How to send a spacecraft to the moon without any acceleration

Question: I have two (maybe equal) question
1- Is this possible to send a spacecraft to the moon without any acceleration(Constant speed)?

2-Is this possible to throw a ball on the top of tree without any acceleration(Constant speed)?

Thanks
Comment: Do you expect them to stay there when they arrive?
Answer: Constant speed and no acceleration is obviously not possible, unless you only consider a certain time frame which does not include the start or the end of the trajectory. Plus you'd have to limit yourself to purely classical, macroscopic scales, because on molecular/atomic level, everything is constantly accelerating. Having said that:
1) Is it possible to send a spacecraft to the moon without any acceleration?
While this is theoretically possible, it is certainly not technologically possible. Moving at constant speed to the moon would mean you're not in an orbit, and you're thus constantly preventing falling back to the Earth (or to the Moon). You'd have to force the spacecraft from the Earth all the way up to the moon for it to maintain constant speed, which is possible but probably the least efficient way to get to the Moon. If the spacecraft is 1kg, taking this path would require more rocket propellant than there is mass in Mount Everest (rough numbers here...)
But, you might actually be surprised:
If you mean no active acceleration, e.g., thrust (I suppose physicists would call that induced acceleration), then yes you can, provided you start out in a specific spot in space (not even necessarily Lagrange points). This is called a low energy transfer. In scientific circles it is called the weak stability boundary, a very active field of research. You can view it as taking advantage of chaos in the context of the three body problem (or $N$-body problem, usually).
A popularized version of this is the interplanetary superhighway, which enables  spacecraft to travel to distant planets using very little or no energy at all.
The only drawback of all this is that it usually requires an awfully long time. A simple trip to the moon might take weeks or months (depending on how little energy you want to expend), whereas a few days would suffice if you had rockets.
2) Is it possible to throw a ball on the top of tree without any acceleration?
I'm not sure I get what you mean with this...You want to throw a ball to a treetop without accelerating it? I'm very curious to see you do that...
But let's assume you mean the same as before, then the answer is the same as well. If you have a rope or so from the ground to the treetop, wrapped around some pulleys, you'd have a basic elevator. This elevator can carry your apple up at constant speed, no problem.
You should only close your eyes when you start the elevator, and close them again when the apple reaches the top, but otherwise, there'll be no acceleration at all :)
Answer: No.  How would you get the object to your constant speed?  If it starts at rest, and there is no acceleration, it will remain at rest.
If you allow for a brief acceleration, it might be possible with the spaceship but it would be extremely difficult to burn the fuel in exactly the correct way to counteract the Earth's gravity to allow for constant acceleration.
In the case of the ball, no. Unless your ball has some form of propulsion to counteract the force of gravity, it will accelerate downward on the path to the top of the tree.
Comment: elevator also has brief moment of acceleration
Comment: @Emma, How does the elevator get to its constant speed if not by accelerating?
Comment: @Emma do you actually mean, "Is it possible to maintain velocity (constant speed) after a known initial acceleration?" - Please consider revising your question...
Comment: if we use an elevator(Constant speed) , so the answer of both question is yet no ?
Answer: If you can throw them with 0.999999 c , then it will be nearly perfectly constant speed(~c)
Comment: Numerically, and taken relatively, yes. Physically speaking: no. Acceleration near $c$ means changing energy. If you consider not speed, but energy (as you should do when near $c$), things most certainly still are accelerating normally. Therefore, going near $c$ has no effect on acceleration, and can be left out of consideration.
Comment: I thought he wanted "warp" tech.
Comment: If warp was a "real" acceleration, then Kirk and Data would squash into the walls of Enterprise in the first moments of warp.
Comment: No, they woulnd't. Take a look [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive).
Comment: If we have warp drive technology, can we just assume we have teleporters as well and use them instead?
Answer: There is a way to get to the moon without using any rocket power to accelerate the spacecraft. It's called a Space Elevator. This is a cable that stretches from the earth to geostationary orbit (GEO, 35,786 km). It also needs to stretch beyond GEO, in order to counterbalance the weight of the cable below GEO. How far it stretches depends on whether a counterweight is used at the top of the cable, and how much mass is in the counterweight.
As you climb up the cable, your orbital speed changes and when you reach GEO you have exactly the speed required to stay in that orbit. At that point, you could let go of the cable and float alongside it. Below GEO you would fall back, and above it you would actually move away from the earth. Depending how far out you travel along the cable, you could get enough speed to fling you even to the outer planets.
Of course, you're still using acceleration; you're just not aware of it as all you're doing is to travel along a cable at constant speed. As you travel up, you'd experience less and less gravity, reaching zero at GEO. Beyond that, you would start feeling an outward g force, throwing you out from earth.


How to calculate Trace function for a point on an elliptic curve

Question: I encountered trouble with calculating Tr (trace function) for points on an elliptic curve in polynomial basis ( $GF(2^m), m = 431$). Maybe there are any assumptions that can simplify and allow efficiently to calculate Tr operation?
I used the Seroussi approach to decompress points but it seems like I need some basic knowledge.
Answer: Let $E$ be an elliptic curve defined over $F_q$, and let $\#E(F_q ) = q +1−t$. In this case, $t$ is called the trace of $E$.
Also, $\#E(F_{q^n} ) = q^n + 1 − V_n$ for all $n ≥ 2$, where $\{V_n\}$ is the sequence defined recursively by $$V_0 = 2, V_1 = t,\text{ and }V_n = V_1V_{n−1}−qV_{n−2}$$ for $n ≥ 2$. In your question it's enough to compute $V_{431}$.
For more details, see Guide to Elliptic Curve Cryptography.
Comment: The Trace of Frobenius (t) is not the same as the Trace function (Tr) operating on curve points.
Answer: For a point $p = (x, y)$ on a curve $E(F_{q^k})$, where $q$ is prime and $k$ is the embedding degree of $E$, the trace map is defined by
$$
        \mathbf{Tr}(p) = \sum_{i=0}^{k - 1}(x^{q^i}, y^{q^i}).
$$
I am not sure how that maps to curves with a polynomial basis, though.
There is a very good discussion of the r-torsion and the trace map in section 4.1 of Craig Costello's book Pairings for Beginners, which is very similar to section 2.3.1 of his PhD thesis.


What's the best way for guitar and piano to play together in a jazz quartet?

Question: Guitar and piano are both used for chordal accompaniment in a jazz band. So I wanted to find out what's the "best" approach to have this two instruments playing together in a jazz ensemble (quartet) without the two stepping on top of each other?
Comment: Hmm… that might bring some interesting answers. I've never thought about it intellectually, but I've played in bands with 2 guitars + keys/piano & the good ones can get out of each others' way inside 2 bars & never fall over each other again.
Answer: As a guitarist, if I'm playing with a pianist, I usually do a couple of things.
If I haven't played with them before, I'll usually lay off a bit in order to get a feel for how the pianist wants to approach the comping. I tend to adapt my paying around my bandmates when I'm comping.
If the pianist wants to do some complicated rhythmic stuff, I tend to go for more of a play-the-chords on the downbeat style. I don't think having two compers lay down quick uncoordinated 16th-note rhythms really suits most jazz styles, at least not with a bandmate trying to solo over them.
If the pianist wants to go for some complicated outside substitutions and stuff without really telling me beforehand (and really, they should tell you - common courtesy), I might just play some countermelodic phrases to the solo. That way, I'm not in anyone's way, and I can still add things to the musical soundscape of the band.
On the flip side, I've also played with some pianists who mostly just laid down chill chords within each measure. With that kind of groove, I often find myself starting to play more syncopated comping paterns, filling in more.

General advice: Listening is the single most important skill to have when accompanying a solo, and it's pretty darn useful in basically all musical performance. If you can hear space for yourself within the sound, go ahead and play in that space. If not, you shouldn't barge your way into the song. It's not your turn to solo yet!
There are two things you're responsible when a bandmate's soloing: Rhythm and Harmony. Often, the harmony can be implied with very simple phrases and chords, so I like to keep it simple where I can (especially with a second accompanist). The rhythm is more what I focus on, but you'll likely have a drummer and bassist to help with that.
My philosophy is to keep it simple. No need to bust out your fanciest chops, you're just in the background. The best accompaniment is often the one that the audience never realizes was being played at all! Use good judgement in your comping, and remember that you'll probably get in more trouble for trying to do too much during someone else's solo than for not doing enough.
Comment: Good insights. I'm often on one side or the other, and if I haven't played with a particuar guitarist or piano player before (me doing the opposite), I tend to be a little sparse, listening. problem is, that really doesn't give the oppo much of a clue! He probably thinks that's what I do - or don't... so, communication verally is best. It also depends an awful lot on the number played, and how the soloing is shared. Compromise by trading fours! Agree about the best accompaniment - Freddy Green lives on.
Answer: This is a tough call.  Where on the finger board is not really helpful.  The bigger issue will be two people comping simultaneously and having the rhythms clash.  Do you have a Bass in the group?  If not you could always play a sort of walking chord melody bass line in the lower register.  That would fill up space and keep the steady groove going and act as a background for the piano to comp.
Is the guitarist the "front man (woman)" like Wes, Kenny, Pat, etc?  Or a supporting instrument?  I ask because a lot of guitar front men may lay out while others are soloing.  Wes, Kenny Burrell, Pat Martino, and others are considered virtuoso guitarists but also play solid rhythm.  If you are the guitarist I'd listen some the approach of some of the greats and see how they approach it.  Like I said earlier, two or more folks comping will be a disaster.  The key is for them to gel and play off each other in a way that is mutually supportive.  It has been my experience that guitarists often defer to the piano and let them comp while keeping a steady percussive groove going.  In this manner the guitar is acting similar to bass and percussion.  This is similar to a classic big band style of playing, and probably not ideal for a small group, but the formula works.  Neither player should be over-doing it on the comp as that would kill the mood for the head and the soloist.  Depending on the song and its mood/style the guitar can just play chords on the 1 of each measure and let them ring.  This works on more etheric tunes.  It's about creating a mood.
As for what to play, yes everyone should be playing the same changes/chords.  You can try and get creative and have the piano and guitar play complementary poly chords but it may be guilding the lily.  This also depends on whether you are arranging scores for the group or just playing out of the Real Book.  In the later case everyone will be improvising and comping, you all have no control, so the players need to be self aware and good listeners.  They all need to play as a team and not compete with each other.  If they are seasoned players this will come naturally.  If this is a new venture you all are going to need to feel each other out.  If you are arranging scores to follow to the letter, again I'd recommend listening to classic version and stealing ideas.
Comment: *"Is the guitarist the 'front man (woman)'?"* Is the pianist the 'front man (woman)'? :) I laugh, but I imagine the guitarist's role would be quite different in Kenny Burrell's group than, say, Bill Evans'...
Comment: Why all the down votes on this answer?  Comments are helpful
Comment: I don't see any downvotes anymore. Maybe they rethought it? Either way, your answer has my (up)vote of confidence.
Comment: I just saw a -15 attached to this answer.  Maybe it was the accepted answer then changed.  Thank
Answer:
Don't play full 6 string chords, but partials (look at the LCJO tutorial on YouTube).
Don't play all the time.
Listen a lot.
Listen some more to the Nat King Cole Trio with Oscar Moore or John Collins.
Comment: This are very good pointers, it will be great if you could expand on them for a clearer picture.
Answer: I play piano myself, and I recently played with a trio with guitar and bass for the first time.
My experience, as a piano player, when having a solo, was that the tight, clustered left hand chords (Bill Evans) worked not so well with the guitar comping underneath. The alterations may clash, especially when the guitarist used tight voicings of his chords. The right hand could work in the normal way.
So I ended up simplifying the left hand both rhythmically AND harmonically, often using only two notes (7th and 3rd) and often laying it down straight on the beat. The thinner voicing allowed for some rhythmic activity as well, and this was welcome since we didn't have a drummer in the band.
When the bass player had soloes, I simplified my left hand even more, frequently playing on the downbeats, with the guitar comping exploiting the off beat chords. And alternating comping from tune to tune also works well.
Everybody need not play all the time. The variety in sound is just another pre in a small combo jazz band, I think.
Answer: Find out where your guitarist likes to play on the fretboard, then go to a different register on the piano keyboard. What to do will be very different if the guitarist wants to play open-string voicings or spend most of the time somewhere above the 12th fret, an octave higher.
Comment: So what do you do when you get to the 12th fret? Do you also play the same chord changes or what?


Active Directory set up with replication -- need a way to control login authentication host

Question: I have two Active Directory servers set up with replication, ad2 and ad4.
ad4 has a higher latency than ad2 as it is offsite.
All clients are supposed to log in and authenticate to the ad2 server.
The problem is that every once in a while ad4 will be the login server
servicing the login request.
I can tell because the login script shows a message dialog with the
ad server that serviced the login request.
Are there any threshold settings (number of users, wait time)
that I can change on ad2 and ad4 to always get ad2 to service
login requests / authentication?
Answer: It sounds like you need to use the "Active Directory Sites and Services" snap-in to define the subnets, physical locations (known as "Sites") with well-connected subnets, and connections between sites (known as "Site Links") that make up the physical network underlying your Active Directory (AD) so that your domain controllers can make good replication decisions and clients can make good decisions about which server computer(s) to use to service logons. Without a description of the physical topology of your network all the various parts of the server and client operating systems that rely on communication to Domain Controller (DC) computers are basically "flying blind" and have no ability to judge which DCs are physically close and, thus, more efficient to communicate with.
Once you've informed AD about the physical layout of the network you should find that things "just work" a lot more effectively. Don't worry too much about balancing load for "number of users"-- that's not going to be a factor once you've got the sites and subnets defined (unless you have a really, really bad user-to-domain controller ratio or a very high rate of logons). I think most of your problems are coming from the fact that you haven't told AD anything about the physical topology of your network. (There are some deeper "tweaks" that can be performed in DNS to influence selection of DCs within a given site but, basically, clients "roll the dice" and communicate with any DC in their site. That's always been good enough for me in production deployments.)
All this tweaking with sites, site links, and subnets is really just changing what's stored in DNS. The clients use DNS to determine which site they're located in (by looking-up their subnet) and, once they know that, they use DNS to locate DCs to communicate with. The actual DNS records that do the work are the "SRV" resource records (RRs) stored in the "_msdcs.domain.com" DNS zone. Obviously, for all of this to work clients must have access to a DNS server that can return records for the "_msdcs.domain.com" DNS zone. It's generally preferred to use a DC as a DNS server (because Microsoft has made this configuration "just work" very well), to not specify any non DC-based DNS servers in client network configurations (i.e. don't put the ISP DNS servers as "secondary" DNS servers in DHCP scopes or "hard coded" on clients / servers), and always be sure that every physical location has a DNS server on-site such that a WAN / VPN failure doesn't remove all DNS services for the clients in that physical location.
I'm making the assumption here that you haven't bridged a single IP subnet across multiple locations. If you have done that you'd be better served with changing your network topology to use multiple subnets, rather than trying to "hack" AD to handle such an odd topology.
Robert Moir wrote a nice overview of what Active Directory sites "mean" for another question. I'd have a look there.
As an aside to this, you need to think about having at least one DC in each site ticked as a Global Catalog (GC) server, as well. The procedure to set a DC as a GC is really straightforward and you should have one in each site (even if you don't necessarily understand what they're for). Ticking every DC as a GC isn't really the best idea, though in an environment as small as yours it wouldn't make much different. In larger environments, though, more is not necessarily better when it comes to GC replicas.
Answer: What you are describing is most likely completely normal.  If a local DC is unresponsive for a short period of time, the client will contact any another DC in the domain, regardless of location.  (Windows 2008 there is a new setting that makes the next closest location more efficient).  There is actually a very sophisticated algorithm that Windows clients follow, called the DC Locator.
It is possible to make the process more deterministic by configuring Sites and Site Link costs (if you have not done that), and by using the Priority and Weight of the SRV DNS records in the _msdcs subdomain. Clients attempt to contact the server with the lowest priority. Weight is a load-balancing mechanism that is used when selecting a target host from those that have the same priority. Clients randomly choose SRV records that specify target hosts to be contacted, with probability proportional to the weight.
DNS returns a list of IP addresses that match the target domain in the SRV records (that is, IP addresses of domain controllers in the specified domain) that are sorted by priority and weight. The client pings each IP address in the order returned. The ping is a UDP LDAP query to port 389. The client pings each domain controller from the list. After each ping, the client waits one-tenth of a second for a response to the ping (or to any previous ping), and then pings the next domain controller. Choosing the domain controllers at random provides a first level of load balancing. Doing multiple pings in quick succession ensures that the discovery algorithm terminates in a finite amount of time.
Note that when a client establishes a connection to a DC, it creates an affinity (sometimes referred to as "stickiness") with that DC.  Windows Vista/2008 and later clients will attempt to rediscover domain controllers every 12 hours by default, and that is configurable with group policy.  There is also a hotfix to enable this behavior for Windows XP/2003.
More information:
How to optimize the location of a domain controller or global catalog that resides outside of a client's site
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306602
SRV Resource Records
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc961719.aspx
Domain Controller Location Process
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc978011.aspx
DsGetDcName function
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms675983%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
Enabling Clients to Locate the Next Closest Domain Controller
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc733142%28WS.10%29.aspx
Types of Locators
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc978019.aspx
Answer: I'm going to assume (maybe incorrectly) that you have AD clients at the remote site and that that's why you have a DC at that site. If so, then as Evan stated you'll want to set up Active Directory Sites and Services for both sites/subnets. The KCC will then build a replication topology between the DC's based on the ADS&S configuration. As it stands now you've probably got replication traffic traversing the WAN based on an Intra-Site replication topology rather than an Inter-Site replication topology.
The DC locator on each client will then find a DC in it's closest site to authenticate to. Make sure to configure the DC at the remote site as a GC (or enable Universal Group Membership caching in the NTDS Site Settings for the remote site).
If I'm wrong and you don't have AD clients at the remote site, why do you have a DC at the remote site?


Story of origin of the Godavari river?

Question: I heard that the Godavari river is believed to be "river Ganga of South India" and has some story behind the origin of it. Can someone please explain the origin of Godavari river as per scriptures?
Comment: It is dedicated to sage Gautama who killed a cow unintentionally.
Comment: But it is said that because lord shiva hit his hairs on the stones of Bramhagiri Godawari come into existence on land
Answer: The story of the Godavari river is told in this excerpt from the Kotirudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana.  In this account, the sage Gautama, who is a mind-born son of Brahma, is engaged in Tapasya (deep meditation) on the Brahmagiri mountain when there is a hundred-year drought in the area and thus crops can't grow.  So for the welfare of others, he starts engaging in Tapasya to Varuna the ocean god, who appears before him after six months.  Varuna denies Gautama's request for rain, because it would go against the wishes of the gods, so Gautama instead asks for "divine everlasting water yielding permanent results."  So Varuna tells Gautama to dig a ditch, and then Varuna fills it with divine water and says this:

O great sage, let there be a perennial supply of water in this ditch that has become sacred.  This will becomes famous on the earth by your name.  Charitable gifts made here, rites performed here, penance pursued here, the sacrifices done here for the gods, and the Shraddha offered here to the manes, everything will be imperishable.

So Gautama and other sages in the area come to the new body of water and start planting crops and the like again.  But on one occasion, Gautama sends his shishyas (disciples) to get water, but they're stopped by the wives of the other sages, who want to get water first.  The disciples complain to Gautama's wife Ahalya, who goes to the body of water and collects water before everyone else.  The other sages are furious at this petty incident, so to get revenge they pray to Ganesha, who appears before them.  The sages ask him to force Gautama to leave his hermitage; Ganesha first advises them not to try to harm someone who has only done them good, but they insist.
So Ganesha approaches the sage Gautama, taking the form of a feeble cow, and starts eating Gautama's crops.  To shoo the cow away, Gautama throws some blades of grass at it, but as soon as the grass touches the cow he sees it fall dead.  Gautama is shocked that he has committed Gohatya (cow-killing), a supreme sin in the Hindu religion, so he takes his wife and leaves the hermitage in order to undertake an arduous course of repentance that involves circumambulating the Brahmagiri mountain, going around confessing his sin to everyone he encounters, and making Lingams to worship Shiva.

Finally Shiva appears before him, and Gautama asks to be made sinless.  Shiva laughs and says that Gautama hasn't committed any sins, and that Gautama is such a great sage that even looking at him makes other people sinless.  In any case, Gautama asks Shiva for Ganga to be brought there, so that he and others could be purified of their sins.  So Shiva gives Gautama "the essence of the earth and heaven" (whatever that means), which was apparently Gautama's inheritance from his father Brahma, and I guess Gautama uses that essence to summon the goddess Ganga.  Shiva tells this to Ganga:

O goddess, till the advent of the Kali Yuga, when the son of Vivasvat shall be the twenty-eighth Manu, you shall stay here alone.

I think this is a scrambled translation, by the way; there are only 14 Manus who rule in a given Kalpa, not 28.  It probably means "till the advent of the 28th Kali Yuga, when the son of Vivasvat shall be the Manu", because the current Kali Yuga is the 28 Kali Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara.  And it probably means the end of the Kali Yuga, not the beginning, because the Godavari river is still here.
In any case, Ganga says that she'll only agree to stay if Shiva also stays there, so Shiva manifests himself as Tryambakeshwara (meaning the three-eyed lord), one of the twelve Jyotirlingas (Lingas that appeared after Shiva manifested as a pillar of light.) Here is a picture of it:

So Ganga agrees to stay there as a new river, initially called the Gautami river but now known as the Godavari river.  Gautama and his disciples bathe there to purify themselves of sin.  And even the sages who tried to take revenge on Gautama are eager to get rid of the sins.  Ganga is initially reluctant to purify these men who had been so cruel to Gautama, but then Gautama convinces her to relent and he digs a ditch for her to emerge from and purify the sages of their sins.  That ditch is the famous Kushavartha Thirtha at the Tryambakeshwara temple.
On a side note, like many parts of the Shiva Purana, at least some of this account seems to be a later interpolation, because it apparently references the Pachayata, a group of five gods who are worshipped in the Smartha sect founded by Adi Shankara, so it's an anachronism.  Also, the reference to Ganesha may be a later interpolation, because references to Ganesha in the Mahapuranas are few and far between.
You may also be interested to know that this apparently isn't the first universe that had a Godavari river in it; the next chapter of the Kotirudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana gives an account of how a similar story occurred in a previous Kalpa.
Comment: @VineetMenon This Wikipedia article says "Kusavarta, a kund is considered the symbolic origin of the river Godavari." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimbakeshwar_Shiva_Temple So I assume that means it's not the literal place where it originates.  But even if it doesn't originate exactly at Kushavarta, presumably it originates very close to there.  Maybe it initially travels underground and then emerges above ground at Kushavarta.
Comment: @VineetMenon Yes, I was right.  Kushavarta is a spring, so the water travels underground (from who knows where) and then it emerges above ground through the spring.
Comment: I'm curious, does Godavri river originates from this same _kunda_ geographically?
Comment: Rishi Gautama is NOT a mind-born son of Brahma, he is the son of Rohugan.
Answer: The Rudra Gita from Varaha Purana refers to origin of river Godavari.
Rudra gita is from Chapter 70 onwards of Varaha Purana.
Rudra explains the origin of pashupata religion and in the process the origin of River Godavari occurs in Rudra gita in Varaha purana.
The details are from the following blog
http://narayanastra.blogspot.in/2012/05/sri-rudra-gita-varaha-purana.html?m=1
rudra uvAcha |
asti bhAratavarSheNa vanaM daNDakasaMj~nitam |tatra tIvraM tapo ghoraM gautamo nAma vai dvijaH || chakAra tasya brahmA tu paritoShaM gataH prabhuH |uvAcha taM muniM brahmA varaM brUhi tapodhana || 71.(10-11)||
Meaning: Rudra said -  In Bharatavarsha, there is a forest called Dandaka. A brahmaNa named Gautama was performing severe penances there. On account of his penances, Brahma was pleased and asked him to seek a boon.
evamuktastadA tena brahmaNA lokakartR^iNA |uvAcha sadyaH pa~NktiM me dhAnyAnAM dehi padmaja || 71.12||
Asked by Brahma, the Creator of the Worlds thus, Gautama said, "O lotus born! Give me an abundance of grains!"
evamukto dadau tasya tamevArthaM pitAmahaH |labdhvA tu taM varaM vipraH shatashrR^i~Nge mahAshramam ||chakAra tasyoShasi cha pAkAnte shAlayo dvijAH |lUyante tena muninA madhyAhne pachyate tathA |sarvAtithyamasau vipro brAhmaNebhyo dadAtyalam || 71.(13-14||
Meaning: Having asked this boon, Pitamaha (Brahma) granted it, and the rSi built a great Ashram in SatashRnga. Every morning, the rSi could reap the grain, cook it at noon and offer it to all his guests including the rSis  and brahmaNas.
kasyachit tvatha kAlasya mahati dvAdashAbdikA |anAvR^iShTirdvijavarA abhavallomaharShiNI || tAM dR^iShTvA munayaH sarve anAvR^iShTiM vanecharAH |kShudhayA pIDyamAmAstu prayayurgautamaM tadA || 71.(15-16)||
Meaning: The rSi became accustomed to this routine. However, a great drought occurred which lasted for 12 years. Distressed by the lack of food and drought, the rSis  living in the forest went to Gautama.
atha tAnAgatAn dR^iShTvA gautamaH shirasA nataH |uvAcha sthIyatAM mahyaM gR^ihe munivarAtmajAH ||evamuktAstu te tena tasthurvividhabhojanam |bhu~njamAnA anAvR^iShTiryAvat sA nivR^itA.abhavat || bhu~njamAnA anAvR^iShTiryAvat sA nivR^itA.abhavat||nivR^ittAyAM tu vai tasyAmanAvR^iShTyAM tu te dvijAH |tIrthayAtrAnimittaM tu prayAtuM manaso.abhavan || 71.(17-19)||
Meaning: Seeing the approaching rSis , Gautama paid respects to them and asked those sons of munis to stay at his Ashram. Having told thus (by Gautama), the rSis  stayed there eating a variety of foods until the drought was over. Once the drought ended, those brahmaNas desired to undertake a tIrtha-yAtra.
tatra shANDilyanAmAnaM tApasaM munisattamam |pratyuvAcheti saMchintya mIrIchaH paramo muniH || 71.20||
Meaning: Then, the great muni mArIcha spoke regarding this matter to one going by the name of Shandilya, who was the best among munis doing penances.
mArIcha uvAcha |
shANDilya shobhanaM vakShye pitA te gautamo muniH |tamanuktvA na gachChAmastapashchartuM tapovanam ||evamukte.atha jahasuH sarve te munayastadA |kimasmAbhiH svako deho vikrIto.asyAnnabhakShaNAt || 71.(21-22)||
Meaning: Maricha said - O Shandilya! Gautama muni is like a virtuous father (to us). We should not leave this tapOvaNaM (place of penance) seeking other places without telling him.When spoken to in this manner, all the munis then laughed, saying, "Have we sold ourselves to him (Gautama) for partaking of his food?
evamuktvA punashchochuH sopAdhigamanaM prati |kR^itvA mAyAmayIM gAM tu tachChAlau te vyasarjayan || 71.23||
Meaning: Having spoken thus, they talked of leaving the place again and decided to go, creating a wondrous (illusory) cow, letting it loose in the Ashram.
tAM charantIM tato dR^iShTvA shAlau gAM gautamo muniH |gR^ihItvA salilaM pANau yAhi rudretyabhAShata |tato mAyAmayI sA gauH papAta jalabindubhiH || 71.24||
Meaning: When Gautama Muni saw that cow wandering around in his Ashram, he took some water in his hands and splashed it on his body. Then that illusory cow fell down even as a drop of water.
nihatAM tAM tato dR^iShTvA munIn jigamiShUMstathA |uvAcha gautamo dhImAMstAn munIn praNataH sthitaH || kimarthaM gamyate viprAH sAdhu shaMsata mAchiram |mAM vihAya sadA bhaktaM praNataM cha visheShataH || 71.(25-26)||
Meaning: Seeing that cow slain thus, the munis proceeded to leave. Gautama, turning around, bowed to those munis and asked them, "For what purpose are you going so quickly, O rSis , leaving me, who is ever your devotee, who is always obedient to you.
R^iShaya UchuH |
govadhyeyamiha brahman yAvat tava sharIragA |tAvadannaM na bhu~njAmo bhavato.annaM mahAmune || 71.27||
Meaning: The rSis  said - "O mahA muni! So long as the sin of cow slaughter remains with you, we shall not eat your food".
evamukto gautamo.atha tAn munIn prAha dharmavit |prAyashchittaM govadhyAyA dIyatAM me tapodhanAH || 71.28||
Meaning: Hearing them speak thus, Gautama, who was conversant with dharma, asked the munis – "You who possess the wealth of penance give me (instructions) as to the prAyaschitta for killing the cow".
iyaM gauramR^itA brahman mUrchChiteva vyavasthitA |ga~NgAjalaplutA cheyamutthAsyati na saMshayaH ||prAyashchittaM mR^itAyAH syAdamR^itAyAH kR^itaM tvidam |vrataM vA mA kR^ithAH kopamityuktvA prayayustu te || 71.(29-30)||
Meaning: "This cow is not dead but only unconscious. If it is bathed in the waters of the Ganga, it will rise up, there is no doubt. prAyaschittaM is for actual killing. For this sin, the mere performance of this vrata will suffice. Please do not be angry (about our leaving on this account)". So saying, they left.
gataistairgautamo dhImAn himavantaM mahAgirim |mAmArAdhayiShuH prAyAt taptuM chAshu mahat tapaH ||shatamekaM tu varShANAmahamArAdhito.abhavam |tuShTena cha mayA prokto varaM varaya suvrata || 71.(31-32)||
Meaning: When they left, the intelligent Gautama went to the mighty Himalayas, where he undertook a great penance to worship me (Rudra). I was worshipped by him for 100 years and pleased with such penance, I asked him to seek a boon.
so.abravInmAM jakaTAsaMsthAM dehi ga~NgAM tapasvinIm |mayA sArdhaM prayAtveShA puNyA bhAgIrathI nadI ||evamukte jaTAkhaNDamekaM sa pradadau shivaH |tAM gR^ihya gatavAn so.api yatrAste sA tu gaurmR^itA || 71.(33-34)||
Meaning: He asked me to give him Ganga of great ascetic merit held in my matted locksand to let go half of that sacred bhAgirathI river to follow him. Being asked thus, I granted him that auspicious river from one part of my matted locks. And he led the river to his place where the cow still remained.
(Note – Ganga is called "puNya" as it arises from the lotus feet of vishNu, which Rudra received on his head. The river is also already called bhAgIrathi here. However, this incident can be construed as happening before bhagIratha brought the Ganga to Earth, because otherwise Gautama did not need to do penance. Since the narrator is Rudra, he calls this river "bhAgIrathi" to show that it was the same Ganga requested by bhagIratha as well. This is actually the origin of the godAvari river.)
tajjalaplAvitA sA gaurgatA chotthAya bhAminI |nadI cha mahatI jAtA puNyatoyA shuchihradA|| taM dR^iShTvA mahadAshcharyaM tatra saptarShayo.amalAH | AjagmuH khe vimAnasthAH sAdhuH sAdhviti vAdinaH || 71.(35-36)||
Meaning: Washed by that water, the cow rose up as a beautiful woman. The river became great and passed through sacred places. Seeing that phenomenon with wonder, the sinless saptarSis  came there in their vimAna-s saying "very good"!
(Note – It should be understood that this Ganga is not the celestial Ganga, making bhagIratha's penance a necessity to bring it back to Earth. This part of Ganga became known as the Godavari)
Comment: Rather than citing a blog post, it's better to cite an actual translation of the Varaha Purana.  Here's the relevant chapter: http://gdurl.com/Mpft By the way, is this the only text that's called the Rudra Gita?  I vaguely remember some other Purana having a much longer text called the Rudra Gita.
Comment: @Keshav - I got this info from the blog and blog authors are very knowledgeble than most of us on hinduism stack exchange. But for this blog i would not have known that such a episode exists and they have explained  it very wonderfully. So, the credit goes to them and not to me. Hence, i make it a point to put a reference from where i obtained it. The credit goes to blog authors as it exactly answers the question. I didnt do any search. Why is there any restriction that this blog link shouldnt be provided?
Comment: Well, generally blog posts are not considered reliable sources, but in any case you don't need to remove the Narayanastra link.  You should just add my link to the post in addition.
Comment: @Keshav - Rudra gita runs from chapter 70 to 89 in Varaha purana. The blog authors also say this, but they provide explanation on pasupata shatra as explained by Rudra which is from chap 70 to 73 and godavari episode appears within these 4 chapters.
Comment: @Keshav - I dont mind adding the link you provided but there is no need as this blog is providing the actual sanskrit verses and authors do lot of home work and are well versed in sanskrit, tamil and english, unlike just the cut and copy from MLBD english versions and web sites provided by most of responses provided here. It is much more reliable than many of the Q&A on hinduism stack exchange. Pls dont get offended but i havent said any thing wrong. But, making a sweeping statements that generally all blogs are not reliable is little out of place.
Comment: @Keshav - Pls read this rudra gita from the blog and comoare with the english version you have provide. The last parts of the link you privided is not what the sanskrit verses exactky mean. You can check it for youself and ascertain whether the MLBD english versions are good or the blog versions.
Comment: A side interest of recent times, Puskarams (every12 years) have been concluded for river Godavari. Crores of people have taken holy dip all along its course as a rare event. In line with the Ganga, daily Godavari harathi  is being offered to the holy Godavari at Rajamahendri, EGDt, AP.
Comment: @Keshav and Other moderators. I see that some unscrupulous elements with biased nature are wantedly down voting the answers just for the sake of it. I don't know why this answer which clearly answers the question with proof from scriptures is down voted.
Comment: @Krishna Yeah, I think it's possible that some Shaivite user may be repeatedly down voting your posts.  Anyway, I'll look into it.

Story of origin of the Godavari river?


Send automatic email everyday

Question: I have a list in SharePoint 2010 that contains Active Directory users in one column and their birthday in a second column.  Early in the morning of their birthday I want SharePoint to automatically send an email with predefined text.  I have created a workflow with the predefined text and the condition to send an email to the user if the birthday is equal to today, but I can't get it to work.  Help!!
Comment: Does it work when you manually execute it? If so, have you considered scheduling the workflow, something like (http://sp365.co.uk/2011/09/sharepoint-designer-2010-reminder-email-workflow/)?
Comment: No it does not work manually either...
Comment: Really, I tend to believe you have an issue with dates comparison before anything else. Could you elaborate more on your solution - activity used, how do you compare, etc.?
Answer: You can use the Pause Until workflow action.  Basically you fire your workflow when the list item gets created.  Then set the workflow to pause until the specified date.  Once it continues, have it send the email, change the date to the following year and pause again.  Here is one blog post about it: http://www.smellslikesharepoint.com/2012/06/26/sharepoint-2010-workflow-pause-until-date-and-time/
Comment: Alternatively, if you dont mind doing some code, you could create a custom SharePoint timer job that runs daily: http://dotnetfinder.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/creatingcustomsharepointtimerjob2010/
Answer: I am not very sure about why workflow failed. However, look on SharePoint Timer Jobs, you can run timer job periodically. Check SharePoint list using SharePoint Object Model and send Email message. Scheduled Job also is an option which you can give a try.
Comment: Which SharePoint timer job?  There are many of them.
Comment: What does this mean?  "Check SharePoint list using SharePoint Object Model "
Comment: First of all I believe that you have access to Visual studio and you can create custom solutions for your site. What I meant was creating a custom timer job which runs daily for sending email alert for birthday wishes. In the execute method of the timer job, you can put your logic such as checking the birth date of the users, sending emails etc. You have mentioned that you maintain a list for the active directory users in your SharePoint 2010.

Send automatic email everyday


A few questions before I get Ubuntu

Question: I don't really know if this is the right place to ask these questions, but I would like to clear these up. Ok, so, Ubuntu sounds awesome, but I heard it has Wine on it already? If it does, that's awesome. If not, well, I like Wine. Also, this is basically a version of Linux, correct? I just wanted to know if this stuff is correct or not. Thanks for the help!
Comment: Ubuntu is a Linux distribution, yes. WINE can be installed as a package and if you want even more you might want to have a look at the (commercial) CrossOver products, which will also help WINE development in the process ;)
Comment: @Jonas If you haven't already spend a few minutes exploring http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/features
Comment: I recommend PlayOnLinux over Crossover, it's easier to use and it seems more Windows programs are supported.
Comment: I could see a possible argument for closing this as NARQ since it is not a (single) question. But *not constructive*. Can someone who has voted to close please comment to explain why? This is asking for concrete information. I made an answer to give this information. (I have also somewhat synthesized the two separate questions. Sort of.)
Answer: Linux is the kernel that Ubuntu and many other operating systems use. Operating systems that use Linux as their kernel and use it with the most common libraries and tools (for example, GNU libc) are called Linux distributions or GNU/Linux distributions.
Confusingly, while Linux is a kernel, the term Linux is also sometimes used to refer to Linux-based operating systems (i.e., "Linux distributions"), or to refer to their shared characteristics that some people consider to comprise an operating system (of which all Linux distributions, also called GNU/Linux distributions, can be considered parallel variations). The term GNU/Linux also refers to this (and is not the name of a kernel).
All the above terms are widely considered correct, though all of them are also considered wrong by a few people here and there. You can read about the naming controversies if you like. During the ordinary course or using and talking about operating systems and kernels, they usually don't get in the way too much and most of the time terms are widely understood however they are used, from context.
As you may be aware, Wine is an emulation layer that provides an infrastructure running Windows programs. Many Windows programs run well on Wine, but also plenty run poorly or not at all. Wine runs on a wider variety of platforms than "Linux" systems. It runs on GNU/Linux distributions like Ubuntu, but also on other Unix-like systems, such as FreeBSD and Mac OS X.
Ubuntu does not come with Wine installed by default, but you can install it easily. Wine is officially packaged for Ubuntu and Wine in Ubuntu is maintained officially by the Ubuntu community (it is provided through Ubuntu's official software sources). Just open the Software Center, type in Wine, and install it when given the option to do so.
Wine is provided by the wine  package. You can also install it by running:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install wine

If you want to install the latest version of wine, see these instructions and/or this question. The Wine PPA should be pretty safe but it's a good idea to read these guidelines before using it or any other PPAs.
Answer:
I don't really know if this is the right place to ask these questions

Yes, this is the right place to ask such question(s), despite someone down-voting the question.

I heard it has Wine on it already?

No, Ubuntu does not have Wine pre-installed. You can install it from the Ubuntu Software Center or in a terminal with:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install wine

Note: I would recommend looking for alternate native applications similar to (and mostly even better than) Windows applications instead of installing an emulation platform like Wine. For example, you could use Gimp in place of Photoshop. Libre Office is an open source office suite with which you can completely forget MS Office (you can open/edit/convert MS Office documents on the fly). There are several games too. I am an information technology services, systems and resources integrator using Ubuntu since 2010 and haven't felt the need for Wine yet.

this is basically a version of Linux, correct?

No, Ubuntu is not a Linux version, but a Linux distribution from Canonical Ltd. You can know more about Ubuntu here.

A few questions before I get Ubuntu


Lufthansa connecting flight at Munich, only 45 minutes in between. Will I be able to make it?

Question: I bought a single ticket from Lufthansa, of Mumbai to Paris. My first flight (LH765) lands at 5:55am at Munich, from where I have another Lufthansa flight (LH2226) to Paris at 6:40am. This is a single ticket so I guess its responsibility of the airline to get me on the second flight, but since it's Non-Schengen to Schengen, will customs etc. be a problem? I am assuming the checked-in luggage would transferred automatically by the airline. Will I be able to make it?
Comment: It seems possible, see http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/12765/is-1-hours-enough-for-a-transit-at-munich-airport but you will indeed need to go through a passport control in Munich. It's a bit short of course but the most important thing is that it was all booked as one ticket.
Comment: Thanks. I read more about Passport control. It seems that mostly it takes very little time.
Answer: First, your baggage will be checked through, and if you miss the connection, Lufthansa will put you on a later flight at no extra cost. Since you arrive early and there are many flights between Munich and Paris, it will probably be only an hour or two later.
You will have to go through immigration and possibly security, but at 6 AM there probably won't be any queues. It's a large airport though, and walking time alone will be significant.
All in all, 45 minutes is doable, but there is no safety margin, especially if your first flight is delayed.
See if you can get a seat at the front of the plane so that you can get out quickly. Ask the staff about it when you check in.
Comment: Confirming based on personal experience. Terminal 2 in Munich has one a minimum connecting time of 30 minutes, one of the lowest in Europe. And it is really 30 minutes, plane taxiing included. See also this link: http://www.munich-airport.de/en/consumer/aufenthalt_trans/airportstop/minconntime/index.jsp
Comment: Thank you for the detailed reply. Makes me less nervous about missing the flight. :)
Answer: You will arrive and depart in Terminal 2 which was specifically designed for short transfer times down to 30 min.
There are even extra cars which take you directly from plane to plane (via security) if needed, see: http://www.munich-airport.de/en/consumer/aufenthalt_trans/airportstop/minconntime/hcc/index.jsp
Most likely you will arrive in Terminal 2, floor 5 or 6 (international) and need to get down to floor 4 (Schengen), passing EU/Schengen immigration on the way.
If you get bussed to the terminal, you arrive in floor 3, go through immigration and then upstairs.
Baggage will get checked through, customs will be only in Paris.
If your flight is delayed, tell staff about your connection, they might be able to organise something for you or have additional advise. You might still make it but perhaps with your baggage delayed.
Terminal 2 is long (1000m) so some walking involved, but there are Moving Walkways.
Answer: If the booking system offered the connection, it is doable. Also, if I remember correctly, LH is using the same terminal for all their flights, so you would not have to change terminal.
The connection is tight, and there are chances that you won't make it. You will then be automatically booked on the next available flight. If the baggage makes it but you don't it will be held for you at your destination.
If you will see that the connection gets really tight, you may notify the flight attendants, who have procedures. If the connection is still doable, there may be ground staff waiting for you (and fellow passengers to that flight) who will guide you to the departing gates (getting you through immigration and security faster).
I have not much changed planes in München, but in Frankfurt, which is bigger, and there were several 45 minute connections working without problems.
Answer: You'll manage it, otherwise Lufthansa wouldn't have offered the connection.
Since yours is a long-flight from Mumbai to Munich, there is a chance that you come earlier, and in reality you have 1 h.
The only caveat is that from my personal experience, your checked-in luggage possibly won't manage to catch the next plane. Missing baggage after connected flights was pretty common for me. Maybe since it's the same company, then, you'll have a better chance, but even then, think about what you won't get in the first few days in Paris.


Why are you on Writing.SE?

Question: If you're not just passing through to get your one single question answered, but are a regular contributor to the site, what do you get from it?
Answer: This is going to be an unexciting answer (I apologize in advance!), but I came here to flag the spam.
Comment: Me too actually.
Comment: Me too actually.
Comment: Me too actually.
Comment: Me too actually.
Comment: Me too actually.
Comment: Me too actually, but now I'm out of flags :-(
Comment: Me too actually.
Comment: Me too actually.
Comment: Me too actually.
Comment: Me too actually.
Comment: Me too actually.
Comment: If *I'm* honest, I came here to watch Unihedron flag spam.
Comment: And now I'm out of flags, too :-(
Comment: Well, welcome to you and your entourage! :D
Comment: I like the word "entourage"...
Comment: I found this very entertaining.
Answer: Answering questions that others post helps me understand my own process and its problems, clear my head of all the outside opinions and advice, and (re)focus on what works for me.
I often have the same questions that I answer here, without being aware that I'm struggling with a certain problem, and unable to understand that I already know the solution.
Answering here is an opportunity to reflect on what I know -- both from reading how other writers have described their process and from the experience of my own writing -- and to transform that dormant knowledge into active understanding.
Answer: I'm an editor and proofreader, and I enjoy helping others to solve their writing problems. I also appreciate the differing perspectives of other editors and writers, particularly those outside the U.S., as it helps to keep me from getting too insulated in my opinions.
Answer: I'm an amateur writer, and am part way through writing my first novel. It's a massive undertaking, and it's incredibly scary. I've never committed myself to something this big before, and considering that I am not overly confident in my writing ability It's sometimes hard to keep going.
It's the first thing I've actually ever wanted to work hard for, just for me, rather than for anyone else. It was only a couple of years ago that writing as a job actually even occurred to me. It would be great to have a career in writing, but if not that's OK too. I enjoy it just for the fun of it.
As most of you probably know writing is a lonely business. I don't know anyone else who does it, or even anyone else I could talk to about it. When I stumbled across this site I realized that there was an entire community of people devoted to helping each other to improve their craft, and realized that I wasn't as alone as I first thought.
I originally came to this site to ask a question, like probably quite a lot of people do. But once I started looking at other questions that people were asking and realized that I actually had some insight, I thought that I would offer my $0.02.
After answering one or two questions and having my answers up voted, I realized that my advice was actually helping others. If other writers like my ideas, then maybe they aren't so bad.
Sometimes I come here and go to ask a question and it's already been asked, which means that others are clearly struggling with similar things to me.
Every time I answer a question and it gets up voted, it gives me a little bit of a confidence boost that maybe I actually am capable of being a good writer.
And that is why I keep coming back.
Comment: Mike - Your post sounds really similar to what I was like five years ago. I had absolutely no knowledge of how to write. I just knew that it was fun. Through a friend, I found a website that supported fan fiction, and I began writing. I also started to look into some books on writing. Five years later, and the critique I got on my fan fiction, coupled with my own research and trial-and-error have served to get me where I am now - ready to write the novels I was always meant to. Just to let you know - everyone starts somewhere; you are by no means alone.
Comment: Hey Mike - just a suggestion, you may try googling critique groups or writers groups in your area. My husband and I are both members of the local writers guild and weekly go to a member's house with ~10 others to critique each other's writing and share our experiences. Helps with the loneliness. And, for the most part, you aren't expected to have any kind of credentials. You just need to like to write. :)
Comment: me too  (@unihedron)
Answer: I'm just here for the free beer.
Comment: Huh.  The moderators are always the last to know.  Where do we get our beer and brownies?
Comment: And the brownies. I make *really* good brownies.
Comment: I want I want I want!
Comment: @MonicaCellio Oh, sorry, don't all the mods have a standing invitation to the Algonquin Round Table?
Comment: At the Overlook Hotel bar
Answer: I'm an experienced technical writer, and I've been told by many managers and coworkers over the years that I'm good at it.  I'd like to share what I've learned to help other technical writers.  But it's been long enough that I don't always remember what the earlier-stage problems were any more, so I'm pretty unlikely to just speculatively post blog articles or something.  I want to answer the questions that people actually have, not the ones that I surmise they might have.  And besides, way more people will see an SE answer than a blog post from an unknown like me.
I also hope to draw more tech writers here so I can get some of my questions answered, too.
I came for the tech writing but I've seen a lot of other interesting questions and answers here too, and I've been able to help with some of those.  It's pretty neat when skills transfer like that; I don't write much fiction (none professionally), but I can still help with questions there.  That's neat.
Answer: I'm an aspiring author. I want my novels to be the best I can make them, so I'm learning all I can about writing before I actually publish anything. It also helps me see and answer the questions of other writers. In addition to giving me a feel for the literary landscape, this lets me help other authors become better at what they want to do.
P.S. I am eternally grateful to whoever made this site, as well as Worldbuilding SE.
Answer: I receive hedonistic satisfaction from participation:

asking a question: the pleasure of getting a good advice about a problem I have and contributing to the community (avoiding the pain of seeming leech-like in not contributing questions may also be a factor [Note: I ask relatively few questions, five questions versus 25 answers.])
answering a question: the pleasure of helping someone else, receiving affirmation, and doing work that fits my aptitudes, abilities, and inclinations (I enjoy analyzing a problem and even the fine-tuning of an answer involves some analysis)
commenting or editing: the pleasure of expressing my thoughts whether just a fun comment — officially discouraged by Stack Exchange but broadly tolerated and sometimes encouraged — or a suggestion or question for clarification (editing, like answering a question, expresses skill)
voting on posts: the pleasure of affirming someone else's efforts and expressing my feelings about the quality of a post
reading posts: the pleasure of thinking, even if just arguing within myself
Answer: I'm a freelance editor. Answering questions forces me to think things through so I can present a reasoned, understandable answer; I think doing this has made me a better editor. Answering questions here also keeps me in touch with a community of talented, dedicated writers.
Answer:
Because I'm so opinionated.
Because many times I see a question that I should have asked, but it didn't occur to me that I needed to ask it -- until I saw the question.
To learn Markdown.  ;-)
Comment: Did you mean Markdown? (Or do you use HTML instead of or in addition to Markdown?)
Comment: haha, I meant markdown, I guess.  #NotAGoodTechNerd
Answer: I'm a researcher and teacher at a university, and technical writing takes a significant part of my professional life, and I actually enjoy it (this is surely a late discovery). Moreover, I'm an avid reader, both of fiction and technical books.
Writers.SE allows me to improve my writing skills and to throw a glance at the mechanisms underlying the writing of fiction books. I'm surely interested in answering questions about technical writing too.
Answer: I like to kid myself that i will actually start writing at some point. So i come here to bone up on some skills and share any (if any) helpful points or ideas i may have.
ironically enough, at the same time flagrantly disregarding certain capitalization and grammar rules.
Answer: I've been writing since the age of eight. I've learned quite a lot about writing over that period, and gradually formulated my own writing style, as well as various tips/tricks. I'm always perfectly happy to pass on what I've learned to others. At the same time, I'm aware that my writing is still not perfect, so browsing the questions and answers here (and asking my own questions) is helping me to keep improving.
Also what Unihedron said about spam. Can't stand the stuff.
Answer: I started writing short stories based (mostly) on my answers and questions (as well as the answers I received on those) on WorldBuilding.SE. You can read more about what I have "published" in the Universe Factory in my answer to the Meta Post What have our users published?.
My goal with participating on this site was to get some information on what to do and what not to do, as I have always been quite good at writing a lot when it came to assignments in school/university, but creativity and analyzing literary works have never been my fortes. Basically I am a self-taught amateur that wants to improve as part of his relatively new hobby - and I want to share what I have known before, learned so far and am going to learn in the future.
I am reading a lot of fantasy books, but I am also reading a wide range of other kinds of books from time to time. Furthermore I like to discuss how techniques from one genre or medium can be adapted to other areas. For example I like to answer questions with the videogame tag and am interested in Visual Novels and Gamebooks.
I believe that being open to and learning about different kinds of techniques from different fields helps in giving one a broader range of things to choose from and guidelines to know when something probably works and when it probably does not work.
As a programmer I have a bit of knowledge about technical writing, though my experience stems more from smaller documentation projects and is therefore not always applicable to the tech-writing questions here. I hope that I can learn from them in case I need that information at some point in my career and am glad that I know I can ask such questions here if I ever happen to have one.
Answer: "What do you get from it?"
I'm actually writing something, hopefully most people who are participating are too.
I enjoy the ideas behind what motivates people to write. I enjoy solving a good social/communication puzzle, and discussing options about how stories can be presented. Up until recently I have gotten only constructive feedback and the general tone has been encouraging and positive.
However, I'm noticing an uptick in trolling and pedantic/useless comments from people with almost zero participation. I got THREE pointless comments on my question today from users with 101, 103, and 111 points – one troll deliberately misgendered a character as an insult, one needed to correct spelling, one needed to tell everyone we are using a common term incorrectly (according to him). Obviously NONE contributed in the least to the question.... (the question appears to be "boosted" because it's getting more views than usual, which might explain the troll attention, but it's still tedious to get notices about nonsense.)
Since SE has no block options for trolls, I doubt I will continue to participate if/when Writing becomes saturated with it like some of the other SE sites.
Comment: I'm sorry you're getting this kind of responses.  We can't completely prevent this sort of thing, but moderators do respond to flags, so please let us know (via flags) when bad things are happening!  Unfortunately, part of the cost of doing business on the Internet is that sometimes people use the textboxes we offer poorly.  I hope you'll continue to participate here.
Comment: Your question is currently in the "Hot Network Questions" (congratulations on that), hence the increased attention from other users from other sites of the network who have the association bonus and likely not more participation (yet). The first comment is indeed unnecessary and should be flagged as "No longer necessary" - it doesn't really provide anything. The second one can't simply edit your post (minimum edits of six characters), hence the comment - after editing (or dismissing the need to edit) you should flag it as "No longer needed".
Comment: The third was trying to clarify something - he may be wrong, but that in itself is valuable for the site and questions. As you have explained your usage of the term to him I don't see any problems leaving that there for future readers who might have a similar confusion at first - asking for clarification is what comments are for. I can see why getting a lot of comments may seem unnecessary, but I don't think all of them were trolls. If you feel there is an uptick in trolls it could prove useful to raise a meta discussion about this topic.
Comment: Agree on all your observations @Secespitus , and why I responded to the 3rd comment (it seemed sincere, even if a little anti-social).

Why are you on Writing.SE?


How to find out that a NIC is in promiscuous mode on a LAN?

Question: How to find out that a NIC is in promiscuous mode on a LAN?
Comment: It is possible to create a "receive only" network cable, used by someone with their device in promiscuous mode it wouldn't be possible to detect. http://www.infosecwriters.com/hhworld/hh9/roc/node3.html
Comment: Probably a better candidate for superuser.com?
Comment: Waybackmachine link, since the original seems to have been deleted: https://web.archive.org/web/20150415194325/http://www.infosecwriters.com/hhworld/hh9/roc/node3.html
Comment: It's also worth looking at the network hardware.  If you monitor for unexpected networking equipment and port activity then you should be able to see these devices appear.
Comment: Also, does anyone know of a way to do this via wlan?  I don't see how it would be possible unless the viewing device was forced to associate, possibly because of encryption.
Answer: DNS test - many packet sniffing tools perform IP address to name lookups to provide DNS names in place of IP addresses. To test this, you must place your network card into promiscuous mode and sends packets out onto the network aimed to bogus hosts. If any name lookups from the bogus hosts are seen, a sniffer might be in action on the host performing the lookups.
ARP Test - When in promiscuous mode the driver for the network card checks for the MAC address being that of the network card for unicast packets, but only checks the first octet of the MAC address against the value 0xff to determine if the packet is broadcast or not. Note that the address for a broadcast packet is ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff. To test for this flaw, if you send a packet with a MAC address of ff:00:00:00:00:00 and the correct destination IP address of the host. After receiving a packet, the Microsoft OS using the flawed driver will respond while in promiscuous mode. Probably it happens just with the default MS driver.
Ether Ping test - In older Linux kernels when a network card is placed in promiscuous mode every packet is passed on to the OS. Some Linux kernels looked only at the IP address in the packets to determine whether they should be processed or not. To test for this flaw, you have to send a packet with a bogus MAC address and a valid IP address. Vulnerable Linux kernels with their network cards in promiscuous mode only look at the valid IP address. To get a response, an ICMP echo request message is sent within the bogus packet leading to vulnerable hosts in promiscuous mode to respond.
Maybe there are more, the DNS test for me is the most reliable
Answer: @vp gave the theory, I will give some tools.
For use in Linux systems:

SniffDet: This one employs 4 different tests: ICMP test, ARP test; DNS test and also a LATENCY test (which VP01 didn't mention). The tool is recently updated and I recommend it.

Also:

nmap: There is an NSE script for nmap called sniffer-detect.nse which does just that.
nast: It detects other PC's in promiscuous mode by doing the ARP test.
ptool: Does ARP and ICMP test. Last commit was on 2009.

For Windows systems:

Cain & Abel can do a promiscuous scan using many types of ARP tests.
Promqry & PromqryUI Microsoft tools for this purpose too, but I'm not really sure how they work.

As for general detection techniques, there's also another one, called honeypot detect.
Details about the latency test and the honeypot technique can be found in sniffdet's documentation.
Comment: nice complement!
Answer: You can't guarantee that you'll be able to detect it.
For example, you can easily make a read-only ethernet cable by looping the TX+ (pin 1) and TX- (pin 2) of the sniffing computer, then set TX+ (pin 1) to RX+ (pin 3 of the sniffer) and TX- (pin 2) to RX- (pin 6 of the sniffer). It will then be impossible for the sniffing computer to affect any data traffic on the network.
It may be possible to detect a voltage drop or RF emissions (along the lines of Van Eck phreaking), but I'm not aware of any COTS hardware that will detect it.
Comment: Nice.  And of course there are ways to modify the configuration or software on the snooping system to prevent it from sending any packets also.  E.g. a simple iptables rule set should do it on Linux.
Comment: @nealmcv http://www.askapache.com/security/sniffing-on-ethernet-undetected.html
Answer: While it may not always be possible to identify if the local network is promiscuously sniffing the local network traffic -- it may be possible to crash most or all packet capture applications doing so.
Check out Samy's http://samy.pl/killmon.pl script for a starting point. Realize that most applications working in 2011 are vulnerable to at least a DoS crash attack, even if the crash isn't vulnerable as a memory access violation (or a read/write exception that leads to a buffer overflow).
Answer: I believe there is a tool that reliably detects this by looking at the difference in ping response times. The tool sends pings and at the same time send a large number of pings to the same IP address but with a different MAC addresses.
The tool works because cards in promiscuous mode will be returning all traffic to the CPU thus when there is a lot of packets hitting the CPU this will slow the response to genuine pings. A card in normal mode would be ignoring all packets with different MAC addresses so there would be no difference in the response time.
Someone insert the name of the tool


Now that Star Wars is coming out on Blu-Ray, help promote Sci-Fi & Fantasy SE?

Question: Now that Star Wars: The Complete Saga is being released on Blu-Ray and getting mainstream attention, there will be zillions of fans old and new rediscovering these films and asking lots of questions. We already have a solid Star Wars showing on the site, but the more questions with great answers we have, the higher the chances are that new people will find our site during their quest to understand the ways of the Force. Science Fiction & Fantasy SE has a shot at having the best answers to those questions — better than any of those, you know, competitive sites. Essentially, this is a great time to recruit new members!
What can you do to help?

As you come across Star Wars-related articles/pictures/memes/etc., any questions that they inspire, no matter how silly, ask them here. This includes, but is definitely not limited to, questions regarding the Blu-Ray editions that you may have after its release on Friday. Also consider posting general questions about the original trilogies, any of the Star Wars animated movies or series, the expanded universe novels and comic books. You're not the only one having
that question. Millions of other people will, too. Ask them even if
you think you're going to be able to find the answer yourself… and
if you do find the answer, go ahead and answer it yourself.
When answering these questions, do everything you can to overkill
it. Don't just answer with a hyperlink to some other discussion
group somewhere. Write a detailed, ultra-clear answer that is just
as complete and clear as you can muster. Help us have the best
possible answers to these common problems and questions fans have about the Star Wars universe!
If a question comes in that is unclear, badly written, badly
formatted, or in bad English, edit it into shape. We've always
encouraged edits that improve spelling, grammar, and clarity. Make
every question count!

This is a great opportunity to build up a body of answers to common Star Wars-related questions that will be super-popular in the coming weeks as the Blu-Ray is released and people go ape over Star Wars again. These questions will bring in lots of traffic from search engines and if Science Fiction & Fantasy.SE continues to have great answers like we have had in the past, we stand a chance of attracting some great new users who will add value for years to come!
Note: This tactic has been shamelessly adapted from Joel's promotion to build new content for Apple SE and Robert's to build Parenting. Let's show them we can do it too!
Answer: I made an effort under the last few days and I would like more participation form others; I would like to answer question too!
Comment: Well, others started to ask question too. So I was able to answer some. I think we got a momentum for Star Wars questions.
Comment: Much thanks, too! You've done a great job; I've enjoyed spending my morning at work reading Star Wars questions. What a weekend!
Comment: Seriously... 17 questions in the last week, at the time of my writing...


Does CV slow down during big meetings like the JSM in the US?

Question: The JSM starts in San Diego this weekend.  I am going on Saturday. I started here three months ago and have participated for all 87 days.  I have sveral things to do at the meetings and may not get on every day.  It occurred to me thatt many of you may be going and that it could slow down on questions and answers.  Is there usually a lull during the JSM and what about other big meetings like the Royal Statistical Society meetings or other major meeting in Europe?  If you choose to answer could you tell me whether or not you are going and if so how will it affect your participation on StackExchange?
Comment: Participation in Stack Exchange sites is based on a *principle of good will*. We do not sign contracts and especially we do not have targets set in advance, although most will agree that we should aim for [quality over quantity](http://meta.stats.stackexchange.com/a/1248/930). Some users may be very active during some period and take a break, for whatever reason. This poses no problem really with respect to the operation of this community-owned and wiki-based repository of QAs.
Comment: I would be more surprised if a significant proportion of people attending the JSM are active members of CV or even if they are aware of its existence. @Macro nice description, although I felt a bit alluded ;).
Comment: Michael, you may notice that there are lots of lulls on this site. For example, weekdays seem to get more traffic that weekends (procrastinators??? :)) and good answers on the weekends often get fewer views/upvotes than good answers on weekdays from what I can tell. I'm not sure about JSM in particular but I wouldn't be surprised to see a bit less activity here than normal - what exactly motivates this question?
Comment: @Macro My question was just out of curiousity because I have not seen what happens when big meetings occur.  I make no judgements about the site or the community. I think chl was reading too much into the question.  I am also curious as to how many of the statisticians on this site are active members of professional societies who do attend major meeting such as the JSM.  It is clear that many of the people aasking questions are prectitioners and not professional statisticians.  But based on the quality of most answers I can see that the high rep people probably are professional statisticians.
Comment: I also think that although many of you are very anonymous with the use of pseudo-names and minimal bibliographic material on your page that you have PhDs in statistics or probability.  Stephane does, Macro does, Bill Huber does. I suspect cardinal, chl, gung, MansT, Peter flom, Rob Hyndman, StasK, Jeromy Anglim, jbowman, gui11amd, procrastinator and many others do too
Answer: This site started up around the 2010 JSM and naturally had a strong peak of interest, so there's no reliable data there.
In 2011 there is a tiny dip in the Q&A rates for the JSM (7/30 through 8/4), but it's no different than comparable dips observed before (e.g., 6/15, 7/3) and after (9/13), each of about 20% less than a longer-term moving average.
We are a strongly international site peopled primarily by working statisticians, consultants, and people in related fields with strong statistical interests.  In my experience (a) JSM is primarily a US conference and (b) academic participation is far higher than private participation.  Accordingly, until our site attracts more of these kinds of statisticians (we would love to have them), I would expect to see no measurable changes during JSM.
With one exception: If any CV member attending JSM were to make a point of talking about us--such as a mention during a talk or panel session, for instance--we might see a significant jump in activity during and following the meeting.
Comment: Will you be there? I can think of no better ambassador. :)
Comment: @Michael I understand the addiction :-). I am encouraged to see the improvement in answers (and in comments, which are frequently invaluable adjuncts): as you are noticing, answers stick around and useful answers occasionally get more upvotes. (Great answers continually get upvotes). We should talk about additional ways you can help the site (and your reputation). Consider chatting at some point when you have access to the chat facility. In the meantime, here's wishing you a productive and interesting time at the JSM.
Comment: @whuber Am i the only one you recruited from the consulting list so far. My estimate of 10,000 at JSM probably includes all attendees. Many IMS members belong to both societies. Proably the total ASA membership at the meetings is closer to 7000. I am just guessing and I hope my memory is not way off. I probably could get accurate numbers from the ASA administration. I must be nuts. I am busy and have lots of interests yet somehow I got hooked on the reputation points and the way the site helps users of statistics.
Comment: @Michael, yes you only have to do a token log-in to get the badge. Also, I'd venture to say that nearly all of the highly active users on this site have demanding full-time jobs - we choose (like you have) to contribute because it is rewarding and very entertaining, and least in my opinion.
Comment: +1 @chl. Receiving props from peers about why your answer/comment is a good one, or sincere gratitude from someone who learned something from you is surely more rewarding than accumulating rep points. Besides, after you get 10k points, you've basically gotten all of the cool privileges on the site already.
Comment: Sorry, not this year.  Next year it will be closer :-).  But thank you for your confidence!
Comment: I will promote the site there. Bill Huber's answwer is the kind of answerI was looking for. The JSM includes the Institute of Mathematical Statistic and the Canadian Statistical Society as joint societies that hold their annual meetings at the JSM. So it has an international touch. My colleague Geoff McLachlan from Australia attends regularly. Sir David Cox has been an invited speaker on a number of occasions. So the meetings do have an international flavor. But I would agree with Bill Huber's comment that it is heavily ASA members and ASA has predominantly US member.
Comment: Just as a point worth mentioning, I discovered this site because Bill huber publicized it on a ASA eGroup site. Actually although probably about 10,000 members attend the JSM on a regular basis far more members can be found on the ASA section eGroups.  So for members of the ASA chatting about us on the ASA eGroup site is probably an easy and effective way to recruit ASA members.
Comment: @Michael The ASA consulting listserver has only 1500 subscribers and it is one of the few large and active ASA listservers.  (Only one has more than 2.1K members: "Young Professionals," 4.8K.)  I have seen a few ASA members here--you probably recognize them too--but very few are active. That's too much to expect of busy people with many interests, but perhaps we can dream of growing the site to where many ASA members would see value in checking in once or a few times a week to see what's new and to answer interesting questions occasionally. Your thoughts about this would be most welcome.
Comment: Going without missing a day for 88 days straight may be a little extreme but it got me to 10K rep points in less than three months and I am improving my answers a little (not to whuber's standards yet but enough to improve my points to answers ratio a lot I think).  Also I have been noticing some old answers with 0 upvotes are starting to get upvote activity.
Comment: @Michael - FYI: going 88 days straight is not that extreme. There is a gold badge ('Fanatic') awarded for visiting the site daily for 100 days - 41 people on this site have the badge!
Comment: @whuber about your comment on getting ASA members to visit the site occasionally I think I can motivate that by a discussion on the eGroups.  I really think that the ASA should be interested in ASA because it enhances the practice of statistical methods by having experts in the field provide sound practical advice.  I guess the danger though is that some people could at least in theory get high reputation and be respected and still not have true credentials.  But the system has checks and balances if it is diligently monitored by accredited statisticians.
Comment: Maybe we could get the ASA buy-in if we do something like that.  That could then maybe lead to an ASA initiative that would bring more members into CV and make it easier for us to convince our colleagues to participate at least when they can afford to volunteer some time.
Comment: @Macro Only 41 with the badge means it doesn't happen very often.  I am just saying for a professional statistician like me who has responsiblities to head the statistical work for the entire Lankenau Institute for Medical Research and all the Main Line Helath physicians who need help with their clinical research designs setting the goal to login in every day is a burden and I find myself work late at night to make up for my addition to this site.
Comment: @Macro But now that you have reminded me of the gold badge I have an incentive to stick in for the next 12 days.  At least for the required login.  I only have one gold badge so far and i earned it on the Mathematics site.  Also I think consecutive day are counted as long as you make a token appearance.  You don't have to do much and you don't have to be on for any minimum length of time.
Answer: As a follow-up on this question, I am at the 2012 JSM for the past two days.  I am still finding ways to participate on CV but my daily rep points are down to around 30 point a day for the past two days.  Of course this is mostly because of lack of time to read and answer a lot of questions.  However, I have also noticed that when I look at the top rep point getters for this week everyones totals seem to be down quite a bit.  So I think there is reduced activity in questions asked, questions answered and the rating of answers (i.e. upvote and downvote activities).


Macro Photography - Monopod or Tripod?

Question: I recently got a new macro lens and after a couple of outings I noticed it would be very beneficial to use monopod or a tripod (or some kind of support).  I would prefer a monopod because it seems more portable, but a tripod has a lot more support.  I typically go on photo walks for most of my pictures (I can only take so many pictures of my place), so portability is a big seller.  Has anyone had a lot of success using a monopod for macro photography?  Or should I suck it up and lug around a tripod?
Comment: possible duplicate of [Why would I get a Monopod over a Tripod?](http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/12343/why-would-i-get-a-monopod-over-a-tripod)
Comment: Also [How much benefit can one expect from a monopod?](http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/3015/how-much-benefit-can-one-expect-from-a-monopod)
Comment: Although I'm willing to be further sold on how applicability for macro makes this one different. :)
Answer: First we need to understand if you're actually shooting at "macro" focusing distances, or just "close-up."

Life-size is the typical aim of "full macro" shots, which is to say you are working at a 1:1 reproduction ratio, shooting very small objects at close range. Insects, flower stamens, etc. There are two problems typically encountered here that are tightly related: thin depth of field, and camera movement. You're working in such a small area that the slightest movement completely changes your composition, and depth of field is so slim that even with the smallest apertures you're fighting to get everything in focus. You're also fighting to get the camera's shadow out of the frame, and traditional camera-mounted flash is useless because it shoots above your subject since the camera is so close. Because you're fighting DOF you are often shooting smaller apertures and creating longer exposures, too. A tripod is basically a necessity if you're working on still subjects, and a focusing rail may also be useful/required. For moving subjects... well, just find a composition you like, and wait for the subject to come to you. Tracking a frame-filling bee, for example, is basically impossible.
Close-ups are what most people mean when they say "macro." Your subject is typically small -- a model train, perhaps -- and you are working at relatively close range. The process for shooting is very much like any other shot, though, where you just need to have good technique to get the photo you want. Your camera-mounted flash may even be enough to reasonably light the subject. You can typically use the support you prefer or require based upon shutter speeds.

Monopods have their place, but realize that their absolute stability is definitely less than a tripod can offer. While a monopod may help you get better shots, I'm sure a tripod would, too, and will let you get shots the monopod would not. If you've been taking photos that are just not quite sharp enough, then a monopod is probably a fine choice; otherwise I would recommend a tripod.
Comment: I want to shoot very small objects at close range, insects, flowers, and so on.  I should have mentioned that earlier.  The issue I ran into was a slight movement caused my focus to get out of whack.  I did not even think about a focusing rail until you mentioned it.  Thank you.  I will suck it up and haul a tripod when I want to do those type of shots.
Answer: I find for quick macro shoots a monopod to be more useful. It steadys me, a tripod is too cumbersome in public gardens etc & doesnt let me get in & out of an area quick enuf.
Answer: This highly depends on what you are shooting. For example if you are shooting insects then you will need to get a tripod cause you don't want to wake up the sleeping bee by you trying to adjust the monopod. However if you are shooting still objects (flowers, coins, ...) you can go for monopod. The problem with monopods is that you are involved, if this is okay with what you are shooting then use monopod.
Answer: Another technique for stabilization is to use something like a bean pole.  Hold on to the pole with your hand that is also holding your camera.  This gives similar stability to a monopod, but allows you to easily adjust the height.
If you're looking for maximum stability along with maximum portability, look into the Canon 100/2.8L macro, which offers a better IS for macro.  See this thread:  How useful is image stabilization in a macro lens?
Comment: The Canon 100/2.8L lens is the one I just got.  I like it a lot.  Thank you for the suggestion on the doing something like a bean pole.
Comment: IS for macro is useless. Flowers, bees moves...not camera ;-) Difference between Canon EF 100 f2.8 and f2.8L is same lens with "L" written on othe body of lens and IS. Otherwise, it is exactly same plastic lens (hello what happend to "L" lenses :-D Only explanation is keeping weight down which is well done by alu alloys) with great optic quality. Of course price is more. Question is...do you like to waste money or rather buy best macro lens, pros use, Canon EF 180mm f3.5L Macro?

Macro Photography - Monopod or Tripod?


How long can a 2 person crew survive on ISS totally cut from Earth?

Question: Something goes bad on Earth, ISS is cut from any kind of supply and the escape pods can't be used. If there are 2 people on board at that time, how long can they survive there? Did someone write a protocol for this type of situation?
Comment: The ISS crew is since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in groups of three, because that many fit into the Soyuz-TMA. Any specific reason why you'd be asking for a crew of two?
Comment: @TildalWave I might use this info and need only 2 characters. I don't mind if the answer is about a 3 crew, especially if it is an official document.
Answer: The longevity of the crew in terms of water and air recycling, as far as I know, is the easy part. The true test is the caloric intake of the two inhabitants and the longevity of the ISS itself.
The largest issues are:

Food & water - there will be a limited supply for the inhabitants and once the food and water are used up (water is also used to generate oxygen via electrolysis) there is no way to get more, assuming your dire situation continues with the Earth. This aspect depends on how much food and water is/was stocked at the time of the crisis and how well the two ration these resources.
Orbit - perhaps the largest issue hindering long term survival in the ISS would be that the space station is constantly losing altitude. The orbital path of the space station is roughly 370 km (average between min and max altitude ranges) and loses roughly 100 m of altitude per day. Currently the space station is "boosted" back up to a higher orbit periodically by the Soyuz and the Zvezda module's 2 main engines (formerly by the Space Shuttle when it was still in service). Without those constant visits and the ability of the Zvezda module, it is only a matter of time before the ISS will de-orbit itself.

Possible solution to the Orbit issue: NASA signed a deal with Ad Astra to test out the VASIMR (basically a electromagnetic thruster) which could make boosting the space station easier and cheaper, but that is not slated to join the ISS until 2015.
Comment: And, unlike on the Space Shuttle where it was used for fuel cells to generate electricity, the hydrogen from the electrolysis is [vented overboard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISS_ECLSS#Oxygen_generating_system) the ISS, so even if the whole oxygen part was 100% recyclable, you can't make water back from it. ;) Anyway, I thought it's worth at least mentioning water as well, and since I was editing it, I added that in. Feel free to edit it out or expand on it (you can reuse these comments and flag them as obsolete when you consider they're no longer needed). And welcome to [space.se]!
Comment: No, I think that's correct. The water onboard the ISS is however [also a consumable](http://space.stackexchange.com/a/3737/49), so that 94% (I believe that percentage is by now much improved actually) only applies for the ECLSS (Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System), but doesn't include that [potable water from the two segments can't be mixed](http://space.stackexchange.com/q/3741/49), that it is also used to produce breathable oxygen, and some recycled back into the ECLSS loop as a Sabatier reaction byproduct on removing carbon dioxyde from the breathable air.
Comment: What? No CO2 cracker?
Comment: @Joshua: No. Scrubbers, yes, but no CO2 cracker; these are too early into development yet, and their primary failure mode is releasing carbon monoxide along with oxygen, so you *really* want to make them fault-proof before employing them.
Comment: Thanks @TildalWave. In the documentary [Building the International Space Station](http://docuwiki.net/index.php?title=Building_the_International_Space_Station) they explain the process of recycling water and making O2 (via humidity condensate and urine collection/processing). They document the waste water recovery of the ISS system to be 94%. I assumed two variables to be true: 1. food was more finite; so it would run out before water. 2. that there would be existing water from previous inhabitants of the ISS. Both downgraded water on the priorities list for me. Were these incorrect?
Answer: The state of supplies on the ISS changes over time. Right at the end of the Shuttle era, they stockpiled lots of hardware, clothes, food and water supplies. But most specifically they made sure that large hardware components, that were replaceable, were left on station, since the Shuttle was uniquely qualified to carry them.
Over time, they have drawn down that reserve, and then replenish parts of it via Dragon, Progress, Cygnus, ATV, and HTV launches.
The current state of supplies thus fluctuates over time.
Water is an interesting consumable. The Shuttle which used fuel cells for power, would produce excess water while on station, and they would spend much of the flight transferring the water.  With the absence of the shuttle visiting the station, more water needs to be brought on cargo flights to cover that lack.
Comment: Needs some clarification based on actual flight rules and the consumable in shortest supply.
Answer: We've seen several failures of reupply missions. When a Progress launch failed on 28 April 2015, this is what NASA said:

In a presentation to a NASA Advisory Council panel here April 8, NASA officials said food supplies on the ISS would reach a threshold called "reserve level" on July 24, and go to zero on Sept. 5. That assumed that the station received no more supplies beyond a SpaceX Dragon cargo mission launched to the station in April.
The other major limiting consumable is a solid waste container known by the Russian acronym KTO. Without additional cargo missions beyond the Dragon flight, KTO supplies would reach the reserve level July 20 and be exhausted on Sept. 2. Other consumables, including water, would not reach reserve levels until later in the year or early 2016.

This was with 6 crew on board for most of the time, reducing to 3 for about a month in June-July. Rounding up to 6 people for 4 months, should be enough for 2 people for 1 year.
After another failure (Antares Orb-3, on Oct 28, 2014), NASA indicated the station had about 6 months of supplies left.
So NASA has a pretty good idea of supply levels at all times, and has planned for the failure of resupply missions.
Survival of the ISS in a doomsday scenario is rather a different situation, though. I'm having a hard time imagining a scenario that would render Earth uninhabitable for 1 year, and safe after that. I.e. if the entire Earth becomes uninhabitable, it'll stay that way for much longer.
Neal Stephenson's novel Seveneves uses the ISS as a lifeboat in such a scenario. But in his story, there's enough advance warning to make the ISS livable for as long as it needs to be (not being more specific to avoid spoilers).


Should I change to VeraCrypt on win7 SSD from TrueCrypt 7.1a?

Question: Is still safe for me to use TrueCrypt or should I change to VeraCrypt as the last update boot won`t take long anymore.
Any backdoors to decrypt TrueCrypt?
Answer: NO. It is NOT safe to use Truecrypt, which was last updated 4 years ago.
Two CVE's exist but there could be more because Truecrupt is no longer in the interest of security researchers anymore.
Answer: I strongly advise you to use VeraCrypt. TrueCrypt is not safe any more and they implemented Vera Crypt with support for enhancing the security.
You should be aware that security normally has it's issue such as slower algorithm.But the main security purpose is to make information feasible in a secure way and to prevent any leaks. So then again TrueCrypt has vulnerabilities. Your choice...
Answer: Your choice should take in to account what you are trying to protect and why.
If your looking at just personal use then VeraCrypt will be your best choice as already mentioned.
If your looking at encryption to meet some regulatory requirements then you will probably need to purchase a full system.
Another option would be to upgrade to Windows 10 and use Bitlocker.  Again this will depend on your specific environment and requirements for why your still using Windows 7.
Answer: You can actually use VeraCrypt on a TrueCrypt-encrypted drive! This allows you to avoid migrating to a new encryption scheme, while still being able to use the less vulnerable VeraCrypt program.
The answer depends on what you are trying to be safe from. In terms of the security of the encryption itself, both TrueCrypt and VeraCrypt are quite secure. In fact, they use almost identical encryption, though VeraCrypt does use more secure defaults (it uses stronger settings for an algorithm called PBKDF2, which is designed to make brute force attacks slower). There are also no backdoors in TrueCrypt that would allow anyone to decrypt your data without knowing your encryption password.
However, these are programs that have to run constantly on your computer. TrueCrypt has several known bugs that allows an unprivileged compromised user to attack the running TrueCrypt program in order to gain administrative access. This is the most important reason to switch to VeraCrypt.