In our Agile/Scrum team, should we move or split incomplete stories?

Question: Our Agile/Scrum teams are getting better at taking on manageable workload and completing them fully. However, sometimes for a variety of good reasons, some of the stories are not fully done at the end of the Sprint. Should we move or split these incomplete stories?
Answer: "Fail Early" with Product Owner Cooperation

However, sometimes for a variety of good reasons, some of the stories are not fully done at the end of the Sprint. Should we move or split these incomplete stories?

If a team knows that stories will not be done by the end of the sprint, the first thing to do is talk to the Product Owner to see if the stories can be re-scoped or removed from the sprint without compromising the current Sprint Goal. This will enable the sprint to succeed even without 100% completion of the Sprint Backlog.
Splitting stories with the consent of the Product Owner is also an option. If a story is really composed of more than one user-visible feature, working with the Product Owner to tease out what part of the story can be done within the current sprint is a viable alternative to scrapping the whole story.
Once split, the stories would be done or not-done independent of one another. The trick, of course, is to make sure that the stories are actually independent, and that splitting them isn't just an elaborate accounting trick.
Disposition of Incomplete Stories
Any stories that are not-done at the end of the sprint receive zero credit. The sprint itself may still be declared a success so long as the Sprint Goal was met, but an incomplete story cannot receive partial credit.
Any incomplete stories are not automatically moved into the next sprint. Instead, they are placed back into the Product Backlog, where the Product Owner can re-prioritize the story based on lessons learned during the sprint.
For example, let's say you have a story about standing up a new MongoDB server. If the story wasn't completed during a sprint that was primarily focused on redesigning the login page, the following things should happen.

During the Sprint Retrospective, the team would discuss why the story encountered problems during the sprint. Perhaps a needed server didn't arrive in time, or it turned out that NoSQL was a bad design choice that should be changed.
The team hands the unfinished user story back to the Product Owner.
The Product Owner places the story into the Product Backlog if it remains important to him. He may also circular-file the story if it is no longer a feature he wants or needs.
If the story remains on the Product Backlog, the Product Owner re-prioritizes it against the other stories on the backlog, both new and old. The story may remain at the top of the backlog for the next sprint, or drop lower in the queue to make room for more urgent features.

The point here is that user stories don't automatically move from sprint to sprint. Every return to Sprint Planning offers the Product Owner the opportunity to revisit the priority of items in the Product Backlog, and to make adjustments based on lessons learned or new strategic requirements.
Comment: Adding to this:  the incomplete story can be refined during backlog refinement, giving the team a chance to incorporate the work done and add insights discovered during the previous sprint.
Answer: From the Scrum point of view, it is cheating to make an incomplete user story done by cutting, changing, or modifying it. Actually nothing will happen if you have an unfinished story in your sprint, until you talk about this event during a retrospective and do something about it during the next sprint. The situation is a bit different if this user story must be in the final delivery. In this case, you'll need to consult the product owner and the customer.
Think about this as a signal: something can be improved. This is a good thing, because it is visible and manageable.
Answer: I believe it depends on the nature of the story. If the story is comprised of tasks that are interrelated or clearly part of a well-defined whole, then the story should not be split if not done, and should be moved to a future sprint.
However, if the story contains tasks that are loosely coupled, such as a story for miscellaneous cleanup work or something like "make the interface more user-friendly", where the tasks are clearly self-contained and independently verifiable, then it can be very appropriate to split the story.  Why not take credit for the work that is complete, tested, and can benefit the product, if other tasks that aren't dependencies are not complete?


Is there a way to log failed file operations in a linux box?

Question: I wonder if there is a log facility in linux that can be enabled to record failed file operations such as a failure in creating a directory due to permissions or in opening a file for writing so that problematic issues about the filesystem can be easily tracked.
Answer: You can set up a centralized log server and configure your syslog daemon to send all the logs (also) to that host. That way if disk errors do occur at your $someserver, then info about that might still get logged to your centralized log server. Installing & configuring such log server is trivial, for example syslog-ng can automatically set up a directory tree like this for you:
/var/log/hosts
/var/log/hosts/host1
/var/log/hosts/host2
/var/log/hosts/host3
...

Also the audit subsystem mentioned is excellent, but if the file system containing /var goes down, it does not have a place where to write unless you have a separate log server or something else set up, too.
If you truly love to tinker and love to log everything, no matter how much disk space it takes, grsecurity has lots of additional audit features. However, grsecurity replaces SELinux, if you use that already.
Answer: Check out auditd. It's a user space utilities for storing and searching the audit records generated by the audit subsystem in the Linux kernel.
Answer: maybe this is what you need - http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/audit.html
Answer: Personally i use strace to weed out problems like this.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/174942/how-to-use-strace

Blockquote

For example, a code that is trying to search for a file may get a ENOENT (No such file or directory) error but that may be an acceptable scenario in the logic of the code.

Blockquote


What well designed Icehouse games are available for two people?

Question: Recently the Icehouse game system has caught my eye.  I've looked through a ton of rules on the Icehouse Wiki but haven't found any really engaging game for two players.  What well designed Icehouse games are available for two people? The amount of stashes is not really and issue for me.  I'm looking for games that flow well, are not too complex, and are enjoyable for two players.
Comment: You might want to accept an answer for this question, if there's an answer that meets your needs. If not, I'd recommend asking for clarification in comments, or editing your question to be more specific, so people can edit their answers or write new ones that will better answer your question.
Answer: My favorite 2-player Icehouse game is Volcano, you need to print out one sheet of paper with the "board" (though you could still play without it), rules are simple but the game is quite deep in strategy. The game requires 6 stashes of different colors.
Answer: My favorite two-player Icehouse games are Volcano and Binary Homeworlds.
You can find a list of 2-player games on the Icehouse Wiki, but of course, that has tons of games of varying quality. You can find some of the best and most popular games on the Existing Games page, which points out out games that have been published and games that have won competitions to help guide you to the games most likely to be good and well known.
Answer: Gnostica is an excellent Icehouse game for two players, but it might fall foul of your "not too complex" restriction. The Rules Reference helps, but even so, it's not really simple.
I'd highly recommend Binary Homeworlds. Although multiplayer Homeworlds has an explicit political element and some hidden information, the two-player version Binary Homeworlds loses those to become a pure-strategy game, with eminently simple rules, but astonishing depth.
Answer: My favourite two-player icehouse games are Zendo and Volcano. Zendo is an excellent game for two players in two styles. The first is when competition isn't particularly difficult. Then the game is played normally and is functionally one person posing logic puzzles to the other. The second is the Dharma-duel which is an excellent way for both people to be "master"
Answer: Just take a look at my own game here:
http://pages.videotron.com/remneb/binary.html
Comment: Looks interesting.  I can almost comprehend the rules well enough to try it sometime.


A Jewish Buddhist?

Question: I am jewish by ethnicity and by religion as well but I find the dhammapada and buddhist meditation to be beneficial, is this frowned upon or discouraged amongs buddhists?
Comment: AFAIK, Judaism's rules have a bigger problem with "JuBu-ism" than Buddhism's rules have with JuBu-ism. Especially in Mahayana where the goals is universal enlightenment via the Dharma, the general feel is that we should not be especially picky about how people join the club. This is made most clear in the practice of taking 1, 2, or 3 of the refuges, or 1, 2, .. or 5 of the precepts & in the willingness to incorporate syncretic beliefs under the umbrella of "adapting the dharma to the audience"
Comment: @MatthewMartin could you elaborate on how this is conflicts with Judaism? It seems to make it more compatible.
Comment: 2nd commandment seems clear. Jaweh is not interested in hairsplitting over if the Buddha is a human, a celestial Buddha, or if only the Gods of the formless realms are mortal or if Buddhist believe or disbelieve in a creator God. Jaweh doesn't even like the statues Buddhism borrowed from the Greeks. ref: http://www.jewishvaluesonline.org/533
Comment: Also, again, Buddhism, like it's other similar Indic religions is highly syncretic, i.e. institutions willing to incorporate other religious beliefs. Judaisms main innovation was monotheism, which creates an entirely different dynamic. I suppose you could mix secular Buddhism and faithful Judaism the same way you can mix secular physics or French cooking and faithful Judaism. But if one is to just say "Buddhism" (or Dhamapada & Buddhist meditation) that doesn't rule out the rest of the religion.
Answer: The phenomena you mention is so common it has a name.  BuJu or JuBu.  In fact, there's even a Wikipedia Page on it.  Furthermore, the contribution to (Western) Buddhism by Jews is very impressive!
Whether this is frowned upon depends on how your Jewish faith and Buddhist practice relate.  Whether they contradict, co-exist or complement depends in turn on how you regard each.
Since Buddhism can be treated as a secular philosophy (which is how I treat it), I see no inherent conflict.  This means typical problem points like Buddhism's "atheism", Karma and Rebirth are non-issues.
Even Buddhism's Emptiness (especially our lack of a "self") is not an issue (IMO) if we treat this as a statement about our experience or an injunction against clinging to these beliefs (as opposed to asserting one or the other).

A Jewish Buddhist?


If you add a non-member to a circle in Google+, do they get an email notification?

Question: If I add someone from my Gmail contacts to a circle, and they haven't got a Google+ account, do they get an email saying I've added them on Google+?
Answer: No, they don't get a notification. However, when you share to that Circle, Google will ask if you want to send an email update to people not using Google +.
Comment: Also, when you add them to the Circle you'll be gently prompted to invite them to Google+. If you do, _then_ they'll get an e-mail.
Answer: As of this post they do, in fact, receive an email, if you add them from within Gmail. I made the mistake of adding an important client to a Circle with an accidental click, and they received an invite to join Google+. That resulted in a very awkward phone conversation where they were letting me down easy about how they don't use Google+, and I was letting them down easy that I wasn't inviting them to my social network.
I wrote an extension to prevent this from happening again that disables the button:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/disable-gmail-add-to-circ/nckhnfmcmenbmoabnfcmdiabconcbhdk


What's the difference between "guardar" and "mantener"?

Question: What's the difference between "guardar" and "mantener"?  The English I want to translate is "Help us to keep a good sense of humor."  The verb to translate is "keep".
Answer: Guardar is keeping something safe, like keeping money in your locker. This would be used in the same context as "store".
Mantener is keeping something the way it is, like keeping your locker clean. This would be used in the same context as "maintain".
In this context, "keep" is used like "maintain", so a good translation would be:
Ayúdanos a mantener un buen sentido del humor.

Answer: If you see the definitions of guardar and mantener. I think mantener fits better with your translation acording to the point 3 of its definition.

Conservar algo en su ser, darle vigor y permanencia.

My translate would be:

Ayúdanos a tener/matener un buen sentido del humor
Answer: Another translation I would suggest uses the verb "Conservar", according to its third definition in RAE's dictionary:

3.tr. Continuar la práctica de costumbres, virtudes y cosas semejantes.

So, my suggestion is as follows:

Ayúdanos a conservar un buen sentido del humor.

Closely related to the context of the sentence we are dealing with here, for example when you are already talking about keeping that good sense of humor in former paragraphs, then you should use de definite article, like this:

Ayúdanos a conservar el buen sentido del humor.


How do I handle moving platforms in a platform game?

Question: I don't want to use box2d or anything, I just want simple moving platforms (up-down, left-right, diagonal and circular paths). My question is to handle the update order / control hierarchy so that the player stays fixed to the platform solidly, without bouncing or wobbling?
Answer: My solution would be to treat every physical entity in the game map as a tree node, and the map itself as the root node. Nodes can contain other nodes. Every node is contained (directly or indirectly) inside the map node.
For example, let's say your character is standing on a platform. The platform's node contains the character's node. So, whenever the platform moves, the nodes it contains (in this case the character) will move too.
For this to happen, every node should have an (x,y) position relative to the parent node. For example, your character could be located at (1,0) relative to the platform, which itself could be located at (10,10) relative to the game map. That way, if the platform moves, your character will move along implicitly.
In this hierarchical tree, the position of every node is equal to the sum of his position plus each of his parent nodes' positions. Let's say we want to get the character's position on the map. We calculate:
(character's position) + (parent node's position) + (root node position) = (1,0) + (10,10) + (0,0) = (11,0)
OK, so all this time your character has been standing on the platform. What about jumping? Well, the moment he jumps, you detach him from the platform and attach him to the node containing the platform; in this case, the map (root node).
When he lands again, attach him to whatever node he landed on.
Comment: I would also use the x and y speed from the node to affect the player. Example 1: platform moves really fast up and stops, player has upward momentum and is launched. Example 2: platform is moving down slightly slower than the player falling at a deadly speed. The platform should be safe to land on instead of *SPLUT*
Comment: that's a interesting approach but seems quite a full-on change to my engine just to allow moving platorms. Maybe if I create objectOnPlatform as a component that I can to any object that just temporally gives this effect?
Answer: I would suggest treating this as a pseudo-physics problem and solve it by using ground friction.
You're already using gravity to hold the character on the ground, this handles the situations where platforms move up and down.  To handle the left and right movement, the ground should exert a great deal of friction on the character.  Typically this friction level would be 1.0, or 100%.
If the character is standing still, then their velocity is 0, and they instead inherit 100% of the velocity of the platform because of the friction.  Something like the following:
<code>character_velocity = friction * platform_velocity
</code>
The benefit of this approach is that it easily lends itself to additional platforming mechanics, like being able to overcome the friction on steep slopes, allowing your character to slide.  It also allows you to easily reduce the friction to create ice that the character will slide on.
It also is easier to deal with issues like low hanging walls that can knock your player off a moving platform.  If you simply treat the character as a child of a parent platform, there's a good chance it won't interact very easily with the rest of your collision detection without a lot of work.
Answer: You might fix the player position not "absolute in the level" but "relative to the platform", then have a function that gives his actual position. I don't like this though.
It would be probably better (and simpler) to bind the player to the platform so that when the platform moves +x/+y, the player moves as much.


difference between leveled FHE and normal FHE scheme

Question:
What is/are difference/s between leveled Fully Homomorphic Encryption
  and normal Fully Homomorphic Encryption?
Answer: FHE should be able to evaluate any circuit. Leveled FHE can evaluate circuits which have a bounded depth.
BGV was, I believe, the first to offer leveled FHE. The gain was in performance. By restricting to only certain depths (where the depth is calculated by looking at multiplication gates), they were able to remove the bootstrapping operation of Gentry's construction (which was very expensive) or at least spread out the bootstrapping.
Another benefit for leveled schemes is that you can remove the assumption of circular security, i.e., that you can safely encrypt your private key with your public key. We don't know (as far as I remember) how safe this is. Note that we can convert a leveled-FHE to an FHE scheme if we assume circular security though (see footnote 1 in the BGV paper).
Comment: I think leveled FHE also avoids the assumption of circular-security. $\;$
Comment: @RickyDemer I believe you are right.
Answer: The difference.
Considering only the definitions of such kinds of schemes, the difference is just that:

"Normal" FHE schemes can perform any sequence of additions and multiplications homomorphically (that is, over ciphertexts in a way that is equivalent to operate over plaintexts).
Leveled FHE schemes can perform up to $L$ multiplications in sequence, where $L$ is a scheme's parameter (sometimes an implicit parameter).

All the other possible differences are consequences of this difference or only apply to some particular schemes (therefore, not applied in general).
For instance, some differences that are consequences of this difference are:

The keys' sizes depend on $L$ and on $\lambda$ in leveled schemes while in pure FHE they depend only on the security parameter $\lambda$ (so, the bigger $L$ is, the bigger the keys will be).
Since ciphertext's sizes depend on the key's sizes, they also depend on $L$ in leveled schemes.

A note about the circular security assumption.
I am sorry, but I disagree that there is a relation between leveled schemes and circular security assumption... There is nothing prohibiting someone from creating a (normal) FHE that doesn't rely on the circular security. In the other hand, someone can create a leveled FHE scheme that rely on that assumption (the FV scheme, for instance, uses what authors call weak circular security assumption).
BGV scheme does not rely on this assumption because it defines $L$ keys instead of one single key, and each of those $L$ keys is used in one level of the circuit being evaluated. Not all leveled FHE will necessarily have this feature.
Answer: A leveled fully homorphic encryption scheme is a homorphic scheme where FHE.KeyGen receives an additional input $1^{d}$ and the resulting scheme is homorphic for all depth-d arithmetic circuits over GF(2)


What is a whirlpool chiller?

Question: What is a Whirlpool Chiller and how does it work?  What are the advantages or disadvantages?
Answer: Whirlpool chilling utlilizes a pump and an immersion chiller.  Many brewers that have an immersion chiller will find that an upgrade to a pump for other uses allows them to get better chilling from the immersion chiller.
A whirlpool chiller uses a pump to pull wort from the base of the kettle, then returns the wort to the top of the kettle.  The return is just beneath the surface of the wort in the kettle to minimize aeration effects while the wort is hot.  The returned wort is pumped under the surface at an angle that is closer to parallel with the surface.  This creates a sideways force which makes the entire wort volume whirlpool.
The whirlpooling action increases contact volume of the wort with the chiller surface.  Whirlpool chilling stirs the wort over the immersion chiller coil and reduces the total chill time as compared to just an immersion chiller alone.
The second advantage after chill time is the whirlpool action itself.  The forces created by the whirlpool help to create a cone of hop debris and break material in the center of the kettle.  After the chilling is complete, one can rack or draw off from the side of the kettle, normally without pulling much of this material into the fermentor.  Getting clearer wort for fermentation is an advantage of whirlpooling used by the pros.
A downside to whirlpool chilling is the requirement of a pump.  However, a pump often becomes a standard upgrade for more serious brewers eventually.  The second down side is the water usage with the immersion chiller.  Plate chillers tend to be better on water.  However, using a whirlpool setup does chill faster than an immersion chiller alone, hence reducing some water useage.
For some pictures of a whirlpool setup you can check out Jamil Zainasheff's site at Mr. Malty.com.
Comment: So, if I wanted to build my setup piecemeal, I could just build an immersion chiller to start with, then later get a pump and attach the copper swirley tee part to augment the immersions chiller, thus making it a whirlpool chiller?
Comment: BINGO! Thats the beauty of a whirlpool chiller, IMO.  Its an uprgade that works with your current setup.
Comment: If you don't want to waste water, recirculate back through another immersion chiller in a bucket filled with ice and salt instead of just sending hose water through once.
Comment: Great thorough answer.
Answer: As brewchez mentions, whirlpool chilling typically uses an immersion chiller, however you can  whirlpool chill with counterflow and plate chillers also. The principle of recirculating the wort is the same - the wort is pumped into the plate or counterflow chiller and back into the kettle, where it creates a whirlpool.
When plate and counterflow chillers are used without recirculating (the "normal" way), the cold break forms in the chiller, and has nowhere to go but end up in the fermentor. By recirculating the wort, the cold break ends up back in the kettle, and a good whirlpool can ensure most of it stays there.
An advantage of circulating the wort with these chillers is that each drop of wort is chilled very quickly, typically dropping from near boiling to 75F/23C in the time it takes to pass through the chiller. This is beneficial since a rapid chill forms a good cold break, which helps reduce chill haze. Yet, since the wort is then recycled, the wort is chilled as a whole. Chilling the whole wort rather than a small part of it is beneficial as it reduces production of DMS and locks in more hop aroma.
The combination of rapid chill and whole-wort chilling is unique to whirlpooling with plate chillers and counterflow chillers.
Comment: @dana - I think you misunderstand my answer. Because the wort is recycled after being chilled, the entire wort volume IS cooled simultaneously. Even with an IM chiller only the wort that's in contact with the coils is chilled directly, and this is then mixed with the rest to reduce the overall temperature. And the same is true with the plate/CFC - a small volume of wort is chilled and then mixed with the full volume.  If you scan the homebrew forums you'll see plenty of references to using other forms of chiller for whirlpool chilling. It's not exclusively an IM thing.
Comment: You can whirlpool without an immersion chiler, but you cannot utilize a whirlpool chiller without an immersion chiller. The point of circulating wort is to create more contact between the wort and the immersion chiller. The whole point of a whirlpool chiller is to chill ALL of the wort simultaneously below DMS/hop utilization levels. As you note in your post, a plate/cf chiller can only chill the wort currently in the chiller. I will agree that you will end up chilling faster than normal by recirculating wort into kettle, but you are incorrect to include these techniques as whirlpool chilling.
Comment: You are comparing cooling a small amount of wort and recircing to the hot kettle, to whirlpooling the entire kettle about a chiller coil simultaneousky. In terms of the thermodynamics those are not equivalent. Jamil makes this very point.
Comment: Jamil says this: "Q: Can't I do this same thing using my counter-flow/plate chiller?

A: Yes, you can. Several people have reported good results using their counter-flow devices. Just run the output from the device back into the kettle. You'll probably get less of a whirlpool effect, but the chilling should be just as good, no DMS and great hop character."  I don't see how the thermodynamics may differ, so please explain, but either way, the temperature of the entire volume of wort is reduced.
Comment: Essentially whirlpool chilling is about cooling the entire volume, accelerating chilling by constantly moving the wort, and creating a trub cone. You achieve all of these with IM, CFC or plate chiller. (I do this with my rig, so I'm speaking from practical experience.)

What is a whirlpool chiller?


CiviDiscount: How do I disable the automatic member discount for additional participants?

Question: I was disheartened to learn that the automatic discount I created to give members a discount off the conference registration fee applies to other participants the member registers even though they are not members. I think the same goes for if the member isn't registering themselves but someone else--if they are logged in as a member, the discount applies for whoever they are registering, even though they are not members. Does anyone know how to be more restrictive with the discount code so it only applies to the member, and not their plus ones? We are using CiviDiscount 3.3.
Answer: I don't think CiviDiscount does what you want.  If you are on Drupal you could use a webform.
Comment: (and use Conditionals to determine what prices are offered to whom based on their membership status?).
Answer: You could use some CSS to display/hide certain rows of your Price Set for only the first participant. This is only partially an answer to your question, in that it will allow a member to only purchase one registration at the discounted price, but that one registration won't be restricted to that member (they could purchase one registration for another individual).

Create a Price Set with a checkbox price field (let's call it "Tickets") with two options: First Registration, Additional Registrations.
Create your Discount code, applied only to the "First Registration" option.
Use that Price Set for your Event and visit the registration page to determine the exact CSS classes of those price field options. Will be something like "Tickets-row1" (or whatever your checkbox price field is).
Then add the following styles to the Price Set Pre Help (adjusted to your specific classes):


What is this plant?

Question: I really like this plant--I'm just wondering what its name is (perhaps genus+species). I think this plant grows in the tropical rainforest in Malaysia.

Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Comment: To me it looks similar to a young Banana plant ([Musa sp.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_%28genus%29)). The genus is native to south east asia, and there are many wild species.
Comment: Reposted as answer. Hopefully a botanist can chime in later. @biogirl
Comment: I agree, this looks a lot like the banana plant.
Comment: @masoug the stem of the banana plant is peculiar. If you could upload the picture of your plant's stem, it would be helpful
Comment: If it is a banana plant; then its trunk(invisible in this photo) is not actually stem. The actual stem stays underground.  the trunk is actually the leaf-bases sheathing around. The stem comes-out in the form of "scape" (a sort of inflorescence stick) at a season. (quite-lin a manner of onion-scape); which contains the banana -inflorescence on its top.
Comment: any info. about its size?
Answer: I'm no botanist, but this looks very similar to a young banana plant (Musa sp.) to me. The genus is native to south east asia, and there are many wild species. There are also a couple of other similarly looking genera in the banana family (Musaceae).
Reasons why I'm thinking banana: the plant has tongue-shaped leafs with fairly short petioles, and the leaves have clear horizontal, unbranched veins and horizontal tears (common on banana plants). The leaves come from a single apical meristem and are scattered (not in e.g. distinct rows). Banana plants also have pseudostems, made out of packed leaf sheaths, but the stem cannot be seen in your picture. Here is a webpage on banana morphology, if you want to get some further information.
Some examples:
Comment: I'm not botanist either, but I think you are right--the  pattern of the leaves/stem matches the banana plant. Thanks!

What is this plant?


How do I get a 3D building added to Google Earth / Maps?

Question: I noticed that there wasn't a 3D model available for a particular location on Google Earth. I know how this building looks, so how would I contribute by making a model of it?
Answer: Building Maker is a great tool, but only available in a limited set of areas. However, you can download Google SketchUp to make any 3D models, including buildings for Google Earth. You'll need to upload geo-located models to the 3D Warehouse for review and publishing. See the geo-modeling section of SketchUp's Help Center.
Answer: You may want to check out:

Google's Building Maker: Create 3D buildings online

Building Maker is a 3D modeling tool for adding buildings to Google Earth. It's fun to use, and an easy way to get on the 3D map. Here's how it works:

Select a city from around the world.
Make a building with photos we provide.
Save your building and it will be reviewed.
See your 3D building in Google Earth!
Answer: Three basic options:

Use building maker and do it yourself (learning curve, lower quality model)
Use Sketchup and do it yourself (bigger learning curve, high quality model)
Get a 3D buildings service to do it for you (costs money but no hassle)


What's the difference between Red and Panang curry?

Question: I love Panang curry and Thai food in general. However, whenever I try to make  curry at home it always comes out as indistinguishable from Red curry. What's the distinction between these two dishes? I feel like I'm probably just missing one or two ingredients that make the difference, but my trusted recipe books and google haven't been of much use.
Comment: Always wondered this as well.  Panang curry is delicious!
Answer: Being a Thai, it's always confusing when I hear the term "red curry" because I am not sure exactly what kind of curry are being referred to. Red curry (Kaeng Ped or literally "spicy soup/curry") is a very general term and includes most spicy curry-based soups without specific names. The most common form of red curry in Bangkok restaurants is one with roasted duck.
Panaeng can be categorized as a thicker kind of red curry but it is never served as soup in a bowl. Often it's served with rice in a plate. Ingredient-wise, Panaeng curry paste is sold separately and I don't know how different it is to normal curry paste. However, without that specific paste, I think most Thai people will say the normal paste does fine and may not notice the difference.
Answer: I have just looked in the book "Thai Food" (by David Thompson).
Both are very similar. The main difference I can see is that there are souring agents in the red curry (fish sauce and shrimp paste). These are absent in the panaeng which has peanuts as a major ingredient in the paste (and nutmeg).
The panaeng is also usually made with beef which is simmered in count milk until tender.
Comment: At least as it is made in the many Thai restaurants in Seattle, the peanut component of the sauce is very pronounced in Panang curries, so I think this is the most relevant answer.
Answer: Panang curry has an additional ingredient which isn't used in Red or Green curry paste.  It's ground peanuts and Panang is usually seasoned to be less spicy but much sweeter than the red curry.  As for the green curry, translated directly from its Thai name, it's not just green curry.  The actual translation is "Sweet Green Curry" while the red curry is "Spicy Curry".  Among the three, Panang is the sweetest.  The green curry is sweet but not as sweet as the Panang.  It's spicier than Panang but not as spicy as the red curry.  Basically, Panang is the sweetest and mildest curry of the three.  The green curry is in the middle while the red curry is the spiciest and the least sweet of the three and saltiness is the prominent flavour.  Traditionally, the ingredients for the pasts were also different.  Nowadays, it's just the colour of the chilies.
Answer: Red curries have a much stronger kaffir lime leaf flavour.
Penang curries contain crushed peanuts.
Answer: I was trying to make a chicken curry this evening and hoped it would taste like the yummy panang curries I've eaten in various restaurants.  Not so much!  But I got on line to try and see what the differences are and seeing other recipes, I added a teaspoon of sugar and a large teaspoon of chunky peanut butter.  Tastes more like what I had hope for!
Answer: Panaeng curry should be milder.
Answer: According to the first google link for Panang Curry its supposed to be thicker and drier than a Red Curry - which is supposed to be soupier and runnier.  Other places suggest that it's supposed to be milder.
Having lived in Thailand for the past month and a half, I feel like I should know this.  I'll ask some of my Thai friends and get back to you.
Comment: Honestly, it's entirely possible that Panang Curry is just a local name for Red Curry.  Or a localized very slight variation on the same.  It doesn't have to be a terribly fundamental difference.
Comment: While it may be milder, I feel like there's a more fundamental difference in taste than just the level of spice.
Answer: I took a cooking course in Thailand and the recipe book says to take Yellow curry paste and add  roasted ground peanut to it.
Comment: Sorry, I don't understand this answer. Is this the technique for Red or for Panang curry? And whichever it is, how does it differ from the other one?


Is it possible to set up a token with a fixed amount available, where all coins can be redistributed among token holders?

Question: I'm new to this so i apologise in advance for my lack of technical knowledge.
What I'm trying to is distribute an investment among people ( a closed group) using tokens, allowing people to buy and sell their stake as they choose.
so basically i want to create a coin with a fixed amount distributed amongst all users. The price of the coin is calculated by putting total coins equal to the portfolio growth €G in real time. When someone wants to invest say €K they buy €K worth of coins. The amount €K would then be added to the €G and the coin value would increase proportionally.
My questions: Would it be possible to have an algorithm that would redistribute all coins proportionally among every coin holder so that they have less coins but their total value remains the same. I know this can be done mathematically quite easily but is their a way to redistribute coins on Ethereum in such a way?
for example
10,000 C coins distributed
G is worth €1,000
so each coin is worth C = 1,000/10,000 = €0.1
Person 1 and 2 have 5,000 C worth €500 each
Person 3 wants to buy 100 worth of coins.
G is now worth €1,100
C = 1,100/10,000 = €0.11
Coins are redistributed in following manner
 1 and 2 have (500/1,100)*10,000 = 4,545.45 C each
 3 has (100/1,100)*10,000 = 909.09 C
The reason I want to keep a limited amount of tokens rather than distribute more is that the value of the coin will be pegged to the growth of the groups' investment and so the increase in coin value will be a direct indicator of the portfolio growth.
If anyone could just tell me whether this is possible or not before I invest too much time on it id appreciate it. And again, sorry for the lack of technical know-how !
Thanks !
Answer: As I see it this would only be possible if you create a platform where you handle the accounts of the users that hold the token because if they can take the tokens out of your platform you won't have control over it anymore and you won't be able to change the values of their accounts.
So if you have a platform where you have access to how much tokens each investor has and you can reduce that amount depending on the amount in the portfolio then you'll be able to control the amount of each person.


Is there a word in a dead or lost language that we lost the definition to?

Question: Is there a word we lost the definition to? A word whose definition we lost to history? Something that is a part of our history but we forgot the meaning with time
Comment: Even in non-dead languages (or at least languages whose later stages are still spoken), there are words whose definitions are lost in time. I recall reading about a hapax whose meaning could not be gleaned from context in a 14th-century manuscript or something like that – and that was in (Middle) _English_. If only I could remember what the word was, but I can't, and Google is being singularly unhelpful…
Comment: In addition to jk's answer, and the linked question, it's probably also worth looking at partially deciphered languages (e.g. Etruscan). In these cases, some vocabulary is understood, but large portions have to be inferred from context. Sometimes this results in definitions like "some type of bird", but other times little can be inferred other than the part of speech and morphological class
Comment: You'll get lots of examples if you search "Google Books" for *hapax legomenon  unclear meaning*
Comment: @RichArmstrong No, I don't think so. I'm fairly sure this was more recent, and it wasn't a big famous text like The Battle of Maldon, just some fairly obscure manuscript somewhere; and the word wasn't a transparent formation whose exact meaning isn't clear, but one whose base meaning was completely impossible to guess, akin to the Greek σαστηρ mentioned in an answer below.
Comment: @JanusBahsJacquet might you be talking about the Battle of Maldon of 991? That's the first hapax I ever studied. King Byrhtnoth gives up a significant tactical advantage to his opponent "for his ofermōde" (line 89b). Which has been variously interpreted as "hubris" or "honor".
Answer: Ancient Greek word ΣΑΣΤΗΡ (sastēr)
From 1890 to 1899, in pieces, a white marble slab was found by archaeologists in the ruins of an Ancient Greek colony Chersonesus, Greek Χερσόνησος (Khersónēsos), on the Crimean Peninsula, established in the 6th century BC. The slab (photo) was inscribed with a text in Ancient Greek being the civic oath of the Chersonesites (citizens of Chersonesus): description, Ancient Greek text and English translation. The text is thought to be inscribed in the beginning of the 3rd century BC.
Among the understandable oaths ("I will not betray anything to anyone, neither a Hellenic nor a barbarian," "I will not violate democracy," "I will not plot a conspiracy," "I will be an enemy to malefactors") there is one: "I will protect the saster (ΣΑΣΤΗΡ) for the people" (και τον σαστηρα τωι δαμωι διαφυλαξω, lines 24–25).
This word is not found in any other Greek text of the Old or New time. The literature on saster is extensive. There are many hypotheses, including some very eccentric ones. Max Fasmer and Lev Yelnitsky, for example, believed that the saster was the Scythian governor of Chersonesos, S. A. Zhebelev — that it was some kind of sacred object, for example an idol; V.V. Latyshev (the first publisher of the inscription) - that this is a kind of legal concept, for example, a civil oath. Most recently, I. Markov argues it is the city treasury. Parallels were sought for this word in Iranian and other languages. Historical novels appeared, which featured the sacred saster towering over the Chersonesus coast; in Sevastopol, a modern city situated near the ancient Chersonesus, a festival called "Saster of Chersonesos" was held. On the Internet, you can listen to a song with the words "And I will find a magic saster" (with an emphasis on "a") and read verses with the line "An unknown saster hiding from us" (with an emphasis on "e").
No one knows for sure what ΣΑΣΤΗΡ is.
Comment: @OmarL Very possible. A lot of such hapax legomena found in the ancient texts are very often proper nouns (names of people or geographic locales). Sometimes it's a corruption - spelling practices were highly unstandardized at the time. Another hypothesis is a dialectal feature. **In any case, we won't solve it here.** (I'm by no means Latyshev or Zhebelev, who worked with various epigraphic materials on a regular basis and were highly proficient in many dead languages.)
Comment: Could be from PIE *ḱestróm (cut, separate) > Latin castrum "castle", Sanskrit śastrám "knife"? May mean anything separated or cutting.
Comment: My first crude idea was German [Zaster](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Zaster) "dow, money" with an interesting etymology from Romani. The meaning would fit to Markov's interpretation :-)
Comment: Great answer, I never knew about this! What if we pretend it is an IE word, what root it ascends to (assuming -ter is a suffix)? What does seh2s mean in PIE?
Comment: @Anixx Crimea was mostly populated by Ionians so a long ā would be expected to give an eta. The presence of the initial s also makes an inherited Greek source unlikely and rules out a PIE root beginning with s if the word is Iranic in origin. If the word is Indo-European we'd need a root beginning in ḱ, with the second s being either a s or another ḱ. That said, agentive -tēr becomes -tā in Iranic. Perhaps a substantivised adjective in -teros (which gives -tarah > -tar in Iranic, which the Greeks may have confused with their own suffix -tēr)?
Comment: Very interesting, indeed! Anyway I can't shake the thought it might be a "typo". It sounds like a joke, I know, but I keep thinking of all the (mostly new-media-induced) bad orthography of nowadays (I've seen examples even on some placards) and of distant future archeologists puzzled when unearthing a sign having something like "keep of the grazz"[sic] on it. I wonder if archeologists ever think of typos when attempting translations of ancient writings.
Comment: @Anixx: Probably not, the Roman [sestertius](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sestertius) having a transparent Latin etymology "2½" was only introduced around 211 BCE.
Comment: Also, compare Hungarian sátor, Serbian šator, Old English hætera, Proto-Indo-Aryan *šśattrás, all from PIE *sḱedtrós "cover, veil, tent".
Comment: Could be a cognate to Latin sestertius?
Comment: Just imagine that was just a typo...
Comment: @AnoE OMG, you beat me by a couple of seconds! :-)
Comment: could sastera be an accusative, plural or collective or another form from sastron? then could be a typo from kastron, a Latin borrowing meaning "fortress". Possible interpretation: kastera "fortifications"
Comment: Could it be someone's name, or the name of a locale or something?
Answer: There are many such words. Even for a really well-attested dead language like Latin such words are known, e.g., aurichalc, haematopus, or cortumio (all three examples taken from the answers to this question on latin.se)
Comment: @T.Sar Google suggests that _cortume_ is a misspelling of _curtume_ 'tanning, tannery', which would make sense (if you've ever been to a tannery, you'll know that they do in fact reek). _Curtume_ has a well-established etymology, so assuming that is how the slang term arose, there is no relation with Latin _curtumio_. Even if it isn't, though, there's almost certainly no relation, unless this very obscure, old Latin word were, for some inexplicable reason, borrowed recently in Brazil for use in a seemingly wholly unrelated sense.
Comment: *thinking* Not sure how it came to be or where it came from, but "cortume" in my (pt-BR speaking area) area is slang for a set of different "unpleasant smells".  Not sure if related or not to "cortumio".
Comment: @JanusBahsJacquet It might be related to _curtume_ as in the tannery. That said, it isn't a recent term by any means.
Comment: @T.Sar By 'recent', I meant 'some time within the past couple of hundred years or so', not 'after you left high school'. The point was that if there is any relation to the Latin word, it must be that the Latin word has been borrowed into Modern (Brazilian) Portuguese, not inherited directly throughout the ages.
Answer: A surprising example is that one of the words in the "Lord's Prayer", one of the most significant prayers of the Christian tradition, has an unknown meaning.
The original Greek word is epiousios (ἐπιούσιος) and has traditionally been translated as "daily" - but that translation has no particularly strong foundation. It occurs in the phrase  "Τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον", or "Give us today our epiousion bread".
See for example the Wikipedia page for epiousios.
Comment: @VladimirF Maybe someone with more expertise than me will be able to comment more extensively - but it was problematic at least by the time of Jerome's Vulgate in the late 4th century. Jerome translated *epiousion* into Latin in two different ways, as *quotidianum* (daily) in Luke 11:3, but as *supersubstantialem* ("supersubstantial") in Matthew 6:11.
Comment: Aren't the translations to Latin or Syriac or Coptic old enough to contain a reliable translation?
Comment: I wanted to post that, too, but remembered about it when I'd already posted my answer. This word is really fascinating.
Comment: @JamesMartin I think Jerome just reused the existing older translation there. I was hoping more about Syriac, though.
Comment: @VladimirF sounds like you are already better informed than me here. It would be very interesting to learn more - a Google search for 'peshitta epiousios' throws up a few promising things....
Answer: In Genesis 6:14, Noah's Ark is made of
עצי גפר (gopher wood). "Gopher" is just a phonetic transliteration of the ancient Hebrew גֹּפֶר. No one knows what it means, except that it is presumably some kind of wood.
Comment: @OmarL just like with gopher wood, there are theories, but there is not enough evidence to be confident of any one theory. For instance, to *prove* it's related to a word for "hanging", you have to have a history of its use in different places showing the evolution, but all we have is the 74 uses in the Bible that aren't very clear from context. (The "hanging" theory is definitely a possibility, though.) See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selah.
Comment: Another example from the old testament is "sela"
Comment: @mousetail I heard "sela" is realted to some word for "hanging", and so is used as a word for "suspense", "pause", and so on. Especially in the Psalms.
Answer: Hapax legomenon
This is defined as a word that only appears once in a given context - it can be in a single book, an author's complete works, or in the published works of an entire language (whether a dead language or an extant one).  In the last sense, it would generally be a word whose definition is lost to history.  The linked article gives a few examples.
(Note: This is not a lost word itself, but a word that potentially describes such words.)
Comment: This isn't true! The meaning of a hapax can be obvious — the only requirement is that it only occur once in the corpus, so certainly while some hapax legomena are lost words, not all are.
Comment: @jogloran I said "generally".  There are obviously exceptions, and of course this only applies when talking about an entire language, while the term can also be used on smaller corpuses (e.g. a single book or author).  But when a word is used only once in the corpus of an entire language, it's usually hard to be sure of its definition.  (Though that doesn't stop people from guessing in some cases.)
Comment: This answer is not very cromulent.
Comment: This is just wrong. For example, in Homer there are roughly 1000 hapaxes (depending on how you define them), and very few have unknown definitions. Many are just unusual forms of a known word, such as an Aeolic or Ionian form. Some are names of ships. Many are compound words whose meaning is obvious and can be verified from context as well.
Answer: Of course, we could take the question to an extreme: as I understand it, no-one has yet managed to decode Linear-A, so we have a whole language that we have "lost the definition to".
Answer: The bible is full of such words.
We can suspect what they mean (and being the bible - there are "canon" meanings).
But we don't really know.
Many of these words were migrated to modern Hebrew - and got a modern unrelated meaning.
for example - אקדח (gun).
We know that it was probably some kind of gem. But we don't know what kind.
https://www.studylight.org/lexicons/eng/hebrew/688.html


Most intuitive icon to represent "me" or "myself"

Question: For example, in a shopping cart, I may buy this purchase for myself ("me" / "myself" icon), as opposed to gifting it to someone else (box with bow-tie icon).  What is the ideal icon to represent ME?
Comment: @Rahul - keep the question here at UX because although the question asks for an icon, I think there is the broader question of whether a 'myself' icon is even needed. i.e. whether the option to buy for someone else is just a branch to the 'standard flow' rather than needing to be presented as a pure A or B forking choice ('scuse my language!)
Comment: Isn't this just the default option? Therefore you don't need an icon (or am I missing something).
Comment: Ah - you want "buy for me" and "buy as gift" as two actions, rather than "buy" and then "this item is a gift" later in the process.
Comment: @jonshariat, that's actually a legitimate solution, i'd +1 if you posted it as an answer.
Comment: Is it likely people will be shopping for themselves and someone else all the time? Or is the gift option more the exception than the norm? If so, I'd say you only need an icon for the gift item, as that's the exception.
Comment: If the options are beside each other, isn't it consistent to have an icon for both?
Comment: Exactly.  Although I just sketched it up with no icon for "me" and its not that bad... still I'd like to see if anyone has good ideas for the proposed icon
Comment: This question might get better answers over at Graphic Design. If you like, I can migrate it there.
Comment: This is why I like integrating with OpenID or Facebook, you could pull in their profile picture.
Comment: @Rahul, if you think it's a good idea, sure please migrate it!
Comment: What is your gift icon like?
Answer: I don't think you need two icons. The default action is "buying for myself." "Buying as a gift" is an additional check.

Amazon does this and I think it's much simpler and intuitive.
Comment: I would say +1 for providing screenshots but I don't have enough reputation yet -_-
Comment: The more I go through this problem and everyone's responses, the more I am agreeing with this angle
Answer: Steam, a digital download games shop, shows both options on the cart view. The options are "Purchase for myself" and "Purchase as a gift" as buttons. I prefer this over checkboxes in this case as it has a deeper meaning in Steam as you can choose the recipients user account so the game gets added to them directly.

When it comes to a "me" icon not even Facebook has one (they use a text "Profile" link instead), but I think a generic silhouette would work as that's what you're used to represent yourself until you upload a picture on any site.

Since this is about shopping (i.e. money is involved), I would probably spell it out rather than having two different icons. Maybe an icon in a button with the texts "myself" and "gift" would work.
Comment: Welcome, John-Phillip! If you upload the image somewhere and post a link, we'll inline it for you.
Comment: Thank you! I've uploaded both here:
http://seriema.net/temp/steam.jpg
http://seriema.net/temp/silhouette.gif
Answer: You may just want to consider using text labels instead of icons. Very few icons are universally known - most require a second or two of parsing. Using tags in a smaller lighter text next to product descriptions might be the most practical solution to your quandary.
However, if you absolutely need to use an icon, you could do something clever like take a generic head icon and insert either the recipients initials in it, or just say Mine! in text underneath.
Comment: Strictly speaking the term icon is over generalised, and what are used are signs which are split into icons, indexes, and symbols. Icons are by definition something that are universal representations (e.g. a photograph of a mountain is an icon of a mountain) though the meaning that the icon is intended to impart may be more ambiguous...
Answer: If you have OpenID integration, facebook, or Google log in, you can use their own image from their profile to not represent, but actually show clearly that you are talking about them.
Answer: The most intuitive icon of 'me' would be a picture (or an avatar selected by them to represent themselves) of the person. So for example if your sign in was associated with Facebook, you could use their profile picture.
I'm guessing this isn't a practical response though, so I would agree with other responders to say that you're probably better off as leaving it blank/generic (yet distinctive from other images) as a default option and use text as appropriate. For most sites and most shopping behaviours the default of not needing/wanting gift options will be appropriate.


Touchpad problems worsening over time!

Question: Thought that I would add some information regarding laptop touhpad issues.  I have a Samsung R530 laptop running Ubuntu 12.04.  There has always been issues with my touchpad; it would start by being erratic, then would move only small amounts at a time and occasionally it would correct, sometimes I would need a reboot.  Now since the upgrade things are getting rather strange! Initially the touchpad worked great, then it reverted back to its operation problems as with ubuntu 11.10; now the cursor randomly freezes and the only option is to reboot.  It seems that over time the problem is getting worse, is it possible that the problem could worsen over time? is there any hope of a fix? I also have a Compaq Presario running Ubuntu 12.04 with no cursor problems as yet, it has a wireless mouse attached.
Answer: Have you tried turning off the feature that attempts to disable your touchpad while you're typing?
Comment: Yes Jacob I have already turned that feature off.

Touchpad problems worsening over time!


Why is it important to have good saddles?

Question: Why is it important to have good saddles? Other than the comfort in long rides.
Answer: Taken from the livestrong website:
A March 2005 article in "European Urology" discusses the overuse injuries that can stem from long-term bicycling. The article states that, although cycling can be a healthy, beneficial sport, some injuries can occur to the urogenital system. Genitalia numbness was found to be most common, reported in 50 to 91 percent of the cyclists, followed by erectile dysfunction reported in 13 to 24 percent.
Prevention/Solution
Although studies do not link bicycling with specific prostate diseases, the pressure of traditional seats can create problems for both men and women. Fortunately, there are several types of seats that can help alleviate that pressure and prevent injury. Look for seats with a split saddle, or one with a space in the area that would normally press into the perineum. There are more extreme options like the "no-nose" bicycle seat, the moon seat and the easy seat that are geometrically different from a standard saddle.
Comment: Although the percentage for Erectile Dysfunction looks bad, you have to wonder what the incidence rate in a similar group of non-cyclists would be?
Comment: :O, Erectile Dysfunction !!!!!!!!!!!!, that's bad.
Answer: There are several reasons, one of which is a fear of ED, which we can all agree is bad.
In my opinion, there are 2 other major reasons as well.
When you ride (or exercise otherwise), your body tries to adapt to the new form of motion, support, or what have you. This is why we create callouses, and new muscle. It is why we get more flexibility with stretching.
If your saddle is poor quality, it usually lacks the stability to be a platform your body can adapt to. We all know what it usually feels like to ride a new saddle the first 2 weeks or so. A quality saddle remains the same saddle, long enough for your body to adapt to it. It also allows the break in to happen in pre-designed ways, which means that break in of your new saddle does not equate to break down on your new saddle.
In addition, although I know you were not asking about comfort, if you are adapted to your saddle, it will be more comfortable. If you are comfortable you will enjoy riding more. If you enjoy riding more, you will ride more, with all of the associated benefits.
For the record, these same points can be made regarding saddles, gloves, grips, shoes, pedals, cycling shorts, jerseys, and any other point of contact with the bike.
Answer: The main advantages are better power delivery and lower rider fatigue. Also better aerodynamics - you'll note that all of the speed records and many of the marathon records are held by bikes or trikes that have proper saddles.
Something like this:
Comment: @ChrisW: of course it will only go on a recumbent. But bike shape restrictions weren't part of the question.
Comment: Can you put that on a diamond-frame bike, or is it only for recumbents or enclosed bikes?
Comment: But hard to ride on a "real" bike. :-)_
Answer: The saddle isn't just a point of contact for riding, it also gets to lean against walls when the bike is parked and maybe against the ground/floor (if the bike is in the ownership of a youngster).
Naturally road bikes do not get thrown to the ground every five minutes, but, a BMX, or other child's bike, will. For this reason it is horses for courses, a quality seat for a BMX doesn't have to be comfy at all, a quality seat on a touring bike should not come apart when someone tries to lift the pannier-laden bike by the seat and a quality seat on an entry-level hybrid bike should survive wall-park abrasion.
What amazes me is why there are something like 4096 different types of bicycle seat on the marketplace. Is that level of product diversity necessary?
As for that talk of 'erectile dysfunction' being promulgated by bike seats and cycling, there is no way that can be true with modern saddles in the use of healthy-weight riders. Any talk of 'erectile dysfunction' is to be instantly dismissed as General Motors propaganda, as disseminated by the old-fashioned car-driving journa-fogeys at The Sun.
Agree that old saddles had a problem as the pelvic bones were not supported, but you cannot get those older saddles anymore (unless you include the Brooks dead-cow and rivets efforts).
Comment: Pardon, but the Brooks dead-cow and rivets efforts are amongst the most comfortable, durable, and worthwhile saddles in existence. As a data point, I went on a 300km (190mi) brevet on Saturday. Every single one of the non-recumbent riders sat on a Brooks saddle (including me!). After the ride, the one part of me that _didn't_ hurt was my behind.
Comment: I'd welcome a more recent study, but: [Nocturnal Penile Tumescence and Rigidity Testing in Bicycling Patrol Officers](http://www.andrologyjournal.org/cgi/content/full/23/6/927). And for the record, my touring bike often gets parked on its side.
Comment: @Stephen Touset Well done for doing 300km in a day, I have not done that myself and I am truly impressed/inspired, it is summer already... As for the Brooks saddles, they are different to the saddles of yesteryear (e.g. 'Turbo') in how they mould to shape like how leather shoes do, maybe I should have made that clearer. But, for people that do get 'dysfunction' I don't know if the Brooks saddles are any better.
Comment: @Neil Fein I take it you put the downside pedal up so that it is not scratching the seat? 'Youngsters' don't do that. As for your 'study' - lots of big words used but it is mere sales literature dressed up as 'science' by the Rigiscan Plus manufacturers. It smells of the same whiff that the science used to sell anti-wrinkling creams. Don't buy the hype. Those great cycling nations of India and China don't seem to have suffered penile dysfunction given their respective population sizes of a billion or so each, if you want a large scale study...!
Comment: Ah, I really don't care about scratches from everyday use. My touring bike is pretty scratched up, as is my saddle. And I've personally felt numbness in the past, and corrected it with better bike fit and better saddles--and, to a small degree, better bike shorts. I don't care to repeat that experience.
Comment: Permanent ED from cycling is a bit of a myth/sales pitch. But the temporary numbness and pain caused by perineal pressure is not, in my experience. Brooks, by the way, makes great split style leather saddles which still conform to the body. my biggest downside for the Brooks bunch is the cost.
Comment: I don't think any of us should admit to any numbness in nether regions due to cycling even if it is true. Next on SE Bicycles: 'Do cyclists have a lower sperm count?'


2000 Honda Civic automatic transmission issue

Question: Please help!
I have a 2000 Honda Civic ... car starts and runs fine but when I put it into drive or reverse. The car acts like it's in neutral and only revs the engine but will not make the car move in any way. I am not a car person and know nothing, I haven't done anything to try and fix it yet. No check engine light is on.
Comment: have you checked the transmission fluid?
Comment: Does the speedo indicate a speed when you rev the engine in drive, or does it always show 0 mph?
Answer: Welcome to the site @JonathanWarren. You either have an easy and cheap issue or a difficult and expensive issue.
The easy issue is that your automatic transmission fluid level is too low for the transmission to operate properly, or it's very old and needs changing. You should check your transmission fluid level and condition. I think on Hondas you typically run the engine until it's hot (this circulates the ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid) in your transmission and warms it, then shut it off and check the level. For this you need to pull the stick out, clean it, insert it all the way again and then check the level. This needs to be done on level ground. If it's really low you won't even see some on the stick in which case fill it according to the manual, that means the right type and he correct way. If the fluid registers on the stick but it's really dark and viscous then it is really old and not doing its job anymore. In that case a full transmission flush would be a good idea.
Note: if it is low fluid you need to ask why it is low, check for leaks, and keep an eye on the level. If the level drops and you have to fill it up regularly you probably have a seal that needs replacing.
If it's not fluid then you have a mechanical problem with the transmission or torque converter, in which case it's time to ask around for a reputable shop to take it to.
Answer: It's quite possible that the shift linkage itself is broken. If you shift into neutral/drive/reverse/whatever (anything but park), is the car free-rolling? ie. can you push it with enough force (and no e-brake).
If it's staying in park, then it's likely the linkage. If it's shifting and free-rolling, then GdD's answer (transmission fluid) is likely the culprit.


Can a Death Note Owner be killed with their own Death Note?

Question: Can the owner of Death Note be killed if another random person knows their face and name, writes the owners name in the owner's own Death Note? with a sheet torn out from it?
Comment: Rule I: anybody's name who's written in the death-note will die.
Comment: Did you ask this because of events in the recent Death Note film?
Answer: There is no rule currently known which prevents any person from killing the owner of a death note under normal circumstances.
The only reasons a death note will not work on a person assuming that the victims name and face are known are:

the victim is very young
the victim is very old (124 years old or older)
the victim is already about to die in the next few seconds
someone already misspelled the victims name too many times
the victim's name was written in a second death note simultaneously (victim still will die)
the victim's name was already written in any death note in a valid way (time of death before end of natural life span).

(Please edit if I missed any.)
I almost always have to note on these questions that the rules available to us about the Death Note are not complete. In fact, the rules themselves state that even the shinigami do not know all of the rules about how a death note works.
Answer: On the Death Note wiki under Rules it states
"An individual with Shinigami Eyes can see the name and lifespan of another human by looking at that person's face. By gaining ownership of a Death Note, an individual not only gains the ability to kill but also cannot be killed by a Death Note. From this point on, a person with a Death Note cannot see the life span of other Death Note owners, including him- or herself."
which I think means that no, you cannot kill a Death Note owner at all (using a Death Note, that is. You can probably still kill them the conventional way).
Comment: That *must* be a mistake. When Light and Misa meet, they repeatedly say that one might kill the other using the note and Light posses ownership of a death note in the end so X-Kira could have written Light's name in the book and Near's plan would have failed. It probably is a misunderstanding/ mistranslation of the fact that an owner of a death note is - amongst human - no longer considered prey, what is the reason why they can't see each other's life span. (Assumably Shinigamis don't see each others life spans either)


How risky is it to keep my emergency fund in stocks?

Question: Everybody says you should keep an emergency fund of 3–6 months of expenses in cash or near-cash (CDs, treasuries, etc.). I know this is heresy but if you have funds for significantly more than 6 months of expenses (let's say 12 months), how risky would it be to put it all into stock index funds? In the worst-case scenario, let's say you have a financial emergency at the same time the stock market crashes and loses half its value. You could still liquidate the rest and have sufficient funds for 6 months. Am I underestimating the risks of this strategy? If it truly is an emergency fund then the odds of needing it should be very slim, so why live with near zero return on that money?
Comment: I first read this as "How risky is it to keep my emergency fund in socks?"
Comment: One way to reduce your losses during a financial crisis is to have a stop loss of 20% or 25% off the latest highs for the index. That way you can remain in the market during normal market fluctuations, but get out if the market starts falling considerably. That way you will protect most of your capital and gains you have made.
Comment: Some brokerages have features similar to banks offering debit cards, checks, even bill pay from their accounts.   I deviate from what they say on the question you asked too.  My money does not have the luxury of being used for a single purpose.
Comment: @antony.trupe That's ridiculous, everybody knows under a mattress is the only safe place to keep money. ;-)
Comment: Related: http://money.stackexchange.com/questions/21371/what-investment-options-should-i-consider-for-my-emergency-fund
Answer:
I know this is heresy but if you have funds for significantly more
  than 6 months of expenses (let's say 12 months), how risky would it be
  to put it all into stock index funds?

Quite risky as if you do need to dip into it, how fast could you get the cash? Also, do you realize the tax implications when you do sell the shares should you have an emergency?

In the worst-case scenario, let's say you have a financial emergency
  at the same time the stock market crashes and loses half its value.
  You could still liquidate the rest and have sufficient funds for 6
  months. Am I underestimating the risks of this strategy?

That's not worst case scenario though. Worst case scenario would be another 9/11 where the markets are closed for nearly a week and you need the money but can't get the funds converted to cash in the bank that you can use. This is in addition to the potential wait for a settlement in the case of using ETFs if you choose to go that way.
In the case of money market funds, CDs and other near cash equivalents these can be accessed relatively easily which is part of the point.
A staggered approach where some cash is kept in house, some in accounts that can easily accessed and some in other investments may make sense though the breakdown would differ depending on how much risk people are willing to take.

If it truly is an emergency fund then the odds of needing it should be
  very slim, so why live with near zero return on that money?

Something to consider is what is called an emergency here? For some people a sudden $1,000 bill to fix their car that just broke down is an emergency. For others, there could be emergency trips to visit family that may have gotten into accidents or gotten a diagnosis that they may pass away soon. Consider what do you want to call an emergency here as chances are you may not be considering all that people would think is an emergency.
There is the question of what other sources of money do you have to cover should issues arise.
Comment: Your point about closed markets is an interesting one, and argues against keeping *all* of your emergency fund in stocks.  However, I think few people envision an emergency fund as something where you would need to withdraw an entire six months' worth of expenses all at once.  So not sure how that argument would apply to a strategy of "keep $X in a savings account and the rest in stocks".  Also, some major cataclysms might result in bank closures as well.
Comment: To add to @BrenBarn 's comment, your bank could also fail resulting in a bank run (e.g. Northern Rock in the UK in 2007).
Comment: "what is called an emergency here?" This is a great point.  I'm definitely in the "give every job a purpose" camp.  Have a car repair fund, have a travel fund, etc, so you can pay for think kind of thing (and don't hesitate to move money from one fund to another).
Answer: There's something very important no one else has mentioned... times when the stock market falls dramatically are often the times when you're most likely to lose your job, and when it's hardest to get loans.  So if you ever do need your emergency fund, it will more than likely be related to a dip in the stock market.
Comment: As a bonus if you find yourself not in need of your emergency fund at one of these times, it can become an "opportunity" fund to pick up equities on the cheap.
Comment: This is an important point a lot of people seem to be missing.
Answer: Keeping your "big emergency" fund in stocks if you have 12 months income saved is OK.   However you should keep your "small emergency" fund in cash.   (However I find that even my stock broker accounts have some cash in them, as I like to let the dividends build up enough to make the dealing charges worthwhile.
You don't wish to be forced to sell at a bad time due to your boiler needing replacing or your car breaking down.
However if you lost your job in the same week that your boiler broke down and your car needed replacing then being forced to sell stocks at a bad time is not much of an issue.
Also if you are saving say 1/3 of your income each month and you have a credit card with large unused credit limit that is paid of each month, then most "small emergency" that are under 2/3 of your monthly income can be covered on the credit card with little or no interest charges.
One option is to check you bank balance on the day after you are paid, and if it is more than 2x your monthly income, then move some of it to long term savings, but only if you tend to spend a lot less then you earn most months.
Answer: I've read the answers and respect the thought behind them.
I'd like to focus on (a) the magnitude of the emergency, and (b) the saving rate of the people affected. 3-6 months is interesting. It's enough not just to fix the car, repair the A/C, etc, but more than enough to lose one's job and recover. (Let's avoid the debate of how long it take to find a job, no amount of 'emergency savings' can solve that.)
If one is spending below their means, any unexpected expense that can paid off within, say 3 months, doesn't really need to tap emergency funds (EF). And, at some level of income and retirement savings, one can more easily run a much lower EF.
My own situation - I had 9mo worth of expenses saved as EF. We were living well beneath our means, and I was looking at the difference between our mortgage (6%+) vs bank interest (near 0%). I used the funds to pay down principal, refinanced to a lower rate, and at the same closing got a HELOC. The psychology of this is tough, it then appears that for simple expenses, I'd be borrowing from my HELOC. On the other hand, the choice was between a known cost, the $5K/year the money was costing by sitting there plus the lower rate by going to a non-jumbo loan at the time, vs the risk of using 3% money from the HELOC. In the end, the HELOC was never tapped for more than a small portion of its line, and I never regretted the decision. Ironically, it's the person who isn't saving much that need the EF most. If you are a saver, you need to judge how long it would take to replace the funds.
I offer the above not as a recommendation, but as devil's advocate to the other excellent advice here. All cash flows are a choice, $100 going here, can't go there. I'd slip in a warning that one should capture matching 401(k) contributions, if offered, before funding the EF. And pay down any high interest debt. After that, the decision of how liquid to be is a personal choice, what worked for my wife and me may not be for everyone.
Comment: "it's the person who isn't saving much that need the EF most" +1. Someone calls this "kicking Murphy out." (Dave Ramsay? Jesse Mechem? Elizabeth Warren?)
Answer: A major danger of keeping "emergency" funds in the form of stocks is that many of the scenarios where one would need quick access to the money will also momentarily depress the stock market.  Someone whose emergency funds were in some other form could avoid selling stocks during a momentary downturn, but someone who has no other emergency funds would have no choice but to sell during the downturn (thus losing money as well as making the downturn more significant for everyone else).
Answer: This is basically the short-term/long-term savings question in another form: savings that you hope are long-term but which may turn short-term very suddenly.
You can never completely eliminate the risk of being forced to draw on long term savings during a period when the market is doing Something Unpleasant that would force you to take a loss (or right before it does Something Pleasant that you'd like to be fully invested during). You can only pick the degree of risk that you're willing to accept, balancing that hazard of forced sales against the lower-but-more-certain returns you'd get from a money market or equivalent.
I'm considered a moderately aggressive investor -- which doesn't mean I'm pushing the boundaries on what I'm buying (not by a long shot!), but which does mean I'm willing to keep more of my money in the market and I'm more likely to hold or buy into a dip than to sell off to try to minimize losses. That level of risk-tolerance also means I'm willing to maintain a ready-cash pool which is sufficient to handle expected emergencies (order of $10K), and not become overly paranoid about lost opportunity value if it turns out that I need to pull a few thou out of the investments. I've got decent health insurance, which helps reduce that risk.
I'm also not particularly paranoid about the money. On my current track, I should be able to maintain my current lifestyle "forever" without ever touching the principal, as long as inflation and returns remain vaguely reasonable. Having to hit the account for a larger emergency at an Inconvenient Time wouldn't be likely to hurt me too much -- delaying retirement for a year or two, perhaps.
It's just money. Emergencies are one of the things it's for. I try not to be stupid about it, but I also try not to stress about it more than I must.
Answer: From mid 2007 to early 2009 the DJI went down about 50 %. This market setback won't happen on a single day or even a few weeks.
Emergency funds should be in cash only. Markets could be closed for an unknown period of time.  Markets where closed September 11 until September 17 in 2001.
Answer: I do this very thing, but with asset allocation and risk parity in mind. I disagree with the cash or bust answers above, but many of the aforementioned facts are valuable and I don't mean to undermine them in anyway. That said, let's look at two examples:
Option 1: All-in
For the sake of argument let's say you had $100k invested in the SPY (S&P 500 ETF) in early 2007, and you kept it there until today. Your lowest balance would have been about $51k, and at this point the possibility of you losing your job was probably at a peak. Today you would be left with $170k assuming no withdrawal.
Option 2: Risk Parity
BUT if you balanced your investments with a risk parity approach, using negatively correlated asset classes you avoid this dilemma. If you had invested 50% in XLP (Consumer Staples Sector ETF) and 50% in TLT (
Long Term Treasury ETF) your investments low point would have been $88k, and your lowest annual return would be +0.69%. Today you would be left with $214k assuming no withdrawals.
I chose option #2 and it hasn't failed me yet, even in 2016 so far the results are steady and reliably given the reward. My general opinion is simple: when you have money always grow it. Just be sure to cover your ass and prepare for rain.
Backtesting for this was done at portfoliovisualizer.com, the one caveat to this approach is that inflation and a lack of international exposure are a risk here.


A question about microbes growing media

Question: I was told in my microbiology course that blood agar can be put in GasPak system (anearobic) to grow strict anaerobes, but why would someone use blood-dependent bacteria in this experiment as these blood-dependent bacteria will be aerobes or at least facultative
Comment: Maybe they wish to select against aerobes in a mixed species sample? The blood is just for nutrients.
Answer: You can put any media in a GasPak or other anaerobic system depending the type of anaerobic growth you are looking for. Sometimes blood is simply added to media to meet nutritional requirements of an organism. I use Columbia Blood agar often as a general purpose anaerobic medium. In a collection of 100+ obligate anaerobes I am working with, around half grow well on columbia agar with 5% sheeps blood, and many of those will not grow on Columbia without this blood amendment. As an added bonus, I can easily spot certain common contaminants growing on my plates by their hemolysis paterns.
Answer: Blood agar is prepared by heating the blood so that there will be lysis of RBC. Blood agar is mostly used to grow pathogenic organisms such as Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria gonorrhoeae which cannot grow on other media.Neisseria gonorrhoeae can grow in the absence of oxygen. Haemophilus influenzae which is a facultative anaerobe also can carry out anaerobic respiration when there is no oxygen.Blood agar is very important to grow fastidious organisms, i.e the organism which is capable to lyse the RBC.
Comment: I think you are describing chocolate agar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_agar

A question about microbes growing media


How can I ratelimit znapzend?

Question: I'm using znapzend to do some backups and unfortunately its flooding my gigE connection.  I would like the ability to ratelimit znapsend.  Something like:
zfs send | pv -L 200m | ssh $host zfs recv
Any suggestions?
Comment: Which OS are you using?
Answer: You could try limiting mbuffer, which znapzend uses:
-r <rate> : limit read rate to <rate> B/s, where <rate> can be given in b,k,M,G

You may need to alias the mbuffer executable itself if it cannot be done by configuration file:
# initially (for testing, I believe this is only for the current shell):
alias /usr/bin/mbuffer-limited="/usr/bin/mbuffer -r 10M"

# in znapzendzetup:
[...] --mbuffer=/usr/bin/mbuffer-limited [...]

You also could add a feature request on the Github page, it might be implemented.
Comment: @TobiOetiker I think passing through all mbuffer options would be better in the long term, as those options might change (update needed) and it is already pretty transparent in regards to znapzend.
Comment: even better, fork znapzend, make the change and create a PR for this feature!
Comment: I agree, that is a sensible aproach
Answer: See Introduction to Linux Traffic Control. As an alternative you could prioritize your traffic rather than rate limit so you still get fast backups.
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Traffic-Control-HOWTO/intro.html

Linux offers a very rich set of tools for managing and manipulating
  the transmission of packets. The larger Linux community is very
  familiar with the tools available under Linux for packet mangling and
  firewalling (netfilter, and before that, ipchains) as well as hundreds
  of network services which can run on the operating system. Few inside
  the community and fewer outside the Linux community are aware of the
  tremendous power of the traffic control subsystem which has grown and
  matured under kernels 2.2 and 2.4.
This HOWTO purports to introduce the concepts of traffic control, the
  traditional elements (in general), the components of the Linux traffic
  control implementation and provide some guidelines . This HOWTO
  represents the collection, amalgamation and synthesis of the LARTC
  HOWTO, documentation from individual projects and importantly the
  LARTC mailing list over a period of study.
The impatient soul, who simply wishes to experiment right now, is
  recommended to the   Traffic Control using tcng and HTB HOWTO and
  LARTC HOWTO for immediate satisfaction.

How can I ratelimit znapzend?


Withdrawing/depositing money from/in a foreign bank account

Question: I am a legal alien allowed to work in USA. I recently opened a checking account in Bank of America and deposited some money (dollars) in the bank. I wish to know how I can access my account to withdraw the money or deposit some money back home in my country where dollar is not a currency.
Answer: Generally when you open a new account, you'd be given a checkbook (usually "starter" checks with no personal information, but some banks will later mail you a proper checkbook with your personal details) and a debit card (again, some banks will give you a "starter" one on the spot with a personalized following up in the mail, others will mail you).
With the debit card you can use your bank's ATM to withdraw cash from your account, or use it for purchases (will debit, as the name says, directly from your account). You can also use it in other ATMs, but that will usually be with significant fees ($2-$5 per withdrawal to both the ATM owner and your bank).
Checks - you can write a check to someone or use the check to go to the cashier in the bank and withdraw money (although usually they have special withdrawal slips for that in the branches, so you don't really need to waste your own checks).
As to how to deposit money in your home country - you'll have to check with the bank you have an account at back at home. Usually, you can "wire" transfer money from your BoA account to the account back home, but that is usually comes at a fee of about $30-$50 per transfer (in the US, additional fees may be charged at the receiving end + currency conversion costs). You can also write yourself a check and deposit that check at the home country bank, but that depends on the specific bank whether it is possible, how much it would cost, and how long it would take for them to credit the money to your account after they take your check - may take weeks with personal checks.


Global searchin multisite but only with one subsite

Question: I have a multisite set up with currently 2 subsites.
Is it possible to have a search box that searches the main site and just one subsite?
Answer: Perhaps you can use this plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/multisite-global-search/ it uses MySQL views to achieve a global search. Maybe you can use it, or adapt it to your needs?


'No Such File or Directory" Error When Working with Shared File

Question: I'm attempting to open a file on a Linux computer through file sharing. The file is stored on a Macbook Pro and both computers are running Blender 2.77. However, when I try to open the file on the Linux computer, I get an error of, "No Such File or Directory." I don't think this is a file permissions error as my permissions settings are set so that "Everyone" can read and write my file. What can I do to solve this?
Comment: Make sure there are no unicode or non ASCII characters in your file path. They may cause trouble some times.
Comment: My file is just called "tiger.blend".
Comment: Yes, but I meant the rest of the complete folder path until you reach the file itself.
Comment: I ran into this exact problem between a Windows machine and a Ubuntu machine. My solution was Dropbox ;-)
Comment: Dropbox might work. I'll give that a shot.
Comment: Dropbox is a great solution! I thought that since Google Drive isn't compatible with Linux, Dropbox wouldn't be either, but I was wrong.
Answer: No such file or directory" is somewhat common when

the file needs something else to be processed by the software you are working with (missing shared library for blender, missing linked file with textures, materials...)
the file doesn't exist (or at least it doesn't exist in the given directory)
the filename or the path consists of characters that cannot be read by linux

I assume that you have already used blender on linux successfully (eg opened a local file), so the first point is not the cause of the problem.
Permissions between operating systems are not as easy as it sounds. Both Apple and Windows tend to use some "magic" in their approaches of an easy-sounding task. So it's good to verify the permissions on OS level.
Try the following: Navigate to the tiger.blend file by using either the file browser (dolphin for KDE, Nautilus for GNOME, for Ubuntu whatever they are using) or the command line and try to rename the file into tiger1.blend. If you are able to successfully rename the file then there are no permission problems on the OS level.
Last but not least Blender does not necessarily use all of the Desktop Environment's file selection methods. While KDE's dolphin is capable of browsing paths with blanks (something like //Macbook/Awesome Blender Files/tiger.blend) other file managers might not. Blender seems to process blanks in paths correctly on SMB (samba) and CIFS (common internet file system) shares but I've never tried using Mac OS as a host system. Try to use simple paths without blanks, accents, umlauts, special characters...
Comment: The rename was successful. I checked that it worked by making sure the filename updated on the Mac, so it's not a permissions error. Maybe it is that the shared library is missing. Could it have something to do with the fact that Blender is being opened from my Downloads folder instead of the folder where other applications are kept?
Comment: @kriskendall99, not necessarily. Since most Linux distributions aren't up to date to the point when new blender versions arrive, I simply download the binaries from blender.org and extract them into my /home/username/bin folder. If you start blender from your Download directory and it shows the default cube, everything is fine. Oh, btw. check if your tiger.blend has linked textures or materials from other non-shared folders.
Comment: I checked. Everything I'm using has been packed except for a video file. Could that be causing the problem?
Comment: Maybe you could copy all of the necessary files to your Linux machine and try if the error still appears if you open the file locally.


How many all prime numbers p with length of bits of p = 1024 bits?

Question: How many all prime numbers p with length of bits of p = 1024 bits?
And is there any algorithm which generates all prime numbers p?
Comment: **Exactly 1024 bits**, or <= 1024 bits? If the former, that's π(2^1025 -1) - π(2^1024)
Answer: The prime number theorem states that $\pi(x)$, or the number of primes less than or equal to $x$ obeys the following property:
$$\lim_{x\rightarrow \infty} \frac{\pi(x)}{x/\ln x} = 1 $$
Meaning that we can approximate the number of primes less than $x$ by $x/\ln x$.
Numbers representable by $n$ bits are those less than $2^n$.  Therefore, with $1024$ bits, you can count up to $2^{1024}$, which is an enormous number.  I believe you want to know about the prime numbers which are representable by $1024$ bits and by no fewer than that amount.  We can approximate this by:
$$\pi(2^{1024})-\pi(2^{1023}) \approx \frac{2^{1024}}{\ln 2^{1024}} - \frac{2^{1023}}{\ln 2^{1023}} \approx 1.26\cdot 10^{305}$$
according to Wolfram Alpha.
To answer your second question: yes.  There is a very well known algorithm to generate all prime numbers called the Sieve of Eratosthenes.  The algorithm seeks to identify prime numbers by process of elimination.  To begin the algorithm, make an arbitrarily long list of numbers you would like to test for primality.  For example, let's test the first 20 numbers.  First, we can exclude 1 because it is defined to be composite:
$$\{ 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20\}$$
We identify $2$ as our next prime, because it can have no factors besides one and itself.  We then remove all subsequent multiples of 2 because they have at least one factor, and we're left with:
$$\{ 2,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19\}$$
Next, $3$ must be prime because it hasn't been eliminated as a multiple of 2.  Any subsequent multiple of $3$ will not be prime, so we eliminate them:
$$\{ 2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19\}$$
$5$ is next on our list, and must be prime because it hasn't been crossed out as a multiple of 2 or 3.  We eliminate all subsequent multiples of $5$ from our list.  There aren't any left less than 20!  Indeed because $5^2 > 20$, we can be sure that we have eliminated all composite numbers from our list.  Conceivably, we could perform this algorithm on any length of list, as long as we are careful to keep track of which numbers have been eliminated.
Comment: Really nice answer! Just a minor oversight: 10 is still a multiple of 5 which is below 20.
Comment: Thanks for catching that!  10 is definitely not prime.
Answer: Not - your request is too large for an exact result or for a complete list.
$2^{1024}$ is almost $1.8 \times 10^{308}$ which is much much larger than the number of particles in the universe.  So forget the list.
There are ways of counting the number of primes up to a given number which do not rely of finding them all.  This is the prime counting function $\pi(x)$ and the record seems to be of the order of $$\pi(10^{24}) = 18,435,599,767,349,200,867,866$$ implying that almost $1$ in $54$ of the numbers up to $10^{24}$ are prime.
Using reasonable approximations based on the prime number theorem, almost $1$ in $700$ of the numbers up to $2^{1024}$ are prime.


What's the most sustainable way to re-use or dispose of meat scraps?

Question: Given that you shouldn't put leftovers of meals that has touched meat in compost bins due to the risk of attracting vermin, what is the most sustainable way to deal with these scraps?
Comment: Do you have a dog?
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Why shouldn't meat be placed in my compost pile?](https://sustainability.stackexchange.com/questions/38/why-shouldnt-meat-be-placed-in-my-compost-pile)
Comment: Welcome to Sustainability.SE! There's a lot of good insight on composting meat over here: http://sustainability.stackexchange.com/q/38/3379
Answer: Get a pig. Or some chickens. You still need to follow some hygiene rules before feeding them meat scraps, check your local agri/health advisory office.
Answer: Are you on a biodynamic septic system?  Flush them.  The bacteria should chew them up happily.
Answer: The most sustainable way is reuse. Perhaps you can eat the leftovers later, or use it as ingredients for soup.
As others have also suggested here, you can feed leftovers to animals if you have them (like a dog, chickens or pigs). But be warned that local regulations may not allow this! For example in the EU you are not allowed to feed kitchen scraps from an 'unregulated' kitchen to farm animals like chickens and pigs. Also not all leftovers may be healthy for your animals. For example raw meat is bad for all animals because of the risk of bacterial contamination, avocado is poisonous to chickens, and chocolate and unions are very bad for dogs.
If you cannot eat it anymore, I recommend composting  in a closed compost bin with small air-holes so vermin cannot enter. If the leftovers contain much grease and salt, then normal composting can be slow and smelly. A closed bin can reduce the smell, but in this case it would be even better to do bokashi composting. With Bokashi you 'pre-process' the materials in a airtight bin with micro-organisms. After 2 weeks you can safely compost the materials further on a regular compost heap or bury it in your garden. The only downside is that you have to buy or create your own effective micro-organisms.
Answer: Pigs & chickens.  The chickens follow the pig for all left.
Comment: Welcome to Sustainable Living! Thank you for your answer, but using pigs and chickens has already been suggested in another answer. Also feeding scraps to farm animals may not be allowed (e.g. this is the case in the EU)


Ubuntu 12.04 x86 inside vmware workstation 8

Question: I'm trying to install ubuntu 12.04 x86 inside vmware workstation 8. However I think the process the stuck. Its just showing "Retrieving file 43 of 105" from the last 45 mins or so.
Is it normal ?
Thanks.
Answer: No, it shouldn't take that long unless your internet connection has dropped (which is hasn't because you're posting here).  So I would start over from scratch, chances are it'll work fine this time.
Comment: I'm installing it on a different machine, which is not connected to internet. Is it necessary to connect to internet for installation ?
Comment: The Internet connection is not required during install. Just be sure to apply the updates after you get it installed.
Answer: Did you start with the "install updates" option? If so, maybe the default Ubuntu servers are under a load at the time and so the updates are coming very slowly. Can you click the details button, then click "skip" button?
Here's how I suggest to install Ubuntu (at least until the rush is over in about 2 months): uncheck "apply updates while installing" and disconnect the network entirely (see picture below). This will ensure the install process completes without waiting on any external servers (I just did it right now in fact, in virtualbox-ose, and it finished the installation in just a few minutes.. maybe I will make a youtube video for it). After that, when Ubuntu is installed and you've restarted, I would "edit" from the software center - the sources from where you download your software - to something faster - in my case it's ubuntu.osuosl.org or samaritan.ucmerced.edu. Here's  where you can see which mirrors are the best: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+cdmirrors
Here's a tip for the Ubuntu developers - have a way for us to select a faster mirror (edit software sources) at this screen.
Comment: Unfortunately vmware was using the auto install mode.

When I connected tht machine to internet, and started the installation again, it went smooth.

Just still I dont know why it stuck on that file when I was not plugged to internet
Answer: Using Vmware you are already connected to internet if Host is connected to internet. I suggest you disconnect 1st and finish installation offline.
Answer: While installation it retrives updates from the internet... Even it download updates if you de-selects "Download updates installing installing" & Install this third part software option...
This might help you, check your internet connectivity...
Also, I am running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS in VMware Workstation 8.0.2 without any issues...
http://mytricks.in/2012/05/guide-how-to-install-ubuntu-12-04-lts-in-vmware-workstation-8.html
Comment: No, it won't download updates if you deselects, this is wrong