Timing Belt Replacement Schedule on 2004 KIA

Question: Can anyone tell me at what recommended mileage should the timing belt be replaced on a 2004 KIA 4 clylinder engine.  And if you know, is this a job for a pro or can a do it yourself person do it?  thanks.
Comment: Isn't this in your owner's manual? I worry that this question is too simple and general for a site aimed at professionals. See this meta page for more:

http://meta.mechanics.stackexchange.com/questions/3/making-a-site-for-professionals
Answer:
A: The service manual shows that the belt is to be replaced at 60,000 miles or 100,000 km. On both the 2.4 and 2.7 liter motors. So you still got some miles to put on your car. Happy motoring

Source:  http://kiacarsfaq.com/Kia+Optima/2004+Kia+Optima.html

make sure you replace the timing belt every 50K-60K miles, as they have an 'interference' motor, so if your belt breaks on you, it'll be cheaper to buy an entirely new engine rather than fix your broken one.

Source:  http://repairpal.com/kia-optima-2004
I would suggest obtaining the actual service manual.  I don't know how accurate this information is as it's not official.


How would you make a planet have more lightning storms

Question: If I were to have a generally earth like world, with water and land masses very similar, what could you add to make storms happen more often, and more specifically, lighting storms. I know lightning happens because of friction in the clouds between dust particles, but could increase the amount of lightning strikes on a planet?
Comment: I thought it was the dust the water condenses on. I don't know how it works, though so you might be right.
Answer: There are some places on Earth that have an unusually high frequency of lightnings. For instance, Venezuela. The explanation, in this case, consists in moisty air locked by mountain ridges, and then sent onto a cycle of heating and cooling, where charges are likely accumulated at the two ends of the cycle in a phenomenon that is reminiscent of a Van Der Graaf generator.
My suggestion would be to make a large number of smaller, nearly land-locked, seas on your new world, with high coastal mountains, and nearly dust free to reduce the albedo. Also, increase the tilt, so that a larger portion of the surface may get maximum solar heat at some point during the year.
Next, cover the coastal mountains with some moisty jungles to make the air above richer in water, and increase the salt in the sea, to create a drier column of air over the sea. The difference in moisture should create a barrier for the electrostatic charges to complete a full-cycle, hence accumulating a difference of potential across the difference in altitude.
The surface of this poor planet will probably look greener than Earth, and like as if the planet were a (greenish) Swiss cheese, or, perhaps, affected by a bad form of acne.
Answer: Solar storms.
"Streams of particles launched from the sun in the solar wind increase the number of lightning strikes on Earth by 32%." From the article:
"Activity on the sun significantly increases the rate of lightning strikes on Earth, say researchers, making it feasible to predict when lightning strikes will become more frequent.
They discovered that when streams of high-speed solar particles strike the Earth's atmosphere, the average number of lightning strikes increased by 32% for more than a month afterwards. The study is the first to implicate the solar wind – the stream of particles launched from the sun at over a million miles per hour – in triggering lightning, a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists."
The original paper is here: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/9/5/055004
In summary: it was previously assumed that galactic cosmic rays (GCR) was a source of lightning, and the solar wind helped shield the Earth from their effects, however the study which included 16 years of data shows the opposite effect. For 4 to 5 days after a solar event the amount of lightning drops, but that is followed by a period between 8 and 40 days after the solar event where lightning activity increases.
The researchers suggest some mechanisms involving the solar wind alone, and the solar wind interacting with GCR, but they admit they do not know the actual reason.
Answer: Put more energy in the atmosphere: storms are more frequent in summer because there is more solar energy available, and that solar energy is able to lift icy particles and droplets higher in the atmosphere.
This motion helps building up charges in the clouds, which then result into lightning.


Opportunity Forces One Record Type

Question: Problem: When creating an opportunity, I select my desired record type, but the page layout provided to me is not assigned to that record type. Why?
EDIT: In addition to the steps below, I also tried changing the default record type (previously it was set to "A", I changed it to "B".) This did not change anything.
More Info: Here are the steps I have taken:

New Opportunity
Select Record Type "B"
Page layout "A" is presented (I have verified that the page layout "A" is assigned to record type "A" and page layout "B" is assigned to record type "B" for all profiles)
If I create the opportunity (in page layout "A") the opportunity is successfully created, and I can see on the page layout it has been assigned to record type "A", even though I selected "B".
I can change the record type to "B" once I have created the record. Once I have saved the opportunity as record type "B", the correct page layout ("B") displays.

Why would this happen? I'm doing this as a system administrator, I have access to both record types, and I have confirmed that the page layouts are assigned correctly. For some reason it just won't let me CREATE an opportunity with this new record type.
Answer: Someone had assigned a controller extension which was overriding the default "new" behavior. Because I had seen the OOB "select a record type" page, I had forgotten that a controller extension was an option here.

Opportunity Forces One Record Type


How can I get out of a question ban?

Question: I know about https://stackoverflow.com/help/question-bans, but that doesn't help me. I only have one question with a score of less than zero, but that question is closed, so there isn't really anything I can do about it. I'm kind of stuck because there really isn't any way to improve that one question. What can can I do?
Comment: Maybe it's the 0 score on most of the questions. Can't really say since we don't know the mechanism. Anyway, I upvoted 3 of your questions that I found interesting. Hope it helps a bit. Also it _"might"_ (not sure) be because of answering about half of your own questions and accepting them, with 0 score.
Comment: This is my only account. I used to have another one with the same username. But I haven't touched that one in months. Anyways the question ban is not on Ask Ubuntu or any of the other communities I'm in.
Answer: The Stack Overflow article is pretty much all we can say, as a moderator even I don't know the specific criteria that trigger the system to give people question bans. Afterall SE don't want people dodging their systems to troll and snipe :p
Having said that, you can:

get upvotes on your existing questions ( not just those with negative votes )
edit closed questions so that they're back on topic, and try to get them reopened
give helpful answers that get upvoted and accepted
Leave helpful comments that get voted up

As a newer resident of a stack you're more likely to run into these situations, but that will very quickly go as you gain reputation. Automated systems are great but when there's little information to work with it's easy for trends to vary wildly, and negative trends that get acted on can appear too.
Answer: I can't say much, but let's say I made a marvellous comeback on the network and have provided tremendous value back after some failed attempts.
Until I lost my account due to me forgetting the password and not being able to reset.
I'll refrain from the glamorous, old comments of "Be consistent", "Provide value", "Ask good questions". These are often opinion-based and they're not gonna allow you to apply immediate & actionable methods.
With that being said, what @Tom said works, but it's not concise.
I'm not criticizing his answer, but he said to provide helpful answers. Well, we all know that, but how do you exactly do it? I'd wage in and say that, yes, his answer looks nice, but it's simply not going to have any effect on you, except to make you feel better for a few seconds.
Actionable. Methodological. Concise.
That's what's you need.
Here's a list:
Provide Images / Visualisations to What You're Trying to Achieve.

Images are extremely powerful and can, at times, provide insight into your problem like words can't. I am not even remotely kidding when I say that my last account had almost no questions with down-votes. Even the arcane ones.
Proper English. Please.
Here's the deal - no one likes to read your post if it's written in rubbish-language. It hurts. I'm studying some foreign languages myself and it always hurts when I try to communicate online, because it's just so bad. But I understand them. Wouldn't blame them either, it's a pain to wait for me to get something out. Your post will get down-voted immediately, because it's not clear what you need.
Use the Built-in Code Viewer for HTML/CSS/JS (more-so for SO).
This is more of a SO feature, but I assume you also use it:

I've gotten so much negativity for not using it. I'd just paste in my code or link to a codepen and that'd be it. What I started doing was simply paste in my code, provide the built-in code viewer and also link to codepen or jsfiddle for these who liked them more.
The Biggest One, No Exceptions: Provide Working Code
I can't stress this enough: Provide working code. Something to get us started. Even if it's little. Show us that at least you've done research. No one likes a question that comes off as "god, can't this guy look up documentation?".
See my question:
Is there any function that would allow me to register custom stylesheets for the Customizer itself?
While it doesn't have any code, it clearly states that (1) I've searched for an answer and (2) I've tried to play with something before asking.
All my other questions have code that is usable and is being used by me so that people can paste it in and make it work for themselves. In fact, I was thinking about opening a "dev playground" on my VPS that'd allow people to dive into my code, this way, everyone's on the same page.
Unfortunately, I don't think this method, unless they also post an answer back to Stackexchange provides any real value for the community.
Either way. Accessibility is friendliness on the network of sites.
Seriously. Post code.
Okay...I Said No Bullshit Points But: Be Concise.
I feel as if I ramble a bit too much in my answers / questions. I should probably do that, but ma...
See? I shouldn't keep going. This doesn't help YOU, nor ME, nor anyone. Simply state what your situation is briefly, a bit of empathy doesn't help, don't be a cold asshole, but don't overdo it, then ask the question and leave it at that.
I promise I always ask myself this question when I post something: "Does this look like I'm rambling, can I make it shorter? Is this necessary?"
Hope this helps. It surely helped me get on the right track.
Additions, after the main points:
1) Don't forget to fill in why you've edited your question. This is observational data, but it seems to have an impact. Check this question's edit track.
--I'll update this as soon as I discover more methods of providing value myself!

How can I get out of a question ban?


How do I write a good feature request?

Question: I have a feature that I am interested in proposing.

How do I draft a good feature request?
What things do I need to include?
What should I not do?
How do I know if the feature will be implemented?

Return to FAQ index
Comment: I've moved your question from the title to the body.  It is bad form to write a post without any mention of the question in the body of the post.
Comment: if answered [this](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/283831/why-are-people-who-are-not-on-the-so-team-answering-questions-about-feature-requ), [this](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/272607/can-we-talk-about-the-voting-culture-here-on-meta/272617#272617) and [this](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/257479/how-can-users-convince-se-that-the-6-character-minimum-edit-requirement-is-count/257757#257757) could serve as input.
Comment: Shouldn't this be tagged with "meta"?
Comment: This would be a great FAQ
Answer: First, some preliminaries regarding feature requests, in general...
A feature request typically stems from a selfish need: Yes, something that you feel should change to benefit your usage of the site. And, they may be very subjective - what you think might be a feature, others could consider a drawback. Regardless, this is a community-driven Q&A, and therefore feature requests should have a far bigger scope than just one person. Have that in mind when considering/writing up your request.
One view of a feature requests is similar to pitching a Shark Tank proposal: You're putting yourself in front of an audience who may be willing to spend time implementing your request free-of-charge (however mundane, simple or extravagant it may be). Not only that, you should be ready to face criticism (or favouritism) towards your request.
Agreement with (or against) a feature request is typically done through voting, with a positive [negative] score representing a bias in favour of [against] the request. It may take some time to refine a feature request as dictated by comments, chat discussion and/or voting.
Now, on to the specifics...
What things do I need to include?

A feature request should be specific. For example,

The colour of the Meta.SE banner should be inverted to black-over-orange, rather than white-over-blue:

is far better than

Could we change the colour of the Meta.SE banner to something other than white-over-blue:

Include images that would make the request tangible. A picture is often worth around 1,000 words, give or take a few.
Reference factual content in support of your request. Perhaps it's based on statistics of site usage (so, spend the time drawing up queries on SEDE); perhaps you've had some conversation with folks in a chat room about it and there seems to be majority support (provide links to the chat); ... Rather avoid hearsay as your foundation.
Tag the feature request appropriately (feature-request and possibly others).

What should I not do?

Avoid being vague about the benefits (or possible drawbacks).
Don't leave the specifics up to the community. While this is your feature request, it should clearly outline the scope. Unclear requests may be subject to closure as being too broad or... unclear.
Avoid emotional discussions or motivations.
Don't ask for the moon; be realistic.

How do I know if the feature will be implemented?

A positive score on the request is a good sign. However, total votes and views may also indicate the popularity of such a request, and therefore influence implementation.
Feedback from moderators (via comments, or as an answer) will indicate some form of consensus about implementation. A request may be retagged to

status-review The request is currently under consideration, or needs further investigation
status-planned Coming soon to a Stack Exchange Q&A theatre near you
status-deferred This suggestion has merit, but it isn't the very next thing on our list. We'll try to get to it.
status-declined The feature request will not be implemented or fixed at the present time.
status-completed A feature request has been implemented, or a request has been processed.
status-bydesign The request will not be implemented because the current behavior is not a drawback but was made intentionally for a purpose.
status-norepro A suggestion to change or remove an existing feature, but there's no evidence of the feature existing or behaving in the way it's described in the request.
status-reproduced The behavior reported was reproduced, but cannot be addressed at this time

A good place to start with a feature request would be in your local chat room. There you can solicit feedback from your peers about interest in support of (or against) your request. If the request seems viable, you could consider soliciting more general feedback by posting a question on the per-site Meta before posting to Meta.SE. However, this is not necessary.
Ultimately, a good feature request is very similar in scope to writing a good question/answer.
Comment: Oh god, any chance for you to propose that Meta color feature request? That looks amazing! ;-)
Comment: We'd first need a feature that only showed it to you Christian :P
Answer: I've personally found that there's a few elements to a well received feature request. Typically, after roughly a decade of operation, the Core Elements of Stack Exchange's flavour of Q&A have been tweaked, and attempts to change something fundamental like downvotes or forcing comments when downvoting don't go well. Good feature requests trim the foliage, not move the rock garden. When you do find something that needs to be changed, there's a few elements that work well. I'm posting this concurrently as I work through how I'd ask a question

Your title. Without a good title, no one's going to bother to read your question. I know a few folks manage to effectively merge clickbait with content in a title, but I've always gone for a clear. Its your thesis.

Could we have teams included in the site switcher?

Anyone who reads see the title on the front page knows exactly what I'm talking about

a call to action. I like to start with this in the body of a question. I often go with the current situation and why its not so great

At the moment, you can only access teams through stack overflow. Not everyone is on stack overflow, and needing to click through SO through the site switcher, then using another site switcher or the sidebar is clunky

Support for the idea

We can already see notifications for Teams when on other sites, so a simpler, low friction alternative to access the sites would be good. The site list on the site switcher is user specific anyway.

a little extra support if it works

While teams is integrated into SO, not all organisations that might benefit from teams might be dev teams

optionally restate what you need

I tend to try to end my questions in a slightly open ended manner

Could we have better, easier UX for accessing teams from elsewhere on the network?

in this case I suspect a more focused approach may work better

Could we include teams on the site switcher?

I typically don't go into specific implementation details - tending to leave that to the folks actually building it. You could suggest things, but leaving implementation details to SE makes sense.

we might be able to select these the same way we show and hide regular sites from our site switcher, adding them in explicitly if we chose
Answer: Always include how your feature-request will make Stack Exchange better.
Write a feature-request that others can agree with.
Write a feature-request that other people would appreciate if it's implemented. If you think it's a good idea, but you think of many disadvantages, it's probably not a good feature-request.
Make sure the Stack Exchange people are able to do it.
As the name suggests, it's a request. A request needs to be possible. If the request is to suggest a big learning curve, it's not good.
Do prior research to make sure it's not already asked.
I've run into this issue, too. See https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/259064/search-for-comments (10k only) which is one of my questions that I didn't do prior research on. Moderators voted to get it marked as a duplicate of another question!
Write it based on facts and the community's experience.
Don't base your question on a small amount of opinions, as they say. Don't complain about an existing Stack Exchange feature that other people are already used to.
If it's declined, don't ask it again.
You can get a question-ban if you keep posting the same question to get attention, especially feature-requests.
Make it easy to understand while using correct grammar.
Here's what not to do:

This S.E. feature-request, abbreviated for 'Stack Exchange,' is addressing the very depressing issue of this bad feature: the down-vote arrow, which is a clickable button that you can use to bring enemy users to a disadvantage in reputation points. I will strongly advise you to consider this S.E. feature-request, abbreviated for 'Stack Exchange'...

Well, duh! Be clear and concise, but use easy language. Note, I've exaggerated it on purpose.

How do I write a good feature request?


How does one perform Wudu if they have injuries?

Question: If someone performs wudu that has an area of the body that is injured or would cause discomfort/pain if pouring water over that particular part of the body, what would be the best cause of action?
Answer: There is two option. They are:

If you have nothing to cover the part of your body which is injured like bandage, then you should do Tayammum.
Otherwise, if the part is covered(may be with bandage or anything) then you can wash the part of your body that is uncovered. All praise is of Allah

This is the most convenient way


deter badgers from garden

Question: I have holes in and under my garden fences and whilst I haven't observed it, I believe they've been made by a badger using mine and my neighbours garden as a run. How can I persuade Mr. Badger to take his destructive ways elsewhere? I don't want to do the creature any harm or stay up all night to confront it.
Answer: Badgers are stubborn creatures of habit and stronger than they look.  It is unlikely that you have a single badger, the family will forage together following the lead of the boar.
In my experience, if you try to block the regular foraging route with a fence, they'll just go through it or under it.  Also, if you did stay up to confront them, they have the patience to wait until you go to bed and will then go on their way.
However, as nocturnal creatures, they like the dark.  Set up a motion controlled security light.  It doesn't have to be very bright but if it shines on the badgers, they will take a different route.
This won't stop them trying to get to their destination but it may encourage them to go round you.
Don't forget that they are a protected species (in the UK at least) and not often seen.  Perhaps the best approach is to learn to enjoy them.
Answer: Buy a bottle of Jeyes Fluid, soak old rags or cloths in it, drape or fix the rags near the entry points you think they're using - they hate the smell, classic gardener's solution to the problem. You will need to refresh the cloths occasionally with the Fluid.
Comment: Thanks to everyone who replied. This seems like the most practical solution to implement. I'll give it a try
Answer:
The most interesting idea to block them from entering your garden, in my opinion would be to plant ginger plant at your fence or at the position in your boundary from which they seems to enter.
This idea depends upon geographical nature of your land too, because I dont know whether conditions will support ginger plant over there.
Any way, when badgers approach your boundary, they could proabably dig hole under fence.
Gingers nature could drive away them as they find ginger as they dig up their path.

This is what we do here for badgers. Any way you can not obstruct them completely from entering your boundary because it will be havoc to plant ginger in your garden, but to some extent you can.
Answer: Substitute steel spikes or lengths of "rebar" concrete reinforcement bars for the missing fence pieces. Drive them into the ground a few inches apart leaving part of each bar a bit higher above the ground as the hole in your fence to block the entrance. Paint them to match your existing fence. Be vigilant and block any entrance you see as soon as you see it made. Eventually, the critters will find another route bypassing your estate.
Answer: These tough and fearless critters do not understand subtlety. Theirs is a matter of survival as opposed to yours which is a matter of aesthetics.
Solution (not a hack): Your choices are share;—accept coexistence with its inconvenience and unkempt appearance—or, to call an exterminator who will set traps and relocate the offender and family. (I wonder if they really relocate or if it is a euphemism for killing them.)

deter badgers from garden


Can Windows integrate with LDAP?

Question: Given an existing LDAP server used for authentication, can Windows desktops authenticate users against LDAP or perhaps Kerberos?
Answer: I once tested this succesfully with pGina, but it's not very friendly to setup.
You can also use a SAMBA server acting as an Active Directory provider, with an LDAP backend, but I haven't tested this yet. Here are the two basic steps do:
SAMBA as a PDC
The basic configuration goes like this:

[global]
passdb backend = tdbsam
os level = 33
preferred master = auto
domain master = yes
local master = yes
security = user
domain logons = yes
logon path = \\%N\profiles\%U
logon drive = H:
logon home = \\homeserver\%U\winprofile
logon script = logon.cmd

[netlogon]
path = /var/lib/samba/netlogon
read only = yes

[profiles]
path = /var/lib/samba/profiles
read only = no
create mask = 0600
directory mask = 0700

More info on the SAMBA docs.
LDAP
Properly configuring an LDAP server is not something trivial (neither the SAMBA server IMHO), but after you configure one (OpenLDAP, FDS, etc.), here's some good info on how to integrate it with SAMBA. And more specific for RedHat.
I also hear SAMBA 4 will be a complete replacement for Active Directory, but who knows when that will be released.
Anyway, I don't know if this has become easier than when I tried it (about 2 years ago), but I hope so, because I gave up after a few weeks of trial... Maybe it's time to give it another go.
Back then, my personal preference was for FDS because it has a great admin console, and it was easier to set up.
Edit: I just remembered eBox. I haven't tested it because I don't like all-in-one solutions, but take a look at the site if you do (it offers plenty more than a domain controller).
Answer: Not without a custom logon provider (msgina replacement)...
Best bet is to either set up a Windows domain controller for Windows clients to log on to (will enable you to utilize group policies and other useful stuff) and have it sync with your existing LDAP service (check out Services for Unix). Or use samba and have it use your LDAP directory for authentication.
Answer: Yes:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc750824.aspx
Comment: This seems to go the wrong way. I'm not interested in Windows as a "provider" of LDAP, but as a "consumer."
Comment: I am also looking for something similar, where AD is a consumer!

Can Windows integrate with LDAP?


How is integer overflow exploitable?

Question: Does anyone have a detailed explanation on how integers can be exploited? I have been reading a lot about the concept, and I understand what an it is, and I understand buffer overflows, but I dont understand how one could modify memory reliably, or in a way to modify application flow, by making an integer larger than its defined memory....
Comment: One [possible exploit that does not involve array/memory manipulation](http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57341753-71/man-wins-$57-million-casino-says-software-glitch/). The amount of his winning, 43 million euros is suspiciously close to 2^32=4294967296 that we are all familiar with, and highly suggest that the glitch may be caused by an integer underflow.
Answer: It is definitely exploitable, but depends on the situation of course.
Old versions ssh had an integer overflow which could be exploited remotely. The exploit caused the ssh daemon to create a hashtable of size zero and overwrite memory when it tried to store some values in there.
More details on the ssh integer overflow: http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/945216
More details on integer overflow: http://projects.webappsec.org/w/page/13246946/Integer%20Overflows
Comment: as the example explained below by Ira Baxter, it has to be a specific situation like that - where you over/under flow an integer when allocating a hash/buffer/array which allows you access to memory you shouldnt have access to, then having a way to calculate FP, etc.
Comment: @wuntee: I don't think there is any point trying to narrow it down like that. Each situation is different. Resourceful people find ways one cannot even imagine! I remember in netscape there was a single off-by-one error that overwrote a single byte with a space. People were able to exploit it!
Comment: I'm curious to know the situation for buffer underflow.
Answer: I used APL/370 in the late 60s on an IBM 360/40.  APL is language in which essentially everything thing is a multidimensional array, and there are amazing operators for manipulating arrays, including reshaping from N dimensions to M dimensions, etc.
Unsurprisingly, an array of N dimensions had index bounds of 1..k with a different positive k for each axis.. and k was legally always less than 2^31 (positive values in a 32 bit signed machine word). Now, an array of N dimensions has an location assigned in memory. Attempts to access an array slot using an index too large for an axis is checked against the array upper bound by APL.  And of course this applied for an array of N dimensions where N == 1.
APL didn't check if you did something incredibly stupid with RHO (array reshape) operator.  APL only allowed a maximum of 64 dimensions.  So, you could make an array of 1-64 dimension, and APL would do it if the array dimensions were all less than 2^31.  Or,  you could try to make an array of 65 dimensions.  In this case, APL goofed, and surprisingly gave back a 64 dimension array, but failed to check the axis sizes.
(This is in effect where the "integer overflow occurred").  This meant you could create an array with axis sizes of 2^31 or more... but being interpreted as signed integers, they were treated as negative numbers.
The right RHO operator incantation applied to such an array to could reduce the dimensionaly to 1, with an an upper bound of, get this, "-1".  Call this matrix a "wormhole" (you'll see why in moment).  Such an wormhole array has
a place in memory, just like any other array.  But all array accesses are checked against the upper bound... but the array bound check turned out to be done by an unsigned compare by APL. So, you can access WORMHOLE[1], WORMHOLE[2], ... WORMHOLE[2^32-2] without objection.  In effect, you can access the entire machine's memory.
APL also had an array assignment operation, in which you could fill an array with a value.
WORMHOLE[]<-0 thus zeroed all of memory.
I only did this once, as it erased the memory containing my APL workspace, the APL interpreter, and obvious the critical part of APL that enabled timesharing (in those days it wasn't protected from users)... the terminal room
went from its normal state of mechanically very noisy (we had 2741 Selectric APL terminals) to dead silent in about 2 seconds.
Through the glass into the computer room I could see the operator look up startled at the lights on the 370 as they all went out.   Lots of runnning around ensued.
While it was funny at the time, I kept my mouth shut.
With some care, one could obviously have tampered with the OS in arbitrary ways.
Comment: Well, my example has the application *doing* a bounds check on array allocation, but in effect that check is defeated by having overflow in array bound itself. You can make your example work like this: x=y+z; data[x] where the computation for x overflows. In C, there is no complaint; you get by definition @(&data+x). If you can set to x to anything (by overflow), you can access anything.
Comment: i could definitely see how one could take advantage of this (as you can access all memory of the machine).  I guess the idea is that it all depends on the specific situation - in this, the application does not bounds check the allocation of an array, where the array's size is an integer.  My mind was stuck on the simple 'buffer overflow' and was thinking there was some way to have 'int x = y + z * w' where y and z and w were all user defined, and in that statement could somehow write over memory in a reliable fashion.
Answer: It depends on how the variable is used. If you never make any security decisions based on integers you have added with input integers (where an adversary could provoke an overflow), then I can't think of how you would get in trouble (but this kind of stuff can be subtle).
Then again, I have seen plenty of code like this that doesn't validate user input (although this example is contrived):
<code>int pricePerWidgetInCents = 3199;
int numberOfWidgetsToBuy = int.Parse(/* some user input string */);
int totalCostOfWidgetsSoldInCents = pricePerWidgetInCents * numberOfWidgetsToBuy; // KA-BOOM!

// potentially much later
int orderSubtotal = whatever + totalCostOfWidgetInCents;
</code>
Everything is hunky-dory until the day you sell 671,299 widgets for -$21,474,817.95. Boss might be upset.
Comment: You can't use this example to override the frame pointer. You can, however, use it to steal 42 million dollars, which is still exploiting a security problem.
Comment: yes, but the how do you use that to your advantage? how can you cause that to override the frame pointer - for example...
Comment: a better example would be:
int arraySize = [some user input];
int array[arraySize];
Answer: A common case would be code that prevents against buffer overflow by asking for the number of inputs that will be provided, and then trying to enforce that limit. Consider a situation where I claim to be providing 2^30+10 integers. The receiving system allocates a buffer of 4*(2^30+10)=40 bytes (!). Since the memory allocation succeeded, I'm allowed to continue. The input buffer check won't stop me when I send my 11th input, since 11 < 2^30+10. Yet I will overflow the actually allocated buffer.
Answer: I just wanted to sum up everything I have found out about my original question.
The reason things were confusing to me was because I know how buffer overflows work, and can understand how you can easily exploit that.  An integer overflow is a different case - you cant exploit the integer overflow to add arbitrary code, and force a change in the flow of an application.
However, it is possible to overflow an integer, which is used - for example - to index an array to access arbitrary parts of memory.  From here, it could be possible to use that mis-indexed array to override memory and cause the execution of an application to alter to your malicious intent.
Hope this helps.

How is integer overflow exploitable?


Parents oppose a chumra

Question: We know that if a parent wants his/her child to violate halacha, the law of Kibbud Av V'Eim does not apply. But what if the parent wants the child to not accept a chumra that the child feels very strongly about or that is widely accepted in the child's community?
Answer: There is a difference between a child keeping his own chumros, and trying to force his parents to follow that chumro.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/110113/jewish/Some-Basic-Laws-Of-Kibbud-Av-Va-Em.htm
This summary of hilchos kibud av v'em would seem to indicate that a child is forbidden from telling his parents directly that they're doing something wrong, halachically.
However, the question here cites the fact that kibud av v'em doesn't prevent any level of Torah observance for a child.
More importantly, (will try to find citation later) repeating a chumro on purpose on three different occasions, has the force of a neder.  As breaking a neder is a serious Torah offense, certainly a child cannot break a neder for the purpose of kibud av v'em.
Of course, the child should do everything possible to minimize inconvenience for the parents.
In Shalom's scenario, the child could meet the father at a non-cholov yisroel restaurant, and order something pareve.
Similarly, a daughter may choose to purchase longer skirts, or shirts that better cover the neckline etc - but the daughter can't force her parents to spend more than they would normally spend on her clothing.
Comment: Maybe he could have his neder forgiven by a chacham if his parents want him to.
Answer: Rabbi Willig has a piece in Beis Yitzchak highlighting the distinction between what's done in the parent's presence (over which the parent has a lot more say) and what's not.
The Pischei Teshuva on shulchan aruch talks about if the parent says "don't say kaddish for my recently-departed spouse, it spooks me!" "Don't wear black clothes as a sign of mourning for my recently-departed spouse, it spooks me!" "I know there's some nice custom to fast Behab, but don't do it, it worries me about your health." (On one foot -- ignore them, listen, listen.) This seems to be discussing saying kaddish when the living parent is in the room; if the child happens to be saying kaddish halfway around the world, why would the living parent know?
Some of this will depend who you consult, but if the child is grown and on their own (paying for themselves, in their own space), then whether s/he drinks chalav yisrael (for instance) when he's home alone is his own business. (Now if his dad wants to meet him for lunch at a non-chalav yisrael place, that's trickier.) For the well-meaning teenager or college-age fellow who's still relying on his/her parents for support, putting aside all matters of the laws of kibbud av v'em, if your parents are asking you to keep baseline halacha, that's probably the healthiest thing.

Parents oppose a chumra


FAQ: What makes an answer good on Skeptics.SE?

Question: What does a good Skeptics.stackexchange.com answer look like? What are the qualities that a perfect Skeptics.SE answer would have?
Answer: The community has identified a number of attributes that make a good answer. These are listed below.
It must actually answer the question.
You might want to talk about a slightly different topic related to the original question; please don't.
Comments belong in the comment section. If you can't answer the question, but you have something important to add, don't post it as an answer. It'll decrease the visibility of the actual answers. Instead, post it as a comment. If it's long, break it into a few comments, or put it on your blog and link to it.
It must be factual, not based in speculation.
The primary purpose of Skeptics is to verify or falsify claims. If an answer an be summed to "I don't know for sure, but here is what I think the answer is," then it is unhelpful; it neither verifies nor falsifies anything.
Speculation is not completely forbidden. For example, an answer that shows, without speculation, that a claim is false, and then provides some speculation as to how the claim might have sprung from a misunderstanding is certainly helpful.
Every answer must have one or more references.
At the present time, we have a strict "no original research" policy. Simply put, hearsay and anecdotes are not enough.
The significant claims in an answer, especially the claim which most directly answers the question, must be backed up by a reference. References should have credibility in the domain (i.e. no encyclopedia, no source which may be biased, etc.) and should preferably be peer-reviewed literature.
Its references must support the argument, and should be verifiable.
A high-quality reference should have, at least, the following characteristics:

Comes from a peer-reviewed source.
Is either a primary source, or it, in turn, cites its sources, so the primary sources can be tracked down.
Supports the argument being provided in the answer (i.e. not out of context)
Draws logical and statistically robust conclusions from any premises or data it offers.

Ideally:

The reference is widely available for others to inspect (e.g. not behind a paywall, or out-of-print)
The reference is not contradicted by similar articles supporting the opposite claim.

The reference need not be a web-site - it can be printed articles, books, documentaries, etc.
The reference need not come from the list of useful sources, but these are widely-respected sources.
Not all references are going to be able to meet this quality bar, but your arguments will be more convincing, and are more likely to receive votes from fellow skeptics when they do.
It must be written in a polite and neutral tone.
We expect users to be respectful of others they disagree with, no matter how frustrated they may be. Rants about young earth creationists, "climate change denialists," etc. will not be tolerated here. If we want to introduce people to the evidence, we have to be nice. Otherwise, we'll drive them away before we even got a chance to educate them.
It must be written in an accessible vocabulary.
Most Stack Exchange sites are intended for expert-to-expert exchange. Skeptics.SE is different in that most users will be laymen in the topic discussed, be it biology, physics or psychology. For this reason, an answer should always be written in a plain language void of overly technical terms so that it might be understood my the average user.
Comment: As a new user, I am curious about how to answer a question which may not have an answer. For instance, if I have done numerous database searches for a specific question, and there is not a single published article on the topic, is pointing this out to a question an answer in itself? Or should this be left to a comment? What about if I have found peer-reviewed articles which also point out a lack of research on the topic? Can I make that an answer, as long as I clearly cite the source? Thanks for the clarification! I would like to be a productive member of the board.


What is the difference between sublet and sublease?

Question: What's the difference between sublet, subleasing and subletting? Are they all words for the same thing? If sublet is the name of the person who takes over, is that the same as subletor?
Comment: What jurisdiction you are inquiring about?
Answer: Let and lease are variations of the same word; the former is more common in British English and the latter more common in American English.
Leasing is the verb form of lease.
Adding sub to any of them just moves the arrangement down from being between the owner and the tenant to being between a tenant and a (sub)tenant.
Comment: _To be fair_, lease is a verb, just in a different form to _leasing_.
Comment: Not sure if it's true or not, but here it says sublet is only for short term, like when you're going on vacation http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/to-sublease-or-to-sublet.709858/
Comment: Colloquially, residential subletting in the US often lacks a lease agreement, whereas subleasing would usually imply a written agreement.
Comment: @jimsug actually lease is a verb and a noun, I was thinking of the arrangement as a whole, the lease between two people which is a noun the way marriage is.
Answer: This answer relates to U.S. law only.

What's the difference between sublet, subleasing and subletting? Are they all words for the same thing?

Yes, they are different words for the same concept and have identical meanings.
Looking at the root words, let and lease may help to dispell some confusion. An authoritative legal dictionary, Black's Law Dictionary (10th edition 2014), defines them as follows:

let vb. -  To offer (property) for lease; to rent out. The hospital let office space to several doctors.
lease vb. 1. To grant the possession and use of (land, buildings, rooms, movable property, etc.) to another in return for rent or other consideration. The city leased the stadium to the football team. 2. To take a lease of; to hold by a lease. Carol leased the townhouse from her uncle.

So, in the legal context, subletting and subleasing are both used to talk about the same same concept leasing property to a third party.

If sublet is the name of the person who takes over, is that the same
  as subletor?

Subletor is not commonly used in the practice of law–sublessor is favored. However, they have the same meaning. A subletor / sublessor is the person who is making the sublease.
When it comes to legal jargon, an old professor gave me a tip to help decipher some of the terms used in contract/property law. The person ending in -or is the one doing the action of the root work. The word ending in -ee is the person receiving it.
Comment: Yeah -- this is not correct.  The differences is in the actual contract, and what is expected is of course depending on the jurisdiction.   In the UK a Lease Hold is a common form of "property" -- that is the land is Leased for a number of years, but the contract which is the Lease Hold can be sold as a derivative form of property and transferred from one owner to a next.   Renting agreement have usually no such provisions.   So in short Renting and Leasing should NOT be expected to be the same.
Comment: @Soren I believe my answer is correct under U.S. law. Yours is correct under U.K. Law.
Answer: In the UK as an example of jurisdiction . . .
Sublet is a renting agreement.
Sublease is a leasing agreement.
The difference is in the contractual commitments -- see this for a side-by-side comparison.
A Leasehold created through a leasing agreement can be a derivative asset, which can be bought and sold in the same ways stock market derivatives can be bought and sold on the stock market.
A renting agreement on the other hand, does not create a derivative asset or property rights.
A lease is typically for a fixed period of time -- for example 12 months for office space, or 99 years for land use.  Where renting is typically from month to month.
Comment: I slightly disagree with your answer. Rent is what you pay your landlord. It can be money, goods, or services. I think of rent as payment. In the vast majority if leases its money. Lease agreement, sublease agreement, and a sublet agreement are contracts to have use of a property. You could even call it a rental agreement; however, while "rental agreement" is the same as a lease, it is not the same as rent.
Comment: My answer is no way equating Rent and Renting as being the same.  Renting is an agreement, and Rent is as you point out is the payment (against a renting agreement).   There are contractual differences between a Lease and a Renting Agreement -- the jurisdiction may make a difference as to what is _typical_ in each type of agreement, but as an example, in the UK a Lease Hold can be sold where the Renter cannot sell Rented property.  A Lease Hold is asset.


Can we make a "big list" community question for structure drawing software?

Question: I would like to know the possible alternative available in chemistry software I've found very useful the big list like TeX or StackOverflow I would like have something similar to find the best chemical software for general propose like drawing structure and simple calculation. Is it possible?
Comment: @ManishEarth - Just an update - haven't forgotten about this, have a partial list.
Comment: I think this is a good idea. Furthermore, the question can either be complemented by a chemical visualisation big list (comparing and contrasting software for producing 3D visualisations of molecules, e.g. PyMol, VMD etc.) or the question could be made more general to encompass both schematic representation and less abstract visualisation.
Comment: @GM I'll address this in the coming days - I've been fairly busy recently. I would suggest that the array be formatted in a more subtle way (e.g. remove most of the grid)
Comment: @RichardTerrett could be 3D and 2D visualization two features of a structure drawing software? Maybe chemical visualization can be embedded in this list, are there pure visualization software?
Comment: @RichardTerrett think you could draft a basic structure drawing/visualization question with some answers along with the basic skeleton as an answer here? You seem to be pretty good with visualization, so you might be the one who knows how best to go about organizing the post. (we already have a small question draft in bob's answer for structure drawing, though not for visualization)
Comment: @ManishEarth - Yeah, I'll give it a go.
Comment: @RichardTerrett Take your time. Though a partial list is all we need to get started, then we can post it on main and let the community fill in the gaps.
Comment: @RichardTerrett In my opinion is important to define the features to list then for the community and the user experience will do the rest...
Comment: @ManishEarth Can we write here a list of features post as an answer to this question?
Comment: @GM Sure. What I was thinking was that we would partially draft the post on meta as a community wiki answer here, and then copy it to main later and let everyone collaboratively create it.
Comment: @RichardTerrett I've tried design a new template in a new answer... Have you something ready?
Comment: @RichardTerrett take your time, did you see the last answer edited in 2 April? because the last has no grid...Thanks for the help!
Comment: @GM Okay I'm working on this right now
Comment: @RichardTerrett let me know if there is something I can do, I will be in the chat...
Comment: I'm for a list, but how do you place it on the site.
Comment: @LDC3 we can do something like [this](http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/339/latex-editors-ides)...
Comment: That list is fine, except the comments tend to distract the purpose of the posts. The useful comments should be incorporated with the description to keep the list neat.
Comment: @LDC3 mmm I think that comment that are opinions should't be incorporated however you are right, we should make a template more neat. If you want you can propose your here!
Comment: It's now a reality! Courtesy of Pritt Balagopal. https://chemistry.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3736/how-do-i-draw-chemical-compounds-and-chemical-reaction-mechanisms-and-add-it-to
Answer: I've tried some template with $\mathrm\LaTeX$ array for a list in the question:
\begin{array}{lllll}
\hline
  & \text{Type} & \text{Auto Optimization} & \text{Fragments} & \text{Molecule Info} \\
\hline
\text{Avogadro} & \text{3D} & \text{yes} & \text{yes} & \text{M.W., IUPAC} \\
\text{BKChem} & \text{2D} & \text{no} & \text{very few} & \text{NOX} \\
\text{ACD/Labs} & \text{2D/3D} & \text{yes} & \text{yes} & \text{M.W., IUPAC} \\ \hline
\end{array}
And for the answer:

Avogadro

Avogadro is an advanced molecule editor and visualizer designed for cross-platform use in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, bioinformatics, materials science, and related areas. It offers flexible high quality rendering and a powerful plugin architecture.

\begin{array}{ll}
\hline
\text{Type} & \text{3D} \\
\text{Infos about molecule} & \text{Molecular weight, IUPAC name} \\
\text{Calculations} & \text{Add }~\ce{H}~\text{from}~\mathrm{pH},~\text{Electric potential surface}\\
\text{Platforms} & \text{Windows, Linux, macOS} \\
\hline
\end{array}
Comment: This is good, though I think the array could be replaced by a bulleted list :)
Comment: I made a post on how web based chemdoodle is used https://chemistry.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3736/how-do-i-draw-chemical-compounds-and-chemical-reaction-mechanisms-and-add-it-to
Comment: I appreciate your work, but I think it's crucial to treat 2D structure editors like BKChem and 3D packages like Avogadro (with force fields for optimization, etc.) separately. Not that both aren't great open source tools ;)
Comment: @KlausWarzecha Ok, maybe we should make two different list...What I was thinking is that Avogadro isn't a pure computational chemistry package like Gaussian, Gamess is more for visualization rather than computing.
Comment: @GM I totally agree with you on Avogadro. It's more in the league of Gabedit, means they are nice to prepare input files for Gaussian, Gamess, Mopac. Whether to place pyMol there too I'd leave to others. I've played with it, but I was never a protein guy.
Answer: I wonder if a format such as the following would work.
Chemical structure drawing software list

What software packages are available for drawing chemical structures?  Answers to this question should focus on a single software package and highlight key features, where to download/try/buy, computer requirements (which OS).  While it isn't always possible, try to keep opinions and subjective information to a minimum.  Rather, advocate for a particular software package by voting up that particular answer.

The Q&A would be a community wiki so multiple contributors can improve the quality of a software package description.
Comment: In my opinion we should provide a "template answer": an answer (or a meta-answer) that one can copy from **edit** and use to structure his own answer.
Comment: Yes it sounds good. Maybe we should try to make a features list to understand what words to use...
Answer: While the SE model in general is not good for big lists, I think it's OK to have a couple community-maintained ones on frequently asked topics.
(I and @bobthechemist were discussing this in the past, IIRC.)
I'm for this if  we can formulate a focused question and maintain a well-organized, Community Wiki answer.
I think two questions — one on drawing and one on solving — would be good, though.
Before starting I'd like to see what the other mods/community members think. We may want to partially plan it over here first, as well.
Comment: Yes I thought the same. I think should be very useful if before we individuate the features for a comparison...
Answer: I've found this review very interesting I think we should learn a lot from there.
Another linked reviews:
Israel Science and Technology for 2D and for 3D
Pharmainfo
Comment: So including an answer that has "review links" might be of value in the final version of this "big list"
Comment: @bobthechemist Yes, maybe even in the body of the question a little list of generic useful link...
Answer:

Avogadro (version 1.1.1)

Avogadro is an advanced molecule editor and visualizer designed for cross-platform use in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, bioinformatics, materials science, and related areas. It offers flexible high quality rendering and a powerful plugin architecture.

TYPE: 3D advanced molecule editor and visualizer, input generator
PLATFORMS: Linux, MacOX, Windows. LICENSE: GNU General Public License
INFOS ABOUT MOLECULE DRAWN:
molecular weight, IUPAC name, Chemical Formula, Energy (kj/mol),Esteem of dipole moment(D) (?), Number of atoms, numbers  of bonds, bonds length.

GEOMETRY OPTIMIZATION: YES
UFF,GAFF,Ghemical,MMFF94,MMFF94s

OTHER FEATURES:
show electrostatic potential surface, crystallography support, find conformers, add hydrogens from pH value, show dipole direction, show hydrogen bonds, show vibrations animation, show spectra, Python console(linux,windows only).

COMPUTATIONAL INPUT GENERETOR:
Gaussian, GAMESS, GAMESS-UK, MOLPRO, MOPAC, NWChem, Q-Chem, Dalton, Abinit

Allowed file format:
See OpenBabel
Allowed file export formats:
  CML(*.cml), GAMESS Input (*.gamin), Gaussian Cartesian Input(*.gau), Gaussian Z-matrix input (*.gzmat), MDL SDfie (*.mol), PDB (.pdb), NWChem Input (*.nw), Sybyl Mol2 (*.mol2), XYZ(*.xyz)

Answer: Now that this question was reactivated (thank you winterbash), I guess it is time for an update.
I personally think it was quite a good idea to make such a list. It was also referred in the more recent and more successful proposal: Resources for learning Chemistry (on meta).
To make this status-completed, you can find it as its own answer in Resources for learning Chemistry (on Chemistry.se).


Dual monitors, screen resolution, xorg.conf.d

Question: I do a lot of RTFM but this one has got me stuck.
I have Ubuntu Studio 12.04 Precise Pangolin with XFCE as its default desktop.
My old HIS ATI Radeon 9250 graphics card was adding red crud across the screen with the generic driver, but downloading the proprietary "fglrx" driver makes it work cleanly. The trouble is the Catalyst control centre refuses to recognise my old card so I must do some manual configuring to make sure both the DVI and VGA monitors are capable of the correct screen resolution (both 1280x1024) and a dual display.
It used to be easier to just edit the existing xorg.conf file and add another resolution and so forth, but now there are automatic xorg.conf.d directories (more than one) with scant documentation.
Creating a generic xorg.conf with a terminal command creates every setting imaginable. What I want to do is create the simplest conf file which just tells the system the following:

 My VGA monitor can do 1280x1024 60Hz
 The two monitors together may be 2560x1024 width
 The VGA monitor on the right
 I might need to specify Xinerama if it's needed

Thank you. I don't think I need to bore you with log files, but please ask for further info.
Mike
Answer: Please see the following for my answer to this question on another site:
https://superuser.com/questions/438699/adding-dual-monitor-settings-to-xorg-conf-d/440518#440518


Different Facebook Auth Dialog in Safari?

Question: I found two different FaceBook auth dialog while using two apps one is "Poker by Zynga" and other one is I am developing.
When I use FaceBook login in "Poker by Zynga" then Safari opens this page:

And when I use my app which is under development now, then Safari opens this page:

You can see both of these are two different pages. In Poker by Zynga, it says "Logged in as Vicky Gupta - Log Out" where user can choose Log Out to sign in as a different user. While in my app it says "You are logging into this app as Vicky Gupta", in this there is no Log Out button.  The only way to log in as a different user to open FaceBook in Safari and then log out from there.
Does any one know why this difference is occurring ? am i missing something in FaceBook app settings? Or is this a normal behavior because I don't think so?
Note: I am using the latest FaceBook SDK (with graph api).
Answer: If you are using latest iOS Facebook SDK, I think to logout a user you just have to delete the token obtained by the Facebook main object.


Can I run a 700c/28"/29er wheel & tire on a 650B full-suspension mountain bike frame?

Question: I recently bought a 2015 Giant Anthem 3 27.5" full suspension mountain bike to build into an electric bike, however, all my other bikes (road bike, other electric bike) have 700c/29er wheels, and I think 700C/29er wheels might be better for this particular build. My new 27.5"/650B mountain bike is running relatively thick 2.25" mountain bike tires, and it has just over a half-inch of tire clearance on the front fork as well as the rear swingarm/triangle thing. I would like to change out the 27.5" wheels for 700C/29er wheels with smaller tires (say, 40C/1.75" tires). My working theory is that it would fit just fine, because the increase in wheel diameter would be offset by the decrease in tire diameter. Is this a workable, advisable change? Could I use the same brake rotors (160mm discs front and rear) on the 700C/29er wheels? Assuming that 700C/29er wheels would fit on my 27.5" frame, should I potentially avoid adding fenders due to the tighter tire clearance?
Comment: You already have some 700c wheels, so just check the fit yourself. You'll get more reliable information than whatever we tell you. Also pay attention to front derailleur clearance when it's on the smallest chainring.
Comment: Also be sure to check clearance with sag, it may look like you'll be fine but may rub when the suspension takes a big hit.
Comment: Are you leaving it electric? If so, larger wheels will have less torque and acceleration, but a slightly higher top speed.   IE if you had 24" or 20" wheels on the same bike it would accelerate quickly but top speed would be lower.
Answer: The only way is to try it and find out. The great thing about disc wheels is that the brakes are in the same position regardless of rim size, so if you put the wheel in and it physically fits (i.e. it goes in the frame with enough clearance) and for the rear it has the right cassette, you're good to go (possibly with some minor adjustment to the brakes). If the outside diameter of the wheel with the tire on shrinks versus your 650b wheels with the 2.25" tires, it should work fine. If it grows, you may have to worry about clearance. You can check this by putting the wheels on top of each other.
That being said, reducing tire size may not work so well for actual mountain biking, so if you are going to take it mountain biking rather than electric biking on the road, you may want to stick with the bigger 650b tires.


Why is "@Commenter" being deleted?

Question: When I "arrived" here the other day I followed the convention of starting a comment with a @ and the name of the person I am replying to etc., but lately this has not shown up on my comment. If I go back in and edit it in, the system edits it out again. Am I doing something wrong or is this the "technology just not working" again?
Answer: @name is automatically removed where

you are addressing the post author and
there are no ambiguities

Authors automatically receive inbox notifications of all comments on their posts, so if a comment is addressed to them, it doesn't need the @name address. If there are other commenters on a post, and you need to differentiate between a reply to them and the OP, then @name should be retained if even that is the OP.
@name is retained when you are replying to a commenter who is not the post author.
It's been part of SE functionality since July 2011.
If you found @name being removed under other circumstances, please edit your question to give full details (including a link to the comment, which you can get from its timestamp). If that's the case, the bug tag can probably be reinstated.
Comment: Ok, thanks. The last time I noticed the phenomenon falls under your first point, for I was addressing Mr. Shoe the author of the comment. But I seem to remember seeing it happen when this was not the case, that is, in chatter underneath someone else's Answer. I can't remember which comment now, but next time I'll come back here with a comment caught _in flagrante delicto_, right?
Comment: Fine. A link is crucial.
Comment: If I may presume still... In this _particular context_ I am not clear on the difference between a Question, an Answer and a Comment. Are all three a "post" with a "post author"? I'll start with (arrobaz)Andrew and see what happens. Ah, it disappeared. I assume this is because it's in the comments under your Answer.
Comment: @DavidPugh *Comments* are on a *post.* You can't comment on a comment, but you can comment on a post to reply to another comment on that post. A *post* is either a *question* or an *answer*.
Comment: That's clear, thank you!

Why is "@Commenter" being deleted?


How to get into business as a boom operator

Question: Here in Germany, many production sound mixers in film get booked directly by production companies. They often bring along their boom operator of choice. They seldom offer rookie trainig or internships. As this system makes it very difficult for a newbie to get paid work, I was wondering if you had any strategies to share. I would also like to know how the system in your country works, with special interest for USA and Australia.
Thanks in advance!
Answer: Hi
Not sure of the system in other countries, but here in the UK more often or not there are 3 members in the Sound Dept; Mixer, Boom Op and Sound Assistant. The assistant is basically a rookie boom op who routes cables, sorts maintenance, hands out headsets to director etc, but also gets experience on the pole grabbing "off lines" and dialogue that the boom op can't get to. Once you are experienced and trusted by the mixer he could ask you to boom for him if his other boom op can't make a shoot for whatever reason.
You can get into an assistant role by possibly applying for a runner role at the production company and getting pally with the sound dept and show your keen ;)
Answer: I am not primary a boom operator, but this is how i got the first projects: (in Germany)
I went to a small movie production company and talked with them. i asked if i could go to some sets for free to learn recording. Then they showed me how to boom 1-2 days and form that on i was the boom opertator for a lot of productions.
So my advice, get in touch with small startup movie production companys.
another thing that i figuered out -> small EB-Teams from "galileo" etc. have mostly one guy who wants to become a camera man. and mostly he needs to boom first. so if you get in touch with those eb teams you could get some jobs too on the long run.


How does the POW change with the number transactions in a bundle?

Question: According to this answer the POW increases with the number of tx in a bundle. How is this accomplished? I thought the bundle-hash is calculated from all tx and then hashed with the nonce as part of the POW. So only the nonce has to change, which would be independent from the number of tx. What am I missing?
Answer: The bundle hash is calculated from the "essence" parts (address, (obsolete)tag, timestamp, value, bundle index) of all transactions.
Then the bundle hash is inserted into all transactions of the bundle.
For all transactions that have a negative value, i. e. they spend IOTA, a signature of the bundle hash is added to the transaction, too.
Then, starting from the "last" transaction of the bundle, tips are selected and added into the transaction.
Now that the transaction is almost finished (everything except the nonce), some PoW is performed, i. e. it is tried to find a nonce so that the transaction hash ends with at least 14 (=Min Weight Magnitude) zero trits. You can also see that when looking at the tryte-encoded transaction hashes - they have nines at the end (unlike addresses or bundle hashes who only very rarely have this).
When the PoW of the last transaction is finished, its hash is added as trunk to the next transaction, and PoW is performed for this transaction as well.
As a consequence:
You need to perform PoW individually for every transaction you attach to the tangle. When reattaching a bundle (change the selected tips), you have to compute PoW for all transactions again. When you promote a bundle, you only have to calculate PoW for one transaction (the zero-value transaction you use to promote your bundle)
Comment: Can you amend this awesome and detailed step-by-step explanation with a clarification at which point the **transaction hash** per transaction is calculated and inserted?
Comment: @ralf The transaction hash is never inserted into the transaction itself, it is only referenced by other transactions that approve it (as trunk or branch transaction hash). Every node will compute the transaction hash individually when it sees the transaction the first time.
Answer: Nonces are being added to transactions, not to bundles. So for each transaction in the bundle the user
have to do a small Proof-of-Work: to find such nonce that will result in the hash of the transaction
with a certain number of trailing zero-trits.
So the POW required for a bundle increases linearly with the number of transactions in that bundle.
Comment: Oh yea, of course. What's used as input to calculate the POW? Nonce + Tx-Hash?
Comment: @Akkumulator: The tx hash (which includes the nonce in the hashing material) has to end with enough zero trits. So POW uses the rest of the transaction as input and modifies the nonce and re-hashes the transaction until the transaction hash fulfills this property.
Comment: @mihi ah ok thanks, got confused there. I assume 12 of those zeros are encoded in the last 4 `9999` of the tx hash.


According to scientific research, which languages take the least time to learn for a native English speaker?

Question: Basically what I'm just asking in the question's title. By learning a language, I mean being able to fluently speak it, understand it, write it, and read it. I would think French or German. Please include references to scientific research in your answers.
Comment: The concept of [Linguistic Distance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_distance) is a valid (IMHO) topic on this site as well as the common use of [relative linguistic difficulty](http://www.effectivelanguagelearning.com/language-guide/language-difficulty) from one language to another.
Comment: Do you mean on average? (Of all English speakers who learned another language, the average time to fluency was lowest for X language)? Do you mean which language is most similar grammatically to English (probably Frisian)? Do you mean, which language has the shortest intensive, full-immersion program that can provide fluency in the shortest time?
Comment: @Flimzy on average.
Answer: According to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), there are categorical rankings of difficulty in learning a language relative to English. A list can be found here with approximate time to become adequate in that language.
Another concept closely related to this is Linguistic Distance. Linguistic distance involves how similar one language is to another (though most implementations of calculating this focus on vocabulary) with regard to some linguistic feature (usually wordbase). The similarities can be calculated mathematically using Levenshtein Distance.
For example, from the Wikipedia article:

Based on this, one study compared both Afrikaans and West Frisian with Dutch to see which was closer to Dutch. It determined that the Dutch and Afrikaans (mutual distance of 20.9%) were considerably closer than Dutch and West Frisian (mutual distance of 34.2%).

Additional resources can be found here, here, here, and here.
Comment: The FSI rankings are cited in many books about language learning, but are there any scientific publications about it? Has anyone tried to correlate the FSI ranking with the Levenshtein distance or any of the other metrics?
Answer: It is reasonable to argue that Norwegian or Afrikaans are the easiest, and therefore the fastest, languages to learn for a native English speaker.
Page F30 argues that (bokmål) Norwegian was the easiest, because:

Many cognates (as with other Germanic languages) and is a Germanic language like English.
Much easier grammar than other Germanic languages, with some of the easiest verb conjugations in all of Europe.
Word order is very similar to English, unlike, say, German with its end-of-sentence verbs.
Forming the Passive Voice is simple

He also argues, in a subsequent article, that Afrikaans is nearly as easy:

No grammatical gender (like English!), which is rare for an Indo-European language.
Verb conjugation is, like Norwegian, also super easy.
Spelling was simplified and is intuitive for an English speaker.

The only reason either of these languages could possibly be considered "hard" is due to fewer learning resources when compared to the major languages (Spanish, German, etc).
Comment: On a first look, the website does not seem to refer to scientific research to back up its claims.
Comment: I've heard that Norwegian has phonemic tone, which of course causes huge problems for people who aren't used to it.


What are these two devices both called "macro adapters"?

Question: I came upon a video and in it there was this what he calls a macro adapter: Raynox DCR-250. And then I searched google 'macro adapter' and saw this video and images of the same device in the first result page — it's something that goes between the lens and the camera.
So, what are these two devices properly called?
Answer: Some cameras will allow close-up photography without the need to purchase any paraphernalia.  Most modern cameras work in close by allowing you to select a "macro" mode. This is a menu item or button designated with the symbol of a flower.  You need to check your camera manual, likely you don't need any accessory to get you started.
Next, look at your camera and lens as you focus. You will notice that as you focus on nearby objects, the lens is actually moving forward elongating the distance lens-to-camera.
So the question is: If you have a craving to do close up work and you need some gadgets, what should you buy?

To work in close and obtain optimum quality with ease of operation, hands down, buy a "macro" lens. These are specialized lens, optimized to work in very close. They deliver the finest close up imagery.
Rings/Tubes: Many camera / lens makers limit close focusing to about 1 meter (1 yard). This is because a general purpose lens is optimized to work distant objects and slightly compromised when tasked to work close. These are actually hollow tubes / spacers that mount between lens and camera body. They circumvent the inability of the standard camera lens to enlarge camera-to-body distance. These work great but with some caveats. Unless advanced rings / tubes  are purchased, they disrupt body-to-lens automation. You will be on your own to set the lens aperture. In other words, most all automation will be lost. Advanced rings / tubes will maintain the lens-to-body connection but they are costly.  Because a standard lens is optimized to image subjects with a diversity as to their depth, they will be slightly compromised if the subject lacks depth, like a stamp or coin. The countermeasure is to reverse the lens. A reversal adapter can be interposed between lens and ring/tube. This points the rear of the lens at the subject. The idea is, the rear of the lens is optimized to work something flat like film or digital imaging chip. Thus the rear or the lens gives improved performance working flat objects.
Supplemental Close up lens: Sometimes called "close up attachment", 'close up filter" "close up adapter": These are simple magnifying lenses that mount before the camera lens. They are an adaptation of the typical reading eyeglass lens. These are available in different strengths. The labeling is +1 - +2 - +3 - +4 etc. This is a unit of optical strength called a diopter.   +1 = 1000mm, +2 = 500mm, +3 = 333mm, +4 = 250mm, +5 = 200m, +6 = 167mm, +7 = 143mm, +8 = 125mm, +9 = 111mm and +10 = 100mm. If you mount a +4 over your existing camera lens, the distance camera to subject is drastically reduced. With a +4 mounted, your camera will now focus at objects 250mm (10 inches) thru 200mm (8 inches). Supplemental close up lenses are stackable. You can sandwich say a + 2 with a +3 and the combination delivers +5. Such a stack yields a lens to subject distance of 200mm thru 167mm (8 thru 6 ½ inches). A Supplemental close up lens is your best bet for an entry level way to do extreme close up work. Despite bad press by mavens, they work quite well. Especially true of compound units, those with two lens sandwiched together. You can try one free. Go to the drugstore, find the reading eyeglass display, pick up a +3 and hold it before you camera lens. The results will be degraded but this will give a peek at what a photo grade supplemental lens will do.

Best of luck in the realm of "micro" photography.
Comment: @ user15435 --- A +4 supplemental close up lens has a focal length of 250mm. Mount this lens, it modifies like putting on reading glasses. Now set the camera's focus to infinity (symbol∞ translates "as far as the eye can see"). This lash-up now allows you to focus on an object 250mm (10 inches) from the front of the lens. Generally, the normal focus range is about equal to1 additional diopter power. Thus the natural focusing range of the camera allows you to achieve focus down to about 200mm (8 inches). (Nobody says this stuff is easy!).
Comment: "With a +4 mounted, your camera will now focus at objects 250mm (10 inches) thru 200mm (8 inches)."  what does that mean?
Comment: What I don't get is "Generally, the normal focus range is about equal to1 additional diopter power. Thus the natural focusing range of the camera allows you to achieve focus down to about 200mm (8 inches)." .. .. . .. .. .Could you please explain it further and a little more simpler?
Comment: You camera has a natural range of focus distance. Unusually, infinity to about 1 meter (3 feet). This is achieved by the focusing mechanism moving the lens further from the camera body. Mount a +3 and set the focus at infinity. With the +3 objects 333mm from the front of the lens are in focus. Now use your camera's focusing mechanism and you can work in  Generally you can reach a distance about equal to mounting a +4. A +4 =250mm. With the +3, likely your focus distance range is 333mm distance to 250mm distance. Many cameras allow more than 1d range. Yours might get even closer than 250mm.
Comment: Believe it or not, the diopter unit affords simpler computations when combining lenses. Suppose you combine a +3 with a +2. What is the final focal length? Math -- +3 +2 = +5. These are diopter units. What is the focal length of a +5? Answer 1/5 = 0.200 X 1000 = 200mm. This is a thin lens formula.
Answer: The first one is not a "Macro adapter" it is an additional lens used on fixed lenses cameras. Think of it as a magnifying glass.
The ones on the video are not "Macro Adapters", they are extension tubes.
There is no such "Macro adapter". Macro is a concept on shooting small things and making them project into the sensor at approximately the same size as the object in front of the lens, so you can not adapt a "type" of photography.
What you have are diferent methods to make Macro photography (to focus on close objects)... (Ok. Let us call them all Macro adapters)
The ones that come to my mind are:

A truly macro lens (Normally it is the "sharpest" but more expensive option)
A zoom lens that can focus at very close range (relative to its focal length). This is labeled and sold as Macro, but comparing the result vs a "Truly" zoom lens is not as sharp.
A small lens in front of the normal lens (your first example)
Extension tubes using the same lens mount (Your second example)
A reverse lens ring adapter. This sockets into your camera on the body side and allows your normal lens to be used backwards. It can also have extension tubes.
A reverse lens over another lens adapter. You put another lens in front of a first one. You can do this even with sticky tape.
Bellows. It is similar to the extension tubes but using a bellow to control distances (and possibly planes, if the bellows includes tilt or swing motion of either the camera or lens mount)
Comment: Well, arguably, all of these are in the general class "macro adapters" — they "adapt" your existing setup to better take macro photos.
Comment: I think "close-up adapter" or "close-up filter" are probably the most common terms for diopter types, at least for selling purposes.
Comment: Should probably also mention that "good" close-up adapters, such as the Raynox, will also be called "achromatic", comprising 2 elements back-to-back to correct chromatic and spatial distortions. Most of the negative things you hear about these adapters apply to the cheap single-element type.
Comment: Ok. I added a "give up" note n_n
Comment: So doesn't it (Raynox DCR-250) have a common name?
Answer: As mentioned by the other answers, the items in the video are extension tubes. From the answer to the question, What are Extension Tubes?,

They're a tube that fits between the lens and camera body to help with macro photography.

its sole purpose is to move the lens farther from the image plane. The farther away the lens is, the closer the focus, the greater the magnification

There is also loss of light so your aperture and/or exposure time will be affected.
You can buy ones specific to your camera that have electrical contacts that allow autofocusing etc to work, or generic ones that have no contacts and therefore force you to use manual focus.

See the Wikipedia article on extension tubes. Other questions on Photo.SE that are helpful to understanding extension tubes include:

What magnification would I get with extension tubes?
How do extension tubes affect focusing distance?
How can I calculate what the effect of an extension tube will be?
What are the limits of extension tubes?
Which suits better for hobby usage: extension tubes vs. close-up filter?
How do I choose an extension tube for macro photography?
Do extension tubes enhance magnification on a 105mm macro lens?
What am I losing when using extension tubes instead of a macro lens?


Are the people involved in killing Jesus innocent

Question: Are the people in the bible innocent of killing Jesus if the crucifiction was already prophisized. Would God need people to play certain roles like judas to help fulfill his prophesy. If judas was needed to help fulfill the crucifiction of Christ,wouldn't that make him a forced traitor?someone would have to play the role of a traitor. If there was no crucifiction there would be no salvation.
Comment: Hugely related: [If God controls our decisions does this mean we don't have free will?](http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/1479/if-god-controls-our-decisions-does-this-mean-we-dont-have-free-will)
Comment: Besides Judas, maybe you can explain who you mean by 'people' and what you mean by 'innocent' or guilty of what for that matter. It might be best to limit your question to Judas and first establish his guilt.
Comment: A related thing to look at is when God talks about the nations he used to judge Israel in the OT. Even though they were his tools, he promised to send other nations to judge them for the evil they did.
Comment: @vera-kasayulie: given Jesus said forgive them (for they know not what they do) I think they are safe, given Jesus' forgiveness - of all people.
Comment: @vera-kasayulie: "wouldn't that make him a forced traitor?" I think this may be a different question...
Answer: My take (Baptist - leaning toward free will) is that they are not innocent, and that they willingly made the choices they made.  In fact, we are all sinners in some respect, but can all be forgiven through Jesus:

[Romans 3:23 NKJV] 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
[Romans 6:23 NKJV] 23 For the wages of sin [is] death, but the gift of God [is] eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[Romans 5:8 NKJV] 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
[Romans 10:9-10 NKJV] 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

My understanding is that for the people involved in Jesus's crucifixion, God knew these people would choose to do the things they did, and He used it in His plan.  However, I do not believe God forced Judas to betray Jesus.  However, He did know what Judas was doing, used it in His plan:

[Matthew 26:31 NKJV] 31 Then Jesus said to them, "All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: 'I will strike the Shepherd, And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'
[John 13:26-27 NKJV] 26 Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped [it]." And having dipped the bread, He gave [it] to Judas Iscariot, [the son] of Simon. 27 Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, "What you do, do quickly."

Interestingly enough, Jesus even asked for forgiveness for the people who were against Him when He was on the cross!

[Luke 23:33-34 NKJV] 33 And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. 34 Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." And they divided His garments and cast lots.

In summary, it appears the people involved in Jesus's crucifixion were not innocent, but even they could be forgiven!


Should I get a teleconverter or 150-500mm lens?

Question: I am planning a wildlife trip. I want to be able to take photos of far away objects and still have all the detail. I currently have a Canon 650D and my longest lens is 70-300mm.
I am busy saving for this trip and a converter or lens. What considerations should I take into account for each option?
Comment: Without some specific criteria by which to judge 'best', you're just going to get opinions. A 500mm f/2.8 will give you the best image quality, but it's probably out of your price range. A 3rd party super zoom is more affordable but somewhat slower. A teleconverter is the cheapest solution, and fits in your pocket, so might be the "best" for traveling, but you'll need to be aware of implications for image quality and speed. Nobody but you can decide what to buy, and if you want help you'll need to tell us what's important to you.
Answer: I also had to make this choice.
For the TC you must be 100% sure that it goes with your lens. The advantage of a TC is that it is cheaper, smaller, and lighter. A 150-500 will be more expensive, bigger, and heavier but a better aperture.
If possible I would recommend rental of a 150-500. This gives you the possibility to test it out for real. If you like it then buy it. It is an investment but if you like to take pictures of wildlife it will be worth the investment.
Comment: And if you need lens only for one trip, then renting may be preferred option.
Answer: Teleconverters tend to be better when used on f/2.8 or faster lenses and on primes vs. zooms.  Adding one to a 70-300 consumer-grade zoom (if you don't have the L version of the 70-300) is problematic at best, since most of these are f/5.6 lenses at the long end, and adding even just a 1.4x tc to it makes it an f/8 lens--at which point an entry-level dSLR probably can't reliably autofocus, or at least will autofocus very slowly.  Which kinda sucks for wildlife shooting. A 2x tc would make it an f/11 lens and is right out.
In addition to the lower aperture issue, TCs nearly always add some softness to the image, so if you really want all the detail you can muster, a longer lens is liable to be the key. I would not, however, recommend looking at cheap mirror lenses for this (again, maximum aperture, and autofocus may be issues, and super-cheap ones can be quite soft). Gird your loins and expect a four-figure pricetag.
So, my recommendation would be to go for the longer lens. HOWEVER. 400mm lenses can be comfortably handheld. 500mm lenses, it's a matter of individual experience, strength, and handholding capabilities as to whether or not they can be handheld. And using a lens for the first time on a trip may not be the easiest way to gain said experience.  I would highly highly recommend taking a whirl through Roger Cicala's lensrentals video on the Canon supertelephoto lenses, and his other youtube video on support systems for superteles, so you can get a sense of what's involved. This is a very far cry from using a consumer grade 70-300 (or even the 70-300L), in terms of the weight/bulk of the lens.
Personally, I'd recommend renting a 100-400L, or if you really have to go for one of the great whites, budgeting for an extra few days rental of a 500mm or longer lens so you can get used to lugging it about and handling it and possibly a gimbal head.
See also:

Which Canon prime and teleconverters should I bring to a safari?
Juza Photo comparison of the 100-400L vs. Sigma 150-500, 50-500 and 120-400.
Comment: The new Sigma 150-600 C and new Tamron 150-600 are about the same size/weight as either version of the 100-400, especially when fully extended. And this is where most of those type lenses tend to be used the most. I wasn't referring to the older 120-400 (or 50-500, etc.) http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Lens-Product-Images.aspx?Lens=113&LensComp2=972&LensComp=929
Comment: The newer Sigma and Tamron 150-500mm zooms do surprisingly well. And they are nowhere near as big/heavy as the 400mm and up primes. Although they are at f/6.3 on the long end, they report f/5.6 to the camera so that AF isn't disabled. In good light they AF fairly well, at least on the bodies with dual cross type center focus points. It all depends on just how much one can or is willing to pay for the slight increase in image quality.
Comment: @MichaelClark, I didn't say the 150-500 choices are bad. I just meant that for an inexperienced user with a 70-300, the 100-400L _as a rental and for travel_ is probably easier to handle, and higher quality than the Sigma 120-400.  The 100-400 is [surprisingly compact](http://camerasize.com/compact/#333.242,333.447,ha,t). And we are talking about balancing this on a dRebel.
Comment: The image quality of the new Sigma and Tamron offerings are also quite a bit better than those older lenses.
Comment: @MichaelClark I'm terribly out of date, then. By newer I thought you meant the OS versions. Thanks!
Answer: I'm not sure there's even a Canon TC that will work with that lens, which means a lower quality TC. And loss of at least one stop of light. All in all, perhaps not better quality than simply enlarging the critter when editing the photo. Not only that, but auto focus may suffer a bit, so that can degrade image quality as well.
Unfortunately, TC's work best on the better fast prime lenses, and are accordingly expensive.
Even buying a relatively more inexpensive long zoom has similar trade offs. There's just not a good way around the fact that you get what you pay for. Alternatives might be a good older used lens, or maybe even rental.
Answer: A converter will decrease your lenses lowest aperture, or make it less useful when it gets darker or shady.  Plus, you are limited to a 1.4x converter, as the 2.0 converter will likely cause issues with the autofocus on your lens, since most Canon cameras require f5.6 or better to focus. The 2x converter adds 2 stops. At 300mm, your lens is already at f5.6, so adding one or two stops will cause it to stop autofocusing. I would avoid the converter route.
Therefore, getting a lens is the best option. Don't forget that you can rent a lens as well, which means you can likely rent a much better lens than you likely wish to purchase.
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-Extender-EF-1.4x-II-Tele-Converter-Review.aspx
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-Extender-EF-2x-III-Review.aspx
Comment: Several Canon cameras enable AF with the center point using lens/extender combinations at f/8. How well it works is another discussion, but in bright light it works reasonably well.
Comment: True, the 1D series and 5D3 can focus at f8, but the camera mentioned in the question is a 650D, which is limited to f5.6
Comment: Yep, and your answer just says "Canon cameras" which strongly implies *all* Canon cameras, including those higher end models absent a qualifier such as *your* Canon camera, or Canon *xx0D series* cameras, or *lower tier* Canon cameras.
Answer: A teleconverter will magnify the image produced by your lens on the sensor, but will not produce a better resolution than your original lens had. It just cannot: it comes after the lens on the optical path. In other words, if two points were too small/far away to be distinguishable with your lens, the teleconverter will not allow you to distinguish them.
The teleconverter would be interesting the optical resolution of your lens were finer than the one of your sensor. This is usually not the case with modern cameras: a good lens will give you around 10 Mpixels of optical resolution (usually much less for a zoom, look for numbers on DXOmark), and your sensor is much finer.
So, you shouldn't expect from a teleconverter much better than what you get by cropping your images digitally to fake a bigger zoom.
The bad news is that zooms with focal length longer than 300 mm are usually quite expansive. But I guess that's the price to pay if you really want a telephoto ...
Comment: The DxO Mark lens Mpixel rating is less than a true measure of the resolving power of a lens. If you want to see anything useful at DxO you need to look at the actual measured data, not the "scores" that figure in a lot of other factors that may or may not be applicable to your specific situation.
Comment: The score summary is usually at the best focal. If you are to buy a teleconverter, you're probably interested in the longer focal where the lens is indeed much worse.
Comment: The score summaries at DxO Mark often have very little to do with the reality of the actual test data. My point isn't about the lens per say, it is about the methodologies that DxO Mark uses to arrive at composite scores. They very often weight things heavily in favor of factors that are not much of a concern to the average user while minimizing differences that might be much more important to a particular user.


How do I set unique ringtones for individual contacts?

Question: I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 and would like to set text notifications to be unique to each contact (just as I can set unique ringtones for each contact).  Is there a way to do this?  For example, I would like 1 ringtone/notification for my sister for both calls and text and a different ringtone/notification for my mother for both calls and text.
Answer: There are many apps available for these tasks. But soon it becomes pain to have many apps running one for each purpose. At these situations, you can remove all those apps and use Tasker.  You can set the Tasker such that when your mother calls or sends a text it can play a preset ringtone - and it can even say the caller name or any predefined text. This is just a tip of the iceberg and there are so many things that can be done with it.
It is a bit complicated for the first use and involves a small learning curve. But once you are used to it, you can eliminate many apps and make your phone a true smartphone.
Note: I am not in any way associated with Tasker other than using it in my device.


Male and female budgies fighting

Question: Hello I have male and a female budgie and they keep fighting. They don't really stop. They are a couple and I don't want to split them.I have a sheet over their cage and they have kinda stopped and still fight alittle under the sheet. How can I make them stop fighting?
Comment: I can't answer your question, but those who can will want to know how long the two have been together in the same cage.  As well as how long the fighting has been going on, and what happened before it started.
Answer: Need to separate, not all male/female of same species will get along. You cannot train them to want to be together.
If they are constantly fighting they are not a bonded pair.
Introducing one bird to the other needs time and an extra cage on hand.
When acquiring a new bird:
1) Ideally there should be a 3-6 month quarantine to prevent spread of infectious diseases if they have some, during this time frame you will see if your new bird develops any illness.
2) Once quarantine is done place bird #2 in the same room (but not the same cage) as your original.
3) After a week you can place bird #2's cage next to bird #1 for them to get a better look at each other and to get more familiar.
4) After another week you may try introducing them to each other outside and away from their cages. (Some birds can be cage aggressive/possessive).
5) After multiple play sessions outside of their cages goes well and you feel confident that they get along you may place them on the same cage. Watch their reactions/body language if you feel that they love each other you will be fine.
Answer: If the cage is too small, they might be having territorial issues. Budgies are not usually a type of bird where gender matters. I have my six with all mixed genders, some male, some female. Maybe try getting a bigger cage or something for them each to do when they are bored?

Male and female budgies fighting