Can one use Atiyah-Singer to prove that the Chern-Weil definition of Chern classes are $\mathbb{Z}$-cohomology classes?

Question: In Chern-Weil theory, we choose an arbitrary connection $\nabla$ on a complex vector bundle $E\rightarrow X$, obtain its curvature $F_\nabla$, and then we get Chern classes of $E$ from the curvature form.  A priori it looks like these live in $H^*(X;\mathbb{C})$, but by an argument that I don't really understand they're actually in the image of $H^*(X;\mathbb{Z})$ (which is where they're usually considered to live).  Meanwhile, I've heard people say that whenever I see a arbitrary real constants that end up having to be integers I should wonder whether the Atiyah-Singer index theorem is lurking in there somewhere.  Is there anything to this wild guess?
Answer: It's true that in some sense the Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem has led to some integrality results. The theorem states that for an elliptic operator on a compact manifold two numbers are equal. One of them, the "analytic index", is obviously an integer. The other one, the "topological index", which depends on the symbol of the operator, is obviously a rational number but not so obviously an integer.
On the other hand, you can argue that the integrality phenomena revealed in this way don't really have anything to do with the analysis.
There are two equivalent ways to define the topological index. There is the cohomological formula in terms of characteristic classes that live in rational cohomology. There is also the conceptually more fundamental $K$-theory definition of the topological index, in which you let the symbol of the operator give you an element of the compactly supported $K^0$ of the cotangent manifold and then use Bott periodicity and the fact that $K$-theory is a cohomology theory to get from here to an element of $K^0(point)\cong\mathbb Z$. The fact that the integer thus defined coincides with the rational number obtained from characteristic classes is a calculation involving the relationship between $K$-theory and ordinary cohomology, and does not rely on the fact that there was a differential operator involved.
Comment: This seems really close to what I want.  But just because proving that the two definitions of the t-index agree doesn't involve analysis -- that doesn't mean that the actual index theorem doesn't care about the operator, right?
Comment: Doesn't care in what sense?
Comment: Sorry, I was confusing myself.  I guess what seemed weird was that in my question it's a quantity coming from analysis that ends up being integral, whereas in the index theorem it's a quantity coming from homotopy theory.  Of course, that should've already tipped me off that this was a dead end in the first place.  Your point, if I'm understanding correctly, is that since there's even an internal-to-homotopy-theory proof that the t-index is integral, then there's absolutely no way these two are related.  That sounds reasonable enough to me.
Answer: The integrality results coming out of the index theorem and that for the Chern-Weil classes have a different flavour.
The Chern-Weil classes are integral cohomology classes for any vector bundle on any manifold.
On the other hand, contemplate on, say, the Hirzebruch signature theorem (as a typical example for the integrality results coming from the index theorem). It implies that if $M$ is a closed oriented $4k$-manifold, then a well-known rational polynomial in the Pontrajgin classes of the tangent bundle in degree $4k$ is in integral cohomology. The statement is about very special bundles (tangent bundles) on very special manifolds, and it is only about the component in the top degree and it is easy to see that the statement fails for other vector bundles or away from the top degree.
I do not think you can derive the integrality of Chern classes from the index theorem (or from the less analytic integrality result that Tom Goodwillie describes).
Comment: The index theorem is a little more flexible than this - you can always twist your operator by a coefficient bundle, for example.  But I agree that it is not flexible enough for Chern-Weil theory.
Comment: The bundle you twist with comes in via the Chern character, which is additive. This can be used to show the integrality of the Chern character on spehres, for example. But the (total) Chern class is not additive.
Comment: Thank you.  This was my original intuition, that the hypotheses of the index theorem seem too specialized to give this general result about Chern classes.
Answer: The usual argument (that you had trouble with) is not so complicated: you prove that every vector bundle is the pullback of the ``universal'' vector bundle on a Grassmannian. Then you compute the Chern classes of the universal bundle, directly on the Grassmannian, and by a miracle they turn out to be integral. In fact, you can compute the relevant integrals explicitly by hand, so it turns out quite nicely. So the hard bit is showing that every vector bundle is the pullback of the universal bundle; see Milnor and Stasheff, p. 65. As for Atiyah-Singer, that seems much more complicated and I don't see how to make use of it here.
Comment: Actually, Milnor and Stasheff use the splitting principle to reduce the concrete computation you describe to the case of line bundles, which is probably a bit simpler.
Answer: My first remark about this question is a little bit pithy - the standard cohomological index formula works only for even dimensional manifolds while Chern-Weil theory is of course more general.
For a more substantive answer, let's look at the index formula itself:
$Index(D) = \int_{T^*M} ch(\sigma_D) Todd(TM \otimes \mathbb{C})$
Here $ch(\sigma_D)$ refers to the chern character of the "symbol class" in K-theory of the elliptic operator $D$.  My first observation is that this formula places special emphasis on the Todd class of the tangent bundle, and it seems to me that one would have to place similar emphasis on the Todd class in Chern - Weil theory in order to answer your question in the affirmative.  I certainly do not claim that this is impossible - the Todd polynomial seems to take a privileged position in many places where it does not seem to belong - but I do not know how to do it.
Additionally, we are forced to ask what characteristic classes can be written in the form $ch(\sigma_D)$.  As Tom Goodwillie points out, we will get an integrality result if we plug in any K-theory class $x$ rather than a K-theory class of the form $\sigma_D$ (although it may be that all classes in $K(T^*M)$ are symbol classes), but there are still constraints on which characteristic classes can appear.  For example, we will only get classes in cohomology of even degree.
So there are a number of hints that the right hand side of the index formula is too specialized for Chern-Weil theory.  But the left hand side also helps answer your question.  Here are two general principles in index theory that will help me explain:

The index theorem for any operator can be deduced from the index theorem for a special class of operators on a special class of manifolds - the "spin$^c$ Dirac operators".  These operators are completely determined by the geometry of the manifolds on which they live.
The index depends continuously on the operator in an appropriate sense.  In particular, if $D_t$ is a continuous family of operators then $Index(D_t)$ is constant in $t$.

Combining these two facts, we see that the integers which we can obtain from the index theorem depend only on homotopy theoretic information about the manifold and the coefficient bundle (if applicable).  This is not true of all integers that can be obtained via Chern-Weil theory, and it demonstrates that index theoretic invariants are much too crude for ordinary cohomology theory.
Comment: Thanks -- your last paragraph is exactly the nail in the coffin of this idea that I was expecting.  By the way, I've heard it said that whenever you see the Todd class it just means that you're looking at cohomology when you should be looking at K-theory, and that the Todd class should be thought of as nothing more than a "correction factor".
Comment: To be precise one has Thom isomorphisms in both K-theory and De Rham cohomology, but they are not compatible with each other in the sense that $ch \circ Thom_{KT} \neq Thom_{DR} \circ ch$.  The Todd class is precisely the "correction term" which makes this equation true.


What is the earliest appearance of the expression "swallowed up in God"?

Question: Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley and other Great Awakening writers often use the expression "swallowed up in God". It also appears in the writings of Bernard of Clairvaux.
Does it have a scriptural or other early origin?
Answer: I believe you are looking for 2 Corinthians 5:4 "mortality might be swallowed up of life.", as further elaborated and interpreted by Irenaeus of Lyons, who said

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must
  put on immortality. So, when this mortal shall have put on
  immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying which is
  written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy
  sting? O death, where is thy victory?" Now these words shall be
  appropriately said at the time when this mortal and corruptible flesh,
  which is subject to death, which also is pressed down by a certain
  dominion of death, rising up into life, shall put on incorruption... becomes immortal and incorruptible, not after its own proper substance, but after the mighty working of the Lord, who is able to invest the mortal with immortality, and the corruptible with incorruption. And therefore he says,[9] "that mortality may be swallowed up of life. He who has perfected us for this very thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit." ... Now, what is mortal shall be swallowed up of life, when the flesh is dead no longer, but remains living and incorruptible
  Against Heresies 5.13
For by no other means could we have attained to incorruptibility and
  immortality, unless we had been united to incorruptibility and
  immortality. But how could we be joined to incorruptibility and
  immortality, unless, first, incorruptibility and immortality had
  become that which we also are, so that the corruptible might be
  swallowed up by incorruptibility, and the mortal by immortality, that
  we might receive the adoption of sons?
  Against Heresies 3.19

I realize this has a bit of a different cast than "swallowed up in God", but I think the line of thought is evident. Irenaeus actually comes closest to referring to being swallowed up in God in reference to Christ, saying "the human nature [of Christ] being swallowed up in it (the divine)" Against Heresies 3.19
I appear to have largely retraced your steps in looking for the phrase "swallowed up in God" itself in later texts, which appears in:

Bernard of Clairvaux "On Loving God" (ca. 1115) Chapter 10
Isaac Ambrose "The first things, in reference to the middle and last
things, or, the doctine of regeneration, the new birth" (1674)
"Meditation" Chapter 8, section 7, page 203
George Whitefield, letter to Lord R., (28 September 1741)
John Wesley, Letter is to Miss Loxdale, (9 March 1782)

Similar thoughts, although not this phrase, are expressed in, eg. Angela of Foligno. (see McGinn, Bernard. "Lost in the Abyss: The Function of Abyss Language in Medieval Mysticism." Franciscan Studies 72.1 (2014): 433-452.)
Answer: The only reference I could find concerned Jonathan Edwards.  Originating from The Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals, I found the following site reference:
However, in 1721 he came to the conviction, one he called a "delightful conviction." He was meditating on 1 Timothy 1:17, and later remarked, "As I read the words, there came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite different from any thing I ever experienced before I thought with myself, how excellent a Being that was, and how happy I should be, if I might enjoy that God, and be rapt up to Him in heaven; and be as it were swallowed up in Him for ever!" (Biography - Jonathan Edwards)
The only Biblical reference I could find for God swallowing anything was Isaiah 25:8: "He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; He will remove His people's disgrace from all the earth. The Lord has spoken." (NIV)
I can only speculate that perhaps the idea of being swallowed up in God might come from several passages, such as Psalms 5:11, that speak of taking refuge in Him.


What is "verbal plenary inspiration" and to what texts does it apply?

Question: What is the "verbal plenary" view of the inspiration of Scripture and to what texts is it considered to apply? What hermeneutical approaches hold this view and how does it affect the way they prioritize different manuscripts in their pursuit of the meaning of a given passage?
Answer: Verbal Plenary Inspiration means that the very words of the original manuscripts were directly inspired by God, although he did not change the author's intelligence or understanding while doing so. Meaning, that God choose, inspired and sovereignly guided the biblical authors who were equipped by Him to write the very words of scripture. This is the foundation of the evangelical view of the inerrancy of scripture.
This should only apply to the canonical books within the tradition in which the doctrine is accepted. As a Protestant I believe this applies only to the canonical books of the Protestant Bible.
This is a view mainly held by Protestants, so I would offer this as a general statement: if you hear someone espouse this view then they are probably referring to the Protestant Bible. If I am incorrect I would gladly take correction, but I do not think my Catholic and Eastern Orthodox brothers would agree with this doctrine or apply it to their canon.
From Wikipedia as an outside source:

Evangelicals see the Bible as a truly human product whose creation was
  superintended by the Holy Spirit, preserving the authors' works from
  error without eliminating their specific concerns, situation, or
  style. This divine involvement, they say, allowed the biblical writer
  to reveal God's own message to the immediate recipients of the
  writings and to those who would come later, communicating God's
  message without corrupting it. Some Evangelicals have sought to
  characterize the conservative or traditional view as verbal, plenary
  inspiration in the original manuscripts, by which they mean that every
  word (not just the overarching ideas or concepts) is meaningfully
  chosen under the superintendence of God. Evangelicals acknowledge that
  there is textual variation between accounts of apparently identical
  events and speeches, which would seem to have God saying different
  things. Some of these differences are accounted for as deviations from
  the autographa that were introduced by copyists, while other cases are
  considered intentional deviations that were inspired by God for
  particular purposes (for instance, the Gospel of Matthew was intended
  to communicate the Gospel to Jews, while the Gospel of Luke was
  intended to communicate it to non-Jews). Many Evangelicals consider
  biblical inerrancy and/or biblical infallibility to be the necessary
  consequence of the Bible's doctrine of inspiration (see, for example,
  the Westminster Confession of Faith or the Chicago Statement on
  Biblical Inerrancy), though not all do.

Note: Although I think there is some evident bias against this doctrine in the Wikipedia entry it does represent a valid, secular look at the idea.
Comment: re: "This is a view mainly held by Protestants," or more precisely, by *Evangelical* Protestants
Comment: Sensus plenior is found in the canonical books of the Protestant Bible and not in the apocryphal books. Being a meaning which is verifiable and reproducible, and unknown to the human authors, the sensus plenior is hard evidence of verbal plenary inspiration.
Answer: We all know the meaning of the word "verbal", but there may by different understandings of the word "plenary."  The root/origin of the word "plenary," from late latin (plenus, plenarius) and into the middle ages when the word "plenary" was forged, had much to do with the concepts of "fullness" or "completeness/comprehensiveness."  So the meaning of the entire phrase, "verbal plenary inspiration" would reference the actual words (verbal) and their comprehensive function for salvation and human living (plenary) coming directly from the spirit of God to the writer (inspiration).  If you are referencing mainstream protestantism where the phrase in your question is used only to refer to the fully canonized books of the Bible, then that "plenary inspiration", or "comprehensive guidance of the spirit of God" must be extended to the councils that assembled the collection of books into what we reference today as "the Bible".
However, there are Christians who claim that prophecy is an active gift of the church through all time,  and that, as stated in the book of Joel and quoted by Paul, "in the last days your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams" (Joel 2:28 and Acts 2:17).  Also, the book of Daniel speaks of "sealing up the books (of prophecy) until the end of time" (Daniel 12:4) and a corresponding command found later in Revelation, "do not seal up the words of this prophecy for the time is near" (Revelation 22:10) imply that there is perhaps, at least "understandings" or "interpretations" of what is found there that are yet to be revealed.  This might present a conundrum for those who insist on the "verbal plenary view of inspiration" and also insist on the veracity of Joel/Paul's words concerning new prophetic words to be given toward the end of days.


Should I get a graphics tablet for animation?

Question: I want to buy a graphics tablet so I can animate videos for school and maybe a youtube channel if I am good at it. I don't want to spend over $150 and I just want one that would work.
(Also, if someone could direct me to a good tutorial on using them or recommend a program, that would be great)
Comment: Does your school have any? I would see if you can borrow one from your school either during design class or use it after school. If they do not have one then I would ask a teacher/administrator to see if the school can purchase some.
Answer: Looking at all the animators in the building, only one of 20 currently present animation students are using a Wacom at the moment (even tough a room full of Cintixes is available). A tablet is good for certain workflows and totally superfluous for others. Looking at the graphics designers also the same most did not use a tablet yesterday. So a very quick, statistically insignificant survey says that its not the most important of things.
With 15 years of experience with graphics as a hobby (and on and off as profession, but i'm a mechanical designer mostly so...) I can tell you that a wacom entirely nonessential. Your work does not get any better for owning one. Some workflows get more manageable with a tablet though. Especially masking, and painting/coloring work benefit immensely from a tablet. However even in these cases its possible to alter our workflow for same effect even with a mouse at no big significant change in productivity.
For animation work a tablet is essential only if you do one of the following:

Traditional frame by frame animation, using no computerized tweens or rigging. (as freehand sketching is not really possible with a mouse for most people.)
3D Sculpting, which is a exceptional case that really benefits form the accuracy and pressure sensitivity.

Other than that it depends on what you do, I have a Cintix tablet connected right now (one of the perks of my job is that i have a lot  of cool toys laying around). I don't use it right now except as a third monitor. Don't get me wrong its a great tool when I happen to need it, but mostly it sits idle. It greatly depends on what you do, and how traditional your approach to things are.
Answer: If you intend to work seriously with animation/illustration/image editing/design/etc. Acquiring one is strongly recommended.
My first one i got for 90BRL (~30USD) and it was kinda okay for a beginner, had its flaws, but served me well for a handful 3 years, then i got one of those basic Intuos for 280 BRL (~90 USD), that i use professionally nowdays.
About programs and tutorials, using them is mostly getting used-to. It is considerably different from drawing in a paper. The key factor is to get used to not look at where you're drawing, but at the screen instead. And to the fact that you're dealing with absolute coordinates with your pointer, instead of relative ones, as with your mouse.
At the beginning, it is normal to feel a little frustrated for not mastering it properly at the first weeks of use, the learning curve's kick-in is slow, but soon you will see yourself using it as naturally as pen and paper.
And for the programs, there is a handful of programs around there for doing stuff depending on what you will work on, since i am no animator i can't tell you with sure programs for animation specifically, but what i would tell you is that for drawing, Photoshop at first will seem a little jaggy with lines, mainly if you have a cheap tablet, but there are software out there that provide some sort of stroke stabilizing features, just like SAI or Clip Paint.
In the end, you will find by yourself which one software you feel more comfortable with, and stick with it.
Comment: Agree. You can get an Intuos Draw, the current most basic model from Wacom for around $80 USD. It should be more than  enough for starting out.
Comment: I disagree at some part. I work in the visual/interface design industry and hardly ever see anyone use a graphics tablet, nor do I use one myself. I own one, love it for illustrating and drawing but for creating mockups, icon sets, etc I strongly dislike it.
Comment: indeed. i think i went way too generalistic here.
For interface, labels, magazines, web, and some areas of design you really do not need one at all, when i'm making layouts either for web or for books, or designing packages, or ilustrating pixel art, or working with vectorial art, i prefer not using it since it will be more of a trouble than actually helpful.

 Precision works does not benefit from one, organic works do.
Answer: For animation I think you'll be stronger at it if you get a tablet and learn some of the fundamentals even if you then move on to rigging and motion tweens.
Also if you want to illustrate and color characters and backgrounds for these animations it can be incredibly useful.
Here are some very good tutorials particularly Photoshop Animation Series (part 1 of 4).
Wacom, the top manufacturer of tablets, has some very good content as well in their Wacom Community. They cover a lot of different uses and software applications.
Should also get the book Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life.
For a complete "tool" roadmap I'd suggest:

Wacom Intuous Draw ($90)
Adobe Photoshop CC ($10/mo for students)
AnimDessin2 [discussed in the Photoshop animation series] ($0 free)
Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life (~$30)

And then the one other thing that hasn't been mentioned is a smoothing application. See this Answer for your options. None are expensive but it depends if you're on Mac or Windows.
Comment: Thanks for the answer, but I don't know anything at all about graphic tablets and I don't plan on making this a career, more of just a hobby. Is there a video or website that starts of with the basics. I also don't plan on doing very advanced drawings with this, more of just cartoons and stuff like that. Does this change your answer, or are you still sticking with it?
Comment: I'm sorry for the second comment  but I forgot, I just went on YouTube and checked out some videos and found theodd1sout and after watching his video, I do wonder if I should use what he uses or stick with what you said, because I kind of want to do animation in the style he does it. Also, what is the difference between a tablet and a drawing monitor?
Comment: @JSASCS uh the only thing I might say based on the style of theodd1sout is that you might be more interested in [Toonboom's Harmony](http://www.toonboom.com/products/harmony) but its gotten pretty advanced at this point. It used to be a very simple program basically the Animation aspect of Flash without the coding. Like all software as it became more popular it got more and more features.  Photoshop is probably still going to be your better option but have a look at both and do trials if you can to see which you prefer. Make sure to start trials when you have time to do tutorials.
Comment: @JSASCS to the second comment in graphics world a Tablet means Drawing Tablet. Its a pressure sensitive tablet but you don't see the screen on it. You look at your monitor/laptop while using it. A display tablet is significantly more expensive because you can see your monitor display on the tablet. theeodd1sout has everything he uses [listed on his website](http://theodd1sout.com/about/). I've never heard of that brand of display tablet but Amazon has it for $800... much more than you need to spend lol.
Comment: What about Paint Tools Sai? Is that any good?
Comment: @JSASCS I've heard good things and think some people on here use it but I've never tried it. There's probably a trial version available. This question might be useful to you: http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/50706/what-software-is-good-and-complete-useful-for-drawing-anime
Comment: What about the software that comes with the Wacom Intuous Draw? Also, I could only find the Wacom Intuous Draw Small/Mini in the online store. What is the difference between the two, is it just smaller or are there other things. Sorry for the long discussion, but I don't have enough rep to start a chat.
Answer: From my perspective, no, you don't need a drawing tablet for animation unless you have been brainwashed by someone who uses a drawing tablet. Drawing tablets are nowadays used primarily by concept artists, 3D modelers, and 3D sculptors – because they need precision, they cannot use a mouse to draw, sketch or sculpt. Now coming to 3D animation, animators with a mouse can make well-detailed poses for animations, so why do we need a drawing tablet for it?
First of all, we need to know that 2D Traditional Animations and 3D Animations are both different things and different software are being used to create animations. If we talk about 2D traditional animation, then yes, drawing tablets are being used here because animations are being drawn here rather than being digitally modified like a 3d digital model.
This is a part of my article, I have discussed the whole thing on my site – if you want you can check it out.
Answer: I would definitely get a drawing tablet. Most people can't draw with a mouse, so... yeah. get one. I recommend the XP-Pen Deco 03, which is a really affordable tablet, considering that it's wireless, also. (99 USD, 75.92 Pounds)
(I have no affiliation with XP-Pen, this is just my advice)
Also, if you are not willing to pay for a drawing software, I 100% recommend Krita or GIMP. If you are on a Chromebook, don't get a drawing tablet, but simply just get a stylus. you can hold down the top corner to click or to draw, and move the stylus to move your cursor. Use Pixlr X if you are on a Chromebook.
(Some Plug and Play drawing tablets work with Chromebooks, just saying!)


ArcGIS server on Amazon EC2 vs buying your own machine. Pro's and Con's

Question: What are the pros and cons using this virtual machine compared to buying your own?
Answer: A VM in the cloud gives you a quicker, lower-cost startup. You can get running immediately with no machine purchase costs.
Also there are fewer system maintenance issues. If you're short on IT skills or assistance then that's something to consider; esp for 24/7 coverage.
Instant scalability is another advantage.
But obviously the initial costs of your own machine get spread out over time, and there are fewer spikes requiring instant scalability, so the larger your setup, and the longer you intend to run it, the more it's probably worth doing your own installation.
Answer: From Experience the cloud option outweighs your own dedicated server.
Why
Scaleable - not days or weeks but done in minutes. It can also be downscaled in the future.
(go from 10gb to 1tb - 4 core to 16 cores)
As CDBrown mentions - Uptime and very rarely downtime. 99.98%
This alone outweighs your own server. (when is goes down 4.59pm on Friday afternoon)
*RAM buy as much as you can afford.
16GB of RAM is going to help. 32GB better.
Comment: It looks like AGS in the cloud is currently only available to Enterprise License holders, but if you are not under an EL, this freedom of automatic and instantaneous scalability would likely come with instantaneous increases in license fees...
Comment: I know that the question is about AGS, but what about OS stack on the cloud?
Answer: One big pro of having your own physical machine (... that you can physically access!) is sneakernet data loads.
This is less of an issue if you don't host your own data - but if you have gigabytes or terabytes of data and are constantly updating it, you're going to have to invest time and money [bandwidth] transmitting it "into the cloud".  However, if you can walk up to a physical device with another physical device, then a week-long upload could become an hour-long file copy.
Answer: As I see it here are some things to consider.
For Amazon Cloud
- offsite virtual environment
- security and scalable up time
- 0 downtime
- admin available where ever you are
Against Amazon Cloud
 - need to place expensive software on someone else's machine
 - need to place possibly sensitive data on someone else's machine
 - need to spend a lot of time organising how the services will be updated
 - periodic payment so if one payment missed services can be down
 - lastly if everyone has data in the same cloud architecture how long will it be secure
There are no hard and fast rules on this my suggestion would be to look at the Cloud as a start up location and as you get bigger migrate to a local static virtualised server enviornment you can control.
Answer: FYI , a white paper of ESRI about   Estimating the Cost of a GIS in the Amazon Cloud
Answer: Regarding GIS and cloud computing in its current state I think the biggest deciding factors would be how many users you have and where they are located.  If the end users who will be accessing the services and data you place in the cloud are from various independent locations with no common network infrastructure then cloud computing might be for you.  While you won't need to manage the hardware you will still need to manage the server OS and software just as you would with a local box.   On the other hand if all of your users are locates on or in a campus/building with a common network infrastructure then a local install will probably offer much better performance.
Answer: We are currently supporting about 30 editors across the country on an m1.large machine in the Northern California region. It costs about $350/month. Our plan is to move to a m3.medium in the Oregon region. This should bring our costs down to less than $200/month. We run standard workgroup version of ArcGIS Server with SqlServer Express, SDE, GIS Services, webserver and FTP site all running on the same box. We have been very happy with the performance and cost.
Answer: We currently have in-house physical production hardware, which at times is great (speed, horsepower). At other times it's a nightmare. Like when updates get pushed to your box by someone else and it totally jacks things up. If you can have total control over your environment, you are better off. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case.
We are considering some ESRI/EC2 cloud solutions. Can anyone chime in on costs you've encountered?


Can you substitute Asian red chili paste (e.g. Thai Kitchen's Roasted Red Chili Paste) for Sambal Oelek?

Question: The recipe you will find here: http://runningonbrie.com/2014/04/28/korean-inspired-pork-rice-bowl/ (Korean Pork Rice Bowl recipe)
Answer: The author of the linked recipe appears to be substituting in turn for gochujang, which in addition to spice has a bit of a yeasty, fermented flavor not unlike miso (no surprise, since both include fermented soybean).  Sambal oelek will be brighter, generally hotter, and looser in texture.  It's less of a paste than the chili stuff used here, so the resulting sauce will be a bit thinner once mixed and may not adhere to the pork as well.
If it's all you've got, then substitute away!  You'll probably still enjoy the end result.  However, if you'd like to get a bit closer, here are a couple things you could try, in descending order of effort:

Add about 1/2 teaspoon or so of cornstarch to the sauce to thicken and balance the texture of the sambal oelek.
Add a small dab of miso paste to the sauce (hard to measure exactly, but I'd say 1/2 to 1 teaspoon depending on your brand of miso).  This will have a similar thickening effect and get you a little closer to the flavor of the original gochujang paste.
Head to a local asian market and find yourself some gochujang, then substitute for equal quantity for the chili paste in the recipe.  Don't worry about having extra, you could use this in a huge range of asian-inspired marinades or other sauces.

As a final aside that has nothing to do with your question, I just noticed that the author of the linked recipe lists one of the last steps as sauteeing the carrots and bean sprouts together.  I'd suggest that you definitely not do this to your poor bean sprouts.  Go and cook the carrots, or you could cheat and use the coarse side of a box grater to serve them raw with a much nicer texture.  That's what I'd do with a dish like this.
Comment: Supermarket brand Annie Chun now sells gochujang, so you can even find it in a well-stocked supermarket.
Answer: As Richard mentioned, Sambal Oelek is made from fresh chilies and little else, so the flavor will be different.
Conveniently, I happen to have various chili pastes in my fridge and pantry:

Sambal Oelek (Huy Fong Foods) : chili, salt, distilled vinegar, potasium sorbate and potasium bisulfite as preservatives.
Red Chili Paste (Thai Kitchen) : red chili, garlic, lemongrass, galangal, salt, onion, kafir lime, coriander, pepper
Roasted Red Chili Paste (Thai Kitchen) : (ingredient list is so tiny, I can't read it ... I think the second item is garlic ... wow, is that eye strain)

update : and just as I was writing my answer, logophobe posted, suggesting that the substitution was going the other way than I had thought it was, and that this was in turn a substitute for korean chili paste.  I don't know if the store bought stuff that I have is fermented or not:

Hot Pepper Paste, level 3 (Rhee Bros, Inc.) : Red pepper powder, corn syrup, water, red pepper seasoning (red pepper, water, salt, garlic, onion), wheat flour, salt, rice powder, soybean powder, glucost, garlic powder, monosodium l-glutimate

If you want to attempt to appriximate the original recipe, sambal might make for a better base than thai chili paste, but it's going to have a much stronger chili bite to it.  A blend of sambal and miso might be a good alternative, or sambal manis, you have it.
To approximate the recipe that you linked to, you'd also need to add garlic and other slides.  If you don't have lemongrass, try a small bit of lemon zest.  As you likely don't have galangal, substitute ginger.
But even with just sambal and miso, or sambal and garlic, it'll probably come out fine.
Comment: Amazon lists the following for the last one, which is the same paste used in the linked recipe: "Unrefined cane sugar, garlic, onion, anchovy extract, soybean oil, dried shrimp, chili, tamarind, peanuts, parsley, fennel."
Comment: @logophobe : wow.  A 'chili paste' where chili is the 7th item.
Comment: And sugar is the first! Sounds... authentic?
Comment: @logophobe : well, the 'korean' paste had corn syrup second in it ... I don't think corn is a staple drop in Korea.  I could maybe see rice syrup.  (although, I admit it was 'level 3', which might be toned down for Americans)
Answer: Sambal Oelek is made with raw chili peppers and salt, ground together in a mortar. The author of the recipe seems to have used a paste made from smoked chili's out of a jar.
Both will always add chili heat to your dish, but there is a good chance that the taste of the end product will be slightly different.
Given the number of other big tasting ingredients in this recipe I think I would simply go for it.


Raphael.svg returns false in IE9

Question: Microsoft states that "With Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft is proud to introduce support for the basic SVG feature set. The SVG support in Internet Explorer 9 is based on the SVG 1.1 (Second Edition) specification recommendation (for desktop browsers)."
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/hh410107.aspx)
Raphael.svg returns false in IE9.  Raphael docs state that Raphael.svg is "true if browser supports SVG".
So is IE9 actually rendering with VML or what?  Whatever IE9 is doing it's choking on my Raphael animation while all other browsers are running it smoothly.
Yes Chrome Frame is a possible solution, but with its attendant difficulties as well.
Answer: The solution is to use the HTML5 doctype.
<!DOCTYPE html>

Raphael.svg returns false in IE9


How can I buy bitcoins using Western Union (October 2012)?

Question: I would like to use Western Union to buy some Bitcoins. I have carefully read Bitcoin's wiki page about buying Bitcoins now I'm after users' input about which service they would recommend.
There's a lot of services and I am just after the quickest and safest (like everyone I guess). Could, you guys, recommend a service you find to be the best please?
Answer: Western Union is a hassle and is expensive.   Bitcoins Direct was accepting WU payments until just a couple days ago.  In the U.S., about the last exchange to accept WU (USD) for bitcoins is:

http://www.QuickBitcoins.net

In the EU there is an exchange that accepts WU (EUR):

http://bitcoinsinberlin.com

There are also some others.  For instance:

http://www.ecurrencyzone.net/buy.php
http://www.coinmama.com

As far as other options, the factors relevant to providing the right advice include:

Where are you located (country)?
How much are you looking to buy?
What payment methods do you have available?
How soon do you need access to the proceeds?
Is privacy important?

Quite simply, depositing cash at a bank or 7-11, Walmart, CVS is going to be the fastest and easiest way.
Options:

http://www.BitInstant.com (Deposit at major banks, 7-11, Walmart, CVS, Moneygram, etc.,)
http://www.BitMe.com (Deposit cash at Chase)
http://www.BitFloor.com (Deposit cash at Chase or Wells Fargo)
http://www.bitinnovate.com (Deposit cash at a bank in Australia & New Zealand)
http://www.CAVirtEx.com (Deposit cash at several banks)
http://www.Spendbitcoins.com (Deposit cash at a bank in Australia)
http://BitcoinNordic.com (Purchase CashU or UKash in dozens of countries)
http://www.BTC-E.com (Deposit cash (USD) at bank locations in Russia)
http://www.BitNZ.om (Deposit cash (NZD) at back locations in New Zealand)
http://www.BitInstant.com (In Brazil using Boleto or Banco Recomendito, or in Russia, using Qiwi or Cyberplat.)

Also, Bitcoins Direct will accept cash, but they have a $500 minimum order size:

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=87094.0 (Deposit cash at Bank of America, Wells Fargo or PNC, minimum $500)

Or you might find a local trade (paying cash):

http://www.localbitcoins.com

The fees aren't trivial but you can use a credit card to purchase by using VirWoX where you can buy SLL using your credit card, then trade SLL for BTC:

http://www.VirWoX.com

Or if you are considering a bank transfer, there all kinds of options are available:

http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins

There is also #bitcoin-otc where you can connect with sellers via IRC:

http://bitcoin-otc.com/

Buying  bitcoin with western union westernuniontobitcoins.com  is very easy, being one of the few that allows you to transfer money online directly to  bank account or to a person authorized to raise money from an office W.U

http://westernuniontobitcoins.com
Comment: Thank you for extensive reply. This really does help ! And in your reply I have found what I couldn't even imagine existing where I live (Paris, France): cash for BTC exchangers (your link http://localbitcoins.com) which is absolutely perfect since I have found a guy living really close to mine. So I have contacted him and I'll just go to his place with my laptop, exchange cash for BTC at a very nice rate (more or less Mtgox's) which is absolutely perfect. It's instant, anonymous, quick and free of fees.
Thank you so much !
Answer: You probably will have the best luck on Bitcoin OTC. It's a service allowing you to trade person-to-person, so you can use any means that someone else will find acceptable.
Comment: Great, I like the idea. Thank you for the heads up ! I guess one could easily get scammed though.
Comment: @user2021 That's why there is otc rating. Pick your risk wisely based on it.


Replaced water pump two days ago...today antifreeze filling up parking space

Question: I have a 1998 Jeep Wrangler. A few days ago, I noticed the engine temp getting higher than usual. I'd checked fluids about a week prior. When I got home and checked fluids, the coolant reservoir was empty and the radiator needed coolant added. I added coolant to both and drove it the next day. I took it into the shop the next day and they said I had a bad water pump and then replaced it and the thermostat. Now, two days later, I drove it to a store and the parking space now has coolant all in it. My reservoir is empty. I haven't been able to check the radiator yet because it's not cooled down enough. This happened last year and I had to replace the radiator. It seems strange to happen after having just replaced the water pump, though. Any ideas?
Answer: It all depends on where the fluid is coming from. If you can determine where it is leaking from, you'll be far ahead of where you are now. If it is coming from the water pump or one of the connections at the water pump, it would appear the problem lies with the shop which did the work for you. You need to take it back to where it was fixed and have them diagnose it. If you replaced the radiator just last year, it should not be worn out or having issues already nor should it be the cause of your issue unless they somehow screwed it up. Usually, when you have something fixed, if there is a problem in the same area of concern, either it was not fixed correctly (misdiagnosed) or there is a problem with the part(s) which were used or the procedure used to fix it. Either way, take it back and have them get it fixed. I wouldn't let them give you a song-n-dance about it being something else, especially if you can localize it to the water pump in the first place ... in other words, don't pay for something again which you've already paid for.
Comment: What is the best way to determine where the leaks are? It seems that there are two separate locations given what's in the parking space. Also, since it was raining all day yesterday, it's tough to say if it was leaking then too and I just didn't know. Advice for getting it back home and to the garage if it's leaking this much?
Comment: @JulieJeep ... If you have spare fluid, let the Jeep cool down, then refill the reservoir and radiator as best as you can. Then have the hood up and engine running. Looking at the pump and hoses, it should be apparent as to where the leak is located. Depending on how much it is leaking (while it's running), you should be able to get the Jeep home if you ensure the radiator is full. This also depends on how far you are from home as well, though. Keep a close eye on your temp gauge. If it starts going up anywhere close to the red zone, get it pulled over quickly and let it cool.
Comment: I've just had someone under it. They've shown me that it's the clamps that hold the radiator and gasket together are bowed out.
Comment: @JulieJeep ... You should be able to fix this yourself. Glad it's something simple, but you'll need to wait until it's cooled down to get this fixed (as well as a screwdriver).
Comment: They're actually plastic crimped clasps. I'm not sure I can do it without breaking them. I called a radiator shop and they said they can try to crimp them back, but it does require taking the radiator out and checking it out to to make sure nothing else is going on. Estimate for that is around 150 and for a new one 260.
Answer: Another thought: Quite a few years ago I had a full-sized van, and the water pump failed. I replaced the pump (used new gaskets, of course), and re-used the old antifreeze. It wasn't enough to fill the radiator, so I added more. My stepson drove the van the next day... and when he got back from work, the radiator was half-empty again. I pulled the water pump and found NO gaskets, so I replaced them AGAIN, and topped off the antifreeze again.
This happened regularly three times in a row - replace the gaskets, torque the bolts down correctly, top off the radiator, and the next day the gaskets had disappeared. I tried several different types of gasket material, even.
This led me to some quick research, which taught me about antifreeze chemistry. There exist on the market today no less than five different mutually-incompatible antifreeze chemistries, and if the wrong two are ever mixed together, the resulting mix is very highly corrosive - especially to gaskets. EVEN HEAD GASKETS. One of the big offenders is GM's famous "Dex-Cool" extended-lifetime antifreeze, but there are other similar antifreezes on the market.
We've moved a long way since the way when we just went and got some Prestone to top off our radiators. Now we have to be CAREFUL about what we put into our cooling system - now we have to select ONE antifreeze and stick with THAT ONE, never mixing any other type with it.
I suspect that whomever replaced your water pump reused your old antifreeze, which wasn't enough to refill your cooling system, then topped off with "whatever" antifreeze, and the mix has eaten the new water-pump gaskets just like my mix ate mine several times in a row.
The cure? Replace the water pump and thermostat gaskets again (with luck, it won't have damaged any other gaskets YET), discarding all the existing coolant, then have the entire cooling system fully flushed, select ONE preferred antifreeze, and refill your cooling system with THAT antifreeze. KEEP at least ONE of the antifreeze jugs so you can verify for sure that you buy exactly the same stuff next time you have to top off your cooling system.
Answer: The hoses have a silicon content and over time their clamps cause a deterioration to the hose, internally, where the clamp fits. New hoses may be the order of the day. A temporary fix would be to use Jubilee clips to replace the saw-tooth clamps you have already. These can be undone and parted to allow the clip to pass around the hose without disconnecting the hose and then re-assembled and tightened. You should though allow the shop that fitted the pump have an opportunity to rectify any fitting faults.


Why doesn't water burn?

Question: Hydrogen is flammable, and for any fire to burn it needs oxygen. Why does a compound made of hydrogen and oxygen put out fires instead of catalyzing them? I understand that hydrogen and water are chemically different compounds, but what causes water to be non-flammable?
Comment: So if wood burns, why don't the ashes burn?
Answer: You can think of water as the ash from burning hydrogen: it's already given off as much energy as possible from reacting hydrogen with oxygen.
You can, however, still burn it.  You just need an even stronger oxidizer than oxygen.  There aren't many of them, but fluorine will work,
$$
\ce{2F2 + 2H2O -> 4HF + O2}
$$
as will chlorine trifluoride:
$$
\ce{ClF3 + 2H2O -> 3HF + HCl + O2}
$$
Comment: @SauravSingh, given the nature of the chemicals I've listed, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near a fire that's burning water.
Comment: I wonder what burning water looks like.
Comment: Burning water with an excess of ClF3 with "complete combustion" will not leave HCl it will leave Cl2. In fact, 2HCl + 1/2O2 => H2O + Cl2 can happen in the gas phase with a suitable catalyst. Cl2 and O2 trade off as stronger oxidizer depending on what is being oxidized, but F2 and ClF3 are *much* stronger.
Answer: This is the reaction that occurs when hydrogen combusts:
$$
\ce{2H2 + O2 -> 2H2O}
$$
Similarly, this is the combustion reaction for methane, a representative fuel:
$$
\ce{CH4 + 2O2 -> CO2 + 2H2O}
$$
Water is a product in both of these reactions. Thus, water represents something that has already been oxidized by oxygen, and as such there is little further energetic gain to be made by trying to react it again with oxygen.
Comment: @NateLockwood Re "Sodium and Magnesium": Those do not "burn water" (by capturing the hydrogen's electrons better than oxygen does), but on the contrary reduce the oxygen by providing electrons even better than the hydrogen does. They *get burned* by the oxygen in the water, but they do *not* burn the water's hydrogen. Quite the contrary.
Comment: I maybe reading to much into your wording - "*little further energetic gain*".  Should it be "no further energetic gain"?  I am not a chemist, so this is just a point of curiosity.
Comment: @DigitalTrauma Ah, yes, sorry. That phrasing was rhetorical, not scientific. I can't imagine any products of a water/oxygen reaction that would have lower energy.
Comment: The OP asked why water puts out fire.  Many fuels need to be hotter than 100 C to burn. Water cools the fuel and combustion stops.  Don't try this with hydrocarbon fires, though.
Comment: Sodium and Magnesium come to mind as well, @Mark
Comment: @PeterA.Schneider Good point. The burning that occurs is due to the released hydrogen reacting with the oxygen in the air. No flame would occur if solid sodium were added to water under an inert atmosphere.
Comment: @hBy2Py et al. This is purely abstract thinking, but there will be an extremely small isotope shift in the bond energies. One could play with ${}^1H$, ${}^2H$, ${}^3H$, ${}^{16}O$, ${}^{17}O$, ${}^{18}O$ and see if there is some combination of isotope enrichments in the primary combustion and the new water thrown into the fire where there might be an absurdly small energy that could drive a further reaction (albeit very slowly). Since in liquid water the hydrogens are constantly exchanging, so after a while there won't be distinguishable "old water" and "new water" molecules.
Comment: I stand corrected, @PeterA.Schneider!  (But then the released hydrogen is oxidized by the oxygen in the air.)
Comment: Re Chlorine Trifluoride: [Sand Won't Save You This Time](http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time)
Answer: $\ce{H2O2}$ exists, and could be what you expect by burning water (since burning is really oxidizing, or adding oxygen.)
However, in stoichiometric proportions, here is what would happen:
Either further burning with outside oxygen
$$
\ce{2H2O + O2 <--> 2H2O2}
$$
or decompose water to get oxygen, and reject hydrogen:
$$
\ce{2H2O <--> H2O2 + H2}
$$
To determine if that can work, we can simply compute the energy result:

$\ce{H-H}$ bond energy is $432$,
$\ce{H-O}$ is $459$,
$\ce{O-O}$ is $142$,
$\ce{O=O}$ is $494$

(all in $\mathrm{kJ/mol}$)
Also, $\ce{H2O}$ is $\ce{H-O-H}$ and $\ce{H2O2}$ is $\ce{H-O-O-H}$.
For the first equation, we have:

$2 \times 2 \times \ce{H-O} + \ce{O=O} = 2 \times 2 \times 459 + 494 = 2330$
$2 \times (\ce{H-O} + \ce{O-O} + \ce{O-H}) = 2 \times (459 + 142 + 459) = 2120$
Result is $-210\ \mathrm{kJ/mol}$

For the second equation:

$2 \times 2 \times \ce{H-O} = 2 \times 2 \times 459 = 1836$
$(\ce{H-O} + \ce{O-O} + \ce{O-H}) + \ce{H-H} = (459 + 142 + 459) + 432 = 1492$
Result is $-344\ \mathrm{kJ/mol}$

So we see that both reactions are endothermic, so what is more likely to happen is:
$$
\ce{H2O2 + H2 -> 2H2O}
$$
$$
\ce{2H2O2 -> 2H2O + O2}
$$
As a matter of comparison:
$$
\ce{2H2 + O2 -> 2H2O}
$$
Has the following energy:
$$2\times 432 + 494 \ce{->} 4\times 459$$
This is an exothermic reaction with an energy of $+478\ \mathrm{kJ/mol}$
Comment: @fuzzyTew the energy in the bound is the energy _released_ during the reaction when the bound is formed, which is also the amount of energy you need to provide to break it. So the lower energy bounds are the first to break, and the system tends to go toward high-energy bounds, because they are hard to break.
Comment: It's really great to see the numbers, here, however, as a non-chemist, I am confused.  Why does the reaction move towards the compound with _higher_ energy?  Doesn't entropy cause systems to tend towards low-energy states?
Comment: I see.  Comparing with @Paraquat's answer, I think the energy of the bond or molecule system itself would be the negative of the number you state in this answer.  D_e = 432 kJ / mol.
Answer: This becomes intuitive once you accept that any chemical compound will 'want' to be in the state with the lowest energy, the ground state for a given temperature and pressure. For example, if you plot the energy of the system of two hydrogen atoms against the separation of the atoms, it looks like this:

So when you bring together two hydrogen atoms, they form a molecule and release an amount of energy $D_e$. The $\ce{H2}$ molecule is the ground state for hydrogen, so at room temperature and pressure, you would only expect to see hydrogen gas in the form of molecules. It's difficult to draw an analogous graph for water because the molecule has more degrees of freedom (in fact, you would need to draw a seven-dimensional graph), but you would find $\ce{H2O}$ as the ground state of a system with two parts hydrogen to one part oxygen.
So back to the question: why does water put out fire instead of catalyzing it? It really depends on what you are burning. Let's assume it's wood, which is mostly carbon and hydrogen, but for the sake of simplicity, we'll just use methane, which is similar:
$$\ce{CH4 + O2 -> CO2 + 2H2O + energy}$$
The energy released on the right-hand side of the equation is the 'burning'. The ground state of most systems involving carbon, oxygen and hydrogen is some combination of carbon dioxide gas and water. This combination has the lowest energy, and to get anything else, you would have to pump energy into the system.
However, water isn't the ground state of all chemical systems, for example, sodium, hydrogen, and oxygen. This can be seen if you Google a video of sodium reacting with water. In this case, the ground state of the system is sodium hydroxide and hydrogen gas, so the water does 'burn' in this case:
$$\ce{2Na + 2H2O -> 2NaOH + H2}$$
Answer: Because the hydrogen in water is already oxidized. When magnesium burns in water, the magnesium is being oxidized because the magnesium takes (binds with) the oxygen from the water molecules. This causes the release of hydrogen gas, which would/could burn in air (air is about 1/5 oxygen, 4/5 nitrogen) to form water again.
Answer: When different chemicals react, they form products that have completely different properties than what went into them.
In this case, hydrogen and oxygen are both very reactive, which is why they react together (or 'combust') to form water.  The water that is formed is much less reactive, and does not easily react with oxygen, and so will not burn.
Because water is so non-reactive, it's interaction with the fire is entirely physical.  It absorbs a lot of heat very quickly and prevents oxygen from getting to the fuel.  Between those two effects, it's the simplest way to put out a wood fire.
Answer: Water is already burnt hydrogen:
$$\ce{H2 + 1/2O2 -> H2O}$$
The reaction of oxidizing water ever more (to peroxide, for example) is non favorable and the peroxide will decompose as:
$$\ce{H2O2 -> H2O + 1/2O2}$$
with  ΔH of −98.2 kJ/mol and a ΔS of 70.5 J/(mol·K)
Comment: This is true but doesn't really answer the question directly.

Why doesn't water burn?


Modify Database in Multi-Site wp_usermeta table

Question: My name is Antonio and i'm from Ecuador, my english is not good but here we go.
I already have my Multi-site installation working, but the "wp_2_" site have some error in the functionality, because i change manually all the meta_key from wp_usermeta table to have "wp_" in all users meta_key.
Im working in a project that have 3 wordpress subdomain wordpress site 2 3 and 4 that should to work with all users in the same way.
The problem and the solution that i think to much and i'm 100% sure that is the solution is the database from wp_2_, wp_3_ and wp_4_ should work with the right wp_usermeta ->(meta_key)
The Meta Key:
this 2 are the problem and you can found it in wp_usermeta table
wp_capabilities
wp_user_level
the solution that i think is simple but need a few modification is the database
First let me upload the image for a better explanation

Ok, in the above image you can see the inside of wp_usermeta table
the 2 importants data are located in meta_key column and are the last one of the image: wp_capabilities and wp_user_level.
That's what i want to do
x = 2, 3, 4
I need to add a new Row for "umeta_id" with the same "user_id" and in meta_key the both that are necessary (wp_x_capabilities and wp_x_user_level) something like "wp_2_user_level" and "wp_2_capabilities"  with his own meta_value field, and i like the same meta_value.
Now i show you an example that i want:
umeta_id  ----     user_id   ------      meta_key  ---------------       meta_value
<code>1             1        wp_capabilities      a:1:{s:13:"administrator";b:1;}
2             1        wp_user_level               10
3             1        wp_2_capabilities    a:1:{s:13:"administrator";b:1;}
4             1        wp_2_user_level             10
5             1        wp_3_user_level             10
6             1        wp_4_user_level             10
7             1        wp_3_capabilities    a:1:{s:13:"administrator";b:1;}
8             1        wp_4_capabilities    a:1:{s:13:"administrator";b:1;}
</code>
I already have a lot users with wp_user_level and wp_capabilities in my db but the final point is to:
Create and add new meta_id, putting the same user_id change the variable key wp_2_, wp_3_, wp_4_ for the both meta_key and all they have to come with the same meta_value in relation with the ID
I have not much idea on how i can add these new meta_key by modify the database for do that.
and how i can do it with the new users? i think on cron_job?
PD: i use cpanel, mysql(phpmyadmin), and wordpress
anyone can help me? plz
Thanks a lot for read!
Answer: This Should Work?
ALTER TABLE wp_usermeta
ADD COLUMN old_user_id bigint(20) unsigned;

INSERT INTO wp_usermeta (old_user_id)
SELECT u.id
FROM wp_users AS u;

INSERT INTO wp_usermeta (user_id, meta_key, meta_value)
SELECT u.id, 'wp_2_capabilities', meta_value
JOIN wp_users AS u ON u.user_id = u.old_user_id;

ALTER TABLE wp_users
DROP COLUMN old_user_id;


Car rental in France with U.S. drivers license

Question: We are planning a trip to Chamonix next winter.  I was wondering if it is possible to rent a car there with an American drivers license.  Also, is it recommended to buy local insurance or just use my Geico policy that I have for my truck here?
Comment: That's what I'm going to do in 3 weeks with Hertz (car rental in France with my U.S. drivers license), ping me then if still in doubt and I can tell you whether it worked or not.
Answer: A US license will be fine, especially at any airport hire location (I imagine you plan on landing at Geneva?)
Hire cars in Europe normally come with insurance included, although there is also typically a ~€1000 excess for damage to the vehicle, which you can pay an additional (typically vastly overpriced) fee to reduce. I'd be suprised if your US car insurance will cover you to drive another vehicle on a different continent without paying a suppliment at the very least.
It's not necessary to hire a car though if you are planning on staying in Chamonix. There are a variety of reasonably priced transfer options from Geneva airport (typically jump in a minibus with others, be dropped off at your place of stay) - just search for "Chamonix Transfers". Chamonix town itself is quite small (easily walkable), and there's a train that operates up and down the valley, as well as a selection of bus services for skiiers. If you're staying in a more remote chalet, or want to travel to less likley areas, then a car obviously adds value.
Comment: we were going to use the car for exploration into Italy and Switzerland.  I think there are decent public transport options from the town to ski resorts, correct ?
Comment: @amphibient Which resort?
Comment: i dunno yet. just in general
Comment: There's lifts straight out of Chamonix, and buses that run around up and down the valley. Plenty of websites givive information
Comment: Many elite credit cards include international rental car insurance coverage. Mine does. Certain countries are excepted, so check.
Answer: I'll give the answer the other way: as a Belgian who rent cars in USA, prior to coming to USA, I went to my local administration and ordered an international driving license. It is basically a holiday card size 12 pages booklet containing the translation of all my local driving license fields into 4 languages. It has my name and other information on it, has a stamp from my local administration, and is only valid if shown with my local driving license.
I did rent cars in New York, in North Carolina and in California without any problem, but I have not been pulled over by police, so I can't really tell what they would do. That's supposed to be legal anyway.
I would however strongly suggest reading Wikipedia page about driving in "the country where you will go", because for example, the American rule "right turn on red light" is forbidden everywhere except in USA. There are other regulations that might be totally obvious to Europeans, but would seem weird to someone coming from abroad.
Comment: Right turn on red was permitted in East Germany, and I understand was taken over nationwide after unification.


Apache2 not serving PHP files

Question: I've seen this question a couple of times already, but was not able to resolve my issues.
I've recently set up a dual-boot installation of Ubuntu in order to better acquaint myself with the LAMP environment. I've set up a virtual host, and when I direct my browser to index.html within that host I get the html in the browser - but when I point the browser to index.php (which contains a phpinfo() call) I get nothing.
I've tried removing/purging and reinstalling the php5apachemysql libs/mods, emptied my cache, checking the mods-available/enabled folders to no avail. Can anyone help me get to grips with this problem?
Answer: There are a couple of different possibilities here. It might be that the PHP module isn't loaded but it's also an option that the files have not been set to be handled by the php module.
Either way, in /etc/apache2/modes-available/ there should be some files like php.conf (or something similar) and these should be symlinked from /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/.
If they're not, than php is not enabled yet.
To enable all php-like things you can do this (as root, use su or sudo su)
cd /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/
for i in ../mods-available/*php*; do
    ln -s $i ./
done

After that simply restart apache and everything should be enabled. If it still isn't working than it would be useful to see the output from the log files (/var/log/apache2)
Comment: Could the command in the loop be shortened to `ln -s $i`?
Comment: @Nerdling: yes, it could. But personally I always specificy the path just to be sure. The entire for loop could be shortened to `ln -s ../mods-available/*php* ./` I think. But as Tim Peters once said, "explicit is better than implicit".
Answer: I resolved this after looking at the PHP installation troubleshooting section of the Netbeans site, which recommended the following:
apt-get --purge remove php5-common

apt-get install php5 phpmyadmin

http://netbeans.org/kb/docs/php/configure-php-environment-ubuntu.html#troubleshooting
They omitted any explanation as to why this worked, but it did. I'd be grateful if anyone here could shed some light on why this resolved the issue.

Apache2 not serving PHP files


Research on an alternate history novel

Question: I love alternate history scenarios; however, I just want to start writing. Should I do research or just start writing and go with it with some research along the way?
Comment: Please be sure that when you add tags they come up to click on.  You put in [sci-fi] which is not an actual tag.  I changed it to the existing [science-fiction].  We use tags in many different ways here so it's important that they're accurate.  Thanks!
Comment: Same as @Cyn's comment, for [tag:alternative-history].
Comment: @Galastel I had my doubts about that one but OP does not appear to be the first to use it.  It looks like one we didn't catch earlier and I wasn't sure what to do about it.
Comment: @Cyn OP used "alternate history". We already had "alternative history". The "alternative" one even has a tag wiki and usage guide. I can see "alternative history" being useful - I expect we could have more questions about the genre. We definitely don't need both spelling variants as different tags.
Comment: @Galastel I looked at both and was pretty sure the OP used alternative, but maybe I saw wrong...just checked, yeah, I goofed and missed it.  [alternative-history] only has 2 questions now, though I agree it might be a decent one to have.
Answer: I think you need to do light research, unless you already know the answers.
For example, suppose you thwart the assassination of JFK (Stephen King already wrote that book). We know what happened (real history) when Lyndon B. Johnson took over, but you need a plausible theory of what happens if JFK remains President. I don't think you can just do anything, this topic has been speculated upon by experts including people close to JFK. If you impose your own invented personality on JFK, it will not come off as a plausible alternative history.
Of course the further in the past your change, the less people know about it, and the more leeway you have to impose an invented personality.
Likewise, as an alternative history, you can kill MORE people than JFK. What if Lyndon Johnson (riding in the car behind JFK) was assassinated also? That would make John McCormack (the Speaker of the House and next in the line of succession) President.
You would have more leeway then, McCormack is not a well-known political figure, but a little research on his war stance and such might lead to a very different Presidency. The advantage here is you don't have to figure out what JFK would have done, you can write a little more freely about President McCormack. He was a Democrat and publicly supported the New Deal, Great Society, civil rights, public education and health care, and advocated for the Vietnam War to fight communism.
My overall point here is that your story should be mostly fantasy, but an alternate history demands a few anchors in the real world, when you are dealing with real people that other real people remember, or can look up on Wikipedia. Otherwise your alternate history is not believable. If you make obvious mistakes, then well-read people (e.g. agents and publishers and reviewers) that do a little research and find obvious flaws in your real-history claims won't buy it or recommend it.
That does NOT mean you have to do all your research up front, you can still be a discovery writer and start writing, but you will have to stop frequently and resort to Wikipedia and Google when you are writing about real historical personalities. That doesn't have to take long, I read ten minutes about McCormack. He might prosecute Vietnam differently, but he would have tried to win it. And he would still have pushed JFK's civil rights legislation through and the Great Society of LBJ, perhaps better than LBJ.
Fantasy and Scifi I think you can get away with writing while doing no research. I don't believe that is true of this particular niche; alternative history.
I think you can minimize the research you need with the right strategy, namely eliminating the well-known people and resetting the field, so your own imagination takes the reins fairly early in the story. In the example of JFK, kill LBJ also. Then you can write about real people that were not as well known, and introduce your entirely fictional characters early; e.g. make McCormack's VP a fictional character designed by you to be a major player and source of additional conflict going forward; heck the fictional new VP can be one of your main characters.
Comment: "Fantasy I think you can get away with writing while doing no research." is how one gets horses used as living cars - not being allowed to rest, or leather armour, or pulling out arrows and going on fighting right after - tropes that come from writers setting their fantasy novel in the pseudo-Medieval period, and not doing their research. One needn't do all the research in advance, but research is still necessary. (I guess critical research failure could also happen with sci-fi, just couldn't come up with examples.)
Comment: @Galastel Sure on both; I actually research obsessively, on plants, animals, chemicals, weaponry, human biology, etc. And your examples are right. I guess I am thinking about historical research, if you are making up your own world and society, you don't have to research the real world or real history to do it.
Answer: It would depend on the scenario. I suggest you just write, let the changes to history that you make lead you and the reader to interesting places.
The movie Fatherland has an interesting scenario where World War II never happened and JFK was not assassinated. This led to a world with a thriving Germany ruled by the Nazi party and Hitler, the US President was none other than an older JFK.
Let your dominoes fall or not. Start writing and see where it leads. The 'what if x never happened' can be a compelling question to explore. Consequences radiate outward and the changes caused by one alteration can be considerable and far reaching. Sounds like fun.
If the era is far enough back in time that most readers might not be immediately aware of its history, you might want to research first.
Answer: I would do some research first.
But what some might call research, others would call fun reading.  So, yeah, you should have a decent grasp on the real world history first.  As well as a basic understanding of the technology or politics or cultural issues you want to change.
After that, it really depends on your personality and how you work.  Some people (like me) like to research the hell out of something before starting.  Then maybe write a bit and research some more.  Others want to just start writing.  As long as you're not going in completely blind (don't write a "what if" happening in WWI if you don't know the basics about WWI), any approach is fine.
You also need to know yourself.  Are you someone who will research endlessly and never feel you understand it well enough to move forward?  Just write already!  Don't wait for perfection.  Or are you someone who plunges ahead without a sense of what you're doing or why, and ends up with unusable pages?  In that case, maybe step back and do some formal research first.  It's okay to write for the practice alone (and most stuff can be reworked into something else), but after a while, you are gonna want to produce something you can use.

Research on an alternate history novel


What is the best way to cite an anonymous writer?

Question: When writing papers I sometimes discover texts online which are published without any kind of name attached. Often times these individuals want to be anonymous or simply do not reference themselves in the work. Should I just use the word "anonymous" or is there a better way to cite that individual in APA or Turabian style?
Comment: Are you asking if there is an alternate way to citing these sources apart from the way recommended by APA or Turabian? As in are you looking for alternate citing strategies (for example, Harvard style) or is your question about how to cite them using these styles? I believe its the latter but please clarify.
Comment: You may also want to question whether you should utilize anonymous sources.  Using them in a formal/educational paper is sometimes frowned upon, especially when using them to support a thoery
Comment: It might go without saying, but with APA, at least, you don't use "anonymous" unless the original work is attributed to anonymous.
Comment: If you're writing in APA style, you might want to invest in a copy of the style  guide for yourself.
Answer: As per APA guidelines, to cite anonymous authors:

Unknown Author: If the work does not have an author, cite the source by its title in the signal phrase or use the first word or two in the parentheses. Titles of books and reports are italicized or underlined; titles of articles, chapters, and web pages are in quotation marks.
A similar study was done of students learning to format research papers ("Using APA," 2001).
Note: In the rare case the "Anonymous" is used for the author, treat it as the author's name (Anonymous, 2001). In the reference list, use the name Anonymous as the author.

The Chicago style recommends the following when the author is unknown:

Sources that have no known author or editor should be cited by title. Follow the basic format for "Footnote or Endnote" and "Corresponding Bibliographical Entry" that are exemplified above omitting author and/or editor names and beginning respective entries with the title of the source.

The Turabian style is almost the same as Chicago so I guess the above holds. If you are being very specific, this is the place to look for Turabian. It gives the following examples:

Bibliography:
  The Book Title: A Subtitle; A Second Subtitle. CityOfPublication: PublisherName, PublishedYear.
Footnote:
  The Book Title: A Subtitle; A Second Subtitle (CityOfPublication: PublisherName, PublishedYear), pageNr.
Author-only shortened note:
  Book Title, pageNr.
Author-title shortened note:
  Book Title, pageNr.
Title capitalization: Headline style
Reference:
  The book title: A subtitle; A second subtitle. PublishedYear. CityOfPublication: PublisherName.
Parenthetical:
  (Book title PublishedYear, pageNr)
Title capitalization: Sentence style
Answer: In such a situation, you may do two things. You may either cite the link or source referring to its title or you may cite it as "anonymous" in your references. The title of the book can be referred to in the bibliography in the name of "anonymous".
Answer: Kindness can be spread through communication.  --No matter what may be different..   "anonymous"
Comment: Hi Pete, welcome to writing.se! Take the [tour] and visit the [help] for more information. Generally we look for answers that not only give an example of quoting but explain how and why that is the best way to do it, preferably with supporting evidence. If you can [edit] your post to explain *why* this is a good way to cite an anonymous author. Good luck and happy writing!


Mac OSX Terminal different colors

Question: Is there a way for the command line and the output to be in different colors? For example, I've been playing with the PS1 value so my prompt is in red, but I'd like to have the command line in green and the output in white (ex: if I type "ls", that's in green, and then the file list is in white).
Comment: Duplicate of https://superuser.com/questions/613460/bash-color-prompt-and-command-differently-from-output-stream?rq=1
Answer: At the end of your PS1 have an escape sequence set the color of your input. For example,
PS1="\h \w$ \e[0;32m"

(all that matters is the \e[0;32m part at the end (which could be any color), the rest is up to you)
To set the output color differently, you need to "trap" the "DEBUG" signal and call some function. Here's what I have
debug()
{
  echo -n $'\e[0m';
}
trap debug DEBUG

It's not complicated, it just ensures that whenever you enter a command (which causes the DEBUG signal) the debug function is called.
So just copy those lines into your .bash_profile or .bashrc or whatever you're using, and change the '\e[0m' to whatever color you like.
Comment: The `PS1="\h \w$ \e[0;32m"` line causes problems with line wrapping in OS X. Surround ANSI escapes with `\[` and `\]` to solve. In other words: `PS1="\h \w$ \[\e[0;32m\]"`
Answer: You need to have the shell, or a program, emit the appropriate escape sequence to change the colours after you press enter.
The bash shell used by current OS X doesn't have an obvious facility for doing this.
Comment: Is there any way to alias a return key to be "color escape sequence + return"?
Answer: You could bind another key to send the escape sequence and a return.

In Terminal's preferences, click on the Settings pane, then the Keyboard tab.
Click the plus button.
Choose a modifier and key. Set the action to send string to shell and the string to \033[m\015. Click OK.

You'll have to get used to using that keyboard shortcut instead of return…although there's probably an app that will let you the system treat return in Terminal as that alternate shortcut.

Mac OSX Terminal different colors


What is the role of cameraman/photographer in 360 video and photography?

Question: With regular cameras, it's all about framing, perspective, etc. But with 360 videos and pictures becoming mainstream, how does it change role of a cameraman? And how does one stay away from the frame?
Answer: What on earth makes you think you're not still composing, even if you're shooting 360º?  You can make a sizable difference in the images you take simply by choosing a different vantage point.

Both remapped from 360ºx180º panoramas of the same subject (the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park), taken from two different vantage points, first one's from the walkway behind the first section of seats, the second one was taken on the stage.
You still choose the viewpoint, just like a cinematographer chooses camera placement. You still have a frame--it's just a full spherical one, but you still choose what goes inside it. And maybe you adjust in post by re-assigning yaw/pitch/roll.  But you can still affect what a 360x180 still image looks like with those simple changes (see How can I edit equirectangular images?).
Personally, I don't think the role of the cameraperson has changed at all--you're still in control of what the camera records for you to present to a viewer. You just have to stop thinking of your frame as a rectangular box, and more as a sphere.
Answer: I think the role of the photographer would be comparable to the role of a sound-engineer at a concert. He has to choose the right equipment for the situation and set up and wire everything correctly and when the concert starts he has to make sure that the quality of the result is okay.
The art will therefor rather be to master the technology you use and capture the light that the environment throws on your camera in an esthetic way.
But that's what photography has always been about, right?
Answer: Like Inkista, I dont see the difference. You still need to choose the optimal color grading, exposure ( which can actually be more difficult) , the depth of field, the vantage point, what should be in center. There's some added responsibilities; what quality of the software that makes the stitching and warping, choosing the representation: With nomral photography you are showing some , maybe 40 degrees FOV on a frame (monitor or canvas ) with the same 40 degrees rectangle. Now you are showing 360 degrees on 40 degrees, unless you have a head mounted display with an IMU that measures your heading. you can do planar warp, or cylindrical warp, or spherical warp. Your vantage point will decide which symmetries occur, which occlusion are there, and you have to ensure that your image is interesting. I think "interesting becomes difficult without the crop of traditional images.
Regarding " how do I stay out of the frame" ,if your camera is on a tripod, possible with a rotation gimbal, then move along with it as it turns.


What SSH server software for Windows support direct screen access applications?

Question: SSH for Windows does not support applications that implements direct drawing to the terminal screen buffer (like FAR Manager I mostly interested in using with SSH). What other SSH servers supports such applications?
Answer: Have you considered using a remote desktop solution over SSH, such as UltraVNC?
You can run UltraVNC, and only allow connections from localhost.
Then, using any SSH server software which supports port forwarding, you can connect, and subsequently establish a local port forward. Then, from your seat, connect to the VNC server at "localhost".
It's outside of the box posed by your question, but allows interactivity. Computers at my school in the lab run a VNC server, and I assume this is so that admins can run installers and the like, and not worry about the complicated "rules" of XP for when an application can or cannot access the display, because now, all of them are being launched from the desktop anyway! Just remotely kicked off.


How to convert geometry coordinates into Google lat/lons?

Question: For storing geospatial data, the geometry field is used in SQL Server or Oracle Spatial. I want to know is there any way where we can convert this geometry field into a set of latitudes and longitudes.
Comment: It depends on what SRID your data is in SQL/Oracle not all projections can be converted in Lat/Lng but most will be able to. What datum/projection are you intending to use?
Answer: 'Yes' is the short answer.  The way you do it depends on what you want to use the data for.
The simplest way is to re-project your data into a Lat/Lon coordinate system using ST_Transform() (I think it is just 'Transform()' in SpatiaLite and something weird in Oracle).  Alternatively, follow one of these recipes, perhaps using Proj4.  Once you have re-projected your data you can either use it normally or pull out the sets of coordinates (it's not clear from your question what your end-result should be).
Your choice of Lat/Lon projection will depend on what you are going to do with the data next.  Google uses EPSG: 900913 (Spherical Mercator) but probably the most common is WGS84 (EPSG: 4326). The EPSG code is (outside of ArcGIS) possibly the most common way of referencing your Spatial Reference System (SRS) and you can look up the codes here for whatever Lat/Lon system you need.
Answer: In Oracle, there is the SDO_CS package to perform transforms.  If your table is registered properly with the coordinate system that it is in, the transform should do your transformation properly.  Check out SDO_CS.TRANSFORM.
Oracle Spatial SDO_CS Package
This existed in earlier Oracle Spatial.  As for SQL Server, spatial data didn't exist until version 2008.  It seems that they are only going to provide the data storage capabilities in SQL Server and rely on programmers to perform the coordinate transformation.
Answer: Use one of many online converters such as http://www.hamstermap.com - it allows conversion of DM,DMS & UTM into Google lat/long, which are in decimal format.


Right price for limited edition beer

Question: How do I calculate the market value for a limited edition beer (1700 bottles only)? It cannot be bought anywhere anymore except from private collectors. The beer in question is the Opeth XXV anniversary imperial stout.
Answer: The only way to know the price for sure is to sell it and find out the price at that time, preferably at auction.
The only way to price a rare item like this without selling it is to mark it to market. You need to find a number of comparable bottles of special edition beers with similar collectors' markets and use the prices of those bottles to calculate the current price of that bottle. The more similar the comparable bottles are in terms of time since sale, qualities of the beer (style, ABV etc.), number of bottles produced and size of "following" or number of collectors, the closer your price will be to a realistic price. If it were really valuable an auction house such as Sotheby's or Christie's could be employed to do the calculations for you as they are quite involved. Note that marking to market only gives a guideline price at a moment in time as prices can fluctuate wildly in collectables markets.
The basis of this pricing model is the pricing of any liquid commodity or financial instrument.
Answer: There is no "right" price. It's whatever the market will demand. If you can find the price that bottles are selling on the open market, then that's the price people are willing to pay. Too bad there's no eBay for beer and wine!

Right price for limited edition beer


Mouse Pointer Lag issue

Question: i have installed latest elementary OS 0.4.1 Loki and was doing bit of searching about tips and tricks for getting tweaks but in the process got a very annoying problem.
i have a wireless mouse. when i try to move it after when its in rest for like 5 seconds for making it move again i have to shake it for few times then the pointer again starts moving. while touchpad has no such issues.
please check the video for my issue
video of the issue
Answer: I had a similar problem but not as bad as yours.
Try the following commands in terminal:
$ sudo modprobe -r peaq_wmi
$ sudo modprobe -r eeepc_wmi

Mouse Pointer Lag issue


Sources of historical cross-country government debt to GDP data

Question: I am looking for a source containing debt (government debt) to GDP data of different governments. Do you know of any reliable sources with data going back as far as possible (at least 1960s)?
Answer: Using the World Bank's International Debt Statistics you could calculate the ratio of PPG, bonds (AMT, current US\$) to GNI (current US\$):

PPG, bonds (AMT, current US\$): Public and publicly guaranteed debt
  from bonds that are either publicly issued or privately placed. Data
  are in current U.S. dollars.
GNI (current US\$): GNI (formerly GNP) is the sum of value added by all
  resident producers plus any product taxes (less subsidies) not
  included in the valuation of output plus net receipts of primary
  income (compensation of employees and property income) from abroad.
  Data are in current U.S. dollars.

These data go back to 1970's for some countries, but the data only covers 1970-2013. The OECD numbers go back to 2000 but are even easier to work with. You can link right to them. For some rich countries the data go back quite a bit farther (like G7 countries like  the UK, France, and the USA). For a large panel of countries.  I don't know of sources better than the World Bank and the OECD. You could check the IMF data page but all I found were links back to the World Bank data.
Comment: Thank you. These were the sources I checked first as well, but the data was unfortunately lacking. If there is nothing easier I will indeed use the WB's data and some GDP panel.


How to delete text from an edited picture in preview?

Question: I recently edited a picture in preview by adding text to it. I then saved it, not realizing that the original would not be saved (without the text). When I went in to the picture later to delete the text, it was not possible. Is there a way I can either recover the original photo or delete the text I already saved?
Comment: File -> Revert To -> Browse All Versions...
Answer: There is a way to remove text from a picture that you have added with Apple's Preview application.
Open the picture with Preview, try to find as area where the background is the same as where the text is.

Select an area with the mouse, and copy it and paste it into the picture.
It will pop up in the center of the picture.
Use the mouse to move it over the text.
You can paste it several times as needed.
Save and quit the application.
Re-open Preview and Open Previous.

Select the picture you just edited and the text will be gone.
Answer: I ran into the same situation and figured out that you can remove and undo the addition of the text by simply going to drop down under File and selecting "Revert To" and then selecting "Browse All Versions".  There you will be able to select the version without the text.  Hope this helps!
Answer: That is one Problem with Preview that needs fixing by Apple.
It will unfortunately without warring overwrite your original.
There is no way to restore the original.
Answer: If you have access to Photoshop CS5 or newer, you might try one of the selecting tools to select the text and use Content Aware Fill and/or the Clone Stamp Tool to remove the text. (This does not make your text editable, but the text can still be removed)
One way is to sample the text color with the Eyedropper Tool. Use Select > Color Range. Use Select > Modify > Expand.. (about 2 piksels to cover the antialiasing). Deselect other parts of the image with the same color. Then use Content Aware Fill. Redo Content Aware Fill or use Clone Stamp Tool on problem areas.
Older Photoshop versions and Gimp (free) also have a Clone Stamp Tool (not Content Aware Fill).
Answer: Open image in photos, click on image in tool bar, click on show edit tools. Once that opens look for revert to original image and click on that. Close show edit tools and it should revert back to the original photo.  It worked for me to remove text.  Hope this helps.


Is there a "bartender"-like app for Ubuntu?

Question: There is an app for OSX called "Bartender" that lets you hide multiple app indicators behind a single icon. I've tried looking for an Ubuntu/*nix equivalent to no avail. Does any one have any suggestions?
Answer: Ubuntu pioneered "indicators" instead of "system tray icons" as they were before in order to solve this problem. There are now a limited number of indicators that are based on function, and each indicator can represent multiple applications.
Examples: the sound indicator controls your system volume and also your music player; the messaging indicator interfaces with instant messaging, email and microblogging.
More information at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopExperienceTeam/ApplicationIndicators
However, this is really for developers. I'm not aware of any mechanism that allows users to collapse multiple system tray icons without getting a developer to alter the program. Perhaps someone else has an answer for that.
Answer: KDE environment in kubuntu have plasma widgets having similar feature. You can define group on desktop icons.


How do successful UX teams handle features that were influenced by marketing people, but have bad influence on the usability of a web application?

Question: I know many would think or say it shouldn't happen or that a really great UX team doesn't allow it to happen, but the true is it happens a lot (even though successful teams!). I just would like to hear from other experiences, how did you manage to overcome these kind of situation.
Comment: You're right. In my experience, marketing teams often have more influence in a company than UX teams do. And they usually aren't considering ease of use or user tasks. Good question.
Answer: Test it
That's all there is to it. Every feature has to have a purpose. Clearly state the reason behind this terrible thing marketing did and identify a way to measure it's impact. If it fails the test, it has to go. That's just good business.
Choose the right metrics
Kerry Rodden at Google Ventures developed the HEART framework to assist in determining your experience metrics. These don't have to be touchy feely things focused on smiles and rainbows — hard business numbers are acceptable too.
Making things right
No feature should ever be launched without first having a clearly stated purpose and associated measurement. On the other hand, it happens. When you have a chance to reevaluate, select your metrics and watch the trend for a while (or pull historical data) to find out if it was really a mistake or not.
Answer: First of all, there is a need to prove it does have a negative influence on usability. So yes, test or study is due. It might uncover marketing team was right or that nobody was right.
Then there is a question on what exactly you mean by "what to do with this". If this is about go/no go, it should be a decision of the Product Owner. If the marketing is overpowering politically, there is an option to go with their design but install analytics and later demonstrate the numbers to disprove them and suggest a change driven by the UX.
Answer: From my experience, every feature implemented on the site has to have some form of KPI (key performance index) or score assigned to it. The KPI/score can be used to measure & track, the usefulness of the feature users, Or the value that it bring to the site / business (SEO improvement, convergence, user/customer engagement).
Have periodic review of the features on the site to determine what needs needs to be added, what to needs to be improved, what need to be switched-off.
Comment: @ClarissaVianna You are absolutely right. This is always a tough position for the experience team. I'll expand my answer to address it.
Comment: Yes I know. But in order to reach KPIs / conversion rates, sometimes usability is damaged. It is difficult to put limits, when you also know reaching theses scores is crucial for the business.
Answer: Work with the team that introduced the feature to understand their underlying goal.  Collaborate with them to conduct user research to determine whether the feature meets their underlying goal, as well as what its impact is on the user experience.  Collaborate with them to identify solutions to the problems that are uncovered in the user research and work with the engineering team to prioritize improvements based on your research.
Answer: Definitely test test test and film the users reactions to the feature. A film of a user completely dismissing a feature will win over any decision maker...
Answer: The other answers are correct: Test.
But what are you testing for? If just for usability, you might end up with a perfectly usable system that doesn't support users' actual tasks. You could have a usable system that supports marketing tasks instead.
So I'd suggest also doing user research early in the process, when the UX team can have some influence on what's being designed and built. You want to discover what your audience's pain points are, what they need to accomplish, and what tasks they're trying to accomplish as they use your system. These findings are, in my experience, usually at odds with what the marketing department wants.
Then when you test prototypes of the system, test not only usability, but test whether this helps people do the real things they need to do. (Otherwise, you might end up using tasks in your usability tests like "Can the user find Promotional Landing Page X?" when no human would ever do that.)
Answer: Evgenia Grinblo has a great talk about this subject here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR-KCmGQeFo


Is it possible to replace the sugar in Tapioca Meringue pudding with stevia?

Question: I'd like to know if powdered stevia can be used to make the meringue in the pudding.  I'm trying to get away from sugar, but not sure how to use stevia.  I've seen a recipe for stevia in the pudding, but I like the fluffy form of tapioca made by mixing the pudding with meringue, but I need advice on the meringue part.
Also want to try replacing the milk with coconut milk.  Has anyone tried this?
Answer: In meringues sugar is important mainly for the final texture, much more so than for it's sweetening effect.
Since Stevia is much sweeter than sugar, one would have to use far less in order to not ruin the taste.  ("collectively, they give stevia 100 to 300 times the sweetness of sucrose")
Yet even taking half as much normal sugar than the recipe calls for will result in a vastly different meringue (not as stiff and less stable over time). The same problem stands for other  sweeteners.
I'd therefore try using a sugar alcohol that has comparable (or even lower) sweetness to sucrose, so you can use a similar weight of material and get the texture just right (after some experimentation perhaps). Then, if that ends up not being sweet enough, you can still add a tiny bit of stevia solely for sweetening.
For meringue, the following properties seem especially important in sugar substitutes:

similar hygroscopicity to household sugar
less or comparably sweet than household sugar (so that bulk quantities may be used without ruining the taste)
low laxativity (because rather high amounts might be consumed)

Have a look at this list.
Erythritol won't work well because it is not hygroscopic enough, all the other options have a laxative effect.
I'd therefore advise against using sugar substitutes if you  don't absolutely need to.
If you want to just sweeten the pudding itself separately with stevia, go for it. Pudding gets it's texture mostly from starch (or gelatin) so the lack of sugar won't have a detrimental (or even positive, in the case of starch) effect on texture.
Having said all that; it seems possible to get decent meringue without adding any sugar at all if you get the technique just right otherwise (and add cream of tartar and perhaps starch). See also this answer. Personally, I've been dissatisfied whenever I used less than a ratio of 1/3 of sugar to egg whites and find 1/2 best for swiss meringue.
Answer: While I can't answer you specifically regarding meringue, I have experimented using stevia in other desserts and have found that I get better results with half sugar and half stevia, as opposed to all stevia.
Answer: Yes, you can replace sugar with stevia powder in the beaten egg whites. Make sure to only use the amount needed for equivalent sweetness.
As for replacing the dairy milk with coconut milk, this Answer and comments deal with that substitution pretty thoroughly.