How to scroll in Monodevelop 3.0 Android UI Designer?

Question: When I use a scrollview in one of the screens, and the content is taller than the viewport, how do I scroll down to see the rest of the content?
Clicking and dragging will move the items around in stead of scrolling to the rest of the content. Scrollwheel or scrollbar only move the designer, not the design itself.
I can't find anything in the Monodevelop documentation about this, and due to the young age of 3.0, Google doesn't know anything about this either.
Edit 29-05-2012:
I've updated to the newest version (3.0.2) but there are no changes to the absence of scrolling in the Designer.
Answer: The designer doesn't yet support scrolling the contents. Support for scrolling will be included in future releases.


What is the best way to remove cigarette smoke smell from a house?

Question: We're buying a house from previous owners that were smokers. The house still smells of smoke even with no furniture or upholstery in it. We plan to replace all the carpet with wood flooring. We're hoping that will do the trick. But our realtor indicated that it might also need to be repainted and possibly primed with something like Kilz too. I'm just trying to get an idea of what we're in for.
Comment: @Ben Did you have any luck removing the smell? I'm in the same spot and am looking for advice.
Comment: @gerrit you'd still most likely get good results from skipping the cleaning part in that case, and I'd imaging stripping the paint off first probably isn't feasible. Are the tobacco stains seeping through the current paint job? Hope it works out!
Comment: After I quit smoking, I was amazed at how many things held the smell. For example, a box at the back of the closet. Even years later. Good luck.
Comment: @measure_theory And meanwhile, have **you** tried and succeeded?  I'm in a similar situation but in a rental, and apparently my landlord should be legally responsible to fix it.
Comment: @gerrit I have! I think we really benefitted from the fact that we have plaster walls and no central air, but we washed the walls and ceilings like crazy with TSP, primed with two coats of the Kilz Max, did a full skim coat of every wall surface, then two more coats of Killz and paint. No lingering smell and no sign of any smoke.
Comment: @measure_theory Thanks for the reply.  I'm afraid that in our case, the previous tenant painted it all over without such thorough cleaning, so I guess in our case we'd have to have the paint removed, then do the steps you described before repainting (which I am quite determined to have the landlord take care of).
Answer: I know you're removing the carpets, but shampooing them will get rid of a lot of the lingering smell.  You may need to do it more than once; if so, make sure to let them dry completely in between.  After they're dry, vacuum them with a HEPA filter to remove dust or smoke particles that you might have dislodged while shampooing.
Smoke will have settled on all the surfaces in the house, so you should definitely think about repainting the walls and ceilings.  Clean them thoroughly first using Trisodium phosphate (TSP).  The Kilz that your realtor recommends is both a sealer and a primer; it will seal in any stains and smells and provide a good base to paint on.
Other surfaces should be cleaned too: kitchen or bathroom floors, doors, windows, countertops, etc.
Finally, just airing the house out will help some: open all the windows and have fans pulling fresh air into the house.  You'll need good ventilation while painting, so you should be doing a lot of this anyway.
Comment: Thanks! We'd replace the floors, even if it didn't smell, for other reasons. It's pretty immaculate right now, so I'll be surprised if cleaning surfaces makes a dent. But it's still a good tip. But sounds like maybe we should go ahead and have it painted before we move in.
Answer: Also consider using an ozone generator to breakdown the smell. There a companies that will supply them or they can be rented. Make sure you understand the precautions when using.


What is the best way to deploy a compiled language project with docker and jenkins?

Question: I have a java project, and I'm generating .jar file.
My question is what is the best practice to use docker and jenkins for build and deploy the project?
Is it build the jar with one docker image, then put the Jar file in another docker image and run a container from the last image in the production env or is there a better way to do that?
Answer: I do not know how how about Jenkins, but GitLab CI has feature called artifacts which allow you to

explitely share some files/directories between builds
download them from GitLab Pipeline view

Additional pro is that allows you to make deployments manual actions.
Also if you are building fat JARs you do not need Docker for your deployments at all.
So the best solution for you is to have separate task for building release and separate for deployment (which can be manual job or not).
Comment: It is not better and this is not worse either. However Inga general it is quite reasonable to use Ockham's razor and o not spawn beings needlessly. Docker is one of the possible solution but isn't always the best one or even the right one. Fat JAR solves the same problem as containerization, so think if Docker is what you need, not follow the herd because it is "fashion" now. Check out other solutions like not using containers at all or using different implementation like rkt.
Comment: Jenkins has artifacts, and has the ability to copy artifacts between tasks.
for docker I think it is better to deploy jar in docker then use docker container in production.
Comment: @chupasaurus what? Since when? As far as I know this never was a case.
Comment: @ŁukaszNiemier my bad, garbage collector haven't been run in my head for a long time.
Answer: So, assuming Docker and Jenkins are set as stated, I would say your approach covers it: Build Jar in one container, grab the Jar and build an image with it, then build containers from that image for your environments.
For some thoughts on how to set it up:
Have a Docker Host (or swarm) running and start a Jenkins service on it. This is a compose file that I have running:
version: '3.7'

services:
  jenkins-local:
    user: root
    image: jenkinsci/blueocean
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - ../../..:/var/projects
      - ./jenkins_home:/var/jenkins_home
    ports:
      - "9000:8080"

volumes:
  jenkins-home:

The important part is the volume where /var/run/docker.sock of the host is mounted to /var/run/docker.sock of the container. This allows Jenkins to access the host's Docker daemon via the Docker socket (make sure "user" is "root"). Find some reading about this here: https://getintodevops.com/blog/the-simple-way-to-run-docker-in-docker-for-ci
The reason why I'd choose the jenkinsci/"blueocean" image is because it allows for usage of blueocean pipelines. https://jenkins.io/projects/blueocean/
Within pipelines you write Jenkinsfiles to define your build pipelines:
node {
    stage('checkout scm') {
        checkout scm
    }
    stage('Build artifact') {
        // Connect to our Nexus Docker repository with the nexus_jenkins_user user credentials managed in Jenkins
        docker.withRegistry('https://registry.swarm', 'nexus_jenkins_user') {
            // Run a Maven builder image and attach it to the nexus network
            // Add a volume to cache the maven-repo in for consecutive runs
            docker.image('registry.swarm/builder/maven:maven-3.3.9').inside('-v maven-repo:/root/.m2 --network=nexus_nexus') {
                sh 'mvn clean package -Dmaven.test.failure.ignore=true'
            }
        }
    }
    stage('archive artifacts and save test results') {
        archiveArtifacts artifacts: "target/*.jar", fingerprint: true
        junit 'target/surefire-reports/*.xml'
    }
    stage('Build run container image, push Docker image to nexus') {
        docker.withRegistry('https://registry.swarm', 'nexus_jenkins_user') {
            docker.build("app/my-service:current").push()
        }
    }
}

Since everything happens in Jenkins Workspace, the only important line for the Dockerfile is this one:
COPY ./target/my-service-*.jar ./my-service.jar

CMD [ "java", "-Duser.timezone=UTC", "-jar", "my-service.jar"]

This will grab the jar, copy it over and use it for the run command in the image.


What is the typical workday in the life of a junior programmer?

Question: I am a college student majoring in CS and I have yet to take an internship.  I am wondering what the normal workday for a junior programmer is like. What is the normal daily work load like? Are there any specifics or office ettiquite to being a programmer that's different for other junior-level employees?
Comment: Peter Gibbons: Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way Lumbergh can't see me, heh heh - and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour.
Bob Porter: Da-uh? Space out?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah, I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.
Comment: Hi Travis, this is not a general career advice site, and many of the questions you've asked are either too localized or off-topic. I've rephrased your question to try to hit the essence of what you're looking for while still falling within the scope of our site. See [our FAQ](http://programmers.stackexchange.com/faq) for more information.
Comment: How much gets coded in a day varies by the task. Some tasks require lots of carefule research and planning and the output might only be 100 lines of code. Sometimes it's just code code code all day long. Sometimes it's all meetings, no code. It varies. Time to leave in the afternoon? Usually 5 but sometimes later. **It varies.**
Comment: To say that it "varies" is like saying there's a chance of rain in Seattle. It's a *profound* understatement.
Answer: I'm not going to answer your questions specifically, because I think the answers vary so much that it would be hard to give anything concrete.
But I'm going to take a shot at the broader question - "what's it like working as a software engineer in the computer industry like?" and maybe even "what's the difference between a good job and a bad job?"
Generally, programming is considered "knowledge work" - which is work where some level of education, experience, judgement and problem solving skills are necessary.  And where demonstration of the ability to think and make good decisions far outweighs almost any other metric for productivity.  For the most part, the environments that are considered outstanding places to work recognize this fact and actively structure their workplaces to maximize smart people making good decisions.  The work places that are seen as sub-optimal are where programmer behavior is constrained or limited for no obvious reasons in ways that don't add to making smart decisions.
That means that:

in most positions, there is some degree of flexibility on start times - companies range from wildly open ended ("come in whenever you want, just get it done") to some level of core hours that are deemed necessary for people to be able to have meetings and communicate effectively.
the days of formal dress seem to be more less over, but it's a general expectation that clothing will be clean, cover the body parts that U.S. society expects to be covered, and will be presentable enough to please the customer should a customer demo be part of the job.  Bigger companies are still slightly more formal than smaller companies, and there is sometimes the idea of "business casual" and "casual fridays" - where more informal attire on friday is encouraged.
In most companies, breaks, workload and time off is balanced by the demands of the product.  Different industries and different business have different workloads and stress loads.  A 40 hour a week minimum is a standard expectation,  but there are deviations and there are part time positions available.  For the most part, the work is divided into salaried positions and contract positions with markedly different expectations and pay mechanisms.  For a salaried position, the number of hours a week is a minimum - the expectation is that you'll meet your deadlines and do your upmost to reclarify goals when deadlines are impossible.  Agressive deadlines are more and more the norm, and I know very few people who don't expect some level of overtime each year.
Breaks and time off are expected to be reasonable and to fit with office culture.  The deadline tends to be the bottom line - people taking more breaks and time off when the work is readily able to meet the deadline is typical.  With most knowledge work, it's understood and expected that breaks are necessary and are the purview of the individual.  Many offices provide some sort of break area so that employees taking a break have somewhere to go to relax and change the pace.

For the most part, work is done in teams.  There are very few products out there for a lone developer - code bases and business logic has become too big for just one developer to maintain.  As a result, people are expected to be able to work in a team.  This means that on some level the norms of work come from the mutual agreements of team members, although the corporation is likely to have some overriding rules as well.
Most of the rules in any given company chain to what it takes to be successful as a team - a team needs enough communication to work efficiently, enough mutual respect to be able to share ideas without defensiveness, enough shared cultural norms to not have taboo violations break the flow of communication.
Also rules can vary according to position - customer facing roles and business related roles tend to have more emphasis on communication and presentation skills, while development-only roles have less strenuous requirements.  Older/bigger companies tend to have more typical American corporation set of norms - stricter start times, dress codes, and other behaviors - while smaller/newer companies can have more unique and/or laid back rules.
Comment: Your 40hr/week minimum is a bit US specific - in the UK in the last 10 years I have rarely done more than 37.5, and quite often 35.
Comment: @Matt the question specifically asks about the U.S.
Comment: Fair enough - missed that bit...
Answer: Start time is usually 9 am (but can vary).
Dress-code is usually business-casual (but can vary).
Breaks - usually you can take breaks to go to the bathroom or smoke. Some jurisdictions specifiy minimum amount and duration of breaks (but can vary).
Workload will vary.
Co-workers will vary.
Environment will vary.
There's not nearly enough here to answer in any further detail. Information that might help give a better answer: Where is the company located, what industry do they work in, what is the largest demographic of current employees.
Answer: What is the start time? Breaks?
From my experience, devs aren't generally treated like they're punching a time card.  As long as the works getting done and you're putting in 8 hours, most places I've worked have been fine with coming in between 7am and 9am and managing my own break schedule.
Dress-code?
Business casual (with Jeans on Fridays) is the norm, although there are plenty of exceptions.  Jeans every day is the dress code of the place I'm at currently.
workload?
No real way to answer this one in a general sense.
co-workers?
Again, pretty vague, obviously working for corporations you're going to have corporate types.  Your fellow software devs will vary from highly competent to horrible.  You will probably have to support some really old and poorly written code at some point.  You will probably have to work off of requirements that are vague, incomplete, or wrong at some point.
Office environment?
Cube farms etc, its an office.
Comment: This is pretty accurate.  Sometimes you'll get a company that is very draconian on hours (e.g. "You vill be here at 8am sharp or you vill not be comink in anymore!") and want to avoid those places like the plague because they know nothing about how developers operate.  It almost always varies though.
Answer: All of your answers depend on the job and Company.

Start Time and End Time
I have worked at several places. The first job had me in by 8:30am (no later than 9am). Second job had me in at 7 am, third at 8:30am, and fourth now at 7:45am.
End time was usually no later than 5:30pm on most days. Rarely stayed until 6pm.
Dress-Code
Never worked anywhere that required a suit and tie. Usually a "polo"/collared shirt, dress jeans, khaki's, tucked/not tucked, and casual dress shoes. No clothing that was torn or made you look like a gangster or gothic person.
Breaks
Most gave 30-45 minute lunches. Various breaks throughout the day were as needed. There was no defined break period and that is how it usually is for salaried employees.
Co-workers
Same as everywhere else. Some are professional, some are lazy, many are hard-working.
Office environment
Only have had my own office twice in the past 7 years. Otherwise it is was an open-air space or cubicles.

Edit:

How much code
Again, it all depends. There is no way to really put a number on it. A SW Engineer is going to be designing, determining requirements, writing technical documentation, etc too so it's not all code like you think.
Days
Most places are Mon-Friday with occasional overtime as needed. I have worked at places where you get every other Friday off (9/80 work schedule). Again, it depends on the workplace.
Answer:
start time: assume 8-5 m-f unless otherwise specified. I worked ~45 hours per week as an intern in the summer.
dress code: suit the first day, then dress down to company standard.
breaks: none formally specified. laziness is always discouraged.
workload: 1/2 programming, 1/2 talking to people
co-workers: typically white-collar, educated, professional. Other than that, average human beings.
office: cube farm generally. see dilbert.


Is there any benefit to having multiple recruitment radio beacons?

Question: I want to populate my settlements faster, is there any purpose in placing multiple recruitment radio beacons in them?
Answer: No, the game only checks if there is a beacon in a settlement.
Only happiness increases the chance.
Build bars ( lvl 3 restaurant) to get +40 happiness.
No new settlers will come if you have five settlers that are not assigned to anything.
Comment: Can you provide a source for the last bit? I'm pretty sure I have settlements that have more than 10 settlers at which I never assigned anyone to any task.
Comment: The link to the source is in the answer.
Answer: Personally I didn't notice any difference when I built multiple towers, but I haven't properly tested it
Make sure you have excess food, water and defence (you need 1 food per person, 1 water per person, and 2 defence per person (so as to keep your defence rating equal to the sum of your food and water)) and people should start arriving fairly quickly
Also note that there's a population cap on each settlement, which is equal to 10 plus the number of points you have in the charisma SPECIAL attribute
Answer: multiple beacons make no difference to the amount of people who will enter a settlement according to my testing in the ps4 version of fallout 4. only the amount of excess resources and happiness will increase it (given you already have one recruitment beacon)


Can I stay longer in France than Hungary, if my visa was issued from Hungary?

Question: I have a multiple entry visa from Hungary, but since my plans changed, we are now likely to spend more days in France than Hungary. Will there be a problem?
Answer: No. This sort of situation happens all the time, as long as you still go to Hungary, use the visa for the same purposes (EG, tourism), and leave within the validity dates of the visa you won't have a problem.
The answers given here might also give you some useful insight to the visa.
(EDIT: The reason I mention that you would still need to go to Hungary is if you didn't it might look like you applied through that embassy because it is easier to obtain a visa there, when you never planned to actually visit that country, but it is easy to see this is not the case here)
Answer:
You can make minor adjustments to your travel plans after the visa is granted. You can even add or skip entire Schengen countries.
You must not misrepresent your itinerary to get a visa.
You should avoid giving the impression that you misrepresented your itinerary.

The last point is the possible problem. Do you have documentation why you changed your plans? Just a whim or a specific reason?
Answer: Likely not, but it depends...
The rules for Schengen visas say you must apply for a visa from the country that is the main destination for your trip, and names length of stay as the deciding factor for "main destination" if nothing else decides it.
The rules also allows for minor derivations.
And those are the rules for single-entry visas, yours is a multiple-entry. Nobody expects you to have planned every trip to the Schengen area (or elsewhere) in the period a multiple-entry visa is valid, when you get it, so you have more flexibility (and typically only get them when you have a good history).
But any visa can be cancelled if the authorities finds reason to suspect it was fraudulently obtained.
In your case my guess is you'll be fine, it's really only the assumption of fraud you'll have to worry about. - But the decisions are not mine.


How do I properly cut leafy herbs like basil?

Question: I often cut herbs to top off my dishes or as a core ingredient in salsa, sauces, guacamole, or any other similar use. For most purposes I would want a fine chop but in some cases more of a strip is called for to top or garnish.  What type of knife should I use and how should I cut it?  I'm most interested in the techniques associated with efficiency and safety.
Comment: What shape are you trying to cut it into?
Answer: Strips of herbs is called a chiffonade:

Stack the leaves together.
Roll the leaves into a cigar shape
Slice across them.

I typically use a chef's knife.
If I have multiple herbs, I'll wrap the smaller leaves in one of the larger ones.  (eg, basil & oregano)
If you want it minced, then you should "run your knife through" the pile.  Which in expression to mean in this context to rock your knife over the pile, turn it, rock it some more ... and keep repeating until everything's the size you want it.
update :
Even though the question clearly stated 'like basil', for other sizes/shapes of leaves, there are ways to efficiently get them into a cut up pile (possibly strips) that you can then mince finer:
For longer-leafed herbs (eg. culantro), you don't need to roll up the leaves. Just stack up what you need, hold them from the stem end, and rock/slice them.
For small leaf herbs, you're not going to get what I'd call strips.  It's more like confetti.  If you don't have a larger leaf in the recipe to wrap them in (basil, mint, sesame, or even vegetables like spinach), then you'll want to keep the leaves on the stem.
For tender stem plants (celery, parsley, etc. (except for cilantro (green coriander) -- throw that out and use culantro instead, as it doesn't taste like soap), you just hold the stem end and rock/slice your way from the top.
For woody stems, you work similarly, but slow down when you're getting close to the woody part.  Then you turn the stem so you're cutting more parallel with the stem, and cut in from one of the sides.  Roll the stem over, and continue working in from the side.  Repeat until you've gotten off all you can without cutting into the woody stem.  If there's still a lot of leaves left, break off the branches of the stems, and either work them  individually or stack them up to try to work a bit faster.  (For some plants, it's easier to break it off before you start, and work each one individually.)
Comment: If you do this a lot I'd suggest investing in a mezzoluna .
Comment: Basil is one of a very few herbs where I can imagine this working. What do you do if you only have herbs with small or irregular leaves?
Comment: The mess with cilantro, flat leaf parsley.... is how it superglues itself to fingers and cutting boards if still wet from washing...
Comment: @rackandboneman : the answer for half of that is to never use cilantro.  For the flat leaf parsley, if I grow it myself I don't typically wash it.  If it comes from the store, hold it by the stem and flick off most of the water (might want to do this outside ... if in an apartment use the bath or shower), then spread out a couple of paper towels, spread the herbs on the towels, then roll it up tightly ... leave it for a minute or two, then unroll and chop them how I mentioned.
Comment: And if they're still sticky after that -- you shouldn't be touching the leaves for the most part.  You hold the stem in one hand, knife in the other.  When pushing it back into a pile, use your knife.  The only time that you might touch the leaves is if you have to wipe off any that stick to the knife, and I just use a single finger for that.  To transfer it, I scoop up the pile with a larger knife, and then dump it into whatever I'm cooking.  (which again, might require wiping off the knife)
Comment: Still a tasty mess :) And if you do want them chiffonaded, you will get more stuck to your fingers, knifes and scrapers than you like :)
Answer: For few and even leaves like mint and basil, stacking and cutting works out. It can be used as a garnish too. But if you want to cut herbs like cilantro and any other smaller and softer leaves, I would take a bunch of them in my hand and hold tight, then start chopping from the end, moving the hand backwards till it is done and repeat the process for the remaining Portion. If you are not satisfied with the size rough chopping the finished cut leaves will do. I use lots of leafy vegetables like spinach, amaranthus etc for my regular cooking (south Indian recipes to be precise) in bulk, and I can't finish chopping if I go for stacking few leaves and chopping them (except for garnish may be). I just pluck the leaves and chop them in bunch after washing.
Answer: first of all you have to pluck all basil leaves n roll it titghtly between your index finger n thumb then put it on chopping board n cut it finely, not leaving more space means cut it very finely if u want to chopped it more finely turn basil leaves direction and cut it again..i think u would be satisfied with it...but keep in mind that u dont hve to press the leaves so much otherwise it would loose its colour.


How to germinate guava seeds?

Question: Recently I received guava seeds from two of my friends. One is a red variety and other is a normal Guava variety. I planted the seeds on coco-peat three weeks ago and kept watering since then. I just didn't plant the seeds deeper than one inch.  But still not a single seed germinated. What am I doing wrong here. Will it germinate or what's the correct way to germinate Guava seeds?
Answer: Different people on the web recommend

soaking the seed in water for 2 weeks before planting
sandwiching the seed inside a damp folded paper towel, sealing it in a plastic bag, and hanging it up in direct sunlight till they germinate.
putting the seed in boiling water for 5 minutes before planting to break the dormancy.

Whatever option you try, germination can take up to 8 weeks, and they need warmth to get them started. They are tropical plants after all. (But since your profile says "Sri Lanka", providing the warmth should not be a problem).
Answer: Here is a parallel example you might find relevant to your situation - back in the Spring I ate a tangerine. There were about a dozen seeds. I set them aside thinking that I might get them to germinate. About 4 weeks later I potted them up in a general purpose mix and put the pot on top of my hot water tank to see what would happen. Two months later one came up. I emptied the pot and found all except the one just as they were when potted up. The one that germinated now has 6 leaves and looks good. I discarded the others.
Guava produces multiple small seeds in each fruit, so hopefully you had a good number to set to germinate. I have seen some references that recommend that citrus seeds be set to germinate immediately they leave the fruit, that is they not be allowed to dry out as mine were. That might not be relevant in your situation, but it's worth investigating. Key points I think are to increase your chances with many seeds and to be patient until one pops up.

How to germinate guava seeds?


Documents queue to shared printer but won't print

Question: I have an HP Desk Jet 3650 printer on a Windows 7 laptop, which is shared with my Ubuntu 12.04 desktop. The Ubuntu machine can see the printer and sends files to it, but the files only queue and won't print.
Answer: Are you connecting to the printer using from the network like //COMPUTER-NAME/PRINTER-NAME ?
I had the same issue with print jobs not printing wirelessly to my shared printer HP K550 connected to my desktop pc running Windows 7.  I first attempted to access the printer using //COMPUTER-NAME/PRINTER-NAME .  I could see the printer but nothing would print.  I then changed the path to //xx.xx.xx.xx/PRINTER-NAME (where xx.xx.xx.xx is you IP address of the computer the printer is connected to).  Now it prints fine.
My printer Settings are below and are based on a HP K550:
Device URI: smb://192.168.1.3/HP_K550
Make and Model: HP Officejet Pro k550, hpcups 3.12.6
Answer:
Goto Page preview
Select print from printer icon

After that It will be ok and you will can print again from the main Print option


Shutter speed calibration

Question: Is there a way to determine a camera's actual shutter speed? If the shutter speed is a bit off is it possible to calibrate your camera's shutter on your own? I own a nikon fm2 film camera.
Comment: Why do you need to know the precise speed?
Comment: If by "a bit off" you mean less than 1/6 stop, for photography within the scope of this group (creative photography), it does not matter. Please see the answers and comments to: [Is there a sane reason why ¹⁄₁₂₅ is not, instead, exactly half of ¹⁄₆₀?](https://photo.stackexchange.com/q/49860/15871)
Comment: How do you know it is off? How much is "a bit"?
Comment: @scottbb Some late film camera designs used vertical electronically controlled shutters like most DSLRs do. The vast majority of 135 cameras used mechanically operated horizontal shutters.
Comment: I will admit that I don't actually know which sort of shutter is in the FM2
Answer: Calibrating your Shutter Speed
Unless you are performing photographic telemetry or a variety of other niche scientific measurements, the only reason to know the exact length of your exposure is to achieve accurate exposure. Although it is rare for a modern camera's shutter to drift by a stop or more and still continue to function, old war horses with spring based shutters can vary dramatically in accuracy while still functioning like new.
A qualified technician can maintain a spring based shutter and a qualified repair facility can replace an electronic shutter. If you are not sufficiently qualified or funded to fix the shutter you can instead characterize it. Once you know how inaccurate the shutter is, the inaccuracy can be compensated by dialing the appropriate exposure compensation into the camera or meter. If your camera lacks exposure compensation it is probably old enough to have a manual ISO setting so just adjust the ISO the appropriate number of stops instead.
Long shutter speeds (1/30th or slower)
Find an object that blinks. I like to use my flash on strobe mode since it is highly adjustable. Any other blinking device which blinks sufficiently fast will work. One option is a fluorescent light which flickers at 120hz (120 times per second) in areas that have 60hz AC.

Set up your camera on a tripod or rest so that it can image you or an assistant standing several feet away. Focus the lens reasonably well.
Set your camera to time delay mode if conducting the test by yourself and set the desired shutter speed.
Start the countdown and stand in front of your camera
Trigger the blinking before the exposure and then swing the object back and forth. Make sure that the object stays in the frame, moves continuously, and does not perfectly retrace its steps.
Continue swinging the object until after the exposure ends.
Count the "blinks" of the object to determine shutter speed.

For example, if you set your shutter speed to 1/4th and wave a fluorescent light in front of it (assuming you are brave enough) then count 28 flashes of the light. You know that the exposure is actuall 28/120 = 7/30th or about .93/4 of a second. Your shutter would therefore by 6.7% fast.
Application notes:

This technique is only accurate to 1/n where n is the number of blinks. so if there are only 4 blinks then your measurement is only accurate to 25%. In the example above this would mean that you would actually know that the shutter is between and 5.0 and 8.4% fast. You can make this a bit more accurate by making 10-20 exposures and averaging the results.
If your object is large enough that the "blinks" overlap each other you may want to mask off most of the object and leave a small hole to create a small point of light
The image will be most readable if you use a small aperture to darken the background so you just see the bright flashes.

Short shutter speeds (1/30th or faster
If you own an old school CRT television this is quite easy. If your TV was made for the USA it draws 525 lines 29.97 times per second. Therefore 15734.25 lines are drawn every second or if you like integers, 62937 lines are drawn every 4 seconds. What does this matter? Each line is 4/62937th of a second. This means that that if you made an image of the tv screen at shutter speeds greater than 1/60th of a second, you could simply count the lines present to know how long the exposure was. Let's see an example:
You set your shutter to 1/125th (.008s) and make an image of the tv. You count the lines in the lines in the image and get 130 lines. 62937/(120x4)=121. In decimal values .000063556 is one line so 130*.00006356=.00826s In either case you can see that your shutter is miscalibrated by 3.2% or 1/10th of a stop. As you can see in the example, the math can be done by multiplying and dividing integers or multiplying decimals. I like to store the decimal value for the time of one line in my calculator and then call it up to multiple by the number of lines.
Application notes:

To measure between 1/30th and 1/60th you will need to count the "interlines." Even though a frame consists of 525 lines, the CRT only draws half of them on the first pass, leaving a dark area inbetween lines. It will then return to "scan" the interlines. If you shutter speed is between 1/30th and 1/60th (inclusive) you may see the interlines. At 1/60th you'll only see them if the exposure if longer than intended. At 1/30th things could get complicated for a long exposure since you'll see the start of a second frame. If you see the interlines it is easier to count the number of "missing lines" drawn from the last line drawn to the first.
It's easier to count the lines if they are located in the center of the screen. If you allow the lines to go off the bottom and down from the top you will need to count the blanking lines, which you can't see. This is a particular concern when measuring 1/30th to 1/60th second.
A much easier way to count the lines is to calibrate photoshop or imageJ. Either software allows you to calibrate units of measure per pixel. Follow that link for details.
This technique also has accuracy equal to 1/number of lines. It is often less of an issue since you can count "partial lines" At 1/8000 second you will only get 2 lines but you could count, for example, 2.25 lines.

Other ideas:

A Record is 33.5, 45. or 78 RPM (draw a line on it and see how far the line blurs)
Kitchen aid mixers are generally quite accurate
Stroboscopes are intended for this task
A PWM LED can be setup and frequency controlled with an arduino/Rpi

Credit for some above techniques for measuring shutter time goes to the Photographic Instrumentation course at RIT's College of Imaging Arts and Sciences as taught by Andrew Davidhazy. Since this was a hard-copy course I cannot provide web citations.
~~Disclaimer: I am not responsible for injuries due to waving light bulbs around nor seeing spots for days from staring into a blinking flash. Make sure your assistant is not epileptic.
Comment: If the flickering of a fluorescent light is linked to the grid frequency, then the 120 Hz would be 100 Hz in most other places of the world, I guess?
Comment: LP records are 33 1/3 RPM. The turntables that play them are notoriously inaccurate without proper calibration.
Comment: @MichaelClark  I've edited to reflect that fact. My coffee hadn't kicked in yet.
Comment: @Joey, You're right. There's now a link to show where 50hz AC would cause a 100hz flicker. Since we are talking about it, it's worth noting that CFLs tend to "glow" so the flicker would be a sinusoid in brightness whereas tubes are more of an on/off situation. Incandescents are totally unpredictable.
Comment: @PhotoScientist I mean that pixels that were addressed _before_ the picture was taken would also still light up the moment the shutter is opened (so theoretically, you could count three lines: two that were addressed during the shutter opening, and one that was addressed before the shutter opened but has not yet decayed). Although, giving the video a closer look, the brightness will probably be very low compared to a freshly scanned line, so it will probably not be much of a problem. I'll delete the comment.
Answer:
Is there a way to determine a camera's actual shutter speed?

Yes. Photograph an object that moves at a known rate, so that you get an image with some motion blur. Determine how far the object moved and use the known speed to calculate the exposure time.

If the shutter speed is a bit off is it possible to calibrate your camera's shutter on your own?

No. Cameras typically don't provide a user-accessible mechanism for adjusting the shutter speed.
Answer: I once was tasked to check shutter speed and I did not have the proper test bench. I setup an old record player that handled Long Play (LP) records. The rotation speed is 33 1/3 RPM  and they are quire reliable.  I then placed several white dots on an LP record plus drew spiral pattern. I then photograph a spinning platter (record). You can measure the circumference or calculate same.  Now you have a target of known speed and you know the distance traveled. You can estimate the shutter speed knowing these facts.
Comment: Most turntables actually vary with voltage. That's why the best ones included built in speed calibration knobs and strobes. I used to calibrate the turntables at a radio station I worked at back in the early 1980s.
Comment: But how did you verify the speed of the turntable was exactly 33 1/3? They were/are notoriously inaccurate.
Comment: @ Michael Clark Like electric clocks, they locked onto the 60 or 50 cycle AC power grid. That is the way electric clocks, previously kept accurate time. The power grid, using alternating current was and is quite accurate. Unlike voltage which was allowed to vary, the cycles per second are steady.
Answer: I'm reminded of this story about how to measure the height of a building...
Since this is a film camera you have access to the film side of the shutter as well as the lens side.
If you have a bright continuous (incandescent) light shining on one side of the shutter, you can put a photocell/photodiode/photomultiplier on the other side. Using an oscilloscope you then look at the signal from your photodetector as you trigger the shutter. The pulse width will be the shutter speed in micro or milliseconds.
Perhaps an easier way is to use an Arduino's pulseIn function. Connect the photosensor output (make sure the pulse will be a logic 1 (greater than 2.4 volts or so)) to a digital input on the Arduino, start your program (Here's an example), and trigger the shutter. Shutter speed is in microseconds. Good Luck!
Comment: Oscilloscope ... and/or frequency counter. Make sure that the photosensor and accompanying circuitry are fast enough (phototransistors and CDS cells may be not) and do not stretch the pulse.
Comment: Phototransistors or photodiodes have a good chance of being fast enough, but CdS LDRs almost certainly not (@rackandboneman)
Comment: Photodiodes, most certainly, and with a safety margin of several orders of magnitude. Phototransistors, not always - to check a 1/12000th you'd want a 100kHz or so bandwidth to get an unambigous response...

Shutter speed calibration


Browser extension to hide all the activities of a given user on Stack Exchange

Question: I am looking for a browser extension (preferably Chrome) that can hide all the activities (namely questions, answers and comments) of a given user on Stack Exchange, just like when blocking someone on Facebook will hide most of their activities.
Comment: I'm maybe so curious, but this is not Facebook, so almost everything that people posts here, evenly seemingly to be harsh or criticize on you, will foremost have the willing to contribute to the conversation. Why blocking them be necessary? You can always ignore them, right?
Comment: @Ooker It clutters the notification feed :)
Answer: I went ahead and wrote a solution for this:
StackIgnore
To install, download this file and go to chrome://extensions (I'm not sure how to do it in other browsers). Check the 'developer mode' checkbox, and then just drag the file onto the window. It should install automagically.
It's very much a work in progress (and can't hide questions yet), but it works wonders for answers & comments. Here's how it works:
It adds an item in the sidebar on the homepage:

Clicking the link under 'Ignored users' brings up a text field. In that field you type the user ID of the person you want to silence, then hit go. If you decide that you want to unsilence them, you do this again to remove them from the list. This is probably the most counterintuitive aspect, and could be improved.
Once you've ignored someone, their answers and comments will magically disappear. When it's hiding answers, it adds this to the answer header:

And shows a box at the bottom of the question-answer set, right before the add answer box, with the option to show the answers again:

Clicking the link shows the hidden answers with a light blue tint. The same thing is done for comments.
As I said, it's a work in progress. The project is on GitHub, please feel free to fork and make any improvements you wish!


What are the terms in which a weak (Da'if) Hadith can be strengthened?

Question: If a narrator is weak in his righteousness (عدالته) the hadith cannot be strengthened, but if the weakness is in a narrator's accurateness (ضبطه) the narration/hadith can be strengthened but under certain terms. What are these terms? How many are they?
Answer: This is a very subjective and case-based issue. There are two kinds of weak ahadith: da'if (weak) and da'if jiddan (very weak). A da'if hadith is when there is some kind of anomaly with the (chain of the) hadith, e.g. one link in the first generation is missing. This anomaly cannot be overlooked, and yet it is not fatal. A da'if jiddan hadith on the other hand is much weaker and has serious and potentially fatal flaws.
The vast majority of hadith scholars say that da'if jiddan ahadith should never be used for anything, and they do not strengthen anything.
Da'if hadith on the other hand, can sometimes strengthen each other. It is very case-based, it depends on the overlap between the content of the hadith, the actual flaws that each contains (e.g. is it the same flaw or different kinds of flaws), the overlap in the chain of narration, and other things like that. Depending on the judgment of a scholar, sometimes two weak ahadith can strengthen each other, and sometimes they don't. It also depends on the topic of the hadith - is it relating to virtues of some act? Is it establishing something entirely new in shari'ah?
In short, it's very subjective and case-dependent, and many scholars come to different judgments in different cases.


How does one experience or understand the experience of others?

Question: I have found that if i do not share or understand the perspective of others, it is difficult to appreciate their point of view so that one is able to be the viewer as opposed to the actor. How does one experience the experience of others?
Answer: I understood the question as, how to listen deeply, without imposing our will, our ego or impatience on the speaker.
First we must still our mind of all chatter and impatience, which isn't possible without daily meditation and mindfulness, so we must learn to practice properly.
If we are to be strong to help others, we must practice correctly.
Second, we develop compassion and loving kindness towards the speaker. When our mind is not caught in its own web of suffering, compassion comes easily.
Having developed the heart of compassion and loving kindness, we listen mindfully. Such deep listening, where we offer our true presence to our friend or partner will be much appreciated.
To be effective, we must practice deep listening regularly, by being present in the moment, and allowing our heart of compassion and kindness to open.
Answer: First - You may want to change your goal - or at least temper it in the short term.

How does one experience the experience of others?

This requires a very high state of being, and if the ego is trying to do it in order to

Be a better person
Be more successful
Become a better Buddhist
etc.

... Then you will harm people while not intending to do so.
As far as I can see, there are two points of access for what you seek to accomplish.

Listening.

People always tell you everything.  They may not say it in a way that you are comfortable or familiar with; and they may not say it such that their words clearly match what they intend to communicate (mostly they don't).  But they reveal almost everything in their experience when they communicate.  It's there if you listen.
Now this is the tricky part.  Mostly what we do when we try to improve our listening skills is to try to listen better.  Maybe there are some pieces of advice we employ, or some tips on being a better listener we follow (e.g. Ask lots of questions, etc).  The vast majority of those tips are absolute garbage.  They do nothing but strengthen the ego's ability to appear to be listening while providing nothing in the way of authentic listening.
Authentic listening is magic.  This quote from Siddhartha by Herman Hesse does a very good job of expressing what is possible with real listening:

Vasudeva's listening gave Siddhartha a stronger sensation than ever before, he sensed how his pain, his fears flowed over to him, how his secret hope flowed over, came back at him from his counterpart. To show his wound to this listener was the same as bathing it in the river, until it had cooled and become one with the river.

Authentic listening grants freedom.
Here is your access to listening:  Notice where you don't.
I once received the following koan (it was given with that label):

You don't listen.  You never have.  And you never will.

To really get that.  To own that, and make it part of you - it allows for pure wonder.  You can discover how ridiculously little you listen.  Mostly we defend our lack of listening - trying to prove that we were listening - at least as best we could.  If you take the case that you are not listening from the start - there is nothing to defend.  What becomes possible is discovering the barriers between you and listening - and there are literally millions of them (e.g. They said something that reminded you of something you had to do; Something in what they said threatened you; You want them to like you; ad infinitum).  Once there is awareness of an obstruction - the obstruction loses its grip.
What is present in the absence of the barriers to listening is listening.  It is not something done - it is something that arises in the absence of obstruction.

Everything anyone says has value:

This closely ties into listening.  You can make anything anyone says gold - just because they said it.  They said it - it matters enough to them that they said it - it has value.  You don't have to like it.  You don't have to agree with it.
A priori it has value.  Humans have value - language is rich with value - what they say matters.
Before you can have the opportunity to get into another's world you must acknowledge to yourself (repeatedly) where you don't give a shit about their point of view.  It's okay - people proudly defend nonsense all the time.  More to the point - it's their point of view - what do you care?   Tell the truth about it though.  It's quite liberating.  Once you are aware that you don't care at all about what another person is saying - you again have access to listening.
This may sound contradictory - it's not.  When you can tell the truth about what's in the way of you fully being with another - there is nothing more liberating.  We catch ourselves in kind of a trap otherwise.
We are thrown to only care about ourselves - it's kind of our default way of being.  It doesn't look good to only care about ourselves, so we cover it up by pretending to care about others.  While pretending to care about others; we are simply incapable of caring for others (it's like pretending to enjoy running while running).  Once we can tell the truth (it's not a once and for all thing - it's ongoing) about where we're pretending (mostly just to ourselves - sometimes to others) - then we don't have to pretend anymore.  When we don't have to pretend anymore we are free to truly be with other people.  When we are free to truly be with other people; we can't help but love them.  We see their nastiness and pettiness and we don't consider ourselves superior.  We realize we are looking at ourselves - and what they are experiencing is instantly obvious because it is merely a shade of our own experience.
When the barriers obstructing our listening disappear - there is no distance between self and other - no difference between speaker and listener - then you don't have to wonder about how to experience their experience - because it's right there.
Note:  There may come a point where one is always authentically interested and capable of listening and caring about another's experience.  I have never caught a glimmer of a persistent state like that.  For now it is enough for me to notice where I'm full of it - acknowledge it - and then allow the space for listening to arise.
Comment: Your **koan** reminds me of when I was at a retreat and I expressed my sincere desire to "help other people". One of the two teachers leaned toward me and said, **"There are no other people."**
Comment: Nice.  That's the trouble with sincerity.
Comment: "God helps those who help themselves." If only we could teach complete, all-encompassing identity with everyone and everything as a form of selfishness, it would be a better world!
Comment: Tricky that....
Answer: With reference to both the question of how one experiences or understands the experience of others and also to the end note in post by User 1167442 about the impact of realising at times we 'are full of it' and how said realisation can, if noticed, cause us to pause.
My experience has been that it is when I realise and acknowledge the moments in which I am 'full of it' [and there have been many] the fabric of that particular aspect of my journey falls away and the associated responses to the situation [emotional, behavioural, cognitive etc.] lose their potency.
It is in those moments that I am most able to connect at a meaningful level with others. However, I do have to say that at times speaking and listening impose on the purity of the connection, communication and sense of understanding.
There are moments; are there not? when the speaking and hearing of words [being mere symbolic representations of our experience] does not sufficiently embrace the totality of the connection or the experience of either individual. No matter how well I can communication and/or hear/understand another's description of their reality, my ability to truly comprehend what  that person is saying is always filtered by my experience and the meaning I subscribe to words/phrases being said etc.
What I'm saying here really is that for me there are times when speaking and listening no matter how well intentioned and how well practiced provides a format for sharing/caring etc but that which is exchanged is merely a shadow of the experience being described - which when effected eloquently is sufficient for the needs of most situations.
Sometimes sitting quietly in the presence of another can soothe the soul more effectively than being cognitive and trying to understand the other's reality.
Comment: Plus one for mentioning me!  Just kidding.  Very good answer.
Comment: @drcrpsych - How do you realize you are `full of it`?
Answer: Through unity one experience the experience of others.
When one does not share other's view, there is duality, my view and the other's view.
If we fully understand views as just conditioned thoughts: conditioned by class, society, upbringing, books one reads, inclinations, peers, parents, teachers etc.. then we realise that our own views are just as conditioned as the others'.
One view may be the result of more skilful thought, but it is also due to conditioning. So one may say this is skilful thought, this isn't but not this is yours and this is mine. When we see thoughts as just arising due to conditioning ( which is one, not your conditioning or mine conditioning) then there is unity. The arising of thoughts due to conditioning.
The unification of self and others into a single entity called a conditioned being, results in one shared experience!
As for understanding another's experience it comes through having empathy.

Empathy is the capacity to understand what another person is experiencing from within the other person's frame of reference, i.e., the capacity to place oneself in another's shoes.

How do we develop empathy?
We learns to see things from another person's perspective but we must first reflect on our own feelings to understand causes for the arising of a particular feeling.
And when we have an understanding of these causes, we begin the appropriate association of causes with the feelings. So when we put ourselves in another persons perspective then these associated feelings arise, though not in the same way as they arise in the other person. They arise with the understanding that the perspective of the other person causes those feelings to rise.
When we experience those feelings conditioned by perspective as a third party or bystander or observer, then mudita (sympathetic joy) or karuna (compassion) may arise depending on the feeling.
Answer: Meditate! Once you understand how your own mind works, understanding everyone else becomes easy.
Comment: I am going to agree with this one, although it is "too short" to be a usually accepted answer. All the ideas about 1. develop compassion, 2. develop empathy, etc, seem to come at it from the end rather than where the OP is right now. There is NO WAY to comprehend the end without jumping in and starting to practice. Then it comes, slowly. Only with the complete flower bloom do we say "it is a flower", but what was it before that? How do we get started? This is a good answer. It has a carrot and a stick!
Comment: I probably should've expounded some more, but yes, this is the essence of it :)


How to conduct a meta-analysis on studies that report results variously as odds ratios, hazards ratios, or rate ratios?

Question: I'm doing a meta-analysis of some studies that report results variously as odds ratios, hazards ratios or rate ratios (all with confidence intervals). Is there any way to combine these together/convert between them so that I can do a meta-analysis of all the studies?
Answer: It depends on why they were doing so, and what additional information you might have to work with - like do you have specific cell-counts that you might calculate your own effect measures from. However, some initial thoughts:

There's two logical groups here. Odds ratios and relative-risks, if they're being reported in any of your studies are logically grouped (in that the odds ratio is typically trying to estimate a relative risk when the actual relative risk cannot be calculated). Similarly, rate-ratios (which I'm going to assume are = incidence density ratios from a Poisson regression) and hazard ratios both deal with time data. I really wouldn't cross-compare ORs and HRs, for example.
Relative risks and ORs: Honestly, I'd probably run parallel analyses for these two measures. If a study is a cohort or cross-sectional population design, and reports its numbers, you can calculate your own ORs from that. If you chose to do that however, I'd definitely look at heterogeneity based on study design.
Rate Ratios and HRs: These you might be more capable of getting away with. If the rate ratio is the ratio of two rates calculated as <code> cases/person-time</code>, then that is actually a hazard ratio estimate as well. It's just a hazard ratio made under the assumption of both proportional and constant hazards. You can convert those directly to an HR, but again, I'd look at study heterogenity by which measure it reported, as rate ratios and a HR that came out of something like a Cox model are performed under different assumptions.
When in doubt, its probably best to split up the studies and look at each sub-group. Don't necessarily look at this as a failure. If different effect measures and study designs are reporting different results, that is, all by itself, a finding. To paraphrase a professor of mine, heterogeneity that prevents the estimation of a single pooled estimate is a result worth reporting.
Comment: Thanks, that gives me an idea of where to go next. I think doing the analyses in parallel is the thing to do. Most of the studies don't report specific cell counts, so this is the best we can do.
Comment: @MarkGreenaway Glad I could help - its a pain, and believe me, I know it well. Currently dealing with not even being able to pool HRs if they were calculated using two different methods. Don't forget to accept the answer you eventually go with - more rep for everyone!


What caused launch abort on SpaceX's Bangabandhu-1 launch

Question: On Thursday, May 10th, 2018, SpaceX attempted a launch of the first Falcon 9 block V rocket carrying Bangabandhu-1 however the countdown was stopped at t-58 seconds and the launch was scrubbed for 24 hours. Do we know what caused the launch abort sequence to be initiated?
Comment: So far only this tweet: "Standing down today due to a standard ground system auto abort at T-1 min. Rocket and payload are in good health—teams are working towards tomorrow's backup launch opportunity at 4:14 p.m. EDT, or 20:14 UTC." - which is ofc not enough for an answer.
Comment: I doubt that any committee, customer or boss would accept to his *"Why did it fail again?"* question an *"it is opinion-based"* answer from the engineers. **Please vote for leave open.**
Answer: The Flight Computer checked everything, and noticed an abort signal in a piece of ground equipment, due to a bad state from a prior test. They have fixed the problem to not happen again.
This is from the livestream of the second launch attempt.
Comment: Just heard this in the Livestream too!


One Apple ID or Two?

Question: Can someone please help me out? I currently own an iPhone and an iPad and my son has a iPod touch 4th Generation. iCloud works well between them, but my wife is looking to get an iPhone as well. If she uses a new Apple ID can she still use my purchased apps? Or if we use the same Apple ID can you separate contacts or would turn it off on one device?
Answer: You should have one AppleID per person that you use for iCloud, Notes, Contacts, Mail, Calendar and to-do's. You then pick one of these ID's to buy things in iTunes and the App store. You probably want to use the ID you have used to purchased music and apps with up until now.
So setup your wife's iDevice(s) with her new AppleID. When you are done, go into Settings/Store and change the AppleID you to your existing ID (only in the store).
Now you each have your own iCould but everything you buy can be shared between the both of you.
Answer: This is a seemingly simple question, but the answer is very complex because Apple's intended use case seems to be 1 person with one computer, one iTunes account and one or more iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad (iOS device)s.
Some facts to frame the answer:

An Apple ID is linked to each iTunes account.
An iOS device can have apps on it from any number of
iTunes accounts
A device can only sync with one iTunes library at a time.
Syncing a device with a new iTunes library disassociates it from the previous library (and deletes the media synced from the previous library from the device).
iCloud accounts store contacts, schedules and email and have little to do with your iTunes content.  You probably want separate iCloud accounts unless you want to get reminders for her appointments and vice versa.

Given this information, there are a couple of solutions.
Solution 1:
You and your wife share a computer and an iTunes library.  Since your devices and hers sync from the same library, you will use the same pool of media and apps.  If your wife gets her own iCloud account, she can set that up separately from the shared iTunes account.  See the following Apple knowledgebase article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4895
There are no technical problems here.  Though it's conceivable that it would be impractical or undesirable to share a computer and an iTunes account.
Solution 2:
You and your wife use separate iTunes accounts with separate iTunes Libraries, either under separate user accounts on the same computer or on two different computers.  Here, you each keep your stuff separate, but you can authorize her iTunes library to use media from your account and vice versa.  See Apple knowledgebase article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1420
You still probably want different iCloud accounts.
Solution 3:
You use separate iTunes libraries, separate iTunes accounts, but your wife can sign into your iTunes account in the App Store app on her phone and download any of your previous purchases.
From Apple knowledgebase article ht1311:
"The account ID that was synced to the device is displayed at the bottom of each page [in the App Store or iTunes apps], so you'll always know what account you are using on the device. Simply open iTunes or the App Store on your iOS device and scroll to the bottom of any page to see which account is currently in use. You can also see this in Settings under the Store option."
I'm sure there are other options, but these are what I see as the best scenarios in descending order.  The first option is the easiest from a technology standpoint, but when you factor in human issues, the second option may be more desirable.
I hope this is helpful.
Comment: Your solution 3 can use Home Sharing to move apps around without ever signing into each others machine.   You still need to authorize though.   Apple knowledgebase article HT3819: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3819
Comment: @rwr - from the same kb you referenced: "To do so, you will need to Turn on Home Sharing on each computer using the same Apple ID."  What you're suggesting is essentially the same as my option 2.  The wife still needs the husband's iTunes account credentials and the wife must authorize her iTunes library to use the husband's media. I did not suggest signing into each other's computers (except in solution 1). Anytime you use any account's media in an iTunes installation, that account must be authorized using the "Authorize this computer..." option in the "Store" menu in iTunes.
Answer: I would most definitely recommend using two separate Apple ID's for iCloud syncing.  While you can have multiple devices attached to a single Apple ID (as you do with your iPhone and iPad), all of the same information will be pushed to all devices, meaning you would not have the ability to maintain discrete contacts, calendars, bookmarks, etc.  Apple ID's in general, and for iCloud use in particular, are really designed to be single user identifiers.
The good news is that using two separate iCloud ID's does not prohibit you and your wife, and your son for that matter, from still sharing App Store purchases.  iOS devices maintain separate login information for iCloud syncing, App Store and iTunes account info.  Once you have set your new phone up with iCloud, go to Settings --> Store and select the Apple ID at the bottom of the screen and sign out.  After signing out, you will be presented with a Sign In button at the top of the screen.  After pressing it, select "Use Existing Apple ID".  Now enter the login information for the account all of your app store purchases are under.  You now have iCloud syncing to your wives own personal Apple ID and her apps syncing from your already existing Apple ID.  Just note that if either of you have the "Automatically download apps" feature selected, you will receive everything your partner downloads as well as apps you've downloaded.
If you have any more questions on this process, I'll be happy to try and expand.
Answer: Your wife should get her own AppleID and use that for iCloud. To use the same apps as yours, she can enter your ID when prompted and buy new apps with your ID in the store. This is safer than using the same ID for iCloud and try to separate personal data.

One Apple ID or Two?


Is Google Sheets capable of making a gantt-like chart like this? If so, how?

Question: I have two columns in a spreadsheet: A1:A100 has start times, and B1:B100 has duration. I am trying to create a chart that looks something like this, where each row gets a vertical line placed at the relevant start time (column A in the sheet) and the length of the vertical line is determined by the duration (column B in the sheet). Can it be done? I'm relatively new to this and I've tried column charts, waterfall, and scatter, but none seem to be working out very well.
Comment: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19jW8OX1f10DG4ZxKSViF3-tk6SGeFsGRimEr22yqKpQ/edit?usp=sharing
Answer: not really, but it can be built (based on the sheet you provided):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/
Comment: Wow, this is pretty amazing. Do I understand this correctly? You basically create a formula which checks to see whether each cell should be colored or not based on the transposed sheet. Is that right? Pretty cool!
Comment: @PeterBentley yeah, pretty much yes :)


Why/How should I bed in disc brake pads?

Question: Why should I bed in my disc brake pads and what's the best way to do it?
Comment: What does "bedding" mean?
Comment: Nevermind...bed in simply means to "break in".
Comment: Bedding brakes should only be done in the privacy of your home.  Remember, a gentleman never tells!
Comment: is this like "toe in" on normal brake pads?
Comment: @dotjoe No.  Toe in refers to an angular measurement in the installation process.
Answer: Bedding in brakes removes any glaze from your new pads, and any contamination from your disc rotors. It also transfers material from the pads onto the rotors, which helps them work together. It's essential to get the optimum performance from your brakes when you change pads. Follow these steps:

Clean your rotors - you don't want them to transfer any grease and
grime to your new pads. You can buy dedicated brake cleaner.
Fit the new pads and find a place where you can build up a bit of speed. A hill is helpful for this.
Build up some speed and then brake to a gradual halt. Repeat a few times.

That's probably all you need to do. However some people, myself included, like to pour water  over the hot brakes. I'm not sure this actually improves anything but even if it doesn't it sizzles and steams, which is pretty cool
Comment: By pouring water, you are effectively [qunching](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempering_%28metallurgy%29#Quenched-steel) the rotors. Although I suspect the temperature is not high enough for any noticeable changes.
Answer: The reason you need to bed in your pads is so that they contact the disc rotor evenly. Even if you think you've set them up perfectly, the rotor and the pad are very hard and when you apply the brakes initially there is not going to be completely even contact between pad and rotor. By bedding them in, you're effectively wearing away the top layer of the disc rotor so you get completely even contact.
To do this you simply need to brake hard, generating heat and wear. I find sprinting down the road and put the front brakes on hard, whilst keeping my weight well back to prevent an embarrassing endo, works well. For the rear I again sprint off but then apply it steadily and firmly, also with weight well back and just enough pressure to brake hard without skidding. It helps if you're on a really grippy surface like tarmac.
Comment: bedding in pads -whether on a car, motorbike or bicycle should be done with firm pressure not slamming them on.
Comment: @Mauro It depends on the manufacturer.  Really need to check the instructions for whatever pads you use.  On my car, I've had some that say "drive real easy, light braking only", others that say "drive normal, but try not to overheat", and the current set says "do repeated maximum effort braking from 60mph until you can smell them, then drive without stopping for 5 minutes to allow them to cool".
Answer: Bedding in is a term applied to most metallic braking devices.  Pads and rotors/discs wear at different rates and can end up slightly grooved depending on the natural variations in the pad/disc materials.  when replacing one or the other or both items you need to bed them in to ensure that both surfaces conform to each other.
The best way to bed brakes in is NOT by slamming them on, but rather by applying firm, even pressure to the brakes which will help ensure they bed in correctly.  Too light pressure and you could "glaze" the pad - i.e. turn it too hard and polished to effectively brake, too hard and you could damage the rotor or pad by scoring its surface or worse.
Comment: Does this also apply to rim brakes, or just disc brakes?
Answer: The how has been described already: repeated brakes to near stop from some speed to put heat into pads. Try to avoid holding the brake after you've come to a full stop to avoid uneven transfer of pad material.
I think the why hasn't been fully covered yet, aside from the fact bedding in transfers some pad material to the rotors/discs. But the reason this is important is that most of the stopping power comes from adhesion rather than friction. Brand new pads have only friction between hard pad and steel rotor. Friction alone - as you'll know if you've ridden on new pads - doesn't slow you very effectively.
Adhesive friction between the pads and rotor, particularly with sintered pads, is much more powerful. Imagine the pad sticking like glue to the pad material on the rotor. As the rotor passes through the pads it smears material from the pads, rather than grinding the rotor down.
Adhesive friction is also used in tyre technology, particularly for performance tyres. I have a picture from a recent track day where I was able to stick a screwdriver to the side of the tyre on my motorbike. The tyres were literally sticky to the touch when they hit their operating temperature.
The same thing happens to your brake pads when they hit operating temperature. So when bedding in you're just getting them hot enough to smear a coating on the rotor, ready for you to take advantage of adhesive friction the next time you get them to operating temperature.
Comment: I think I follow, is the key point that it allows the pad to wear down, giving full stopping power, rather than the pad wearing down the disc, with lower stopping power?
Comment: Seems reasonable. But would't that mean that what you should "Bed in" are new rotors instead? Suppose I replace my pads with the same exact type. The rotors are already coated, Should I break in the new pads?
Comment: Yes, wearing the pad more than the disc is a side effect. The main point though is that the adhesive friction is much more effective than the abrasive friction.
Comment: Yes, new rotors with bedded in pads will be far worse than coated rotors with new pads. New pads of the same type as the old still need to be brought up to temperature a few times to get them going. Almost like they have a hard glaze from the factory that needs to go. New pads of a different type have both that process, and the need to leave their own pad material on the rotors. This is because they adhere better to their own material, than another that may have a different makeup.
Answer: The reason for bedding them in is to get the proper performance and lifetime out of them that they were designed for.  The process should be specified by the manufacturer.  It will vary based on the pad's materials/design.
Answer: Yes, you will need to do a series of brake applications to ensure a nice even coat of pad material is layered on the brake rotor or disk.  What your essentially doing here is cooking your pad so that the rotor will have pad material transferred to it.  Also, your also making sure the pad is mature enough to be used for those big hills.  If you want to know what a rotor looks like when you do this wrong, then check this car website out:  http://www.cquence.net/blog/brake_pads_and_install_guidelines/


Send Python script data to Webserver using push button

Question: Hi I just bought raspberry pi since I found it very interesting.I want to know how from a circuitry (push button to print 1,2,3 or 4) can be displayed to the web server or somewhere in the computer to store.
For the video of circuitry and codes is getting form here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_NvDTZIaS4 but I edited a little bit to the code to print 1 or 2 respectively for each button if I have 2 for example.
Then I use putty to connect to the raspberry pi wirelessly then running the program in root so  putty black screen would show 1 or 0 if I press the respective push button.
Now I was wondering how to send these output datas to the web server or some where to store in the pc.

So in conclusion when I press the button that suppose to display a 4, it will display in the webserver for e.g. Then press another button to display 3 so it will display 4 3 in the webserver and so on and so forth.
I did see a tut from How do I send data from the Raspberry Pi to the PC about webpy but its manual and send like"hello woorld" which was typed and not from the output of python scripts. I'm not really good with codes it'll be a great help if the tut is specific,easy example/video.TY
Answer: One way to do it might be to use install LAMP on your Pi to use it as a webserver. Then, write a Python script to listen for button presses. When it detects a button press, it could edit /var/www/index.html (the default homepage),or any other file you want it to. To edit html, check this StackOverflow post.
To make this accessible over the Web, the best way is to plug in to your router with Ethernet, give it a static IP (as detailed here), and then set up port forwarding on your router to your Pi. Then, to access it, go to your network's public IP from any device not on the network. It should display index.html.
Good Luck!
Edit: Here's a link to the tutorial I used to set up LAMP; http://www.instructables.com/id/Turning-your-Raspberry-Pi-into-a-personal-web-serv/
Edit2:
Working on the python script, in the meantime run these in a terminal to install the Python GPIO control (I'm not sure if you already have this installed, but I'm just being on the safe side).
$sudo apt-get update
$sudo apt-get install python-dev
$sudo apt-get install python-rpi.gpio

Edit3:
from time import sleep
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
from sys import exit

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setup(22, GPIO.IN)
GPIO.setup(23, GPIO.IN)
GPIO.setup(24, GPIO.IN)
GPIO.setup(25, GPIO.IN)

while True:
   try:
      if (GPIO.input(22) == True):
         index = open('/var/www/index.html','a')
         index.write('
1')
         index.close()
      if (GPIO.input(23) == True):
         index = open('/var/www/index.html','a')
         index.write('
2')
         index.close()
      if (GPIO.input(24) == True):
         index = open('/var/www/index.html','a')
         index.write('
3')
         index.close()
      if (GPIO.input(25) == True):
         index = open('var/www/index.html','a')
         index.write('
4')
         index.close()
      sleep(.01)
   except KeyboardInterrupt:
      exit()

This assumes the 4 buttons are on pins 22, 23, 24, and 25 respectively, and that the file where you want this to show up is at /var/www/index.html.
In theory, every time one of the buttons is pressed, it will print the number of the button along with a
 tag to the document. There's lots of different things you can do with this basic code, like making it wipe the document when the script starts, or making it run at startup.
Disclaimer:
Part 1: I borrowed some code from here and here. I also used the pinout diagram here.
Part 2: I haven't done much Python coding in a while, so if you catch any errors in my code, please edit this answer or leave a comment!
Again, Good Luck!
Comment: Could you show me the steps on how to do this or maybe a tutorial
Comment: I can give you a tutorial right now on setting up LAMP; If I have time later I'll go into more detail on the necessary Python.
Answer: It sounds like you're 80% of the way there, you just need to link the bits together.
Instead of just outputting a "3" or a "4", you need to remember the previous button numbers.  One way would be to hold a string (and append to it), another would be to hold a list of integers and add integers to the list.
Then in your webpy script you wouldn't return the same fixed string each time, but you'd return either the string you've remembered, or a string made from your integer list.  Try doing this bit first, before you link it up to the GPIO pins, just return a string which is different each time.


Apple watch showing old notifications

Question: On my apple watch I receive a imessage, I twist my wrist to show the message but for it always shows me the old messages and then the new imessage? How can I stop this so it either just shows me the new message or the actual up to date thread?
Comment: What makes the thread "up to date"? Are you comparing on the iPhone or do you want a different time ordering on the watch itself?
Comment: @bmike - comparing to my iphone. I've definately had a lot of message on my iwatch that are newer that the old one that always appear when I look at the incoming message. When I open the message app on the watch the thread is up to date, So I'm unsure why when a message comes in and i flick my wrist to read it that it has a quite old message on there, then the actual new message
Comment: My assumption is you need to dismiss each message on the watch (or clear them all) and the glance isn't removing it from the queue. Hard to guess that from where I sit, though
Comment: @bmike yeah I can appreciate that. There is nothing in my notifications however and I don't have messages in my glances
Answer: This is a watchOS 2 Bug
The issue as described is basically that old, previously read/dismissed messages in a conversation continue to show up when new messages arrive (zombie messages) long after they were initially received and were marked as read.
The fix described here is to delete the offending conversation on Apple Watch. Once this has been done, notifications for conversations with that contact will begin to function normally.
Doing this will not delete the conversation from any other device so you don't have to worry about losing your conversation, so even though it seems destructive, this is a non-destructive fix in that sense.
Note: the next time a notification for that same contact is received by the watch, the deleted conversation will be restored and viewable from the watch. Prior to that the conversation will not be present within the watch's Messages app's conversations list.
Answer: Sometimes, you may not know that the configurations of your Apple Watch push notification system is different from your iPhone. The phone may receive the latest messages while the watch is lagging or doesn't receive any at all. Additional help can be found in the article "How to Fix Apple Watch not Showing Notifications" (Note: the original site is no longer working this link points to an archive site)

Apple watch showing old notifications


Are buddhists also called brothers and sisters?

Question: Usually when speaking about someone who is following the buddha teach is called a monk. But are monks or other buddhists sometimes also called brothers and sisters? Is it common or very rare? And what is the reason behind it?
Comment: In Tibetan Buddhism yes, also called Vajra Brothers.
Answer: No, when speaking about a monk, you should use respectful words like 'Venerable', 'Bhante', 'Reverend' etc. If you are speaking of a layman, it's ok to call 'brother' or 'sister' or any other decent way of addressing.
Comment: What about if a monk calls a lay Buddhist Dhamma brother and doesn't mind the lay Buddhist calling him, the monk, Dhamma brother in return?
Comment: You can call a fellow lay person as 'brother'. But it is inappropriate to call that to a monk even if he doesn't mind
Comment: Yeah, but what if he calls you a Dhamma brother? Could you answer that bit of the question as well? (Side note: hope you're alright!)
Comment: It's still inappropriate, but less offensive compared to the reverse. I'm alright(So far. They keep discovering new bombs every day)
Answer: I know you ask about contemporary Buddhists, but for what it's worth, Buddha often called young women "young sister/little sister" when he gave them Dhamma talk.  I think it's cultural and linguistic (just like what Chris said).
Examples: when Cincamanavika accused Buddha to be a father of a child in her womb.  Buddha said to her ""Little sister, only you and I know whether you are speaking the truth or not"    or when Buddha told Lady Patachara that he could help her with her griefs.  "Little sister, you have come to someone who can help you..."
Its a sign of familiarity and compassion.
Answer: I guess it's a cultural phenomenon i.e. it varies from one culture to another.
Other answers here (from a Theravada background) say it's "never" used; but you can see it being used on the Plum Village web site, for example,

This Spring a joyful delegation of Dutch-speaking monastics from Plum Village and the EIAB (including Brother Phap Ung, Brother Phap Xa, Sister Jina, Sister Lan Nghiem, Sister Sang Nghiem and Brother Pham Hanh) will be leading a series of mindfulness days and retreats in the Netherlands.

I don't know whether that example is a peculiar adaptation to the conventions of English and French language and culture, or, whether the "brother" and "sister" might also be used in Vietnamese (I think Plum Village is Vietnamese Zen in origin).

Depending on the culture, "familiar" terms of address might be widely used in non-religious social contexts too -- e.g. apparently it's common or conventional in India to address women as "auntie" and "sister" (see e.g. Auntie mean when Indians say it?).

And what is the reason behind it?
I went looking for the origin of the use of "brother" in the Christian tradition, and found this answer:

The word 'brother' in Hebrew does not mean 'the brother' in common understanding. It could also refer to cousins and other relatives. The similar understanding of "brother" and "sister" is in antient Greek and Aramaic.

So I guess the reason for calling people brother and sister in Christianity are:

Cultural and linguistic, social
Traditional
Originating in the words of the founders of the church (for example Matthew 12:49)

They (using "brother and sister" in Christianity and other religions, and not using "brother and sister" in Buddhism) might be two sides of the same coin? Christianity might encourage you to address non-relatives as if they were your family -- perhaps to encourage generosity and a universal (non-exclusive) love.
Conversely it seems to me that the origins of Buddhism encourage people to not treat your own family as special (my saying this is an exaggeration but perhaps you understand what I'm saying).
Buddhism also encourages universal relationships (e.g. "sympathy towards all living beings"), although that may be slightly more of a Mahayana concept than Theravada.
It may be that there isn't a "reason" i.e. the reason is simply an accident of history and language; but if I had to create a reason I might guess/suggest it's because Buddhism arrives at a universality by denying or de-emphasizing (keeping detached from) special relationships.

As a footnote, I just found on Wikipedia that, in Chinese, a Buddhist teacher might be addressed using a term that's used for "master" and "father" (i.e. using a word that might be translated as "father"):
Sifu - Common usage:

Likewise, since religious instruction involves a teacher-student relationship akin to apprenticeship, Buddhist monks and Taoist priests are also addressed as sifu or shifu.

I don't know but perhaps that implies that (in Chinese) you might address your fellow-students as brother and sister.

Male and female students who began training before you and are thus senior, are Shixing "teacher older brothers" and 師姑 shi gu "teacher's sisters". ... Students junior to you are your Shidi and Shimei.
Answer:
Usually when speaking about someone who is following the buddha teach is called a monk.

This is not true. There are lay followers and ordinated followers and the latter are the monks through both follow Buddhism.

But are monks or other buddhists sometimes also called brothers and sisters?

Brothers is a Christian concept which is not found in Buddhism.

Is it common or very rare?

This is non existent.

And what is the reason behind it?

This is like asking why an apple does not have a peelable skin. There are 2 different institutions which developed independent of each other. So there is no sharing of such concepts.


Accessing ADAM instance without original creator's account

Question: I have an ADAM instance that was created by a previous employee.  He has since been terminated and his AD account deleted.  I want to be able to access this ADAM instance he created but am not a user in/on it.  Is there a way to take over the schema/instance without knowing the original admin's account info so that I can have full access to it?
Answer: A bit late but yes this is possible if you have admin rights over the server itself where adam is running. so even if you haven't been granted admin rights over the instance you can make yourself an admin. I am still hesitant to give details as it can be used "maliciously". If you search using your favorite search engine you will find the details.


How can I recover a Mac HDD?

Question: Should I take it out and put it in a HDD enclosure. assuming its a 2.5" drive, should i buy a HDD enclosure and just slot it in?
Anyone know of a half decent FAQ that will help me with this task.
Finally any special gotchas when reconnecting this external drive to my iMac desktop machine? Do i have to use firewire or can I use USB 2?
Sorry for what seems like lots of questions but they are related.
Answer: No special firmware. No gotchas. USB 2 will work 'out of the box'. Just slot it in a 2.5 inch HDD enclosure (assuming it's a 2.5 HDD) and away you go.
The company that makes the external HDD enclosure you choose will provide instructions regarding how to put the HDD in the enclosure.
Answer: Not sure about the circumstances of the corrupted drive, but what I've always done is used Apple's Disk Utility to first determine the extent of the corruption.
If the machine is not bootable, then boot using the OS X install DVD.
If Disk Utility cannot correct the error, then you're probably in for purchasing a recovery utility. I have not found a free one.
Answer: iMac HDDs are generally 3.5". Any enclosure for that size either with USB or Firewire should be fine. Here is a link to couple of recovery software. This website has several useful guides on how to replace your HDD.

How can I recover a Mac HDD?


A Problem about Hypothesis Testing and Decision Making

Question: I have a problem about the hypothesis testing and decision making as follows:

A botanist wishes to test the null hypothesis that the average diameter of the flowers of a particular plant is 9.6cm. He decides to take a random sample of size $n$=80 and accept the null hypothesis if the mean of the sample falls between 9.3cm and 9.9cm; if the mean of this sample falls outside this interval, he will reject the null hypothesis. What decision will he make and will it be in error if
  (a) he gets a sample mean of 10.2cm and $\mu$=9.6cm;
  (b) he gets a sample mean of 10.2cm and $\mu$=9.8cm;
  (c) he gets a sample mean of 9.2cm and $\mu$=9.6cm;
  (d) he gets a sample mean of 9.2cm and $\mu$=9.8cm.

Does anyone have an idea how to deal with this problem? I just do not so understand what the problem asks for and how to approach it.
Many thanks!
Answer: This is essentially a vocabulary test. No calculation necessary!
(a) He will reject the null hypothesis, since $10.2$ is outside the range he has set. Since $\mu$ is in fact $9.6$, he will be mistaken.
(b) He will reject the null hypothesis, for the same reason as above. Since $\mu\ne 9.6$, he will be right.
You can do the others.


Are beaches found all along the coast? If not, what is required for them to be formed?

Question: Why are beaches not found all along the coast?
If not beaches,  what else can be found along the coast.
Answer: Not all coastlines have beaches. Some have cliffs, such the Great Australian Bight, which forms a significant part of the southern coast of Australia. The limestone cliff portion of the Bight is over 1000 km in length and between 60 and 120 metres in height.
Similarly, in the Otway region of the Australian state of Victoria forested hills form the coast in regions. As can be seen when travelling along the Great Ocean Road.
In Western Australia, the Zuytdorp Cliffs form 150 km of the coast. Like the Great Australian Bight, these cliffs are formed formed of ancient limestone. Some of the cliffs rise to 170 m in height.
Additionally, many of the fjords of Norway and Fiordland in New Zealand also have coastlines without beaches, where hills & ranges meet the sea.
Beaches are only formed when land gently slopes into the sea. They

typically occur in areas along the coast where wave or current action deposits and reworks sediments.

The sediments can be sand, pebbles, or biological materials such as shells and coralline algae.
In addition to forming on ocean coastlines, some beach for on lake shores.
Comment: I guess it depends on the definition of "beach". Even cliffs usually have a collection of sediment at the base/shoreline. The "beaches" in Puget Sound in Washington state, USA are all rounded stones. Doesn't look much like a beach other than that water meets the land.


OpenVZ - vzdev kernel module issue

Question: I am setting up a Centos 6.3 minimal server with openvz that replicates to another machine using DRBD.
I want all openvz data/files to be kept in a single /vz directory which is an LVM that I am syncing across with DRBD.
I managed to create symlinks so that /etc/vz points to /vz/etc and copied all the files there. I also moved /etc/sysconfig/vz-scripts to /vz/vz-scripts and put in a symbolic link there. I also made sure to update all the symbolic links withing the folders that I moved to ensure none were broken.
Unfortunately, if I reboot the server and then:

primary the drbd resource
mount /dev/drbd01 to /vz

whenever I try to create a virtual machine with vzcreate, I get the following error:
Unable to open /dev/vzctl:
No such file or directory Please check that vzdev kernel module is loaded and you have sufficient permissions to access the file.

The error does not occur if I don't rearrange all the files way from /etc/ to /vz in the first place. I am guessing that these files need to be available/mounted on boot. Is there a way to get the 'kernel module' working after having manually primaried and mounted the drbd resource?
Answer: Running this simple command before trying to install a container resolves the issue:
/etc/init.d/vz restart

OpenVZ - vzdev kernel module issue