How should ability be distributed through teams?

Question: After reading this, I saw that there seems to be a lot of disagreement over how agile teams should be structured within a group of developers with varying ability (aka almost all teams). Should all the best developers be put on their own teams and be given the highest priority work? This will pretty much ensure that the most important tasks will get done. At the same time, you are then left with the "less than perfect" teams elsewhere racking up technical debt, even if it is only on low priority tasks. On the other hand, evenly distributed teams could have the benefit of making your lagging developers a bit better, but has the potential to demotivate your heaviest hitters. Also, if you mix in a bunch of good design patterns with a bunch of terrible anti-patterns, you can really end up with something that might as well be a bunch of anti-patterns. All teams have their strong coders and their not so strong coders, so how should this be dealt with?
Comment: Most decent character systems let you redistribute talent points periodically.
Comment: Sorry, too much Mass Effect 2 (and other games) these days. :P
Comment: Seems like this: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/76890/dominant-team-members-in-a-scrum-team.
Comment: @Lott Similar, but that is referring to keeping an overly dominant developer in check if I remember correctly.
Answer: There are some known risks with A-Teams, but if the dynamics are right then I think yes, I'd put my strongest people on the most important projects along with the junior developer(s) with the most potential. For your lower priority projects you need a good team leader if at all possible to keep them from going to far off the rails. Technical debt is going to happen no matter what. Not all technical debt is equal; the cost/liability of technical debt is in proportion to the business value of the project in the first place, so while your lower priority projects may have more warts the cost of those is probably still much less than significant problems on your high priority projects would be.
Answer: I remember when I was at uni one of our professors telling us an anecdote about team structures (I had a look for the paper he was talking about just now but I can't seem to find it).
Basically, the story went as follows:
A group of programmers were split into groups based on ability, with the worst x programmers being grouped together, the next x grouped together, etc., and the very best ones grouped together.
They were all assigned the same task, and given a set timeframe in which to complete it.
At the end of the timeframe the organisers looked at the solutions to the tasks, and they, to their surprise, discovered that the best performing solution came from the team made up of average people. In contrast, the team made up of the A* programmers made one of the worst solutions because they spent all their time arguing about what was the best solution.
If you need a team that's going to get stuff done get a bunch of average guys and a dominant guy who can lead, was the conclusion of the study (If I remember correctly), otherwise the more dominant members will spend more time fighting than getting stuff done!
Comment: Yes this is one of the primary A-Team problems but concluding that it universally applies to all teams based on this study would be a mistake.
Comment: Well, put a bunch of devs together that all write only path-finding algorithms and this is what you get...
Comment: Agreed: not everyone is the same, nor will equivalent groups have the same dynamics, but it's a good anecdote nonetheless!
Comment: lol - you can't find the paper most likely because the professor just made the story up on the spot. ;-)
Comment: That wouldn't surprise me :D
Comment: +1: Great answer. It goes hand in hand with my answer over here: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/46284/how-do-you-manage-a-complexity-jump/46313#46313
Answer: The vast majority of inexperienced developers may not be able to come up with robust, elegant designs on their own, but they can recognize and understand it when they see one.  If they can't, then they usually lack either the aptitude or the preparation to have been hired in the first place.
There are also some more experienced developers who are capable of understanding very complex software designs, but lack the discretion to know when something simpler would be better.
In my experience you usually only have permanent problems with mixed teams if they contain unprepared members, needlessly complex members, or both.  Otherwise, if your team has issues they can usually be fixed with better communication or assigning appropriate roles.
Comment: I can only assume from your first paragraph that you don't work in an environment where the demand for developers exceeds the supply. Many of us do. :-)
Answer: Grouping best people to single team can look like a great short term solution but it is failure in long term scope and it has additional costs. For example my company prefers when people learning from their more skilled colleagues instead of paying for trainings. If you separate best people they will not be able to transfer knowledge to less skilled people. In short term your best teams can perform well but because of lacking knowledge transfers the number of skilled people will not increase. It is much better to have less performed team at the beginning and increase performance over all teams as people become more skilled.
Moreover what happens if skilled people decide to leave? Who will take their projects?
Another point is that team should be composed from people with different skill sets. You will always have easy tasks (and boring tasks) which are too expensive to be done by the most senior developers.
Answer: Those that can't teach, do...
I think there are more factors to consider.
You will get the most value by distributing those that can teach as team leads.  They can teach the other members of the team and help elevate the quality of their work.
Not all senior programmers will make good leads.  That ability to communicate information is a skill in and of itself. This skill is not something that develops through programming experience.  It develops through teaching and explaining.
Comment: I agree but in the same time you can learn from the code written by other developers. If senior developers are not part of your team you cannot learn from them this way.
Comment: @Ladislav Mrnka: I'm not saying that you shouldn't distribute senior developers throughout different teams.  The ability to learn from code will vary.  This also assumes devs will take the time to learn from code which many do not.
Answer: Assigning an 'A' team, has two significant issues. First is compatibility. Having teams that get along and work well together is far more important then their "ability". Now this may be two "high" skill programmers, two "low" skill programmers, or a mix. The fact they can work well together means they will be more productive.
The second issue deals with growth. Two "low" skill programmers will not learn much from each other, besides bad habits. Likewise two "high" skilled programmers will not learn much from each other. However mixing "low" and high" skill levels will help improve the abilities of the "low" skill. They also will improve the abilities of the "high" skilled. How? trying to teach a subject will quickly find your weak points in that subject. I don't considered a skill "mastered" until you can teach it to someone else.
Answer: From the other side of the coin, I think it makes sense to keep teams which can "keep up" with each other. Your A-Team type programmers don't want to wait on the B-Team types to get their bits done. Your B-Team types might be intimated by the A-Team style workflow.


Why do clerics need wisdom?

Question: In basic D&D Clerics' primal Stat is wisdom. But it does not effect neither turn undead nor their spells. So why do they need a high wisdom? Just for the exp  bonus?
Answer: In older D&Ds, not everything is tied tightly into things written on your sheet. Assuming that it works like modern D&D and that you can bring in modern D&D assumptions about what matters most—what's on your sheet—is a common mistake that can lead to de-optimising a character. There are mechanics that only appear within the adventure notes, there are ad hoc situations that will be judged by eyeballing the PCs' stats or testing them with a d20 roll, there are monster abilities that trigger off PC stats.
Your stats, therefore, should not be considered merely a source of bonuses. Your stats are what you are capable of, just yourself, when all of your abilities, gear, spells, and friends are missing, damaged, irrelevant, or stripped away by misfortune or misadventure. They are what lies between you and the unknown when you're in dire straits. A cleric is known for their wisdom, so a less-wise cleric will always be at a slight disadvantage, but whether that matters and makes any difference when the chips are down is something you can't know until you're tested by adventure.
So yeah, you don't "need" a Wisdom of 15 compared to a Wisdom of 13, but that's not the point. When you write down 13, you are saying "I am not as wise as the next cleric." Similarly, a lower strength means you're not as strong. There's no such thing as optimising here, just making a statement and then living or dying by it. You're making trade offs, with neither being better than the other. After all, you can't optimise for what you don't know, and old D&D is all about venturing into the unknown to see if you can come back better off. You can optimise for the short-term mechanical bonuses that are immediately obvious, but that's not wise, that's just making a wager that you won't need the other stat more and higher later.
Answer: First, your question doesn't really fit the mindset that B/X embodies.  Asking:

So why do they need a high wisdom?

is incorrect.  Clerics benefit from a high wisdom but there is no reason in B/X you can't run a character with a wisdom of 3 as a cleric.  You'll just advance slower than other clerics.
3.x and on have been games about playing optimized characters much more than earlier editions although the trend started with AD&D where the four classes needed a minimum of 9 in their prime requesites and gained special class related advantages (such as extra clerical spells). In fact, if you go to OD&D you get the following bit:

Name: Xylarthen Class: Magic-User
Strength: 6 Intelligence: 11 Wisdom: 13
Constitution: 12 Dexterity: 9 Charisma: 0
Gold Pieces: 70 Experience: Nil
This supposed player would have progressed faster as a Cleric , but because of a personal preference for magic opted for that class.

As SevenSidedDie has pointed out a lot of ad hoc tests of attributes were common when B/X was current such as roll a d20 or 3d6 under a stat.
The advantage of this is you can play a character against type without a mountain of mechanical penalties.  A B/X version of Peter the Hermit, a very unwise holy man who was very influential in the First Crusade, would just advance a bit slower than a B/X version of the Buddha.  A 3.x version of Peter would be unplayable.
Answer: I just browsed both books and although later editions have rules for primary attributes, the classic D&D rules seem to have only the experience bonus for high attributes. Neither turning, nor spellcasting, nor maximum spell level nor anything else is changed by high (or low) wisdom.
UPDATE:
I seem to have overlooked the character sheet where it says that wisdom modifier is added to the saves against spells, wands and staves. I have browsed the books again but did not find it in the text. I do have a German translation though, so maybe it's an error.
Comment: Pretty disappointing. So since my wisdom is 15 and my strength is 12, it would be wise to lower my wis to 13 and enhance str  to 13, wouldn't it? So I'd get a higher to hit and damage mod without lowering my % of exp.
Comment: Well, for one, you cannot drop your wisdom to raise your strength as a cleric.  You can only trade to increase your PR.
Comment: (it's Moldvay's Basic)
Comment: @NetHacker just looked at an old character sheet, see the update.
Comment: I knew that,  yes,  but it is not a cleric special feature.
Answer: In short: because the other stats had already been taken.
A fighter is obviously strong.
A wizard is obviously intelligent.
A thief obviously dexterous.
So...now, you have someone intelligent enough to look at the castle's map and notice that there must be an hidden room behind the throne, because there is something wrong with the rooms disposition.
You then have someone strong enough to move that damn throne away from its current position, even if with a lot of grunting and panting and sweating.
Finally you have someone else who is so dexterous to disable the trap on the secret door and unlock it.
Pity is everybody die, as there is no one wise enough to realize that jumping (metallic) weapons in hand in a room with the sign "Danger: High Voltage" is not a wise thing to do...

Older D&D was simple, straightforward, with few rules, and very evocative (or, you could say, very stereotyped): the warrior is stupid and strong, the cleric fight evil and cure people, the mage is lean and smart (i.e. a nerd), and so on.
To do this, to help give a strong feeling to every class, you need to assign them some specific trait that is unique to them and, in doing so, you give them traits that the DM could use during the adventure, too. So you end up having the strong one, the smart one, the agile one, and the wise one: in all it makes for a wide selection of attributes to build an adventure on. In a very effective way you are forcing players to use all attributes available, to build a more interesting party, and you are rewarding them for that (the xp bonus)
So, yeah, someone had to pick wisdom.

Why do clerics need wisdom?


How do I delete a contribution

Question: If I have entered a contribution in duplicate, how can I delete one of them?  I do not know what to try before asking my question.
Answer: Go into CiviCRM admin>Contributions>Find Contributions to find the relevant contribution(s).  When the search is complete, on the very right hand side of the Find Contributions screen and in the relevant row, you will see the word "Delete".  All you then need to do is click on "delete" and the contribution will be deleted.
Alternatively, if you are viewing a contact record, choose the "Contribution" tab where the contact's contributions will be listed.  The "Delete" button is on the right hand side.
Answer: You can also delete multiple contributions from the search results (Contributions>Find Contributions) by checking the checkbox to the left and select 'Delete Contributions' from the action menu.

How do I delete a contribution


Proof for the divisibility of natural numbers by at least one prime

Question: Like any other natural number, N is divisible by at least one prime number (it is possible that N itself is prime).
Is there a proof for this?
Comment: Note that this is true only for natural numbers $n>1$.
Answer: Yes (modulo Brian's comment.)
Hint: Suppose not, and let $n$ be the least natural number $\ge 2$ that is not divisible by a prime.  In particular, $n$ is not prime, so...
Answer: Hint $\ $ If $n > 1$ then its least factor $> 1$ is prime. $\ $ And similarly for polynomials:
$\qquad\ \ $ if f(x) is nonconstant then its least-degree nonconstant factor is irreducible.
And similarly for Gaussian integers, by taking the least-norm nonunit factor, etc.
Answer: Let $P(n)$ be the statement, "$n$ is divisible by a prime number." Since 2 is prime and 2 divides itself, it follows that $P(2)$ is true. This serves as the based case of the induction.
Let $m>2$ and assume that $P(k)$ is true for all $k$ where $2\le k<m.$ We would like to show that $P(m)$ is true. If $m$ is prime, then $m$ is divisible by a prime, namely itself, and hence $P(m)$ is true. If $m$ is not prime, then $m$ has a composite factor $b$ satisfying $2\le b<m$. By inductive hypothesis, $P(b)$ is true. This means that $b$ is divisible a prime number, say $p$. This implies that $p$ is a prime factor of $m$. Hence, $P(m)$ is true. Since $m>2$ was arbitrary, the result follows by Complete Induction.


A position with the only legal move resulting in checkmate

Question: Theoretically, is it possible that for some position, the only legal move for a side leads to a checkmate (that is, the opposite king gets checkmated)? If so, has this ever occurred in a real game?
Comment: Note that all [selfmate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfmate) chess problems rely on such positions, so they definitely exist.
Comment: There used to be a Lichess bot named Badmodo, which used the engine Komodo to determine the worst possible move at every turn. The challenge was to force the bot to beat you!
Answer: I want to offer a semi-realistic example. I think I have seen something like this in a game by masters in some book, but of course I cannot recall where. But this is something that at least can be realistically missed in calculations from far away.
[FEN "6k1/5ppp/6r1/3b4/4r3/8/1Q5P/1R5K w - - 0 1"]

White just gives a back rank mate, right? :)
Update: actually, I found a real game with a very similar motive, though not quite self-mate in one:
[FEN ""]
[Event "Simul"]
[Site "Copenhagen DEN"]
[Date "1924.03.15"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "?"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Aron Nimzowitsch"]
[Black "Paulsen"]
[ECO "D32"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[Source "Skjoldager and Nielsen pp.399-400"]
[PlyCount "43"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 c5 5. e3 Nc6 6. a3 cxd4
7. exd4 Be7 8. c5 O-O 9. Bd3 a6 10. O-O Qc7 11. b4 e5 12. dxe5
Nxe5 13. Nxe5 Qxe5 14. Bb2 Ng4 15. f4 Qd4+ 16. Kh1 Nf2+
17. Rxf2 Qxf2 18. Nxd5 Qxb2 19. Bxh7+ Kh8 20. Qh5 Qxa1+ (20...Bg4!)
21. Bb1+ Kg8 22. Nxe7# 1-0

An old Russian book by Judovich also lists the following position in a game between two amateurs "whitnessed by J. Krejcik in a local club":
 [Fen "8/4N1p1/7k/4B2P/5KP1/3q4/8/7R b - - 0 1"]

The story goes that after 1...g5, both players resigned, because white forgot about the en passant rule, and black only remembered it after they made the move. I think we can safely assume it's made up, though.
Answer: Sure it's possible. In fact, it's possible that this kind of "inevitability" happens earlier in the game, with many more moves to go until mate.
Here is an example taken from the Wikipedia on joke chess problems.  The composer's full name comes from chess problem databases.
[Title "Vilhelm Röpke, Skakbladet 1942, Mate In 6"]
[FEN "K1k5/P1Pp4/1p1P4/8/p7/P2P4/8/8 w - - 0 1"]

1. d4 b5 2. d5 b4 3. axb4 a3 4. b5 a2 5. b6 a1=Q 6. b7#

Answer: [FEN "kq6/8/K7/PQ6/8/8/8/8 b - - 0 1"]

1... Qb7+ (1... Qa7#) 2. Qxb7#

Black could mate with 1...Qa7# or lose with 1...Qb7#, when White's only legal reply is 2. Qxb7#.
Answer: Forced mate positions do occur in real games although it is pretty rare: such a mate is only delivered about once in 68,000 games on lichess.org.  One example comes from this game with the penultimate position:
[FEN "KQ6/2k5/1qP5/N7/5p1p/8/6PP/8 b - - 0 51"]
[Event "Rated Blitz game"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/1aj0ru8r"]
[Date "2013.01.04"]
[White "captainRobinson"]
[Black "agnefrance"]
[Result "0-1"]

1... Qxb8#

The vast majority of these forced-mate positions in real games involve either a king that is in check with the only available move being to capture the checking piece and in doing so deliver mate or a situation in which the mating side has only pawns and the only legal move is a pawn push that mates the opposing king.  Both of these situations almost always occur on the side of the board.
A slightly more interesting example from this game where the king is mated by the only legal move in the middle of the board is:
[FEN "8/1R3p1N/1p1k2p1/1bPP4/2nKP3/r4P2/6PP/8 b - - 0 32"]
[Event "Rated Blitz game"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/a43impad"]
[Date "2013.01.05"]
[White "dnc"]
[Black "Semmel"]
[Result "0-1"]

1... bxc5#

Forced-mate positions occur OTB as well.  The most interesting such game I found was played between GM Danilo Milanovic and IM Jasmin Bejtovic at the 41st Bosna Open in Sarajevo 2011.  The example is interesting because the last two moves of the game are forced and the second is a discovered checkmate.  The full game from here is:
[FEN ""]
[Event "41st IT Bosna 2011"]
[Site "Sarajevo"]
[Date "2011.05.08"]
[Round "5.10"]
[White "Milanovic, Danilo"]
[Black "Bejtovic, Jasmin"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E70"]
[WhiteElo "2494"]
[BlackElo "2413"]
[PlyCount "139"]
[EventDate "2011.05.03"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Bd3 O-O 6. Nge2 Nbd7 7. O-O c5 8. d5
Ne5 9. f4 Nxd3 10. Qxd3 a6 11. a4 Rb8 12. h3 Ne8 13. f5 Nf6 14. Bd2 Nd7 15. Qg3
Ne5 16. b3 Bd7 17. a5 b5 18. axb6 Rxb6 19. Nc1 Qb8 20. Ra3 Qc8 21. Ra2 Qb8 22.
Nd1 Re8 23. Ba5 Rb7 24. Raf2 Bh6 25. Bd2 Bxd2 26. Rxd2 a5 27. Ne3 a4 28. bxa4
Rb2 29. Rdf2 Rxf2 30. Qxf2 Qb4 31. Ne2 Qd2 32. Ng4 Nxg4 33. hxg4 Bxa4 34. e5
Rf8 35. f6 exf6 36. exd6 Re8 37. Ng3 Qd3 38. Kh2 Qxc4 39. Qxf6 Qxg4 40. Qxf7+
Kh8 41. Qf6+ Kg8 42. Qf7+ Kh8 43. Rf4 Qd7 44. Qxd7 Bxd7 45. Rf7 Rd8 46. Ne4 Bf5
47. Nf6 g5 48. d7 Bg6 49. Re7 c4 50. Re8+ Bxe8 51. dxe8=Q+ Rxe8 52. Nxe8 c3 53.
d6 c2 54. d7 c1=Q 55. d8=Q Qf4+ 56. Kg1 Qc1+ 57. Kf2 Qf4+ 58. Ke2 Qe4+ 59. Kd1
Qg4+ 60. Kc1 Qc4+ 61. Kd2 Qb4+ 62. Kd3 Qb3+ 63. Ke4 Qc2+ 64. Ke5 Qc5+ 65. Ke6
Qe3+ 66. Kf7 Qb3+ 67. Kf8 Qb4+ 68. Nd6 Qf4+ 69. Nf7+ Qxf7+ 70. Kxf7# 1-0

These games were found using CQL 6 with the query:
cql()
mate
parent : move count legal == 1

Comment: That's a fantastic answer! Thanks for pointing out CQL.
Comment: Note that this cql query might let out some cases where one camp as several legal moves but they all lead to a checkmate. Admitedly, that must not happen very often, so your query is a good proxy.
Answer: I was thinking about position where your king is not checked, and this seems to work (of course white to play):

[FEN "b5k1/RN3ppp/P7/8/8/8/8/5qbK w - - 0 1"]


How do I get my server off the ivmSIP/24 blacklist?

Question: I checked my server IP using this tool:
http://www.mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx
It's come up on the ivmSIP/24 list.

What can I do to get my IP removed from this list? I have SPF records set to allow this IP to send mail on behalf of the domain.
Answer: This is Rob McEwen, CEO of invaluement. First, while ivmSIP/24 has been around for a few years, we're always making improvements/tweaks... and we've made a number of improvements to the removal request system in just the past few weeks, some of which directly impact the suggestions I'm about to provide. (I'll also address Dmitry's comment later this message)
Here are some suggestions:
(1) If you have an IP or IP range delegated to you that isn't the whole /24 block, make sure that whoever delegated that IP to you goes into their IP whois registrar (arin, etc) and creates a sub-record for you which distinctly shows that you are the owner of that subrange, thus distingishing your ownership from the entire /24 block. While in the past ivmSIP/24 has been "hit & miss" with what I'm about to say... we've very recently become much more consistent in factoring this in so that we can leave the "innocent bystander" ranges untouched, while still blacklisting the egregious spammer's ranges. In fact, thousands of entries in ivmSIP/24 are partial entries for this reason alone, where they do NOT blacklist the entire /24 block. In many cases, we're the ONLY blacklist doing such "surgical strikes", where other blacklists are listing the whole /24 block.
(2) Make sure that your IP address has a "forward-confirmed reverse DNS" (FCrDNS). And make sure that the host name used in the PTR record is NOT some large sequences of items separated by a bunch of hyphens and dots, then ending in your hoster's or datacenter's domain. THAT is considered a "dynamic IP" and is considered substandard. In fact, it is getting to be an industry standard that the rDNS (aka "ptr record") should convey both IDENTITY and REPUTATION... via being something that ends in your organization's own PRIMARY domain name, and without a bunch of hypens/dots before that domain name. For example, "mail.example.com" or "outbound.example.com". If some numbering sequence is needed, make it "101outbound.example.com", or something like that. then make that FCrDNS by having (for example), "outbound.example.com" resolve to your sending IP, and your sending IP resolve to "outbound.example.com". (again, this is an example.. you would need to use YOUR MAIN domain in there).
The "FCrDNS" part is to prove you ARE who you claim to be. A PTR record is easily forged. But getting an "a" record to point back to that IP is virtually impossible to do without having authority.
Then, when this is all put together correctly (as 99% of extremely legit mail senders ALREADY do!!!!)... then this enables our system to better attribute your GOOD reputation (if you have any?) into our automated system's decision to list your IP (or not). This helps in two ways: (A) if a little spam really did slip out of your system, but that wasn't the norm for your IP and you also send LOTS of legit mail.. then this metric (along with MANY others I won't go into)... can often keep your IP off of ivmSIP and ivmSIP/24, even if a little spam slips out of your network, (B) AND... if you share a /24 block with egregious spammers, but your IPs are not sending spam, but you don't have the IP registry records I suggested above... then our automated system will often STILL keep you from being blacklisted (or will quickly auto-delist your IP) ...and just YOUR IPs... if you're doing this step correctly.
And consider this... 99+% of spam does NOT do this correctly. 99+% of legit mail DOES do this correctly. Do you REALLY want to have an attribute in such a state where it matches what 99% of spam does, and mismatches what 99% of legit mail does... and then expect your mail to be taken seriously? Think about that! (for example, the popular anti-spam program called Spam Assassin has a popular plug-in which adds points to the spam score just for this mistake!)
(3) Check Senderbase.org (choose /24 after you submit your IP)... and see what other IPs are on your same /24 block which THEY consider "poor". Then if these are not YOUR IPs... complain to your datacenter and maybe they'll kick off the spammers from that range. (or get someone else to clean up their security mess!).
(4) WARNING: Even AFTER you get off of ivmSIP/24 and all other blacklists found on MX Toolbox (etc.), we have found that many of the largest ISPs have internal blacklist which operate extremely similar to ivmSIP/24 (except often do NOT carve out exception ranges). So we OFTEN get complaints about mail STILL not making it to large ISPs who do not use our data, even if their IPs are not on ivmSIP/24 or any other publicly visible RBLs. ("are you sure this isn't on ivmSIP/24 because even though I don't see it there, google/yahoo/comcast/etc is still blocking us!!!") BOTTOM LINE: the nearby spammers dragging down your IP "neighborhood's" reputation continues to be the MAIN culprit. (again, follow step #3 above)
(5) Recently, we made a change to our system whereby all correctly followed-through removal request positively impact your chance of an automated removal, even if a human being didn't get to your request in a timely fashion. It isn't enough to make it worth a blackhat hoster's time submitting dozens of removal requests... but it often makes the different in speeding up removals in marginal cases. Why not "easy off"? Because at invaluement we specialize in blocking much spam that ALL other blacklists are either not blacklisting or not getting to for a while. Some such lists have had their data "gamed" by spammers working the "easy off" forms. Unfortunately, we do get overrun sometimes with requests. But, as I mentioned, we've recently (as in... in Oct. 2013!!!) make some update to further automate our processes... and we recently received a huge boost in funding that is enabling us to add staff, etc. for keeping up better with those requests which do require more manual processing.
So what went wrong with Dmitry's scathing comment above?
Admittedly, we're not without some fault in that process. But he is also not telling (or even understanding!) the whole situation. (first, I'm assuming this is Dmitry M. from the Ukrane?)
First, Dmitry's request was for ivmSIP, not ivmSIP/24. We have spam on file sent DIRECTLY from Dmitry's IP. in fact, 4 separate samples from 4 different days. If Dmitry has been on top of his mail server (as would be more typical of a legit operation) and had fixed this on day one... then we'd only have evidence of one spam outburst. Then, our automated system would have auto-expired the listing MUCH MUCH MUCH faster. But by allowing this spam problem to drag out, it "convinced" our automated system that he wasn't a one-off accidental security hole... but instead was more likely a deliberate spammer sending spam little-by-little over time. Again, that is NOT what happened. Dmitry didn't intend to spam. But his first removal request coming 10 days AFTER the spam problems started... along with many spam incidents in between, convinced our automated system to not take him that seriously and to draw out the expire time. Again, if he had found/fixed his security problem within a day or two, the listing would have auto-expired LONG before he had made his first removal request!
Secondly, Dmitry is NOT following the 2nd suggestion above about the PTR record. His PTR record is "82-117-235-74.gpon.sta.kh.velton.ua" ...which is about as "dynamic formatted" as one can get, and does NOT convey identity and reputation.
At the time Dmitry submitted his requests, we were in the middle of some of the programming improvements I had mentioned above... AND... spam across-the-board has seen a distinct uptick in recent weeks. Therefore, yes, we DID fail to get to his requests in a timely manner (then they DID finally auto-delist, or get manually removed, some days ago. But during that peak time, his requests were not "prioritized" for the reasons provided.) We're not without some fault in that process, and some recent funding we've acquired is going towards putting more man-hours toward processing such request going forward.
Still, as I mentioned, ALL properly submitted requests, including Dmitry's, do get a positive impact in our "scoring" now due to updates made to our system in Oct 2013. This is already lightening the load for our manual processing, helping us to keep up better with those requests which must be handled manually.
ONE FINAL NOTE: Dmitry's request really was more about ivmSIP, not ivmSIP/24. Regarding ivmSIP/24 requests specifically... one thing that is very difficult with ivmSIP/24 is that we get MASSIVE amounts of delisting requests from very crappy blackhat and dark-grayhat ESPs... who ONLY send advertisements (NOT actual newsletters, e-commerce, etc). They'll swear that their mailout is opt-in... and then we'll see it going to multiple spamtraps. Or they'll admit it was spam and that they booted the customer... then we'll see a similar spams the next week coming from their IPs. Keep in mind that we have to wade through that garbage to get to YOUR request. But if you can make sure that you're doing all the above suggestions.. then if your request, properly submitted at http://dnsbl.invaluement.com/lookup/, isn't answered and you're still blacklisted a couple of days after the submissions... AND your own IPs are NOT showing "poor" in senderbase.org ...then feel free to pick up the phone and call me directly and I'll be happy to help you (assuming you're not a P.O.S. blackhat or grayhat ESP masquerading as a legit sender!) just call +1 478 475 9032 (again, AFTER following all this advice, and if still listed after a couple of days!)
Rob McEwen, CEO, invaluement.com
Comment: What about urls ? our url domains blacklisted by your service. and we only used those domains for links in the emails (Emails sent from another domain)
Answer: Try visiting their lookup and removal request page:
https://www.invaluement.com/removal/
Comment: Their removal service doesn't work. We even tried to call there - no answer. I think it's abandoned service... I really hope no one uses it :(
Answer: Start here: http://dnsbl.invaluement.com/lookup/
Alternatively, start by checking your mail logs and making absolutely sure that you are not sending any spam... and then go to the link above.
Answer: We have the same problem as 'cwd'. A whole /24 is blacklisted, even though the range is clearly in operation by several party's. We've try'd delisting though the site, and sent several mail's, but no de-listing or even a reply .. (we sent to several email-adresses, since I guess this one-man operation is useing his own blacklist to silently drop any mail from ip's listed in his own RBL).
The last one was :

From firstname.lastname@example.com Tue Dec 17 21:07:54 2013
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2013 21:07:54 +0100
From: email@example.com
To: Rob McEwen / Invaluement
Bcc: firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com,
        firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com
Subject: incorrect listing in ivmSIP/24 188.8.131.52/24
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1;
        protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="xJK8B5Wah2CMJs8h"
Content-Disposition: inline

Since we've try'd to delist through the website twice without any result,
I'm sending this mail, as a last resort.

You've listed 220.127.116.11/24 in ivmSIP/24, which is clearly not in use by a single user

try :

# perl -MNet::Netmask -e '$b = new Net::Netmask("126.96.36.199/24");foreach ($b->enumerate()) {print $_ . "\n"}'  | xargs -n1 host  |less

And you'll see that 126.96.36.199/26 is in use by us (DDS.nl), a ISP
(one of the oldest in the Netherlands)

And the rest by varieus clients of Leaseweb, which is not a bulletproof hoster.

And no, we don't spam, nor do we allow others to spam (nor have
we've ever allow anybody to spam, etc, etc). If there is any
reason why you think we would be hosting or aiding spammers, we
would really like to know.

Please investigate, and delist.

Kind regards,

=paulv

Paul Vogel
Unix admin
DDS

Please note that we are a 'traditional' ISP, not some kind of e-marketing club. The only
people sending mail through our systems are our customers, which are all normal end-users, and we have a strict anti-spam policy, which we strictly enforce.
To make matters worse, this person is recommending his customers to put it on frontend's, not as a weighting factor in SpamAssain or in a milter setup where multiple listings are required :
from the "TESTING/USAGE IMPLICATIONS" page :
"For all the many reasons described on this page and on our invaluement Anti-Spam DNSBL page, ivmSIP is best for blocking spam sent to real users instead of spam sent to honeypot traps and/or dictionary attack spams. That means that, if you check sending IPs against DNSBLs before checking to see if the recipient exists, then you should probably put Zen first. But if you are blocking spam based on the recipient not existing before checking the sending IP against DNSBLs, then you should probably put ivmSIP first"
Of course you should never use a trigger-happy 'angry' RBL from a single-person operation that has no working de-listing/review method on a frontend at any time. The problem with a operation like his, is that his sample size is to small .. If you never get email from a small provider, and have some honeypot adresses seeded on the internet then any mail you get from them is most likely spam, which means you have a 100% spam score for a certain range (the same way that any mail I get from a ip in South-Korea is spam, but not any mail sent from South-Korea is spam for anybody).
And last but not least:
This comparison show that the best RBL's have a accuracy that is typical far below 80%, with Zen being the exception at 94%.
www.intra2net.com/en/support/antispam/
Which is also a good reason not to put any RBL on a frontend (except Zen from spamhaus).
Answer: FYI

The difficulty with /24 blacklists is NOT mistakenly punishing
  innocent senders who happen to have IP allocation separate from the
  spammers, but which shares the same /24 block. And that is precisely
  why ivmSIP/24 is so new. For this very reason, we were reluctant to
  get into this /24 business. Until one day, several "light bulbs" went
  off and we developed several algorithms which enable the generation of
  an invaluement /24 blacklist which does not list innocent senders
  using address space adjacent to spammers. (At least, that is the goal.
  And reports from our subscribers, as well as our own internal testing,
  confirm overwhelming success!)


Alternatives to Capitalism and Communism

Question: Are there any remarkable economists who have envisioned alternative economic system to the ones previously tried? I'm looking for realistic economic system models and their authors.
Comment: cf. [_Beyond Capitalism & Socialism: A New Statement of an Old Ideal_](https://isidore.co/calibre#panel=book_details&book_id=3786), ed. by Tobias J. Lanz
Answer: Arguably, Henry George described such an alternative in his 1874 work Progress and Poverty.  His system eventually became known as Georgism.
George saw his system as different than either Capitalism or Communism, as both of those systems equated Land with Capital and called for either the private ownership of both, or the communal ownership of both.  Georgism calls for the private ownership of Capital but public ownership (of a sort) for Land.
Answer: In my opinion there are two alternatives which are rather complementary.
Participatory Economics or PARECON by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel : http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/topics/parecon, and the Reciprocity by Dominique Temple and Mireille Chabal (although these two are not economists) http://dominique.temple.free.fr/ and http://mireille.chabal.free.fr/
PARECON is a proposition of norms and institutions that would allow for a society to work, however it doesn't contain an alternative to utilitarianism which is really the main characteristic of capitalism. Reciprocity is the opposite: it is an alternative to utilitarianism but it doesn't propose any specific norm or institution alternative to exchange markets.
Myself I'm working on formalizing reciprocity as an economic system, although I'm not a remarkable economist, you can have a look at some of my articles describing how a systemic alternative based on reciprocity is possible http://independent.academia.edu/AyarPortugal
Answer: Distributism
Distributism is one such alternative, promoted in the early 20th century by Hilaire Belloc (Economics for Helen: A Brief Outline of Real Economy) and G. K. Chesterton (Utopia of Usurers). As John Médaille describes it (The Distributist Review, An Introduction to Distributism):

Its key tenet is that ownership of the means of production should be as widespread as possible rather than being concentrated in the hands of a few owners (Capitalism) or in the hands of state bureaucrats (Socialism).

Solidarism
In a chapter entitled "Capitalism & Socialism" (p. 159) of Ethics and the National Economy, Heinrich Pesch, S.J., founder of "Solidarism," writes:

Capitalists are usurers in the broadest sense of the word. We understand usury in the same sense as Franz Schaub does, as any contractual expropriation of what is clearly surplus value. So, in our time, we use the word capitalism to mean a social system where usury operates with more or less complete freedom. The concept, capitalism, signifies a quest for gain that is totally uninhibited. Capitalism, therefore, means economic dominion by capitalists…

And pp. 85-6:

Usury is not exclusively a monetary phenomenon having to do with money-lending. A disparity between what is offered and what is given in return, resulting in excessive gain, can arise anywhere in the exchange process, and especially in business transactions.
Usury in a business transaction is the contractual appropriation of obvious surplus value in the process of buying and selling. The damage is done by the contract itself where performance and remuneration are juxtaposed. …

As E. Michael Jones, Ph.D., editor of Culture Wars Magazine and author of Barren Metal: A History of Capitalism as the Conflict Between Labor and Usury, writes:

Communism has failed, and now that Capitalism has shown us in the intervening years that it is even more ruthless than the communists imagined, we need an alternative to both Marx and the Manchester School. Heinrich Pesch is that alternative, and Rupert Ederer [the translator] is his prophet.

Fr. Woodbury
Austin Woodbury, S.M., True and False Capitalism: A Catholic Analysis, answers

whether besides a private capitalist economy on the one hand and a socialistic economy or state capitalism on the other, there is room for a third economic order.

He notes that (in accordance with Quadragesimo Anno)

it is possible that a regime be together the most capitalistic and the most socialistic. […] But what of those who like neither the one nor the other? Have they any real third economic order to aim at?

Yes.


How to know how much starter to make from harvested yeast?

Question: There are plenty of calculators that tell you how much starter to make for a specific amount of starting yeast and for a specific gravity of the wort. On packages/vials of yeast it tells you the estimate of how many yeast cells there are in there, however when you harvest your own yeast how are you to know how many yeast cells you have? How do you know how much starter to make if you don't know how many yeast cells you are starting with?
Answer: The "scientific" way would be to use a microscope and hemacytometer to count cells.  The empirical method is what I use and has worked well for me for several hundred batches.  You make a guess!  I use between 1/3-1/2 of a previous slurry if I'm going to direct pitch the slurry.  I use between 2 TBSP. -1/4 cup if I'm going to make a new starter from slurry.
Comment: Do these calculations change depending on how long the yeast has been in storage? Say the yeast was harvested 3 months ago (just an example)
Comment: Yes.  Age affects viability.


How to disable my midi-controller touch sensitivity in kontakt 5

Question: i want to disable volume touch sensitivity of my midi-controller keyboard ( M-Audio avid key studio 49 ) in kontakt 5 ( emotional piano vst )
how do i do that?
Comment: by reading the manual.  it's different from keyboard to keyboard.  go to the manufacturer's website, download the manual, read.
Comment: There is no button for disabling volume sensitivity on the keyboard , in some other VSTs there is a Checkbox which allows you to ignore volume sensitivity , but not in this one :(
Answer: If you want to edit the volume sensitivity of your MIDI Controller, go to Options>MIDI Settings or Press F10. If you click on the button shown here, you can edit the curve of sensitivity.
This is the default.

And if you want no sensitivity, you can do something like this.


Where would DevOps Engineers mostly look for their next opportunity and what would it be?

Question: Where do DevOp Engineers find their next opportunity? Users Groups, Associations, Job Boards?
What do DevOps look for in their next role?
Comment: hi and welcome @michaelg! I have allowed myself to give your question a more precise title. Hope that's okay.
Answer: Understand that the term DevOps refers to both a Strategies and Tactics.
For instance, the strategies of Continuous deployment and Consistent development/production environment.
The tactics may be using Kubernetics for deployment to the cluster with Docker for development/production environment.
With that said, a DevOps shop will likely use Kubernetics and Docker as their tactical tools and would look for people with those skillsets.
ALSO, they would look for people who are a CULTURAL fit who would work well in a collaborative environment.  If your background is let's say operational and your not open to learning programming skills(or learn what the programmers need), don't take ownership of a project or work well in a team...you will NOT be a fit for the company (you won't get hired).
As far as the best place to find a DevOps related job?
I would look at going to a DevOps Meetup, go to trainings/seminars where DevOps tactics and tools are taught (i.e. Docker, Vagrant, Ansible, Kubernetics, etc.), look for certain keywords in the posts such as SRE (Site Reliability Engineer), Systems Automation, etc... and do some research on companies that are moving to or have embraced DevOps Strategy.
If you understand these things, I believe it will give you a great advantage at landing a job in one of those companies.
Answer: It can happen that your next DevOps job finds you if you have a well elaborated LinkedIn profile and patient enough to deal with and filter/process requests.
Though, my market observations are that many offerings are like:

DevOps Engineers seen as "full stack developer 2.0", that is as an addon to specific developer skill set you can also setup automation pipelines and deploy to production.
DevOps Engineers seen as "admin 2.0" to build up automated operational infrastructures
DevOps Engineers seen as "teams glue" i.e. a company resource pool used to fire up slow/less successfull teams, here at least there is an understanding of how important beyond tech also culture/human communication is, too.
Sometimes you get also a weird skill set list where nobody really knows where it comes from and what exactly the role is expected to deliver. Buzz wording detected.

Please consider also this post: Why shouldn't I try to hire a 'DevOps Engineer'?
Answer: Companies either have straight-away openings for DevOps Engineers, either under this specific title or (since the title is a bit misplaced if you really think about what it means in the opinion of some people); or you can look for positions that have some other title but mention DevOps and similar things (for example, "automation", "tooling", "CI/CD" etc.) in the description.
Or in other words - they find jobs the same way everybody else does. It's not that magical of a job description...
What they look for, in my experience from plenty of interviews, is simply working with all the tooling/automation we have these days, and most times with a focus on doing as little straightaway programming as possible (i.e., programming in the non-DevOps way; domain-based programming). This separates them mainly from developers who also can do the "DevOps" stuff.


Voltage measure range of an arduino?

Question: I recently thought of using an Arduino to measure voltage and I stumbled across the problem that what is the max voltage I can measure??? It is an Arduino Uno and I am thinking that I would also display the voltage measured on a 16 * 2 LCD screen.My guess is max of 5 volts but if this is correct how can I increase its range?
Answer: Without any further configuration, the ADC (Analog Digital Converter) of the Atmega328P (which is build onto the Arduino Uno) uses Vcc as voltage reference (meaning 5V in the case of the Arduino Uno). A voltage of 5V will result in the maximal value (which is 1023, since this is a 10bit ADC). So the voltage range in this case is 0 to 5V.
The Arduino Uno has an extra pin, where you can supply an own reference voltage. But it's limit is tied to the ADCs supply voltage AVcc, which is 5V for the Arduino Uno rev3 (as shown in the schematics of the Uno). The reference voltage should then be in the range of 1V to AVcc. So this still gives you only a range of 0V to 5V or smaller.
When you use a standalone Atmega328P, you can make AVcc a bit higher than the chips supply voltage Vcc, but at maximum Vcc + 0.3V.
You can check all these numbers by looking into the datasheet of the Atmega328P, chapter 28.9 (Electrical Characteristics --> ADC Characteristics).

How to increase this range depends greatly on your requirements. If you simply need a constant higher range, you can simply put a voltage divider in front of the analog input. Or you can use a more complex circuit involving an op-amp (amplifier ciruit, here with amplification factor below 1). You can even build this to be variable.
Should it be, that your wanted voltage range exceeds the 5V greatly, for example, if you want to measure mains voltage (230V for most europe, 110V in USA), you should definitely take great care and never connect this directly to electronic like the Arduino. High voltages (especially at high possible currents) should always be handled with great care.
Answer: The ATmega328's (it's the microcontroller on the uno) absolut maximum rating is Vcc + 0.5V for any pin (except the reset pin) while Vcc must not be higher than 6V.
In order to measure higher voltages you have to use a voltage divider (read this) to adjust the input voltage to the range 0V - Vcc.
Comment: Not 100% right. That value is the absolute maximum rating, which is what voltage you should not exceed. The ADC will read values between `Vref-` and `Vref+`. Usually `Vref-` is ground, while `Vref+` is usually set to Vcc (unless you use the internal voltage reference, which is way lower). See chrisl answer for more details

Voltage measure range of an arduino?


Is it possible to add formatting (such as bold and italics) to the description of a Facebook event page?

Question: I manage the Facebook page for an Orchestra, and the plain text format of the event description makes it difficult to create a readable listing.  I'd like to be able to use bold, italics, bullets, etc., in the description of these Facebook events.   Is there any way to do this (or perhaps even include arbitrary HTML)?
Comment: You can probably add bullets to your event description even if Facebook doesn't support HTML.  If you visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_(typography) then you will see a bullet ( • ) in the first paragraph of the article.  Simply copy and paste the bullet into your event description as needed.
Comment: Still waiting for FB to allow this...
Answer: Although you cannot add formatting in the traditional sense using HTML markup you can apply some formatting by using unicode character. The easiest way I know to do this is with yaytext.com. The following is their description of what you can do:

YayText Super cool unicode text magic. Write  and/or
   updates on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere. This tool
  generates bold and italic text using unicode characters (
  , , ℎ, ... etc.) While the text it
  generates may look similar to text generated using the HTML  or
   tags or the CSS attributes font-weight: bold or font-style:
  italic, it isn't.
You can copy and paste this text into email or use it in your Facebook
  and Twitter status updates, YouTube comments, etc. Bold and italics
  are often used to emphasize a point. Bold text can also be used to
  help structure larger bodies of text, for example, to denote a
  subject, heading, or title.
Answer: There isn't a way to add formatting to the event description; it does not accept HTML markup.  If you have event details that you want formatted in a certain way, I suggest putting the details on a separate web page and pasting the URL into the event description, or post a link on the event's wall.  It will open in a separate tab when clicked.
Answer: Yes, there is, just edit it. Click settings and it should say "description format" and click on it and then it should pop up so you can format it the way you want. It should work because I do it on my iPad all the time.
Comment: If an answer is inaccurate or just downright _wrong_, you should _downvote_ it.
Comment: @TomG:  Maybe it only works on iOS devices.  Or maybe the answerer was just making up lies.
Comment: This is a lie, there has never been a button called this... Don't know why this user whould make that up.
Comment: @hellokittyliv550 - using the web client, I don't see "description format" as an option anywhere.  Under settings for the event, I have Edit Event, Edit Hosts, Message Guests, Create Repeat Event, Cancel Event, Share, Export, Promote Event.    When editing the event, there are no settings options that I see.     Can you clarify when you see "description format"?


Where was Emperor Hirohito during the Kyūjō incident?

Question: Where was Emperor Hirohito during Kyūjō incident ? Did he came in physical contact with the rebels, did they actually tried to dissuade him from surrender ?
Answer: The coup began after midnight, so unsurprisingly, the emperor was at his residence, which was by then inside a bunker. After the palace was destroyed in May that year, the imperial family moved into a fortified shelter known as the Gobunko full time. Presumably he was in his bed there when the conspirators seized the palace grounds.
According to the Showa Tenno Dokuhaku Roku,

後9時過ぎ署名したので、これですべて確定したと思ったが、陸軍省は、放送がなければ効力がないと思ったか、放送妨害の手段に出た。(...)
  宮内省の電話線は切断せられ、御文庫の周囲も兵により包囲された。
  幸い空襲のため窓の鉄扉が閉鎖されていたので、私の居るところは兵には判らなかったらしい。
With the signatures after 9pm, I thought everything [i.e. the surrender] was confirmed. However, the Army believed that the decision isn't given effect unless it was broadcast [i.e. the Jewel Voice Broadcast, and decided to interfere with the broadcast . . . The Imperial Household Ministry's phone lines were cut, and soldiers surrounded the area of the Gobunko. However, the windows had been covered with iron plates to protect against air strikes, so the soldiers were not able to determine where I was.

Additionally, according to an unwitting conspirator, Lieutenant Oda Toshiki,

また、機関銃を御文庫の御座所に向けて据え付ける場面があります。これも違います。近衛兵は断じてこのようなことはいたしません。
Also, [in the movie Japan's Longest Day] machine guns were aimed in the direction of His Majesty in the Gobunko. This is also incorrect. Imperial Guards would never do such a thing.

In any case, General Tanaka Shizuichi arrived around dawn and persuaded the rebels to stand down. So the emperor never confronted the soldiers face to face.
Incidentally, the Emperor continued to live in the bunker until 1961.

The Shōwa Emperor and the Kōjun Empress at the bunker, some time after the war.
Comment: @rs.29 They were searching for the phonographs because stopping the broadcast was more urgent. They only really needed control over **access** to the emperor rather than to find him per se.
Comment: So apparently rebels never found Emperor, but where they actively searching for him or they wanted just the phonograph records ? Was he asleep during whole ordeal ?
Comment: Interesting. Why did he live in the bunker after the war? Did he like it there or no money to rebuild the palace?
Comment: @NeMo He didn't want to build a new palace while half of Japan was homeless, but he seemed to have liked it there well enough - he was seen gardening around the entrance and so.
Comment: Nowt as queer as folk.
Answer: Also the emperor was not the primary target of the coup.  The primary target was the surrender speech which the Emperor had recorded earlier and which were to be played on the radio to announce the already agreed upon surrender to the Japanese people.
The conspirators believed if they could stop the recorded broadcast they would win supporters to their cause and ultimately for his own good, gain control of the emperor without directly confronting him which would have been political suicide.
Soldiers claiming to have a higher understanding of the Emperor's beliefs was not uncommon among Japans solders refusing the orders of their superiors.  Such a soldier directly confronting or threatening the Emperor would have been very uncommon.
Anyway not a very well thought out coup.


Can you play an electric guitar through an acoustic amp?

Question: One of my guitar teachers is strictly classical. I know he owns an acoustic amp. I am thinking of buying one of those Gretsch hollow-body guitars and lending it to him. Will he be able to play it trough the acoustic amp or are there pitfalls?
Comment: This question overlaps nice with Can I play a electric guitar through a bass amplifier? Worth a look.
https://music.stackexchange.com/a/85050/594
Answer: The main issue with using an electric guitar through an acoustic amp will be the the use of overdrive / distortion pedals, and not the fact that the guitar itself is considered "electric".
The main difference between acoustic and electric speakers is that the acoustic amp will generally have a tweeter to extend the higher ranges and give a more hi-fi like quality - similar to a good PA system.
The problem with overdriven guitar is that it generates many overtones at high frequencies and will sound very harsh through an acoustic amplifier.
An electric guitar amp will generally start to roll off at 3kHz, and this removes the extreme high frequency content. Things like the line 6 pod will have a speaker simulator that basically rolls off the highs to allow it to be put directly into PA systems.
However with just a direct guitar it will sound fine - as long as a distortion pedal is not added.
Comment: Electric guitars aren't overdriven. It's the amp that does that, and generally acoustic amps aren't designed to overdrive and distort.
Comment: Hi Tim, yes that's true - I guess I was trying to account for the fact that electric guitar players will often use overdrive into an acoustic amp and then think "this sounds awful". I'll clean up my answer
Comment: Bear in mind that the OP's teacher is 'strictly classical' !
Comment: That implies that the OP is not strictly classical though right?
Comment: Probably true. However, OP is lending teacher the guitar to play, sounds like it's not for OP. Wish my students would lend me quality guitars!
Comment: Haha yeah would be a great perk of the job :)
Answer: No pitfalls, and actually acoustic amps can make a good match sound wise with archtop/hollow body type of guitar and bring out more of an acoustic qualities of these instruments.
Comment: I don't think it's vague - it's true and a very valid response, an archtop is essentially an acoustic guitar.
Comment: this is a bit too vague to be useful.
Comment: Pickups on the archtop on the other hand aren't microphones
Answer: The eq on acoustic amps is slightly different from that on electric guitar amps - and that on bass amps, too. Having said that, any amp will amplify any electric guitar - and obviously, an electro-acoustic guitar is electric!
There should be sufficient tonal control to get a decent sound that way, especially for playing in a studio, and teaching with. At worst, a simple eq pedal will help restore any lost tone, but it should be fine - given that the pitch range of an acoustic guitar is close to that of an electric.
Comment: There is an impedance-matching question, as well as an input voltage range question, so it's not guaranteed in all cases.
Comment: This isn't really true - it's not the EQ that's the fundamental difference, it's the speakers too: acoustic amps have full range speakers (like bass and keyboard amps and PAs). Often called FRFR (Full Range Flat Response). Electric guitar amplifiers have speakers that drop off a load of the high end frequencies that aren't needed.
Comment: @OliverDungey  ahhhh, terminology.  An "amp" does not have to include a speaker.   When there's a combo box (electronics and speaker) it should be called something else.
Comment: @CarlWitthoft - good point - except that when it's actually a combo (electronics and speaker), it will be called a combo, won't it? Get off that programming!
Answer: First, find out what your teacher is using as a source - a microphone strapped to his acoustic guitar, a piezo pickup, etc.  See if the output impedance and voltage of whatever guitar you're lending to him is directly compatible with the input specs of his amplifier.
It may turn out that a preamp is required to match those parameters.  It's rather like the difference between a passive and an active output from a solidbody electric (with mag pickups).
Comment: If it's a traditional archtop it will have a single coil or humbucker pickup in it, no mic needed. But that's not to say it doesn't need a preamp :-)
Answer: I've been playing a tele and a strat style guitar through a Trace Elliot TA70CR, usually through a Korg Pandora Mini or a Line 6 POD first. I have also run through a pedal board and this works great, as well. The tele has a Fishman Powerbridge and EMG active pickups...the strat has Fender magnetic pickups. I have gotten very usable tones with all of these conbinations.
Answer: I just got a Fishman LoudBox Mini acoustic guitar amp and played my vintage semi-hollow electric guitar (big single pickups) through it - playing clean.
It sounded fantastic!  I only play old sixties country music, so I won't be using any reverb, etc.  But for playing electric guitar clean through an acoustic amp - they work great!


How to solve a linear forward-looking equation $x_t = \beta E_t[x_{t+1}] + k$ where $\lim_{t \to \infty} x_t = 0$ and $0<\beta < 1$?

Question: How does one solve a linear forward-looking equation $x_t = \beta E_t[x_{t+1}] + k$ where $\lim_{t \to \infty} x_t = 0$ and constant $k,\beta \in \mathbb{R}$, $0<\beta <1$?
Answer: (I suspect that $E_t[x_{t+1}] = E(x_{t+1}\mid I_t)$, where $I_t$ is the Information Set, i.e. $E_t[x_{t+1}]$ is translated as "the expected value of random variable $x_{t+1}$ conditional on Information available at time $t$").
@FooBar answer implemented the "standard solution algorithm", arrived at a constant solution, and remarked that such a solution violates the limiting condition.
Strictly speaking, a constant solution would satisfy the limiting solution also, if it was equal to zero (which in our case implies $k=0$): If indeed we had as solution
$$x_t = \frac k{1-\beta}$$
then
$$\lim_{t \to \infty} x_t = \lim_{t \to \infty}\frac k{1-\beta} = \frac k{1-\beta} \neq 0$$
except if $k=0$. But this is trivial (or at least, uninteresting).
So I ask, if $k\neq 0$, what would it take to obtain a solution? The law of evolution must hold also at the limit so
$$\lim_{t \to \infty} x_t = \lim_{t \to \infty}\Big[\beta E_t[x_{t+1}] + k\Big]=0$$
$$\Rightarrow \lim_{t \to \infty}E_t[x_{t+1}] = -\frac k{\beta} \tag{1}$$
In words, as the random variable tends to zero, its expected value conditional on information available in the previous period, must equal a non-zero constant, while the variable itself tends to zero. Consider some cases, to see whether and when such a thing can happen:
A) If $x_t$ was totally unobservable, (not observed directly, and not amenable to indirect estimation though other variables)? In such a case, the information set would not contain any information on $x_t$, meaning that the conditional expected value would equal the unconditional one. So we would have,
$$\lim_{t \to \infty}E_t[x_{t+1}] = \lim_{t \to \infty}E[x_{t+1}] \tag{2}$$
This is economics, meaning that the properties of the mathematical entities should take into account what do they represent in the real world. So it would be meaningless not to assume that $x_{t+1}$ is not bounded (more over, this would mean that the $x$ random variable goes to infinity in finite time and then "comes back" to tend to zero in infinite time -and for those who may think "hyperinflation", hyperinflation is a very very small number compared to infinity). If it is bounded then the Dominated/Bounded Convergence theorem holds and we have that
$$\lim_{t \to \infty}E\left(x_{t+1}\right) =E\left(\lim_{t \to \infty}x_{t+1}\right) =0 \neq -\frac k{\beta} \tag{3}$$
So this is not a case in which we can obtain the required relation $(1)$.
B) The limiting condition is part of the information sets for finite $t$. Then immediately
$$E\left(\lim_{t \to \infty}x_{t+1}\mid I_t\right) =0$$
In words, at any point in time we know that the variable will tend eventually to zero. Can this be compatible with relation $(1)$? We could invoke again the boundedness of $x_t$, and a generalization of the Dominated Convergence Theorem, since here the (conditional probability) measure is also time-varying, and again obtain a zero expectation at the limit. But intuitively also, if we know that eventually the variable will tend to zero, at some point in time this must be reflected in $E_t$, most certainly at the limit. But then again, the required relation $(1)$ won't hold.
C) We do observe perfectly or imperfectly the value of the variable, but "we don't give proper notice": our Expectations are not Rational. In that case, the symbol $E_t$ no longer represents the conditional expectations operator, but it is just a generic symbol for the "anticipation at time $t$" (in Adaptive Learning literature this is usually symbolized by $E^*_t$) and it acquires the value it needs to acquire for the limiting condition to hold.  In other words, given the law of evolution and the limiting condition, we conclude that expectations must not obey the Rational Expectations Hypothesis, not even at the limit.
In such a case, a solution is obvious: define
$$E^*_t(x_{t+1}) = -\frac {(1-c\beta^t)k}{\beta}$$
for some constant $c$, This expectations formation rule satisfies $(1)$, and  transforms the law of motion into
$$x_t = \beta \Big[-\frac {(1-c\beta^t)k}{\beta}\Big] + k = ck\beta^t$$
which in turn satisfies the limiting condition.
So we conclude that: the specific equation, with the specific limiting condition, has a solution if expectations formation does not obey the Rational Expectations Hypothesis, but instead follows the above rule, or some other to the same limiting effect.
Answer: Since there is nothing random on the right-hand side, we know that the left-hand-side must be non-random either. Hence, we can drop the expectations operator
$$x_t = \beta x_{t+1} + k$$
$$x_{t+1} = \beta x_{t+2} + k$$
$$x_t = \beta (\beta x_{t+2} + k) + k$$
$$x_t = k + \beta k + \beta\beta x_{t+2} $$
Where we can now see where this equation is leading towards:
$$x_t = k\sum_{s=0}^\infty \beta^s + \lim_{T\to\infty} \beta^Tx_T$$
where I have used that the limiting term with $T\to\infty$ will converge to zero.
$$x_t = \frac{1}{1-\beta} k$$
Which yields a constant $x$. However, this violates $lim_{t\to\infty} x_t = 0$, as $x_t$ is a constant. To conclude, the given equation has no solution.
Answer: As FooBar says, you can drop the expectation. Then derive the general $n$-th case for $x_{t}$ in terms of $x_{t+n}$
$$x_{t}=\beta^{n}x_{t+n}+k\sum_{i=0}^{n}\beta^{i}.$$
As $n\rightarrow \infty$, $\beta^{n} \rightarrow 0$ and (we are told) $x_{t+n} \rightarrow 0$.
So, using the above $$x_{t}=\lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}\left[\beta^{n}x_{t+n}+k\sum_{i=0}^{n}\beta^{i}\right]=\frac{k}{1-\beta},$$
where we have used the fact that the geometric sum converges because $0<\beta<1$,
$$\lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}\sum_{i=0}^{n}\beta^{i}=\frac{1}{1-\beta}.$$
Comment: I ask here too: How does this solution satisfy the limiting condition if $k\neq 0$?


XPages - Bind Document Data Source in a embedded Custom Control

Question: I created a custom control that is binded to a a Domino Document data source. I embedded it in a page so that I can display it in a Dojo dialog. It has 2 properties: dialogId and docId. The document data source's Document ID property is set to compositeData.docId. In the page, I set the docId property to a viewScope variable, that will be set when an entry in a view is clicked. What I want to accomplish is that the dialog will display the document that the current view entry (that was clicked) represents. But it seems that the compositeData.docId is not set on partial or even full refresh. Is there a way to do this that the custom control will be binded to the document? I need to have this binding so that I can easily do a server-side validation when I submit the dialog. Or if there is another way, can you also put it here? Thanks a lot!
Answer: set the datasource as the document, and then edit mode, then you have a place to compute the doc id, i usually compute the doc id to a viewScope, that i set when i click the item in the repeat control
More details here.
Answer: I would prefer the DocId to be transfered via the custom control parameters rather than a Scope variable. Using the Scope breaks the custom control design principle of being self contained. You can use the yourCC.PropertyMap to actually update a value, so the hand over of the parameter will work - of course your control then needs to be refreshed so the data source is recomputed. Hope that helps.


what cooking oil(s) produce the crispiest and least greasy fried foods

Question: Which cooking oils can be used for frying to produce the crispiest and least greasy foods.  Do different foods require different oils?  If so, what is best for battered foods, and which is best for non battered foods *potatoes, chicken wings, etc.)
Comment: Are you specifically ruling out animal fats?
Comment: A theory of mine has been for a while that "greasiness" is actually the result of a mix of oil, water and unpleasant (eg bitter, alkaline, rancid or stale) flavor compounds. Wonder if there is some scientific basis for that :)
Answer: The desired texture of 'crispness' is the result of many factors, and oil choice is generally not the biggest factor. Consider a french fry. The generally accepted best practice for fries is a blanch and finish method. This allows the fry to be cooked throughout and have a crisp surface, without being overdone and leathery. To accomplish this, the finish frying is generally done at a higher temperature than the initial blanching.
This blanching step can be done, and is easier to do at home, in a different liquid. I often simmer chicken wings in a flavorful stock, with some aromatics. You then want to cool, and especially if cooking in water, dry the food. This allows the par cooking to finish. Now, when finished from this cooled state, the outside can crisp without overcooking the inside.
I use this practice when preparing food at festivals, and it is the common practice in most restaurants to prepare crisply fried food.
The final crisping of potatoes and the skin of chicken comes from driving the water out. (This is what produces the bubbles) Here temperature is key, as the temperature must be high enough to turn the internal water into steam, but not too high to toughen and overcook.
All that being said, different cultures use a variety of oils for essentially the same effects. Crispness can be accomplish using any number of oils. The practicality is about cost, smoke point, adding unwanted flavors, and dietary concerns. There is a nice chart of smoke points over here.
Note ghee (clarified butter) has a high smoke point and would impart amazing flavor (assuming you like butter) but would be expensive to fry in.
The crispness then is generated by relatively high heat, so par cook chicken wings and potatoes, etc. Cut battered veggies thin, so they can cook quickly. Choose a fat that you like and can afford, and use technique to get the best crispness.
As for greasiness, this often goes hand in hand. Greasiness, or amount of grease left on the food after cooking is temperature dependent and depends on crowding and draining after cooking.
If food is cooked at a lower temperature, then expelling of water is less vigorous. As you remove the food from the fat, the oil has a better chance of clinging if the steam moving out was less volume.
Crowding is important here. If there is too much food in the frying vessel, then the space between pieces of food turns into a steam area, instead of hot oil area. Now food is cooking in a moist ~212 F environment instead of the oil temperature. Those areas will not be hot enough to get crisp or expel extra oil and lose the greasiness. Good rule of thumb is you should be able to easily stir and move the food around while frying.
Finally, draining. Have a rack or platter with absorbent paper. Remove small amounts quickly. If using a 'spider' you can use an up and down motion to shake a little excess fat off.  Now place in a single layer to avoid steaming. These final steps help, but if the food comes out flabby and soaked in grease already, they won't fix anything.
Comment: This would suggest getting food oven-hot before sinking it into the oil ... sounds interesting, also maybe dangerous...
Comment: @rackandboneman not necessarily putting it in hot. Editing this part for clarity.
Comment: A great example of crowding is when you stir-fry mushrooms. The high water content needs to evaporate and if you add too mamy mushrooms, two things will happen: the more mushrooms, the more water in the pan, and the closer the mushrooms are to each other less water will escape, leaving the mushrooms to boil. Champinions are also often cut flat to avoid water from staying inside the mushroom and to increase the area of... what's the word, sizzling?
Answer: Seeing that crispness has been addressed in another answer, I would like to add some points on greasiness. The best solution is to roast the vegetables without oil (in contrast to grilling or stir frying) and optionally add oil after the process. This is typically how Mediterranean veggies are prepared. This can be achieved using an oven rack. Alternatively, a cast iron frying pan can be used. Non-stick and steel pans are not suitable.
To reduce the oiliness of deep fried food, the temperature has to be within a certain range, neither too hot nor too cold. Once fried, the food can be placed on a plate with absorbent kitchen tissues. This will soak up some of the excess oil.
Comment: right. I did not address greasiness, which often goes hand in hand. editing now.


What happens to public shareholders when a public stock goes private?

Question: I feel like an idiot for buying ZNGA at $3/share. Now, there is talk of having the company go from public back to private? What does this mean for me as a public shareholder?
Comment: This question is suddenly very relevant again with the news that Dell Computer (a much bigger player than Zynga) is going private.
Comment: @Kirk, you are at breakeven right now. No need to feel like an idiot. If you are options-approved, you can sell a call against these shares, and get back to a decent profit. The Jan '14 calls look highly priced.
Comment: Doesn't it require a buy-out?
Comment: I assumed ZNGA would buy the shares.  So, you wouldn't be a shareholder is my guess.
Answer: I can see two possibilities.
Either a deal is struck that someone (the company itself, or a large owner) buys out the remaining shares. This is the scenario @mbhunter is talking about, so I won't go too deeply into it, but it simply means that you get money in your bank account for the shares in question the same as if you were to sell them for that price (in turn possibly triggering tax effects, etc.). I imagine that this is by far the most common approach.
The other possibility is that the stock is simply de-listed from a public stock exchange, and not re-listed elsewhere. In this case, you will still have the stock, and it will represent the same thing (a portion of the company), but you will lose out on most of the "market" part of "stock market".
That is, the shares will still represent a monetary value, you will have the same right to a portion of the company's profits as you do now, etc., but you will not have the benefit of the market setting a price per share so current valuation will be harder. Should you wish to buy or sell stock, you will have to find someone yourself who is interested in striking a deal with you at a price point that you feel comfortable with.
Comment: @JohnFx The exact rules almost certainly vary by locale, but yes, it's probably safe to say that if one entity manages to buy a large enough fraction of the shares, they *can* (not necessarily must or will) force a buy-out from the remaining shareholders. I think it takes more than a 50% majority for that, though. For example, I *think* (it's never really been a concern to me) that in Sweden, once you have 90% of the votes you can force a buy-out of the remainder.
Comment: Can they effectively force you to sell your stock in your first scenario?
Comment: @JohnFx Yes. If I understand correctly, they hold a vote and if majority approves - everyone is forced to sell.
Comment: that buyout deal is required right? they can't just decide to privatize and then leave you out cold?
Answer: If a deal is struck, you're part of that deal because you own shares.  If someone offers $10/share for the entire company, you'll get that.  If the stock price is $1.50 and someone offers $2/share, you'll get that.
Comment: This depends on local law, but generally you can only take a company private if enough shareholders agree. Only then is it possible to squeeze out the remaining shareholders like you describe. Otherwise, if someone offers $2 per share, I can flat out refuse it regardless of the marketprice.
Comment: Edited my answer.  What I was getting at is that there is a legal claim on the company that can't be bypassed with a private deal.


Why doesn't the Sage of Six Paths undo the Infinite Tsukuyomi himself?

Question: It's stated that the Infinite Tsukuyomi can be undone by someone who has the Rinnegan and the chakra of all the tailed beasts weaving the rat seal. But the Sage of Six Paths has them too. Why does he not do it himself?
Comment: Because he could not affect the world of the living at the time.He was a literal ghost
Answer: The sage of six paths doesn't have the chakra of all the tailed beasts he had that when he was alive. And the sage was dead when kaguya was revived , he came from the afterlife through the chakra network to help the reincarnates of indra and asura  .
Comment: Reasonable explanation but perhaps some links to sources will make you more credible. You can also add that he had already given his SSOP chakra to Sasuke and Naruto.
Answer: Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki could not reverse the Infinite Tsukuyomi because he divided his power between Sasuke and Naruto

Dividing his power evenly between the two young ninja, Hagoromo gives his chakra to Naruto and Sasuke, which ultimately leads to them awakening the Six Paths Sage Mode and the Rinnegan, respectively.

Due to dividing his power between Sasuke and Naruto, Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki was required to seek the help of the Hokage to perform a summoning justu

Telling them of a powerful summoning technique that he is unable to perform now as he gave nearly all his power to Sasuke and Naruto, he instead gives instructions to the Hokage.
...
he called the spirits of the deceased Kage to aid him in performing a Summoning Technique to bring Team 7, the tailed beasts, and Madara back from Kaguya's Dimension.

Whether he temporarily or permanently couldn't reverse the Infinite Tsukuyomi is unclear, it goes to say if he was required to seek help in performing the summoning justu, he certainly was not strong enough to reverse the Infinite Tsukuyomi
Answer: The sage of six paths could have undone the infinite tsukuyomi himself because he was the one who gave them those powers(Naruto and Sasuke). But his objective was not only to undo the jutsu but make sure such events never happen again? How? By giving both prodigy brothers equal powers. By making sure the same conflict that has been going on between the two brothers does not occur again. The shinobi world has become peaceful because of his decision of making Naruto and Sasuke equals.
Comment: Welcome to [anime.se]. This could become a good answer if you can add some references to back up your answer. You can still [edit] your answer to improve it.


Do you use a metronome for songs or just for scales and exercises?

Question: I play guitar and aspire to learn by ear. So, I've been using a metronome for scales and just strumming patterns, but I've heard it's good to play with a metronome for songs. I usually just slow the songs tempo down in Audacity and build up the speed. Also, If I'm trying to learn songs by ear wouldn't this be the best way so I can get the rhythm down and the feel of it, instead of playing to the metronome? I was thinking I could use the metronome after I learn the song just to see if I'm in time with it. What are your thoughts on this?
Answer: A metronome is simply a timekeeper. It does get used for technical practice such as scales and arpeggios, which, for exam purposes, need to be played in military fashion. Apart from that, there are not loads of songs which use consecutive notes from a key (scales) for more than a few notes. So being capable of running up and down scales to a ticking metronome has its limitations.  (Any downvoters - please explain why you think this is untrue).
Using the metronome to keep in time is useful, if your sense of rhythm needs help, and having it on through songs is not detrimental. However - it can become a crutch to lean on, and you may not keep good time when it's not on. But, it tells you at what tempo you can comfortably play a piece - a yardstick.
Slowing down a song is a luxury that's not been around for very long, and it is quite useful, but what's wrong with just having the song running through your head (or even singing), at a slower than original tempo whilst learning ?
Also bear in mind that music is often NOT metronomic - it pulls and pushes, unless it's for dancing to, so being able to keep time like a robot won't necessarily make you a good musician.
They are often used in recordings - a click track - but that's more for reference later, when other tracks can be added without even being in the same studio, rather than to make sure the players keep time - if they couldn't would they be session players ?
To sum up, they have their uses, as and when a practising muso requires, but they are not sacrosanct. This may sound like I dislike them. Not at all. One of my hobbies is collecting metronomes. I know it's offbeat, it's not a wind-up, but what the heck.
Answer: If you play along with the song, I don't really think there is any need for you to use a metronome. You have the song to keep the tempo for you. If you try to learn the song while reading a sheet music or in a way you don't have anything to keep your tempo steady,  you should always use a metronome.
It is the only way you can be sure you keep your tempo steady.
Comment: Thanks :) I've heard people say always use the metronome, but It doesn't work so well all the time!
Comment: You have always something to keep your tempo steady: your feet! (Or rather, your "inner metronome".) Occasionally training that tempo-feeling itself with a metronome is certainly a good idea (in technical excercises), but for practising actual music the human metronome is superior to a mechanic/electronical one.
Comment: @leftaroundabout Would you suggest that to a beginner that has no idea how to keep the tempo steady?
Comment: @Shevliaskovic: yes. To a beginner, the most crucial thing is to get a feel for the instrument. Forcing a feel for steady tempo before the instrument starts to go smoothly is futile, they should better train that _without_ an instrument by intensively listening to music. Where, as I said, a metronome is a good idea is in purely technical excercises, to make sure the technique doesn't interfere with the internal tempo sense.


Handling overlap with Stack Overflow?

Question: How should we handle overlap with Stack Overflow? Unlike SU, where there is almost no overlap there is quite a bit of overlap between GIS and software devlopment. Both in terms of questions which already exist there and in terms of what logically falls into each domain. For example if I create an arcgis model, export to a script, and then start working on that I'm not really "developing" in the SO sense, but development knowledge is involved.
Answer: For me, this is a lot more clear than it is for the Pro Webmasters site.  GIS programming almost always requires specialized domain knowledge.  There will almost certainly be some pure-programming questions here, but IMO the majority will be on-topic and best answered by domain experts.
Comment: Agreed - my main focus is on the Stats Exchange, which also has some overlap with SO, but the division here is even clearer.  I barely know what y'all are talking about half the time, so I'm not sure that programmers without direct GIS experience would, either.  Hopefully those who do have GIS experience will make their way here.
Answer: I think anything intersecting the domains GIS/location/geography and programming is probably okay.
Answer: I've actually got a current question I'm in doubt about where I should ask it, It's a bit of Ajaxy and a bit ESRI WebADFy. It might be born in an Ajax request but the method that generates the output for my "bug" is a standard ESRI WebADF method...is this a SO or GIS question?
Comment: +1 for great example. This should belong to gis.stackexchange.

Is it a question about AJAX itself or about webadf?
Comment: The problem is that it might be an AJAX issue, but I can only reproduce it with a method-call in a custom CommandAction for the ADF Editor :)
Answer: I'm already finding this overlap pretty frustrating though: I answer a lot of questions on the StackOverflow geolocation tag, and now sometimes they get re-posted over here and I'm not sure if my answer at SO will now simply go to waste or if I need to repeat my answers at gis. It also seems pretty frustrating for questioners who have to repeat their question and then monitor two locations for answers.
Are software developers just supposed to keep in the back of their heads a list of every StackExchange site so that when they're about to post a question that might be related to topic X on StackOverflow they instead switch to a new domain? I think ideally questions could be shared between sites (via a special tag, say); if not, then I think the community needs a lot of documentation (and documentation that appears just in time) on both sites about which questions go where.
Comment: Answers really _shouldn't_ "go to waste." Search results (e.g. Google) _should_ always provide links to both sites (as long as the questions/answers have the same keywords in them). Also, someone familiar with one site and not the other will get good results either way. It would be nice if they were somehow linked, though.
Comment: there is a feature request at MetaSO for [cross site Smart Tags](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/57466/smart-tags-a-solution-for-cross-posting-and-community-sorting) which doesn't seem to be getting much attention or traction. Maybe some activity there will help generate a better solution.
Answer: I don't know if this is related, but this url:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/arcobjects
returns:

There are no Featured questions in the
  arcobjects tag at the moment. Perhaps
  you'd like to select a different tab
  (sic)?

Note that there are indeed questions in SO with the arcobjects tag.
Is this part of an effort to encourage users to move to
https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/arcobjects ?
If so, maybe the message could be a bit more informative.
Update: I realize now I had earlier navigated to "featured" questions before browsing to the arcobjects tag, so there is no bug.  Still I wonder if SO could inform users about GIS.stackexchange.com when they choose certain tags, then migration could be encouraged.  Certainly other stackexchange sites face a similar issue.
Comment: we should encourage the leap to gis.stackexchange.

Handling overlap with Stack Overflow?


Time difference when adding events to Google Calendar

Question: I have code for adding events to Google Calender for a given mailid.
The problem is that, when I am trying to add events there are time difference issues.
For example if I add the following to the calendar 03/21/2012 8:00AM the time in the calendar entry viewed on the web is set to 17:30.
Here's my code:
$gmail = 'email@example.com';
$gpwd = '1233';
$datetime1 = strtotime('03/21/2012 8:00AM');
$date1 = date("Y-m-d", $datetime1);
$idg = add_to_calendernow1($gmail,$gpwd,$id,$date1,$datetime1);

function add_to_calendernow1($gmail,$gpwd,$ticket,$date,$timestamp){
    if($gmail){
        /* Change the below path with correct path class1.php and class2.php are in the includes directory */
        include('includes/class1.php');
        include('includes/class2.php');
        $email = $gmail;
        $password = $gpwd;
        $altEmail = $gmail;
        $login = new GoogleClientLogin($email, $password, GoogleClientLogin::$CALENDAR_SERVICE, APP_NAME);
        $cal = new GoogleCalendar($login);
        $cal->altEmail = $altEmail;
        $content = "Ticket #".$ticket." scheduled now";
        $entryData = $cal->addEvent(array(
                        "title"=> "Ticket #".$ticket." Scehduled An Item",
                        "content"=> $content,
                        "where"=> "",
                        "startTime"=> $timestamp,
                        "endTime"=> $timestamp
                    ));
        $id_now = explode('feeds/',$entryData['id']);
        $sec_id = $id_now[1];
        $id_id = explode('/',$sec_id);
        return $id_id[0];
    }
}

The GoogleClientLogin and GoogleCalendar classes came from this blog post:
http://mark.biek.org/blog/2010/07/addingdeleting-events-with-the-google-calendar-api/
Does anyone have any ideas about what could be causing this?
The timezone of the Google Calendar is set to Eastern Standard Time and the server is in the USA.
Is there something else I need to do in my code to make sure the times are carried over properly?
Answer: You're not setting the timezone anywhere in the example you have so I would guess your timezone setting is wrong, which means PHP is probably using a default setting which could be just about anything.
Try setting the timezone with date_default_timezone_set()