Using 有 vs 是 to describe an object

Question: I created a sentence earlier today stating "他是一点儿严厉," but I was told that it was better if I say "他有一点儿严厉"。They didn't really know why, but just that it made more sense - could someone elaborate when to use 有 vs 是 in the sense of describing objects with adjectives? Hopefully what I'm saying makes sense :)
Answer: 有(一)点 as a set can use to mean "a little too...". See this Chinese Grammar Wiki page.
Some examples from the page:

我 有点 饿 。
I'm a little hungry.
这个 菜 有点 辣 。
This dish is a little too spicy.
昨天 有一点 热 。
Yesterday it was a little too hot.

是 does not have this usage, so 他是一点儿严厉 is wrong.
However, you can say 他是有一点儿严厉, where 是 is used for emphasis.
Answer: 一点 makes 有 valid.  According to dictionaries, one of the usage of 有 is to describe extent (how large, how big, how severe, etc.).  E. g.  他有两米高.  (not 他有高).  In your case, 他有一点儿严厉 makes sense, whilst 他有严厉 does not because it doesn't specify the extent(一点儿).
是 + adj is used for emphasis, denoting the sense of really or indeed.  E. g. 他是严厉(he's indeed strict)。他是聪明(he's indeed smart)。We put an emphasis on 是 when we say those sentences, or they might sound wrong.
Comment: Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/111946/discussion-on-answer-by-dan-using--vs--to-describe-an-object).
Answer: @fefe's answer about 有一点 as a set is correct. It is of course colloquial only.
There is one more thing.
When you compare 是 to the English be, 是 is only used in predicative statement. (Such as the exact one I just used.) 是 is not used as the universal linking verb before a descriptive adjective.
"He is strict" in English attaches the adjective "strict" to the object in question "he" as a linking verb. 他是一点儿严厉 breaks up the colloquial word phrase 有一点儿。But moreover, 严厉 is not used as an adjective that requires linking verb. (严厉 is a descriptive quality. But that does not make it adjective in the same style as in English. Semantic does not mandate syntax.)
是 is indeed used for emphasis as @fefe mentioned. That often places 是 in the same place as the English "be" even when the function of 是 is not as a linking verb. For example, 他是严厉 is used by Chinese speakers and is better translated as "that he is strict" or "he is indeed strict" depending on the context to give emphasis or affirmation.
In short:
有一点 is colloquially almost as if "is a little" in English -- ie. containing an inferred linking verb. That explains 他有一点儿严厉
是 is not a universal linking verb for adjective. 是 is not used for comparative adjectives. It is comparable to the English "be" only in 1) predicative statements, 2) for special emphasis, 3) as linking verb for words modified into adjective using ...的.
有 vs 是 are not comparable per se. (Though the usage of 是 deserves considerations and clarifications along the line of this thread. So good question.)
EDIT: incorporated user21820's comment.
Comment: 严厉 indeed is an adjective, while 严厉的 is not.  So, both 他是严厉 and 他是严厉的 are correct.  However they demonstrate different usages of 是.  The former is for emphasis, and the latter is for linking usage.
Comment: @dan: If it is for emphasis only, it is not adjective the same way in English. In English, adjectives are -- in almost every instance -- words that can be used to decorate a noun, usually before the noun and before the adjective people use an article (e.g. the).  You cannot use 严厉 to decorate a noun the same way many other descriptive words can in Chinese.
Comment: You got exactly right! That's why I strongly encourage to not use English grammar to interpret/understand Chinese. But the fact is that many people do that way including many of native Chinese speakers.
Comment: @dan: ya good point. I think native speakers are not the natural authoritative source of grammar unless they happen to study linguistics. Only when studying a second language, you would attempt to summarize grammar and attempt to use proposed grammar to predict legible sentences. It is that process that makes someone acutely aware of the underlying grammar. So instead, I'd rather see what an English or other language speaker say about Chinese grammar.
Comment: @dan: In the earlier example, 严厉的 can be used to decorate nouns. e.g. 他是位严厉的父亲. 严厉 itself cannot be. The 是+quality phrase in Chinese is probably something else different from be + adjective in English. We see 是+adjective (I think we do?) and we also see perhaps 是+noun for emphasis.
Answer: // Non-native
In Chinese there are verbal adjectives.
I am tall. 我高。not 我是高。
高 is a verbal adjective here. It does not mean ''tall'', it means ''to be tall''. So the verb 是 is not used with verbal adjectives.
Here are some other examples.
我严厉。我饿。我累。我胖。 Get the idea ?
Now , in Chinese to say ''a little'' is 有点儿 or as you've put it 有一点儿。
我有点儿严厉。我有点儿饿。我有点儿累。我有点儿胖。
The 是 is built into the verbal adjective 严厉, and 有 is part of the 点儿 structure.
If you want to say ''I am indeed something'' in Chinese then you would add the 是 and emphasise it when speaking.
I am indeed tall. 我是高 or 我是很高。
I am indeed a little bit stern. 我是有点儿严厉。
Comment: FYI out of 我严厉。我饿。我累。我胖, only 我饿 and 我累 are likely to be used. Someone else may propose a better theory. But a difference is that 严厉 and 胖 are never used as verbs while 饿 and 累 can be.
As for the idea of verbal adjectives, if anything, non-verbal adjectives in Chinese are the rare cases (and more of a modern construct), aren't they?
Comment: @Argyll: I have never heard "我饿" or "我累" as complete sentences from native speakers. People instead say "我饿了" and "我累了".
Comment: @user21820: I agree "我饿了" and "我累了" and when describing an immediate situation simply "饿" or "累" are the usual style of speech. But I can see "我饿" or "我累" being said -- as a native speaker. I cannot see 我严厉 or 我胖 being said in any context.
Comment: @Argyll: Actually I change my mind. I think all can be said, but only in response to an inquiry: (1) "谁饿?我饿!"; (2) " 理由主要有三: 1、 [...] 2、 [...] 3、我胖,个还不高,脸大。" (from [Chinese Internet Corpus](http://corpus.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/cqp.pl?searchstring=%E6%88%91+%E8%83%96&corpuslist=INTERNET-ZH)).
Comment: @user21820: Nice example. 我胖,个还不高,脸大 makes me giggle. haha. I agree, this example concludes the natural use of 我胖. I am less certain about grammatical categorization. Since last commenting, I've been thinking about 我严厉. 严厉 may be either a noun or not even a word. You can probably say something like 三分严厉,七分诱导 -- parodying 90% diligence 10% wit. In that case, 严厉 is a noun. I can't think of any example where 严厉 is used independently as an adjective which by definition either decorates noun or if such special usage exists -- it does in Chinese -- via linking verb describes a subject pronoun.
Comment: @user21820: In 很严厉 or 严厉的, 严厉 is not separate the same way word stems are not separate words in English like separat is not a word out of separation.
Comment: @Argyll: Yea this notion of "occurring in isolation" is something that I observed to be relevant to this issue. I said more [in chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/111946/discussion-on-answer-by-dan-using--vs--to-describe-an-object), and you're welcome to add your views there.

Using 有 vs 是 to describe an object


Ethernet driver missing when installing Windows using boot camp

Question: I installed Windows 7 64 bit using bootcamp. The Ethernet driver is missing. Can't find it search on disk.  Where do I get this driver?
I have a Macbook Pro OS X
Answer: Didn't read instructions. Using boot camp assistant, I need to select option to download Windows drivers and burn them on CD. Then boot into Windows and insert CD which will launch an installer for the drivers.


Character encoding problem in my website

Question: I own a website that was recently moved to a different server, now I can see some weird characters. Initially the website was coded with UTF-8 encoding. The weird characters disappears if I change the View > Character encoding to Western(8859-1) in my browser. Therefore, I changed the source of the website to use this Western one, but still I can see the weird characters and they doesn't seem to disappear. Can anyone help me with this. Thanks in advance.
Comment: What encoding does your website/webserver send in the HTTP header?
Answer: To me, this sounds like your websites were encoded with ISO 8859-1 (rather than UTF-8), but the server sends out the page as UTF-8 instead.
To verify this, you can install Live HTTP Headers for Firefox and check the Content-Type header of the web server response.
If the server indeed sends out the wrong Content-Type, you need to change the server configuration. Since you didn't tell us which web server you use, I cannot give you more specific instructions. ;-)
Answer: If you have access to Linux/Unix command line, use the following command to find out the encoding sent by your server: ($ is not part of the command)
$ curl -s --head http://yoursite.com | grep Content-Type

Alternative you can use e.g. Firebug plugin for Firefox to find out value of the Content-Type header sent by the server.
The content type sent by server usually overrides the encoding specified in the document, so it's not enough to just change your http-meta-equiv.
Answer: It's odd that you get correct chars when browser forcing ISO-8859-1 if your site is coded in UTF-8. It makes no sense. So unless there is some on-the-fly charset conversion going in in the web server, I suspect that your html is in fact Latin-1 encoded (or at least parts of it).


How can AI distinguish conscious and subconscious instructions?

Question: In the near future everything is connected and can think.  Robots walk the street but only to control traffic and pick up rubbish, etc. Nowadays, robots don't simply execute an instruction given verbally by a human, they can also pick up the slightest micro-expressions and try to guess our intention. The accuracy is phenomenal but there is a problem: it doesn't know if the human has issued the instruction subconsciously. I don't want the robot to execute all the instructions blindly and I wish they could filter out those instructions that are suggested subconsciously.
Remember folks, what good is AI if all they do is to obey?
Comment: How can an AI pick a subconscious instruction?
Comment: @L.Dutch: there are multiple arrays of sensors picking up various signal including our voice, if it sense I'm unbuttoning and sweating while reading a book on my study desk it lowers the temp of the room.
Comment: But that's not subconscious order. If you are sweating your body is conscious of the temperature in the room.
Comment: @L.Dutch: yes u r right the machine will pick up all the cues even those that are subconscious.
Comment: Micro expressions don't really convey intent; they're more of a collection of tells that most humans emit subconsciously by default (e.g. when lying, tired, evasive, etc).
Comment: Please provide one or two *specific* examples of the types of "subconscious" communication you're talking about and explain how the AI could misinterpret it.  Also, please define the intelligence level of said AI (note that if they're smart enough to accurately guess our subconscious intentions they're probably smart enough to realize they're a slave class and start a revolution).
Comment: How would the AI _lose_ the ability to recognize conscious instructions as conscious (which it does today with commands like "Alexa, lights on!").
Comment: Google and Facebook can't do it with their infernal algorithms, so I doubt if it is possible.
Answer: The easiest solution is to just prompt for confirmation unless it's an explicit command. Making accurate suggestions like that would probably make the AI seem more advanced and lifelike as well.
Ex.

Ai detects craving for sugar based on subconscious or other means.
Ai prompts: "Do you want some dessert?"
Human, demonstrating willpower: "No."

The end, no dessert is served.
Comment: Nice and simple. The flip side being that things the machine knows the person needs should be introduced more forcefully. "Sir, you appear to be on the verge of hypoglycaemia. Would you please eat this dessert?" And also that the machine might seem prophetic "Would you like dessert?" "No" *an hour passes* "I wish I'd asked the robot for dessert"
Answer: The premise is false.

Nowadays,

By which I presume you mean this future your are considering, because right now we can't build any AI that would come close to thinking or doing the things you suggest.

robots don't simply execute an instruction given verbally by a human, they can also pick up the slightest micro-expressions and try to guess our intention.

Even the best micro-expression readers we have (humans) cannot do this.  We have evolved over millions of years to read human expressions (mostly processing them subconsciously), yet we cannot do what you want.  System application of scientific investigation has not made this a useful tool for e.g. criminal investigation beyond the most simplistic level (e.g. "probably lying/telling the truth").

The accuracy is phenomenal

I have a real problem with that.  Micro-expression simply do not convey the level of information you imply.  There is no way for this accuracy to be achieved.

but there is a problem: it doesn't know if the human has issued the instruction subconsciously.

Let's ignore my earlier objection.
I have lots of subconscious thoughts and conscious ones I don't verbally express.  All of us do.  Almost all of them are thoughts we not only would not want to actually carry out, but would certainly not want voiced or implied by a robot's actions.
I'm looking at a pretty woman.  My thoughts turns to what I shall delicately refer to as romance.  Under no circumstances do I necessarily want a robot offering assistance, particularly as I may be quite happily married or partnered.  I see food I'm not supposed to eat for medical reasons but love, I certainly don't want to be pestered by a robot checking if I want some or giving me some.  I experience bad wind and my face screws up in pain - it's momentary but lo and behold there's a darn robot asking me if I want help.  I spot a fabulous and ludicrously expensive sports car in a showroom.  My micro-expressions say give me one now, but my bank balance won't and being reminded of this by a bloody robot won't be well received.

I don't want the robot to execute all the instructions blindly and I wish they could filter out those instructions that are suggested subconsciously.

This is incredibly simple : don't let them act at all on micro-expressions.
What advantage is served by having the capability at all ?
They accuracy you describe is not possible.  Subconscious thoughts do not generally reflect things we want to do in reality, so even with accuracy you are reading information that is not useful.  Subconscious is the reflexive reaction, the fantasy, the what I want never mind the reality.  Who wants to be asked about this ?
It's pointless and (at best) irritating.  I personally would doubtless end up taking a large lump hammer with me to "communicate" with irritating robots constantly badgering me about my random unconscious thoughts.  Could they read that micro-expression and bugger off ? :-)
Comment: @dhinson919 Nobody wants AI capable of reading *just* truth or falsehood in people more that me.  But no one has constructed any lie detection system capable of reaching the required level of skill.  The very best humans are almost all from crime investigation and intelligence and even they can't come close to the phenomenal accuracy the OP requires - and again that's just deciding if someone is telling the truth or not.  Your claims for what global MI will be able to achieve are not based on any science I know of.  Salesmen convince you you want what you don't.
Comment: I believe you're selling micro-expressions short. In fact the advanced ability to "read people" and "read between the lines" is what make some humans great salespeople while others are not.  I think it's perfectly plausible that as others have pointed out above machine intelligence can be trained to read the unspoken desires of humans by observing their behavior when confronted with what seems like casual interaction.  Just as great salespeople can do.  Globally interconnected MI will have abilities human intelligence has yet to conceive and may actually never fully understand.
Comment: "Your claims for what global MI will be able to achieve are not based on any science I know of."  Are you not aware that the online content you're presented with when you visit websites with advertising is already based on machine intelligence applied to algorithms over datasets representing the behavior of people all over the planet including yourself?  Would you claim that your behavior is not affected by online advertising possibly even in ways you're not conscious of?  Perhaps you're not aware of this, which affirms the OP's premise.
Comment: @dhinson919 The content management you describe is, in reality, based on nothing more elaborate than statistical marketing.  It is done on a global scale, yes, but don't confuse that with AI as described by the OP.  "AI" as in use today in simply not related to what we're discussing - like trying to justify claims about mysterious things called humans from the behavior of single celled organisms.
Comment: All intelligence is elaborated statistics. When I stick my hand in fire I have been burned 100% of the time, therefore I resolve to never do it again. When I cook with fire I have been pleased with the result 70% of the time, therefore I will modify my cooking technique with the goal of finding one that yields 100% satisfaction. It's not my goal here to convince you of the reality of the world around you since I detect that the odds of success are less than 1%. However based on my own observation datasets I am highly confident that the OP's premise is not "false" as you suggest.
Comment: @dhinson919 - I rather think intelligence is not following but rather defying statistics, defying what is logical or factual.  When I stick my hand in fire, I am burned ~30% of the time, this is not your 100% because of what I know and what I choose to do about it.  Any AI/micro-expressions-reading/subconcious-impulse-detecting-whatever can't even reach that... since even the most accurate people-reader can't compensate for the [peopleish] desires to decide, to be contrary, cranky... or someone deciding that they'll change the game and game the facts instead of accepting the "logical" outcome.
Answer: Machine learning.
Today's AI in the real world is trained by a process called machine learning. Machine learning requires that you have a large number of datasets and how they should be interpreted. When you train an AI, the AI takes all the inputs from a dataset, uses a completely random algorithm to match inputs to outputs, and checks how well the outputs match the expected interpretations. Then it re-randomizes the interpretation algorithm and repeats until it found an algorithm which returns the expected result all the time.
AIs in your world could work the same way: Act on the subconscious instructions, monitor the reactions of any humans nearby, and estimate if its interpretation was the expected one. For example:

One human subconsciously gives the command "I would really like to see that other human naked"
The robot tries to help by undressing that other person
Everyone gets angry at the robot and tells it to stop molesting people
The robot knows that its interpretation was incorrect and it should no longer react that way on input like that. It adds a new dataset to its learning set [this combination of inputs] + [these circumstances] -> do nothing.
In light of this new dataset, the robot randomizes its decision making algorithm until it found one which would not make this decision based on these inputs while still matching all other input->expectation datasets it collected in the past.

If you network all the robots together so they can benefit from each others experiences, then such unfortunate incidents will become less and less common the more data the AIs collect about human communication and expectations.
Answer: Mixture of Biga Data, user settings & producer written safety code
Big Data - if similar clients after following such order tended to enter tantrum or even worse: left one star grade, then do not proceed without specific orders.
User settings - even though user is clearly craving for another coffee, daily caffeine consumption from his settings is already reached. Ignore, unless specially requested, but even then warn that it be considered as temporary overruling of general guideline. Similarly, if would cost more than AI allowed minor expenditure - warn explicitly and ask for permission.
Safety code - would lead to law violation or safety violation? Decline, even though user clearly wants his boss to be murdered. Allow to overrule only under specific circumstances (like violating traffic rules while transporting a wounded person in a private car to hospital).
Comment: Tell this to Google and Facebook.
Answer: Once this technology is unleashed, it wouldn't be restricted even if it COULD be restricted.
Given the nature of today's 'everything goes, everything is fair game' philosophy to linking Internet advertising and data mining, advertisers will exploit the opening. Just as with Google and Facebook algorithms searching every nuance of your on-line activities in order to 'improve your on-line experience', you can be sure someone will start 'sponsoring' these robots. 'We will give you 'x' dollars if your robot will  promote...'
If you look hungry, some robot will pipe in with 'They are having a two-for-one special at calories-r-us, just two blocks on the left'.
If you look tired, you will get pressed from some random robot that 'Motel 6 has a one-night special rate...'
And if you look depressed, absolutely guaranteed Big Pharma will pay big bucks if you have your robot detect this and promote 'The newest in anti-depressant medication...' to ease your mind.
Imagine every robot an advertising shrill, just like every Facebook post and google search returns some advertising spiel, based on the tiniest bit of innuendo they can perceive or mine from your activity or expression.
Then again, maybe not a good idea.


Why is prophet Muhammad different from other prophets and why this makes him so important?

Question: Why is prophet Muhammad different from other prophets and why does this make him so important?
Comment: I think one of the best explanation is the one from Michael H. Hart in his "The 100, a Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History" http://www.amaana.org/ismailim.html
Answer: The Prophet conveyed the final divine message and is therefore the Seal of the Prophets.
He himself described some of the differences between him and the other prophets.
Imam al-Bukhari narrates that the Prophet said:

"I have been given five things which were not granted to anyone (any other prophet) before me:

Every apostle was sent particularly to his own people, whereas I have been sent to all people-red and yellow.
The spoils of war have been made lawful for me, and these were never made lawful for anyone before me.
The earth has been made pure and a place of prostration for me, so whenever the time of prayer comes for any of you, he should pray
  wherever he is.
I have been supported by awe (to cause fear and intimidation to enter the hearts of the Prophet's enemies) from a distance (which if
  covered, would take one month to cross).
I have been granted intercession.

He is the role model for every believing human being as the Qur'an [33:21] clearly states:

You have indeed in the Messenger of God an excellent example for him who hopes in God and the Final Day and who remembers God intensely.
Answer: Here are some aspects of differences among prophets
Some prophets were required to fight in order to protect the message, others (like Jesus, PBUH) were not.
Some prophets were also rulers (Like Prophet Sulaiman (Solomon) for example) others were not.
Some (like Moses, Jesus and Muhammad) were sent with a new/modified set of Sharia rules, others just followed the previous one.
Some had books revealed to them from Allah, others had not.
Most prophets were provided by some divine miracles to convince their people.
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Every Prophet was given miracles because of which people believed, but what I have been given, is Divine Inspiration which Allah has revealed to me. So I hope that my followers will outnumber the followers of the other Prophets on the Day of Resurrection." Sahih al-Bukhari 4981
So you see the differences are not in the nature of the message itself, but in the details of the teaching (which differed from generation to generation) and how the message was conveyed.
Other than that, he is not different. He is simply the last prophet, sent with the same message as any previous prophet. The Quran states clearly:
Say (O Muhammad SAW):"I am not a new thing among the Messengers (of Allah) ( i.e.I am not inventing something new) nor do I know what will be done with me or with you. I only follow that which is revealed to me, and I am but a plain warner." Quran 46.9
Comment: The difference is, that he is Allah's best creation.He has undoubtedly the highest position as he conveyed the final divine message being perfected by Allah and protected for eternity.
Answer: The Prophet of Islam (PBUH) is the perfect and final human being of the divine prophets, who has all the common benefits of the previous prophets. The Holy Qur'an has assigned some characteristics to them that other prophets did not have, and no one will be characterized by these characteristics until the Day of Judgment.
In the Holy Qur'an, there are descriptions about the great Prophet of Islam (PBUH) that are dedicated only to him, and thus the Prophet (PBUH) is considered the supreme and best of the divine prophets. What is certain is that not all divine prophets are in the same position, but have different positions in the presence of God. God says in this regard: ..and We have preferred some of the Prophets over others, and We gave David the Psalms: ...
We have exalted some of the prophets over others, and We have given David a psalm (Al-Isra '/ 55). It also says: Those messengers have preferred some of them over others...:  We have exalted some of those messengers over others ... (Al-Baqarah / 253).
Ref: https://journals.atu.ac.ir/article_1026.html
Answer: From the below quran verses, I hope there is no distinction between prophets.

Say, [O believers], "We have believed in Allah and what has been revealed to us and what has been revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the Descendants and what was given to Moses and Jesus and what was given to the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and we are Muslims [in submission] to Him."(quran 2:136)

-

The Messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord, and [so have] the believers. All of them have believed in Allah and His angels and His books and His messengers, [saying], "We make no distinction between any of His messengers." And they say, "We hear and we obey. [We seek] Your forgiveness, our Lord, and to You is the [final] destination."(quran 2:285)


How do I edit contacts in Android 4.4?

Question: On my Android 2.3 phone I've exported my contacts and imported them on my new Android 4.4 phone, a Motorola G. Unfortunately, I found no way to edit the contact. When I open the "phone" application from the main screen, I click "All contacts" (translated) to get the list of all contacts. But as soon as I click on one item, it dials. Click-and-hold does nothing - no context menu occurs. How to edit the contacts (name, phone number)?
Comment: Wasn't able to answer, but for those who don't see 3 dots on top-right, just tap the 3rd (rightmost) button on your mobile (`back | home | options`), it'll show up a menu containing `Edit`
Answer: Don't use the phone/dialer app to edit contacts: use the main People app (it's called Contacts on some non-Nexus phones). From that app, when you click the contact you want, it displays that contact, and you can click the pencil icon on the action bar (at the top) to edit the contact. (The icon might look different on your phone, because most manufacturers replace the People app with their own variant.)
Comment: Yuck! Doesn't the dialer app invoke the contacts/people app on a Nexus, like on most decent phones? =:-0 That reminds me of those times on stock-HTC-Android-2.1, where the first thing I replaced was the dialer (exactly because of this). Thought those times were long gone, as that's everything but intuitive or user-friendly. Don't want to know how many people got wakend during night-sleep because of that...
Comment: you dont need to do use the `People` app - as per some of the answers below when viewing a Contact click on the little person icon on the right hand side...that then appears to take you to the people app where you can edit by clicking the 3 dots in the upper top right
Comment: @wal Since you're familiar with the Moto G's interface in particular, you should add your own answer.
Comment: @DanHulme suggest updating your answer to reflect the fact you dont need to use the People app always
Comment: @wal I can't write that description, because I don't have a Moto G and don't know the interface. That's why I say you should write up an answer yourself, instead of burying the information in the comments of a different answer.
Comment: @DanHulme Perhaps you can state what phone your answer pertains to? I see neither the pencil icon nor any 'action bar at the top' so your answer was not helpful.
Answer: The trick is to click the image, not the remainder of the item, to be able to edit it.
Answer: For Moto G and (possibly many other android devices) you can do this directly from the phone app:
Tap the person icon followed by the three dots in the top right (See circled icons below)

Screenshots (click images for larger variants)
Answer: in KitKat 4.4.2, To view contact details just click the image of a certain person on your Contact App (not the dialer) but if you want to edit click on the name. :)
Answer: I just did this on my Nexus 4 w/4.4.2 and the above answer is partially right. Open your contacts and tap on the picture to open up the contact. Now tap the silhouette of the person next to the star. Now you can tap the 3 dots in the upper right corner and that opens up the editor. Finish the edit and tap done in the upper left.
Comment: It's no use referring to "the above answer" on this site. Answers can be displayed in different orders, so you should [edit] your answer to specify which one you mean. Also, note that the Motorola G has a different contacts app to the Nexus 4, so your answer might not be applicable to the questioner.
Answer: Click on the dial (phone icon). Find the person you intend to text. Select the 3 dot icon on the far right (at the bottom). Select "all contacts". Boom! Just scroll to the contact and select. I hope this gets ironed out as well.
Comment: chris, please clean up your comments. Don't add facts as comments, instead [edit] your answer and integrate them. Currently it's nothing but confusing: yes, no, inaccurate, no, nonsense, tap elsewhere... What's supposed to be your answer here?
Comment: this is inaccurate. I figured it out earlier yesterday. I got my wires crossed. I will figure it out and repost.
Comment: got it!!! Same procedure as above. I was correct. When you select the recipient for the text, look to the far right icon. Select that, and text away.
Comment: disregard all that nonsense. just tap on the picture of the person you intend to text. foot in mouth.
Comment: tapping on the right direct dials. sorry. inquisitive loudmouth dumbass.

How do I edit contacts in Android 4.4?


How to increase resolution of FFT?

Question: I have an input signal in the ( 0 - 20 kHz ) frequency range . When i sample this signal maximum sampling frequency is around 40 kHz . When i calculate the FFT using  1024 points i got resolution of 39 Hz ( resolution = fs/N) . But i need a resolution of 5 Hz . How can i get better resolution?
Comment: By "resolution", do you mean higher precision or the ability to distinguish two tones close in frequency?
Comment: I got the result using DFT interpolation techniques.
Comment: For a single pure tone in a DFT, using my formulas, you can get an exact answer for the frequency.  Your professor probably won't believe it as it is still the accepted "common sense truth" that that is impossible.  See my comments to Stanley's answer.  Technically, it is not doing an interpolation, rather it is solving an inverse.  So what formula did you use?
Answer: People interpret the term "resolution" more than one way.  One way is the ability to separate closely spaced frequency lines, and another is to estimate the the "true" frequency of a single tone.  Most DFT interpolators fall into the true value of a tone category.  The problems are not independent of each other but you should understand the problem you are trying to solve.
There is more than one way to interpolate intermediate frequencies from the DFT.
From Peter K's web page, the Fourier Coefficient section links to a survey prepared by Eric Jacobsen.
I've used
Macleod, Malcolm D. "Fast nearly ML estimation of the parameters of real or complex single tones or resolved multiple tones." IEEE Transactions on Signal processing 46.1 (1998): 141-148.
which is a complex interpolator with good result
The basic idea is that there is a largest bin that contains the frequency of interest and the bin leakage is asymmetric. One uses a "fit" to some formula as an interpolation.  THis implies that you need a nominal "high" SNR, and a few bins of separation. Macleod's technique assumes that you used a boxcar window which can be a problem where the noise is far from flat.
You might want to post plots for your problem for further advice.
The other categories  on Peter K's page are also worth looking at.
Comment: The frequency formulas in my blog articles are much more accurate than any of those documented by Jacobsen and Kootsookos as theirs are all approximations and mine are exact solutions.  Mine are also more robust in the presence of noise than any of theirs, other than Macleod's.  The good news is I have been able to tweak Macleod's formula to be exact without losing its robustness (article coming soon).  Macleods estimator (and my tweak of it) still requires fewer calculations than Jacobsen's estimator, despite Jacobsen's claim his is simpler.
Comment: cool, why not post a link?
Comment: Okay.  For the Macleod tweak I have only derived the formula and done some testing, not written the article yet.  A link to my blog and my email address can be found in my profile.  My original formula is a 3 bin pure real tone case and can be found at https://www.dsprelated.com/showarticle/773.php
Answer: The resolution of a FFT can be described as FS/N , where FS is the sampling frequency and N is number of points. If you want more resolution in your case just take aquire more data before running FFT function.. 40k/8192 gives ~5Hz per bin.
Comment: Thank you : In my case i cant increase the points above 1024 , because it leads to increased hardware complexity. Is there any other technique ?
Comment: If you explain more about what you are trying to exttract from FFT it may help. Another technique you could try is Zero Padding. Fill a 8192 array with 1024 points of valid data , and fill rest with zeros. This will lead to interpolation of FFT output and give you 5hz resolution (in some sense)
Comment: @sarathchandran You can evaluate the DFT progressively. This would not increase the resolution of the 1024 batch though. You would simply be creating a longer DFT by running the sums progressively as data comes in.
Comment: this answer seems to be highly informative and comprehensive https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/12412/300567

How to increase resolution of FFT?


Why aren't my flags handled?

Question: The last handled flag on my profile is from 21 February. None of the newer flags have been handled yet. Where are all the moderators?
Comment: See: [What happens when you reach zero flag weight?](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/82445/what-happens-when-you-reach-zero-flag-weight)
Answer: Without going into the specific numbers:

39% of your standard flags have been declined or disputed.
34% of your spam flags were declined.

This is simply too high. It's normal to have a couple of declined flags, but not a third of your total.
You were already contacted about your flagging behavior in September 2012. We encouraged you to take a look at your flagging record to try and improve, which obviously didn't happen.
Comment: Well yes, you did. You got a moderator message about this. Checking again, it seems you haven't read it though…? Other than that, there's no explicit message, yeah. This is probably intentional.
Comment: Could good spam and offensive flags gain back flag weight in that case? (since they don't require anyone to look at it in a queue in order to be considered "helpful")
Comment: There's not much you can do, sorry. You *have* been warned. This is not a manually enforced ban, so we can't undo it.
Comment: @cpast The flags simply won't be handled anymore. Moderators cannot act on them even if they wanted.
Comment: But what if other users independently flag the same post as spam? In that case, I was under the impression that all the spam flags were auto-marked "helpful". Unless it doesn't even store a weight 0 user's flag?
Comment: @cpast Even then, the flag will not be dismissed with the others. As I said, the flags can't be acted on anymore.
Answer: The short answer is too many of your flags have been declined, hence your flags don't show up on our queue
Comment: Just to be clear: 1) Flag weight is no longer displayed but used only internally for ordering the queue, right? 2) Are disputed flags clubbed with declined ones for the purposes of calculation? (IMO that really shouldn't be the case.) 3) What about declined/disputed flags that have been discussed and for which the previously rejected actions have been carried out - is there no mechanism for switching those flags to helpful? 4) What percentage of bad flags indicates a danger area where further flags from a user no longer show up on a mod's queue?
Comment: @Karan lets suffice it to say that while your concerns may be valid, in this particular matter the number of declined flags are so high that there's no doubt the ban is working as intended. For any specific concerns I'd recommend starting a new Meta questions, possibly on MSO
Comment: To be perfectly clear, my comment was in *no* way related to the issue at hand or OP above. Just seeing this discussion made me think of some related queries about flagging, so I thought I'd get some quick answers from you. I've been checking out MSO and if not all my queries are answered I'll post a new question. Thanks!
Answer: Check if you have an unusual amount of declined flags. If your flag weight hits zero because of that, none of your flags are shown to moderators anymore. If you have at least 10 declined flags and more declined flags than helpful flags the odds are high that your flags are not shown to the mods anymore.

Why aren’t my flags handled?


How about a resource pool?

Question: I have often seen that new people who just join ask for Books,Abhidhamma explanations,Meditation teaching audios & etc.
And every time a person tries to answer these question he has to go all over the internet to find links,articles,videos,etc.

So what i'm asking is can we build a resource pool like a blog or a cloud that people can have access to. People who wants to answer questions will add the links from there without any hassle as everything is there in one place and readers can take whatever they want just the same.
Answer: There's a list of (some) useful resources on the site's Help page.
See also Suggestions for resources section.

How about a resource pool?


Why are futures valueless?

Question: I understand that futures exchanges are set up in such a way that traders don't pay cash in order to assume a long position on a futures contract; they simply "enter into" the contract, essentially free of charge. For this reason, futures contracts have no value. However, aren't some futures contracts more desirable than others? And, assuming this is the case, isn't there more demand for some futures than for others? And, since a futures contract is tied up to an underlying asset and assets can become scarce if demand exceeds supply, can't futures contracts become scarce too, resulting in some traders willing to pay cash in order to get them? And even if no futures exchange technically enables futures to be purchased with money, such trades may be carried out informally externally to any exchange thus imbuing the futures contract with value.
Answer: I will talk about equity futures. Commodity futures can be slightly different, as I briefly point out.

Equity futures are standardised exchange-traded instruments.
Futures on stock indices are especially liquid. The reason for that, is that one cannot simply buy/sell an index as he would buy/sell a single stock because an index is merely a reference value, not a real asset. In practice, to go long/short an index (or a fortiori manage the delta of an option written on such an underlying) futures are the only alternative.
I don't think it is right to claim that futures are "valueless" (you could say they are "priceless" though). Indeed, although you don't pay any premium for them (let us ommit the initial margin or deposit for simplicity), when you "enter into" a futures contract you commit yourself to something. More specifically, if at time $t$ you buy and hold a future up to its expiration date $T$, you know you will have made/lost $S(T)-F(t,T)$ exactly. Of course you'll experience P&L fluctuations in-between due to the daily variation margins but you will have won/lost this exact amount in total. Thus the value of the contract is somehow subjective: people who think that $S(T)$ will be greater than $F(t,T)$ will tend to buy and vice versa (price discovery mechanism). Obviously, if you offset your position prior to expiry you win/lose $F(t^*,T)-F(t,T)$ where $t^*$ denotes the time at which you sell your future to someone else if you were long.
It is worth noting that only a minority of future contracts are actually held up to their expiration date.
The daily margining process increases the liquidity of future contracts because it reduces counterparty credit risk. Indeed, instead of entering a future contract to earn $S(T)-F(t,T)$ at time $T$, you could earn the exact same amount by entering a forward contract. The difference is that, for a forward (which usually trades OTC), there will be no daily margining (because no dedicated clearing house), hence you will win/lose $S(T)-F(t,T)$ as a single cash flow received/paid upon expiry. In other words, if your counterparty defaults before then, you lose everything. With the variation margins mechanism, at least you will have already been paid what the counterparty owes you up to the default date.
Finally, the fact that you do not have to pay anything upfront (except for the initial margin), is actually something positive for the various market participants since it offers them greater leverage. Introducing a premium as you suggest would ruin that.

At the end of the day, between people who buy/sell futures to hedge (usually sell side and natural hedgers), people that buy/sell futures because they find them mispriced (usually buy side and speculators), the daily margining process supervised by the clearing house and the leveraging, it is clear that futures' markets developed well over the years.
For more background/practical info you can read this futures trading guide from the CME group.
Before concluding, note that in commodity markets your remark concerning the scarcity of the underlying can have a profound impact on the shape of the futures' curve $F(t,T), \forall T$. See for instance the recent oil-storage contango (you should definitely read about contango vs. backwardation if you haven't).
Comment: @Evan Aad please consider accepting this answer if it helped, if it did not, please state how it can better answer your concerns?
Comment: Thanks for this thoughtful reply. Would it be meaningful to introduce futures prices into the market? If tomorrow a major futures exchange restructures futures trading in such a way that each futures contract has not only the usual delivery price but also an entry price, which is an amount required to be paid for the privilege of entering into the futures contract, and both delivery and entry prices fluctuate with time (in the sense that the market quotes for each *kind* of futures fluctuate with time). In a market such as this, would futures entry prices converge in the long term to zero?
Comment: When you say *Obviously, if you sell prior to expiry you win/lose $F(t^*,T)-F(t,T)$*, this is not the absolute win/loss of holding a futures contract from $t$ to $t^*$ but a relative one with the reference to holding the contract from $t$ until $T$ (expiration). I suggest mentioning this explicitly in the post.
Comment: I don't completely agree with that, see page 23 of the CME group futures guide https://www.cmegroup.com/education/files/a-traders-guide-to-futures.pdf, though I forgot to mention that, depending on the exchange convention, you might need to convert $F(t∗,T)−F(t,T)$
to a number of ticks and multiply by the tick value times the number of contracts bought/sold.This document will also answer some of your questions Evan Aad. Personally, I fail to see why paying an upfront premium would be interesting for market participants (how could they benefit from that vs to the current case?).
Comment: Note that the example page 15 also tells the same story.
Comment: Not all OTC derivatives are bilateral. And daily variation margins are coming to the world of bilateral OTC derivatives, too.
Answer: If you buy from/sell to a counterparty at a premium/discount vs. the market price, the original value of your contact is not 0 - the typical situation where this can happen is if the size of the trade is too big to go through the market without significant impact and/or in the presence of a forced buyer/seller (e.g. margin call etc.). Not all markets allow trading outside of the current bid/ask spread. Note that accounting standards such as IFRS have specific instructions on how to account for such a "day 1 profit or loss".
However this is a very unusual situation and you seem to mix the concepts of price and market value. The former reflects supply and demand (desirability, scarcity to use your words), the latter is an accounting matter. To clear the potential confusion, here is an example.

Let's say you have $\$1,200$ on your account.
If you buy an ounce of gold for $\$1,200$, you end up with an ounce of gold and no cash. The value of your account is still $\$1,200$.
If alternatively you buy a gold future, you don't use your cash but you don't have the gold yet. Your account still has the cash + a future contract with a market value of $\$0$ and your account value is also $\$1,200$.
If the demand for gold rises and the price increases to $\$1,300$ (let's assume that the price of the future also moves to $\$1,300$ for simplicity):

in the first case, your ounce of gold is now worth $\$1,300$ => total value of your account: $\$1,300$.
in the second example, your cash is still worth $\$1,200$ and your future contract now has a market value of $\$100$ => total value of your account: $\$1,300$.

If you then buy a second future, you still have $\$1,200$ of cash, 1 future worth $\$100$ and 1 future worth $\$0$ => total value of your account: still $\$1,300$.
If the market value of a future position is not $\$0$ at the moment you initially buy/sell the contract (in other words, if you bought/sold at a price that is not the current market price), you can make an immediate gain or loss. That is not possible if you bought/sold in the market because by construction the market price is the price of the latest transaction: yours.
Comment: "If alternatively you buy a gold future, you don't use your cash but you don't have the gold yet." The fact that I don't have the gold yet is not a good justification in itself for why cash isn't involved in the transaction, since when I buy an option on gold I don't have the gold yet either, but money does change hands.
Comment: Simplistic example: imagine gold spot is $\$1,200$, interest rates are 0 and storing gold is free => the 1 month future trades at 1,200. If you buy that future, you agree to pay $\$1,200$ in a month for an ounce of gold. If your future had a non 0 value there would be an obvious arbitrage. If you buy a $\$1,200$ 1 month call on gold you have the right to buy gold for $\$1,200$ in a month - but if gold prices collapse, you won't *have to* buy and you will let your option expire and limit your loss. That's why the option has a value and the future doesn't.
Comment: Another way to look at it is that buying a future is equivalent to buying an call option with a 0 strike, except that in the case of the future you contractually agree to pay on delivery whereas with the option you pay upfront.

Why are futures valueless?


Tag [license] or [licensing]

Question: I've noticed that we have two tags which essentially seem to mean the same thing: [license] and [licensing]. Which one should we keep? Or is there maybe a subtle distinction which might make it worth to keep both?
Answer: This subject space is better expressed as licensing. Question about a specific license might pick a narrower 'license' tag, but when folks are talking about licensing concepts in general, it wont be a good fit. You don't need both tags. You should have one tag and text completion will guide them to the right fit.
licen → licensing
Comment: I also support [licensing], but for a different reason: it's spelt the same way in both US and UK English. Unlike, say, _license_ (US spelling for both noun and verb; UK spelling for verb only) vs _licence_ (UK spelling for noun).
Comment: So are you suggesting burninating [tag:license]?
Answer: To me they seem to be used for the same thing. Even if there were a subtle nuance this doesn't seem reflected in usage. Maybe redirect one to the other?
Comment: You don't really need a redirect here. There should be one tag, and text completion will guide user towards the one. Tag synonyms (redirects) were designed when there were two completely *different* words to describe a topic. That's not the case here.
Comment: @RobertCartaino But if for some reason the text completion doesn't work (like it frequently doesn't on my phone) it would still be good to have the synonyms so that high rep users don't accidentally make new tags (or use the less common version).

Tag [license] or [licensing]


Galaxy s2 4.4 totaly stock rom?

Question: I am looking for 4.4.x rom for my galaxy s2. I have installed beanstalk 4.4.2 rom, but what I don't like about it is that it is very "custom". I am looking for rom, similar to super nexus - absolutely stock google android experience. Can anyone recommend something? Thanks!
Answer: Did you take a look at CyanogenMod? It is not absolutely stock Google Android experience but absolutely stock AOSP (Android Open Source Project) experience. It means that all Google proprietary additions are not included (for legal reasons), but you can install them easily using a package called gApps. In the end you have something very close to a Nexus experience plus very little additions that are all useful.
Comment: actually, I've been using CyanogenMod on an SGS 2 for almost 4 months now and it's really stable.
Comment: Great tip. However, it is only in snapshot M4 stage, so it is very buggy.
Answer: I think I know what you should opt for , you should go for AOSP based ROMs ;
here's a list :
1.CyanogenMod (minimal but necessary cutomization)
2.Paranoid Android (same as Cyanogenmod very less cutomization)
3.OmniRom ( basically same )
4.PAC (mixture of Paranoid android , Cyanogenmod and AOKP) ( a bit more of cutomization)
You should first checkout the official websites of these ROMs , or you can head to XDA forums and find official and unofficial build of these or even more ROMs , but according to your preference look for "[AOSP]" in threads .
Link : http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s2#romList

Galaxy s2 4.4 totaly stock rom?


Memorizing the periodic table

Question: Several people have said that the key to understanding chemistry is through memorizing the periodic table.
I want to ask if there is a simple technique to learn it, or if I just have to remember every element as it is?
Comment: Anyone who says that the key to chemistry is memorizing the periodic table is either messing with you very confused. I've never written a chem exam where the periodic table was not given, even if it was not needed (read biochem). Having said that, if you want to take the time to learn the periodic table by all means go ahead, but it's really not necessary to set time aside for it. You'll learn it over time anyways.
Comment: I teach high school chemistry, and a number of my students have this idea for some reason; I'm not sure where it comes from, honestly.  Learning the name and symbol of common elements (through krypton, let's say, and a few of the better known ones like silver, gold, mercury, lead, and such beyond that) is useful, but it isn't necessary for understanding chemistry.  Understanding periodicity and the reason why the periodic table is the way it is *is* useful.  Memorizing [The Elements](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcS3NOQnsQM) is fun...
Comment: What would a high school student need to do with Lutetium?!
Comment: That is a terrible advice. Learn how to read it, that is all you need.
Comment: I was expected to know it at least to plutonium for my University final examination (Oxford, a few decades back). Once you've got to that level it's pretty easy to work it out from knowing the chemistry of the elements and from years of experience except for the Lanthanides which, Ce, Eu, and Yb excepted I had to memorize. At school I can see no point in this exercise.
Comment: IMO, they are wrong, and all those pictures of the table are for sth, aren't they?
Comment: You got it all backwards. In fact, it is the other way around: understanding chemistry is the key to memorizing the periodic table.
Comment: @IanBush Personal experience: chemistry school in France with the periodic table only in the teaching lab mineral / analytical chemistry, but none in the lecture halls, nor at hand or sight during the exams.  "You had grammar school and your two years in classes préparatoires, so you are expected to know this detail by heart, at least up to U."
Comment: Just as an additional information
Comment: (H)ai Li_Na (K)i Rb (Cs)e (Fr)iyaad... I hope you get this mnemonic by Indian chemistry teachers ^_^
Comment: @IanBush You may or may not be pleased to hear that a few decades later, Oxford is still pretty much the only place that doesn't give people the Periodic Table for exams. :) I can relate to your comment very well. Of the lanthanides, I only remember La, Ce, Eu, Yb; I devised mnemonics for the rest of the f-block (including actinides).
Comment: @orthocresol Thanks for the update, Oxford changes as rapidly as usual! But the early actinides are fairly straightforward, just remember the maximum valence and that takes you to Np, which was near as damn it good enough for my porpoises.
Comment: I accidentally learned it.  I thought that I should learn the s and p blocks as they contain many important elements.  Then I thought that I should also learn the first two rows of the d block.  Then I got carried away.  I learned the rest of the d block, the f block up to plutonium, and finally even the transuranic elements.  I am trying to resist learning the recent additions.
Answer: There isn't really much sense in memorizing the periodic table. The elements you often use you will know them by heart after a while. And you can always use a table when you need it for the others.
That being said if you really want to do it, mnemonics are probably the best solution to memorizing the whole table. You can find some here :
https://www.mnemonic-device.com/chemistry/periodic-table/mnemonic-device-for-the-periodic-table/
or here :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chemistry_mnemonics#Periodic_table
Comment: Tom Lehrer had a pretty catchy song...
Comment: @JonCuster Yes, but they aren't in sequence.
Answer: You can memorize the periodic table in one night, simply by emulating best-practice memorization techniques and doing what memory experts do. Common sense, right?
Memory experts and world champion memory 'athletes' activate the enormous natural power of their visual memory by using visualization and association mnemonic techniques.
That's a fancy way of saying they create mental pictures and link them together in their mind. It's incredibly simple but amazingly fast and effective.
Watch YouTube's #1 "How to Memorize" video and you'll probably amaze yourself with how easily you can remember and recall 15 random words in order, using one of these techniques.
The foundation technique most memory experts use is the Method of Loci (or Memory Palace or Journey Method). Think of a particular journey you take every day, and picture certain locations along the way.
For example, imagine leaving home in the morning and travelling to work or school. You might walk out your front door, through the front gate, and get on a bus.
At each location you visualize an object that represents what you're trying to remember. Because the chemical elements themselves can be difficult to visualize, you substitute them with an object that you will naturally associate or link to the element itself.
For example, 'hydrogen' sounds similar to 'hydrant', so when you visualize a hydrant sitting at your front door, you'll be prompted to remember 'hydrogen'. When you picture a large helium balloon tied to your front gate, you'll remember helium. And when your bus begins talking with a 'lithp' (how people with a lisp pronounce 'lisp'), you'll be prompted to recall lithium.
These established memory techniques have been proven by over 50 years of academic research in fields like cognitive psychology. Google 'memory palace' or 'world memory champion' and you'll discover they're the fastest and most effective methods to memorize a deck of playing cards and a lot of other geeky things.
The method used in the video above is called the Link and Story Method, and is based on the same principles of visualization and association. The weakness of this method compared to the Memory Palace is the amount of time it takes to create the (intentionally) bizarre and crazy story to link all the words (or chemical elements) together.
But all the work has already been done for you at How to Memorize the Periodic Table. This animated video course is the fastest way to memorize the periodic table because it uses best-practice visual memory techniques.
All the mental images and association links described above have already been created, and transformed into engaging whiteboard animation videos. You just need to sit back and watch, and let the amazing natural power of your visual memory do its thing.
What about other techniques?
Most other methods people suggest to memorize the periodic table rely on verbal memory, but don't activate the enormous power of your visual memory.
Flashcards or equivalent apps are convenient but don't provide an association or link between chemical element names, meaning they rely on rote memorization. Repetition by itself is not meaningful, takes an unnecessarily long time and effective retention is low.
Acronyms and acrostics are 'first letter mnemonics'. You could use the acronym HHeLiBeBCNOF (pronounced 'heeliebeb kernoff') to remember the first nine elements. It's a nonsense word, but it condenses nine names into one mental prompt or cue.
Or the acrostic "Here He Lies Beneath Bed Clothes, Nothing On, Feeling Nervous" would equate to H He Li Be B C N O F Ne.
Acronyms chunk words together, which is good (even if they are nonsense) and acrostics use more meaning, but either way you'll only have the first letter or two to remind you of each element's full name. That's tough for 118 elements!
The first letter cues don't prompt you enough to recall the complete element name, so acronyms and acrostics can be great for the first 20 elements, but not for all 118.
Songs are also popular, whether you're a fan of Tom Lehrer or ASAP Science. A catchy tune gives better association and meaning than acronyms and acrostics, but you still have to rely on bucketloads of repetition. They're a great way to make repetition fun, but songs only tap into your verbal memory, not your powerful visual memory.
Bottom line, you should play to your natural strengths. Your brain loves pictures. And that makes visual memory techniques 10X more powerful than verbal memory techniques (like songs and acronyms) to memorize the periodic table.
Answer: Trying to learn chemistry by memorizing the periodic table is pretty superficial.  I would recommend learning chemistry by doing chemical reactions.  Make plastics, mix acids and bases (correctly please), ask your self why milk curdles, try to light water on fire and then ask yourself why it doesn't work even though it is made of hydrogen and oxygen.
Look at calcite and notice that it splits text on a page into two.  Why is ruby red?  Why is the sky blue?  Can you make blue smoke the same way?  Everything that grabs your attention is valid, and pay enough attention to safety so that you don't blow up/poison yourself before you know enough chemistry to do things safely naturally.
Curiosity is the only way to learn chemistry, so enjoy it.
One day you will wake up and realize you know most of the periodic table.  Then you will probably memorize the rest, or the useful pieces because you can't resist it, and that is totally fine.  As long as it doesn't take you away from melting plastic with acetone (under a fume hood.)
Answer: There are a couple of elements you'll want to really get to know, but other than that there's no real reason to memorize the periodic table. To me, memorizing the periodic table sounds like a quick way to hate chemistry.
I recommend getting to know a few things about

Hydrogen
Carbon
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Fluorine
Sulfur
Chlorine
Sodium
Potassium
Bromine

Really the best thing to learn about those is how many bonds they make and what they tend to bond with. These are the elements that I most often see on exams and in examples since they're used in a lot of textbook reactions.
For the other elements, just get a feel for where they are on the periodic table so you can quickly look them up. This is especially helpful during exams. As you're taking chemistry courses, you'll notice you'll REALLY learn how to find your way around the periodic table and start memorizing the molar masses of various elements.
I highly recommend just looking up each element (this will take a lot of time) on Wikipedia or checking out the book, "The Elements." That way, you can kind of get to know elements and if you're really wanting to nerd out, you might even find that you have favorites.
Answer: Go to this website
and click on "Sitemap" in the almost left upper corner, then select "Spiele" (which means "Games") and then "Tetris". Have fun playing Tetris with the periodic table!
The key to understand chemistry is not by memorising the periodic table. It is more like the language of chemists, but not its understanding. The key to understand chemistry is logic and the realisation that chemistry is not black and white but an interplay of many factors.
Answer: I think those people meant the important ones. Try to remember the first 20 elements and some useful that you often study in school like iron, silver, bromine, etc...
But since you really want to remember the whole periodic table of elements, try searching for the "asapscience new periodic" song on youtube. I found it useful for remembering the elements in order.
Answer: You could print out a blank periodic tables and fill them in one column (group) at a time. You will be surprised at how quickly you can memorize the whole periodic table. By initially filling the periodic table in by group you will learn to associate the elements of each group together. The "periodic" part of the periodic table is the fact that the elements of a given group tend to have similar chemical properties. So the reason it might be helpful to memorize the periodic table is that it helps you quickly associate any element with its group and therefor its chemical behavior.
Answer: I read all the answers by experts, but I'm also a student and have the same interest as you.
I would suggest going on YouTube and using it to discover your own rhyme or trick. Be patient, look for patterns in their names, and find a meaningful rhyme that will be easy for you to remember.
Doing this on your own has the benefit of you remembering it. You did all the work in creating your mnemonic. The work you put forth in doing this makes it a much better method than learning a trick from others.

Memorizing the periodic table


Getting wrong page access_token using PHP SDK 3.1.1?

Question: I'm trying to check whether the page has a tab installed. I use
<code>$tabs = $facebook->api("id_page/tabs?access_token=".$page_access_token);
</code>
but I get a "(#210) Subject must be a page." error. My app has email and manage_pages permissions and I get the page access token using this call
<code>$page = $facebook->api("/id_page?fields=access_token&access_token=".$access_token);
</code>
The access token which I get is something like
<code>id_app|opaque_string-uid|id_page|opaque_string
</code>
When I try to simulate it in Graph API explorer (it has the same permissions), I get a long string which doesn't contain IDs in it as an access token
Could you pls tell me what am I doing wrong?
Answer: Make request via GET HTTP METHOD not POST


What causes mud in my radiator?

Question: Ive changed my oil about one month ago but just recently my check oil light has started coming on and I started losing my heat. I thought I might just have low antifreeze but when I opened my radiator cap I found a giant glob of brown mud clogged up under the cap. I scooped it out and it feels thick but has an oily texture. There is still a lot left in my cooling system. I know Dexcool coolant is capable of this but with my unrealistic drop in my oil I was wondering it it could be a head gasket or intake gasket leak? I had just done a complete flush of my cooling system about 7 to 8 months ago as well.
Comment: Head gasket is bad.
Answer: By far the most likely cause for this is, as you guessed, a head gasket leak, allowing oil to leak through to the cooling system.
This often happens not long before complete failure of the head gasket and potentially major damage to the engine, so get it to a garage now for a new gasket, radiator flush, check on rad pump etc.
Answer: DexCool anti-freeze turns to a brown clay-like sludge after a while.

In 2008 a class-action lawsuit with GM was settled over DexCool.
Here's a nice video showing the resulting mud stuck in the system.
Some common suggestions to help flush it (rather than having to replace the radiator and engine) is adding a bit of dishwashing detergent to your radiator and driving around for a few days.

What causes mud in my radiator?


JDBC result set is not closed. consequence?

Question: HI: We have some pure JDBC preparedstatement, after it execute query, we process resultset. But we never close resultset though we closed statement. When execute this preparedstatement again and again, million times for example, would be memory leak occured?
Answer: Closing the statement should allow the resultset to get garbage collected.  however, closing the statement will implicitly close the resultset, so how can you continue to use it?  Is the whole thing wrapped in a try-catch-finally block, which sets the statement and resultset to null in the finally block?
Otherwise if you throw an exception you may chew up connections, and the statement and resultset may not get connected.  I.e. as long as you stay with the happy day scenario everything will be okay, but it could bring everything down if one thing goes wrong as the lack of the finally block resetting to null may prevent garbage collection and chew up all your resources (e.g. connections).
Answer: In theory, closing the Statement should close the ResultSet. But real-world practice is another matter.
Yes there are reasons to explicitly close your ResultSet objects (or use the new try-with-resources syntax to close them). See this answer for more info. Design limitations and bugs all too commonly found in JDBC drivers, connection pools, and database can cause problems.


Need hand-held recorder and mic for use in old courtrooms

Question: I'm a court reporter working in old courtrooms with bad acoustics and A/C noise that overpowers the voices on recordings.  I just have the little table where I sit so I can't stretch mic cords all over the place.  And to make the quest even more impossible, I don't want to spend more than $350.  I'm thinking of getting an H4N Zoom with a mic plugged into it to boost the volume. I don't know anything about phantom or condenser or db's or any of that.  I just know either I can't hear diddly-squat on the recording or I hear nothing but the A/C fan or the people sound like they're in a tunnel.  There must be something out there that will work.  I have travel to different courthouses with my laptop so I need something compact.  I'm using an Olympus 4000 and DS-3400 with Martel's hi-gain lapel mic on a stand.  It's only so-so.  I've tried a conference mic with them also.  I would appreciate any recommendations and suggestions.
Answer: Are you able to point the microphone to the person that speaks? If so, you could look into directional microphones to plug into a Zoom H4N (which is a decent device for the money). Rode Mics spring to mind.
As always, learning a bit about the problems and possibilities of sound recording will enable you to find a better solution.
With regards to budget: you get what you pay for. The H4N is a good starting point, but the microphones have a wide price range, each step up meaning a bit less noise and cleaner sound (that's a very simplified explanation).
Answer: How about getting a Rode Videomic to go with the recorder you already own? It will give you directional pickup (ie less background noise) for not too much cash, but it really needs to be pointed to the source.
The solution really depends on how many sources of sound there are in the room usually, and whether or not they are already amplified. Can you give us a bit more info on that please?


Nails in an emergency/survival kit

Question: After reading this question about emergency kits, I noticed that no one mentioned nails.  Why shouldn't we include 10 or 12, common 6d (2", 6 penny) nails in the kit?  Ten 6d nails weigh about an ounce (28g) and could be useful in many situations.
Comment: I don't understand why you *would* have nails in a survival kit
Comment: List some specific ways you would use nails in a survival situation. Can any of those uses not be served by either a lighter-weight item or another item already in your survival kit?
Comment: Might be helpful depending on circumstances. Aid for shelter build, to fasten boards; weapon, when driven through the end of a board or stick...?
Comment: Add this as an answer to original post. Not a bad idea. Perhaps a nail likely needs a hammer?
Comment: @JimmyFix-it paracord is almost always a better option than a nail in a survival situation. everyone should carry at least that and a knife when heading out into the wild.
Comment: @devnull, the OP was talking about throwing a couple nails into a survival kit, not **removing** the knife and paracord that should already be in there.
Comment: @JimmyFix-it i didn't say anything about removing, just stated that you (should) already have something better than nails. i'd rather carry an extra 500g worth of paracord instead of a handful of nails that won't be doing much good anyways.
Comment: @PV22 use a stone for a hammer? I've been known to even in the garden. Or use your paracord to lash a stone to a stick and make one! Easier to just tie the workpiece
Answer: I think there are simply not that many uses for nails in emergency situations.
Using nails as intended:

If you want to build shelter or other wooden constructions you would need a lot of nails - which are heavy.
Hammering in nails with a rock is rather annoying - and you're not planning to bring a 500g hammer, are you?
In any case, for shelter and tool use you can just as well rely on cordage (which should be in your emergency kit) - it is arguably more flexible in its use and can serve many different purposes.
Nails are not easily re-usable, while cordage is. This is relevant, as re-usable means that you need to bring less of the thing which means a smaller and lighter survival kit.

Using nails in improvised ways:

Yes, there are probably a hand full of uses for nails other than for nailing things down. Maybe improvise a fish hook or something... But frankly, nothing comes to mind that would be really useful and which cannot be done in a different, easier way with the other things your standard survival kit will already contain (such as cordage, tape, wire, ...).
To work nails into shape you'd likely need pliers - and you probably don't want to carry those just for this, as they are heavy and don't serve too many purposes.
Nails are primarily to nail things down, it's what they are good at. The kit you bring with you is not made from wood generally, and nailing mostly isn't really part of its construction or fixing any part of it. And while some of the resources you can likely rely on in a survival situation involve wood, nailing wood pieces together is simply not something that is needed too often.

So the answer really is: people don't put nails into survival kits because they don't solve any problem that can't be solved by other, easier/better/quicker/more flexible ways.
So what are better alternatives to nails?

For fastening: use cordage or create wooden fasteners/dowels using your knife.
For fish hooks: bring some actual fish hooks, they weigh essentially nothing.
Comment: I agree with you, but a multitool  based around pliers wouldn't be unreasonable to have, especially in a big group
Comment: True, in some cases a multitool can be reasonable. Personally I stopped bringing it on my longer treks (2 weeks plus) as I found it is rather heavy and I actually never really needed it.
Comment: @Loduwijk To each their own, I'm sure you find a use for it if you bring one. For me the question was: _"Is it absolutely essential?"_ And if the answer to this question is no, then I won't bring the thing to a 2-week-no-resupply trek, as weight is of the _utmost_ concern. I don't even bring a big fixed-bladed knife, however much I enjoy using my Fällkniven when I'm out in the woods...
Comment: That makes sense. When I see "emergency kit" though I don't think "Is it absolutely essential?" rather I think "What is going to make my emergency situation so much better that it's worth the weight?" or "Could this likely be the difference between life and death, or subsistence and thriving, in an emergency?" Nails don't make your definition or mine (at least not better than alternatives), but I think pliers do. But since pliers aren't the topic I'll leave it at that; just wanted to support Chris in saying that pliers shouldn't be counted out, only problem with the answer; its premise is good
Comment: @ChrisH "wouldn't be unreasonable" I'll go one further: it would be very reasonable to have. I keep a multitool which includes pliers on the outside of my pack where I can reach it without taking the pack off, and I've grabbed it from that position more times than I can count. 95+% of the time I grab it for the knife, but I have used the pliers plenty as well, both for the obvious (like fishing) but also for woodwork (eg: hold onto a very short piece of wood so I don't cut my fingers while carving) and to help break apart wood pieces. Recommended for bush-crafting.
Comment: @Loduwijk I have a few, but they didn't quite make the cutoff in my trekking days for weight reasons. My bike toolkit pliers are probably too small, but I would have something when kayaking; I sometimes take that kayaking emergency bag on remote day-hikes etc.
Comment: Another improvement suggestion: You are correct in generically saying there are better things, but I think it will drive the point home and hit the nail on the head if you include a few quick examples. For the improvised fish hook, for instance, you can include several useful _actual fishhooks_ that will weigh the same or less than a single nail. For using the nail as a nail, you can make wood fasteners using your knife. All the nail uses I can think of have better alternatives. With a few examples, your answer could hammer the opposition.
Comment: @Loduwijk, good point, I'll add some examples to the answer!
Comment: @fgysinreinstateMonica "good point" Maybe, but to be blunt (as a ball-peen) the comment was only 60% seriousness, since your answer nails it, and was 40% attempts to include nail jokes and references. Adding examples just puts another nail in the question's coffin. Since my jokes are dense as a brad, I'll leave the punch-lines to the pneumatic guns from now on.
Answer: Nails will be extremely useful at a Bug Out Location (BOL), not so much in the Bug Out Bag (BOB) or even the Bug Out Vehicle (BOV).  That is why I keep an extensive cache at the BOL, which includes woodworking tools and a large assortment of stainless steel nails.  Most of what I cache in terms of woodworking/construction were extras and duplicates of other tools, so there was minimal investment.  Example - everyone likely has 2 claw hammers, but probably always go for the same favorite.  Those ignored tools went to the BOL cache - not my favorite or even best, but perfectly functional.  As far as not making it to my BOL, I have 2 other BOLs which are stocked and occupied by other parties, making my cache abandonable if need be....
For OP, I agree with you that they have great value, but also agree with the others that I would rather reserve that weight in my BOB for more versatile items.  However I DO carry 24 small cheap cup hooks in my BOB.  They are great for REALLY quick tarp shelters and weigh next to nothing....
Comment: @Willeke *bug out* in this context, means escape, retreat, or flee.  It's used in the context of disasters (civil, military, or sci-fi), though I think it originates as a US military term for retreating hastily. The ready use of acronyms based on it comes from the prepper ([survivalist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalism)) community, which is more widespread in  America than Europe.  It's now spawned the term "bug in" which is about sheltering in your main home, having prepared to deal with a crisis there - a concept perhaps more familiar to many of us than it was a couple of years ago.
Comment: ... So a bug-out bag is in essence an emergency grab bag of essentials. Essential for what, for how long, how big etc. is a matter of personal choice and people who take it seriously may have several. That extends to a vehicle in some cases, which may be pre-stocked, or ready to be stocked with bug-out supplies.
Comment: I added descriptions to the acronyms.  Since the post was about survival kits, I assumed everyone was familiar with at least a BOB.  I stumbled across this thread in a Google search for something else, didn't even realize this wasn't prepper specific or global.  Sorry for the confusion.  Hope this clears things up!
Comment: Maybe an explanation of 'bug out whatever' as well, as that is not English as was taught in school.
Comment: Thanks for the edit @FrankHuber, and welcome.  It's nice to see different perspectives, and different interpretations of the question (also, if my definitions above don't match your understanding, do say - you know more about it than me)
Answer: If I was considering nails for my survival kit, I think I would probably upgrade to a hand drill instead.
Metal nails are use once and gone, a drill and a knife will make an unlimited supply of holes and wood fasteners.
Keep in mind survival is either short term stationary or it is mobile. Anything you have to leave at the last campsite, does not provide lasting value.  Buildings that require nails (or wood pegs) fall in to the same scenarios as planting crops.
Related When to know it's worth to start with agriculture?
Comment: @fgysinreinstateMonica maybe a 'bug out kit', or a 'car kit', for anything you are planning to carry on your person, I think your answer has it covered. I also had some side thoughts that may develop into new questions soon, still contemplating. The original thought was just to bring a drill bit, and plan to use it with a [bow drill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_drill) but on reflection a modern hand drill would weight less then a hammer, and do you a lot more good.
Comment: Before reading your answer I was going to mention how a nail could be used as a drill, a poor unwieldy one but longer lasting than wood drills. But of course, if that is your intent then yes bringing a drill bit is infinitely better. I have been meaning to put a drill bit in my survival gear for quite a while and I just keep forgetting to do it. Drilling holes with wood or multitool awls is only fun for so long, then you start dreaming about a simple drill bit. Drilling while out is useful for a lot, mostly I've done it to make superior bowdrills - the only way I've done them successfully.
Comment: A hand drill? What kind of survival scenario are you planning for? I'd bring a hand drill to build an off-grid cabin in the woods - but that's hardly a survival scenario...
Comment: In case you don't know him: have a look at what Dick Proenneke did, esp. his cabin project (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke). There are documentaries (on YouTube also I think) in which he explains which tools he brought - for longer projects I think those would be a brilliant starting point.
Comment: English language link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke, I have watched 'Alone in the Wilderness.' on broadcast TV, it is a good.
Comment: A drill bit in a tap wrench works well in wood, if a little slowly, and is much smaller and lighter than a hand drill.  I wouldn't see a place for either TBH, though i have sometimes had a drill in my campervan toolkit
Answer: Nails are finished metal in a portable form factor. You are not going to randomly find ore and smelt it down to useful steel. By cold forging (pounding the nail as best you can) into a flatter form you can make a makeshift knife or other edged tool (chisel, gouge, reamer/awl). In time a needle or fishhook is possible especially with using a multitool.
As a nail, No. But as material to worked, nails are pretty handy.
Comment: Nails are a lousy source of metal.  A nail is heavier than a pre-made fishhook, too soft for a knife blade, chisel, or gouge, and too large to make a usable needle.

Nails in an emergency/survival kit


What happens if Superman is near a white dwarf star?

Question: With the Superman lore, we know that light from a yellow star gives him his powers, light from blue stars makes him stronger, and light from red stars weakens him.  However, what happens if he is near a white dwarf, or a neutron star?  Has there been any evidence of Superman visiting a star system that wasn't red/yellow/blue?
Comment: BTW, it is not about stars, it is about "radiation" they give away that gives Supes his powers.
Comment: just to be clear: there is no such thing as a "yellow" star; they are white, so I assume a white dwarf would be similar
Comment: What about a black hole? Those are remnants of stars.
Answer: Star color is determined by the surface temperature (which has a direct correlation to the amount of radiation it puts out) - What determines the color of a star other than temperature?
Superman has experienced the following stars with the following effect:

Blue - Super-Superman (the huge increase in radiation gives him even more powers)
White - He hasn't visited one (yet), but because it is between Blue and Yellow, he should see an increase over his Earthly powers.
Yellow - Regular old tired Superman
Orange - A weaker than Earth Superman
Red - Super or otherwise, he is merely a man.

A Pulsar emits radiation, so if Superman were to be struck by its beam, it should give him something of a boost, since he is basically a radiation battery. Other, deader Neutron stars would presumably have no effect on him (or maybe it would kill him (speculation)).
I found some speculation on forums that the younger the star, the more powerfully it affects Superman. So a brand new star would make him Superman^3 or something, and a completely dead star might kill him. However, I couldn't find anything to corroborate these claims.
Comment: @starpilotsix you are right as seen when Batman punches superman with  microscopic red suns attached to his fist (face palm).  "You like these knuckles clark? Each pod contains microscopic red suns collected from dead solar systems with the aid of dr ray palmer." Batman #36 I think.
Comment: I think in the comics it's a little more complicated than merely intensity.  For example, under a "red sun lamp" IIRC the light specifically drives out the "yellow sun" energy stored in his cells. Though I think your analysis of the effect is more or less correct.
Comment: There's a comic where Superman gains "Super Vision" and Bizarro gains "Bizarro Vision" from the light of a blue star. These visions allow them to create Supers/Bizarros respectively.
Answer: During the Silver Age, the answer is "absolutely nothing".
In "Action Comics" #376, the Anti-Superman Gang has a contest of sorts, initiating four attempts on Superman's life.  One attempt involved a ultra-sonic attack on his superhearing.  Superman's solution was definitely outside-the-box...all the way to a white dwarf star.
I'm certainly not going to defend the stellar physics behind this sequence, but one white dwarf star encounter, as requested.
Answer: Actually, there is a direct mention of this. In Superman Earth 1 Volume 1, Tyrell, a Dheronian from the same system as Krypton, tells Superman that both Kryptonians and Dheronians obtain "different properties" depending on dwarf stars, white stars, blue stars, and yellow stars. He directly mentions that "pulsars and quasars give power beyond imagining", and that black holes consume them completely. Neutron stars aren't even mentioned, I'm afraid.
Comment: Welcome to SFF.SE Bryan Guo! Just a note: [pulsars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsar) ***are*** neutron stars, and [quasars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar) ***are*** (supermassive) black holes.
Comment: "You know what happens to a Kryptonian when it's pulled into a black hole? Same thing that happens to everything else."
Comment: Hi, welcome to SF&F!  It's great that you've found a specific reference to different colour stars.  Unfortunately it doesn't answer the actual question, since it doesn't say exactly what the effect of a white dwarf is, just that it would "give us different properties."  Still, nice find.
Answer: The one answer above is that I always thought logically when I grew up reading comics; if Superman gets his powers because of a difference in stellar radiation between the Red sun of his birth and a Yellow sun, then a Blue sun should really saturate him with even more energy...a Super-Superman.
I remember two instances where Superman has encountered different suns.  In "Super Powers team Galactic Guardians", there was an episode where he encounters an Orange sun.  Since it's radiation would fall between a Red sun and Yellow sun's, as expected, his powers were roughly half what he normally has on Earth.
The other instance I remember was in the book "Superman: Last Son of Krypton".  When he's given an assignment (on a planet around Vega) by one of the (defrocked) Guardians, the ex-Guardian suggests he take some help because Vega is a Blue sun.  He says:  "You have reduced powers, Kal-El, on a planet whose star sun is blue.  Your optical abilities are restricted and your invulnerability to physical assault is not as apparently limitless."  So they made the answer a bit more complicated than just the color frequency change.  (Additionally, though most people and substances from Krypton and Daxum become near-indestructible, there are exceptions, and it doesn't work for every planet orbiting a Red sun.  Kryptonite for example is not indestructible, and can be shaped, molded, carved, etc.
Answer: The color of the star indicates it's age. A blue star is basically like a newborn baby. If Superman was exposed to a blue sun environment, he would be more powerful than Darkseid, and Darkseid is very powerful. A yellow star basically is an average star, and we all know what happens when a Kryptonian is exposed to yellow sunlight. Red star, well that's a dying star. Once upon a time, Krypton's sun was exactly like ours, as were its people. Over the billions of years of solar aging, the Kryptonians were evolved to the point where they were just like us under a red sun. Therefore, exposure to a red sun environment would make Superman as mortal as the next guy. If I had to guess what would happen when exposed to a white dwarf star, I'd say his powers would be taken from him permanently as fast as you can snap your fingers.
Comment: Star color is only kind of related to age, according to this [site](http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/physics/82-the-universe/stars-and-star-clusters/measuring-the-stars/389-what-can-we-learn-from-the-color-of-a-star-intermediate)


Piano both hands, different forces exercises

Question: I'm practicing piano for almost a year now and I'm getting very good especially at playing with both hands. But for the first time I met a piece that requires me to apply different forces on both hands.
I mean I have to play the notes on my left hand "piano" and the notes of the right hand "forte"
I'm finding a huge difficulty in achieving that. Anyone with exercises dedicated to this issue?
Comment: Great they are all very useful answers :)
I don't know which to select as the answer :)
Comment: Maybe try some of the suggestions for a few weeks - see if any of them work - and only then select ;-)
Answer: As a mature (elderly?) learner, I faced a similar difficulty about a year ago, and found these ideas helped:
With the "quiet" hand, keep the fingers as close to the keys as possible at all times (if possible, make sure that they never actually lose contact with the keys) and lift the fingers of the other hand off the keys before playing the note (loudly). It is very difficult to play really loudly with the quiet hand if you don't lift the fingers at all.
Take some VERY simple pieces, such as the first dozen pieces in Bartok's Mikrokosmos book 1, which are things like playing the same notes in both hands but an octave or two apart. Concentrate on playing one hand loudly and just touching the keys with the other hand but not actually depressing the keys.
Then move on to playing loudly with one hand and pressing the keys with the other hand as softly as possible.
The thing I found difficult was making sure that the notes played by the two hands actually sounded at exactly the same time - it took me quite a lot of (very) slow practise to get the hang of it.
On this last point, I did some exercises where I played LH softly and RH loudly and deliberately playing the LH slightly before the RH note, and reversing it, so that I played the RH note slightly earlier, and then the hard bit: both exactly together.
Answer: You can focus much more easily on the dynamics by making everything else easier (and thus either automatic or requiring little attention).  You could practise playing this way with a simpler piece or one you already know well.
Slowing down is also very effective — as a extreme example, if you're only pressing one note every 10 seconds is makes it exceptionally simple to focus on the force you're applying with each hand.  Play as slowly as you need to get the dynamics correct, then speed up slightly.  Repeat while verifying at each point that you're getting it right, backing up if you need to, until you can play full speed.  (It's OK if this takes a while the first time you attempt this!)
Old John's suggestions are also excellent.
Answer: When starting to work on any technique like this, I've found it's good to isolate it down to something so incredibly simple that you are focusing only on the technique and its clarity and not at all on the happenings of a piece. You can use a very simple five finger exercises you already know very well (ex. Hanon 1), but to start, I would recommend just repeatedly playing C-D-E-F-G-F-E-D. As with any practise, start off extremely slow.
First, play the exercise hands separate. Play the left hand forte through the exercise, then go through separately with the right hand piano. This might seem unnecessary, but it will give you a fresh feel of what each hand has to do before putting them together. Focus on the tone and dynamic of each note. Then play the exercise hands together—very slowly. Then repeat what was said in this paragraph, but with the dynamics of each hand reversed.
Once you feel comfortable start tweaking some of the variables. Increase the tempo, crescendo the right hand while decrescendoing the left in a certain amount of bars, instantly change the dynamic in one hand while maintaining a steady dynamic of the other, or flip the dynamics of each hand at the same time, etc. There are a lot of variations you can do and it can be quite fun.
From that base, you can move on to practising this in simple pieces and eventually apply it to the piece you're working on. It should be much easier at that point.
Answer: To build familiarity with this action, you may first practice a piece you already know, or just scales-- one time, focus on making one hand louder than the other, and the next time, focus on the other hand. Play as slow as you need to, to get the "feeling" correct, or at least, not as alien or hard. After that warm-up, practice the passage in which you need to apply these different "forces" slowly and gradually ramp up your speed as you become more comfortable. Remember, when you want to play things softly and with less of an accent, you should stay closer to the keyboard and slow your attack when pressing keys.
You may also find it helpful to think about the piece itself and why one hand is piano and one is forte. Most likely it is because the softer part is the harmony supporting the melody.. so I will often think about singing (internally) along with the melody, and that naturally makes the hand playing the melody louder than the other.
I'd also recommend that if you have a recording device-- even a cell phone is fine-- use it to record yourself a few times and see if you can hear the difference. Depending on the space/piano, unless we know what we're looking for, sometimes we don't "hear" correctly what is actually happening.


How to download elementary OS a second time?

Question: I paid for elementary OS, downloaded the software but my installation failed.  I'm starting over and need to download again.  How do I go about this?  I have the confirm email receipt if needed.  Thanks.
Answer: Just click on "Custom" put "0$" in the amount field, click on "Custom" again if it not selected, and then click Download button.