Why are there so few robots in Star Trek?

Question: Okay, obviously beyond Data and the Soong-type androids. But seriously, we have more robots in our daily life now than there apparently are on Trek. Is there a canon answer why not? It seems like Star Wars is more on the nose in this regard - it's unclear why all dirty/dangerous/boring work wouldn't be done by robots (anthropomorphic or not).
Comment: After the [AI disaster in TOS](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Computer_%28episode%29), the federation became weary of AI in general. In a world with replication technology, non-intelligent robots are pointless.
Comment: @DampeS8N - that explains why Data didn't show up until TNG - but where are all of the Trek Roombas ;)?
Comment: What use are Roombas when you have energy-related means to remove dust?
Comment: Don't the ships count as robots? They've freaking intelligent AIs...
Comment: It could also have been to: Cut production costs, focus more on the human stories, and because having a lot of robots is kind of gimmicky.
Comment: Regarding Trek Roombas, apparently there are still janitors in the 23rd century - remember the scene at the start of Wrath of Khan where Kirk & Spock walk past a guy vacuuming the floor (see here for pic: http://markssuperblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/re-viewing-star-trek-ii-wrath-of-khan.html).
Comment: Don't forget that in one TNG episode (that one about Data and if he is property of the Federation) Picard establishes a legal framework/precedence case that mass production of advanced robots/machines might be considered slavery. Curiously, they later do that to the EMH Mk1 without second thoughts, as it seems.
Comment: The EMH is software, not hardware.
Comment: The EMH on Voyager was the first ever to be left on so much. It kind of became an emergent life form due to the unanticipated circumstances.
Answer: This isn't an in-universe answer to the question, but when I was pitching stories to Trek, I went over some storylines with my agent before pitching and was given a strict "No androids" rule.  She (my agent) told me that it was Jeri Taylor's position that Data was unique and that there were no other robots or androids of that level of sophistication in the Federation.  I notice this rule held, since the only other androids were Lore, Data's Mother (Juliana Tainer) and Data's daughter (Lal).
There was no in-universe rationalization and I never did find out what Jeri's reasoning for that was. When you're pitching to producers, it's not exactly a good time to say, "Why did you make this rule?" - you just accept the rule and don't argue!
Obviously it's been a while, but I also remember being told not to pitch anything about Jack Crusher, avoid the "space seed" stories (not Khan, but about the Big E finding some spore or seed in space that grows into an alien) and if Q comes back, do NOT include any references to Vash or Q-pid because they would rather just forget that episode ever happened.  I can't remember the other off-limits stories, unfortunately.
Comment: @ChrisB.Behrens: No.  While I got good responses, while I was pitching, they came up with the 2 parter ("Unification") that then needed to rush through to tie in with ST:VI, so they shut out all the freelancers.  By the time they were taking pitches from freelancers again, I was in the middle of a divorce and didn't have time to work on my writing.
Comment: Very cool. Did any of your scripts get produced?
Comment: @TangoOversway - On the plus side you can not be blamed at all for the development of Wesley Crusher :)
Comment: @TangoOversway The reason for the rule on androids and Data is pretty obvious:  It would undermine the entire reason for nearly all the plotlines involving Data and his development.
Comment: This answer really just seems to address why there aren't more humanlike android robots (with humanlike intelligence), but it doesn't answer the part of the original question about why they don't have unhumanlike "dumb" robots for routine tasks, as we do even today. The endings of *Wrath of Khan* and *Into Darkness* would have been very different if they had some sort of maintenance bot that could be sent in to do a simple physical task in a chamber with high radiation, for example. And in TMP, we see space-suited humans working on the Enterprise...why not leave such physical labor to robots?
Comment: @TangoOversway - what's wrong with Wesley?
Comment: @Zibbobz: Yeah, I did notice that, but the writer/producer who told me that was not involved with DS9 at that point.  It's always possible they felt that since Q-pid wasn't their sin, it didn't hurt their series (DS9) to bring her back.
Comment: @Hypnosifl [Probably because holograms are better than robots for that work](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:EMH_Mark_Is_mining_dilithium.jpg)
Comment: @OftenRight: I left out B4 intentionally.  The rule was set by the producers of the show during the TV run.  Many of them were not involved with the movies, so B4 is a different case - I just didn't want to open that box of worms.
Comment: @Chad: You're right!  He was there long before they let me in the door!
Comment: @DVK Why not ask Chad?  He's the one who indicated there was a problem.  But it also depends on point of view.  While the producers had no issue with him, a large number of fans loathed the character.
Comment: I can't blame them for wanting to forget Q-Pid, but apparently they reneged on that for DS9 (and thankfully put that little plot thread to bed).
Comment: @Tango I liked the episode.  It wouldn't make a top 10 list mind you, but it worked, and did wonders to resolve that dangling plot point.
Comment: @Izkata - I don't know if that would be possible until the Federation got a hold of 29th-century mobile emitter technology: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Mobile_emitter Before that, holograms could still exert force on Holodecks with appropriately-placed tractor beams, but I don't know if they had small tractor beams that could do human-scale physical manipulations at the time of *Wrath of Khan*. And if they did, then the question naturally becomes "why didn't they have such a tractor beam installed in a radiation-filled room, or send in a robot with a mobile tractor beam emitter?"
Comment: @Hypnosifl That screenshot is from Voyager-era without a mobile emitter.  But yes, no holograms were around in TOS-era (and ENT-era), so robots would make sense.  I don't think holodecks are a perfect timeline measure, though, since they do a whole lot more than just simulate some beings (so hologram workers in TNG-era is plausible even thought holodecks were new at the start of TNG)
Comment: Just edited; there was a spelling mistake for Lore and you didn't mention B4
Comment: @Tango ah fair enough; I'll remove B4 then - my apologies!
Comment: @OftenRight: I probably should have mentioned something about that, but I didn't think anyone would pick it up.
Answer: There were androids in TOS: the Mudd androids in the episode "I, Mudd", built "for the purpose of performing necessary service functions".
Memory Alpha has a list of various self-aware machines, as well as a list of self-aware programs. These could be considered either advanced robots or simple androids due to their capacity to think and perform independent judgements.
Arguably, a ship's computer (along with the whole ship itself) could be considered a giant robot, capable of interacting with it's human operators and performing various tasks requested of it.
Comment: I think we're getting somewhere with this...there's a recurring theme, when you take "The Ultimate Computer", "Quality of Life" (the exocomps) and Data in general all together, what it appears is that pretty much the second you make anything usefully intelligent, it becomes self-aware, and all of the ethical questions swoop. IIRC from "The Offspring", they're probably also unstable. That may be the in-universe answer. Everything that doesn't require that much intelligence you can probably handle with non-robotic solutions...
Comment: @ChrisB.Behrens Well, unstable or [sarcastic](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Doctor)
Answer: There were the Exocomps and the Nanites.  Also, the automated spacedock that NX-01 encountered.  I imagine there must have been more manufacturing-type robots, but we never really see that side of life in the Federation.
Of course, after Exocomps and Nanites became self-aware, maybe Starfleet started frowning on new autonomous tech, wary of dealing with creating new life forms.
Answer: The Doctor from Voyager basically became a robot with his personal holographic projector device.
The computers are obviously sophisticated enough to support interactive artificial intelligences (holograms), it seems to me the computer could also just pipe that behavior into a humanoid robot. Even if the robot isn't independent, it would wirelessly be controlled by the computer based on the behavior of the program.
Perhaps Star Fleet decided to follow the convictions of Werner von Braun:

Man is the best computer we can put aboard a spacecraft, and the only one that can be mass produced with unskilled labor.
Comment: "Unskilled?" Speak for yourself! ;)
Comment: Don't forget Professor Moriarty!
Answer: This is from an exploration viewpoint.
Star Trek is supposed to be a reflection of what we want to do in the future. We don't want to explore the galaxy using robots because exploration by robots is a compromise. Star Trek is a society fueled by exploration.
We celebrated when we sent the first probes on the moon but we celebrated even more when we sent men on the moon.
We celebrated when we sent the first probes on Mars, but the truth is we would rather send humans to Mars (the act of sending a probe is a compromise it is proxy exploration - we can't do it ourselves yet so we compromise)
We don't exactly celebrate everytime the Voyager1 space probe gets deeper into space. We don't exactly feel as 100 percent real space explorers.
If we ever develop true warp drives, we wont be sending a ship full of Datas or robots to command and explore on our behalf to do proxy exploration. We will want to go ourselves with robots only in support roles.

To borrow quotes from Enterprise episode Fight or Flight
ARCHER: How about the Vulcan star charts?
T'POL: We have limited data on the course Starfleet has assigned you.
ARCHER: There are thousands of star systems along this path. There must have been something that piqued your people's interest. A sentient species, a trinary star cluster.
T'POL: We don't select our destinations by what piques our interest.
ARCHER: Vulcans always need a logical and pragmatic reason.
T'POL: My people don't share your enthusiasm for exploration. (squeak) Space is vast, Captain.

The Vulcans gave humans tons of data about planets and species discovered by Vulcans. But still humans insisted on doing the exploring themselves. We don't like proxy exploration not by Vulcans and not by robots or androids.
Comment: This is a good point. I will however point out that Voyager was not designed to be useful this far out, and at this point it basically can't detect anything. In fact, it's trajectory has changed, which we speculate may be due to encountering a large Kuiper belt object like a planet, but it had so few sensors still powered that there is literally no way to know. Just wanted to point that out. I agree with the sentiment of your response though.
Answer: Nanites are a type of robot and got a story or two in TNG.  I seem to remember there being a repair bot type of thing in one TNG story as well.  And of course, the Borg are robots after a fashion (more cyborgs, really though).
It could simply be that there were none in TOS, so there were to be none in any later shows.  Robots were thought of and in many stories by the 60s, so perhaps Gene Roddenberry didn't like robots.  It's not so uncommon - many SciFi writers and editors of that time didn't like aliens, or robots or atomic mutations, etc
Comment: Ah, yes - Exocomp is what I meant by "repair bot type of thing" - thanks NorbyTheGreek
Answer: I think robots and artificial intelligence is an area that writers would rather avoid. Real artificial intelligence (as embodied in any myriad of physical or audible forms) would be impossible for humans to recognize as "different" because they had been designed to perfectly imitate human intelligence.  That obvious identity ambiguity would be extremely problematic for a writer trying to create a story populated by Joseph Campbell-ish archetypes.  They would be servants. slaves, and thus evoking unpleasant social memories and associations.  And the obvious question arises: what if they become self-aware?  This is probably why the "no androids/no robots" edict came about.  The ambiguities would be problematic to story development, especially when you have a small group of defined characters
Although I believe the infinite possibilities (and I've already written many) would present a huge and dynamic world of endless and fascinating narratives.
Comment: That's an interesting point...all of the primary Star Trek characters are ubermenschen, essentially, and there's always been a part of me that asked "what about the people are not transcendentally spectacular at their jobs?" They touched on this briefly with Barclay and, to a lesser extent, with Chief O'Brien...but Trek has always been a show about an intensely hierarchical organization that constantly shies away from hierarchy...
Answer: From a pure 'TV production' standpoint, it could be that without all of the CGI technology that is available today, that it was impractical (given time and budgetary constraints) to have the art department create robots. Back then there was no way to make them move without being clunky or hokey looking, although I think that it's an area that could have been explored, especially a robot that was a left over from an alien race, perhaps an alien race that has long perished, yet the robot it still performing it's function. As both a filmmaker and a Star Trek fan, I'm seriously considering making a fan film with an alien robot.
Answer: I would argue - in line with the other answers here - that there are robotic devices in ST, but they are different and more ubiquitous than we see today. The Borg are roboticly enhanced, the Doctor is a holographicly driven robot, I am sure that there are robotic features making the ship function year on year that we never hear about.
And the Borgs Nanobots - they are robots, of a sort. Replicators - surely they would count as manufacturing robots. What there is not much of is visible or anthropomorphic robots, because they do not need to be visible or human-like. Humans are better at it than robots, so - apart form a few exceptions - let the humans get on with their parts.
And there are relatively few dirty/boring/dangerous jobs left, for a vessel of that size. Some of the routine work, I would argue, is retained for a sense of discipline and order. And the human maintenance work is done because humans are better at bug-fixing-type problem solving than computers.
And yes, sometimes people need to be in difficult situations for plot purposes. But that is a completely different issue.
Answer: Lieutenant Commander Airiam from Star Trek: Discovery is at least in part robotic, even if her true nature is a bit unclear and not fully disclosed.

She has been described in various ways, from "synthetic-Human hybrid", to "augnemnted alien" to "augmented human", but it appears rather clear that she is at least in part cybernetic.
Comment: Airiam is confirmed to be a cyborg; she was originally human (or at least a fully human looking alien) who was nearly killed in an accident, which required her to be rebuilt.
Answer: In the TOS era, there are examples of both human-made AI and alien-made AI (sometimes in anthropomorphic form e.g. "I, Mudd", "What are Little Girls Made of?", sometimes in the form of "space furniture" e.g. "The Ultimate Computer", "The Return of the Archons").
In all cases, they end up adversaries of the Enterprise crew. They are depicted as overly constrained by rigidly logical decision making, which leads to:

Undesirable actions - blowing up friendly spaceships, hijacking (or threatening to hijack the Enterprise), killing, imprisoning, or threatening to kill or "absorb" members of the Enterprise landing party, etc.
Their being outsmarted by illogical humans

In the Start Trek universe, androids as capable as humans without flaws that make them downright dangerous are very difficult things to create. It took until TNG era for Data to appear, and his creation was so difficult he remained a unique artifact. His close copies Lore had a more human-like manner but was thoroughly antisocial, and B4 was next to useless until he effectively had Data's essence downloaded into him, ambiguously becoming replacement Data.
Out-of-universe, Data's role is to look upon humanity as an outsider amongst the (mostly) human crew; we only need the one viewpoint, so there is need of only one "Data". And, Star Trek is about human adventures in space. If there were lots of "good" robots, it could easily make the humans seem superfluous, and so much for the adventures of humans in space.
Even though we have lots of robotics in our modern world, Star Wars-like robots may be very far into our future, beyond the Star Trek settings. To imbue a mechanical device with the sort of adaptive behaviors we see in R2-D2 or C-3P0 would make it unpredictable. If you can't predict the machine's behavior, how much confidence can you place in it choosing to do the "right" or desirable thing when a human life is on the line? And without such adaptability, how useful would it really be? To get it right could take many, many decades of further development. Star Trek may have gotten it right but for the wrong reasons. The absence of robots in Star Trek served storytelling, but might turn out to be more-or-less right.
Comment: I was watching "The Ultimate Computer" last night and I was struck that one of the ships that's blown up - The Woden - is a fully autonomous, apparently warp capable, ore-carrier.  The capability speaks of a highly complex computer system which system that is capable of a lot of what the M5 was touted to do.
Comment: @PeterM It could be argued that the ore carrier doesn't require anywhere near the touted sophistication of M5 - it's just schlepping between well-defined terminal points, not exploring and projecting Federation might, making complex analyses and choices along the way. It might also be argued that M5 saw in the Wodin a rival, albeit an antiquated one, and felt the need to show off to its "Mother" (Daystrom), and perhaps demonstrate what will happen to any human who gets in its way (as happens shortly afterward).
Comment: In the first half of that episode people were amazed that the M5 could make course changes and do things like going into a standard orbit without human intervention.   That's the sort of sophistication an ore carrier would need even if it was just schlepping from between well defined points.
Comment: @PeterM Have to momentarily step out of universe to consider that some of the dialog is lacking in sophistication due to the times in which the series was produced, and the constraints of budget and production schedules. Taken more broadly, M-5 was supposed to emulate human thinking (and presumably human mental flexibility) but do it faster and more efficiently - in other words, do what it had previously been believed only a human could do. The ore freighter situation was basically automation as it was already understood.
Answer: The Federation has evolved beyond robots. They deal with advanced computer technology with self aware systems. The super system known as "Computer" is the Federations main source of robotic intelligence.
Why robots are not used by other alien races is a mystery, theres no reason why that is missing from the Star Trek mythology. Perhaps they are universally impractical.
Comment: Federation computers are not normally self-aware.  Creations like Moriarty were accidents that could not be reproduced.
Answer: Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek is pre-Aibo/iPhone era. The stories tend to lean against the original written work. Star Trek series don't avoid robots because they weren't anticipated. No one could have known what things like Arduino or SBCs would mean for us. It gave us options and interests to think about what we might expect to see in the future.
Comment: Robotics were extensively envisioned in scifi since the 1940s onwards.
Comment: As an example, *Lost in Space* had a robot as a prominent cast member and that started airing a year *before* Star Trek. So it can't possibly have been that they weren't anticipated.
Comment: I never said they didn't exist.
You didn't read the books obviously.


Is tawba acceptable for pre-marital sexual videos my boyfriend put on the internet?

Question: I have committed illegal sexual relationship with my boyfriend and made some videos. Now he put those videos on the internet. Now I am very much depressed about what I did. Is my tawba acceptable?
Comment: Uh. @user14399, although your sin is awful, but Allah will forgive you if you indeed repent. / I am providing a short answer, God willing I will present it in some mins. Good luck mate.
Answer: Although your sin as what you stated is considered as a major sin, but you ought to pay attention that Allah is Tavvab. In other word, it means He will accept the repentance. In the meantime, don't forget that according to a verse of the holy Qur'an:

قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا
  تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّـهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّـهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ
  جَمِيعًا ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ ﴿٥٣﴾
Say, "O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by
  sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives
  all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful." (53)

As a concise answer:

A major sin is one that being punished in hell is promised to its
  committer in the Quran or ahadith. (There are also other criteria for
  a sin being a major one). Also minor sins turn into major sins when
  committed repeatedly (when insisted on by the sinner).
In the Quran, Allah has promised to forgive all sins if one truly
  repents to him. Regarding Haqqullah (Obligation to Allah) repentance
  would be to make up for the past and saying Istiqfar while regarding
  Haqqunnas (Obligation to people) it would be doing Istiqfar, giving
  the person back his rights and striving to obtain his satisfaction.

For more info. I recommend you to read the following source.
Source:

www.islamquest.net
www.tanzil.net
Answer: Well first of all you should know that one of Allah's names is the all forgiving!
So if you do sincere repentance from what you did Allah may forgive you.
Scholars (Sunni) say that a sincere repentance would make sins disappear even for sins which should be (but are not) punished according to shari'a (see the links below in Arabic)! This would mean you should do repentance and expiation and real regretting and turn the sins into good deeds like praying, fasting,..., doing good things, helping: Being a good muslim and not redoing what those sins!
Because of the following Verses:

Surat at-Tawba (9:104)
Surat al-Furqan(25:70)
Surat ash-Shura(42:25)

Verses 1 and 3 just tell as that Allah accept repentance (if it is sincere as explained above) while Verse 2 tells us that Allah even turn sins into good deeds if one is faithful and and repent sincerly!
And here some fatwas in Arabic about sincere repentance, repentance from major sins and how to clean oneself from sins.
And Allah knows best!
Answer: It's always Tauba.
Allaah Rabbul `alameen will forgive any sins except the Sins of Shirk and the sins of mocking Rasulallaah Sallallaahu 'alaihi wasallam.
And even after that, I think, there is always room for Repentance (Tauba).
May Allaah accept your repentance.


CCK Select List widget with "Add another item" functionality?

Question: With certain field types that are set to unlimited you get an "Add another item" button that lets you create as many fields as you need. If you set a field with a Select List widget to unlimited it instead gives you a select list box that has ctrl click functionality for selecting multiple.
I want to know if there's a way to make a Select List widget that is set to unlimited instead show a regular select list, and an "Add another item" button that creates further select lists.
Answer: Try one of these modules

Select (or other)
CCK Select Other


Reverting the keybindings that I don't specify in the init files without restarting emacs?

Question: When I have test-assigned some function on mouse-3, and I want to revert the default feature assigned to it to compare which function is more useful to assign to the mouse-3, I have to comment out the particular assigning statement from the init file, and then restart emacs. I could do (global-unset-key  (kbd "")), but that would just unable the mouse-3 instead of get back the default feature assigned to it. It's cumbersome to restart emacs every time I'm in this kind of situation (I've been in this kind of situation many times.); is there a way to do this without restarting?
Answer: Load library mouse.el (again). It binds the default mouse keys.
Or just visit it (M-x find-library RET mouse.el RET) and evaluate the relevant key-binding code.


What is the meaning of step in ERA reanalysis data?

Question: The webpage to download ERA data includes an option called "time" which is intuitive, but also an option called "step". I can't find an explanation of the meaning of this. It can't be a time step because it has also 0.
Comment: I suggest editing the question to define the acronym "ERA"
Answer: The "step" is the number of hours the ERA re-forecast has been run into the future from the "time" of the re-analysis.
For example, asking for ERA data with time = 12:00 and step = 0 means asking for data valid at 12:00 based on a re-analysis for 12:00. But asking for data with time = 12:00 and step = 6 means asking for data valid at 18:00, i.e. for data produced by a 6 h model run based on the 12:00 re-analysis.
To fill the gaps between the analysis times one can use steps from a forward run. Forward runs are needed to get parameters like time accumulated precipitation, which would not be available from an analysis. Sometimes a combination of steps and times might be appropriate for a joint analysis of instantaneous and time averaged parameters, i.e. to stagger them correctly in time.
Data valid 00:00 deviate less from the observations if they come from a 00:00 analysis compared to data from step 12 of the 12:00 analysis. But a series of steps from one initialization time should be more consistent in time compared to a series of independent analyses.
Comment: I think it could be useful to address the availability of variables in a separate question.
Comment: thank you, it's still somewhat unclear though, all I need is the data at the time it was measured/modelled, what is the purpose of the step, why would someone want to use a step 6 or 12? It would be night instead of day.
Comment: @user4050 e.g. because sometimes it's useful to know the difference between "forecast" and "outturn", and comparing the 00:00 figures with the previous day's 12:00 + 12h forecast is one way to approach that.
Comment: @EnergyNumbers why is it that some variables are not available at 6 and 12 time and not available at step 0?
Comment: @user4050 ^ just as BHF says
Answer: Some confusion comes from the mixture of analysis data (such as 2m-air temperature) and reanalysis products (such as downward radiation) in the final reanalysis product. The following text directly from ECMWF may help
https://confluence.ecmwf.int/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=56658233
Comment: [Your answer is in another castle](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/225370/your-answer-is-in-another-castle-when-is-an-answer-not-an-answer). Can you [edit] this and quote the relevant parts here? The text as written now does not seem to answer the question.


Forced to take sick leave

Question: This appears to be the opposite of the usual situation... Can my California employer require me to use accrued sick leave rather than work remotely while I am recuperating? I was working full-time remotely until my employer told me it would no longer be allowed. If I am able to work, just not able to commute into the office, and am only not working on my employer's order, should that come out of my sick time?
Comment: Legal questions are outside the scope of this forum. I would recommend consulting with a lawyer.
Comment: actually there are many questions related to sick leave and working, not really off-topic
Answer:
Can my California employer require me to use accrued sick leave rather
  than work remotely while I am recuperating?

I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on television.
But, barring something to the contrary contained in your contract, it is my understanding that your California employer can require indeed you to work in the office, rather than remotely. Yahoo (headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA) reversed their remote work policy not too long ago.
And if you cannot come into the office for some reason, and aren't permitted to work remotely, it's my understanding that your employer can indeed force you to take a day off - using up accrued vacation time, personal time, or sick time as dictated by the rules in your company.

If I am able to work, just not able to commute into the office, and am
  only not working on my employer's order, should that come out of my
  sick time?

Should is a personal opinion.
Some companies have blanket PTO days, where accrued days off cover vacation, personal time, and sick time. If your company has such a policy, and doesn't permit working remotely, I feel that is where your "unable to work" days should come from.
I am happy that my company fosters flexible work arrangements, and ad-hoc remote work. I personally believe that for trusted knowledge/office workers, this is a proper policy - one that works out well for both the company and for the workers. I'm sad to hear that your company's policies have changed.
Comment: I believe you can be force to take leave in many cases. (not 100% on cali's rules, but generally unless local laws or contracts conflict you can be required to take time off, typically this automatically goes against PTO, but it's possible you could ask it to not go against PTO (but why would you?) I know I've personally sent people home who weren't fit to work. I think they all ultimately took PTO to cover the time, but to be fair I don't want you at your desk if you have something contagious or won't be reasonably productive.
Answer: I did not verify with the California code, but have read it in the past. My answer is from what I remember.
If you wish to keep being employed and receive wages then you obviously have to do what your employer tells you, within reason and what is lawful. If they say you can no longer work from home then you have to work from the designated place of work, of course you can refuse, and they can fire you for no reason any time (you can also quit for no reason, any time).
Considering they changed the rule and you are no longer allowed to work from home, and you still do work from home, they can regard this as being absent without leave. Since you are not present at your workplace doing your job.
They offer you to use up your sick leave during your stay at home (I assume it's a medical reason preventing you from going to work). If you do that then make sure to not work, because you're having paid time off, or sick leave in this case. Take time to recover and rest. It is silly, to say the least, to work when on (sick) leave (I know many a fool does, and many people get stressed and burn outs, how surprising).
You can of course refuse to use the sick leave, and your employer can then consider this as being absent without leave, stop paying you for the days you are not at work, ignore the fact you could be working from home (since that is against the rules now) and eventually decide to fire you because you are not at work.
Don't think that just because you are working from home that it is by default considered work. It is only considered work as long as your employer thinks it is and since they decided to not allow work from home they would not consider it work, I would think.
Answer:
...while I am recuperating?

I imagine it depends on what exactly you're recuperating from... and you don't need to tell us what that is.
In general when people are sick they might not be able to think clearly and so their work could be negatively impacted and that may be of concern. As a manager, I'd rather have someone take sick leave and recover so when they return to the office they can be productive.
Comment: It could be that you are not being as productive as you think and it was noticed and that is why they told you to take sick leave.

Forced to take sick leave


Is "Mir ist kalt" correct? Did I hear it correctly?

Question: While listening to Rammstein, in particular the song named "Keine Lust", I heard the phrase "Mir ist kalt, so kalt.". I thought it would have been "Ich bin kalt". Did I hear it incorrectly, or is there a rule I don't remember? (It's been 20 years since German class.)
Comment: Sorry, I didn't notice that you reverted an edit from me before (that explains the déjà vu), otherwise I would have elaborated myself: The main reason why I edited was to remove the blacklisted [grammar] tag. The rest was formatting and similar, while I was at it. Your question having been well received is no sufficient reason to rollback edits. Please read [this](https://german.stackexchange.com/help/editing), in particular: "If you are not comfortable with the idea of your contributions being collaboratively edited by other trusted users, this may not be the site for you."
Comment: This answer has been well received the way it is for >5 years, so I rolled back the edit that was made today.
Comment: Let's please not get into an edit war. I will continue to rollback any edits to this question. See my comment from 9/15.
Comment: laut **C-Grammatik: Übungsgrammatik Deutsch als Fremdsprache : Sprachniveau C1, C2** - *Anne Buscha, Susanne Raven, Szilvia Szita* (https://goo.gl/EvJ3bC) ist "klar" ein Adjektiv mit direktem Kasus "Dativ" (https://imgur.com/a/xThnM)
Answer: "Ich bin kalt" und "Mir ist kalt" are two absolutely different things.
Regarding the latter sentence, "Mir ist kalt": I guess it's the most common way to express that you're feeling cold, for instance:

Kannst du bitte das Fenster schließen, mir ist kalt.

Alternatively, you can say "Ich friere" (I'm freezing).
However, the former sentence "Ich bin kalt" which is the literal translation for "I am cold" does mean something completely different.
You can say:

Meine Hände sind kalt. My hands are cold.
Mein ganzer Körper ist kalt. My whole body is cold.
Die Fensterbank ist kalt. The window sill is cold.

But there is a second meaning of "kalt sein". If someone is unsympathetic, indelicate, cool (calm; not excited), not friendly, etc. then you could say "Er ist kalt".
The following examples are all with "eiskalt", since I found them easier.

Dann zeigten sie ihr, sagt Hadir Faruk, wie eiskalt diese neue Regierung sein kann. ZEIT The goverment is cold.
In Toulouse hat sie, vom Täter nicht nur in Kauf genommen, sondern in eiskalter Absicht, wieder Kinder getroffen – angeblich, um den Tod palästinensischer Kinder zu rächen. ZEIT The murderer is cold.
Nachdem Bastian Schweinsteiger in der 33. Minute bei der bis dahin größten Chance freistehend noch die sichere Führung verpasst hatte, schlug wenig später Gomez eiskalt zu. DERWESTEN The scorer is cold.

A possible translation of "jemand ist kalt" could be "someone is callous", e.g. a callous killer.
Said that, I try to interpret the Rammstein lyrics. First I will mention that's not easy, because Rammstein songs are often very ambiguous.

Lustlos fasse ich mich an,
  und merke bald,
  ich bin schon lange kalt.
So kalt,
  Mir ist kalt,

Before these lines they sing something about lying in the snow, so most likely "ich bin schon lange kalt" is referring to the temperature of his body. But there could also be a slight connotation regarding the second meaning of "kalt sein", because of "Ich hab keine Lust" which is not only the title of the song ("Keine Lust"), but is also repeated in almost every line. "Keine Lust haben", meaning that you don't bother, could lead into the direction of "kalt sein" in its figurative meaning. Though, reading the lyrics I wouldn't interpret it that way, just wanted to say that, since Rammstein songs are - as I already mentioned - very ambiguous.
Back to content, after he song that his body is cold he continues, by saying "Mir is kalt", that he is feeling cold.

Anyway, just to make it a bit more confusing. In some region instead of "Mir ist kalt", you may hear:

Ich hab' kalt.
Comment: "Ich hab' kalt." heißt es im Öcher Platt.
Comment: Not knowing the rest of the lyrics, I was thinking about a dead body in a coffin, which would say "I am cold" (ich bin kalt) if it could speak. Which it can in a song :0)
Answer: While writing this answer, I saw you already found the solution yourself, but maybe some of the links I've collected are still useful.
Nice question - you've hit the difficult problem of sentences without a subject. "Mir ist kalt." lacks a subject in nominative case, but the sentence is still grammatically correct.
The other way - "Ich bin kalt." is correct as well, but they have different meanings: "Mir ist kalt." describes a perception or a feeling - in English: "to feel cold". On the other hand, "Ich bin kalt." just describes a fact: "I'm cold." So, you could say "Das Wasser ist kalt.", but it would sound odd saying "Dem Wasser ist kalt."
There are different descriptions for the grammatical structure in sentences like "Mir ist kalt.":

"Subjektlose Konstruktion";
"Nullsubjekt"
"psychologisches Subjekt/ satzgegenstandsloser Satz"
Comment: I don't agree. "Ich bin kalt" is something different than "I'm cold", though it's the literal translation. But "Mir ist kalt" is one possible translation for "I'm cold". The sentence "Ich bin kalt", however, is something you would rarely say. I would use such phrasing if I'm talking about a body (It's already cold - Er ist schon kalt") oder figurative, e.g. coolness: "Er ist eiskalt"
Comment: I am currently learning German and I came across this oddity - my conclusion after some consideration was that there may have been a nominative subject at some point that is no longer included, something like "mir ist es kalt" / "es ist mir kalt"; i.e. "it is cold to me". Explains both the dative and the verb and sounds similar to something like "es ist mir egal". May or may not be accurate but it helps me remember in any case.
Answer: When it comes to temperature, you would use "Mir ist..." normally. There are other connotations to using "Ich bin kalt / warm / heiß", which you would want to avoid.
For example,

"Ich bin heiß" would mean "I am horny"
"Ich bin warm" means "I am gay"
"Ich bin kalt" means "I am frigid"

I suppose that "Mir ist kalt" is a statement about an external condition that is affecting a person, as opposed to "I am cold" describing your own internal condition. I think constructions like this can vary because of slight differences in perceptions of things.
Comment: "Ich bin kalt" is also something that an emotionless killer could say.
Comment: "heiß sein" means to be attractive not horny. That would be "heiß auf etwas sein".  Also, I never heard the phrase with warm. Is gay meant in the sense of joy or homosexuality? Where in Germany is it used?
Answer: Check out the Keine Lust lyrics:
He sings "Und merke bald ich bin schon lange kalt \ So kalt, mir ist kalt ...".
As stated on the website:

"Kalt" here [in the first part] is used not to mean temperature, but temperament. In the
  next line, "Mir ist kalt" is used to mean temperature.
Comment: Okay, so I heard it pretty close to the way it is written, but why is it "Mir ist" instead of "Ich bin"? Is there a rule here I can apply to other similar phrases?
Comment: There are many examples. "Mir ist warm", "Mir ist langweilig", "Mir ist es zu schnell" (I feel something, e.g. a ride, is too fast for my taste), "Mir ist klar" (it is obvious to me). That is an extremely common, and to be honest practical usage.
Answer: I should have googled first, I guess, but I did it after I read @efie 's answer. I found this and it explained that "mir ist kalt" is more like saying "it is cold to me" and that this and other phrases involving feeling and impressions often take this reflexive form.
Comment: Another example of this is "mir ist schlecht" (which means something completely different than "ich bin schlecht") and "mir ist schwindlig". On the other hand, you say "ich bin müde", not "mir ist müde". Also "ich bin hungrig" and "ich bin durstig".
Comment: It's okay to answer your own question but the other answer says exactly the same thing.
Comment: I thought I had replied to this comment earlier. Guess i never clicked the button. The other answer that says the same thing was posted about the same time as mine, so I didn't see it until later. I accepted it anyway, because it was more thorough than mine.
Comment: I meant the one by "efie" which was posted two hours before yours.
Comment: No, completely different. The one from @tohuwawohu that you edited explains it better.
Answer: In the phrase, "Mir ist kalt," I am the recipient of "coldness" (e.g. from weather). That translates idiomatically into "I am cold," in English, even though the literal translation is "It is cold to me."
In the phrase, "Ich bin kalt," the "coldness" originates with me. It means, "I am a cold person," not, "The weather is making me cold."
Answer: There may be nuances, regionally. But for me (Southern Germany), "mir ist kalt" sounds perfect as a translation for "I'm cold."
I would go so far as saying "ich bin kalt" is quite uncommon. At the very least, it's the stronger phrase (as in: "about to freeze"). As a second-person phrase, I think "er ist kalt" could even be a euphemism for "he's dead".
Comment: it not only sound so, it _is_ so
Answer: If you watch the video for Keine Lust  you would see by his actions that his meaning is one of indifference and apathy. The very meaning of the title of the song is "I Don't Care"... So it is easy to assume that in saying 'mir ist kalt' he is saying "I am distant and uninterested".
Comment: Welcome. However, this answer does not seem to address the question.
Comment: This non-answer would have been an OK comment that might have added value to another answer.


Macbook sleep is delayed

Question: I have a late 2011 Macbook pro, and lately it hasn't been sleeping properly. If I close the lid for less than a minute and reopen it, it doesn't go to sleep while the lid is closed. The screen is still displayed immediately after reopening. Also, a few seconds after I open the machine, it will go to sleep on it's own. I have had the software checked and that doesn't seem to be the problem. What could be causing this and how do I get it fixed? It is still under warranty.
Comment: Which OS X version is your laptop running?
Comment: Same problem here:
my MacBook Air from 2012 (OS X 10.7.5) doesen't go to sleep at closing the lid. I disabled "Dropbox Lan Sync" and checked if it has enough free harddrive space. still the same. It goes to sleep, if I don't close the lid after exactly 1 Minute not working on it (like I set in in energy-options). But not, if I close the lid:
Then even the screen stays on, while the lid is closed. Sometimes it goes to sleep after some Minutes with lid closed (always more than 1 minute) but sometimes not. What do I have to look for on the console? in which log there would be a hint on what is ha
Answer: If there is a process that is preventing sleep (rather than a bug in the sleep implementation), you can use "pmset -g" in a terminal window to list the process that is doing that. This is covered over on superuser.
Here is an an example on my system. First, with nothing preventing sleep:
<code>$ pmset -g assertions | egrep '(PreventUserIdleSystemSleep|PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep)'
     PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep             0
     PreventUserIdleSystemSleep              0
$
</code>
Then I start music in iTunes:
<code>$ pmset -g assertions | egrep '(PreventUserIdleSystemSleep|PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep)'
     PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep             0
     PreventUserIdleSystemSleep              1
    pid 264: [0x0000012c00000108] PreventUserIdleSystemSleep named: "com.apple.audio.'AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,2:0'.noidlesleep"
    pid 95390: [0x0000012c0001749e] PreventUserIdleSystemSleep named: "Nameless (via IOPMAssertionCreate)"
</code>
Answer: How long does it take to get to sleep on its own if you leave it?
I'd suggest looking at the log entries in the Console.app to see what's happening when it tries to go to sleep.
A few things that I've encountered that can make a Mac slow to sleep:

Nearly full hard disk (can make it slow to write out the hibernation data)
Misbehving drivers (like, oh, I don't know, VMWare's virtual networking) that don't go to sleep quickly.

Aside from looking at the console for hints and checking your free disk space, this is the sort of thing where doing an SMC reset might actually be applicable.
Answer: Your problem same me. After this, i reinstall Mac because i can't debug my error.
However, you can try:
_If your Mac has got uTorrent and still running it, please EXIT it.
_If your Mac has got Dropbox, uncheck "Enable LAN sync"

Macbook sleep is delayed


Can I substitute almond meal for breadcrumbs in meatballs?

Question: I am gluten-free and want to make some turkey meatballs. I was thinking about putting almond meal in the mixture. Would that be okay instead of breadcrumbs? If not what would be a good substitute?  I don't really want to buy breadcrumbs or bread for one thing of meatballs. This is not something I make very often.
Answer: Go right ahead and use the almond meal.
In its list of uses for almond meal, this source says:

Use almond meal in place of breadcrumbs in meatballs.

In fact one of the recipes on the site is for Meatballs Parmesan. It calls for ground meat without specifying a type, so I assume your turkey would be fine.
In addition, the description of this
almond meal product states the following:

Use almond meal in place of bread crumbs in meatballs, or as a coating for chicken and fish.
Answer: Breadcrumbs in meatballs (and meatloaf) will help to keep them moist by absorbing fat and juices that are given off as they cook.  I don't think that almond meal would have quite the same effect.
I tend to add some extra moisture through additional vegetables (finely minced in a food processor, then cooked to soften them up and evaporate any liquid that they extract.  (you'll still have plenty of retained moisture in there).  I typically stick with the italian standards -- carrots, onion & bell pepper, but you could mix it up depending on what flavors you're trying for.
Comment: Actually, ground nuts *can* absorb some liquid - I grew up with sprinkling a nut-sugar-cinnamon mix over open-faced apple and plum pies. So while not as "absorbant" as bread crumbs, they will work to a certain degree.
Answer: Whilst bread crumbs are good, so is almond meal. I'm 50 been cooking since 8, and for 42 years I've used ground almonds in meatballs and only sometimes bread crumbs. Both do the same job but almond IMHO is the better one to use.
Comment: Hard to beat experience! Can you give some more info about why you prefer the almond meal (texture, flavor, whatever)?
Answer: There is no need whatsoever for breadcrumbs in meatballs, they are there only as a filler (to make more servings)
They are mistakenly labelled as binders (to make everything stick together), but they do not have that property
Most meats when finely ground are themselves good binders
Using eggs or milk is usually sufficient to hold a mixture of ground meat and herbs together
Adding ground nuts will add interesting tastes and textures, but they are just another filler that your binder will have to hold together
Comment: As Joe has pointed out, breadcrumbs definitely have a real purpose in meatballs: keeping them moist. True, that's not binding, but it's still a reason to use them.
Comment: @Jefromi Fat soaked breadcrumbs does not equal moist. Cooking ground beef a little longer and slower to reduce out the fat, not to keep it in, is quite normal
Comment: Cooked meat releases water, not just fat. And, well, this works, not sure what else to tell you. It also makes them a bit more tender; solid ground meat can cook up into a pretty firm ball.
Comment: Hot fat will displace water from bread. Yes breadcrumbs can make the texture softer (flour and fat tend to make anything softer), but it can make them over crisp too. Are breadcrumbs a requirement, or just what you are used too? Kefta are the grandfather of meatballs, they always had herbs and vegetables as softeners. Breadcrumbs where probably added to Kefta as the recipe moves into poorer neighbours (Greece, Turkey) many centuries ago. In some traditional recipes you still see flat breads being torn or shredded and added to meatballs
Comment: I didn't say they were required or the only good way, just that they have a clear, useful purpose beyond just a filler as you claim. Yes, it's true, there are other ways you can make them tender and moist. If you want to write a good answer about gluten-free substitutes for breadcrumbs, perhaps you should mention things like that, rather than saying they're just a filler.


newby from Mac: how do I "install" a program I've downloaded

Question: sorry that this question is "stupid" : ) So, I've installed elementary, figured out how to access the internet, downloaded two of my favorite programs (LibreOffice and Firefox), clicked on the packages and "extracted" the files. Where did the applications go? and How do I put them in my applications file? Nothing in the extracted files has the names of the applications (that I could find). Thank you.
Answer: Most apps are in the AppCenter (the icon with a down arrow). Just open it and use the search function to find the app you want.
I'm not sure what you did but you can delete those files you've downloaded. Both apps, Firefox and Libreoffice are in the AppCenter.
Comment: Thank you for your quick response. But in AppCenter on my new os, it only shows applications I already have installed. And if I "search" it finds nothing.
Comment: Ok. Just to be sure: If you go to the Categories tab in AppCenter and then you press Audio. Does it show anything besides what you've installed?

If it doesn't. Open Terminal  and write `sudo apt update`. Press "Paste Anyway" if that window appears. This command is just going to update your sources so all applications appear. If you get any error, reboot and try a second time.
Comment: the sudo apt update worked. I had tried various other terminal commands (and got things like -- doesn't exist, even though the man pages said it did.) After running the command as given, everthing updated, including the appCenter, and I was able to perform a search and install of both programs.
Answer: Are you new to Linux? If you are then you should learn how to install software in Linux. Since elementary is derived from Ubuntu then just google how to install bla in Ubuntu. Installing libreoffice and firefox is so easy. You can find them in repository by typing
sudo apt-get install libreoffice

or
sudo apt-get install firefox

in terminal. Just learn how to use apt and you are master.
Answer: Not a stupid question at all! It sounds like two things are going on here:

AppCenter isn't working properly. It should list a wide variety of apps, including LibreOffice and Firefox. See this question for a fix and this bug ticket for details on the underlying problem.
Ubuntu apps are often distributed outside the AppCenter in .deb packages. elementary OS doesn't come with a way to install .deb packages. This is by design, and in most cases installing an app from the AppCenter is simpler and more reliable than installing the same app from a .deb package. That said, you can install .deb packages by following these instructions.


Are non-Muslims allowed to touch an English translation of the Quran?

Question: I have purchased "The Qur'an: A New Translation" by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem
(it's an English translation). My question is, am I allowed to touch it and read it?
Comment: @goto '*in any way you like*' ? That's not true
Comment: you are not allowed to touch the words in pages but you can read it and learn
Comment: Yes you can touch and read it, any way you like. The only purpose of this book is that human beings find guidance from their Creator
Comment: possible duplicate of [Can Qur'an be touched without wudu?](http://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/2156/can-quran-be-touched-without-wudu)
Comment: Of course you can touch it as long as you do respect it and are ritually clean(clean hands - highly recommended | as respect). It is meant for every-one, who wants to learn lifestyle and other such matters in a religous perspective. but don't draw conclusions from the translation, as not all arabic words are appropriately translated (shortcoming of languages), even in arabic it requires high level of wisdom and knowledge to undestand **some of the verses**
Answer: Alan: short answer, as someone already said, is yes, please go ahead and feel free to read and enjoy it.
There's a long answer I'd like to give based on the answers that have already been provided, even though you have not explicitly asked for these details.
Within the Islamic school of thoughts, there is a difference between touching the Quran and touching its translation.
M.A.S. Abdel Haleem's translation that I have does not have any original Arabic Quranic text, therefore, even within the Islamic school of thought, there is no issue with presenting it to a non-Muslim and a non-Muslim reading or touching it.
The issue with the Arabic Quran is a result of Muslim belief that the Quran is God's literal word, and thus a holy object. The same way as there are rules in various religions regarding holy objects (e.g. Old Testament for Jews, New Testament for Christians, cows and various idols for Hindus etc.), so is the discussion on what those rules are for the Quran.
Within Islamic thought, the issue is divided between those who believe that the verse 79 of Al-Waqiah (quoted by beautiful mind in their response) prohibits touching the Quran except in the state of ablution. As state in the comments to the same question, there has been a strong difference of opinion that those verses do not refer to touching the Quran rather was an assertion from God that the Quran has only been transported by angels and not any evil being, since that was an allegation put forth by the Quran's opponents. (This latter opinion looks more likely given the context of those verses and the arguments put forth by both sides.)
Dr. Khalid Zaheer, who happens to be a prominent scholar, has clarified that issue in his response (linked to in another answer here) and provided his opinion.
As for the word of Allah which someone mentioned as to be not touched without ablution, I must mention that it is not at all an Islamic or a Quran-specific word as some would have believe. It had been used extensively in pre-Islamic poetry, and it seems that bible's translations in Arabia before the advent of the Quran used this word to refer to the English God. One can easily find Arabic translations of the bible that use word Allah, and modern day Arab Jews and Christians use word Allah to talk about God -- a tradition that has been passed down to them from before Islam.
In fact, the Quran had actually argued why it differed on its concept of God (i.e. Allah) from whatever the Jews, the Christians and the polytheists of Arabia believed regarding Him. This is actually what stirred Arabia at that time because another man had claimed to be a prophet of the same God (i.e. Allah) that the Jews, the Christians and the polytheists believed in.
Answer: Please go ahead and read the Quran and its translation.
IMO the purpose of the book is to attain guidance from God, besides how else could one of the world's largest religion be islam if our ancestors didn't touch or read the Quran
Here's the clarification for the Quranic verses stated by a brother here:
http://www.khalidzaheer.com/qa/366
Now though its clear that you can touch / read the Quran, I recommend you do a wudhu (its'very simple and easy) before you sit on reading it as this would help you refresh physically and psychologically stimulate your senses as well.
Peace, mercy and blessings of God be with you.
Mohsin
Answer: Of course perfectly 'yes'.
The scriptures are holy it means we treat them with holiness or in other words don't misuse or mock or make fun of or don't disrespect them. That by no means mean that we're restricted from touching it without wudu (cleaning oneself with water if not with clean earth). In particular, wudu was commanded to be done before offering Salah as seen in Qur'an 5:6.
Qur'an was indeed sent as a guidance to mankind, conditional, you respect it. Of course as and always...

...Allah doth not wish to place you in a difficulty, but to make you clean... (Qur'an 5:6)

May the creator guide us all.
Answer: Take a bath with the intention of being clean and touch even the Arabic Quran.
Search for the full body clean in Islam. (غسل) it has got some easy conditions you should take care of.
Omar ibn Al-Khattab touched the Quran before believing in Islam, but he took a bath before doing that, as his sister demanded who was Muslim at that time.
Thanks for respecting Quran.
Answer: According to this verse of Quran:

"None touch it except the purified."(Surat Al-Wāqi`ah,verse79)

people couldn't touch Quran without Wudu neither Muslims nor Non-Muslims.On the other hand Kafir shouldn't touch the Quran specially with wet hands because he/she is najis(unclean).
You didn't mention your religion,But totally touching translation of Quran which doesn't have any exact Arabic word of Quran is ok.But pay attention touch the name of Allah in any language without Wudu is haram.
And Quran 's reading doesn't have any problem;But you aren't allowed to dishonor It.
reference in persian :  Towzih al-Masa'el by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
Comment: According to Ibn Abbas this is referring to the Book that is in heaven and the purified refers to the angels not to us humans. Please add references to your answer.
Comment: oh,yes.I just forgot it.thanks...but that opinion which you said isn't right.It is just an interpretation of this verse.
Answer: All the Devine revelations came to the messengers in their respective languages. Therefore the quran was revealed in Arabic. However,  since the quran is the last revelation it must be for all mankind till the end. The quran speaks to all regardless of their language difference. It speaks to everyone in Arabic. The stories and sayings of previous generations whose language was not Arabic are quoted and related to us in Arabic in the quran for all to read. The quran does not divide people according to their differences of language, culture ,nationality, colour, etc. It divides us into three main categories as follows:
A.  Those who believe in God
B.  Those who reject  the believe in God.
C.  Those who are hypocrates
The quran makes this judgement AFTER IT HAS BEEN READ AND ITS MESSAGE CLEARLY UNDERSTOOD . The crucial factor here is whether or not one believes in the existence of an ALMIGHTY GOD WHO IS THE CREATOR OF EVERYTHING.  After that it does not matter what language one speaks because he/she is a Believer.  You do not NEED the quran to know GOD. People knew God since The beginning of their creation. But they kept on erring and straying from the Path that would lead to good life after death.  All revealed religions are simply a merciful guidance to that Path.  If therefor anyone wants to know more about the right then let them read the quran since they are already Muslims by definition.
As for those who reject believe in God reading the quran will  only make them more distant. They should instead first examine their basic human intelligence as it obviously lacking. Hypocrites are worst than faith rejectors to the degree that even the rejectors do not trust them as their own
Comment: Salam and welcome to Islam SE the Q&A site about Islam. We are different then the typical internet Forum to learn moer about this site and the stack exchange model I strongly recommend you to take our [tour] and check our [help] and read [answer].
Comment: Instead of answering the Question you are talking about the Quran and categories of people this is not the subject of the Question!


Should I send a second follow-up email to schedule an interview?

Question: 10 days ago, I received an e-mail on a Friday from a potential employer offering me a Skype interview for a position I applied for. They said directly, "I'd like to speak with you this coming week," and asked for my availability. After giving them my availability, I didn't hear back. I sent an e-mail the Tuesday after (3 days later) to "check in" and gave my availability again. Still nothing. Should I send ANOTHER follow up e-mail? Would it be acceptable for me to call? Or should I just wait?
Comment: It may just be a scheduling issue to get the people together on their end.  It is unprofessional for them not to reply even if the reply is "we are no longer interested".
Comment: Possible duplicate of [How long do I wait before sending a follow up email?](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/14040/how-long-do-i-wait-before-sending-a-follow-up-email)
Answer: You are trying to wring blood from a turnip. I suggest you leave them and concentrate on your next prospect.
Remember, when searching for a job, the only time you stop pursuing companies is when you have a written offer in front of you that you are willing to sign. The reason is what you're experiencing now: one company pauses (forgets, cancels) the process, and you sit waiting. If they end up getting back to you with a, "sorry, we already filled that position," then how much time have you wasted? Could you have put that time to better use instead?
Forget these guys and get to work on your next company. Smart companies know that good people don't stay unemployed long, so when they find one, they don't waste time messing around.
Comment: Exactly. Follow up once, maybe twice, then forget about them. If they do eventually get back to you it'll be a pleasant surprise and you can decide then if the excuse they make for the delay is a valid reason to restart the process on your end or not.
Comment: Seconded. Even if they get around to you, that's a hiring process that didn't need to happen yet and it's going to drag on and on and on... If you were particularly excited about the job, it doesn't hurt to let them know that on a third attempt but otherwise, it's not worth the time diverted from finding a better lead.
Answer: Interesting situation. It's incredibly unprofessional of them to leave you hanging like that, and it should serve as a red flag for you.
That being said, in order to remove all doubt, you should simply call them and get an answer. I wouldn't hold my breath however. Sadly, chances are that their behavior is due to having found a candidate they prefer over you.
Answer: I recommend giving them a call. From being on the recruiting side throughout my whole career, I have seen many reasons that could explain your experience. (Not necessarily acceptable professional reasons, but reasons, nonetheless). As a Recruiter, I would have given a candidate a chance to explain even if they were a no-call-no-show to an interview, because you never know what might have happened. I see this as the same type of situation.
A Recruiter could be out sick for a week, and despite having backups, etc., some things slip through the cracks.
I've seen Recruiters so incredibly busy that they keep thinking it's "next on their list" and keep unintentionally pushing off setting up your next step.
They could just be waiting on the hiring manager's confirmation, which they expect to get any second. And, for whatever reason, the hiring manager isn't getting back to them, so the Recruiter didn't mean to delay 10 days - they kept thinking any-minute-now they'd have their follow up for you.
Those are some devil's-advocate possibilities. However, I hope that offers some perspective on what could be occurring on the other side.


Hajiku 弾くversus Hiku 弾く

Question: For my Japanese class we recently went over how to say stuff about playing instruments, but looking online had me confused about how to use a certain couple of verbs. I know that my textbook says ヴァイオリンをひく(弾く), but online I've also encountered this other reading of the same kanji and I'm not sure the difference between ヴァイオリンをはじく(弾く). Can anybody explain the difference please?
Comment: According to jisho.org, はじく is usually written using kana alone... so in theory, distinguishing between these two different verbs shouldn't be a problem, even if they look identical with kanji.
Answer: For this analysis, let's ignore the kanji.
The verbs we're dealing with are hiku and hajiku.

hiku
Underlying meaning of "to pull, to draw".
In the context of stringed instruments, this verb refers to the act of pulling or drawing a bow across the strings to produce a sound.  By extension, this also came to refer to the act of producing sound from the strings of a piano or other keyboard instrument.
hajiku
Underlying meaning of "to cause something to bend and pop back into place with force: to flick, to pluck, to let loose (as a bowstring)".
In the context of stringed instruments, this refers to the act of plucking the strings to produce sound.

Given the meanings of the verbs, one can both hiku a violin, and hajiku a violin.  (Though probably not at the same time. :) )
Answer: According to the dictionary, 弾く is usually read as はじく.
https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/175919/meaning/m0u/弾く/
But when it means to "to play a musical instrument", it must be read as ひく:
(ふつう「弾く」と書く)弦楽器や鍵盤楽器を鳴らす。弾じる。
https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/183987/meaning/m0u/ひく/
Comment: はじく is not a 常用 reading for 弾く, so it seems like a stretch to say "弾く is usually read as はじく"

Hajiku 弾くversus Hiku 弾く


Why do rivers have 'wells' in mountains?

Question: Why/how can rivers have sources in places high above the sea level?
Comment: Because water flows downhill?  So any water that falls on mountains (or snowmelt) is going to flow downhill, possibly underground, until it comes to the surface as a very small stream.  This will join with others, and groundwater/runoff from lower elevations, until eventually there's enough to be called a river.  So most water that falls in mountains eventually joins a river, but not all the water in the river comes from the mountains (in most places, anyway).
Comment: by wells do you mean wellsprings? Wells are generally man made structures.
Answer: The presence of water underground has nothing to do with sea level in mountainous country.
When rain fails on a mountain, or snow falls on a mountain and the snow eventually melts, the water from the rain or snow melt mostly travels downhill via rivers to the sea.
In getting to a river some of the water will fall on the ground. In places where the ground is covered by soil, water can travel through the soil via the pore spaces between the grains of soil. Similarly if porous rock, such as sandstone lies beneath the soil water can travel through the pores in the rock.
If a layer of impervious rock lies under the porous rock or soil, the water cannot move downwards, due to gravity, any further. This can lead to water accumulating in the soil or porous rock and saturating the soil or rock. In such situations an aquifer can form. The top of the saturated zone in an aquifer is called a water table.
The ground beneath a river is saturated and the surface of the river shows the water table exposed to atmosphere. Thus in mountainous regions the ground beneath rivers will be saturated and capable of supporting a well developed from the bank of a river.
Answer: What Fred said isn't wrong, but I think it doesn't answer the question very well so let me add some things:
First of all remember that water will always follow the gravitational force, so of course it's flowing downwards. Close to sea level the difference between the gravitational accelerations is almost zero between the spring and the sea.
Also most soils on or about sea level are well weathered and thus very thick, they can absorb a lot of water. So as Fred already said those "lower rivers" are mostly just the exposed ground water table, there isn't really that one source.
Now to the difference on mountains.
Mostly the higher you go the thinner the soil. Since there's almost no soil there's not much water that can be absorbed. Instead it accumulates in seas until their wall breaks and the water starts to flow downwards. It will then naturally carve it's way through the bedrock. Glaciers can also carve out huge amounts of rock and when melting create rivers that flow that way.
As for the "wells". I think you mean that one point where the water comes out of the mountain.
Remember mountains have in most cases higher precipitation and since not much water can be absorbed well it has to come down.
When the water hits the ground it seeps through cracks in the rock to the inner mountain. The chemical weathering will cause especially CaCO3 - rich rocks (carbonates) to dissolve. This will create caves (Karst) where the water then accumulates. The water "flows" within the mountain and will at some point create a little hole in the mountain from within. That's where the water then flows out and becomes a river. I think that hole would be your well.
I'll add a picture for better understanding:
Comment: ``Close to sea level there is almost no gravitational force`` - the gravitational acceleration at sea level is almost the same as that a few kilometres above (the difference is pretty small over this distance). I think what you are trying to say is that the difference in gravitational potential energy between adjacent bodies of water is small.
Comment: Thanks for pointing that out. You're right that was a bad formulation. I'll change it.
Answer: Does your question go into the direction how the water gets 'onto the mountains'? Here is a meteorological-hydrological answer on this:
Of course water, in its liquid form,is strongly determined by the gravitation. However when dissolved as water vapour, it is transported in the atmosphere (atmospheric water transport). Mountains do have an 'orographic effect' on the precipitation distribution in a landscape. This could, very very simplified, be described as follows: When air masses are horizontally moved, mountains represent barriers. The air has to rise onto along the mountains surface. In this upwards movement, the air expands. It gets thinner and can therefore contain less water vapour. In one point, it is oversaturated and begins to rain.
In the Encyclopaedia Britannica, there is a brief explanation with a good explaining figure: http://www.britannica.com/science/orographic-precipitation
Comment: Go dig 5 feet into the ground, then take a water hose and poor the water on top of the dirt mound in one spot for 5 minutes. You will then realize what mountains are composed of and will never question the force of water.
Answer: If you look at a catchment basin, it is nearly always bordered by mountains. it's because water flows downhill. Altitude is water's motor system.
All the peripheries of the river system are on high points facing roughly towards the interior of the basin.
Any breach in the slope will cause water to flow the other way, and because water and ice lowers the zones it passes through.
The water is very powerful and always forces it's way into a lower valley eventually and creates very large downhill paths over millions of years. The amazon basin and alps ars dozens of millions of years old.
Mountains also get multiple times as much rain as valleys, and valleys are FULL of invisible underground rivulets, whereas mountains often have more over ground flow and less porous sediment.


Iranian student with Hungarian residency permit staying in Italy for more than 90 days

Question: I'm an Iranian student studying in Hungary with a 2-year residency permit. I have a project in Italy, which would take around 5 months. I came to Italy from Hungary on March 1st. Do you think I can leave Italy after 90 days and then come back again? Or is there any way to do this without asking for an Italian residency permit?
Comment: I think a tourist visa might work for you. Italy usually grants citizens of my country a visa that is valid for a year or six months. However, the situation might vary from a country to another. For instance, France grants us a tourist visa that is valid as long as the passport is valid but a person from North Africa told me that he got a tourist visa that is valid exactly for the duration he wrote in the application plus few weeks, he had to present to them airline tickets and confirmed booking.
Answer: The EU residence permit granted by a Schengen State will allow you to reside in another Schengen State for up to 90 days. To stay longer you must apply for a national residence permit from the other Member State.
Foreigners who intend to stay in Italy for more than three months must apply for a residence permit. These permits allow foreigners to stay in Italy, under certain conditions depending on the category of the permit.

Regardless of whether expats apply for a working residence permit before or after they have arrived (the ability to do so depends on their nationality), they will have to report to their local immigration centre.
ON http://ec.europa.eu

Moving between EU countries during my long-term stay – more than three months
When you stay in an EU country for a long stay, usually for more than
  three months, you will generally be issued with a national long-stay
  visa and/or a residence permit.
If your long-stay visa or permit has been issued by a Schengen area
  country, you can travel to another Schengen area country for three
  months per six-month period. You must:

justify the purpose of your stay;
have sufficient financial resources for your stay and return;
not be considered a threat to public policy, public security or public health.

You can also pass through other Schengen area countries on the way to
  your host country.
To move from one Schengen area country to another for more than three
  months, you will need a long-term visa and/or a permit for that
  country. If you wish to work, study or join your family in the second
  country, you may have to fulfil more national conditions. To travel to
  a country that is not in the borderless Schengen area, you must get a
  separate national visa and meet all the necessary conditions.

...

Do you think i can leave italy after 90 days and then come back again
  ?

The answer is no, at least not in 6 months period. Italy has really strict immigration, so if you try you run a good chance of being detected. You might get lucky, but you might also get fined (it's a federal offense) and there have also been cases where people were imprisoned.
Answer: A third-country national holding a valid Hungarian residence permit has the right of entry without a visa and the right of residence in the territory of Schengen Member States not exceeding ninety days within a one hundred and eighty day period. Unfortunately, if you want to stay longer in Italy you need to apply for residence permit.
For a residency permit, you need to verify the followings:
(1) Verifying the Purpose of the Residence
(2) Verifying Sufficient Financial Resources
(3) Verifying Sufficient Accommodation
(4) Health Insurance
(5) Documents evidencing the conditions of the exit
How you can do this: ( if you need more information, please check our website: https://www.immigrationlawyershungary.com/residencepermit)
(1) Verifying the Purpose of the Residence
The purpose of your residence could be: Work, visit, study, business, etc. You can verify it any reliable means.
(2) Verifying Sufficient Financial Resources
You can verify it with bank account statement, work contract, tax statement etc.
(3) Verifying Sufficient Accommodation
Rent contract, Proof on dormitory service, paid hotel booking, real estate purchase document, contract on accommodation by courtesy etc. can verify it.
(4) Health Insurance
A foreign, Hungarian or Italian insurance policy could be good. You can buy your health insurance in Hungary too.
The cost is about 200 € /year.
(5) Documents evidencing the conditions of the exit
You have to attach a statement to the application undertaking that you voluntary leave the EU if the application is refused or the permit is expired.
Your passport has to be valid until the end of the permit plus 90 more days. You have to have either a valid ticket to return or sufficient funds to purchase such a ticket.
If you need more information or any advice, please check our website: https://www.immigrationlawyershungary.com/home
https://www.immigrationlawyershungary.com/studyvisa
Comment: Welcome to Expats.SE. While we allow some [self promotion](https://expatriates.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/131/self-promotion-on-the-site), please consider making contributions that do not include self promotional material.


Lego Mindstorm NXT cannot connect via bluetooth

Question: I have an NXT mindstorm brick, running RobotC firmware. I am trying to connect to it, via bluetooth. At first, the problem was that I had the motorola drivers instead of ones from microsoft. Even after uninstalling he motorolla drivers and replacing them with stack microsoft drivers, the NXT cannot be found by the PC. Is there a way to fix this ?
Comment: Are you able to connect to the NXT brick when the original firmware is loaded (rather than the RobotC firmware)? Have you got any other BT devices that you can pair with (i.e. a phone/headset/etc) just to check it's not an issue with the BT hardware?
Answer: I assume you've tried this, but hopefully it will help someone. Make sure that your computer has been added to the brick's trusted devices and your brick has been added to your computer's trusted devices. I haven't got the link to work with "anonymous" devices before; you need to go through the process of entering the PIN.
Answer: Also - check what device you are working with.  I know the iPhone doesn't recognize the NXT because it's not an "officially supported" Bluetooth device.  The only way to get your iPhone or iPod to work is to "jailbreak" them.  I'm not too sure if this extrapolates to all apple products either.
I would agree with the user above.  Revert to the original firmware that came on the NXT and try to connect with it.  I would add that if you can't connect, I would also try USB or another device.  Your computer you are using to try to communicate with might be having issues with Bluetooth.
O yeah, and if it works I would just recommend using a compiler that just sends NXT native direct commands down to the device (C# with Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio for example, or VB.NET).  That way you don't have to mess around with the NXT firmware.
For a great comprehensive over-view of the bluetooth (and USB) direct NXT commands, there is a great writeup here:
http://www.robotappstore.com/Knowledge-Base/Programming-LEGO-NXT-Mindstorms/92.html
I would recommend checking it out as its much better than the one that LEGO provides!
Hope this helps!


Categorical features preprocessing for clustering

Question: Can anyone tell suggest the best practice for clustering data with mixtured features (both with categorical and continuous). I am struggling with a problem; I realized that for all metrics algorithms it is necessary to scale continuous data before clustering, so I used sklearn.preprocessing.StandardScaler(). With my categorical features, I used onehotencoder transformation, but it's not clear if it's necessary also scale these onehotencoded vector's components regarding to the whole data set or just leave them as they are?
Comment: You can edit questions to add more text instead of needing to post them in the comments.
Comment: And I forgot to ask about binary data, what to do with them ?
Answer: Using Gower distance for the clustering. You can find different article about this measure in this and this article.

Gower Distance is a distance measure that can be used to calculate distance between two entity whose attribute has a mixed of categorical and numerical values.
Gower distance is computed as the average of partial dissimilarities across individuals. Each partial dissimilarity (and thus Gower distance) ranges in [0 1].
  $$d(i,j) = \frac{1}{p}\sum_{i=1}^{p}d_{ij}^{(f)}$$
Partial dissimilarities ($d_{ij}^{(f)}$) computation depend on the type of variable being evaluated. This implies that a particular standardization will be applied to each feature, and the distance between two individuals is the average of all feature-specific distances.

For a numerical feature $f$, partial dissimilarity is the ratio between 1) absolute difference of observations $x_i$ and $x_j$ and 2) maximum range observed from all individuals: $d_{ij}^{(f)} = \frac{|x_i - x_j|}{|(\max_N(x) - \min_N(x))|}$ , $N$ being the number of individuals in the dataset.
Partial dissimilarity computation for numerical features ($R_f$ = maximal range observed)
  For a qualitative feature $f$ partial dissimilarity equals 1 only if observations $y_i$ and $y_j$ have different value. Zero otherwise.
Answer: The best practice is to first understand your problem.
All the standardization, one-hot-encoding etc. are just hacks to squeeze non-continuous data into column types that can pass as continuous if you don't look at the data too closely.
Yes, at some point you can then run k-means. But will you still have any idea what it does? Does it solve the right task? What bias does it have from all the encoding and scaling? Won't the results become completely useless because of dimensionality, discreteness, encoding artifacts, bias, ... - and what did you actually intend in the first place - I guess you didn't want random partitions...


Examples of how the presence or absence 2'-hydroxyl groups influence physicochemical properties of DNA and RNA

Question: I know, for instance, that RNA is much more succetible to alkaline hydrolysis than DNA and this difference is determined by the presence of 2'-hydroxyl group in ribose.
I have also heard that "DNA is more stable" and thus was selected as the repository of genetic information. Though, I still haven't understood why the lack of just one hydroxyl would lead to more stability...
Comment: @Chris ok, I will actually delete the other because something similar has already been asked
Comment: My answer to this question may interest you, specifically the part about sugar pucker: http://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/19115/what-makes-dna-helical
Comment: From a chemical point of view, the phosphate can form a bond with the 2' hydroxyl, forming a cyclic structure and breaking the bond with the next nucleotide, thus breaking the RNA backbone.
Answer: As user137 said, the general base abstracts a proton from the 2'OH and subsequently the 2'O- renders a nucleophilic attack on the δ+ Phosphorous, leading to the hydrolysis of the phosphodiester bond. There can be slight variations in the mechanism and the intermediates; for details see this review.

After hydrolysis both 2'- and 3'- phosphates can form.
RNA is not thermodynamically unstable; apart from being unstable in the presence of a strong base RNA is biochemically unstable too. This is because there are several RNAses and most of them degrade RNA by a mechanism similar to alkaline hydrolysis (they cannot act on DNA). Also see this post.


Is child birth possible in lower gravity?

Question: We are probably going to create colonies on Mars in few decades or centuries, so which steps have been taken by NASA or other space agencies to find out if child birth is possible in a lower gravity than Earth's?
Comment: Related [Is it possible to get pregnant through natural means in space?](http://space.stackexchange.com/questions/604/is-it-possible-to-get-pregnant-through-natural-means-in-space)
Answer: Mammal experiments have shown that zero gravity does not affect fetuses in the late stage of gestation. http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/physics/153-people-in-astronomy/space-exploration-and-astronauts/the-future-of-human-spaceflight/960-can-a-human-give-birth-in-space-intermediate
Gravity-friendly birthing postures (e.g. kneeling or squatting) are common in many countries, but most deliveries in the USA have the mother flat on her back with legs up. Gravity is at best neutral to the process, if not an impediment. Babies continue to be born nonetheless.
The main health concerns for space travel, regardless of age, are atrophy from long term low gravity and cellular damage from increased radiation exposure.
Comment: @DanNeely It has happened, but only with nematodes. See http://space.stackexchange.com/a/4523/58 and http://space.stackexchange.com/a/4522/58.
Comment: During the shuttle era Nasa few an experiment where they took a number of fertilized frog eggs into zero G.  All (most?) of them failed to develop into healthy embryos.  There've not been any follow studies that I'm aware of, and frogs are particularly sensitive to chemical mutagens (if this is due to a lack of error detection/repair it could be relevant to the 0g problem) but it suggests that even if the end phase is doable, the startup might not be.
Comment: @MarkS. As I said in one of those answers, the nematodes observed in space are not ovoviviparous, and thus did not give birth to live young. They laid eggs.
Comment: Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/56666/discussion-on-answer-by-foo-bar-is-child-birth-possible-in-lower-gravity).


Where can I have a wool tallit katan custom made?

Question: I need size 22 but longer than the standard 24" so I can tuck it into my pants better. Anybody know someone who makes them custom? The ones I found online only make it in cotton. Thanks!
Comment: Where are you? You probably don't want recommendations for places 1000 miles away.
Comment: I'm in Brooklyn (Flatbush) and in-person is great but I was thinking of mail order.
Answer: The following is based on my experience buying Chabad-style Tallit Katan in Crown Heights. Your mileage may vary.
The sizes of Tzitzit, 22, 24, etc. is a measurement, in inches, of the width of the Tallit Katan.
In my experience, until about 10 years ago, a size 22 tzitzit had 22 inches widthwise, and was also 22 inches from the neck to the bottom of the garment.
Recently, most Tallit Katans I've found for sale measure 22 inches from the almost top of the shoulders to the bottom of the garment. This means that the garment is less than 22 inches from the neck to the bottom of the garment.
So, see if you can find a size 24 of one of the old-style garments (that measures from neck to bottom), and it will be longer than the new-style garments. [It is very likely that the Tzitzit in the Eichler's Wizard - mentioned here - are this style of Tallit Katan, because they measure 22 inches wide by 26 inches long]

If it helps, here's a picture of the label of the last Tallit Katan I purchased, it measures 24 inches from the shoulder.


web config and machine config

Question: what is the differnce b/w  webconfig and machine config
Answer: Careful.  There is a hierarchy of config files:
applicationHost.config is the top-level IIS config file.
Next is machine.config, which is the top-level, server-specific config file.
Next is a server-level web.config file.
Then there is an application-specific web.config.
Next, there is an optional application.config file.
Finally, there are optional directory-specific web.config files.
The higher-level files often contain directives that limit what you can configure in the lower level files.  The highest-level web.config, for example, is where server trust levels are configured.
Answer: Web.config is specific to an application.
Machine.config applies across all applications on your server.
So, if i have 3 apps on the same server that share connection strings; machine.config is the way to go.
If i have application specific settings (say timeout interval) that vary across apps; put those in web.config
Answer: They are two parts of the same system.  Microsoft put some magic in .NET so that machine.config and web.config are merged at runtime.  Machine.config provides defaults that web.config can override if you so choose.
Machine.config provides a way to hold configuration that is machine specific.  So say you have two environments Production and UAT which need to point to different databases.  You can put the connectionStrings for Production and UAT in machine.config on the Production and UAT boxes respectively, and all ASP.NET applications on those machines will have access to the appropriate connectionString.
You can read more about .NET configuration files here.
Answer: I'd suggest reading up on ASP.NET Configuration Inheritance. There's other configuration layers besides machine.config and web.config, and it helps to know all of the different pieces that may be affecting your application.
Answer: machine.config is a global configuration file containing default settings at machine level which could be overridden in web.config which is specific to a given application.

web config and machine config


Why is "What are the ports used by strongSwan?" Off-topic?

Question: Im a long time StackOverflow user and I just asked the question "What ports do I need to forward in my router for strongSwan?" And was told it was off-topic for being SOHO (whatever that means?) And easily Google-able. No it is not. I googled it, I perused the docs, I couldn't find it anywhere. I just got down votes with no proper explanation. A duplicate was found (that was not off-topic), but the duplicate used completely different terms (IPSec  instead of strongSwan etc.) hence I did not find it. I still don't understand why the question was treated like it was the stupidest thing in the world to ask.
Answer:
Your question was originally primary a "link me to the docs" question. We don't accept these.
Personally, I think the remaining part after your edit isn't much better and still borderline off-topic for "product or documentation request". Yes, "provide me a list of ports" is a documentation request in my view.
After your edit,  I nevertheless changed your question to be a duplicate of another, older question that has an answer to your question. Incidentally, it took me around 30secs to find this one with Google.
I also noted that your request for port forwarding rules sounds like SOHO use (small office/home office), as typically, you won't use port forwarding in a production service in regular environments. Home office use is also strictly off-topic here and in your last comment before
you deleted your question, you admitted that this question is for a test from your home, and thus clearly off-topic. No, questions about running a production server are not off-topic here, but questions about test environments and anything from your home are.
Comment: For the record: You were the one not following the CoC by asking an off-topic question.  As stupid as it is, the CoC doesn't give you carte blanche to off-load everything here and get a nice, warm, fuzzy welcome. And don't get me started on your deleted comment which I saw - you **really** should take a very long, hard read on that organization and then think even longer about if you really want to compare anyone having a silly disagreement with you on the internet to those people.
Comment: Ok, I did not know Small Office / Home Office was off topic here, but I still was unable to Google this. You were able to Google it because you searched for something I did not, like IPSec. I did not know there were standard ports for IPSec. I was looking for strongSwan. Do you not see that you simply have too much domain knowledge to know what a n00b would consider Google-able. I'm telling you, you come off as rude and elitist.
Comment: Sorry meant to say you have too much domain knowledge, not lack domain knowledge
Comment: Wow, I get it now, any question I ask on SF would be off-topic. Well then, y'all have a nice day. I won't be coming back here. https://meta.serverfault.com/conduct
Comment: The current wording on https://serverfault.com/help/on-topic does not say home office questions are off-topic. If you are managing a workstation used for business purposes from a home office that page says you're in the right place to ask your question!
Comment: @kasperd: In my view, this is covered by "consumer workstations/networking", as it is usually indistinguishable from non-business purposes in such environments and [SU] is the place that can help with that much better.
Comment: If the term "consumer workstation" is supposed to mean anything it is what hardware it's made of, not where it is located. Of cause all network connections are not made equal. But that difference has more to do with the ISP than the system being asked about in such questions. And I haven't seen evidence of a strong correlation between the practices of ISPs and whether they are servicing a home or a business. Based on my own experience residential connections tend to better follow reasonable business practices than office connections.
Comment: A idea is we could maybe add some texts to add some example, I dont know if it's easy to ask to SE or if it's a pain to do. As I would write it to be sure to target business gear but used in a home usage too. (I seen some questions in the past to upgrade old server to play on, or is not supported by a home OS in example)