forces are acting on the object, they must add up to zero. If you were studying something that moves like a see-saw then the moments might not add up to zero and there is potential for the object to move, but if you're studying a beam in a building you can be sure that the moments add to zero unless the building is falling down!
Comment: More to the point, a see-saw is not a simply supported beam.
Answer: This is something of a nonsensical question, as zero moment is not an assumption here but part of the definition of this class of beam problem. A "simply supported" beam is any beam that can be represented as supported at one end by a hinge/pin and at the other by a roller (or, sometimes another hinge/pin). These are, again, classes of supports that represent real-world objects; in particular, they represent real-world objects that are not capable of transferring a moment to the member they support. By definition.
"Rotational effect" is not a meaningful term. The requirement that moment is zero means that the ends of the beam are free to rotate. However, if you meant what if there is a nonzero moment transferred at the support(s) of an actual beam, the answer is simply that the type of analysis used for the "simply supported" class of problem would no longer apply.
If you chose to represent a real beam as simply supported in your analysis and then found that there was actually a moment being transferred at one or both ends, the only bad assumption would be that this real beam could accurately be represented as a simply supported beam. You would have to classify it as something else. Not every real-world beam can be adequately analyzed using some common framework like "simply supported" or "fixed-fixed" or "cantilever"—some problems are more complex, and don't have a name. Some, we don't have an analytical solution for at all.
Answer: I got it as we can observe there will be no rotation because of the supports so that is the reason we take moment about that point as zero
Comment: Rohit, welcome to Engineering SE. [You are welcome to answer your own question](http://engineering.stackexchange.com/help/self-answer) but this comes at the risk that your answer will be down voted if it is incorrect or lacks explanation. If you are just making your best guess, sometimes that works better as part of the main post or as a comment on another post.