UX Feedback format?

Question: most of the time clients come to me and ask to give UX feedback on their products, most of which are 10-20 years old. At first they ask to give a report. Is there any standard method of giving feedback report?
Comment: I think it would make sense to ask what the intent of the feedback is, because if it is driven by user complaints, then perhaps you can focus more on research to uncover the underlying problem. If it is a usability issues, then it is more about looking at analytics and user testing where the interface design problems might be. If it is about new product features or improvements, then you need to look at what's out there and come up with something new or different from the competitors. Providing them with a bunch of deliverable without a clear intent won't result in actionable outcomes.
Comment: In that case you should work with them to tease out exactly what they want to achieve (some people are better at coming up with problems, others are better at coming up with solutions, find out which type they are), otherwise you'll end up with a bunch of documents and they will still not be clear about what they need or want you to do. Which is fine if you are just providing a service to review their product, but not much point if they need actionable feedback on their products.
Comment: Yeh you are right, but most of the cases i come across the product owners are not aware what they want, at that cases what am i supposed to do?
Answer: It would be a good idea to ask the product owner what is the purpose of this UX feedback? You could organise a workshop with him and let him answer these questions:

What is the current state of user experience from the user prospective?
What research do we have, and what do we need to gather?
What are user tasks and goals?
Identifying users?
What are the user segments?

If he doesn't know any of these then start working on couple of things:

Personas
Empathy Mapping
Qualitative Analysis
Short Field study

etc. It all depends on how much PO know about the Product or if he/she has any goals.
Answer: If it is a website, try looking at their Google Analytics. This is one thing I do a lot just to convince the client about the depth of the UX problem and an instant feedback about UX problems with screenshots. Let's say you look at userflow in Google Analytics and found that their drop off rate is heavy at one particular funnel, try matching this with user testing videos.
In a nutshell, I follow this:

User Persona
Create a Google Analytics content report
Decide which type of test to conduct and do one as an example.
Document about findings

Create a final document which combines all of the above. I'm sure the product managers or the clients looking at these get a solid evidence of what needs to be done. All of the above if worked in a smart way wont take more than a couple of hours.
Answer: I generally do

Heuristic evaluation on the product

I do user research and depict the data as feedback report

I do competitor analysis in some cases.

but most of the cases I come across the product owners are not aware what they want, at that cases what am I supposed to do?
but I am not sure which of these to be included at times.or any other things I am missing?
Answer: Yes, the standards way is to conduct a usability study. That includes how well Apple HCI guidelines and other International guidelines are being followed.

UX Feedback format?


Taking a train at Copenhagen airport

Question: I'm travelling to Växjö on 1st of November, arriving to Copenhagen airport in Denmark and then taking a train to my final destination in Sweden. I am a person with restricted mobility so I'm having a wheelchair assistance at the airport. I want to know how to get to the train station, where to buy train tickets, and how much walking it involves. Do I need Danish money to buy the tickets? Can I buy retour tickets to Växjö as I'm flying from Copenhagen on Monday?
Answer: The train station at Copenhagen airport is about 75 meters straight ahead after you come out through customs. See pictures in the answer here.
Access to the platform is via lifts or a set of inclined moving walkways. Trains towards Sweden depart from track 1, which is the closest to the direction you're coming from.
Right before you reach those, there is a bank of ticket machines on your right. There are ticket machines from several different agencies -- you'll want the red ones belonging to Skånetrafiken (the transit agency on the Swedish side); ask someone to help you if you're unsure which that is.
The machines accept Visa and Mastercard.
Thar are no cheaper return tickets to buy, but it ought to be easy enough to buy a ticket for the return trip at the ticket machine in Växjö.
You can also buy tickets in advance online at http://www.oresundstag.se/en/
Comment: +1 for buying tickets online. The lines at the ticket machines can be quite long and sometimes moves very slowly since most international travelers are not familiar with the machines and it takes a bit to figure it out when you do it for the  first time
Comment: Just to clarify: the machines DO NOT accept American Express.

Taking a train at Copenhagen airport


Where can I find an updated driver for my display (NVIDIA Geforce 7150M)

Question: Where can I find an updated driver for my display that is a NVIDIA Geforce 7150M for Windows Vista 32-bit?
Answer: Have you tried nvidia's download page?
Comment: Yes, I have driver of version 179.44. It is latest according to them.
Comment: You could also try here: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers
Answer: You don't say why you need an updated driver, or what's wrong with the current one.  Consequently, I can only give you information about why you're probably not going to find much of anything.
The GeForce 7150M is an embedded model of graphics adapter.  That is, PC manufacturers (HP, Dell, Toshiba, Acer, et al) buy the chipset from nVidia to install on the system board for their laptops or commodity desktops.  However, laptop devices are different than desktop devices, because the systems need to be able to gracefully handle all the power events that happen on a laptop (move to battery, move to A/C power, standyby, display brightness, primary/secondary output switching, etc.).  Consequently, PC makers need to use the device to be able to communicate with the display in ways that the chipset maker (nVidia) doesn't control.  PC makers get an SDK so that they can develop their own driver packages which support these additional features.
Now you're faced with an interesting problem.  PC makers only support a given model for a fraction of the time that nVidia supports a line of chipsets, and PC makers have a fraction of the staff to do the supporting.  Therefore, unless a driver package has bugs or significant problems, PC makers generally do not release multiple versions of drivers.  You get one version at the time the laptop model is released, and (sometimes) another version at the time the laptop reaches the end of it's support life.  That's all.  However, the driver from your PC manufacturer is the most likely driver to be stable, and is the only driver they're going to support.  You don't list the make or model of your computer, however, so I can't help you there.
Usually, you cannot install drivers from nVidia for these types of installations because they lack the specialized software for managing the display which the PC makers create.  You'll notice the 179.48 driver on nVidia's site for this model of adapter (the only driver they list) is marked as a Beta.  It's marked as a Beta because it's just a reference driver.  It's likely to be unstable because it the software from your PC manufacturer isn't present.  It says as much at the top of the release highlights.
You could also try the latest release for the 7xxx series, but I suspect the installer will complain that your specific device is supported by the PC manufacturer.
Your final chance would be to use the device driver from Microsoft, but in my experience those often fail spectacularly on embedded display adapters.  You can either check on Windows Update, or you can remove the drivers and force it to look on Microsoft's site.  Uninstall all driver packages for the display adapter.  Then uninstall the display device itself and reboot.  When Windows looks for the display driver, tell it to look online.
Comment: Thanks for the answer, but Now that laptop 's GPU is burnt, it also damaged the motherboard, so I have scrapped that laptop. ;)


Speaking Lashon Hara about a Teacher

Question: Let's say you have an awful teacher in school that doesn't know how to teach properly. Are you allowed to tell your parents that that teacher is bad? Or is this Lashon hara? If it is Lashon Hara, how are you supposed to explain that your failing the class because the teacher is bad. Please cite sources.
Answer: There are seven conditions for one to be allowed to say "lashon hara" for a constructive purpose. Here they are (from here) with my thoughts on how they apply to your situation

The information spoken must be completely true and witnessed or verified by the speaker: applies in your case since you are reporting first-hand experience
The issue must be a problem (e.g. transgression, relevant character flaw or bad behavior) from an objective viewpoint, not merely a preference or sensitivity: this is where it is important to relate the facts as they are and not your opinion or feelings about those facts
The speaker must first rebuke the subject directly, in a kind and gentle way which is likely to have an influence. (If the subject will not listen to any rebuke, or if trying to rebuke him can make the Lashon Hara ineffective, refer to ch. 10 in Hilchot Lashon Hara and ch. 9 in Hilchot Rechilut for the Chafetz Chaim's treatment of the subject.): it is unlikely you can influence the teacher to change
The information cannot be exaggerated or embellished, even if it's the only way to get the listener to heed the information
The intention of the speaker must be purely to help in the situation, not to degrade the subject or cause him shame: your only goal should be to find a solution, not to get the teacher punished/fired/etc.
If the constructive purpose intended by the speaker can be achieved in a way other than speaking Lashon Hara, the speaker should resort to that other method: speaking to your parents first appears advisable before trying other things on your own
Any damage that is caused to the subject as a result of the Lashon Hara should not exceed that which would be decreed by a Beit Din (Jewish court) if the case were reviewed there. This is difficult to evaluate, so that situations that impact the livelihood or other areas of the subject should be referred to a Beit Din: you would have to be reasonably sure that consequences from your discussions with your parents won't result in the teacher being blamed or fired

So it appears you can discuss with your parents the behavior of your teacher with fact-based examples you have personally observed, without embellishment. You should avoid qualifying the behavior with your own views (e.g., awful, doesn't know how to teach) recognizing you might not have all the experience required to judge. Your goal in doing this should be to get help to improve things and not to get the teacher punished. Your parents can then work out a plan with you on the proper way forward. Good luck!
For more see for instance here and here.
Answer: This is an interesting question, esp. regarding young kids who are not experts in the halachot of Lashon Hara.
There is a concept of to'elet - "useful purpose" - which allows one to disseminate information. I'm inclined to think that if your teacher has harmed you in some way, then it becomes useful, permissible, and sometimes necessary to tell your parents. I know a few boys in my high school that were sexually / emotionally abused who didn't tell anyone possibly because they thought this was lashon hara. That's really sad.
Failing a test or a class may not necessarily be the teacher's fault. If the teacher is "bad", that can be a child's perception of things created only because s/he is failing and the base result could be a lack of effort, understanding or other problems not caused by the teacher. It is important to listen to your child's problems, but more important is getting to the real cause of the problem. If the teacher is not at fault, then, of course, future similar reports sound to me as if they would be a form of lashon hara, or possibly a lie.

Speaking Lashon Hara about a Teacher


converting two lights from two switches to two lights from one switch

Question: I have a double gang box with two switches that run different lights, from the same incoming cable (power through the switch first).  Therefore, I have one "incoming cable" and two "outgoing cables", one running to each light fixture.  I would like to make it so both lights operate off one switch, doing away with the other switch.  I want to make sure it is OK to run a pigtail hot wire off the switch and connect to the two hots of the cables running to the lights, while connecting all three neutrals together.  Is this the correct way to wire this situation?  Thanks for any advice/assistance.
Comment: Presumably the neutrals are already all connected together and pushed into the back of the box.  There would be no reason to disturb them.
Answer: Yes, that is acceptable. Don't forget the grounds, too.
Answer: Yes, you can do as you describe
Having two switched-hot wires spliced to the same pigtail off the switch is fine here; you'll simply need to get a cover plate that has one gang set up for a toggle switch and the other gang set up for a blank, and make sure the always-hot lands on the other switch terminal, with no extra pigtails or the like.  Make sure all the neutrals are kept together with each other, and likewise with the grounds, too.


How would one explain the E.U. to a 5 year-old?

Question: As the European Union is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, it would be interesting to have an explanation of the E.U. which a 5 year-old would understand. Is there anybody who can give such an explanation/description?
Answer: A group of countries that come together to discuss policies that can help people in their countries for the better and find ways that the countries can help each other out.
That is quite basic (literally for a 5 year old) and quite naive but it sums up the EU in very simple terms.
Comment: @AlbertBonsanto Historically, it's the other way around, the economical aspects were supposed to foster political convergence, it's a political project through and through, that's one thing that sets it apart from countless trade agreements or cooperation efforts.
Comment: Well, `help people in their countries and find ways the countries can help each other out` is very broad and covers that it was for all national/international interests. As I said, I was aiming for simplicity as that was how I interpreted the question.
Comment: I would add that they were together because an economical interest before a political interest.
Answer: Explanation of the European Union for a 5-year old:

Remember our trip to France during the summer holidays? Before the EU
  we used to have to wait to show our passports at the border before
  being allowed to cross over into another country. With the EU there is
  no passport control at the border, so we do not have to stop and wait.
  (Cue explanations about passports, countries and their borders.)
We also used to have to use a different kind of money in each country.
  With the EU we can just take our money across the border and it still
  works. (Cue explanation about money.)
These and other things make it much easier for people in different
  countries to be friends with each other, reducing the chances that
  countries will go to war. The EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
  because they have been so effective at preventing war. (Cue
  explanation of war.)
When you are older you may be interested in studying or working
  abroad. This used to be very complicated, but because of the EU this
  is now very easy to do.

Simplified without losing the essence I think, and without simplifying to complete meaninglessness.
Comment: @MartinSchröder that won't work -  for a current day 5 year old, neither pa nor grandpa will have any warstories to share. _Maybe_ great-grandpa, but probably not even him.
Comment: Remember the stories Pa and Grandpa tell about war? With the EU these won't happen anymore.
Comment: This explains Schengen Zone and Eurozone respectively not the EU.
Comment: @Bregalad, yes that is correct, but also the single market. I see no reason not to consider Schengen and Eurozone core to the EU even though some countries have negotiated a (temporary) opt-out.
Answer: I quote from 4 different books, and commence with the simplest explanation that moots the Nobel Peace Prize, as you did in your post.
European Union Governance and Policy Making: A Canadian Perspective (2018). p 1.

In 2012, the European Union (EU) won the Nobel Peace Prize. The EU, argued the prize committee, has contributed to "the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe" and has thus "helped to transform most of Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace" ( Norwegian Nobel Committee, 2012 ). The Nobel Peace Prize was an unexpected recognition for an achievement that is indeed monumental. EU member states have collaborated since the early 1950s, overcoming historical disputes and avoiding wars among them, whereas the preceding centuries had been plagued by violent conflicts and destruction. The EU has set up common institutions with substantial powers to make binding decisions and has created a large range of common policies that have helped to abolish barriers to economic exchange and people's mobility between the member states. This process of establishing common institutions and policies, which brings European member states closer together, is called European integration.
        The process of European integration has fundamentally transformed the political systems, economies, and societies of Europe. Six west European countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany) initiated the process. By 2013, the EU had grown to 28 member states. In addition to this geographic widening—the addition of more member states—the EU has also experienced a process of deepening, meaning that more and  more powers have been shifted from the member states to the EU level. The EU now influences virtually all areas of policy-making. However, its powers vis-à-vis the member states are much more far-reaching in some areas (such as economic policy and trade) than in others (such as social policy or defence).

John McCormick. Understanding the European Union: A Concise Introduction (2017 7 edn). p xii.

This is a book about the European Union (EU), the world's most
  advanced example of international cooperation. Its work has been
  behind the construction of one of the world's wealthiest marketplaces,
  has been an antidote to the kind of hostile nationalism that has so often
  divided European society in the past, and has contributed to the longest
  spell of general peace in a part of the world once infamous for war
  and conflict. Its impact on the lives of Europeans and non-Europeans
  has been substantial: its laws and policies have replaced multiple sets of
  different national laws and policies, its members have removed most of
  their shared barriers to the free movement of people and capital, and its
  internal agreements have allowed the EU to promote European interests
  and values at a global level.

John McCormick. The European Union: Politics and Policies (6 ed 2017). p. 3.

The origins of the EU, and the motives behind European integration, are relatively clear. Frustrated and appalled by war and conflict, many Europeans argued over the centuries in favor of setting aside national differences in the collective interest. The first serious thoughts about a peaceful and union came after the horrors of World War I, but the concept matured following the devastation of World War II, when the most serious Europeanists spoke of replacing national governments with a European federation. They dreamed of integrating European economies and
  removing controls on the movement of people, money, goods, and services; they were driven by the desire to promote peace and to build a single
  European market that could compete with the United States.

Mark Corner PhD on Karl Barth - University of Durham (1978).
BA and MA in History - Cambridge University (1976).
The European Union: An Introduction (2014). pp. 1-3.

The key to understanding the European Union lies in recognising that
  it is not like anything else. Because it is always difficult to recognise
  and accept that something is different, the tendency is to see it instead
  as a disguised form of something familiar. Hence the quagga (a
  dangerous analogy, perhaps, seeing that this former inhabitant of
  South Africa, technically a subspecies of the plains zebra, is now
  extinct).The illustration in Figure 1 [I omitted this; any picture of a quagga suffices.] is a painting from the end of the
  eighteenth century of a quagga stallion in the menagerie of French
  King Louis XVI at Versailles. It is difficult to look at pictures of this
  creature and not to think that it should have made its mind up. Either
  it should have gone with the head and been a zebra, or it should have
  gone with the tail and been a horse. It is unsurprising that we think like
  this, because horses and zebras are all that we now know; the quagga
  looks odd because we never see one outside textbooks or computer
  screens.
        Because of its uniqueness, the European Union is forever getting the
  quagga treatment and being told that it should 'sort itself out' as a
  horse or a zebra. It has become a candle burning at both ends, with one
  side trying to drag it back to being a collection of properly independent
  nation-states, and the other side trying to pull it forward in order to
  make it a single nation-state. The two positions are more alike than each would like to admit. At one end of the spectrum there might be a
  group of British or Hungarian nationalists; but at the other end of the
  spectrum is a group of European nationalists, waiting to wave their
  gold and blue flags with all the ardour of an American patriot waving
  the Star-Spangled Banner.
         Both sides have the same problem – they cannot understand the
  nature of the European Union as a hybrid. They want to change it into
  what they are familiar with, and what they are both familiar with is the
  nation-state in its present form.
         For one side, the 28 nations presently inside the EU are like 28
  people stuck in a lift. They are all suffering from the foetid air, one has
  fainted, another claims to prefer to be dead and still the lift hovers
  between the third and fourth floors until the welcome sound of a
  firefighter (perhaps Mr Farage, the leader of the UK Independence
  Party) is heard cutting a way through to free them and give them back
  their 'space'. They will then go back to being autonomous nationstates
  living (and arguably quarrelling and fighting) together in the
  'normal' manner.
         From the other end of the spectrum comes the idea that a great
  nation-state in the making is being held up by extensive labour pains as it struggles to be born. A United States of Europe is to be created in
  the way that Italy and Germany were created in the nineteenth century.
  Those of this opinion would agree with the historian Benedetto Croce
  when he wrote:

[J]ust as, seventy years ago, a Neapolitan of the old kingdom or a
    Piedmontese of the sub-Alpine kingdom became Italians, not by denying
    that which they had been, but by elevating it and incorporating it into that
    new existence, so will the French, Germans and Italians and all the others
    elevate themselves to become Europeans and their thoughts will turn to
    Europe, and their hearts will beat for it, as they have done for their smaller
    fatherlands, which they will not have forgotten, but love the more.1

Croce anticipated a 'greater Italy' in the way that Count Coudenhove-
  Kalergi later anticipated a greater Austria-Hungary in his influential
  Paneuropa, published in 1923, but in doing so they simply sought to
  reproduce the nation-state on a grander scale. As Michelle Cini puts it:
  'If anything, the federalist rhetoric did little more than highlight the
  enduring qualities of the nation-state, in that it sought to replicate it on
  a European scale.'2
        The word 'federalist' (one of the most elusive words where
  discussions of the EU are concerned) may not be the correct one,
  but Cini's point is a fair one. Both ends of the spectrum, whether
  'eurosceptic' or 'federalist', are working with the same presupposition
  – that the present arrangement of nation-states is the only acceptable
  template. One side believes that the EU should become 28
  autonomous nation-states; the other side believes that it should
  become one autonomous nation-state. Either way, they are both
  hooked on autonomous nation-states. But the EU is neither a knot that
  ought to unravel into a group of separate nation-states, nor a group of
  states in the process of turning themselves into the separate regions of
  a single nation-state. It is a body intended to deal with the limitations
  of the nation-state itself.
Comment: I doubt a 5 year old would understand half of the words and concepts in there. This might work for a 12 year old though.
Comment: @DenisdeBernardy I added 2 more quotes: better?
Comment: @DenisdeBernardy, John Stuart Mill at 5 maybe.  The mode average 5 year old not a bit.
Answer: I wouldn't recommend explaining even a dumbed down version of the EU to anyone under 8 or 9 years old, because it requires explaining many other fundamental functions of governments and international commerce.  You would pretty much need to spend all Summer break giving foundational lessons about how other things work (passports, FIAT currencies, regional development, commerce, etc.).
However, my attempt at a simple answer that you can indeed give to a 5-year-old would be...
Every country has a national government that makes the laws for that country and decides how the country spends its money.  The European Union is another kind of government that represents many countries who agreed to participate in it.  Each country picks someone to represent it, and the representatives get together and make laws together.  The laws are designed to protect people, and to make it easier to do things like travel to other countries.
You might have to start by defining big words like participate and representative.
Answer: Right after the American Revolution, a bunch of sovereign countries like "Virginia," "Massachusetts," and "New York" all decided to be a federation of countries.  They wouldn't charge taxes on each other, and they'd try to make laws that the individual countries could each adopt on their own.  It was called "the Articles of Confederation" and the idea was that these independent countries would try to get along, but wouldn't give up any of their rights.
It lasted only a few years, then they gave up and decided that they needed a Constitution, and some central authority.
After WWII, a bunch of countries in Europe tried to do the same thing. They decided to try to agree on some laws without giving up any rights.
In 1990, they even went so far as to give up their own money, and all share the same kind of dollar bill, called a Euro.  But, they never actually came up with one guy to call the shots.  So, the Greeks and the Italians kept spending as much money as they wanted, and forced Germany to pay all their bills.  And now, they are wondering why Germany is looking towards a tighter Constitution, and more central authority.
Comment: (-1) That explanation of the euro crisis is not simplistic, it's downright wrong and misleading. Also, the euro is an important aspect of what the EU does (and a major failure) but focusing so much on the recent crisis makes no sense if the goal is to explain the EU succinctly to a 5-year old. Also, how is a parallel with the American Revolution (which is itself debatable) helpful for someone from Luxembourg (or any child beside, perhaps, Americans)?
Comment: Of course, everyone on the web is American *sigh*
Comment: This does not answer the question.
Comment: `So, the Greeks and the Italians kept spending as much money as they wanted, and forced Germany to pay all their bills.` ahahaha


Is it wrong to support a couple who are gays and not Muslims?

Question: I'm not gay or anything but I know a couple who are and they both are not Muslims and I actually like love their relationship and encourage them,so is that wrong and am I going to be punished ??
Answer: As salamu alaikum,
According to Islamic principle related to haram, it is that if something is prohibited, then anything that leads to it is also considered haram. A similar principle is that
the sin of haram is not limited to the person who engages in the prohibited activity, but the sin also extends to others who support the person in the activity, whether it be material or moral support.
-Al-Qardawi, Yusuf (1999).
The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam. American Trust Publications. p. 22
You can find the link to the book here.
So, a person who commits a sin, and a person who encourages a sin, both are accountable. Hope, it clarifies what you asked.
Jazakallahu Khair
Comment: Maybe this is a stupid question, but is it prohibited for everyone, or just Muslims?
Comment: Islam is for everyone, and not only for Muslims. So now you can deduce the answer :)
Comment: Yeah, that was a stupid question.
Answer: Homosexuality is a sin, and encouraging a sin is also a sin, both are accountable.


Maas node incorrect login incorrect?

Question: I successfully booted my VM from network through PXE but I can't use my log in username and password to login. Also, it changed to ubuntu login to node login. What should I do?
Answer: Typically, you don't directly login to a node managed by MaaS. Instead, a tool like Juju (or some other program) connects to the MaaS interface and manages the machine for you, including worrying about what the login should be.
However, I believe if you go into the settings page in MaaS, you can set a SSH key for the machines to trust. You could tell it to trust the SSH key on your machine. You could then use that (along with the IP address listed for the node in the MaaS interface) to ssh to ubuntu@ip_address_of_node and login that way.

Maas node incorrect login incorrect?


Did the Teleri ever forgive the Noldor for the Kinslaying at Alqualondë?

Question: It was a tragedy caused by Fëanor,  who wanted revenge for his father's death and killed many Sea Elves for their ships, but is there anything in Tolkien's Letters or The History of Middle-Earth that tells us if the Teleri eventually forgave the Noldor for what they had done to their ships and kin-elves or are we just to think the Teleri never forgave the Noldor, and hated them forever?
Comment: What's with the tildes on the initial N in Noldor? I've never seen it spelled like that, and you did it too consistently for it to be a typo...
Comment: i didnt spell it like that it was Wad Cheber who edited it
Comment: @Fingolfin - That's the (more) correct spelling, but if you like it the other way, so be it. http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Noldor
Comment: "The spelling Ñoldor rather than Noldor was used by Tolkien in his later writings (the character ñ signifying the velar nasal, the sound found in the English word "sing"), but even in earlier versions the name Ñoldo came from a Primitive Quendian stem *ñgolodō, which led to Ñoldo in Quenya and Golodh in Sindarin."
Comment: @MikeHarris - see above.
Comment: Couldn't let the "Gnomes" thing go ;)
Answer: There appears to be at least a partial reconciliation.

Because Fëanor had taken the ships and left the Noldor led by his half-brother on the west side of the sea, the royal houses of the Noldor were feuding, but Fingon son of Fingolfin, saved Maedhros, son of Fëanor, from Morgoth's imprisonment and the feud was settled. Maedhros was due to succeed Fëanor, but he regretted his part of the Kinslaying and the abandonment of Fingolfin and left the High Kingship of the Noldor to his uncle Fingolfin because he was the eldest, who became the first High King of the Noldor in Middle-earth.  - Source

CelebornTeleri and Celebrimbor were, in one account, two of the four Falmari to leave Valinor with Galadriel greatest of the Noldor save Fëanor.
They were of course married°:
°Source

Galadriel and Celeborn sailed from the West and came to Beleriand separately from the two main hosts of the Noldor (one that Fëanor led in the ships of the Teleri, the other led by Fingolfin and Finrod that crossed the Helcaraxë)¹
  ¹Source

Comment: This answer is not very satisfying. "Yes" in one account (that did not get worked into the Silmarillion because it would have required massive rewrites of other sections to retcon Galadriel's departure from Valinor) Celeborn is Teleri, but: 1) they left together prior to the kinslaying so Galadriel would be blameless; 2) Celeborn would be *a teleri* not *the teleri*; and 3) Celeborn was not wronged except by association.
Comment: They certainly [knew](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galadriel#Internal_biography) `Galadriel and Celeborn sailed from the West and came to Beleriand separately from the two main hosts of the Noldor (one that Fëanor led in the ships of the Teleri, the other led by Fingolfin and Finrod that crossed the Helcaraxë)` about the rift. Also your assertion regarding them leaving **together** is clearly inaccurate.  My entire premise was to find an example of the two factions working together or marriage etc.
Comment: `and Celeborn of Doriath, with
Galadriel his wife, who alone remained of those who led the
Noldor to exile in Beleriand.` - Sillmarilion
Comment: Your first quote says that they departed together but separately from the Noldor so yeah, what I said is totally accurate. In your last quote Celeborn was Sindarin (of the people of Doriath). He is only Teleri in a very late unpublished story snippet that Christopher Tolkein chose not to integrate into the Silmarillion because it would have forced him to rewrite other parts of the exodus story. So like I said originally, in one account (only) is Celeborn a Teleri and in that single account, Galadriel and Celeborn departed together separately and before the Host of the Noldor.
Comment: In fact the whole purpose behind JRRT trying to do this so late is to get Galadriel into a position of being blameless in the kinslaying
Comment: I knew it was added after the fact, but didn't realize it was to remove blame, I thought, that rewrite was to elevate Celeborn to her level. I stand corrected. Thanks.
Answer: Surprisingly simple answer; yes, they did (emphasis mine):

And when they came into the West the Elves of Beleriand dwelt upon Tol Eressëa, the Lonely Isle, that looks both west and east; whence they might come even to Valinor. They were admitted again to the love of Manwë and the pardon of the Valar; and the Teleri forgave their ancient grief, and the curse was laid to rest.
The Silmarillion III Quenta Silmarillion Chapter 24: "Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath"

Finarfin's people, who turned away from the rest of the Noldor after hearing the Prophecy of the North, also received a pardon from the Valar (emphasis mine):

But in that hour Finarfin forsook the march, and turned back, being filled with grief, and with bitterness against the House of Fëanor, because of his kinship with Olwë of Alqualondë; and many of his people went with him, retracing their steps in sorrow, until they beheld once more the far beam of the Mindon upon Túna still shining in the night, and so came at last to Valinor. There they received the pardon of the Valar, and Finarfin was set to rule the remnant of the Noldor in the Blessed Realm.
The Silmarillion III Quenta Silmarillion Chapter 9: "OF the Flight of the Noldor"

Whether or not this group was forgiven by the Teleri at this time is unrecorded.


Will we get all real numbers if we add all limits?

Question: Consider a set of all rational numbers from 0 to 1 inclusive.
If we add to this set all limits of all convergent sequences of these numbers, will we obtain a set of all real numbers from 0 to 1?
Answer: Yes. The rational numbers are dense in $[0,1]$. That is to say that every real number in $[0,1]$ is the limit of a rational sequence.
Answer: Yes. This is one construction of the real numbers: it is the completion of $\mathbb Q$ with respect to the metric $d(p,q) = |p-q|$.
Answer: Note that if $a\in [0,1]$ is an irrational number with decimal representation
$$
a=0.a_1a_2a_3\cdots,
$$
i.e. $a_i$ is the $i$th decimal of the number of $a$, then we can easily contruct a sequence of rational numbers converging to $a$ by taking
$$
q_n=0.a_1\cdots a_n,\quad n\geq 1,
$$
i.e. $q_n$ is the rational number matching the first $n$ decimals of $a$ (the rest of the decimals being zero). We see that $(q_n)_{n\geq 1}$ is a rational sequence converging to $a$.
Answer: Yes.  In fact, one way to construct the real numbers is to union all of the rational numbers with all of their limits.  Sequences of special importance are those which are Cauchy.  A sequence $\{s_{i}\}$ is Cauchy if for every $\epsilon>0$ there exists an $N$ so that for all $m,n>N$, $|s_{n}-s_{m}|<\epsilon$.  If we are in a metric space which has the property that every Cauchy sequence converges in the usual sense, then we say that the metric space is complete.  The rationals are clearly not complete.  Take the sequence $\{s_{n}\}=(1,1.4,1.41,1.414...)$.  Then, clearly this sequence is Cauchy but does not converge.  However, if we union the rationals with these limits, we have that every Cauchy sequence converges, so that the reals are complete.  A key result in real analysis is that the reals are, in fact, complete.  Here, it is important to note that there are other notions of completeness which are logically equivalent to that which I have already described.
Comment: Clearly this sequence is $(1,1.4,1.41,1.414,1.4141,1.41414,\ldots)$, which converges to $\dfrac{140}{99}$... `:)`
Answer: Every real number has a decimal expansion, that is an infinite series expansion, which is a limit of rational numbers obtained by truncating the decimal expansion. That is the way most math students meet the limit concept first, even if the word 'limit' is not used. Assigning meaning to these infinite decimals to reveal the underlying properties they show has led to a formal definition of the reals, and also to a topological definition of limit and of compactness that is a tool used in essentially all non-discrete mathematics, such as real and complex analysis, number theory, probability, algebra, ...


What is the definition of green woods?

Question: I've seen woodworkers refer to "green wood." I am new in wood working and trying to do something by myself. What does this term refer to?
Answer: "Green wood" is wood that has been recently cut/harvested and is not yet "dry". Well aged wood will have a moisture content in equilibrium with its environment, assuming it's had enough time to equilibrate and the environment humidity is not fluctuating too wildly.
As the humidity in the environment change, the wood will absorb or release moisture to equilibrate. In doing so it will expand or contract. Depending on the type of wood, the grain orientation and the finish, that may result in uneven shape changes, the wood may warp to varing degrees.
Green wood is an extreme of this in that it contains the water that was present in the cells from the processes of life. The loss of this water as the wood dries is generally far larger than the typical changes in "seasoned wood". When you walk through your local lumber yard you will see many examples of warped, say, 2 x 4s. These typically were milled when the wood was green, the warpage came about as the wood dried.
Ideally wood would be cut and allowed to air dry before it is milled. A somewhat less optimal procedure is to force dry wood in giant "ovens", kilns. When you see wood labeled KD, that wood has been kiln dried.
Generally, for nicer work, you should look for KD wood. Because it has lost that bulk of water used to sustain it when alive, you will be able to pick boards that have not significantly warped during this greatest period of change. The KD wood will cost more than green lumber due to the drying process.
If you're doing very demanding work, such a making musical instruments, you will want to use well aged wood that has been allowed to air dry under appropriate conditions.
Comment: Just one nitpick, MC is In equilibrium with the environment, not the same as that of the environment.
Answer: The above definition, sounds very good to me.  "Green wood" is wood that has been recently cut/harvested and is not yet "dry".
bpedit also suggests correctly that wood is best allowed to dry to an appropriate level for optimal results from milling.
However, I would add this proviso.
If you are interested in some types of hand tool woodworking such as spoon carving or whittling objects it is much easier to cut the wood while it is green and dry it later.
Other types of woodworking like bowl turning or perhaps using a draw-knife or spoke-shave to cut spindles for a Windsor chair are often cut to shape while green and finished later after the wood is stabilized in a dryer state.
Comment: Suggest you add in that some green working such as those you mention, does some work on the wood whilst green, with the finishing shaping steps done after the piece has been allowed to dry.

What is the definition of green woods?


Creating an Orchard theme

Question: I'm trying to create an Orchard theme and not sure if I'm doing the correct thing regarding how to it "correctly" in Orchard.
I have set my Layout.html as my Master Page per se, where I have a zone called Content, then I have create a page called Content-Page.html, now inside there, I want different shape's data in different order e.g.

onePart.Name

Hi this is an example twoPart.Data and onePart.Data

How do I intersperse this using Shapes? Do I access the field's directly, use a wrapper? Currently I'm doing this.
var onePart= Model.ContentItem.CustomPart;

This allows me to put the data where it needs to be, I've found may of the articles, but it seems to show if your Shapes has all the data it needs, my issue is I don't really want a theme to have a dependency on a Module.
Comment: why would you need a reference to do that? This is dynamic access, so it is resolved at runtime.
Answer: Likely you want to make use of the placement.info file to position your widgets. For finding out which shape/widget you're looking at and how to override it you can install the Designer tools module.
I suggest you also take a look, by downloading, some of the templates from the theme gallery and inspect these. I learned quite a lot from these myself.

Creating an Orchard theme


Why does NOAA no longer provide sunshine data?

Question: It seems like NOAA used to provide sunshine data from the US weather stations but no longer does.  Is there a reason that was discontinued?
Answer: It was not discontinued
Using the Climate Data Online tool from NOAA's website, I was able to get sunshine data through March 1st of this year for both major airports in my metropolitan area.
Sunshine data is relatively restricted geographically compared to other datasets like temperature and precipitation (for those I counted 7 stations in my metro area), but you should be able to retrieve data from any major airport.
Comment: If you need more, mesowest.utah.edu has insolation data for some additional stations as well.


Should a woman leave burqa if her husband forces her

Question: Should a woman leave burqa/Niqab/Hidjab/not cover her face, if her husband forces her to,and threatens her to divorce?
Comment: A more important question comes out from your question.  Is a husband who blackmails, threatens and forces his wife an evil person? As blackmail is an evil act.  Should she think about divorcing him herself?
Comment: These three things are not the same: Burqa / Niqab / Hijab - you cannot lump them together.
Answer: I think the problem here is that traditionally also a lot of Arab cultures (and some non-Arab as well), have had women dress modestly.
Combine that with these two verses from the Quran:

O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the
  believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer
  garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be
  abused. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful. 33:59

And:

And tell the believing women to reduce [some] of their vision and
  guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that
  which [necessarily] appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their
  headcovers over their chests and not expose their adornment except to
  their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons,
  their husbands' sons, their brothers, their brothers' sons, their
  sisters' sons, their women, that which their right hands possess, or
  those male attendants having no physical desire, or children who are
  not yet aware of the private aspects of women. And let them not stamp
  their feet to make known what they conceal of their adornment. And
  turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might
  succeed. 24:31

Now we have the baseline to discuss this problem. However, first I must stress that you cannot combine these words together, as they mean entirely different things:

Burqa - this is the name of a traditional covering worn by women in some countries. Most prominent in Afghanistan and surrounding countries. It is a complete head to toe covering. It covers the entire body, and leaves only room for the eyes (in some traditions, even the eyes are covered but with a mesh).
Niqab - This refers to a garment that specifically covers the face, but not the eyes. Its designed to cover the nose, mouth, cheeks. It does not cover anything above the cheekbones.
Hijab - This is a large garment that covers both the head, and the upper part of the chest. It does not cover the face.

The key requirement from Islam is:

Women to be modestly dressed.
Act with modesty ("reduce [some] of their vision" / "And let them not stamp their feet to make known what they conceal of their adornment.")
Not "exhibit" themselves ("not expose their adornment except that which appears thereof").
Protect their chastity ("guard their private parts")

The idea being you do not encourage lust from your side (as a female, by looking at males), and also prevent males from looking at you in lust.
Nowhere does it specifically state that you must "cover your face". In fact, in many muslim countries, women only wear the hijab (cover their hair, ears, neck, chest) and then dress in loose fitting, full length clothing.
Sometimes, as a convenience they will wear the abaya which is a loose full length coat. (Abaya literally means cloak) which allows them an easy way to keep their "normal" clothes on while going out in public and yet remain modest.
Anything beyond this is more of a cultural/traditional norm, and not an Islamic norm. Even though it may be born from Islamic teachings.
Coming back to the husband issue, first and foremost - a husband (or any guardian) cannot compel you to do anything against your religion.
Covering of your face is not a requirement. However, if you believe that this will prevent unwanted attention, then feel free to do this. My sister sometimes covers her face when she feels that she is being gawked at (even though she wears the abaya and hijab); but my mother for example, never covers her face.
There can be no doubt however that threatening with divorce is just plain carelessness from the part of the husband. Divorce in Islam is not to be taken lightly.
And Allah Knows Best.
Answer: No, there's no obedience for a creature with a disobedience of the creator... She should explain to him her reasons for wearing it she must have a reasonable or a logical explanation simply obeying Allah is a logical explanation...
Comment: One good way to educate her husband would be through one of his close ones , whom he really looks up to. If amongst his family or friends there is someone who is more religious. One can ask them to intervene and help. However one should be very careful that whom they r asking for help are actually sincere people.
Answer: Such a husband is sinning as that would be an example of blackmail, and blackmail is an evil sin.  You can read about the sin of blackmail here: http://islamqa.org/hanafi/askimam/29632
Here are some examples of blackmail:

A husband telling her that he will divorce her if she continues
  reading the quran.
A husband telling her that he will divorce her if she continues
  praying 5 times a day.
A husband telling her that he will divorce her if she doesn't stop appropriate hijab (burqa for example).

Anyway, going back to the burqa blackmail issue, here is a quote from a fatwa by reputable scholars which includes authentic islamic texts if you read the full fatwa:

The woman's dress as prescribed in sharee'ah ("Islamic dress") is that
  which covers her head, face and all of her body.**

Full fatwa here: http://islamqa.info/en/21134
That fatwa which has authentic references clearly explains the importance of hijab.  The most important thing in a chaste muslim womans life is her modesty/awra.
A husband does not have a right to over-rule Gods rules.
So if the wife falls victim to such blackmail, such a husband will blackmail her for the rest of her life most likely.  This would most like be the beginning of what the rest of her life would be like, i.e. blackmail after blackmail.  Is such a man really worth it?  Is a marriage based on blackmail really worth saving?
Answer: Should a woman leave the burqa if her husband forces her to do so?
Women should cover their whole body, even their hair, in front of non-mahrams, and it is not necessary to cover the roundness of the face and hands up to the wrists, and it is not obligatory to use a mask and veil, and if someone covers more than usual, there is no problem.
Ref:http://wikiporsesh.ir/%D9%86%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%A8_%D8%B2%D8%AF%D9%86#2.%20%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%AA%DB%8C%20%D8%A7%D8%B2%20%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B9%D9%87
Answer: First we have to determine whether Nikab/Hijab a religious obligation or not? I have shared my opinion that it is not a religious obligation, in answer to this question.. Please read the referred link in the answer for more details.
If the woman is satisfied by the argument, then there is no problem leaving it on request of her husband.
If the woman thinks that Nika/Hijab is a religious obligation, then she has to consider the fact the a husband is given a level above the wife.If she feels that she is forced to do something unwillingly in a situation in which she does not have the power, even then it is expected that God will forgive her.
One should also consider the fact that Allah lays great stress on the institution of family and matters of breaking this institution are to be taken as a last resort. If the wife, seeing the importance of family, decides to bear this injustice, it may weigh heavily in her good deeds on the day of resurrection.
Also if she decided to continue the marriage, it is expected that she can convince her husband to let her wear hijab. If the marriage is broken then there is no chance of that.
Another option is bring this up with the elders so that the husband can be forced to let wear hijab. They would (should) be intervening any way if things come to divorce.
To reiterate, I would say, please leave Nikab/Hijab and save your marriage.
Comment: Please add reason for down-vote so that the answer can be improved
Answer: According to Quran one husband shouldn't force his wife to take Burqa off, now if he does and threatens her to divorce, best thing is to settle down things and take them with ease, what most important for a woman, a marriage (as a holy relationship) or a piece of tissue that even God didn't oblige you to wear ? I think that the husband and the marriage + the good stability of the children is more important than breaking and divorcing over a tissue that is not even obligatory to wear. reason, reason !!
Comment: Reference from Quran and hadith should be added to support your argument
Comment: Do you complety deny the fact that "burqa" is obligatory to wear?
Comment: Yes burqa is not obligatory to wear, burqa is the tissue that covers the face, also known as Niqab, I'm not talking about Hidjab
Comment: The question says Burkha , Niqab or Hijab. While Niqab is not obligatory , Hijab IS!
Comment: Burqa is Niqab samething


Is there a difference between 2/4 and 4/4

Question: I cannot figure out the actual difference between these two beats. Isn't it sufficient to have only 2/4 (or 4/4 )?
Comment: Honestly, meter and accent are very separate concerns, but that is not the popular intuition of so many (even professional) musicians. But if, as a composer, I were to give you a piece in 2/4 and the same piece rewritten in 4/4, I would expect the effect to be more pronounced over larger phrases than for each measure. If you find yourself focusing too hard on accents on a per measure basis, you're probably not paying enough attention to phrasing. Meter is simply there to give you a sense of how to piece together a coherent interpretation of the _entire_ work, not "where to put the accent."
Comment: Related, possibly a duplicate: [Is there any real-world difference between time signatures such as 4/4 and 8/8?](http://music.stackexchange.com/q/568/59)
Answer: Go for a walk. Count each step, in twos or fours. Tread heavier on the ones.
One two One two One two One two
One two three four One two three four
They feel different, don't they? This is the difference.
And yet there is an equivalence between them. Walk at the same tempo, but count to four twice as fast, so you're stepping on the One and the three.
One (two) three (four)
This feels like the 2/4 rhythm again, except for the in-between-steps counting you're doing.
This sort of equivalence comes up all the time. In environments where musicians play without sheet music, it's quite possible that the drummer thinks he's playing in 4/4 (with triplets), while the guitarist thinks he's playing in 12/8. In this example, what the drummer calls a triplet, is three 8th notes for the guitarist.
When a composer scores their music, they choose the time signature that they believe conveys the feeling most clearly to the musicians, while being easy to read.

2/4 with 4 quavers to the bar at a slow tempo.
4/4 with 4 crotchets to the bar at double the tempo.
-- that's mostly a readability choice.
Comment: @user2588: seen [this xkcd](http://xkcd.com/389/)?
Comment: @KimDavisHanson from a military/dancing point of view I'm sure that's important. From a musical point of view, it's not. I guess it would help feel the beat if on the first beat you were landing with your strongest foot.
Comment: Just one thing, when marching the first beat is on the LEFT foot, see this wrong in movies a lot, drives me crazy!
Answer: The other answers are all essentially correct, but I think a critical point is missing.
There aren't just fully "strong" and fully "weak" beats; there are also beats of medium strength (and other varieties).  4/4 is most commonly emphasized like this:

ONE two three four

Note the half-accent on the third beat, different from what slim mentioned.  If you're playing triplets, that works out to:

ONE two three four five six

Slim was right in saying that 4/4 with tripletted quarters indistinguishable from 12/8 with normal quarters, but it's only true because of that emphasis on the third beat. 12/8 is emphasized like so:

ONE two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve

With quarters (combining pairs of eighths) that works out to:

ONE two three four five six

Which is exactly the same as the above 4/4 with triplets.

Now to get to your specific question: 2/4 has no medium beat, so four quarters would be most commonly emphasized like this:

ONE two ONE two

This emphasis gives a noticeably different feel to the music than 4/4 does.
Comment: +1 -- it's detail I didn't want to include, for fear of making the answer too long, but you did a great job. I would add; all of this makes intuitive sense with experience. Perhaps the best thing for the beginner is to take it on trust until one day it clicks.
Comment: ... although, to be pedantic, it's your choice whether to put any emphasis on the third beat of 4/4. Or in reggae, put more emphasis on the 3 than on the 1!
Comment: I agree that there is a tendency toward these strong/weak patterns but I don't believe it is by any means universal.  For more esoteric example 5/8 could be either (ONE two Three four five) vs (ONE two three Four five), and higher counts have even more possibilities.  There's no reason a composer couldn't intend for 4/4 to be counted (ONE Two three four) or (one Two three FOUR), although this might be difficult to pull off in a way that would be deemed "legitimate" by any listeners - but such things define entire styles of music.
Answer: It also has to do with strong and weak beats. In 2/4, everyother beat (the one in each measure) is a strong down beat. In 4/4, every fourth beat (the one in each measure) is a strong down beat. It is all about accents and feel, so there is a major difference.
Answer: It's all about the feel in the music. Sometimes it really doesn't matter, and it is very difficult to say what is more natural.
But often you have distinguised beat at the first in each measure.
If it is a march, you have the first beat on the right foot when marching to it, and it is natural to have a 2/4.
Rock music often has a beat pattern that more or less repeats itself each 4th beat, and thus it is more natural to have a 4/4.
Answer: @MatthewRead's answer above hits the nail on the head.  There is another reason that 4/4 may be used instead of 2/4 and that's for the ease of reading the notes from the page.
For example, in American Oldtime music there is a strong 2/4 feeling to it, but it's easier to read if no note values are below an eighth note or a dotted eighth. So the music is notated as four beats to the bar (measure) even though the music is played two beats to the bar: half-notes are notated as whole notes, eighth notes as quarter notes, etc.
Nowadays, 2/4 in traditional dance music is usually notated in 4/4, although older books often notate it "correctly" in 2/4 and if you can't handle a dotted sixteenth may God have mercy on your soul.
Answer: Sorry, but "one-two, one-two" would be the way I would count 2 bars of 2/2 time.
I count 2/4 time as "ONE-and-TWO-and".  The beat is bouncy in motion and "rocks" back and forth from one count to the next. It creates a firm downbeat and  backbeat .
I count 4/4 time as "ONE-two-three-four". The beat is circular in motion and "rolls" from one count to the next. You can play faster with 4/4 time.
A time signature is somewhat arbitrary... each player is free to express himself or herself in whatever time frame works best for him or her. Fiddlers often write out their music in 2/2 time (to reduce repetitive eighth note passages) but actually play in 2/4 time.
I teach beginner acoustic guitar and play bluegrass, most often expressed in 4/4 time -- and old time music, most often expressed in 2/4 time. We play regularly in 2/4, 4/4, 3/4 and 6/8 times.
Comment: How can you play 2/2 in 2/4? 2/2 means 2 half-notes per measure, and 2/4 means two quarter notes per measure. They are in no way equal. If you say that you count 4 beats per measure in the 2/2, it is really "ONE-and-TWO-and". If you say that you think double tempo of what is written, it's [alla breve](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alla_breve), not 2/4. (Actually the time signature for alla breve _is_ per definition 2/2.)
Comment: @awe - they can easily be equal. Half notes and quarter notes at the same tempo are not the same, but at different tempos could be equal to each other.
Comment: @Tim: Yes, I agree with you that they can be equal in the sense of having a score in 2/2 with half noes as the beat is the same as having a score in 2/4 with quarter notes as the beats, but with half the tempo of the first score. What I mean is that does not make sence to say that a score that is written in 2/2 is played in 2/4. That is totally dependent on tempo, not time signature.
Answer: The short answer:  The difference is whether it's intended that we emphasize 2 or 4 beats per measure, and this distinction is ultimately pretty arbitrary.
Answer: Many answers have given great explanations for the difference between 4/4 and 2/4. Here's a practical example, so you can actually hear what it sounds like. The time signature change is very, very obvious:
"Pink Label" by Laysha (YouTube link)
It abruptly switches from 4/4 to 2/4 at around timestamp 0:35, then switches back around 1:10. The same change happens again around 2:00.
Even if you don't know anything about time signatures or rhythm, you should immediately recognize that the song sounds "faster" at the transition, though the tempo stays the same. Changing which beats are accented can achieve this.
Comment: This isn't correct. The song feels faster at those times because it's literally faster, it changes tempo. At the beginning it's around 105 bpm, at ~0:35 it changes to around 132. There's no way to interpret that as purely a time signature change as the tempos would need to be multiples of each other, e.g. 105 bpm could start to feel like 210 bpm or ~53 bpm, but never 132 bpm. And further, most people would probably notate both the slower and faster sections of that song as the same time signature, 4/4.


Access to the Production Systems for non sys-admins

Question: What's your opinion on access to the Production or Live Systems by non sys-admins?
Do you think this access should be provided with nominal usernames?
Do you think access to the log files or the databases should be allowed?
Answer: Apply the Principle of Least Privilege. If they need access to do the job, you give them the access. But you only give the access they need. If they don't need access to do the job, you don't give it to them.
This doesn't just protect the person (can't be accused of overstepping his/her bounds), but also protects the organization, should the user's account be compromised.
As to why they shouldn't be given such access...
A sad tale of mis-steps and corruption (from today)
Comment: Agreed.  We're going so far as to develop a gateway app that will allow our tech mgr to provide non admins with an encrypted string containing authentication info that the app can recognize.  Then all batches executed in production go through this app which will also automatically post the batch and results to a case in our issue tracker (FogBugz).
Answer: I agree with the above but I would like to add that shared user accounts are not a good idea at all.  You cannot track down who did what in the logs, and you cannot control who shares what passwords with who.
Configure a group with specific access control, and give each non-admin who needs access to the systems their own account, with only the access they need to do their jobs.
Comment: Agreed here also.  Shared accounts are bad juju for forensic situations...
Answer: From a DBA standpoint, access to production systems for users should be strictly limited, and this includes developers.  Users should only be able to see the data they need and this would ideally be provided via views, not direct access to tables.
Developers, likewise, should be able to see the data in production, but not alter any tables.  Any changes should be done in test (or dev) first, then scripted and ran on production by the DBA.
Answer: The heuristic is pretty simple:
Do they get fired if the screw up the system?
Do you?
If the answers are "no" and "yes", the way they are in most organizations, then the answer is clear.
Answer: For development, if possible supply them with a copy of the live system and provide a way to push database changes back to the development copy at will.  You will find that many of your developers will be more productive with access to "real" data, and you will feel safe knowing that they don't have access to the live system.
I am also of the belief that there is no real reason to store certain sensitive data beyond the transaction.  For example, credit card transactions... grab the data and send it to the merchant processing system... but don't save it in the database, instead just store the last 4 digits of the card and the transaction id from the merchant system.  This way when an exploit is found and a fix generated (I know, like that never happens), you have the confidence that no one could have stolen any of this data from your database.
Answer: I fully agree with H. Brian Kelley's answer featuring the Principle of Least Privilege.
But I'd like to mention that it goes hand in hand with my own home-baked Principle of Shared Responsibility for Screw-Ups. That is, anyone with the ability to admin the server should also have their phone number added to the server's on-call list. So now this non-sysadmin can also know the joy of the 2AM "something's broken" phone call.
Depending on the criticality of the production server, yes I think the non-sysadmin should have to use a second, privileged account for his/her access to the system - just like I do (eg, I use one account for my daily email and normal-user activities; another for my sysadmin activities). The user now must explicitly change to the higher priv level, and that will help prevent slipups.
And yes there are cases where log (view only) access should be allowed. Obviously when that person needs to see the output to do his/her job better, you want to lean towards giving the access. Re-think this if the log contains really sensitive information such as customer personal or financial data.
You might consider some level of formal/informal training on the security aspects of privileged access whenever you're granting it.
Answer: Yes. Full root access (granted via sudo ALL). And they get to be added to the oncall rotation, too.
Many companies have one sysadmin who is on call 24/7, even for application issues. Some companies are fortunate and have two. It is completely unreasonable to expect that one person do all the day-to-day operations work and respond to system alerts at all hours of the night.
However, many companies have a fair number of developers that are responsible for the application code running on the systems. Many of them may even have experience doing operations.
No, they shouldn't be responsible for the mail system, unless it ties directly in with the application they work on. But there should be a clear run-book of things to quickly reason about so they can either gather information for the sysadmin, or even solve themselves if simple enough.
Everyone's job is to enable the business.


Approximation of discrete distribution

Question: I have a discrete random variable $X$ which takes the values $+1$ and $-1$ with equal probability $\frac{1}{2}$. Can I approximate this with a normal distribution ?
Comment: Why would you want to do that, by the name of the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster?
Answer: Of course, but the approximation will not be very good.
Answer: It depends on the distance between probability distribution you are interested in. In your case the total variation distance will not provide any interesting results, because discrete distribution and continuous distribution are mutually singular, so the total variation will be always $1$.
However, you may have a weak convergence result by approximating two $\delta$-functions at $\pm 1$ with continuous densities. For example, you may take $X_n$ which is uniformly distributed on
$$
  A_n = \left[-1-\frac1n,-1+\frac1n\right]\cup\left[1-\frac1n,1+\frac1n\right]
$$
in the sense that its density if $f_n(x) = \frac n4\cdot1_{A_n}(x)$. However, I am not sure whether it helps you.
As Eckhard told you, with the single normal distribution you never achieve a good quality of the approximation since it's either have a different mean, or its variance is too big to approximate the discrete distribution. Maybe if you provide more details, what is the motivation for your question, there will be more to say.

Approximation of discrete distribution


Our brand-new 2013 Dodge Caravan makes a terrible screaming noise when we start it in the cold

Question: My family owns a new 2013 Dodge Caravan.  We bought it this summer.  Lately, as the winter cold has set in, each time we start the car in the morning, it makes this god-awful screaming noise.  The mechanics at the dealership said that it's no big deal, that's it's only moisture on the fan belt. We're still nervous though.  A brand-new vehicle, or any vehicle should not be making noises like that.  We live in Canada, and the temperature lately ranges anywhere from -10 Celsius to -30 Celsius.  I've read on several forums that a car screaming on a cold start is due to a loose fan belt.  However, all the questions were from people with older vehicles, and ours is only a few months old. That and the dealership mechanics never said anything about a loose fanbelt- they only mentioned the fan belt being wet. Does anyone have any thoughts?  Any advice would be much appreciated.
Answer: As stated, this is most likely a slipping serpentine belt, but there could be other reasons besides moisture on the belt causing this problem. This is especially true if this is happening every day. The problem can also be caused from a weak tensioner pulley (the part which keeps the belt tight). I know this is unlikely, considering it's a new vehicle, but it is also unlikely that the belt should be slipping in the first place. Serpentine belts are very efficient at what they do. Something else to consider is there may be a small power drain at play, like a light left on inside the vehicle. This would cause an extra load on the alternator upon start-up until it catches up with electrical demand.
At the temperatures you are talking about, any moisture on the belt should be frozen and would fall off as the belt moves upon engine start. Even if it does squeal, this noise should be very short lived (no more than one to two seconds). (NOTE: So people who do not live in this cold of an environment understand, most cold climate places like this do not use ice-melt as the temperature there is cold enough to freeze this as well. Sand is used to aid in traction. Due to this, any moisture on the belt or anywhere on the vehicle would be frozen.)
Something else to consider is you are not obligated to use the dealership where you bought the vehicle (assuming this is the case). If there is another Chrysler/Dodge dealership in the area, take it there and get a second opinion. This should be covered under warranty, so should cost you nothing but your time. It has been my experience new vehicles do not squeal. For it to continually do this upon start-up is abnormal. You will not have moisture on your belt every morning you go out to start the vehicle, no matter what the outside temperature. Something is making the belt slip, that's for sure.
Answer: Well, they didn't lie to you. Which is a good start. I don't know anything about how cars behave in that temperature range, but I do know that that sound is made by a slipping fanbelt.
This video is useful.
Answer: This is a typical case of the serpentine belt slipping. In the very cold the efficiency of the battery drops off. When you start your vehicle the alternator has to deliver the load on the system. The extra load caused by the cold battery causes the slip. It would be made worse by a moist serpentine belt.
Check with your dealer if a updated belt is available, more slip resistent, or, a belt made for your geographical region.
Answer: One other thing to ask the dealer to check: the alternator pulley. These days, they have a one-way clutch in them, that is supposed to reduce belt vibrations and improve smoothness. If it seizes up (or in your case freezes!) it will make the engine shake and sound like a tractor. On the other hand, if the clutch in this pulley fails (not uncommon) it will scream it's little lungs out. A brand new vehicle shouldn't scream, period.


Codename one: Storage throwing EOF & NullPointer Exception

Question: I'm having trouble to store Lists in the storage and then loading it after a new start of my app. Here is what I've done:
At every start of the app  I do this, to check if Data has already been written to the storage, if not, I return a new List.
public List loadSavedFormationList(){
        String[] temp = Storage.getInstance().listEntries();
        for(String s: temp){
            if(s.equals("Formations") == true){
                return (LinkedList<SongList>)Storage.getInstance().readObject("Formations");
            }
        }
        return new LinkedList<SongList>();
}

When the user has entered a FormationList in my App, I do this to save it to the storage:
Storage.getInstance().writeObject("Formations", formationList);

Now, when I restart the App, I am getting a java.io.EOFException + java.lang.NullpointerException. It seems that he tries to read my Formations List from the storage, but it is empty, but why? On the first start of the App, the Storage should be empty. Does the Simulator also save the stuff I entered into the App at another time?
Thank you for any advice.
Answer: Codename One stores ArrayList not LinkedList and will convert that implicitly. I'm guessing the data wasn't written which is why you got the exception, you need to look at the console when writing and make sure all elements are externalizable.


Can you experiment on animals?

Question: May a person perform or otherwise participate in experiments on live animals which will cause the animals pain? I would assume this is forbidden under tzaar baalei chayim. But perhaps there is a heter for scientific purposes?
Comment: http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=20160&st=&pgnum=44
Comment: Read first paragraph on left side,it seems from a kal vchomer it would be mutar
Comment: Related; https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/27308/animal-testing-of-cosmetics-and-other-products
Answer: Rabbi Yissochar Frand has a tape on inflicting pain to animals.
Generally the prohibition is on inflicting pain for no good reason, and legitimate medical research is a good reason. He quotes a responsum -- I believe it's the Shvut Yaakov -- about a doctor testing a medicine on a dog or cat first, who allowed it, but said it's ideal not to do the procedure yourself, as you'd be training yourself to be insensitive to suffering. (I corresponded with Rabbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin shlit'a about this, and he didn't see this latter point as an issue.)
Rabbi Frand concludes he's not sure whether cosmetics are considered enough of a cause; Rabbi Yitzchok Breitowitz gave a public lecture a few years ago in which he felt they weren't.
(Mind you, some neighborhoods/cultures have much stronger expectations about women's cosmetics. Rabbi Dovid Miller of Yeshiva University's Gruss Kollel in Jerusalem has an mp3 in which he discusses a mikva-related heter involving makeup, with a comment to the effect of "I don't know, in my world if you don't wear makeup whatever, but in the Charedi yeshivish world, if she's not totally painted, something's wrong!")
Answer: This is addressed in a recent post on Torah Musings by Rabbi Daniel Mann. He says that tzaar baalei chayim can be necessary for experiments if it isn't needlessly insensitive. If there is a human need that is not baal tashchit then it can be fine. Animal rights are also not comparable to human needs:

There are several Torah statements along the line of "Have dominion over the fish … birds …" (Bereishit 1:28). Furthermore, we are permitted to take an animal's life simply because we desire to eat meat. We may enslave animals to do hard labor, with some restrictions (not Shabbat, muzzled).

He qualifies this by saying that the level of pain is a factor and that going beyond a threshold (for a menial task) would not be acceptable.
There is also a distinction between the type of animal experimented on:

Rav Yaakov Emden (Sheilat Yaavetz I:110) says that tza'ar baalei chayim applies only to animals with which man works (e.g., cattle, horses, donkeys) or perhaps relatively highly cognitive animals (dogs, cats), but not to "lower creatures," who experience pain differently. According to these opinions, it does not apply to insects, and likely not to rodents.

...and concludes that there it is permitted to experiment on animals, given the inherent gain to humans, however with several understandable caveats:

limit the number of animals used, and minimize pain (including using lower species). Suffering animals should be euthanized as promptly as possible.

Can you experiment on animals?


What are good and cheap places in South America to surf?

Question: I'm in Argentina. I'd love to go to new beaches (not in Argentina, in south america) that are good to surf. But the cost must be low, given our cheap currency. I'm talking about costs for staying in some places, the cost of the goods (food, drinks, medical care, etc).
Comment: Could you maybe add more detail on what you mean by "low-costs"? It's quite a subjective term.
Comment: @santiagobasulto Case of skim reading, I thought you were only asking surf sites in Argentina. Sorry about that!
Answer: The actual cost of food and drink should not be that much of an issue - subsistence food is relatively cheap everywhere.
In some countries, surf culture includes staying in your camper van, or camping at the beach, so if you do want cheap, the way to go may be to club together with others and buy/hire a van or micro-bus.
Ferrugem in Brazil is popular. Haven't surfed it myself, but worth looking at - seems popular in the global surfing community.
I would recommend globalsurfers.com - they have an up to date interactive map with a forum for discussion.
Comment: Thanks Rory. Mar del Plata is here in Argentina, so I'm looking forward to other beaches, maybe in Peru, or Brazil.
Comment: Oh - I see, yes Ferrugem is in Brazil - my bad! Your question only asks about places in Argentina. If you are asking about other countries, you should update your question so people know what you want...
Comment: he has asked for beaches in south america, but @Ankur Banerjee has changed the title to argentina
Comment: Aah - @Ankur - I have changed that back :-) I have edited my answer accordingly.
Answer: South America has some amazing beaches to go surfing you might enjoy besides the ones you have in Argentina already. I am not sure what would be 'cheap' for you, you certainly will have the cost of the trip to the destination as one of the most important expenses.
Costa Rica is a good option, although is more Central than South America. You might consider Tamarindo Beach there.
Consider this article (a little bit old) from National Geographic for some interesting options.
Closer to you, you might consider Punta del Este, Uruguay once the peak season is over and the prices go down. There are some cheap Hostels there were you can stay and if you get your food from the supermarkets you will save some money. Also transportation there can be cheap in the off peak season.
Unfortunately the Argentinean Peso is currently undergoing a devaluation so it will be hard to find a place were you will be in a strong position.


Sigma notation for sum of $\ln(x)^2$ from $2$ to $20$ with non-integer steps

Question: Is it possible to use sigma notation for non-integer steps, for example I want to sum $\ln(x)^2$ from $2$ to $20$ with steps of $0.5$, is there a way I could write this in sigma notation or some other form of notation.
Answer: In this particular case that you have the constant difference, I would go with the other answers; it's the simplest and most non-confusing manner to write what you want to convey. However, if you have any arbitrary set $S$, and wanted to sum based on its elements, you can write something like
$$\sum_{s\in S}f(s).$$
In particular you might have $S=\{2,2.5,3,\dots,20\}$.
Comment: You could also index over the set $S$, to get $\sum_{i=0}^nf(s_i)$, where $S=\{s_0,s_1,\ldots,s_n\}$.
Comment: Arbitrary _finite_ set (or else invoke topology and convergence conditions).
Answer: Does $$\sum_{n = 0}^{36}\ln\left(2+\dfrac{1}{2}n\right)^2$$ satisfy your requirements?
Answer: You could change $\ln(x)^2$ into $\ln\left(\frac{x}{2}\right)^2$ to achieve the steps of $0.5$ in this case. You want $\frac{x}{2}$ to go from $2$ to $20$ as well (with steps of $0.5$), so $x$ must go from $4$ to $40$. Therefore, the sum becomes$\sum_\limits{x = 4}^{40}\ln\left(\frac{x}{2}\right)^2$.
Answer: Just use $\frac{x}{2}$ instead of $x$ in this example to get integers. This trick can always be used when we have to sum up finite many rationals or rationals with a limited denominator.


Is Jhana Required For Awakening?

Question: I've found this to be an interesting question with highly respected monastics falling on both sides of the answer.
Comment: Given it's a controversial topic, I'd suggest [this](http://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/1518/why-are-jhanas-controversial) question is a better one to get a definitive answer; I'm not sure that we want questions that are so subject to controversy, do we?
Comment: Are you asking about Buddhist meditation in general or the Four Jhanas specifically? If meditation, then I suggest you update the question title. If Four Jhanas, then this is a duplicate of the following question: http://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/1287/in-meditation-should-one-pursue-tranquility-first-prior-to-looking-for-insight
Comment: Then how does one choose the "best" answer without relying upon personal opinion?
Comment: @yuttadhammo We want, just let people state different points of view.
Comment: Please discuss here: http://meta.buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/114/questions-asking-for-an-answer-to-a-controversy
Answer: Actually, a point that is not well understood is that, among those who follow the Pali canon, there is no controversy over whether some jhāna is necessary; the answer is in all cases yes. The controversy is really over which jhāna is necessary.
There are three types of jhāna in total:

samatha-jhāna - jhāna based on a conceptual object that, due to its conceptual nature, cannot lead to the realization of the nature of reality.

For example, in the Visuddhimagga:

The colour should not be reviewed. The characteristic should not be
  given attention. But rather, while not ignoring the colour, attention
  should be given by setting the mind on the [name] concept as the most
  outstanding mental datum, relegating the colour to the position of a
  property of its physical support. That [conceptual state] can be
  called by anyone he likes among the names for earth (pathavī) such as
  "earth" (pathavī), "the Great One" (mahī), "the Friendly One"
  (medinī), "ground" (bhūmi), "the Provider of Wealth" (vasudhā), "the
  Bearer of Wealth" (vasudharā), etc., whichever suits his manner of
  perception. Still "earth" is also a name that is obvious, so it can be
  developed with the obvious one by saying "earth, earth." It should be
  adverted to now with eyes open, now with eyes shut. And he should go
  on developing it in this way a hundred times, a thousand times, and
  even more than that, until the learning sign arises.
Path of Purification, IV.29

2. vipassana-jhāna - jhāna based on ultimate reality that allows one to see the three characteristics and thus attain nibbana. As the Mahasi Sayadaw states:

The tranquillity that occurs while one contemplates various phenomena is called momentary concentration, the concentration that lasts momentarily during contemplation. No insight is possible without this momentary concentration. The meditator who has no basic [samatha] jhānic experience and relies on insight meditation alone develops insight through momentary concentration and attains the noble path. This concentration for insight is not confined to a single object. The meditator practising it notes all the mental and physical phenomena that arise. However, at the moment of noting, his mind is fixed on the object and free from distraction. This is obvious to the meditator who practises effectively.
http://www.aimwell.org/sallekha.html

3. lokuttara-jhāna - jhāna that takes a supermundane object (nibbana), and is equivalent to attaining the noble path and fruition. According to Bhante Gunaratana:

But the four jhanas again reappear in a later stage in the development of the path, in direct association with liberating wisdom, and they are then designated the supramundane (lokuttara) jhanas. These supramundane jhanas are the levels of concentration pertaining to the four degrees of enlightenment experience called the supramundane paths (magga) and the stages of liberation resulting form them, the four fruits (phala).
http://www.budsas.org/ebud/jhanas/jhanas01.htm

It is this third type of jhāna that everyone agrees is necessary. The problem is with deciding which type of jhāna the Buddha is talking about in specific contexts. Since these three types of jhāna are not enumerated in the sutta pitaka, the debate centres around whether lokiya (mundane) samatha jhāna are necessary, since that is the only type of jhāna recognized by certain Buddhists.
This too can be seen as a misunderstanding, since samatha jhāna according to those who hold that it is not necessary is not exactly the same as jhāna according to those who hold that lokiya jhāna is.
According to those who say lokiya jhāna is necessary, they seem to believe that lokiya jhāna is a practice which allows for the realization of insight, in which case it cannot be samatha jhāna as understood by those who believe that samatha jhāna cannot lead directly to insight, unless the former group actually believes that jhāna based on a conceptual object can allow for the realization of insight into reality, which I'm pretty sure is not the case.
So, the debate is really not all it is cracked up to be, unless there are people who believe meditation based on a non-real conceptual object is sufficient for attainment of understanding of reality, in which case they are in contradiction with the sutta pitaka, not to mention the abhidhamma and commentaries.
I suppose there could still be room for debate over whether samatha jhāna based on a concept must be cultivated prior to Vipassana; the yuganaddha sutta probably shows this to be false:

Then there is the case where a monk has developed tranquillity preceded by insight. As he develops tranquillity preceded by insight, the path is born. He follows that path, develops it, pursues it. As he follows the path, developing it & pursuing it — his fetters are abandoned, his obsessions destroyed.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.170.than.html

Of course for anyone actually adhering to the Theravada (I.e. the commentaries, patisambidhamagga, and abhidhamma), there isn't much room for controversy. Most of the debate is over whether to follow the existing commentaries or create one's own.
Comment: Yep, vipassana is mundane.
Comment: Yuttadhammo, this is really useful but could you clarify the meaning of the word "lokiya". Your answer lists three kinds of jhana -- samatha, vipassana, and lokuttara -- but then you introduce a fourth word, "lokiya", without prior mention of what it means. (I don't doubt the content of what you're saying -- just pointing out that an already good answer could be even better if you clarified this one point). Thanks!
Comment: Lokiya just means mundane - I added a parenthetical.
Comment: So of the three types, samatha is lokiya, lokuttara is not lokiya, is that right? So then what is vipassana -- lokiya or not lokiya?
Comment: On further Googling I realise that lokuttara *is* the antonym of lokiya, so me noting that "lokuttura is not lokiya" is just an empty tautology. Still, my question remains: what is Vipassana; mundane, or supramundane (I'm guessing the former)?
Answer: Well, I think there is a reason why the path is eightfold and not sevenfold. The Pāḷi Canon is full of encouragements, made by the Buddha, to practice jhānas. It would be stretching the texts a lot to say it isn't necessary. I wouldn't argue over it though.

'The sage, the withdrawn chief bull,
  the Buddha who awakened to jhāna,
  the One of Broad Wisdom has found
  the opening amid confinement.'
  -AN 9.42, Confinement (Sambādha-suttaṃ) & SN 2.7, Pañcālacaṇḍa (Pañcālacaṇḍa-suttaṃ)

'There's no jhāna for one with no discernment,
  no discernment for one
  with no jhāna.
  But one with both jhāna & discernment:
  he's on the
  verge of Unbinding.'
  -Dhp v372
Comment: Isn't one of the difficulties, though, that the word "jhāna" is used in (at least) two different ways. One -- the least common now but maybe exactly what was intended back then -- is simply "meditation". The second -- the most common today -- refers to a series of distinct states or stages of absorption *while* meditating. I'm guessing the original questioner was using it in the second form, but it's possible the Canon is using it in the first. In which case the answer is "Yes, jhana is required, but all that means is you need to meditate"??
Comment: I would say the two meanings apply since there is no contradiction between them. So I would say, "Yes, *jhāna* is required, but all that means is you need to meditate to make those stages appear in your practice."
Comment: I'm not sure that's true. I've seen many comment on how they'd been meditating for years and never experienced absorptions. Then they encountered a teacher who, or read a book that, guided them precisely, and bingo they experienced absorption. The very fact there is a debate shows there are two concepts at stake. The percentage of people who meditate seems much higher than the percentage who meditate *and* experience the absorptions. So the question still remains -- is it necessary, for awakening, to meditate to the extent that one experiences the absorptions (or at least upacara samadhi).
Comment: As I said in the answer, I wouldn't argue about it. :)
Answer: From SN 55.5:

"Sir, the factors of stream-entry are associating with good people,
listening to the true teaching, proper attention, and practicing in
line with the teaching."
"Sappurisasaṃsevo hi, bhante, sotāpattiyaṅgaṃ, saddhammassavanaṃ sotāpattiyaṅgaṃ, yonisomanasikāro sotāpattiyaṅgaṃ,
dhammānudhammappaṭipatti sotāpattiyaṅgan"ti.

According to the sutta above, proper attention (yonisomanasikāra) is required for stream entry.
It's not possible to achieve proper attention, when one is afflicted with the five hindrances. In order to significantly overcome the five hindrances, one needs to have mastered at least the first jhana. You can find more info in this question.
To quote Ven. Dhammavuddho from that question:

The third condition, this word - yoniso manasikara, which I translate
as focused attention. Sometimes they say careful attention. This word
means that when you listen to the Dhamma, you are focused on listening
to the Dhamma. In other words, at that time, you don't have the five
hindrances. If that is so, then you can understand the Dhamma and
attain stream entry.
So who are the people who do not have the five hindrances? In the
suttas, it is stated by the Buddha that as long as a person has not
attained piti and sukha which are secluded from unwholesome states,
which are secluded from sensual pleasures, the five hindrances will
obsess him and obsess him habitually.
... When a person has attained the first jhana, he has eliminated the
five hindrances and the Buddha says that the five hindrances no longer
obsess that person habitually.
So there are two conditions if a person has the hindrances. Firstly,
it obsesses your mind, it enslaves your mind. Secondly, it is
habitual, it is very often there. ... When a person attains the first
jhana, these hindrances reduce to a very low level. ...

In that question, Ven. Dhammavuddho claimed that instead of the first jhana, it is also possible that persons of high IQ can also achieve proper attention, although this is his personal opinion.
From this page on Nirodha Samapatti:

According to Vis.M. XXIII, the entering into this state takes place in
the following way: by means of mental tranquillity (samatha) and
insight (vipassanā) one has to pass through all the 8 absorptions one
after the other up to the sphere of
neither-perception-nor-non-perception and then one has to bring this
state to an end. If, namely, according to the Vis.M., the disciple
(Anāgāmī or Arahat) passes through the absorption merely by means of
tranquillity, i.e. concentration, he will only attain the sphere of
neither-perception-nor-non-perception, and then come to a standstill;
if, on the other hand, he proceeds only with insight, he will reach
the fruition (phala) of Anāgāmī or Arahantship. He, however, who by
means of both faculties has risen from absorption to absorption and,
having made the necessary preparations, brings the sphere of
neither-perception-nor-non-perception to an end, such a one reaches
the state of extinction.

So, according to the Visuddhimagga, the 8 jhanas and Nirodha Samapatti are not absolutely required for attainment of the fruition of anagami and arahat.
Comment: SukkhaVipassaka can enlighten Arahatraphala without order from 9 samapatti. This kind of people must has less 5 hindrances from his birth to enlighten in 7 years, or more than that for TanhaCarita MandaPuggala (too much hindrances who avoid to practice Jhana and no knowledge in Paticcasamuppada). **However,** most Arahanta attain 6 Abhiñña as well according to Theragatha, so I think Arahanta try to practice 9 Samapatti after enlightenment too. The same as Arahanta try to memorize Buddha's teaching which commentary commented BhandāgāikaPariyatti (Nikaya Memorizer) is duty of Arahanta directly.
Answer: Upacara&Appana Jhana are required for TanhaCarita according to Netti, Kayagatasatisutta's &Mahasatipatthanasutta's  structure, Visuddhimagga DitthivisuddhiNiddesa.
Netti (my english is terrible, so please find the translation yourself):

[81] tattha diṭṭhicarito asmiṃ sāsane pabbajito sallekhānusantatavutti bhavati sallekhe tibbagāravo. taṇhācarito asmiṃ sāsane pabbajito sikkhānusantatavutti bhavati sikkhāya tibbagāravo. diṭṭhicarito sammattaniyāmaṃ okkamanto dhammānusārī bhavati. taṇhācarito sammattaniyāmaṃ okkamanto saddhānusārī bhavati, diṭṭhicarito sukhāya paṭipadāya dandhābhiññāya khippābhiññāya ca niyyāti. taṇhācarito dukkhāya paṭipadāya dandhābhiññāya khippābhiññāya ca niyyāti.
tattha kiṃkāraṇaṃ, yaṃ taṇhācarito dukkhāya paṭipadāya dandhābhiññāya khippābhiññāya ca niyyāti, tassa hi kāmā apariccattā bhavanti, so kāmehi viveciyamāno dukkhena paṭinissarati dandhañca dhammaṃ ājānāti? yo panāyaṃ diṭṭhicarito ayaṃ āditoyeva kāmehi anatthiko bhavati. so tato viveciyamāno khippañca paṭinissarati, khippañca dhammaṃ ājānāti. dukkhāpi paṭipadā duvidhā dandhābhiññā ca khippābhiññā ca. sukhāpi paṭipadā duvidhā dandhābhiññā ca khippābhiññā ca. sattāpi duvidhā mudindriyāpi tikkhindriyāpi. ye mudindriyā, te dandhañca paṭinissaranti dandhañca dhammaṃ ājānanti. ye tikkhindriyā, te khippañca paṭinissaranti, khippañca dhammaṃ ājānanti, imā catasso paṭipadā. ye hi keci niyyiṃsu vā niyyanti vā niyyissanti vā, te imāhi eva catūhi paṭipadāhi. evaṃ ariyā catukkamaggaṃ paññāpenti abudhajanasevitāya bālakantāya rattavāsiniyā nandiyā bhavataṇhāya avaṭṭanatthaṃ [āvaṭṭanatthaṃ (sī. ka.)]. ayaṃ vuccati nandiyāvaṭṭassa nayassa bhūmīti, tenāha ''taṇhañca avijjampi ca samathenā''ti.

In DesanaHara, TanhaCarita should practice 4 Satipatthana and 4 Jhana. That is compatible with KayagatasatiSutta's commentary which separate Kayanupassana into 2 parts, Samatha and Vipassana.
The structure of KayagatasatiSutta is Samatha, and MahasatipattahanaSutta is Vipassana. This is compatible with many points of MahasatipattahanaSutta's commentary.
That's why in Visuddhimagga DitthivisuddhiNiddesa:

and the purification of consciousness, namely, the eight attainments (Upacara Jhana) together with access concentration (Appana Jhana), has also been dealt with in detail in all its aspects in the Description of Concentration, (Chs. III to XIII) stated under the heading of "consciousness"

Don't combine and don't separate samatha-jhāna, vipassana-jhana,  and lokuttara-jhana without deep understand in the pali canon.
Samatha-jhāna and vipassana-jhana are friends who fight together to win, become Lokuttara-Jhana, together.
Balava Vipassana-Jhana can't grow up with 5 hindrances. Samatha-jhāna can't  attain Nibbana without Understanding in the reality and 7 Anusaya. They are colleagues in the noble eightfold path.
Lokuttara-appana-jhana are them who graduated as a team, maggacittupada (a noble eightfold path; it is not many. It is only one team; it is "ariyo atthangiko Maggo", not "ariya atthangika magga").

Is Jhana Required For Awakening?