Post to organization page from php

Question: I have an account in facebook, and a page of organization on this account. I need to post to the page of organization. I read many articles about it and have an issue, at first step we must get auth code with such request:
https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/authorize?client_id={your application id}&redirect_uri={site_uri}
We can get this code only after the authorization, but I need post to organization page directly from my site, without logging in facebook (I have app id and secret, can I write some request with this data and get code back without facebook auth form??)
Otherwise, I can get app access_token, but I can't post to organization page with this token (I have an error "The user hasn't authorized the application to perform this action"); but I can post to my (user) page with this token. Maybe I must get some permission to application for posting to org. page wall?? If yes, how can I do it??
Answer: In order to post to the page as the page, you need a page access token.
See here for more info Permissions -- Page

Post to organization page from php


Can plants get cancer?

Question: I can't think of any reason why plants wouldn't be able to get cancer, but I've never heard of a plant growing a tumor. I've also never seen a plant with a noticeable abnormal growth. Can plants get cancer?
Comment: This is touched upon in [this answer](http://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/2055/do-trees-age-on-a-microscopic-level)
Comment: [This](http://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/16784/do-cell-walls-prevent-cancer/16794#16794) is a similar post.
Answer: Yes, plants of all sizes can have cancerous growths.
Agrobacterium tumifaciens, the causative agent of crown gall disease, produces what is called a tumor. See this link for detailed information on these growths. Alternatively, use a plant physiology textbook to look up the above terms. (Here, is where a textbook is better than a single abstract in PubMed.)
I am certain that you have seen such growths on trees, such as this. Other smaller versions can occur on smaller plants - on stems and leaves, for example. The plant builds up tissue around the A. tumifaciens infection in an effort to isolate and contain the infection and its effects.
Comment: Are there any examples of cancerous growths without infection, however?
Comment: the link is dead.
Comment: incidentally, a tumor is just a growth, or even, classically, a swelling (as in [calor, dolor, rubor, tumor](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3064252/)) . Tumors are not necessarily cancer.
Answer: Burls/Burrs are often defined as tree tumours, and as analogous to cancer in animals. There seems to be numerous reasons why burls are formed (more research is needed on the topic), which include wounds, insects, fungi, DNA changes, environmental stress and viruses. However, burls are localized and often relatively benign, and since plant cells do not move around they cannot metastasize (see e.g. "Can Plants Get Cancer?" from the New York Times). Since burls have multipe causes the 'Cancer/tumour' label might not fit very well to all types of burls, and in some cases normal shoots can sprout from burls that have been removed from the tree (indicating that the burl was not caused by damaged DNA).
Galls are related tumorous growths that are usually caused by parasites (insects, virus, bacteria, fungi), and are often induced by plant hormones (at least from insects/mites, see Insect and mite galls). However, in the case of crown gall caused by the bacteria Agrobacterium tumifaciens the tumorous growth is due to a DNA transfer, which will permanently modify the infected cells (Gheysen et al 1987).
As you can see, the answer to your question depends on if you are interested in tumorous growths in general (where many types of burls and galls should qualify) or cancer in particular (if defined as unregulated cell growth caused by permanent DNA damage).
Answer: Could not fit in a comment. The following is purely intuitive, I have not much knowledge in this field and no reference. I am just guessing and I'd welcome some corrections. I was thinking about three points which effect opposite each other.
1) In plants, there are no cells specialized in transporting stuff throughout the body (I think!) while there are many cells that travels a lot in animals. Therefore, I0d guess that plants cancer are much more likely to only remain localized while animal cancer are more likely to create metastasis. As a consequence, I'd expect that cancer would be more lethal in animals than plants.
2) The number of mitosis occurring in the lifetime of an individual is probably positively correlated with the occurrence of cancers. Because plants tend to be bigger than animals, I would expect more mitosis in plants and therefore, I would expect that cancer are more common in plants than in animals.
3) According to life history theory, the intensity of selection on a gene decreases as the ratio of the fitness pre- and post- expression of the gene. Because plants never really age and stop reproducing, I would expect that selection against cancer would be stronger in plants than in animals resulting in a less cancer in plants than in animals.

Can plants get cancer?


Should anything be done when a recruiter contacts you via your work email address?

Question: I was recently contacted by a recruiter via my work email. Should I take any action (other than deleting the email), such as responding to tell him that I find it rude and unprofessional or informing my manager and/or HR that someone is sending recruiting messages to corporate email addresses?
Answer: I'm assuming you aren't really doing a search for a new role and don't have CVs etc on job boards, and this email was purely speculative.
From experience, I'd suggest the following:
Bin the email, do not reply, treat it like SPAM
There are two reasons for this:

Even if you reply to say "Not interested", you are confirming both your email AND the fact you do exist at this role at this company (and may even send a nice email sig full of info back).  The upshot of this is that at a future point, you'll probably get further emails or even CVs (either from the OP, or his colleagues as your details will now be on their CRM system), as they may have been trying to get a foot in the door to your company, and making you think they can get you a new job might make you more compliant to them.
The OP could actually be out for something fraudulent.  A former colleague of mine replied to a cold-call like this (again with a nice informative email sig), and by chance a few months later found he was providing work references for a number of people he'd never met across the world who were trying to get into the industry.  He only found out as one vigilant manager had his spider-sense tingle and looked up the company directly rather than the contact provided.  This could also be for phishing, or to get access to other accounts you have (your work email could be a backup for lost passwords etc)

So just like normal SPAM, mark it as SPAM, bin and forget, the legit recruiters don't operate like this (and would you want to use someone who randomly spams people for roles anyway, these people are supposed to be paid for their skills and contacts, not blind luck).
Comment: Not necessarily, most big corporates require use of specific format signatures, and people usually have outlook set to add a sig as soon as you hit reply, it's too easy to remember to remove it just AFTER you press send, especially if you've just fired up a rocket to send to the recruiter.  And anyway, just the act of replying can be enough to verify what the recruiter has guessed, so it may not matter.
Comment: Poaching employees from good companies isn't exactly blind luck. Even if they claim to not be interested, everyone has a price.
Comment: Well, I doubt a reasonable headhunter would be so inept as to approach this way, far more likely to be someone without a decent contact list, googling for possible candidates if they are in any way legit.
Comment: I just want to add that if you respond to an email like this for some reason and have your full contact information signature you are an idiot.
Answer: It's definitely unprofessional behavior, I agree. And it could cause an awkward conversation if someone had been looking over your shoulder. I can think of two reasons a recruiter would contact you at work:

They don't realize it's unprofessional.

They do realize it's unprofessional but for don't care enough to not do it.

Either way you definitely want to stop him from contacting you—and in the case that he really doesn't realize he's doing something inappropriate, informing him could prevent this from happening to others in the future. I'd respond to his email briefly but clearly, something like this:

[Mr./Ms. Recruiter],
I find it highly unprofessional for you to use my work email for recruitment purposes. I ask that you not contact me again, and suggest you reconsider emailing others at work in the future.
Thank you,
[Your Name]

At the very least he'll leave you alone, and perhaps he'll think twice before doing this again.
I wouldn't talk to your boss about it unless it becomes a continuing problem, and maybe not even then—you can always just block the guy's email. It happened on your work account, sure, but the "back off" message in your reply is rather clear. Hopefully the whole incident will quickly become a distant memory.
Comment: On the other hand, it might be worth letting HR know so they can either avoid doing business with this recruiter or severing any already-established relationship.
Comment: This answer illustrates your opinion but does not appear to be based on any standard or documented procedure, but rather appears to be opinion.  Do you have any way of demonstrating why this is the correct way of handling it?
Comment: @Chad Apologies, I must have missed the notification when your comment was originally posted. No, I don't have any sources; this is just my attempt at solving the problem. Thomas posed this question in chat and I gave similar advice; he then posted the question and invited me to leave my response as an answer, so I created an account here just to do that, haha. I don't see sources in other answers here either, though. Do you have a resource I could refer to for tips on how to properly source answers on The Workplace in the future?
Answer: Before getting angry you might make sure the recruiter did this innocently. I am not a recruiter but I have had people give me their business card, then complain when I used the info to contact them.
I have been given resumes that obviously had a work email address and work phone number as the only way to contact them. The nice round phone number with the extension gives it away.
Does your LinkedIn or Monster profile send all requests to your work email? Many people do this.
Why would you complain to your boss/HR unless they won't stop sending them to you.
Comment: @rath: That's a pithy saying but I have ample evidence to support the idea that recruiters make unsolicited overtures. That is in fact the norm.
Comment: That's a valid point, but my work email isn't listed anywhere publicly nor do I give it out to people unless they are someone I'm working with or are related to my work efforts. My company is listed in several places (LinkedIn, Stack Exchange profile), and it's fairly trivial to figure out what it is, especially since some management email addresses can be found on the website, anyone can find the format.
Comment: `...You might make sure the recruiter did this innocently.` Why would you assume that the recruiter did it innocently? Recruiters are notorious for making unsolicited overtures.
Comment: +1. Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. It even has a [Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor) @JimG.
Answer: It is perfectly ethical to poach candidates from other companies. In fact, in September of 2010, the Department of Justice entered into a settlement and agreement with six companies - Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, and Pixar - that going forward, the companies would no longer enter into agreements between each other not to "poach" from one another. Those companies had to be told, with a legal settlement, that not taking employees (directly soliciting) from each other was wrong.
Understandably, it may seem unprofessional to you to receive a job proposition at your work email address.  Often, however, it is the ONLY means a recruiter has in which to contact a candidate.  A recruiter might see a candidate's profile on-line, think he or she is an excellent fit for a role and have no other means with which to reach him/her (i.e the candidate's home number is unlisted, his/her personal email is not posted, the recruiter has no Linkedin inmail credits remaining to send a message via Linkedin et al)
As intrusive as an unwanted email to work may be, the fact of the matter is, many employees are not satisfied at there current role and/or ARE open to new opportunities.  Even those who aren't often appreciate being thought of and being kept abreast of opportunities in his/her field. As a recruiter, I have personally contacted candidates via their work email.  At times, this has resulted in finding a candidate a better job with more pay, better quality of life, more challenges, an easier commute and the candidate is the better for it.
We live in a free enterprise and hard working employees deserve to have choices.  Demand for employees also make those employees more valuable to their employers.
While many loyal, hard-working people are laid off after years of service to an employer, after turning away one or more intrusive recruiters.
So in brief, if someone sends you a message - which appears to be authentic and appropriate -  regarding an opportunity, I would politely reply that you are not interested, if that is indeed the case, that you appreciate they they thought of you.  Then let them know you will reach out to them if you are back on the market or better yet, feel free to provide them with your personal email address should other opportunities arise.
It never hurts a have a good recruiter in your court!
Answer: As a retained executive recruiter, I can appreciate where people are coming from in feeling it is inappropriate.  Frankly, I don't find it comfortable to reach people this way either.
However, I think there are other variables that should be considered before determining the level of impropriety.
1)  Does it appear to be a mass email?  Does the nature of the role align with your background?  If it appears personally targeted, we find most people appreciate that some amount of due diligence was exercised before reaching out to their work email.
2)  If they had your personal email/phone number, wouldn't this likely make someone MORE uncomfortable?  To the previous poster's point, often times a work email address is the only way to reach people about an opportunity.  If you've ever accept a job because someone reached out to you about it, you probably aren't unhappy the recruiter used your work email if that was the only way to reach you.  Most people would objectively say they prefer to have more information than less about the marketplace, even if they aren't interested in pursuing an opportunity - if I were to tell you that the difference in your finding the job of your dreams (there is ALWAYS something better) was the inability to reach you because the only available method was work email and the recruiter didn't use it, you'd likely be willing to accept the outreach.
2A)  Some companies and recruiters may abuse having your information, but take a second to look into the company reaching out to you before assuming you're being "spammed".
3)  So many people accept jobs through professional networking.  Networking is often done professional in company A to professional in company B.  A recruiter reaching out to you through your work email is essentially the same concept as your network contact helping you get a job with his/her company.  The difference being a recruiter is third party, and is actively soliciting.  In which case, ignore or reply politely declining.
4)  Are they calling your work line?  This feels a bit more intrusive in that you are being asked in real time to put your day on hold to talk to a stranger.  Email is about the most passive way to reach someone to provide information without the presumption that they are interested.
At the end of the day, you may not appreciate the intrusion now, but if your job ever becomes in jeopardy you might wish you had been cordial with those who reached out to you in the past.  Again, I think it all depends on the variables like company, scope (did they target you for the right type of role), communication style - aggressive vs. professional/polite.  There are really plenty of ways to justify both sides.
Answer: I'm not sure the recruiter is responsible for "all" of the blame. Some companies may hire recruiters and want them to poach the competition's employees. Transparency is usually the key in these types of ethical debates.
Does the recruiter care if you inform your company about their hiring practices? You could go along and try for an interview and inform the recruiter's client about their behavior. They may be concerned about it or you may discover they're not the type of people you want to work for.
It's to the recruiter's benefit to churn jobs and increase turn-over whether they'll admit that or not. Sure they want to maintain those "relationships" but will the client find out they found another job for the same employee they placed with them a year ago?
Before you get too indignant about this, how would you feel if you were terminated or denied a recent promotion? Since you're concerned enough about this to post the question, expose them and make things better for everyone.
Answer: In 1994 I was working on an Air Force Base and had an email that ended in .mil.  This was a time period when the Pentagon was still trying to get senior officers to use email directly (rather than through their secretaries) so the Internet was still somewhat of a 'Wild West'.  I would put queries out on discussion groups (typically database questions), so my email would show up, and I would get solicitations.  My responses were pretty stark - 'Using government email for private business is illegal - don't contact me again'. I never got any follow-ons from any of the recruiters.
Such addresses are frequently harvested from help sites.  Thus they are likely to be 'mass mailings' - no one knows your address, since they're hitting 'send' on thousands.  After awhile these sites are blocked.
As for what action you should take, plan ahead so this is less likely to happen: It's probably better to ask help questions using a 'disposable' address, one that absorbs unsolicited traffic without impacting your work.  It also makes sense to keep your 'blind response' email separate from your 'real' one.  Thus if you see a posting on CL that looks interesting but could be flakey, you have a pretty good idea where they came from.
If a recruiter you know is doing this, it's probably a good idea to rethink that relationship.
Comment: how do you it is spam ? if it is , isnt the solution just marking his email id as spam ?
Comment: @the_reluctant_tester - it may very well be a legitimate attempt to recruit, but spread over such a wide area that it's borderline.  I'm in Austin, I would get recruiting solicitations from Michigan and Georgia for things like JavaScript and SQL Server.  These tend to be very generic.  Often I would see a picture of someone that looked like they were born and raised in the States, but the English sounded foreign.  I delete these without any further consideration.
Comment: I edited and added a transition here to the second to last paragraph to make it more clear that Meredith is answering the question but in a way that's more preventative in nature. I use this technique at work. I don't use my work email on sketchy sites... and I don't get a lot of spam as a result. :)


how to pipe:/// through a .sh or Python script, or use some sort of setting files with FFMPEG

Question: First post on superuser, so be kind please :)
So a quick bit of history. I am using tvheadend, and the inbuilt transcoder murders my CPU, and provides average quality output (it's powered by ffmpeg), if I pipe the output from tvheadend through ffmpeg I get much lower CPU usage and better quality (weird but true).  (I am having to transcode because of limited player abilities)
So in tvheadend the http link goes from something like
http://avideostream
to
<code>pipe:///usr/bin/ffmpeg -loglevel fatal -i http://avideostream -tune zerolatency -vcodec libx264 -preset veryfast -crf 28 -maxrate 1200k -bufsize 3500k -vf "scale='min(1280,iw)':'min(720,ih)'" -acodec aac -b:a 128K -f mpegts pipe:1
</code>
Big difference as you can see.
This all works, BUT if I want to change the settings in the my above pipe, i have to change them for all links (which I do through a script), but that means tvheadend re-imports and tests all of the links (as it see them as changed links, which is fair enough).
So what I want to do is wrap ffmpeg in something, so I can change the wrapper. (This is all happening on a up to date ubuntu server).
Now I am happy to say I am not a Ubuntu expert (not even close), although I have been running my own home servers for a few years now. So I don't fully understand all the aspects of "pipe".
The three options I see for above (as to date I have found no way for chosing an external transcoder option for tvheadend, without moving into weird builds, which I would like to avoid) are:
Use an external options file for ffmpeg
(which I can get to work from the console, but not as part of the pipe, e.g. sudo ffmpeg -i amovie.mp4 $(cat ffmpegoptions.txt) convertedmovie.mp4, it might be as simple as file access rights, but I didn't do much debugging)
Put the ffmpeg stuff in a .sh file (but that just seems to break the pipe, and I have no idea where to even start with that)
put the ffmpeg in some sort of python script (I didn't even start investigating that, a step too far for me, I can write python, but that is currently out of my league)
Short version, I want to go from:
tvheadend >> piped to ffmpeg >> back to tvheadend >> off to player
To either
tvheadend >> piped to .sh or script wrapper >> piped to ffmpeg >> back to tvheadend >> off to player
or
tvheadend >> piped to ffmpeg (controlled by an external options file) >> back to tvheadend >> off to player
Any suggestions/help would be much appreciated. Let me know if I missed any important info out.
Answer: I didn't find an actual answer, more a work around. As this was all part of a bigger, involving plex, I found a proxy (xteve) that includes ffmpeg transcoding, and I can set the options for ffmpeg. That is good enough for what I was trying to do.
Hope this save someone else a little time.


Motion Tracking Using Arduino?

Question: I'm trying to make a human following robot.Tried using ultrasonic sensors to follow a specific person by Having ultrasonic sensor with the person to send echo to the robot,But it didn't workout.
Any way to track a specific person and follow ?
Any sensors/algorithm to track fast moving object(a person but not specific)?
Answer: You need the person to emit a signal and the robot to receive it, sounds simple, but it isn't.  What you are trying to do is position fix the transmitter, in the same way as an ATC locates a plane.
The robot will need at least two directional receivers positioned a certain distance apart (depends of frequency and accuracy) to allow the robot to triangulate the transmitter.  The more receivers the more complex the triangulation.  The frequency of the signal you transmit will affect the distance that the robot can be from the person, research Frequency spectrum and transmission distances.  The longer the distance the signal can travel the stronger the signal will be at close range.  You also have to counter reflections and side lobes which will give you inaccurate readings on the transmitter direction.
Once you have dealt with all of that all you need to do is scan for the strongest signal on your frequency, triangulate it and then head towards it.
Whatever sensor you use the theory is the pretty much the same.
Could you tag the person with a GPS receiver and WIFI/BT and get it to transmit its location.  The robot could then consult its GPS and calculate the delta and move accordingly.
Comment: considering tracking a person in a supermarket will it do work (Small Area)??
Answer: If you are clever with software you may be able to simplify your hardware requirements down to 1 IR ASK transmitter and 1 IR ASK IR receiver.
I mention IR ASK as the transmitter (simply a remote control with a button pushed down) and the receiver are COTS parts.
Consider your robot looking for an IR ASK signal by rotation until one is found.  Then consider your robot traveling in a serpentine path adjusting its average vector along the angle where the IR ASK transmitter is detected.
You might need to create an variable aperture the IR ASK receiver will look through.  This is because most IR ASK receivers have a built in AGC circuit which will abstract you from knowing how strong the signal is.
So, while searching, the aperture will be large allowing the IR ASK receiver a wide field of view.  But once locked on, the aperture should be reduced so that the robot will know in which direction the IR ASK signal is from.

Motion Tracking Using Arduino?


Is Microsoft CCR gaining any traction?

Question: Microsoft's Concurrency and Coordination Runtime quite literally saved a project that was running into major issues with deadlocking. Since then I find that I use it more and more frequently for almost anything that requires asynchronous coding producing results that run lighter and faster than before. I can honestly state that it has transformed the way I think about multithread/multicore dev. Despite my personal love for CCR, there appears to be very little buzz surrounding it on the web and was wondering if anyone can offer any reason for this. Are there better alternatives, or is it a lack of promotion from MS, or are people simply happy with the existing tools?
Answer: I would suggest that TPL Dataflow, to be released as part of .Net 4.5, will eventually supersede the CCR. Most concepts in the CCR have an analogue in Dataflow although it isn't necessarily a straightforward porting exercise.
That said, the Robotics Studio Developer 4 Beta 2, released November 2011, does include a version of the CCR for Silverlight 4.
Comment: Yep, I've been using DataFlow with async/await in .net4.5, and agree that it seems to be aligned as a successor. Very nice.
Answer: The licensing around it is a bit of a pain, from what I remember.
I think most people are waiting for Parallel Extensions in .NET 4.0. I know it's not quite the same thing, but it's still a lot better than what's in the framework at the moment - and although the continuations don't work the same way, at least they're there :)
I suspect that Parallel Extensions has had rather more work on it than CCR - although I'm sure the CCR work inspired some of the design of PFX as well.
Comment: Yep, agreed, the licensing is an arse, but after using it when it comes to release time, we'll definitely pay up.
Answer: I, too, have a personal love for the CCR... I certainly have not seen anything quite the equivalent of it in .NET or elsewhere.  I think it's too bad that I think Jon's right and it will likely be relegated to a niche of enthusiastic fans like us, while most mainstream .NET multithreading will probably be done with the Parallel Extensions.
I'm particularly disappointed in this prognosis because I think more could be done to promote it - say maybe fit it into an enterprise reliable async message bus-type framework, which I think is lacking a coherent story in .NET.  Also, from looking at the Microsoft CCR/DSS Site I would probably never have thought to try it... I don't understand why it was packaged up this way - other than the fact that several companies ripped it out of the Robotics toolkit and just ran with it before MS thought it had a purpose beyond robotics.
Anyway, you're not alone... and there are lots of other CCR 'enthusiasts' as well.  Here's a neat 'flow' based CodePlex project that wraps the CCR in an interesting flow paradigm.
Answer: I have been enjoying using the CCR in two major projects so far.  The first one is terrible (didn't really get the Causality pattern idea) And the second one is coming along brilliantly (Web crawler)
Both projects are utilize the message based paradigm to avoid waiting for slow running IO operations.  The CCR is quite good to work with once you solve the lack of a compatable ORM mapper.  (I'm considering releasing some of the plumbing code that i've written to save other people the heart ache)
Having said that, RX looks quite interesting.  I'm curious how it compares in terms of Error handling, speed and reliability.
Answer: Microsoft Robotics Studio 2008 R3 is now available and now free for everyone to use.

Is Microsoft CCR gaining any traction?


Migrate local profiles to roaming profiles

Question: What are "things to think about" and best practices to migrate a large number of users from using local profiles to roaming ones?
Answer: I've done this several times, typically copying the "My Documents" and "Desktop" into redirected folders by hand during the process. I like doing this in migrations because it preserves the user's look and feel of their environment, as well as their data files.
If you're copying around registry hives (NTUSER.DAT) as files into the new profiles, be sure that you modify the permission on the root of the hive to allow the domain user account access. You can get some really, really strange behaviour if you don't do this. (Microsoft Outlook 2003 displays a funny error message to the effect of "Outlook Failed to Start" when this happens, as an example.)
Answer: Well, the big one for me is when people love to put 10 gigs of nonsense in their My Documents folder.  Not so big a deal when it's a local profile.  Doesn't work out so well when it's a roaming profile.
Comment: Same thing for the desktop, too.


How can I remove aluminum foil from a candy cane?

Question: I got a rather large candy cane, and was far from able to finish it in a single sitting. I thought I would preserve it by wrapping it (somewhat tightly) in aluminum foil. Now, a month later, I can't get it off. I have tried everything up to scraping it with a butter knife, but I can't get all of the foil off. Any advice? I would rather not throw the whole thing away.
Answer: Wrap it in a wet, lint-free towel for a few minutes - this will dissolve the sugar near the surface and you should be able to peel the foil off.  Repeat as necessary.


Agent-based modeling resources

Question: I would like to know what kind of toolkits, languages, libraries exist for agent-based modeling and what are the pros/cons of them?
Some examples of what I am thinking of are
Swarm, Repast, and MASS.
Answer: I found a survey from June 2009 that answer your question:
Survey of Agent Based Modelling and Simulation Tools
Au. R.J. Allan

Abstract
  Agent Based Modelling and Simulation is a computationally
  demanding technique based on discrete event simulation and having its
  origins in genetic algorithms. It is a powerful technique for
  simulating dynamic complex systems and observing "emergent" behaviour.
  The most common uses of ABMS are in social simulation and optimisation
  problems, such as traffic flow and supply chains. We will investigate
  other uses in computational science and engineering. ABMS has been
  adapted to run on novel architectures such as GPGPU (e.g. nVidia using
  CUDA). Argonne National Laboratory have a Web site on Exascale ABMS
  and have run models on the IBM BlueGene with funding from the SciDAC
  Programme. We plan to organise a workshop on ABMS methodolgies and
  applications in summer of 2009.  Keywords agent based modelling,
  Archaeology

http://epubs.cclrc.ac.uk/bitstream/3637/ABMS.pdf
Answer: I also recommend NetLogo. It is an IDE+environment+programming language based on logo (which was based on Lisp) which lets you build multi-agent models extremely fast. I have found that I can reproduce (simulate) algorithms from research articles in a couple of hours, algorithms that would have taken weeks to implement with other libraries.
You can check some of my models at this page.
Answer: I got introduced to Dramatis at OSCON 2008, it is an Agent based framework for Ruby and Python.  The author (Steven Parkes) has some references in his blog and is working at running a language agnostic Actors discussion list.
This page at erights.org has a great set of references to, what I think are, the core papers that introduce and explore the Actors message passing model.
Answer: you should also have a look at Madkit and Turtlekit
Comment: I guess you mean www.madkit.org.
Answer: There is also a pretty good link in wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_agent-based_modeling_software
Answer: On the modelling side, have a look at FAML, an agent-oriented modelling language. This is a pretty academic paper, but it may help depending on your interests: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freepre_abs_all.jsp?isnumber=4359463&arnumber=4967615
Answer: I know this is an old thread, but I thought it would not hurt to add some extra info. There is a great new website which is dedicated to agent-based modeling. The site contains links to papers, tutorials, tools, resources, and researchers working on agent-based modeling in a number of fields.
Answer: Old thread, but for completeness there is also Anylogic and pyabm which can be used for ABMs.
I have experience programming agent-based models in several environments / languages.  My opinion is that if you want to implement a relatively simple model, use Netlogo.  It's also possible to use Netlogo for heavy-duty models as well (I've done this successfully), but at some point the flexibility of a programming language like java/python/c++ outweighs the convenience of the native methods available in Netlogo, especially when performance becomes a major issue.
Repast is becoming a bit bloated.  If you are an experienced programmer, all you really need to start building an ABM is the ability to schedule events and draw random numbers.  The rest (defining agents / environments and their behaviors) you can craft on your own.  When it comes to managing the objects in your model, use the regular data structures you're used to (arrays / hashes / trees / etc.).  To this end, I'm developing a very lightweight Java library called "ABMUtils" (on github) that implements a scheduler and wraps a random number generator.  This is in the early development stage but I expect to flesh things out (keeping it simple) over the coming months.
Answer: If you are an evolutionary economist you can also check Laboratory for Simulation Development (LSD).
Comment: Although it is interesting LSD does not seem to be an agent modelling tool.
Comment: @rics Why are you saying that LSD is not and ABM tool? It is also written on the paper that darlinton is pointing, I just checked now :/
Comment: To be more accurate I have seen a single mention of agents in the manual. I think the multi-layered object structure can be used to implement agents.
Answer: PHP and Java developers should take a look at KATO.
Comment: KATO is not about agent-based modeling and simulation.

Agent-based modeling resources


Connect to the same network via more then one interface

Question: Is there a way to get my organization's DHCP to assign my computer multiple IP addresses, then balance my traffic over all of them? (i.e., get a high downstream while not raising red flags)
Answer: The problem is the webserver that you are connecting to has no idea that IP1 and IP2 are both you.
Thus it is going to think that they are two different computers, and serve up the same content. What you are looking for is something like Bittorrent, but the current technology makes it rather difficult to request different parts of the webpages through different connections without downloading the whole webpage first.
In the end, it is possible from your side, but without support for load balancing on the other side, this is difficult.
Answer: Simple answer is no.  You wouldn't be able to direct traffic based on destination using the same default gateway.  If you have software that will let you choose the interface that is being used, you might be able to accomplish this.  But for the most part, this isn't easily done without some other appliance or software to load balance the requests for you.


Is there a historical timeseries of market depth & transactions available?

Question: Has anyone stored the historical market depth & tick data from MtGox? Is it available publically? Would be useful if you were making a bot.
Comment: I grabbed a simple script I had and I got it fetching market depth every 5 seconds and saving the differences (I should use websockets, but I didn't have a script ready). After 2 days I have ~5MB of data so maybe this is not that hard to do. The data could be even saved in a more compressed format (I am just dumping what MtGox gives me). It's just a matter of setting up a server running 24/7 with a script like this.
Comment: Related, there is a BitcoinCharts API which provides some timeseries information http://bitcoincharts.com/about/markets-api/
Comment: I have emailed MtGox and TradeHill about this, have not received a reply. Clark Moody doesn't store historic market depth information as there's too much data.
Comment: I think that's the main problem. It really is too much data.
Answer: Current market depth available at

https://mtgox.com/api/0/data/getDepth.php?Currency=USD

All trades which happened in the last 24 hours available at

https://mtgox.com/code/data/getTrades.php

Retrieves 100 trades that happend after specified transaction

https://mtgox.com/code/data/getTrades.php?since="transaction tid"

A script is required to retrive all historical data, like the one posted by mizerydearia. The idea is to cycle download request while incrementing "transaction tid" aka "lasttrade" to download all data in steps.
#!/bin/bash
outputfile=data
lasttrade=0
while test -n "$lasttrade";do
    wget --quiet https://mtgox.com/code/data/getTrades.php?since=$lasttrade
    if test "`cat getTrades.php\?since\=$lasttrade`" != "[]";then
        cat getTrades.php\?since\=* >> $outputfile;
        echo >> $outputfile;
        lasttrade=`cat getTrades.php\?since\=$lasttrade|sed "s/,/\n/g"|grep tid|tail -n 1|cut -d ":" -f 2|cut -d "\"" -f 2`;
        lasttradets=`cat getTrades.php\?since\=*|sed "s/,/\n/g"|grep date|tail -n 1|cut -d ":" -f 2`;
        echo "$(date -d @$lasttradets)  tid $lasttrade"
    else
        echo Finished
    fi
    rm getTrades.php\?since\=*;
done

See MtGox - API for more http API calls.
Comment: Any idea how big this file is today? I'm at about *3.5 gb* right now and still going.
Comment: @jordan.baucke what size did you get?
Comment: I'm running a similar script -- it's currently up to 10/20/2011 @ ~ 155 MB uncompressed -- I'll let you know when it completes, and see if I can dump it up online somewhere.
Comment: Well, I got to 3/11/2013 -- and it's only about ~670 MB so far.  So there must be a bug in the above script.  Probably related to the fact that it's parsing the JSON with Regex.  Maybe an error is being thrown every so often, and it's starting over at the error code (using it as a TID) or something?
Comment: I got up to date (1/14/2014) this morning -- completely uncompressed, the JSON is about 1.33 GB -- compressed in a regular .zip file, it's about 160 MB.  I used the URL and the approach described above (slightly different implementation), and although it does not mention USD in the URL, the results appear to be in USD only (maybe that happened when they changed the API? This could also be the reason for the much smaller file size).  At any rate, I've posted my dump here: http://bit.ly/1dMzqhJ
Answer: To get ALL mtgoxUSD trades since the start you can use the following url:
www.bitcoincharts.com/t/trades.csv?symbol=mtgoxUSD&start=0
WARNING. This generates a 49mb csv at the moment and can take some time, so please only follow the link if you actually need the data.
Visit http://bitcoincharts.com/about/markets-api/ for more information.
Comment: i think this is daily not tick data
Answer: Just noting here that MtGox tid's are not included in the data you get from bitcoincharts in that csv call API, and they switched from numerical indexing to microsecond timestamping a while back. In trying to maintain a db with integrity, you need the unique tid data... The history file is now over 100MB also.
Answer: Original MtGox Shared Dataset
Once upon a time there was a Google BigQuery dataset that was updated often with MtGox's official trade record. That's no longer being published because... ask someone who should explain it.
Data on Google BigQuery
The BigQuery shared MtGox Trades dataset is (@2014-04-20) available at
https://bigquery.cloud.google.com/dataset/931531665892:mtgox
The BitTorrent Version
If you'd rather not BigQuery, but you still want that data, there's a torrent, here's the full-metal-magnet.
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:c87cd62f9484993f0153a47fc51f06fb43ed71ee&dn=931531665892-mtgox-trades.csv&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.publicbt.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.ccc.de%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.istole.it%3A80
The MtGox Leak Database
In 2014 the Magic The Gathering Online eXchange (MtGox) server was compromised. Source code, user account details and trade data were made public.
For academic research the trade data is useful, here's a magnet to the original "public service release" file, MtGox2014Leak.zip. BEWARE: The TibanneBackOffice.zip file contains a trojan
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:b6545ecc7db8d44c8cbc4e93989edf8221af75f5&dn=2014+Mt.+Gox+Leak&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.publicbt.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.istole.it%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.ccc.de%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.demonii.com%3A1337
Alternatively, cryptoanarchic.me have kindly provided an HTTP mirrored version of MtGox2014Leak.zip.
Those are the two data sources I'm using in my research.


What are the pros and cons of using a Lego rental service such as Pleygo?

Question: Anyone used Pleygo which is a website advertised as A Netflix-like rental service for Lego® sets? What are the pros and cons?
Comment: No Technic sets so far but it's interesting.
Answer: I guess I'm too stunned (I mean, is this for real?) to answer anything remotely meaningful, although some obvious cons come to mind:

you get bricks which have been used, potentially a lot, and you have no clue how or by whom (well ok they say they sanitize them in between, but still)
you don't get to keep them (well maybe that's a pro given the first con).
15$ per month seems rather expensive too, I'm not saying LEGO is a cheap toy but I'm confident you can get a decent amount of your own, new bricks for that price

But of course I've never used (or even known about) the service, so maybe I'm unnecessarily harsh about it.
However, I have some related experience with this: when I was a kid, there was a library in the village which doubled as a toy library on Saturday, where you could rent toys for a week. While this was great to play all sort of different board games and they made a very good effort to ensure they were always complete, I have some memories of one particular game which smelled kinda funny. We liked the game though, so we played it quite often, but it did smell funny.
So that would be one thing to be wary of - how exactly do they sanitize blocks? How do they deal with blocks which are rented to smokers, or people with pets (considering some people are allergic, it's a very valid question).
Of course inventory of the set would tend to be an issue too - as a matter of fact, they did have a few LEGO sets at said toy library, and I can tell you they were far from complete (since the library was at the school, we could sometimes play with the toys when waiting for our parents, or something like that; in any case I never rented LEGO sets as I had my own LEGO bricks and the sets weren't complete anyway). In any case, considering how easy it is to lose a LEGO parts, and seeing pleygo claims "No charge for lost pieces", it's bound to happen a lot that pieces are indeed lost. I assume they'll try to replace them somehow, but I'm extremely curious about how they'd do that.
If you're willing to try the service, I would at the very least recommand you get answers to these questions (they may be on their site somewhere, I didn't check), and more importantly, check if you can get a trial somehow. It would be nuts to have to pay one full year to realize the service is sub-par.
But in my opinion, it's probably always better to buy sets. Keeping in mind LEGO usually keeps its value rather well, is it wise to pay 15$ a month and not get anything you can keep in return?

Edit: it seems Pleygo is getting some momentum these days, and I assume the fact they're still in business speaks in their favour. Also, the owners have been kind enough to answer some questions to Brickset, which is a very interesting read and provides much needed answers to questions you may have (In particular, cleaning). Still not for me, but it seems they're quite serious and professionnal about it all. They do seem to offer the first month for free, too.
Answer: Pros:

You get to try LEGO sets to see if you like them before you buy
You can build LEGO sets that you might not be able to afford
You don't have to find a market for sets you don't want to keep long-term
You don't have to worry about lost parts, cleaning etc. because someone else takes care of those things for you
You don't need to find space to store all that LEGO permanently
You don't get charged for lost parts

Cons:

You can't conveniently mix the components in with other sets to create your own MOCs (because you'll have to sort it all out again afterwards)
You may have concerns about the quality or cleanliness of parts (although Pleygo does go to considerable lengths to deal with these issues)
The sets you're interested in might not be available from the service at all
You may have to wait a long time for popular sets
The service may not be available in your locality
Your financial investment doesn't give you any long-term benefits (other than a building experience with a particular set)
It may still be too costly for some (although still much cheaper than buying)

On the whole, the service is aimed at families with children rather than AFOLs. As such, it appears to be gaining ground and meeting a real need.
Answer: Cool idea but not very realistic.
Pros:
Get to build a variety of sets
Don't have to purchase so many
Cons:
Too expensive.  $40 a month for the big sets. The ones that everyone wants to build.
No return time may make sets hard to get
Answer: Its not for everyone, but those who just don't want to store the sets it makes sense. It is more aimed at the parent with a 6 year old who asks for LEGO sets every time they walk through Toys R Us. If you go to their page right now and click the vote banner at the top, the CEO's profile has a video that shows the cleaning process. Again, it is not for everyone.
Answer: I have considered having my 9 year old son attend Lego camps during the summer. Those camps can be really expensive. I just saw one at the University of Missouri. Look at these prices.
<code>*****Space is limited to 15 kids and registration is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Time for all camps: 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Cost:
2-day camps: $175 (lunch, CD and insurance included)
3-day camps: $300 (lunch, CD and insurance included)*****
</code>
Now! This is the price for  2 and 3 days. With Pleygo you are allowed unlimited sets monthly for $15-$40 per month. Your child will be able to construct a multiple of sets in the comfort of his or her own home and be able to use the rest of the money for a neighborhood basketball camp or beading class or something else. I believe that the cost far outweighs anything like a Lego summer camp. Looking at the 3-day camps after paying those fees you will have paid for the entire year for Pleygo's subscription in but only have access for 3 days versus 365. Totally something to think about especially if you are looking for summer activities, you see? I see mega savings!
Comment: Pleygo is not at all related to summer camps, though. A summer camp buys you daycare and teachers and structured activities. You could buy a bastketball for a few dollars and send your kid to Lego camp; that way he gets to play ball all year instead of just one week and the savings can pay for the Lego camp.


Islamically, am I divorced?

Question: I have been married for a few years now and we have 3 children... My husband accepted his 1st wife back into his life and is now living with her and their children they have... I have not had any relation with my husband for nearly 7 months and he hasn't lived in our home for about 8 months, I now live with his parents.. My Husband is telling me there is no problem it's just the way things are but is our Nikah not dissolved?... Does the fact we have been separate for this amount of time not mean we are divorced?
Comment: Separation does not mean devorce.
Comment: If he hasn't announced the divorce (writen or verbal) then this not considered as divorce.
Comment: @Jas, you'd better to view the site before as a site which consists of some related matters to your issue. http://islamquest.net/en/archive/question/fa8230
Answer: In regard to your issue, initially it is necessary to point that divorce has some conditions, and we cannot term everything as divorce.
Secondly as a condition of divorce: the man ought to do it in front of two righteous(عادل) men. (when two righteous men are present)
But if doesn't mean that he divorced you if in his behavior…, Since he has not mentioned that he divorced you.

Reference :

http://islamquest.net
Comment: divorce can be given in private also... the second condition is false... just by saying divorce you to his wife the person divorces her whether there is anyone there as a witness or not.
Comment: but witnesses are needed after iddah, according to quran

Islamically, am I divorced?


What's a good table-topping material for tile-based games?

Question: On my polished wood table any disturbance (and I have kids, so you can imagine the disturbances...) can shift tiles around, which I then feel compelled to try to adjust to be flush with those around them. I want to get a mat to fix this, and was wondering if anyone has had experience doing this, and can offer advice. Thanks!
Comment: Does a tablecloth help?  Sometimes this works for me, sometimes it doesn't.  What about a large bread/cutting board?  not beautiful to look at, but might work also.
Answer: Felt. A thousand casinos can't be wrong.
Padded felt also makes it easier to pick cards/chits up off the table.
Answer: You could try some no-slip shelf liner (the kind you use for kitchen cabinets).  They're sold by the roll at various department stores, fairly cheaply.  They lay flat and can be cut into whatever shape you need.  If you can, I would splurge and err on the side of using a heavier-duty liner.  The cheap stuff is probably little better than a tablecloth.
For Carcassonne specifically, you'll want to make sure you cover as much of the table as is practical.  You probably don't want to artificially constrain the game if your no-slip surface isn't big enough.
Comment: I'm going to try this.
Comment: I have had success with this.  It also works well for card games because you can get under the card without mangling the side.
Answer: For Settlers of Catan, there is an expansion you can get that consists of six interlocking long sections that frame the pieces in.  At worst, your entire island will shift, instead of individual hexes.  I just picked it up recently from my local game store after seeing our island moved one too many times.
For other tile-based games, I would suggest a tablecloth like Egg of P'an Ku suggested, or a large piece of fabric (or felt) that you can get at a craft store -- you don't want any fabric to be TOO slippery, though.  You can even go one step further and get those no-slip rubber mats for rugs to place between the table and the tablecloth.  The only downside to that I could see is the tablecloth may occasionally get bunched up.
You could also try a table-top gaming mat, or simply skip the tablecloth and just use a large number of the no-slip mats I mentioned above, and place your tiles directly on the rubber mats.
Comment: +1 for using no-slip mats. For some games, like [Tantrix](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantrix), one or two mats may well be enough.
Comment: Can you post a link to the product?
Comment: Yeah, the interlocking edges from Seafarers don't really help, since they just tend to get jostled and have tiles slip under them. Tablecloths seem to make the problem worse, since they don't really prevent slipping, and any bunching of the fabric can cause all hades to roam free. I think I'm going to try to find some no-slip rubber mats to use.
Comment: @ICodeForCoffee -- sure, I was thinking of something like http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&biw=1280&bih=606&q=rug+non+slip+pad&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=14991298870165066746&ei=k6LcTI2CJcOclgfw5pjhBQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEQQ8wIwBA# or http://www.amazon.com/Non-Slip-Futon-Grip-Pad/dp/B0033C0F34
Answer: It was quite a bit of work to construct, but we made a mat to play games on that was baize on one side and leatherette on the other.  It's really nice playing card and board games on the baize surface - it's easy to pick up cards and tokens, as if from a slightly squishy card table.  The leatherette underside is heavy enough to keep it in place, and easy to clean if you discover afterwards that the table wasn't as clean as you thought.  I made an instructable showing how we made this.

It'd be nice to know of places that sell something like this.
Answer: For Settlers of Catan, a sheet of acrylic or pane of glass over the board can work wonders!
I have used both a pane of glass and a sheet of plexiglass. The two are roughly equivalent to play on. Pieces slide around a little bit easier, but not so much as to become a nuisance. I prefer glass for its superior durability, but I have been using plexiglass at home for quite a while and it works just fine.
Comment: Welcome to the site!  Is this something you use regularly?  Any downsides?  I don't imagine it would be useful for Carcassonne though, right?
Comment: Thanks for the warm welcome! I have used both a pane of glass and a sheet of plexiglass. The two are roughly equivalent to play on. Pieces slide around a little bit easier, but not so much as to become a nuisance. I prefer glass for its superior durability, but I have been using plexiglass at home for quite a while and it works just fine. I have never played Carcassonne, but from the description on wikipedia, it sounds like this trick would not be helpful.
Comment: excellent! I took the liberty of adding a chunk of your comment to the answer.  One sentence answers don't get a whole lot of votes typically.  With the extra paragraph of good info, I at least can give you an upvote.  Thanks again.
Answer: I just took one of my old Bridge tables and is using that for most games, it works great as long as we're 4 players. I also have a fairly cheap 8-sided poker foldable tabletop thing for bigger sessions (with the added bonus of drinkholders).
This means another table which is perhaps not an option for you but both options can be folded and take very little space when not playing at least.
Answer: In addition to Kristo's answer, if you have a wood shop you likely have a router mat which would accomplish something similar.


Is "believe you me" proper English?

Question: I understand the phrase "believe you me" to be an emphatic version of "believe me" but how did it come to be?  Is it a poor translation into English?
Comment: I have a sneaking suspicion it is some sort of corruption of between you and me
Comment: For the benefit of future visitors, the original title was: **Believe you me, I have a question.**
Comment: @Matt Ellen Interesting!
Answer: The phrase "Believe you me" copies the archaic word order one finds in Early Modern English for a marked imperative. Typical examples are from King James version of the Bible (both testaments).
See e.g. Book of Matthew 14:16

They need not depart; give ye them to eat.

and in a few common phrases such as "mind you" (but with a slight nuance) for example

Not that I would have accepted her offer, mind you!

This is also very common in Shakespeare.
Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 4, Lord Capulet speaking:

And bid her, mark you me, on Wednesday next--
[...]
Well get you gone: o' Thursday be it, then.

In the interrogative voice, it takes an accusing turn.
As you like it, Act 5, Scene 2, Phebe speaking:

If this be so, why blame you me to love you?

and my favorite, Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 2, Rosencrantz speaking:

Take you me for a sponge, my lord?

It seems "Believe you me" is a relatively recent recreation of this syntax if one believes my copy of the OED.
Comment: This word order is preserved in other Germanic languages also, where it is not archaic. For example "Glauben Sie mir" (Believe you me) is standard German.
Comment: In spanish this expression exist and is called Imperative mode. The difference is that the pronouns are invisible (how do you say tácito??) and the verbal form goes before the invisible pronoun. Ex: believe (you) / cree (tú). If you follow the line, believe me you is creeme tú. That's imperative mode for english WOW!!! I thought english had fewer verbal modes than spanish, it appears that they're just buried.
Comment: Possibly also in Welsh, if "look you" is anthing  to go by.
Comment: @ogerard: Excellent answer!
Comment: @Billeeb: the imperative (commanding) conjugation exists in English as well, it's simply usually explicitly stated or implied by tone or context, due to the influences from Germanic languages.  All Romance languages have an imperative.  In Latin it would be "crede me", but they had quite a few words for believe/trust/etc. so it could also be "puta me" or "confide me" or a half dozen others.
Comment: @Billeeb: for tacito, you could perhaps say *implicit*.
Comment: It has the same word order as this archaic construction, yes, but that doesn't mean it is an example of it. "believe you me" seems to have an origin no earlier than 1800s.
Comment: This most excellent canopy the air, look you.
Answer: Wiktionary has references from the 1840s and 1870s so this is old enough to register as a well-established idiom. I had some trouble finding other uses of "[verb] you me" until a blog pointed out the King James Bible:

For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live

Using Verb-Subject-Object order is "an archaic form used for imperatives." The blog also found references from earlier than those on Wiktionary and goes on to hypothesize (emphasize added):

The interesting observation is, at first glance, that the majority of these early examples come from Irish publications [...]. A hypothesis: perhaps it isn't a relic of the archaic English VSO construct, but arrived by a different route. Irish Gaelic is a VSO language; maybe its sentence pattern influenced Irish English? A quick Google suggests "Believe you me" might correspond to the Irish phrase "Creid uaim é!" = "Take it from me!" (literally, "believe from-me it").
Comment: +1 for explaning "Using Verb-Subject-Object order is an archaic form used for imperatives." The other answers don't explain why the subject appears after the verb
Answer: It's real English.
It's based on archaic English grammar, e.g., phrases like "Hear ye me" in the King James Bible.
Comment: For instance: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33, sim. Luke 12:31) "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations" (Matthew 28:19) "And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin" (2 Chronicles 15:2). Plus many others.
Comment: It looks like it *might* be based on archaic English grammar, but is there any evidence that it is?
Comment: I suppose it depend son what you count as archaic, VSO is pretty common in the KJB which presumably means that sort of language was around then - at least for rhetorical use

Is "believe you me" proper English?


stepping down as moderator

Question: I think the time has come for me to step down as a community moderator here. I never ended up being as active as I intended to be, and now I have a new job which is going to leave even less spare time. (I do plan to stay active and answer questions, particularly around Fedora!)
Comment: Congrats on your new job. Sounds exciting!
Comment: Congrats and I hope to see you around ;)
Comment: @slm Thanks — it is and will be! I had intended to write something a little more eloquent here, but... it's a busy day, turns out. :)
Comment: I know the feeling, I kind of stopped being active as I moved into development, hopefully things go well for you.
Answer: On behalf of the team here at The Stack Exchange Subterranean Lair, I'd like to thank you for all the work you've put in over the years and wish you all the best in your new job!
We'll kick off an election for your replacement next week, and I'll remove your diamond at its conclusion.
Comment: Geez Shog, nobody's supposed to know about the secret S.E.S.L. headquarters. Now we gotta up and move the Lair again. *sigh*
Comment: @RobertCartaino Is this what prompted the [#stackDCmove](https://twitter.com/hashtag/stackDCmove?src=hash)? 'cause you know the new location is being leaked (even without help from Shog) in geotags right?
Answer: As a member of the general public¹ and the user-base you have served on this site I would like to publicly thank you for your years of volunteer effort. I wish you all the best in your new endeavors and hope they include lots of 'nixy stuff.
¹ Unlike some [liars] hiding in their subterranean lairs I am not ashamed to broadcast this message from the open!

stepping down as moderator


Why does Lex Luthor let her die?

Question: In Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice, Lex Luthor kills his assistant along with the others in the bombing at Capitol Hill. Why does he do that? She was loyal to him and did loads of his dirty work. So why would he kill her?
Comment: Because he's *evil* and assistants are easy to find? Plus it's less suspicious if one of his people dies?
Comment: If she wasn't killed, she would have known about the bomb. So Lex thought it was better for him to kill her than to risk her telling someone... I can add this as answer if it's better...
Comment: @GustavoGabriel Can you reference/source that idea...otherwise it's just kind of *opinion*.
Comment: He's not stable.
Comment: Alex, I would recommend that you [edit] the question to indicate that you want *official* reasons (ideally from the script or other canon sources). Otherwise the question seems to asking for opinions and this is *off-topic* for M&TV.
Comment: Sometimes in the comics and animated movies Mercy is an android, and as such is expendable.
Comment: Evil henchpeople generally get treated as if they are wearing red Star Trek uniforms by their bosses.  Not sure this is exceptional.
Comment: @Paulie_D Isn't this like a standard character motivation question? Requiring official interviews or Wiki quotes for that would be pretty uninteresting and narrow-minded, no?
Answer: In my opinion, I think if she (Mercy Graves) wasn't killed, she would have known about the bomb. So Lex thought it was better for him to kill her than to risk her telling someone...
I found some other opinions (nothing official) that relate to mine like this one:

The price that Mercy pays for her sycophancy and bodyguarding Lex is her life

Or this one:

Mercy clearly walks over and looks down into the crate containing the kryptonite after the kgb beast delivers it to Lex after the batmobile/'do you bleed ' chase, and after she smiles at Lex gives her this very weird cold look. In the next scene the kgb beast kill the female 'witness' from the earlier trial by pushing her in front of the train, and the court scene is next! IT FEELS LIKE HE WAS TYING OFF LOOSE ENDS BY KILLING ANY ONE THAT KNEW ABOUT HIS PLANS OR KNEW TOO MUCH TO COMPROMISE HIM AND LINK HIM TO THE CONSPIRACY, and poor mercy just knew too much by looking in the crate, and in that moment lex realises she has to 'go' along with senator Finch and the wheelchair guy at the superman trial as he told her about the krytonite and wanting to import it and knew about the witness testimony being a lie. only a theory,this shows this Lex to not only be calculating and manipulative but would take you out if you went against him or could compromise him and his plans even if your considered 'close' to him. i like this lex more and more i watch this film and gives him room to grow in future films as his immaturity cost him this battle as he was so cocky and thought his rare kyptonian mutation added to zods body would allow him to control 'doomsday', but a genius learns fast and will be more and more like the comic super villain version the more we see of him.

Also we don't know if she is really dead, theories say that she could be an android...
Comment: Can I know why I got downvoted so I can improve my answer? =/
Comment: May because its mostly opinion based. Still better if downvoter leave comment
Comment: It's mostly opinion because I couldn't find any oficial source from any producers or others...
Comment: @GustavoGabriel Which is the point...we want sourced answers...not opinions wherever possible. As it stands the question is off-topic IMO.
Comment: I'm sorry, couldn't find any sourced answers, not even on mercy graves wikepedia, nor bvs wikipedia. If I find something I will edit tough.. =)

Why does Lex Luthor let her die?


According to the Book of Mormon, D&C, Pearl of great price and/or prophets, what prohibits lust?

Question: What does the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, or prophets say about the prohibition of lust as a sin?
Comment: @curiousdannii I'd say not really—the kind of verse searches we generally exclude are "What's this verse I'm thinking of but forgot the reference for?" This requires a more than a keyword search, you need some domain expertise to how these books address the topic.
Answer: The LDS believe in chastity or in being sexually pure. The Law of Chasity describes the commandment to not commit adultery, or to lust.
Scriptures from Doctrine and Covenants:

D&C 42:22-23 - lust causes you to lose the Spirit and deny the faith
D&C 59:6 - don't commit adultery or anything like unto it
D&C 63:16 - lust, or adultery in the heart, loses the Spirit

Scriptures from the Book of Mormon

3 Nephi 12:28 - lust is adultery in the heart
Alma 39:9 - don't go after lust of eyes

Scriptures from Pearl of Great Price

Article of Faith 13 we believe in being chaste

Prophetic teachings

We Believe in Being Chaste by Elder David A Bednar
Personal Purity by Elder Jeffrey R Holland
Answer: Jacob 2-3 has a rather long sermon about polygamous unions in early nephite culture being sinful, under the assumption that the husbands loved their wives less for the practice, and were primarily using the institution of marriage to satisfy their lust. These chapters talk extensively about how Solomon and David's polygamous relationships were sinful in the sight of the lord....
Despite the fact that D&C plural marriage 132 explicitly supports David's and Solomon's polygamous practices. There appears to be a contridition in LDS canonical text on this matter, as the Book of Mormon could be seen to declare that polygamous relations are sinful, with the implication that they are lustful rather than loving in nature, where D&C says the opposite.
Alma chapter 39 is a long chastisement against a Corianton, a man who abandoned his mission for sexual sin. Verse 5 specifically mentions that sexual sin is "...an abomination in the sight of the Lord; yea, most abominable above all sins save it be the shedding of innocent blood or denying the Holy Ghost?"
This verse is very notably references by many LDS leaders, and informs many LDS cultural attitudes on the severity of sexual sins.


Display Color profiles: changing only yellow

Question: How should I set parameters of color profile to change only yellow color output (right now I've got #FFFF00 displayed as #B4B400). Other colors must be left untouched. So I cannot just move Red and Green curves as it will break other colors. Is it possible?
Comment: Unless you have an extremely rare monitor that has a *Yellow* output, along with *Red, Green, and Blue*, you can't just adjust yellow without affecting the other colors.
Comment: What exactly are you trying to accomplish? What do you mean by saying that yellow is "displayed as" that particular hex value? Do you mean in some particular color space like some? How are you measuring? And, by "other colors must be left untouched", what do you mean exactly by "other colors"?
Comment: Well, actually I am speaking of my laptop display color profile. I have compared the colors to my old laptop: yellow (#FFFF00) on my new one looks like #B4B400 on old one. But red, green and blue are looking just fine! Also I know that this issue is related to color profiles, not the drivers or hardware, so I'm asking this question here. Really counting on some help.
Answer: Yellow is not a native color of the monitor.  The screen is composed of red, green and blue sub-pixels.  If red, green and blue all look fine, then something else is going on with the yellow.  There is a good possibility that this is a physical limitation of the screen's color gamut, since you said that full red and full green look the same, but full red and full green at the same time look different.  There may also be some kind of display optimizer in the driver that is causing the blue color to be boosted.
I would probably start by making sure that there are no "intelligent" color corrections being applied and then try to use a colorometer to create calibrated ICC profiles that will control the response curves for red, green and blue values.  If things still don't match, it is probably a gamut issue that the screen simply can not display as well.
Answer: Sometimes even when the same color profiling software is used on 2 different displays, the results won't visually match.  One reason for this is the white point aim for profile vs two potentially different backlights in the displays.  Some Laptop displays are using TFT, and some are using LED, OLED and other various flavors of the above.
The rub comes in when we tell the software to figure out what's "closest" to the actual white point aim for the profile during the profiling process.  Since the spectral outputs of these two displays are different, they can easily end up at different "closest" white point value in XYZ compared to the aim values for D50.
So the solution for this in your case is to aim for a different white point after you see the software has failed to choose the correct one.  Then just remember which one you chose.


What's the story with "undershirt Tzitzis"?

Question: What's the story with "undershirt Tzitzis"? In case you've never heard of them, they're special Tzitzis made to be worn directly on the body. So is there any problem with them? Like, do some hold they're no good?
Answer: The Baal Hatanya, in his Shulchan Aruch (10:18), says that as long as visibly more than half the length is open along both sides of the garment, then it's fine.
However, in Hilchos Tzitzis in his Siddur (which was written later, hence it represents his final decision), he says that it should be completely open on both sides, not connected even with laces, let alone stitches. According to this, then, undershirt tzitzis are no good.
Comment: Okay, so assuming this is correct, why do undershirt tzitzis have a hechsher? (they happen to be open most of the way)
Comment: The question is whether Chabad-Lubavitch would use them, based on the Siddur of the 1st Lubavitcher Rebbe.  Non-Lubavitchers would take other considerations into account, such as the leniency in Shulchan Aruch HaRav.
Answer: As I understand it, there are two issues:

Is it appropriate to wear tzitzis directly on your skin, where they can get sweaty?
If you have a T-shirt-like-shape, but it still has four square corners, is that obligated in tzitis like a four-cornered garment?

As far as what's appropriate, I don't know.  Biblically, people just attached fringes to their normal clothing, which was four-cornered, so of course it got sweaty (and I assume was up against their skin).  Today that we wear a special garment for the sake of the mitzva, many people like to keep it separate from the skin, but I don't know sources on that (or if it's in fact required anyplace, or just a practice that developed.)
As for the shape, see above.  The first Lubavitcher Rebbe in his Shulchan Aruch HaRav says it's okay, in his siddur says not.  Chabad-Lubavitch hassidim consider the latter source more authoritative.  Non-Lubavitchers often take the Shulchan Aruch HaRav into consideration (especially when it comes to informing non-Lubavitch Hassidic halacha), but I think they treat the siddur as specifically Lubavitch practice.  The Chayei Adam (who was non-Hassidic; he lived in Vilna and was strongly influenced by its Gaon) says he sees French Jews attaching fringes to their ordinary vests, which happen to be four-cornered.  He thought that was great.  I don't know of other sources on this.
Comment: As I recall, HaRav Binyomin Zilber zt"l addresses this question in Az Nidberu, and he learns that a t-shirt tzitzit is more problematic because it's not just liable to absorb sweat, but is made to absorb sweat. Also, it should be noted that what are referred to commercially as "t-shirt tzitzit" vary dramatically in design. Some of them are mamash like a t-shirt, while others are close to a traditional cotton tallis katan, only they are designed to stay in place better.
Comment: According to HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef Shelit"a in Sefer En Yitzchak we rely on the Siddur over the S"A if there is a contradiction.
Answer: Apparently the Siach Yitchok in Siman Ches says they are no good.
Comment: Yeah, I saw your answer. But this might be different because it's made for it.?.
Comment: and therefore what?
Answer: See my update here:
May the Tallit Katan be worn directly on the body?
Answer: The fact that it is made to absorb sweat and act as an undershirt for this purpose can, according to some interpretations of a ma'amar chazal make it not chayuv in tzitzis alltogether as it is not considered a "beged". Don't  have the sources on me but I remember seeing it 20 years ago in a sefer Kol Bo on Hilchos Tzitzis.


fermentation and dry hopping

Question: I'm thinking about dry hopping my current batch. It's still fermenting and bubbling, and the krausen hasn't dissipated yet. Should I wait for fermentation to stop? Should I wait for the krausen to fall out?
Answer: Yes, you should wait.  The escaping CO2 will carry off the hop aroma you're trying to get through dry hopping.  It's best to remove the beer from the yeast completely before dry hopping.  There is an interaction between yeast and hops that can cause the hops to produce a very floral, rose-like ester which can be disagreeable.
Answer: Yes, you should wait until primary fermentation is finished before dry-hopping.
Answer: I was told by brewers from Sierra Nevada they like to dry hop their home brews just as fermentation is completing.  Most of the krausen will dissipate but not all.  By doing this the yeast can munch away at whatever oxygen is in your secondary.

fermentation and dry hopping


Selling completed and assembled models?

Question:
I'm am looking to sell completed models but do not want to disassemble them. Can someone point me in right direction?
Comment: Such a nice collection. Do you have the instructions and boxes? First make sure that you won't regret selling the sets before you offer them. I think Ebay is the best option for (partly) assembled sets. In a local sale, you might have to reduce the prize drastically. I'll have the Caterham, the Simpsons House, Wall-e and the Saturn, thanks :)
Answer: Welcome. You can sell these easily on EBay, just mention in the description that the sets will be shipped assembled. Two things to keep in mind:

Since most shipping costs are calculated by box dimensions, your shipping costs will likely be higher than when you ship the sets broken down.
Please make sure these sets are NOT glued ... you do not have to mention this in your listing, but absolutely should if they are (even if they are only partially glued).

I have personally bought both assembled used sets as well as disassembled ones, and have no preference. I always disassemble and wash before I reassemble. The only issue I faced was when I bought a set and it turned out to be partially glued, which was not mentioned in the listing. That was an easy SNAD case (Significantly Not As Described) and a full refund from the seller.
Answer: I would recommend selling on Bricklink.com. You can create an account, start a store, and begin selling without too much hassle. There are some great guides on how to sell sets on Bricklink, including this one.
You can find more information about Bricklink.com here on Bricks Stack Exchange and here on Bricklink itself.
As far as the actual selling goes, I would simply make sure to describe the set to the best of your ability, as Phil B. mentioned. Is the set missing pieces? Have the colors begun yellowing? Is it glued? Every buyer appreciates a clear description of what they're purchasing.
Answer: In my experience the sell on ebay brings a much faster result but with a realistic chance that your price goal is not met. On Bricklink you may have to wait for someone who is willing to pay the price you are asking for, which can take months or will never happen. With both platforms the price will be reduced significantly when you can not deliver the building instruction, it wil be raised when you also can offer the box. Btw, really a nice collection ;-)

Selling completed and assembled models?


Is there an alternative DLNA player for Logitech Revue under Google-TV?

Question: The Logitech Media Player included with the Logitech review is problematic - occasionally pausing causes it to stop or jump from video playback to music, etc. I am not seeing any alternative DLNA players in the Android Market that run under Google-TV. Are there any others out there that I am missing? Running Honeycomb 3.1.0.
Answer: The aVia Media Player is compatible with Google TV and is available in the Android Market on Google TV.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.videon.android.mediaplayer
Answer: I use Plex, and have had good results with it (also available in the Android Market)  Plex seems to play a lot more of my video files than the stock Logitech app.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.plexapp.gtv


Cointegration on prices or difference of prices

Question: Is it better to run my cointegration tests on prices or difference of prices?
Difference of prices are more likely to be stationary so the results of my regression (which gives me the beta for my cointegration pair) are likely to be more statistically significant.
Then doing  my stationarity test on the residuals using the results of the regression Will yield better results
What do you think?
Comment: I think you generally use return, or log diffs for stocks and probably differences in yield data for bonds/swaps.
Answer: Precisely because differences in prices and log-returns are often stationary, cointegration cannot be done for them. By definition, stochastic processes $X(t)$ and $Y(t)$ are cointegrated if neither of them is stationary but there is a linear combination
$
\ \ \ Y(t) + \beta X(t)
$
which is stationary... Also, in the trading context a time series
$
\ \ \ \rm{[Logreturn\ on\ asset\ A]}(t) + \beta\ \rm{[Logreturn\ on\ asset\ B]}(t)
$
has no meaning because you cannot trade this process. What you can trade is
$
\ \ \ \rm{[Price\ of\ asset\ A]}(t) + \beta\ \rm{[Price\ of\ asset\ B]}(t).
$
This corresponds to a simple portfolio with 1 unit of asset A and $\beta$ units of asset B.
Comment: albeit not meaning it can provide a view on which process is cointegrated.  The log or the identity.  http://epchan.blogspot.com/2013/11/cointegration-trading-with-log-prices.html


How to prove there is no positive and continuous function satisfying some conditions

Question: Let $\alpha \in \mathbb R $. How could I prove there isn't any positive and continuous function $f$ such that the following conditions hold?

$\int_{0}^1 f(x)dx=1$
$\int_{0}^1 xf(x)dx=\alpha $
$\int_{0}^1 x^2f(x)dx=\alpha ^2$
Comment: If $\alpha\le 0$ or $\alpha\ge 1$, then
$$\alpha-\alpha^2= \int_0^1 (x-x^2)f(x)dx >0$$
Because $x(1-x)\ge 0$, $f(x)>0$ on $[0,1]$, so we derive a contradiction. But I don't know in case of $0<\alpha <1$.
Answer: gt6989b's answer is a great answer, but it's probable that the OP isn't used to the language of probability. Here's the same proof, but written in the language of calculus instead.
If we happen to think of looking at $\int_0^1 (x-\alpha)^2f(x)\,dx$, we see that
\begin{align*}
\int_0^1 (x-\alpha)^2f(x)\,dx &= \int_0^1 (x^2-2\alpha x+\alpha^2)f(x)\,dx \\
 &= \int_0^1 x^2 f(x)\,dx - 2\alpha \int_0^1 x f(x)\,dx + \alpha^2 \int_0^1 f(x)\,dx \\
&= \alpha^2-2\alpha(\alpha)+\alpha^2(1) = 0.
\end{align*}
But the function $(x-\alpha)^2f(x)$ is nonnegative. The only way that the integral of a nonnegative function over an interval can equal $0$ is if the function is identically $0$. But this implies that $f(x)=0$ everywhere (except possibly at $x=\alpha$), which makes $\int_0^1 f(x)\,dx = 1$ impossible.
Comment: nice proof. thanks
Answer: The first criterion implies $f$ is a pdf - so $$\alpha = \mathbb{E}X \quad \text{and} \quad \alpha^2 = \mathbb{E}[X^2]$$ so existence of such $f$ implies there exists and random variable such that $$\mathbb{E}[X^2] = \mathbb{E}[X]^2,$$ which implies $X$ has 0-variance, so $X$ is constant, equal everywhere to its expected value.
But that makes $f(x) = 0$ everywhere except $f(\alpha) = 1$ (and the integration not Riemann, but e.g. Riemann-Stieltjes), but then $f$ is not continuous.
Answer: Consider the Hilbert space $L^2([0,1],\mathbb{R})$ with the standard inner product $\langle f,g \rangle = \int^1_0 f(x) g(x) dx. $ Suppose such an $f$ exists, so that $g=\sqrt{f}$ is also positive and continuous. Then the conditions read as:

$\| g\|=1$
$\langle xg,g \rangle= \alpha$
$\| xg \|=\alpha$

Thus we have that $\langle xg,g \rangle = \| xg\| \| g\|,$ which is the equality case of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. Hence there exists a $\beta\in\mathbb{R}$ such that $xg=\beta g$ almost everywhere, which can only be true if $g=0$ almost everywhere - but this contradicts the first condition. Therefore, no such $f$ exists.


Why was the Cup Winner's Cup abandoned?

Question: Don't know if many people remember watching European football back then but I always enjoyed the Cup Winner's Cup. I was wondering why UEFA decided to get rid of the competition and effectively merge it with the UEFA cup? Was it played on the same night as the UEFA cup?
Answer: Straight from Wikipedia:

After the establishment of the UEFA Champions League (formerly called the European Champion Clubs' Cup) in the early 1990s, the standing and prestige of the Cup Winners' Cup began to decline. With the expansion of the Champions League in 1997 to allow more than one team from the highest-ranked member associations to enter, the CWC began to look noticeably inferior.

Basically the same reason why UEFA abandoned Intertoto Cup and UEFA Cup. It was old, not interesting anymore and needed improvement - that's where Champion's League came in.
Answer: I don't have any sources to back me up, but a fair assumption is that the domestic cups have been relatively "uncontested" in many countries. The priority for most top teams have always been the domestic leauge alongside the UEFAcup/Champions League.

Why was the Cup Winner's Cup abandoned?