Cooking over a fire

Question: Is there a way to make a wood fire that is good for cooking? Why is it better than others? Assume little to no wind. Would it make a difference if I cooking hot dogs on a stick or a steak?
Comment: I have never made one (hence no answer) but I like the concept of the [Swedish Fire Torch](https://www.google.com/search?q="Swedish+Fire+Torch"&tbm=isch)
Comment: I was told no fire is good for cooking - always use the embers for cooking. I do not follow this advice, but agree that food gets more tasty that way. Also +1, great question!
Answer: It depends on what you are cooking

Make sure you know your wood.  Some woods produce toxic fumes.  Others will produce a very unpleasant taste.  What woods to use is a topic of its own.

If you are just roasting on a stick, that's all you need to know.  Just get a flame and roast.  However if you have other things:

If you have space and a camp shovel, build a fire, and move coals to a cooking spot.  This way you can very precisely control heat.
If you have a pan, you'll need a shelf.  Two thick parallel pieces of wood work, as do flat rocks.  With wood, I use 3" diameter pieces that I have soaked in water.  If you use a flat rock, it needs to be dry, not river rock, and not the kind that will explode. See "How to avoid exploding rocks".
If you are baking in foil, it's best to dig a hole just by the fire and rake coals over it.
If you are baking in a pan, you have to have the shovel and coals method.  Baking in a pan over an open flame is just far too finicky due to the temperature variance.
Comment: Nice details regarding different methods of cooking.  I especially enjoyed the exploding rock note :).  Reminds me of the time when I was younger that we were having fun throwing small shale rocks into the fire and listening for the "pop".
Answer: I learned how to build a cooking fire in Boy Scouts.  Build the fire, and then let it burn down.  The bright dancing flames are more fun for recreation, but are not helpful for cooking.  When you have a bed of hot embers, that is a good cooking fire.  Little or no flame, just a good source of heat.  Embers are hotter than flame, too.
Comment: I find it very hard to cook like this, because often the embers have extinguished before I am done cooking...
Answer: A really simple, but effective fire is the 'Hunters Fire'.
Basically you make a 'V' shape with two logs with the point in the same direction as the prevailing wind.
The V shape allows you to support pots of varying diameter down the length of the fire.
Light the fire in the middle. Sit a pot at the point of the V (wind blows flames under and around pot). Scrape coals from fire to the open end of the V to cook over.
Answer: If you have a single smallish fireplace and you can't move coals from a bigger, main fire to a special cooking spot, you can run into the problem of the fire/embers/coals burning down and getting cold.
You can solve this by adding small pieces of wood - about 1" to 1.5" around - which will add heat without adding too much flame.
You need to keep a close watch on the heat as you add them, and only feed 1 or 2 at a time and let it stabilize.
The small size lets you control the added heat better - you don't want sudden flare-ups, and you don't want to block the heat while bigger chunks catch on. I try to use round, non-split pieces since they seem to burn slower and longer.
Comment: Good answer! and Welcome to The Great outdoors S.E.

Cooking over a fire


What should i do with scales on guitar?

Question: So I've been playing the guitar for around a month and i'm currently practicing some chord switches. I have a lot of free time so doing chord switches every time gets really boring so i learned how to do the A minor pentatonic scale. A lot of people said that its a good scale to start on scales. Now that i can play it at least decently, I have no idea what to do with it (or scales, in general)hence, the title.
Answer: Practicing your scales is a great habit to have. Now that you have the basics down, you can experiment with those chords in songs. In other words, try finding some songs with the chords that you have practiced and see how well you do switching between them.
Another thing that I have seen (and heard) musicians do is to experiment with chords, trying to play them with different techniques (like playing the chord as an arpeggio). For instance, instead of playing C-E-G as one solid chord, strum through the three tones with a pattern such as C-C-E-C-G (I don't know how that would sound, but it is just an example).
Hope that answers your question!
Answer: I think the other answers are good advice but possibly too advanced for someone who has only played for a month. So I would say start with what I have here and move on to some of the other advice when your comfortable with this stuff or if it seems too easy.
You could start learning to solo.
Thinking back to when I was in your position, I was surprised to learn how quickly you can start to practice soloing. Once you're comfortable with playing the scale ascending and descending, play around with it and skip some notes or repeat others. Boom, you just improvised a solo.
Play along
On the advice of my guitar teacher, I started trying to solo along to the music I was listening to anyway. I have noticed that most guitar players start soloing this way. I also learned that even musicians who don't play or write music that contain solos, found it beneficial to practice soloing from time to time.
Finding the key
It might seem tricky at first to figure out what key the song is in to play along with. My guitar teacher gave told me the key of a few songs I wanted try but figuring the key of a song is a skill which comes quick. If you know how to play the song, it's very often just the root note of the first chord or note. Simple songs tend to not change key, however, it is quite common for the chorus to change key. Also, this site might help: http://www.songkeyfinder.com/popular
or this one for less popular songs: http://musictheorysite.com/namethatkey
Major or Minor?
One of the most useful tips I got at this stage was how to solo in a major key when all you know is the minor pentatonic. You can do this by following the exact same pattern you know but start three half-steps (frets) down. Now the root note is the second note you play. For an example, to play along to a song in the key of A major, move down three frets where the first note you would play is F sharp.
Comment: A good and very easy explanation on your "learning to solo" idea: https://youtu.be/KorP9lq1voU
Answer: Scales are useful to know when playing melodic lines (i.e., solos). This is how a guitarist can be told, "this song is in [key X]" and instantly know which notes will sound good in the song.
Pentatonic scales are useful because, even though some notes are technically in the "key" of a song, a smaller set of those sound better than "in the key".
Answer: Well done. You've now cracked one of the essentials in a guitarists 'useful things to know'. If you can play Am pent., then you can move it up one fret and play Bbm pent, or down a couple and play Gm pent.Find all the places - the pattern's the same - and be able to go up and down the scale wherever.
But, that's not even half, being able to play in all the 12 keys. The notes, in a scale order, are somewhat like the letters of our alphabet. We all know that B follows A - in the dictionary - but not all the time in words.
Your next job is to mix up some of the notes. Take four or five of them, preferrably close to each other, and play them in a different order. Just keep the same notes, but time them differently as well.Most times, the 'tunelet' will sound good. You might even hear a familiar riff come out! That's because tunes are made up from a series of notes from a scale, usually. But, unlike letters in a word, they can be played in any order, not just going up or down, to produce a tune. Get used to doing this with more notes, and try it in different keys. The only difference will be where your hand is on the fingerboard.
Answer: "What Should I Do With Scales On A Guitar?"
There are many scales, Pentatonic scales, Major and Minor scales, Melodic minor scales, Diminished Scales, Whole Tone Scales.  With all these scales it's important to learn some off the basics so that the other scales begin to have more meaning.
Doing the Pentatonic is fine (there is a Major and a Minor Pentatonic), but I suggest you learn the Major scales in many positions on the guitar as an important first step.
There are many ways of learning Major scales on guitar, bur here's one I found helpful. Terre Roche, entertainer, guitarist, teacher, offers a set of Major scale chords on cue cards she calls Fretboard Vitamins.  They are a clear way of learning how to play Major scales in all keys.  If interested, you can find these Fretboard Vitamins on her website,
https://www.terreroche.com/
Answer: Congratulations on your progress!  There a number of ways you can proceeed from here, and I would recommend trying all of them to see what resonates with you going forward.
1. Learn the degrees of the scale you are playing for each note
So, a pentatonic scale sounds great because it is all the most harmonious notes of the A minor scale.  These are, in order, A, C, D, E, and G; or in other terms, Root, minor 3rd, perfect 4th, perfect 5th, minor 7th, and root.  By stopping on any note and working out it's name and relation to A, you begin to develop an ear for what each note sounds like.  Then, as you get used to the scale, you'll be able to 'hear' the note you want to play before you play it, and your fingers will know where to go.
2. Learn the next shape up/down the fretboard
The pentatonic scale has 5 shapes in all, then they repeat.  Learning the next shape will begin to give you access to the whole range of the fretboard, and it sounds really cool to play up one shape and down the next!
3. Learn the 'color' tones.
So I mentioned earlier that the a minor pentatonic is 5 of the 7 A natural minor notes, but it is a lot more than that.  It is also the template for the blues scale, the natural minor scale/aolean mode, the dorian mode, the phrygian mode and beyond!  While they may seem daunting, all three can all be viewed as simply the pentatonic scale with 2 extra notes thrown in!  And the blues scale has just one extra note!  Look up A blues/phrygian etc, you'll see what I mean.
Start with the blues scale.  The next time you practice, simply add the 6th fret of the A string(Eb), and the 8th fret of the G string(also Eb), and listen to the bluesy color that comes out.  You will find that doing the same for natural minor, dorian, and phrygian have a similar result, but blues is the usual place to start.
4. learn the A min7 arpeggio
So here's something cool: there's only a one note difference between the A minor pentatonic scale, and the Amin7 arpeggio.  If you remove the D, then the Notes you're  left with are A, C, E, G, or in interval terms, Root, minor 3rd, 5th, minor 7th, and there you have an Amin7 arpeggio! Great little arpeggio, sounds really cool, and learning the notes & intervals involved begins to show you how chords and scales are connected, and how they both connect to your ear.
Summary
Play around with these ideas.  Mix and match them. See if you can work out the blues scale in another position, or play a min7 arpeggio with the blue note thrown in.  For a nice warm-up exercise, Make a 2 string melody and move it up/down through the different shapes.  (make sure to practice with a metronome too, if you aren't already)
Enjoy!
Alex

What should i do with scales on guitar?


Is there a website where I can check reports on issues in a daycare in South Carolina?

Question: Recently my daycare in South Carolina sent me a report regarding unattended child incident happened in another room. I am wondering is there a single resource that makes all of those reports accessible to the public? Thanks!
Comment: As Vicky points out, this question does not specify what country our childcare system the OP is looking for, and I don't believe this question is answerable without that information.  @olenak, please edit the question to provide more details, and reply in comments or flag for moderator attention once you've done so.
Comment: thank you for providing additional information.  I've expanded your question slightly, so that the answers don't have to be exclusively websites.
Answer: I think this is the site you want: http://www.scchildcare.org/
You can input a city or zipcode, and it will list all of the child care providers in the area. You can click on any one to see the complaints and whether they have been resolved. Some of them are a bit cryptic to understand. From my perusal of various SC child care sites, it would appear that facilities are only inspected if people complain.
According to Child Care Aware (NACCRRA), "Child care center licensing and oversight in South Carolina ranked 50th in a ranking of all states, including the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense."
This page from NACCRRA has some additional links to information on child care licensing in South Carolina.
Answer: You haven't said where you are located, which makes a difference - there's certainly no global daycare incidence report site but different countries / regions may run their own.
In the UK, any incidents resulting in a child being taken to A&E (ER) have to be reported to Ofsted, the education watchdog. However they do not collate or centrally record these and they are not generally made available. The nursery's Ofsted inspection report, a general report on standards at the nursery, would be the closest thing you would get.


How do you restore contacts that have a deleted custom contact type?

Question: I am getting an error Invalid Filter error when trying to open a contact that was configured with a contact type that has since been deleted. The contacts are returned in the search but I am unable to open. Is there a way to restore the contacts without having to manually re-enter each contact or restoring a backup of the database?
Answer: You could change clean out all the contact_sub_types of the relevant contacts directly in the DB with an SQL Query. That would be something like:
SELECT * FROM civicrm_contact WHERE contact_sub_type IS NOT NULL AND contact_sub_type NOT IN (SELECT name FROM civicrm_contact_type)

Answer: To add to Erik answer: the contact_sub_type field contains an aggregation of all its sub types, with a "hidden" separators ^A, if you want to modify the subtype directly,
update civicrm_contact set contact_sub_type=concat(char(01),"EXAMPLE",char(01)) where ...


Environmental Variable for current domain

Question: I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Desktop edition
I want to use environmental variable for currently joined domain just like I use $USER to bring current user.
From what I read there are few variables for that, but none seems to work for me.
I also cannot see those variables as active when I type env command.
I would appreciate a solution on how to enable that variable or how to make my own variable by pulling current domain name from the system somehow.
Answer: maybe this ?
DOMAIN=$( hostname )


Why did Hegel start the Phenomenology of the Spirit the way he did?

Question: Why did he feel that it was appropriate to start philosophy by examining the immediate sensual certainty?
Comment: cos he wanted to prove the truth (get to the other side?
Answer: The Phenomenology of Spirit is at least according to Hegel a preparatory work that is not a part of Encyclopedic system of philosophy (which he explains in detail in two different versions). The system is supposed to explain everything in all of its details and with a certain type of necessity (Hegel is coincidentally an originator of the idea of historical progress towards a necessary future).
I'm not sure how much justice I can do to "appropriate", but Hegel follows a basic methodological pattern just about everywhere (you can find one version of how to describe it in Taylor, Hegel, 1975, you can find others in Lauer's Hegel's Idea of Philosophy (1983)).
The basic pattern runs something like this:

Take an idea or approach
Present it with a problem case or resolve a built-in tension in the idea or approach.
Amend or replace the idea based on two.

Hegel calls this Aufhebung which is a verbal noun from aufheben, which has as its English cognates Upheaval and upheave, but since in nearly all cases that turns the sentence into gibberish in English, it is translated as "sublation", a word which was coined for this purpose.
In general, but not always, step 1 at the beginning of any topic is supposed to be ordinary experience in its most immediate form. This then will need to be mediated to reveal its truth.
Okay all of that is background really.
The Phenomenology of Spirit is meant to be a study that looks at the nature of Spirit; it is simultaneously a study of the theory of knowledge. This makes better sense if you understand what Hegel means by Spirit, but it's hard to explain that without knowing the end game of the book to begin with. (In the briefest possible definition, Spirit = thought thinking itself but no longer Aristotle's quarantined God but instead an entire universe that thinks about itself -- with the thinking part being rational beings in it).
Roughly speaking the book progresses through the following stages:

What does it mean to know something? (consciousness)
What does it mean that I know something? (self-consciousness)
What is this faculty that is asking these questions? (reason)
What has this sort of reason? (Spirit)
What is the truth? (Religion)
What is the truth in all of its fullness? (Absolute Knowing)

Given that this is the basic road map, sense certainty is the antithesis of this, because (in the formulation Hegel gives it the first time it comes up) it lacks any sense of itself as conscious and is barely even a claim to knowledge.
At its most primitive, it's the idea that knowledge is just out there waiting to be perceived. It then has to differentiate itself into ideas about the permanence of the world and the existence and truth of things that we don't see.  All of this propaedeutic to any thought of a knower or any more elaborate system of knowledge.
Thus, Hegel uses this as the start of his project about Spirit.

I am not quite sure if that addresses "appropriate" but that's at least how starting the book in this way fits into the project of the book.
Comment: Thank you for your answer, you da man. As for the appropriate part, perhaps it should be said that it kinda follows from Fichte and the relation with Kant? The condition for the truthfulness of all statements is the existence of a subject for which they are true.  So we can't put the absolute in brackets and talk purely about the possibility of knowledge, because by presuming the possibility of knowledge we already affirm something of the absolute, that a consciousness exists in it, so he doesn't agree with how Kant handled this. Perhaps he began like this because there would be...
Comment: no way to mend the dualism between the mind and the world if he didn't start by affirming their immediate connection? Thanks again.
Comment: (1) I really don't even know how one would address "appropriate" but maybe that's because I'm taking it to mean something like "it's appropriate to wear clothing to work" which I can't really relate to the ideas of philosophers. (2) what you say in the rest of your first comment is an interesting sort of argument, but I don't know how to relate "put the absolute in brackets" which sounds like Husserl to what Hegel is doing here.
Comment: Hegel accepts there's an apparent opposition but no dualism between mind and world. They are symmetric and mutually implicative for him (thus he's no Kantian on that point -- but a giant caveat is need wrt to the use of the word "world").
Comment: He is of course a Kantian in believing that we know the world through categories of mind.


Municipality 2017 shapefile Europe

Question: Where can i find the  municipality 2017 shapefile of Luxembourg or does someone know a site where I can download shapefiles of updated municipalities in Europe?
Comment: I think this question would be more on-topic at the [opendata.se] Stack Exchange.
Answer: A simple google of "municipality 2017 shapefile of Luxembourg" gives me this link which provides this shapefile.
In general the http://www.europeandataportal.eu is a good place to look for European data.
Answer: If you want an official source for European administrative GIS data, check Eurostat's website. Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union. They gather (GIS) data from member states.
You will find among other the NUTS zones (administrative units), communes and commune centroids for different scales. The last reference year is 2013, but the data shouldn't change every year (I'm not aware of any recent change for Luxembourg at least).
Answer: A way is to perform an overpass-turbo query on OpenStreetMap data, like this one for Luxembourg: http://overpass-turbo.eu/s/n7b and then download the data as geojson or gpx. You can then easily convert to a shp in a GIS. The key-value pair to look for is:
<code>"admin_level" = "8"</code>. You can query others subdivisions by changing this number, see possible values on this page https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:boundary%3Dadministrative#admin_level
For Luxembourg only, you may also have a look at geoportail.lu, but unfortunately, their server is down since yesterday! see https://twitter.com/geoportal_lux
J.
Answer: I'm not sure what you mean by "municipalities" but as far as I know the reference website for downloading administrative shapefile is gadm.org
Answer: Do visit ESRI online services( ArcGIS Online) Type Luxembourg Municipality data, you will find administrative shapefiles. But do check whether data is updated or not. I downloaded all Luxembourg data of 2015 from ArcGIS online. following are snapshot of files

Answer: You can download the shapefiles at DIVA-GIS
DIVA-GIS is a free computer program for mapping and geographic data analysis (a geographic information system (GIS). With DIVA-GIS you can make maps of the world, or of a very small area, using, for example, state boundaries, rivers, a satellite image, and the locations of sites where an animal species was observed.
DIVA-GIS also provides free spatial data for the whole world that you can use in DIVA-GIS or other programs.

Municipality 2017 shapefile Europe


What are the differences of Joomla modules vs components vs plugins?

Question: A very basic question probably...
But what are the differences in Joomla terms between:

module
components
plugins

If I am a developer for Joomla what and why should I name it a module, component, plugin?
Comment: https://docs.joomla.org/Extension_types_(general_definitions)
Answer: The component is used to create content for a page. The linking within Joomla is between components and only links to component views can be added to the menu.
Modules are used to place additional content on pages of a web site, along the main content created by the component. Ususally this is done by side, top or bottom bars, while the main content is in the center.
Plugins are used to interfere with the calling stack of the Joomla framework at different points, not necessarily producing any output at all. A plugin is called on specific events, happening within the processing of a request.
An example would be if you have a component storing user specific data. If you want this data to be deleted once the user gets deleted through the user admin in the backend, you write a plugin responding to user deletions. See https://docs.joomla.org/Plugin/Events for a list of events present in the standard Joomla implementation.
Answer: I knew a joomla doc page on it, but i can't find it now. Here is what i remember from that page.
Assume joomla as an OS like windows.
Module is the most limited one functionally cause you have to assign it to somewhere on the Components view, so it's like widgets of the OS.
Plugin is like the background services of this OS, which are running on every request, they can change views but better not and mostly just uses enquemessage system to show stuff to the user.
Components are like Apps and they could handle many routes and generate content part for the pages.
You can use plugin for all the needs but its against generalization and maintainability meaning you can't easily see what's come from where anymore and easily get confused in middle of the project.
Comment: Is this the page you wanted: https://docs.joomla.org/Extension_types_(general_definitions)
Comment: @FFrewin Exactly


Destiny taken king legendary edition- digital download

Question: I have a PS3, and am thinking about getting the legendary edition. However, I am changing to ps4 soon, so I was wondering if I got it for my PS3, when I got ps4, would it be there to download?
Comment: I think the answer is no, but I cannot confirm: https://www.destinythegame.com/digital-upgrade  It seems you only could do so with the Y1 content/expansions.  This page was updated for the TTK, but does not mention a free download on the next gen.
Comment: Thnelegendary edition is digital, off the playstation store
Comment: If you are getting a PS4 soon, you are better of waiting to purchase TTK until you get your PS4
Comment: The Legendary Edition is on the Sony store for PS4, and it includes the base game and the Y1 expansions; The Dark Below & House of Wolves: https://store.playstation.com/#!/en-gb/games/destiny-the-taken-king-legendary-edition/cid=EP0002-CUSA00568_00-DESTINYTAKENLEGE You would have to buy the game again to play on PS4.
Answer: No, each system has a separate game and both would need separate downloads. (Two separate purchases.)  If you bought it on PS3, the option to download would show up on PS3 and the option to buy would show up on PS4.


LightDM isn't displaying backdrop

Question: I installed the ATI catalyst driver a couple days ago and since then I haven't been able to see anything other than a boring purple screen when I try to log in. The boot splash has also been affected.
What should I do to get things back to normal?
Answer: I have had seemingly similar issues with Nvidia. Overscan, screen resolution issue, pushes menus beyond screen border.
Did you try loading the terminal app using keyboard shortcut once os loads?   Try :~$   Ctr-Alt-T
If you see terminal screen show up then attempt running catalyst control centre by typing in terminal :~$  sudo amdcccle
One issue i currently have myself is that once resolution manually changed ( Nvidia chipset), after restart, xorg doesn't appear to be reading from the xorg.conf file. A manual change is required each time.

LightDM isn't displaying backdrop


Choose Production, Is there anyway to bypass it

Question: Is there anyway to bypass the "Choose Production" button. Basically in my cities there are no more buildings or wonders left to build and I don't want to keep building units as it eats at my money. The only solution I have is to build a unit then delete it on completion then repeat however this seems a rather round-about way of doing it. I would of thought choosing a production would be optional that or maybe I have missed something?
Comment: Don't you have science production or something?  There's almost always an infinite production option that converts your hammers into science, or gold, or whatever.
Comment: @fbueckert I know what you are referring to I was just hoping there was a bypass until I reached those techs, I guess not.
Answer: While you do have to produce something, there are a couple of techs that give you alternative options to using your production on units, wonders, or buildings:
The technology Currency unlocks "Wealth" which converts a percentage of your city's production directly to gold.  Similarly, Education allows you to produce research.  These two options are typically below the wonders group in your production menu.
You can also change the focus of your city away from production (to food, commerce, etc) which will slow down your production, while providing alternative benefits to your civilization.  Changing the improvements on your tiles can also shift the focus of a city from production to some other use - for instance, chopping down forests or demolishing a mine will reduce the production in a tile.
Comment: @RyanWalkowski, I'm very surprised that you'd have no need for production that early in the game - building your military, workers, or settlers is probably a good strategy that early.
Comment: Wow!  Perhaps it is time for a harder difficulty setting then? :)
Comment: I am working towards the science and wealth production generators, But not there yet. Was just hoping there was a bypass until that point guess not.
Comment: I have already taken out all the barbarians, city states and one other player around me that might give me problems. And I have about 8 workers currently. I'm just burning funds atm
Answer: At the later point of the game the only thing to do is endlessly produce units because producing something for every city is mandatory, which really sucks. Because I have a maritime empire of about 20 cities, and endlessly clicking "Choose Production "and "Delete Unit" gets awfully tiring. A good alternative at this point is to make every city change science into wealth (IF you have all the technologies). I hope this helps, because it sure helped me.


What should I do to get an image equal exactly to my design

Question: I'm a newbie in graphic design. when I do my design in illustrator I create a big artboard usually 800X500px, but I don't use all the size. So what should I do to get an image of exactly of my design. For example I create an artboard size 800X550px after I do my design the size is only 300X300px, so I need to have a png file size 300X300px.
Answer: Object > Artboards > Fit to Artwork Bounds
This will resize the artboard to match the size of the art.
Be aware, this command does not "see" effects items which may alter the boundaries of artwork. For example, a fill which has an effect applied to it that makes it move outside its containing path or a stroke aligned to the outside of a path, or a drop shadow. If you have those elements in the artwork you will need to manually resize the artboard. However, using the menu command to first get close, then manually moving necessary artboard edges can be helpful.
Comment: Alternatively, pasting it into Photoshop does give you the correct bounding box.
Comment: You can also save as copy and keep artboard option unselected.
Answer: Use the Artboard Tool.
When you have it enabled, you can hit enter to input exact dimensions. Alternatively, when you have it enabled, you can double click a shape or part of a group to size the artboard to that shape/group.


What is rosebud?

Question: In the movie Citizen Kane, what is the significance of rosebud? Or is its insignificance a significance? Or has the director achieved what might sound similar to John Travolta's misdirection in the movie Swordfish?
Answer: From Mr. Welles himself:

The most basic of all ideas was that of a search for the true significance of the man's apparently meaningless dying words. Kane was raised without a family. He was snatched from his mother's arms in early childhood. His parents were a bank. From the point of view of the psychologist, my character had never made what is known as "transference" from his mother. Hence his failure with his wives. In making this clear during the course of the picture, it was my attempt to lead the thoughts of my audience closer and closer to the solution of the enigma of his dying words. These were "Rosebud." The device of the picture calls for a newspaperman (who didn't know Kane) to interview people who knew him very well. None had ever heard of "Rosebud." Actually, as it turns out, "Rosebud" is the trade name of a cheap little sled on which Kane was playing on the day he was taken away from his home and his mother. In his subconscious it represented the simplicity, the comfort, above all the lack of responsibility in his home, and also it stood for his mother's love which Kane never lost.

source (the rest of the article is an interesting read in itself)
Comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_gun Citizen Kane introduced "Rosebud" early in the film both as a minor prop and as the major plot focus only to reveal what "Rosebud" really meant in the last scene.
Comment: +1 For answering a tripple question with this single post: _What is rose bud?_, _Does it have significance?_ and _Why?_
Comment: @NGLN, now if he could only explain how the reporter knew to research Kane's dying words when Kane died alone, *that* would be worth more than a +1
Answer:
Rosebud was a sled.

I will never forget watching this movie (an epic in every sense of the word) in a high school film class way back when in the 1980s. Our teacher explained, in a sentence, that Rosebud stood for the innocence that Kane had taken from him. He wasn't able to enjoy a childhood like most children do, and Rosebud represented his lost youth.
Answer: He mentioned rosebud three times... The only three times he didn't get what he wanted. After being torn from his mother, he had the original rosebud moment. He swore he would be in control of his actions from then on, and was always in control of what happened from then on, even in the world. Thus the newspaper. Even when blackmailed by the boss, he made his own choice, and when he finished Leland's article, it was his own free will. Then, when Susan left him it was, as Susan mentioned, the first thing she had done that he hadn't planned. He went into a frenzy and uttered rosebud, because he had failed to follow his promise to be in control. Finally, when death took him, he wasn't ready to die, and uttered rosebud again. Like his palace Xanadu, his life was always being built (promises, declaration of principles), but never finished. And then it ended. His story is of a man who always needed to be in control.
Answer: Rosebud looks like heart after every material gain in life he learnt happiness and love is only essesence of human existence not money remember what girl said? You want me to love you don't you? With or without money man have been pursuit of only happiness and being loved
Comment: Hello and welcome to the Stack Exchange. Quick note: this was already answered over two years ago with a quote from the man who directed, co-wrote, produced and starred. Orson Welles explained everything. I suggest checking out the [Tour](http://scifi.stackexchange.com/tour) to get a better idea of how to ask and answer questions. We're not a typical discussion forum. *Don't be discouraged, we were all new here at some point.*

What is rosebud?


Which format for radio station to choose in Shoutcast?

Question: In Shoutcast there is option to choose will radio station run mp3 or aac, and i am not sure which one is better option. Please recommend.
What i read is that aac can provide same quality on lower kbps, but then wonder why is there an option to use mp3 at all ?
Answer: AAC-HE when having low bitrate considerations.
MP3 if concerned about compatibility with all devices available.
112kbps mp3 could be a good compromise if you need both.

More elaborate version:
- AAC-HE requires your listener to have a special decoder installed and more computational power available, but uses a neat technology to "emulate" high frequency content without really encoding it faithfully — thus saving a lot of bitrate. For an average person the difference on 64kbps stereo is usually miniscule, you can even go as low as 40kbps if you really need to: for example, if your target audience use cellphones with pretty bad 3G streaming capabilities. One of my friends works on an Arctic station; that's an extreme, but actual example of need for savoring any bit we can.
AAC-LC is not the same as AAC-HE and generally is more compatible; it misses all the special encoding technologies, though. Thus, it requires around 128kbps stereo to sound good; that is a consensus, at least.
MP3 is ubiquitous. That's its biggest advantage, really. You can be sure that even a noname something manufactured 10-15 years ago would be able to open your MP3 stream. However, I would never recommend going lower than 112kbps for a stereo signal if quality is of any concern. MP3 is considered obsolete in many ways, and AAC is in every youtube video; however, (1) it doesn't mean that "MP3 quality" would impact your audience — in fact, close to noone would be able to tell any difference with 112kbps AAC-LC at all; (2) if a device plays Youtube it doesn't mean that it would be okay with your AAC stream, unfortunately.
I don't want anyone to be left behind, so I usually go with MP3.
Answer: This is really down to personal preference.
AAC can be better for spoken word and less complex audio where bandwidth is tight, but mp3 can give better reproduction of complex music, such as classical or heavy metal.
Answer: AAC is a newer enconding format, and uses lower bit rates as compared to MP3.
I've practically observed that mp3 sounds better for lower bit rates up to 64kbs while in the 96-192k AAC is way better. To my ears there is no difference at 256-320k bandwith.


Are green roofs more sustainable than roofs with photo voltaic?

Question: Both types of roofs have advantages. Green roofs do not produce energy (in some cases just fruits) but they do not consume that much energy for production of panels, installation and control and do not need treatment after use. So what are the either advantages and disadvantages compared with each other?
Comment: For other instance, put two solar panels on a pole, above a tree, in a parking lot. A 6" diameter brushed-finish 304L round tube with a 0.120" wall thickness is set 4' directly in a concrete footing with 16' above the ground. At a lateral load of 200 lbs there is a 1.64" deflection of the round tube. The 304L round tube, in regular finish, is found at $2640 price. The 304L will never rust, corrode, or need painting.
Answer: The two are not mutually exclusive, and in fact installing PV panels over a green roof improves PV performance anywhere from 1 to 10% due to the cooling effect of the green roof.
From the presentation "Interaction between PV-systems and extensive green roofs" given at the Fifth Annual Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference, Awards and Trade Show in 2007 (emphasis added):

The energy output of PV-panels depends on several factors. In this survey of over approximately 5 years of data, the effect of the green roof has been estimated at an average 6% increase in yields. But the green roof is only one factor in enhancing the efficiency of PV-panels.  The total range of increased energy output varies between 1 and 10%. PV over green roofs can be mounted on fixed frames. The costs are lower in comparison to the tracking systems, which follow the sun. Under the PV panels, a variety of extensive green roof vegetation can be grown. In the case of UFA it was originally a Sedum roof but this was subsequently changed to include a wide variety of plantings. Minimum garden roof maintenance is required to reduce taller growing plants. The PV – cells must be without shade. The estimated benefit of a higher Power output from a green roof can help to offset the cost of green roof installations.

This effect is attributable to the fact that solar panels are more efficient when kept cooler, which a green roof facilitates through evaporative cooling.
Several other research studies verify this finding:

"Quantification of the passive cooling of photovoltaics using a green roof" uses TRNSYS building energy modeling software to estimate a small (<1%) improvement in power output for a city in the Northeast US, but notes that the dual use of space increases the PV system's value regardless.
"Green roof integrated PV canopies -- an empirical study and teaching tool for low income students in the South Bronx" uses a number of student-planned and -built test setups to measure a 2.4% increase in PV system output, and a 4.6% reduction in interior temperature over an eight-month period (covering summer, fall, and the beginning of winter).
"Photovoltaic-green roofs: An experimental evaluation of system performance" measured increased PV output of 1.3 to 3.3% over a five-day period in the summer in Spain.
"Integration of green roof and solar photovoltaic systems" used EnergyPlus modeling software on a hypothetical building in Hong Kong to predict a slight decrease in cooling needs, and an 8.3% increase in PV system output.
Answer: I would put these two things in separate categories of sustainable technology.
Green roofs are sustainable in the sense that the provide extra insulation and the building the cover will require less energy. They also require a great deal of maintenance and energy so the benefits are mostly superficial while the dis advantages in terms of cost and effort to maintain is high.
Photovoltaics, roof top solar panels, are going to have a much bigger impact of sustainability in the big picture.
I think green roofs are gorgeous and must be fun for architects to design but solar panels are what you want if you care about sustainability.
Comment: Welcome to sustainability.SE! Thanks for your thoughts and answer. Can you provide some numbers to support your conclusions? Is it possible that the energy savings from the insulation value of a green roof could be greater than what a PV system would produce? What energy input does a green roof require?
Comment: Don't green roofs also help a lot to prevent floods?
Comment: I am not an environmental scientist, I am a computer scientist. I have collaborated with sustainable technology researchers at csus.edu/storc when I was a student. My conclusions therefore are better classified as opinions based on cost and effort to build the systems in questions. a PV system produces energy that can be used to offset other less sustainable methods of energy production which is a huge boost to its sustainability score. Green roofs, for the same square footage, are going to merely offset _some_ of the insulation value while likely being *more* of a cost and effort to maintain.


ZEVO ZFS and Aperture

Question: I'ld like to use ZEVO (ZFS) on my Storage-Device. There shall the Aperture-Library be stored.
Are there any issues using an Aperture - Library on ZFS formatted device.
Thanks allot
Answer: You can't run an Aperture Library from a device that's not formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3509
What can work is running a Referenced Library with the Library on an appropriately formatted disk and the Masters stored elsewhere.
Another workaround: Make a Disk Image formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and store that on your device.

ZEVO ZFS and Aperture


What are the advantage of sicilian defense for black?

Question: I have seen many players with black prefers Sicilian defense, what are the advantage of the opening?
Answer: The sicilian defence is not just one opening, it is a whole family of variations, that are quite different from each other. So this breadth of possible choices surely contributes to the popularity of the sicilian.
The sicilian variations are also usually quite sharp. This makes it easier for black to create winning chances. In the open sicilian (which is usually the main line) black gets the longterm advantage of two centre pawns against one centre pawn and the open c-line. The other defences against e4 don't have quite such a big disbalance.
Answer: There are several advantages of playing sicilian defense with black:

Here, you get to exchange a side c-pawn for a centralised d-pawn of white and get to have an extra pawn in the center which may prove to be important in the middlegame and perhaps very useful in the endgame for getting a passed pawn.
Against e4, this is the only defense where black can try to claim the center from the word "go". White may have a centralised Knight at d4 but black has suitable compensation with moves like d5 or Ne5 or a fianchetto at g7 eyeing the a1-g8 diagonal.
Black has a lot of options going into the middlegame. He can choose to keep it safe and play for a draw by piece exchanges followed by a normal endgame or he can choose to attack with the Dragon Variation or go for the Andersen's Pin Variation.
Another major plus point of this opening is that it provides an advantageous endgame for black even when both have equal pieces and pawns after a barren middlegame.

So white has to keep on his toes all through the game to avoid any losses.
I think this is black's best defense against e4 at least for beginners and players for average level.One can opt for Pirc defense, Phillidor and Caro-Kann but a lot of practice is required for successful employment. However Sicilian can be easily mastered.
And I quote:
 In 1965, in the tenth edition of his book, grandmaster Larry Evans observed that, "The Sicilian is Black's most dynamic, asymmetrical reply to 1.P-K4. It produces the psychological and tension factors which denote the best in modern play and gives notice of a fierce fight on the very first move.
and perhaps this link will also help :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Defence


How to mount remote file system

Question: I want to mount my Windows NTFS share C:\ to Linux ext4 file system, so I can see the file system tree as part of my Linux file system and transfer my files.
PS. I am using rhel6.
Comment: The question / wish description does not make sense. A file system can be mounted to a mount point only but not to another file system (even if it accesses another one).
Answer: As @Hauke Laging says, it will not become ext4, but you could mount it to /mnt/winshare or some other place, using Samba. A tutorial for RHE is here. Both ways (linux to windows, and vice versa) are described.
BTW: this seems to be a similar question.
Answer: I believe there is another alternative.  Microsoft has a package that enables NFS on a Windows box, thus you could setup NFS on the Windows box and then mount via NFS on the UNIX box.  This probably involves some investigation and work on your part.
Of course, there are permissions errors.
If all you want is to transfer files, you might want to consider a simple choice ... that of using a USB memory stick.  Plug in to windows, transfer files, unplug gracefully in windows, plugin to Linux, transfer files.  Might be a lot easier.

How to mount remote file system


Software to use for creating posters for academic conferences?

Question: And how much time does it usually take? I'd like to create a poster without having to put too much time into formatting.
Comment: Yes, PowerPoint is good enough. All you need is extra creativity. Then you can save it as picture format or save it in Pdf.
Comment: Not an answer, but a tip: use Powerpoint's Rulers and Guides features to keep things neat, it allows a much tidier end result for very little effort.
Comment: And if I have to create a poster for a conference that is not academic I should use another software?!
Answer: I would recommend Inkscape:

vector graphics
powerful
free
intuitive
cross platform
Comment: +1 I use Inkscape, and there are plugins for LaTeX so you can add vectorized math or content directly from your LaTeX-based publications. Also it's free....
Comment: @JeffE => Inkscape always works, does not require a drivers license, and does not pollute the environment :-)
Comment: @Suresh: Inkscape is an open-source Illustrator like a Schwinn is a manual Harley-Davidson.
Comment: @Suresh It is not an Open Source version of Illustrator   but it has similar capabilities.
Comment: @DanielE.Shub To me free and cross platform matters. I can use Inkscape on MacOSX at work, and on Ubuntu at home - and I do not have to pay for it.
Comment: Ah. Now I realize that an outlaw leather chic is what was missing from my life thus far :)
Comment: @torbenl I think that information would improve the answer significantly since being able to edit the poster where ever you work is critical.
Comment: @tobeni: Exactly.  Inkscape's great for simple stuff, and you get more exercise using it, but it's not the right tool for anything really serious, and once you use Illustrator, it's hard to go back.  Also, it's kind of clunky, and Illustrator has this whole outlaw leather chic going for it.
Comment: While I'll agree this is a reasonable _fallback_ it doesn't offer anything that's specific to academic poster layout; and there's no "hand-holding" as in design themes or mechanism for enforcing design consistency etc.
Comment: I wonder if this would be better as a comment to the Illustrator answer. While there are differences between the two, the work flow for making a poster is almost identical.
Comment: @DanielE.Shub If Inkscape was an Open Source version of Illustrator, you could have a point - but it is not.
Comment: @torbenl According to http://inkscape.org/ Inkscape is a: vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X. Of your bullet points, the two that differentiate Inkscape and Illustrator are free and cross platform, but I don't see how this matters for making a poster. This is nothing against Inkscape. Had you posted first, I would have made the comment on the Illustrator answer.
Comment: @torbenl: Isn't Inkscape essentially open source Illustrator ? just like gimp and photoshop.
Comment: Is there an open source variant of illustrator ?
Comment: I've been trying inkscape for a presentation poster and honestly I can't recommend it for this purpose at all. Its text handling is abysmal, and this is obviously necessary for any poster.
Answer: I haven't written a poster yet, but if you're a Latex savvy, there are plenty of packages that allow you to design posters.
See related questions:

"How to create posters using LaTeX"
"What can you tell me about poster design and typography in LaTeX?"
"Conference Announcement Poster"
Comment: @DaveClarke I think you have it wrong, it is not a problem, but in fact an advantage, that LaTeX posters look like LaTeX posters.
Comment: The problem with LaTeX posters is that they look like LaTeX posters.
Comment: @DaveClarke: Yes, and the problem with PowerPoint posters is that they look like PowerPoint posters.
Comment: @DanielE.Shub: In any case, that LaTeX posters look like LaTeX posters is certainly a defining characteristic of LaTeX posters.
Comment: I collected considerable experience creating math- and graphics-heavy TeX/LaTeX posters and I do not recommend it (hence my downvote). Too much work for little effect. Inkscape with LaTeX rendering plugins turns out to be much faster due to the immediate visual feedback during editing, while retaining  all the benefits of LaTeX rendering.
Comment: @walkmanyi For posters, I really think LaTeX is too text-centric. TikZ lets me produce something that looks like powerpoint, but is arrived at with much less effort, and is much more immune to last-minute changes.
Answer: Powerpoint. There are hundreds of PowerPoint poster templates available online, many of them are good, and it is one of the standard formats people accept — and can be exported to PDF for easy post-conference distribution.
Comment: Coming from a LaTeX world, I just had to do my first Ppt poster. It's been a pain in the a__. But not because of the math. Alignment and margin control has to be set all manual, with guessed accuracy. Hence I second the *dirty* in @EpiGrad's comment.
Comment: Ppt is the best for quick and dirty poster design. I'd caution against latex unless you really need the math.
Comment: @BenNorris This "ability" is, to a human, about as useful as writing the .pptx file by hand (it's XML after all). I care that I can express my *wishes* to the machine, and the machine carry them out *for me*. TeX and similar systems are mostly *declarative* - we declare what we want, and the system actually does the job of figuring out what it *means* in terms of object positioning. I find that TikZ, when used properly, is much more declarative in spirit and after some learning leads to higher productivity. Even writing object positions in XML seems faster than clicking on dialogs in PPT.
Comment: @Sebastion - PowerPoint has the ability to control the size and position of any object to the hundredth of an inch. Right click the object and then choose size and position. PowerPoint 2007 and 2010 have an autoalign feature (it works better in 2010) that automatically aligns the object you are dragging around to the edges or center of other nearby objects.
Comment: Posters are not the goal of PP. It is not free, not open, not for printing.
Comment: I made all my posters in ppt. If you use fancy transparent backgrounds (like I did) you may have some trouble with printing pdf, but you can always just save a large image, which will be printed correctly.
Comment: Earlier versions, and possibly the current version, had a mximum size limitation.
Answer: In general there are a number of different distinct workflows that lead to a poster. Each workflow has a number of software implementations.

Word Processor (Word, Pages, OpenOffice Writer)
Presentation Software (e.g., PowerPoint, Keynote, Impress)
Vector Graphics (e.g., Illustrator, Inkscape, OpenOffice Draw)
Desktop Publishing (e.g. Publisher, In Design)
LaTeX

There are advatages/disadvatages to each category and to each piece of software within a category. For making a poster, the differences within a category are much smaller than the differences across categories.
Word processors are probbaly the weakest for layout, but are likely the software you are most familair with. Presentation software is a little stronger on the layout and also something you are likely familiar with. Vector graphic programs are really strong on the layout, but take a lot of fiddling. Most academic work doesn't require extensive use of a vector graphics program, so most people are not familiar. There is little added benefit of learning one. Desktop publishing software is really designed for making posters and other complicated layout (think magazines and brochures). There is almost no reason for most academics to master a desktop publishing software. LaTeX is an "oddball" you can use it for everything and it is well suited for both simple layouts and complicated layouts. The learning curve is pretty steep.
Comment: The open source desktop publishing software [Scribus](http://www.scribus.net) seems to have lost some of its teething troubles (e.g. LaTeX is now supported for formulas) and might also be a good choice for designing a poster.
Comment: +1 for Impress. The OpenOffice/LibreOffice suite is perfectly capable of great posters. Moreover, the Draw program is **excellent** for schematics in papers/posters.
Answer: I want to add an additional tool that I always use:
Adobe InDesign
Comment: Can you comment on the ability of InDesign to include LaTeX formatting of mathematical equations?
Comment: +1: InDesign, or similar software, is the right tool for the job. In my eyes using PPT for a poster is equivalent to using Notepad for coding a homepage, it works but that's not the right tool for the job, and the result will likely be ugly.
Comment: Our school also recommends InDesign as an alternative to Powerpoint for posters.
Answer: I would like to avoid bringing this question into the subjective situation but I'm personally a fan of Adobe Illustrator as it combines the speed and ease of ppt (but not as quick and dirty) but it provides much more control. If you save the files as *.SVG or *.PS files, you can get really into the details and obtain a WYSIWYG level of detail. Plus, if you're aiming to print your poster, it becomes much easier to switch between RGB and CMYK color.
Comment: Can you comment on the ability of Illustrator to include LaTeX formatting of mathematical equations?
Answer: For completeness, Apple's Pages has quite a few nice poster layouts.
Comment: +1 For me it works well. Especially as I recycle slides from Keynote. (But I know only LaTeX/Beamer for comparison.)
Answer: As always, if you are on a mac, you can use the combo omnigraffle + latexit.
Answer: Microsoft Publisher is quite easy to use if you're used to work with MS Office already (especially Powerpoint). It helps you with some basic checks, e.g. that images you include have sufficient resolution, you're working in the correct color space, ...
Comment: Is publisher better than ppt in any obvious ways for a poster like this?
Comment: I haven't made any posters in Powerpoint, but I do believe so. You can specifically design for a paper size of A0, check the print resolution of included images after scaling, check how it looks like in CMYK, things like that. Overall the additions might not be worth spending money on for everyone, but if you get it for free from your university I'd use it instead of PPT.
Comment: You can do whatever paper size you want to in ppt. Thanks for chiming in though, resolution is a problem in ppt, as they make it hard to import vector graphics (EMF is not an export option when making many graphs).
Answer: I recommend the free and open-source desktop publishing program Scribus, available for a wide variety of operating systems including Windows, Mac, and Linux. Unlike many of the programs suggested here, Scribus is specifically focused on tasks relevant to poster production: layout, typesetting, and high-quality printed output. For example, Scribus includes a "Preflight verifier" to warn you about potential problems with your exported PDF file before you waste €40 on a messed-up A0 colour print. I've used Scribus for several conference posters and it's always produced good results. These days I personally tend to use LaTeX with the tikzposter package, but I know that some people prefer interactive, WYSIWYG tools for poster design -- and in those cases, Scribus would be my first choice.
Answer: I've just used Microsoft Publisher to turn an 8-slide PowerPoint presentation into an A2 poster for a medical conference.
I copied each slide into Publisher and then blew them up to 140% and distributed and aligned them. I added a blue frame, then saved it to PDF for the print shop.
This is probably the best and easiest way to turn an existing PowerPoint presentation into a large poster for professional use.
PowerPoint is very easy to use, but I would recommend using proper publishing software for actual publishing work. PowerPoint gets used too often for things it isn't good at. There's loads of great free and open source (and indeed paid-for/proprietary) software out there - don't limit yourself to trying to do everything with the basic Microsoft Office suite.
(Publisher is also part of Office but it's a proper DTP package.)
Answer: For your use case, I'd go with M PowerPoint. I have spent anywhere from 4 to 16 hours on posters, depending on the level of detail.
My progression through poster design software went as follows:
M PowerPoint - easy to use, basic layout a breeze, limited in typographical tools
M Publisher - more layout tools, still easy to use coming from a M Suite background
Illustrator - fully featured vector graphics, more control of print/graphics settings, more layout options, harder to learn (but worth it for stunning posters, IMO)
Latex - tried, but didn't fit my use case very well. I needed more interactive control of design elements and the basic templates looked quite drab.
Future - perhaps InDesign, which may add some typesetting features that Illustrator lacks.
Comment: I'd rather call your future as 'Creative Suite' because you can stack advantages of Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. With LaTeX enqueued you have an ultimate tool for poster design.
Answer: I've used Microsoft Visio to create posters before.
Its original intent is the creation of flowcharts, technical drawings, simple  floor plans etc. It's much better at this kind of diagramming than Powerpoint - but offers a bit less "design hand-holding". On the other hand, it's not as bare-bones Inkscape - but allows for less fine-tuned messing with the graphics, or at least makes it more complicated.
Sorry for recommending closed-source software, but - it's also an option.
Answer: There are various templates to create poster using markdown*, cf. the list at https://gist.github.com/Pakillo/4854e5d760351206084f6be8abe476b2:

https://github.com/odeleongt/flexdashboard-poster
https://github.com/odeleongt/postr
https://github.com/bbucior/drposter
https://github.com/mathematicalcoffee/beamerposter-rmarkdown-example
https://github.com/jhollist/markdownPoster
https://github.com/BenBarnard/pdfposter

That first template allows to go from a human-readable code like
<code>## Row 2 {data-height=75}

### **Methods**

#### Workflow

**Dependencies**

This poster template dependes on the following R packages

- rmarkdown [@rmarkdown]
- flexdashboard [@flexdashboard]
- webshot [@webshot]

To use `scripts/generic-content.R` you will need a GNU/Linux system
and a working installation of `imagemagick`.
</code>
to a poster like

* : If you are not familiar with this tool, Markdown is a lightweight markup language that starts to be used everywhere: as you may have noticed, https://academia.stackexchange.com/, https://github.com/, various forum and a large community of software developer has started using it or supporting it to some extend. It is easy to learn and intuitive.
Answer: I use a combination of Adobe InDesign and Illustrator. You should use software designed for page layout, not something coopted for that purpose. Please don't use PowerPoint or Latex — PowerPoint is difficult to use with many many objects on a single slide, and really isn't designed for page layout. Latex shouldn't be used by anyone, unless you have so many equations in your document that nothing else will do.
I export figures into .AI or .SVG and use InDesign to lay out the poster. This doesn't take very long, and you can set up styles to ensure consistent formatting across the poster.
Comment: Your argument against LaTeX doesn't make sense. Please be more specific here.
Comment: Latex is a textual document production tool. Posters produced in latex tend to be very text-heavy, and, as someone wrote above... tend to look like Latex posters. Please collect your pro-latex knee-jerk downvotes here. :)


Is there private information contained in the Apple System Profiler?

Question: Is there any private information in the Apple System Profiler that would cause you to not want to send it to a third party to troubleshoot a software issue?
Answer: This depends on your definition of private. The default profile view is the full profile of your machine, which contains your serial number and hardware UUID. Since you are troubleshooting, I find it best to send a Mini Profile(View > Mini Profile) as it contains all of the basic information.
Answer: There is nothing private stored in the Hardware section.  The Network section may show your system name and IP address/subnet/etc.  The Logs section may contain private information, but it seems unlikely and is highly dependent on the software that wrote the log.  They will likely be able to get your username from the logs.
Note that you can change what is shown in the report by using the View > Short/Standard/Extended Report options and this may help you from sending private information.


Why did Asuna apologize at the end of the Aincrad arc?

Question: At the end of the Aincrad arc of SAO on episode 14, on the big glass plane, Asuna was apologizing to Kirito and I don't know why. Was it because she jumped in front of the sword, or was it somthing else?
Comment: Please at least cite an episode number.
Comment: Episode 14 after the battle with heathcliff
Answer: As you know Asuna and Kirito are madly in love with each other and that the game is deadly (quite literally). As any lover would do, they promised each other to survive the game and meet up in the real world, fall in love again and get married and so on. You know who he was fighting with but she thought that he was about to die from a lethal blow and decided to jump and save her man and eventually breaking the promise.
Answer: I have a few explanations for this.
Firstly, when Kirito and Asuna were on their honeymoon and they got called back, Kirito didn't allow Asuna to go for the boss battle, she told Kirito that her life would be meaningless if Kirito died. If Kirito really died, she said that she would commit sucide. Hence, when Kirito asked Healthcliff to prevent her from commiting suicide, Asuna knew instantly that Kirito knew that he didn't had a high chance of winning, so she decided to let herself get killed instead. At the end, she perhaps apologised for not believing in him.
Secondly, during the time when Asuna saved Kirito from the brink of death when Kirito was paralyzed and about to be killed by the Laughing Coffin, Kirito told her that his life was now in her hands, Asuna promised she would protect Kirito and she did. Soon afterwards, Kirito died and Asuna probably apologised for not being able to protect Kirito.
Thirdly, during the honeymoon, the both of them promised each other to meet up in the real world and go out together for real dates, love each other for real and also get married for real but the both of them broke their promises. Kirito broke the promise by asking Healthcliff to prevent Asuna from commiting suicide and Asuna broke it by shielding Kirito from Healthcliff's attack, thus die. So maybe Asuna apologised for breaking her promise.


Is practicing Buddhism to be happy a wrong view?

Question: One of my teachers has said that practicing Buddhism isn't about having a good time. That's always struck me as a bit harsh. If I practice Buddhism to feel a bit better about myself and to be happy is that a wrong view. If it is, then why would anyone start to practice at all unless they had been brought up in that tradition and it was a cultural thing.
Comment: I think you're getting mixed up with words. What do 'having a good time', 'feeling better about yourself' and 'being happy' mean? In terms of your actual experience of life? In precise language?
Comment: In answer to the question as to why someone would believe Buddhism except to be happy or because they were born to it... well, the answer would be **because it is true** or at least speaks to deep psychological truths (particularly mindfulness) which are completely independent of any doctrine, school, or culture.
Comment: Mr Bucket: The site won't allow me to post a proper answer to your question but hopefully you will see this comment. The answer, stripped of any scripture or doctrine, is that **you are both correct**. We can be fairly certain that there is no God or god who actively intervenes in this world in order to be known to all mankind at this time; there are even some religions like Scientology, Anglicanism, and Mormonism that are *ipso facto* wrong in their claims to represent exclusive metaphysical truth. Nonetheless, a religion that makes you warmer, more moral, more loving, closer to your friends
Comment: and family is a perfectly fine and helpful tool for your psyche to cling to. If that happens to be Buddhism for you, more power to you. That said, a fundamental claim of Buddhism itself is that attachment (especially to temporary feelings but even to beliefs and doctrines) will ultimately lead you to needless and unproductive suffering. Buddhism won't make you always feel better about yourself and that's not Buddhism's "fault" or "failure". Similarly, th'side effects if you espouse Buddhism to feel superior to others in your culture. You should follow your dharma, but your teacher isn't wrong.
Comment: In the Suttas, the Buddha taught two distinct levels of teachings:  For monks (and nuns) and householders.  The goal of the monk's life is to attain nibbana, permanent freedom from suffering.  The goal of the householder practicing the Buddha's teaching is to reduce the suffering and increase the happiness in this life and the next.

It is hard to know what your teacher was thinking - but it may have been that there are people who neglect sila (the moral rules of the Buddha), thinking that the ultimate goal of life is simply "Eat, drink and be merry."
Answer:
"Ethan santhan ethan paneethan, sabba sankhara samatho, Sabbhupathi patinissaggo, tanhkkhayo, virago, nirodho, Nibbanan ti"

"It is the only peace, the only happiness: prevent sankhara from arising by eliminating tanha and excess greed, and thus stopping the arising of defilements, which is Nibbana".
This above mentioned contemplation is the most effective  kammatthana when cultivating Ariya Jhana. But we can never achieve such jhanic states that is helpful in furthering the Noble Eightfold Path if there isn't a sense of happiness within us. The sati sampajanna that one dwells in should be one of inner happiness and peace of mind. Sati is mindfulness. The Pali word for alertness is sampajañña. It doesn't mean being choicelessly aware of the present, or comprehending the present. Sampajañña means being aware of what you're doing in the movements of the body, the movements in the mind. This is why mindfulness and alertness should always be paired.
Our happiness, our lack of happiness, depends on our actions. So that's where we focus our attention. When you create a frame of reference here in the present moment, there are lots of things you can tune in to. You can choose the body in and of itself. You can choose feelings, mental states, mental qualities in and of themselves.
Of all the sensory input that comes in at any one particular moment, you make a choice of what you're going to pay attention to, what memories, what frame of reference you're going to bring to that particular moment. And it's an important mental skill to be able to shift your frame of reference as necessary.
Being mindful means being very deliberate and clear about what you bring to whatever you're doing: what you're going to remember, what you're not going to remember, what you're going to recollect, what you're going to let go, which things are useful to recollect right now.
If you wanted to, you could sit and spend the whole hour thinking about facts that would make you totally miserable, but what does that accomplish? In walking the Path we are to think about things that are useful for the mind, so remember the things that are useful for the mind, that will help it develop. As for the other voices coming in and out of the mind, listen to the ones that are helpful and ignore the ones that are not. You can be selective.
This way, mindfulness becomes a quality we can apply to everything we do. And instead of making us unable to function, it heightens our ability to function, because we understand the process that the mind goes through, and we are in a state of happiness within.
Just because your teacher and almost all the books in the present day say as to how could one be happy when everything is suffering, you should not accept such a statement as true. For one to advice another on Dhamma, one has have at least come to the 'Stream Entrant' stage of the Path. This is like someone trying to teach another to ride a cycle, when he himself doesn't know how to ride one. Sadly that is the state of affairs in the present day and age.
You can sing, dance, and have an enjoyable time while being grounded in reality, in knowing the underlying nature of anything in this world. It is fully engaging in life with an understanding that we will not be able to maintain anything to our satisfaction over long times. Thus we can see suffering - there not being anything of true inherent value in mundane life activities – but still participate in the activities in a rather detached way. If one truly understands this fact, that itself leads to the Stream Entrant stage of Nibbana.
Comment: Thks. Andrei Volkov… Today a great many take Buddha Dhamma for what it is not. Visakha was seven years old when she & 500 maidservants in the first stage of sainthood, Sotapanna. They led normal lives. Visakha had 32 kids. A rich man's daughter who had attained Sotapatti Fruition as a young girl ran away with hunter & had 7 kids. Once a group of monks took Buddha's advice incorrectly & were found (by Visakha) dancing in the rain, naked. If we wrongly interpret Dhamma, it results in restlessness and remorse (uddhacca-kukkucca) preventing us from becoming Sotapanna, the first stage of sainthood.
Answer:
Is practicing Buddhism to be happy a wrong view?

It depends on what kind of intention is motivating the search for happiness.
If the intention originates from the 3 unwholesome roots, then yes it is considered wrong view as actions based in these roots cause further suffering to arise by enforcing craving and thereby the bondage to Samsara.
If the intention originates from the path factor of Right Intention in the Noble Eightfold Path, i.e. the intention of Renunciation, good-will and harmlessness, then it is considered right view.
To attain deliverance requires the complete eradication of craving - not by force but by understanding. True renunciation is about changing our perspective on conditioned phenomena through the practice of (insight) meditation. This leads to understanding the nature of craving and with keen attention and investigation the mind is able to let go of craving. This leads to true happiness, i.e. a happiness that is pure, unconditioned and permanent.
If one is practicing Buddhism, motivated by right intention, in order to attain that kind of happiness, then it is not wrong view.

One of my teachers has said that practicing Buddhism isn't about having a good time.

I agree with that teacher. At least regarding the practice of insight meditation. It is not undertaken in order for the practitioner to feel good. It is done in order to learn about, investigate and to understand reality. It is meant to bring about a deep, profound and permanent internal change of the practitioner.
Comment: My meditation teacher said, "Motive and intent create karma."
Comment: So, in other words, the point of Buddhism isn't to make yourself happy, but becoming happy by practicing it is OK?
Answer: If I practice Buddhism to feel a bit better about myself and to be happy is that a wrong view.
I think that the goal of Buddhism, as I understood it from the Pali suttas, is usually phrased as an absence of a negative/affliction: for example, as "cessation of suffering" rather than as "happiness".
There is also a sutta (AN 11.1) which begins with,

"What is the purpose of skillful virtues? What is their reward?"
"Skillful virtues have freedom from remorse as their purpose, Ananda, and freedom from remorse as their reward."

That sutta then goes on, to talk about "joy", and so on. But when you mentioned "feel better about myself" I interpreted  that phrase as meaning "freedom from remorse" (because conversely any practice that you may feel worse about is, I presume, somehow associated with remorse).
But the tripitaka mentions happiness too (see the Pali word sukha).
If it is, then why would anyone start to practice at all unless they had been brought up in that tradition and it was a cultural thing.
Well for me I suppose the reason "why" I started to practice at all was because I found the first noble truth was evident: including for example friends and family dying, with Buddhism being the more plausible-seeming method to try to cope/live with that.
I think it's to its credit that Buddhism can find anything at all to be happy about in these circumstances, yet I think it does: for example AN 7.49 mentions gratification and joy as maybe the second-best reason (not quite the best) reason for doing something.
Different people (or different forms of Buddhism) have different reasons though, see e.g. the answers to How to explain what Buddhism is?.
Answer: I find the  best way to go about it is to ignore dogma and instead follow your heart. Find what is true and works for you. Forget what the dogma says is right and wrong.
However, using meditation to try and feel  happier is probs not a great idea because you might start to try and use it as a fix or a spiritual bypass. This can be a trap. Then when you don't feel happy you may start to think "this isn't working" etc
Meditation is more like a process of disillusionment. You begin to look at yourself, the way your mind works, your thought processes and difficult emotions etc. We begin to realise how these phenomena block our innate joy from arising.  Instead of trying to be happy we just allow the joy to bubble up naturally.
It can be a very painful process breaking through and facing this stuff. The first time I went on silent retreat I was overwhelmed with grief. So many layers of sadnes and grief kept arising. I cried for days and thought I'd never stop. Eventually I did and I felt the most exquisite joy and stillness. It was a very enlightening experience.  So don't try too hard. Just look and allow things to happen and unfold.
Answer: "One of my teachers has said that practicing Buddhism isn't about having a good time."
If he hasn't explained why, and he is teaching for the laity, I suppose he could be referring to (at least) the difficulty of abandonment prescribed by the five precepts and the virtue group of the noble eightfold path. For example:

Abandonment of false speech, angry speech, slander, sexual misconduct, consuming intoxicants, theft, killing etc (right speech, right action / precepts).

These can be difficult and painful to practice.
As one becomes more dedicated, the practice also becomes more difficult. One is taught to restraint faculties hard to restraint, to endure things hard to endure, to avoid things hard to avoid and to develop things hard to develop (MN 2).
Just the following, from MN 2, can be quite painful to practice:

he endures ill-spoken, unwelcome words and arisen bodily feelings that are painful, racking, sharp, piercing, disagreeable, distressing, and menacing to life.

With a deep dedication, one learns that sensual pleasures are a major hindrance in the path to Nirvana. So here, delight in sensual pleasures are likely the best fit for "having a good time". As it so happens, sensual pleasures have some gratification, but hide greater danger (MN 13). Also, ultimately they are impermanent and unsatisfactory. But still, hard to understand and abandon:

The person who's to their body-cave
Clouded by many moods, and in delusion sunk,
Hard it is for that one, far from detachment,
To abandon sensual pleasures in the world.
-- Snp 4.2
"And what, bhikkhus, is the severance of the bond of sensuality? Here, someone understands as they really are the origin and the passing away, the gratification, the danger, and the escape in regard to sensual pleasures. When one understands these things as they really are, then sensual lust, sensual delight, sensual affection, sensual infatuation, sensual thirst, sensual passion, sensual attachment, and sensual craving do not lie within one in regard to sensual pleasures. This is called the severance of the bond of sensuality."
-- AN 4.10

However, apparently, abandoning sensual pleasures is something the Buddha rarely taught laity (he certainly did not preach celibacy to laity, for example), so this is usually considered a part of the practice that is targeted at a specific, dedicated audience (the monks).

One may ask oneself why something that is advertised as a path to happiness can be painful.
First, this is not entirely the case. Much of the practice has it's own short term rewards. To reiterate @ChrisW's example:

"Bhante, what is the purpose and benefit of wholesome virtuous behavior?"
"Ānanda, the purpose and benefit of wholesome virtuous behavior is non-regret."
-- AN 10.1

All branches of the Noble Eightfold Path, however difficult, have fruits and rewards as the result of practice. These rewards, naturally, are always congruent with happiness (wholesome), or are themselves increasingly superior kinds of happiness (which culminates in the ultimate happiness, Nirvana).
Also, similar questions can be brought up about practicing healthy exercises, healthy diet, certain medical prescriptions for diseases, or even study: these can be very painful to follow, but they have bigger rewards in the long term.
"If I practice Buddhism to feel a bit better about myself and to be happy is that a wrong view."
I suppose everyone who is sincerely practicing Buddhism is looking for a way to handle suffering and live happy, as well as help others in the same way. The Buddhist path is itself, in all it's aspects, the cultivation of happiness and the study of the origins of suffering. So how could this be wrong view?
To conclude, from the pali canon, Nirvana is said to be the greatest happiness. While gratification of sensual pleasures are recognized, their danger is frequently emphasized along with the possibility of greater happiness apart from sensual pleasures:

"Ānanda, there are these five cords of sensual pleasure. What five? Forms cognizable by the eye that are desirable, lovely, agreeable, pleasing, sensually enticing, tantalizing. Sounds cognizable by the ear … Odours cognizable by the nose … Tastes cognizable by the tongue … Tactile objects cognizable by the body that are desirable, lovely, agreeable, pleasing, sensually enticing, tantalizing. These are the five cords of sensual pleasure. The pleasure and joy that arise in dependence on these five cords of sensual pleasure: this is called sensual pleasure.
"Though some may say, 'This is the supreme pleasure and joy that beings experience,' I would not concede this to them. Why is that? Because there is another kind of happiness more excellent and sublime than that happiness. [...]
-- SN 36.19
I see other beings who are not free from lust for sensual pleasures being devoured by craving for sensual pleasures, burning with fever for sensual pleasures, indulging in sensual pleasures, and I do not envy them, nor do I delight therein. Why is that? Because there is, Māgandiya, a delight apart from sensual pleasures, apart from unwholesome states,  which surpasses even divine bliss. Since I take delight in that, I do not envy what is inferior, nor do I delight therein.
-- MN 75
Answer: It depends why you are going in any direction at all.
Generally speaking, as worldly people (not monks), we go to anything to derive self-benefit out of it. We want to feel satisfied/better. For example, I have this lingering feeling that if I answer this question in this way, I might be appreciated/taken notice of and that makes me feel better or lets say you want to watch a football game, you obviously want to feel happy and entertained by it.
Let's try to see what Buddhism is. In essence, we don't want to capture Buddhism as a concept. In the most primary form, it is a set of guidelines/attitudes (mostly) for monks who wish to be enlightened and have given up the worldly.
Now the lay people can practice meditation too. There is nothing wrong with that. But what happens is, it really just clears our cache/mind (sort of, I don't know if you got it). Once we clear our mind, we feel better. You observe that if you are feeling restless/uncomfortable, it mostly has to do with the mind. (Sometimes it could be body too.) You see there is a difference in the goals of the monks and the goals of the worldly.
We only go back the next day to work/to some entertainment to fill it up some more and then we do meditation and it clears up a bit again. Now with constant practice, of meditation in everyday life, we learn to deal with things. But for monks it is more a technique for stream entry and more and more going towards enlightenment. So you see why it means something else for monks and something else for other people.
So I would say, detach a bit from the concept of Buddhism or being a Buddhist. Allow other people to have their idea of it. But to you, it must not mean anything quite literally or as an identity.
Answer: The Buddha taught about unsatisfactoriness and the way out of it.
The biss of Nirvana surpases all.
So you practice Buddhism to come out of misery. Initially you will find sensation based bliss like Piti and Sukha and finally Nirvana which does not depend on sensations. So in a way this is right.
Answer: Following the dhamma begins when their is a ''will'' to stop being ''unhappy'', miserable, disappointed, no matter what the pleasures (and their costs) is experienced so far.
The ''harmless fun'', physical or not, that people crave is nice and if you get it without much work, then lucky you; but once the dhamma is seen, the person is not driven, towards the dhamma or anything, by the boredom, the pleasures nor pains, in daily life, nor even the ones of the jhanas, but the person is driven only towards the end of the path, and driven only by knowing that the path is the only thing relevant to do (for as long as the guy is living).
Of course any puttujana is driven, towards anything, by the current tastes,  (which change sooner or later), by what is liked and what is disliked, by pleasures and avoiding pains and hardships (directly, or by constructing some story that being in pain, disappointments, hardships, predicaments are worth it or have some merit or are deserved).
This holds for the puttujanas who follow the dhamma  and for non-bodily drives, there can be faith-doubt(choose the word you see as negative), boredom in their life,  tradition, curiosity, realizing their fantasy of becoming righteous, their fantasy of the knowledge of the ''true nature of reality''.
It turns out that, for puttujanas, having a non-physical pleasures makes the mind plastic, concentrated, still, nonagitated. Even if there remain some faiths in some god, in some boasting about the success of the jhanas, some faith in something else than the dhamma, This mind is the ideal mind to meditate on the ''four noble truths''.
The students will have the healthy mind, since they are told to stop worrying (and are made so by being secluded and far away from all this hustle and bustle) about, being still towards ''social'' matters (typically some contests, hierarchies, like a career), which is the basis for contemplating, the continuation of being still with respect to bodily pains/pleasures and boredom, before meditating on their misery ---- which really means ''there is the knowledge that there is still misery, no matter what has been done before'', then all there is the radical stop of being sad, whatever the consequences this would bring to this existence and there is their acceptation , there is only caring about no longer being unhappy; then there is the insight that ''there is misery, because there are not the objects desired (such as cars, heaters, foods, travels, being judged innocent in some trial, paying less taxes, joy or pride of giving some pleasures to a few women, feeling relevant to some humans, expressing some opinions about something, believing to be righteous, believing to behave in agreement to some rules), but this misery happens only because there is a taking up of consciousness, feelings and all that stuff always impermanent, uncontrollable, not I-me-mine, what people call ''ego'' casually, which did not give what was wanted before (for very long) no matter how much effort is put to keep the good states; there is no longer a misery, once and for all, once there is no taking up of, taking as basis those stuff always impermanent and uncontrollable, not I-me-mine''; then the dispassion towards all those stuff happens which brings the knowledge of ''right view''; then the natural and only relevant step to do is to contemplate-meditate to settle this right view once and for all and be done with the path.
Before this meditation, The only ''sadness'' that there is is the knowledge that there is no contemplation carried out,  yet needed to finish the path.
Answer: Buddha taught many kinds of happiness.
Nibbana is the highest.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.059.than.html


Generating non-supersingular elliptic curves for symmetric pairings

Question: I am looking into the application of pairings in CPABE in particular. I've notice that the scheme uses a supersingular curve as the basis of the pairing. Looking through Ben Lynn's thesis for the Pairing Based Cryptography Library, there is only a single supersingular elliptic curve implemented, which is a Type A curve. However, he also mentions that type E curves provide the possibility of a symmetric pairing. I am unclear as to how this works, and how to generate such a curve that is a symmetric pairing to be used in schemes like CPABE, as the thesis only explains arbitrary Type E curves.
Comment: The usual word for *non-supersingular* is *ordinary*.
Answer: This case for symmetric pairing was mentioned in http://eprint.iacr.org/2001/003.
To sum the results given in that paper, you can get symmetric pairing in a few cases:

Trace 2 ordinary curves over where $p-1$ is square-free. In this case, the Tate pairing is non-degenerate for all points. Unfortunately, there is no known way to build such curves.
Trace 2 ordinary curves where $p-1$ contains a large square factor $\ell^2$. These are the Type E curves you mention, which are constructed using complex multiplication. In this case, depending on the considered parameters, there might or might not exist non-zero $\ell$-torsion points $P$ with $e(P,P)=1$. Note that, even when they exists, there are at most $2(\ell-1)$ such points.
Supersingular curve. Here $e(P,P)=1$ for $P$ defined in the basefield, but you can use a distorsion map $\psi$ and compute $e(P,\psi(P))$. This is the most frequent construction used for symmetric pairings.


Accused of cheating on a class that I passed a year ago. Can my "pass" be revoked? Could this missing prerequisite affect other classes I have passed?

Question: I've been accused of cheating in a class that I passed a year ago, and since then I have proceeded to pass the next class in line after that class. This class was a first year class, I'm now in my second year and I'm unsure on what this means. Are universities allowed to revoke a class that I have passed and other that I have passed. I don't understand why that would be going back through an assignment from a year ago. What happens to the classes that I have passed since then that relied on the class that I am accused of academic misconduct.
Comment: Have you been told what particular type of cheating is alleged?  If the allegation is that you allowed a student taking the class this year to copy your work from last year, that would explain the timing.
Comment: Did you actually cheat?
Comment: Note that revoking the class isn't the only possible form of punishment; there may be other possible disciplinary actions, such as a suspension, expulsion, a formal warning, losing university housing or other benefits...
Comment: So far, you have only been *accused*, right?
Comment: Are you sure this is something you want to post on a public forum with something that looks like your real name and a photo ?
Comment: Perhaps OP has professional sports has in mind where they don't penalise certain cheating/foul play discovered afterwards via cameras?
Answer: Universities have revoked degrees and titles on the basis of fraud, years or even decades after granting them. This is certainly allowed. The bar for revoking a class should be expected to be lower so this seems perfectly fine. Of course only your university can tell you the finer details of their policies.
Comment: This is like answering a question about paper cuts with a story about beheadings.
Comment: The problem with your comparison is that usually when a degree is revoked, it's because of misconduct in relation to a dissertation or other work central to the degree. If the student went on to pass more advanced classes without cheating, in my view this makes the difference between "didn't demonstrate the required competences" and "demonstrated the required competences, but violated academic norms in the process". If someone buys their BSc thesis and has their degree revoked 10 years later, but in the meantime got their doctorate the honest way, I doubt the doctorate is revoked.
Comment: @Nobody as in this answer, it depends on the institutions involved. The institution which granted the doctorate may revoke the degree or refuse to revoke the degree depending on their own policies and decisions. Revoking degrees is rare, and usually the culprit doesn't have a further degree, but as the doctorate can be revoked for scientific misconduct unrelated to the dissertation (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B6n_scandal precedent), it technically could also be revoked for that in an appropriate situation; but there are also opposite examples where a later degree isn't revoked.
Comment: @Peteris Interesting case, thanks. But this guy published a *lot* of fraudulent papers *after* his doctorate and even then the first court actually came to the conclusion that the degree couldn't be revoked and the university had to appeal. So I don't think it can serve as a counter example to my argument.
Comment: I'm unclear what you mean by "this seems perfectly fine". It certainly isn't fine for the OP. Are you saying you find it acceptable? The OP didn't ask for opinions on the acceptability of this policy, but rather what it is.
Answer: That doesn't seem conceptually wrong to me. If you rob a bank but escape without anyone recognizing, you can't expect to keep the money either: If someone later finds out that you did it, you will have to return the money (and possibly go to jail) regardless of how far after the crime the discovery comes. (There is generally a "statute of limitations", but that's a different topic.)
So, by this analogy, I see nothing wrong ethically with a university reserving the right to revoke credit for a class you passed a long time ago if in the meantime evidence has surfaced that you cheated. The fact that you passed other follow-up courses in the meantime is unrelated -- you also can't say that you shouldn't be held accountable for the bank robbery because you have managed to invest the stolen money successfully: a crime is a crime, regardless of what you have done in the meantime.
Comment: I interpreted the question differently: "Are universities allowed to revoke a class that I have passed and other that I have passed [?]" reads to me as saying "I can't see how it is legal to retroactively punish me even after the class has ended". I think that it is legal and makes sense.
Comment: I think that the concept of "statute of limitations" (the time period under which an offense can be prosecuted) is precisely the sort of thing being asking about. Your answer sort of equates to "Ignoring things which would limit the time, the time period is not limited." which seems about as vacuous as "If you ignore the questions I got wrong, I got everything on this test correct."
Answer: Check if your university has an official policy and guidelines on academic integrity, as well as the possible penalties.  Some universities and instructors teaching online are swamped with investigations into cheating, so long timescales are not surprising.  I am not aware of any statutes of limitations, though some may exist.
Answer:
are universities allowed to revoke a class?

Yes, and much worse, for gross academic misconduct.
I don't believe that your entire prerequisite tree will collapse, that seems excessive, but you should discuss this with your department if you are indeed at fault.
In my university lecturers can opt for an informal resolution: in order to avoid the hassle and trouble of a formal disciplinary hearing and damaging a student's record and future prospects irrevocably. Students who actually cheated and I have proof for it take this route. You should as well if you're given the option (and are guilty).
Another thing to consider is whether you cheated on other classes. If you got caught in one class your department might check other classes. If more cases arise the consequences will be far more severe, and you may even be expelled.
Comment: Informal resolution simply means that the instructor and student agreed to some penalty, and the disciplinary action ends there. If both sides agree to this (in writing) then it is applied. If not - then we move on to a formal proceeding. Informal resolutions can be % grade deduction from one's grade, failing the assignment/exam where cheating was observed, resubmitting a new assignment or stuff like that. It really is up to the instructor.
Comment: The obvious benefit of the informal resolution is that it does not appear on your grade transcript, and is usually not as harsh as the formal hearing's penalty. Generally, if you cheated and got caught, this is the best option you have. In my university, the infraction is noted internally, so that if there are repeat offenses a pattern can be established. If you get caught cheating once - it is strongly suggested that you stay on the straight and narrow after that - you're obviously not very good at it if you got caught :)
Comment: Out of curiosity: what is the informal resolution?
Answer: Prepare to attempt to challenge/test out of the class. As you passed something that has it as a prerequisite it shouldn't be too hard.
I can't help you beat the charge of cheating. I can offer advise on what to do if the class falls.
If it falls, you have a hole in your class prerequisite chain. With a first-semester class such a hole may be attempted to be filled by a placement exam for some classes, but for others they may not be prepared. If you can test out of the class in the testing center (every university has one for various reasons anyway), than that would provide the prerequisite. It also provides a way to claim "I didn't need to cheat", which only carries so far with a cheating charge but it's better than nothing.
Cheating charges aren't unbeatable, but this might be a low-energy solution compared to some other things that could happen.
Comment: @user7868: I suppose so, but I've had no potential employers ask for my transcripts. I'm not going to say you're wrong though. I just had an answer for another pathway.
Comment: A cheating charge would appear in your academic transcript, and that could be seen as a black mark by potential employers for at least the first five years out of university. It would be much better to fight or avoid the charge if possible.