How do you respond to a request for 'emergency contact information' for when you are on vacation?

Question: I want to go on vacation and not think about work at all but they want me to provide them a contact number in the event of an emergency (server goes down, web service malfunctions, etc). I am afraid that it will be abused (they will contact me before trying everything for example) but I also think that if I am on vacation I should not be bothered even if there is an outage. Does anyone have experience with situations like this? What's the tactful approach? Any creative solutions?
Comment: I guess we are assuming here that there is not a procedure or requirement for this in place at the company you are working for?  Is that Even that common anymore?  This is something I thought the expectations for are usually handled in the interview process.
Comment: Holiday? Do people still have those?
Comment: Where I work if you are DNA for a server then you are getting that call vacation or not.  This is why we pay employee's a salary not an hourly rate.  There is no clock just a yearly figure we compensate you for your time (time varies). Not saying I agree nor saying you should not enjoy your vacation but this is the nature of the beast.
Comment: @JohnL: It may depend on jurisdiction, but in Australia at least it works the other way: your "hourly rate" would be calculated from your yearly salary. That's why you don't get paid over time, etc.
Comment: @Chris: I get a salary too, but it's converted from an hourly rate (37.5 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, less 21 days service leave and public / mandatory holidays).  Check your contract, you will likely find that yours is similar
Comment: @Chris: That is indeed the nature of the beast, well said.
Comment: @Dean: +1, good point.  @Orbling:  that's what we call vacation in the UK.  So the answer would be yes :)
Comment: There is a simple solution. Just say that you don't have a phone with you and do actually leave it at home.
Answer: Give them a cellphone number, but tell them you might not be available over extended periods, because you don't know how good the coverage is at the place you are going to. Then switch it off whenever you don't want to be disturbed, but in case they called, call back several hours later, or the next day, or whenever you feel like it.
Comment: It happened twice too me that my cell phone failed exactly on christmas eve, and since I was in Poland with my family, I couldn't fix it until my return to Austria. Must be bad luck.
Comment: My current role is very good about this sort of thing but at my last place I started deliberately going to places where I knew reception was bad.  I highly recommend the Scottish Highlands for that and many other reasons...
Comment: Sparr: Being available during vacation is already a obligingness, being available 24/7 destroys the purpose of the vacation: recreation. Even if you promise certain response times ("will check voicemail every x hours"), you will find it more difficult to relax. Just don't do that. Because of this, "might not be available over extended periods" is perfectly honest. And I don't think you should be too honest about the reasons. Too much straightforwardness hurts everyone.
Comment: @TheLQ: "helps" in what way? Failing phones a *good* thing when you're on holiday :-)
Comment: I am going to have to start answering questions on this site just so I can downvote. Imaginary -1 for advocating dishonesty.
Comment: There is no such thing as too much straightforwardness. If my phone is going to be turned off, I tell my boss my phone is going to be turned off. If my phone is on and I screen him to voicemail because I was having sex, I tell him that.
Comment: @JoelFan: And flying cars, and a Moon colony; yet even then I doubt there would be perfect coverage everywhere.
Comment: Google Voice really helps here
Comment: Sparr: Would you tell your girlfriend that she looks terrible when she returns from the coiffeur, where she has spent USD200, and you don't like the new look?
Comment: wow... there's definitely such a thing as too much straightforwardness.
Comment: "don't know how good the coverage is"... the days of that being believable are numbered... we are all going to eventually have satellite phones
Comment: SpashHit: Unfortunately, I'm going to spend my vacaction on a submarine, going 2 weeks below the north pole. No satellite conncetion there, sorry. If you don't believe me, come visit me anytime!
Comment: The wilds of New Zealand have poor mobile coverage too.
Comment: Heck, parts of Ireland (my home country, so I know of which I speak) have zero coverage.
Answer: Hand them a phone number and a quadruple overtime rate.

The goal here is not to make lots of money, the goal is to discourage needless annoyance. You're available, but only if you really need me. The database crashed, the users are compromised, you're getting multiple DDOS waves, that's when you pick up a phone. Can't find the username for some non-critical system? Don't bother.
You have to draw a clear line on what is an emergency and what is not. Go over common cases and solutions prior to taking vacation. Make sure everyone is notified ahead of time so that they can run any critical systems / processes through you before you leave.
Vacation is time off. Make sure it stays that way.
Comment: If they can tell the difference between your phone number and your rate at first glance then yr doin' it wrong
Comment: I second this but vacation rate should be quadruple overtime, not double.
Comment: @CAD\ bloke: Thank god I have a ten digit number and a five digit extension.
Comment: If you want to do it really properly you want to get this added to your contract at the start
Answer: Back in the day we used to get "pager pay" if we were to be on call.  You could try "clarifying" whether that's whether what they're offering. Then, assuming they just  want you to offer to have your vacation interrupted for free, tell them you will check your voice mail (on your cell, at the hotel message centre, or at home) each night, or once a week, or whatever you feel like offering, and give them that number.
There are times it's handy to go on vacation into the wilderness (no cell signal) or to a country where your cell phone doesn't work.
Comment: +1 also, in some places, being "on call" is considered legally equivalent to being at work.
Comment: I recall an incident when the network engineer was on vacation (2000-2001) and management came screeaming asking how to get a hold of him "right now". I replied that he was attending burning man in the desert, and that short of sending someone there to look inside all the hippie tents, it was impossible to get a hold of him.
Comment: @Christopher, as if I needed another reason to avoid Burning Man, now I'll associate it with a bunch of half-naked network engineers. I still can't decide if that's more ironic than bank executives on Harleys.
Comment: Ahhh, pager pay... I remeber you well...
Comment: @justinStolle Don't worry you won't see me there.
Answer: I have had a few scenarios where I'm on holiday and the boss has called to ask me how to do something on a project I've been working on.
In one case I was the build guy, something broke, and I was out at lunch with my girlfriend, and the boss called.  My answer was that I was at lunch and, whatever it was, it could wait until I got back (I didn't actually ask what it was).  Any issue can wait up to an hour.
In another case I was off sick for a week, and my boss (different boss) phoned and asked how to run a tool I was in charge of.  It was obvious, and I told him that, but I told him how to do it anyway since it was 3 minutes of my time.
And another case a few years back, after about 10 minutes of trying to talk things through over the phone with no progress I said it would have to wait until I got back because there's no way I'm spending all my holiday time on the phone with my boss.
My advice is hand over your details, but if a call lasts more than 5 minutes say "look, is this likely to be resolved in the next 5 minutes?  Because if not then I'm working and I want this day back in lieu".  Likewise if they call too often.  Make it clear that it's an emergency number.  To be used in emergencies.
Comment: In my experience, this does send the message that the calls aren't free, which is one of the misconceptions that can lead to the kind of abuse you're concerned about.  Of course, sometimes the project is at a point where they will take that cost.  If you're worried that the project is at that point, you can put a rough quota on it, and if they really do abuse it, you do have the option to put the phone down.  Politely, of course - "sorry, this is cutting into my time with my family, I'm going to have to go".
Comment: This may be different in different territories, but in the UK if I was fired for that then I'd have a clear case for wrongful dismissal.
Comment: You have to be careful about this kind of attitude too. It can get you fired when you return.
Comment: I think they would give me back time used while I was off, but naturally I'd rather have my vacation uninterrupted the whole time rather than being able to take a half day some day next month.
Answer: Enough commiserating...
How fortunate you are that you are so vital to the continued success of your organization. They need your contact info because what you do might as well be black magic or voodoo to them, and they are totally afraid that if they can't get to you in the case of an emergency, that everything will come crashing down around their ears..
I won't lie, I originally got into this business solely for the money, and then realized how much I loved it. My first employer in systems realized how much I loved it, and exploited my work ethic for as long as they could. Until of course my quality of life became so bad, that I had to force myself to drive to work every day. Vacations? Bah! No one could take care of the system as well as I could myself! Needless to say, that didn't last very long.
This may be a bitter pill to swallow, but what has worked for me in the past is to train a backup. Depending on where you work, and the kind of people that you work with, that perfect vacation covering helper maybe right around the corner.
At one place where I was a sys admin for several years, I was usually working 10-12 hour days EVERY day because I didn't have backup helper. When I finally gave in and found someone, I was shocked that they were excited to do all of those mundane tasks that I didn't have time to automate. Every single one of those tasks that I thought 'why would anyone that is non-technical want to do this?', they took care of, and asked for more. You probably won't even have to give them any money for it, they will probably do it for the thrill of being needed. Or better yet, probably for just a referral for some other job they really want.
Start hinting around the office that you want to train someone to be able to help you out. A good place to start is usually the head administrative assistant, or an HR manager. Tell them that you want to try to help someone out and 'see if they can rise to the occasion', and that you want to make sure that if anything happens to you that there is a contingency in place. HR people and administrative assistants eat that stuff up, they might even have someone already in mind.
Good luck, your sanity isn't worth a paycheck. It's up to you to have the strength to create the work environment where you can take a vacation when you want, and not have to worry about getting called.
Answer: IMO that depends (among many other things) on how much vacation you have per year. Living in Europe I have more than one month of vacation each year. If I was in the US, with, say, two weeks vacation per year, I'd be much less willing to be reachable in those two weeks.
What I usually do is to leave a mobile phone number, indicating that I might not be reachable, but will try to get back ASAP.
However, I'm not sure they're realizing that, if we were sharing a meal in front of the tent after a long day of hiking, I'd consider it impossible to get back right away. Likewise if I spent the day in the natural history museum with the kids.
Taking 10mins to log in per VPN from home and have a look at something to make a guess at what it would take to fix it is different.
Comment: Good point on the holiday difference.  I try to forget how impoverished the US minimum allocation is, feel sorry for anyone on that grind.
Comment: Re your last comment, not everyone has a VPN connection available.  I do, but I'm not planning on taking my work laptop (which has the VPN token) with me on my trip to see family over xmas.
Comment: @JohnL: I didn't say I take my 4kg Dell mobile workstation on a hiking trip, but I do carry it between work and home (having abandoned my home desktop to the kids). I said __if__ I'm home when I get a call, I might dial in.
Comment: Fair enough, but it still depends whether you can get a VPN token.  Probably not the same everywhere, but where I work, IT have to give you a token and it's tied to the computer, which MUST be a corporate-image laptop.  Anyway, my point was that not everyone has VPN as an option, nothing more.
Answer:
The concept of a Holiday is to NOT have to worry for that week your off!
Though centuries ago vacations could last for months, in todays rushed up digital society vacations last only one or two weeks. Comon!!! Everything needs urgent fix. Yeah right! tell that to the hotel lady who is now massaging you and asking wether you prefer Mango or Cranberries baby!!
Only take the responsibility, if its your own private service/company, then i can image you bring your cellular phone with you. Otherwise let the owner/boss worry and take the risk of their own service!
Bon Voyage!
Comment: @omeid, if you are on a HOLIDAY, relax like its your holiday -1 sorry
Comment: if you work somewhere work like its yours, -1 sorry.
Comment: if you are on a HOLIDAY, relax like its your holidy, GOOD but waht is this __Only take the responsibility, if its your own private service/company__ ?
Comment: of course that is meant in this case as in **Take the worrying responsibility outside your working hours, on your holidays with you, only if its your own company** in other words: dont carry extra weight if you are UNPAID for it. omeid, i get the feeling you are a very hard working person. but do you know what a holiday is?? I think you do not!
Answer: I am always willing to give my contact info to people at work.  I trust my coworkers to not call me unless it is a truly important matter.  And if it is a matter of that gravity I am willing to help.  I have even taken time out of vacations to dial into important conference calls.  But of course I had a beer in my hand when I did. :-)
Comment: Well, I thought this is obvious, but here you go: __I consider it wrong advice to take time out of vacation to dial into important work conference calls__, so I down-voted. (This isn't SO. I'm not voting for getting the facts right here, but for dis-/agreeing with answers to subjective questions.)
Comment: i dont understand the downvote on this. even if you don't like an answer, it was valid.
Comment: @entens Agreed, totally valid, indeed, very good, answer.
Comment: @sbi, I would not fault someone who took the position that they did not want to be disturbed on vacation, but it is not the stance I take.  I am a salaried employee and I am being paid to be on vacation, so answering the occasional question or attending a half hour conference call doesn't bother me.
Comment: @jkohlhepp: I'm not that struct about not doing any work when I'm not at work. I will, occasionally, do some work while I'm home, answering important mails, tinkering wit ideas in code, fixing a bug that I only understood on my way home, and the like. See my answer. But as a general rule, I go home at night and go on vacation to recuperate from work. So it makes no sense to work while I should rest.
Comment: @sbi I agree.  I prefer to not do any work while on vacation.  But my post was making the point that I am willing to when necessary.
Answer: I say tough luck!
Your job might not be like the doctor, but even though you don't save lives, some things come attached with your career choice.
IMHO the most ethical thing to do (though I understand it's difficult in many cases) is give the whatever contact number they need, clarify VERY well what they can expect from you in a holiday (availability for a major outage etc), you must manage it carefully and politely but you can avoid any abuse by stating than you are on you vacations and this does not correspond.
I you do this, firm but gently, (normal) people get and won't bother again.
Comment: You can also tell them that since you're on vacation you drank a fair amount of very good whisky and that they should not rely on your answers to fix any mission-critical systems.
Answer: Why not define backup staff that takes over your part when you are on vacation? Then, announce that only the backup people are allowed to call you. This means everybody has to "mess around" with the resources they have before doing that annoying call.
Secondly, I think a phone is a horrible medium for things like that. Be lazy answering calls, but take 5 minutes every day to check and reply to emails, and you will see the quality of the requests skyrock immediately (because a written mail forces the sender to re-think the situation in order to specify it in written form, and because they see they get replies as time allows).
If you crash with your car, and are dead, nobody will reach you on the phone. That's why every organization should have backup staff members that can take over the job of other key players. It's not just the holiday question.
Note that many people running from vacation phone calls LOVE being important. They are not really annoyed, they love being sought after, and they often do their part to manifest this bug as a feature in their career. This is unsincere because when they say "don't call me, I am on vacation" they really say "I love being rare, and I improve that state all the time, because that enables me to be annoyed, and I love that too because it shows how important, and ruling I am!". Bah. The fact that it is rather easy to find backup people for 99% of even the most insane job's tasks underscores this...most "heroes" prefer to whine and run instead of building and living a backup solution.
Comment: I deserve +NAN for the fact that I threatened to throw my job if i don't get backup personell. Successfully. I never took a mobile with me on vacation. Because: backup staff that needs to call is not a backup. It's just a guarantee for disturbed vacation time. Maybe it is even worse: by "contracting" when who may call you how, you plan for the backup not working successfully, thus protecting the bug in the system instead of improving the system. Sometimes, things must go wrong once to go right forever afterwards.
Answer: I used to be that guy... The one who the business absolutely needs to have access to, and I used to enjoy it.
But now, my response would be:
Give them the number for your insurance company. Since an emergency of the magnitude required to bother you on vacation, should probably require submitting a claim to the insurance company anway. And maybe a call to the official emergency services (fire/police/ambulance) as well.
Thats right, something better be burning or somebody died, before they interrupt your vacation.
Sombody's worried about the information only you have? They should prepare for that before you go on vacation. And make darn sure they show their appreciation - and start by not bugging you on vacation.
Answer: If you feel that it's your company then give your phone number and say when they can call you - what kind of problems you can solve on holidays an what not.
If you feel that you just work for someone just give phone number, and turn it off. Because you need get better job.
Answer: If you are really the only person who can fix their problem then they really need to rethink a lot of things. What if you quit? What if you died?
The should not need to call you.
Answer: At my last job, I never had a single day off work (whether sick, or booked annual leave) without a phonecall to fix something.
You get sick of that.
Answer: I give them what they want.
Comment: Booo! You are letting the system win! ;)
Comment: @burnt_hand  The system?  You meant those folks that hired me, trained me, help me to pay my bills; those evil employers of mine that I give my best to because they gave me an outlet to do so?  Or do you mean the ones that I've given so much to that they dare not ask for one more thing because they are already an unfair bunch of blood suckers who care nothing for me but that I produce code like a monkey?
Comment: You usually get a bit of both in a company. Perhaps give your number to someone you know will only use it in an emergency
Answer: Find a job where they will not abuse the emergency contact and let you relax on your holidays. If you are the only one person, who can help them, something is wrong.
Answer: 'Emergency contact information'

Type 1 response: in each case, the contacts you are giving are well-trained to handle a particular type of emergency situation. An emergency response team should consist of various professionals.

Give the building hazmat emergency contact information.
Or, give your lawyer's contact information, in case you need to obtain a bail.
Train a deputy officer. You should pay at least 40% of your own salary to that officer.

Type 2 response: delegate emergency power to your boss.

A robust server should be able to solve every problem by restarting. To make it easier, someone should wire the restart to a panic button.
If it is too difficult to restart the server, try turn off and cycle the entire building's power.
Another panic button will automatically sign up a cloud service with your credit card info, and then migrate the server to the cloud. Bill your boss later.

Type 3 response: for mission-critical operations.

Insist on using Twitter for text-only communication.
Set up a secret code system, for example: hard disk down = 041
Meanwhile, bring a laptop with VPN and 3G worldwide roaming so that you can fix the problem remotely.
Hire a local driver who is also trained as a security guard.


Different size pages in DJVU book

Question: I have a djvu book that has different sized pages.
How can I solve this by making all pages to same size. I am familiar with Python programming and I'm ready to try it. Any advise is appreciated.
Comment: Should the "smaller" pages be scaled, or just displayed on a larger canvas without scaling? Do you have an example file (of a few pages)? What platform do you work on (i.e. can you run the common DjVu tools available on linux)?
Comment: Yes I would like the smaller page to be scaled. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byj8JxXAeyj_OXU1WGk0QlNDcGc/view?usp=sharing
I work on Windows 10 64 bit
Answer: As all pages are having the same or very similar width and height, this seems a "simple" problem of some pages having the wrong resolution. Most pages have metadata that specifies 600 DPI others only 96 DPI. That later are then of course displayed much larger.
My Linux distribution comes with djvutoxml and the corresponding djvuxmlparser (from package djuvlibre-bin) which can extract the metadata, resp. merge the metadata back in. Those should be available for Windows as well (http://djvu.sourceforge.net/, make sure the executables are in your PATH) That metadata includes the DPI information from the file. Actual changing of the XML is fast, but extracting and merging takes a long (several minutes) time.
Make sure you have a copy of your book, in case the merging breaks something, and run python program.py book.djvu on this program.py:
import sys
import subprocess

book = sys.argv[1]
xml_in = 'in.xml'
xml_out = 'out.xml'

print('extracting XML')
subprocess.check_output(['djvutoxml', book, xml_in])

print('converting XML')
with open(xml_in) as inf:
    with open(xml_out, 'w') as outf:
        for line in inf:
            if line.startswith('<PARAM name="DPI" value="96" />'):
                line = line.replace('96', '600')
            outf.write(line)
print('merging XML')
subprocess.check_output(['djvuxmlparser', '-o', book, xml_out])

print('done')

In general I am against parsing XML without a real parser, but you don't need regex or anything that easily breaks to get this information fixed.
The intermediate XML (two files) has the same order of size as the DjVu file itself, although the XML has no image information, it is just inefficient. Make sure you have enough room (and run this program on a fast/local drive)
There are 367 incorrect pages out of 1201, you might be able to speed up the process by only including the incorrect pages in the output XML, but then you should use an XML parser. If this is a one off conversion, I would not bother with such an optimisation.
Comment: I'm sorry. I do have python. I quite lost you from the "Those should be available for Windows as well (http://djvu.sourceforge.net/, make sure the executables are in your PATH)". Could you please give me a detailed explanation of steps on this, I do have python (2.7 & > 3.0). I would like to do this and probably make an app so that others can benefit too.
Comment: Sorry, but I seriously doubt that you can make an app out of this if you don't have the basic understanding of why it is necessary. Apart from that you would have to adhere to the copyrights of `djvuxmlparser` and `djvutoxml`. Contact me via email so I have a return email address and I can sent you a link to the converted document, which AFAICT is copyrighted as well.
Answer: If you want to try to make all  your kindle reader there's other easy way around. try K2pdfopt it will help you resizing all pages to a specific screen size.
Comment: I din't quite understand what you are trying to say. Are you saying you want to batch process the djvu file to kindle format so that it automatically has specific screen size all over it ?
Comment: @abhilashsukumari Yes that's the idea. Not just kindle format but to any other eBook reader format of choice. K2pdfopt supports many.

Different size pages in DJVU book


Apples in a greenhouse on a spacestation

Question: As a child sometime in the late seventies or very early eighties, I saw a sci-fi movie on TV - there was a scene in a greenhouse, either on a spaceship or space station - you could see stars out the windows, and they were growing apple trees there. A family was serving apple pie, and people were enthusing over it. The family explained that the apples came from Earth, before it was destroyed.  This may have been the pilot for a failed TV show.
Answer: That resembles Silent Running (1972), with Bruce Dern.
I don't recall if there was a family and apple pie.  Maybe there was early in the movie, but it has been many decades since I have seen it.
Answer: I may have an answer to your question.  I was a professional modelmaker in those years and was approached to make a model spaceship for a television pilot that fits your description.  It was going to be a comedy about an apple pie bakery in space and titled something like "Pie in the Sky." The time period is correct. I did not take the job but recommended another modelmaker to do it. I would be interested to know if you remember anything else?


What is the biological significance of finding palindromes in DNA sequence?

Question: I found a function called palindromes in Matlab that finds palindromes from DNA sequence. Now what is the biological intention behind incorporating this function? What the biological significance of finding palindrome in DNA sequences?
Comment: In regards to a Matlab function, it is probably used to find Restriction Enzyme digestion sites. Many, but not all of the recognition sites of Restriction Enzymes are palindromic, and having a function that can search a sequence and find these site will give you the location where restriction enzymes will cut. Palindromes also can represent places in genomes where viral DNA has been incorporated. So the basis of Bacterial adaptive immunity are these short palindromic repeats that encode RNA template strands for an enzymes such as Cas that can identify and cleave infecting DNA.
Answer: My knowledge of biology is extremely limited, but this is what I know of palindromic sequences:
Palindromic sequences are their own reverse complements. I have seen many restriction sites be palindromic. Also, some Transcription Factor Binding sites are palindromic. The canonical E-box site, for example, can be expressed as CANNTG.
Also, these palindromes, when occurring in pairs with a sequence between the occurrences, can double back and bind to each other (when the DNA is transcribed to RNA, say), and this would result in the RNA stem and loop structure.
Comment: Are these the only biological significance? do you have the extensive list of all possible significances ?
Comment: I wish I did. In my opinion, you learn as you go. Maybe Google+dig deep would help get a longer list of potential areas of significance, but an extensive list serves no purpose as it is not constant, and because most problem solving is done with the thought process "What are the available solutions to this problem" and not "What are the problems this individual piece of a larger solution can address"
Comment: @Rishika Please take a look at my answer
Comment: @RamRS what must be the length of such palindromes??
Comment: I've encountered 6 and 8-mers, and I remember a colleague saying those are the typical length you see, but that statement may be specific to human TFBS sites.
Answer: Palindrome sequences are important in bioinformatics understanding, it helps us to extract patterns in the genomic sequences. I'll give an example in HIV (very important application).
HIV has a nasty requirement that the virus must keep the cell alive. It does that by inserting itself into the host's genome. We know from biology that cutting and pasting of DNA works best when the sequences at either end of the cut site are identical. In fact, we usually look for palindromes, sequences that read the same backward and forward. We know the virus prefer to integrate at a palindromic sequence.
Therefore we should look at those palindromic patterns for HIV. Once we find those regions, we might do an alignment with known HIV sequences.
Please Google "restriction sites" for more information.
Comment: I'd recommend you Google restriction sites, because that's exactly what you've described here. Good example though!
Comment: @StudentT what should be the size of these palindromes?
Answer: This information is mainly from my bioinfo class notes. Palindromes or inverted repeats in genome can help in

Predicting regions in RNA that are self-complementary and that, therefore, have the potential of forming secondary structure.
Identification of binding site of regulatory proteins involved in regulation of transcription. This is because sometimes the binding protein has a couple of monomers which bind to both sequences (orignal and inverted) resulting in stronger interaction than cases where only one monomer binds.
Inverted repeats of small length are also present in some transposons (though I am not really aware of their function there).

I also came across a section on function of inverted repeats (palindromes) on google books that discusses the topic in more detail.
Comment: what must be the length of such palindromes??


Where can I find the graduate school college scorecard data

Question: I want to know the data and information about graduate schools. Where can I find it?
Answer: There is none at this time, though I've read that the Dept of Education may be making effort to add that information in future versions of the College Scorecard itself.
Currently, you can get grad school data from College Navigator (http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/) and IPEDS DataCenter (http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/)
Comment: Because I didn't create what you need. I have a private client file I can't share, as I indicated above, and it has 163 columns, not 2 -- as well, it's not grad-specific. It's really not that hard to generate, once you understand the Datacenter  interface. That takes a bit of playing around with, the but their Web server does occasionally generate Java (not JavaScript) errors and can get very frustrating.
Comment: where can one find a master list of UnitIDs? 5 minutes searching on ipeds datacenter site, found nothing.
Comment: There isn't any per se. I had to create my own, but it's part of a private OpenRefine project. You can create one in datacenter, by selecting "EZ Group" for the institutions and no additional variables. What you'll get is a list of school name and id, and a button/link to download that. Keep in mind that you're selecting from 7,000+ institutions in the database, so indicate study levels, control (public, private), etc., when refining the list of institutions.
Comment: Caveat: there is still isn't a lot of grad school data in NCES and DataCenter
Comment: ...why not just share the own you created?


What is the point of variable transaction fees in Ethereum (and Bitcoin as well)?

Question: After reading through the docs and through this post, I understand the concept and need for gas, but I do not understand why each transaction can have a variable fee associated with it. It seems to be a way for the rich to get priority over the poor, or those willing to pay a premium to get their transactions confirmed before anyone else. To me, this sounds unsustainable. Is there another reason for these changeable fees?
Comment: Others will presumably answer in more detail, but it allows for a dynamic marketplace. When you ask a miner to include your transaction in a block, you're entering an open market. It also allows the network to adapt to changes in the underlying value of ether.
Comment: rich or poor?? we are talking about insignificant amount of money as fees. i think such comparison is not fair.
Answer: There are two main reasons: to prioritize one transactions over others and to adjust to the price.
In Bitcoin, there is a limit on how many transactions you can put inside a block (the limit is on the size of the block). The way to prioritize some transactions over others is paying more transaction fees so you can be sure your transaction gets added to the next block.
In Ethereum, the limit is on the gas used, and you pay more ether for that amount of gas for the same reason.
Now, imagine that we set a fixed amount of ether for each unit of gas at the beginning of the blockchain, with a value of 1 ether = $0.10. A reasonable fee would be 0.1 ether ($0.01) for a normal transaction.
With the increase in price, if we had a fixed value, now we would be paying 0.1 ether ($3).
Comment: Yes, you can check the limit here: https://ethstats.net/
Comment: "the limit is on the gas used" do you say that there is a limit on how much gas can be used per block?
Answer: From the Yellow Paper

Transactors  are  free  to  specify  any gasPrice that they wish,
  however  miners  are  free  to  ignore  transactions  as they choose.
  A higher gas price on a transaction will therefore cost the sender
  more in terms of Ether and deliver a greater  value  to  the  miner
  and  thus  will  more  likely  be selected for inclusion by more
  miners.  Miners, in general, will choose to advertise the minimum gas
  price for which they will execute transactions and transactors will be
  free to  canvas  these  prices  in  determining  what  gas  price  to
  offer.  Since there will be a (weighted) distribution of minimum
  acceptable  gas  prices,  transactors  will  necessarily have a
  trade-off to make between lowering the gas price and maximising the
  chance that their transaction will be mined in a timely manner.

Also found from Vtalik:
https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/10/31/uncle-rate-transaction-fee-analysis/
In my view it provides an elegant form of price discovery during periods of high contention for finite resources. For example, if we are hovering near the block gasLimit this is a mechanism for both users and miners to prioritize transaction urgency. I'm unsure what is unsustainable about that.
Comment: I understand that it is a mechanism for both users and miners to prioritize transaction urgency, but why have it in the first place? What if VISA were to have 1-3% fees, paid for by the customer? How would that world differ from ours now?
Comment: I'm not sure I can answer satisfactorily. I wonder if the question behind your question is, in summary, "Why doesn't Ethereum have unlimited scalability like VISA?" Consider this in the reverse. What if VISA engineered themselves out of the role of mediator and instead decided every device would do distributed consensus? Answer: No more data centers, and, the network would slow down considerably. What we have right now is a supply/demand solution and promising research into scalability. Scalability is all about increasing "supply" of a scarce resource - transaction processing capacity.
Answer: I kind of had a similar thought myself. But in my scenario I was running a permissioned/private instance and its only purpose is SmartContracts/Business Logic.
Gas, with regards to SmartContracts, is crucial to prevent DOS Attacks and infinite loops. So far so good.
But when discussing with my peers we were not sure if transactions (again, regardless if monetary or data) need to have a fee to get the transaction verification right.
I suppose that the consensus mechanism, either PoW or PoS, need the TX-Fee to do their math. Maybe otherwise they wouldn't function?
So sorry for not directly answering your question, but I wanted to add some thoughts into this discussion.
B
Comment: As transaction fee is a way to prioritize transactions, I doubt you have such a volume on a private chain that you need it.


How to make room tone more oppressive??

Question: So hey everyone, I'm working on this short and the director wants a shitload of roomtone..I'm wondering how one could make roomtone more oppressive.
Thanks.
Answer: Oppresive as in dark and eerie?
Put a low tone in it.
Rattles - a shaking AC vent is awesome in these instances.
A tree branch tapping a window.
A far-off hissing noise.
Every now and again, a children laughing verbed out like it's coming down from around the corner of a hall you cannot see.
A nice deep rumbly bus going by outside (depending on where it is obviously)
A dog barking outside.
It all depends on the mood you want to create with the audience, and what Oppressive means in this sense. Hope the above helps.
EDIT: Awkwardly Funny Ambience:
Get some funny sounding ambiences like a higher frequency rattle or a funny clock tick.
Also, get the scriptwriter to write something in like a coffee maker drip or a leaky sink where everything else is silent and the two people are staring at each other and the leaky sink keeps falling and then it gets louder and louder and it's awkwardly funny.
Or, write in that the main character taps his fingers over and over on the desk while he's staring at the person.
But again, this is all in pre-prod and I'm sorry if you've been given something to add an awkwardly funny ambience to after it's been shot and edited - which should really be thought with while shooting so instead of having to put obviously recognizable sounds in that are "off screen" because they didn't shoot a close-up of the leaky sink or the tapping of fingers or other things in the environment, you have more leeway to work with things. It's always easier to make a sound work for something you see visually than to make the audience know what they're hearing when it's "off screen" (read: lack of pre-prod).
Comment: Actually oppressive as in awkwardly funny.
Comment: This is all post pro--doesn't look like much of a strip tease either, its all morman room-tone from sound libraries for this one
Comment: no offence if anybody is morman maybe I should have said nunnish or boarding school instead
Comment: Oh, alrighty. I'd just find more room tones with more character to them, like a squeeky fan belt of an A/C unit on the roof or a noisy vent or a fan, etc.
Comment: Cool, I'm starting to understand more now.   More about the essence of sound design anyways, the movie is a mockumentary in the vein of the Office.  He doesn't want anything but pure room tone.  Now on the listener's level this could mean just the really low shhh but on the editor's level this could mean two pitch shifted fans, a squeak, and airconditioning, combined with a sigh on duplicate repeat all combined and finished at a level so low that it sounds like something else.
Comment: @Chris Exactly. The average romantic comedy dialogue-heavy movie of today has more tracks in it than the 1980's major box office action movie.
Comment: and the less people notice it, the more effective it is, the ironicness of it all.
Answer: Well, I'm not sure I understand what you mean about room tone. If you just mean the "airy" feeling that you get from a static room tone, you can try and layer different flavours of room tones, for instance a dark hum layered with a large stone room and put in a bit of airconditioning. You can make it evolve and shift from cut to cut or from location to location.
You can also think about what the environment would sound like, and blend in a bit of traffic, people on the street, sirens, wind, birds, whatever suits the story. If the sounds are too clean, try to muffle them with a reverb that sounds like the room you are trying to describe. You can also EQ it as well, but try the reverb first, print it using Audiosuite, make it 100% wet. If it isn't enough, give it some more reverb on top, like the delay between buildings or a convolution reverb of a pipe or vacuum cleaner hose.
Answer: In your case it sounds like "oppressive" needs to be read as "tight" or "confining", rather than low and scary, given the subject matter. If that's correct, then you need to focus on close, claustrophobic sounds,  things that will make you shift in your seat and make you want to get some air. My first thought is fluorescent lighting. Nothing says office atmosphere like that. After that I'd try AC vents, computer fans and hard drives, or perhaps a soda machine compressor humming away.
Sounds like a real challenge...good luck!!
Comment: I don't know why I'd have to have tight and confining…sometimes its better to "score the opposite" but it is something I have been thinking about, tight and confining.
Comment: Everything is subjective and there are no rules, but my thinking behind it is that, with The Office, nobody wants to be there (except for Dwight!). And, since it's shot in a docu style, all of the sounds you hear are based in reality. So, working with those ideas, put in realistic sounds that are annoying or grating, yet believable. I don't thinking "scoring the opposite" would work in that scenario, imho.
Comment: Well I whole-heartedly agree but for the sake of it, I would have to say that perhaps undercurrents of stories can go on while the audience barely realizes it.  For example, a forest ambience so low that the audience has a different feeling from their ears--not being cooped in an office while with their eyes they are in the building
Comment: especially if there is say…a plant in the shot?
Answer: How about some sounds like phones constantly ringing but subtly in the BG? I always find it annoying when they go unanswered for ages in an office environment! Might add a bit if tension/unease to the scene if appropriate? Oh and the constant sounds of photocopiers/printers brings home to me the oppressive, soul sapping nature of tedious offce work! lol
Comment: Great idea about a monotonous copy machine in the background!
Answer: Filter some pink noise into reverb.  Play just the wet signal and maybe send some of your dialogue track into the verb to make it sound a little more authentic.
Answer: one word:    fans
Comment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6Obr_ORiJ0
Comment: wierd, I actually tried that but the director has a phobia of fans and had to leave the room when I played it for him
Comment: You are *not* serious.  How does he do the Darth Vader voice?
Comment: With a teacup :(
Comment: he's an indie director and doesn't believe in special effects like darth vader for example
Comment: actually he's as evil as darth vader too, I saw him eat a mouse after dressing it with mustard and ketchup...
Comment: @Utopia - awesome.  i assume you've seen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmigAcg7Y_k and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8eBVDC5r9k&feature=related
Comment: @David NICE! Check this one out, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbIqL-lN1B4
Answer: Try introducing a tinnitus whine anywhere between 2-4 kHz, it doesn't need to be loud, it will quickly become very annoying and oppressive.
Answer: add hum.........
Answer: Use and infrasound. Most of the time, they are related to natural disasters: volcanoes, ligthning, earthquakes, avalanches ... Since its not consiously perceived, most people are annoyed, having a weird feeling of fear, like supernatural events are taking place. Sometimes even makes them sick !
Comment: @doc, I assume you're talking about extreme LFE? Used in moderation that approach can be quite effective. Cool!
Comment: I think the problem with infrasound is that not many speakers are designed to reproduce infrasound frequencies
Answer: Lots of solid ideas here! The only thing I'd add is that I often try to make tones that are either minor chords or specifically are atonal, or at uncomfortable intervals. Depends on if there's a music bed or not, but I like subtly pitching sounds not just higher or lower, but at specific intervals to one another.
Comment: dissonance is a powerful tool if you want to make the listener uncomfortable.
Comment: Seconded, I did an ominous/foreshadow-y type of restaurant scene recently with one or two fans/hums pitched at dissonant intervals and got some unnerving - yet believable - results. A little goes a long way, though. I think we're quite good at registering things like that without a lot of volume.

How to make room tone more oppressive??


Unable to use UI prompts

Question: On Skyrim for PC, whenever a yes/no dialog pops up ("Are you sure you want to exit alchemy?"), or a dialog with just 'ok'("You learned the ___ enchantment"), I can't do anything.
I can't right click or left click on the yes or no or anything else on the screen. EDIT: It appears I can press 'y' for yes and 'n' for no, but nothing seems to work for 'OK' dialogs. I get "stuck", and there is nothing I can do. The sound still works and the hover effects for buttons still works, so the game hasn't crashed, but the game becomes unplayable.
What should I do?

I use a mouse.
I don't have any mods, this is a fresh install (3 hours old!)

Things that don't help

Switching between windowed and fullscreen
Toggling 'xbox 260 controller' in the settings
Adding iPresentInterval=0
Adding bMouseAcceleration=0
Using Steam's Verify Game Cache

It found that my skyrim settings file was modified, from entering the above settings, and replaced it with the default

Restarting the computer
Playing the game with touchpad only and no external devices
Playing with a different mouse
Jimnms interface key fix (discussion thread)

It doesn't fix the problem I am having but it does tell you the proper keys to pres snow with key mapping consideration
Comment: try alt-tab to the desktop and then back in?
Answer: Skyrim does NOT like custom keyboard bindings. Especially if you changed M1.
To fix this, go into the controls and reset them to defaults, by pressing T.

Unable to use UI prompts


Video Player for hosted videos

Question: I'd like to add videos for a webpage, but I don't want to use Youtube or any other site to host them, i'd like to host them on my own server. what are some good tools availible for video players on a site?
Answer: A mix of open source/commercial and Flash/HTML5 options for hosting your own videos:

Flowplayer
OS FLV
FLV Player
f4Player
JW Player
Video JS (HTML5)
Sublime Video Player (HTML5)
Comment: +1 on Flowplayer...have used successfully on dozens of websites.

Also have to give a plug to ffmpeg if you get into having to process, thumbnail, or just generally deal with video from others dynamically.
Answer: If you are not using your site for commercial purposes I think your best best is JW PLayer from Longtail, http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/. It is free for non-commercial purposes and easy to add and integrate with you website.
If you decide to use it on a commercial site it is still pretty in-expensive, costing less than $100 for the most simple plan.
They offer a number players to play most if not all major video types.  I used it on the last website I wrote and it was extremely easy to setup.
Comment: What differentiates JS Player from Flowplayer, Video JS, Sublime, video4all and other open source players? AFAIK, you can't embed a video codec into a Flash or JS file, so it'd be using the codecs provided by the Flash plugin and each browser's HTML5 support. So unless JW Player comes with addition browser extensions or ActiveX plugins, it would only support the standard video formats supported by all the other players.
Answer: I would suggest video4all. If HTML5 is supported it uses the HTML5 tags, if not it falls back to Flowplayer. So you have really man features you can use. On one side the HTML5 tags with all the settings and on the other side you have all the flowplayer features, likes Auto-Thumbnailing, etc.
Answer: I'm starting to use jPlayer http://jplayer.org which integrates nicely with jQuery. It seems to have lots of visual CSS customizations and handles all the usual formats with Flash as a last resort. I'm not an expert yet, but it seems like it'll do the job.
I'm creating a site with a 3 to 4 videos (in different formats) and you can preview each video to
Answer: Also have a look at the Podlove Web Player, an HTML5 audio and video player.

Video Player for hosted videos


What does Ghoul mean in japanese?

Question: I know what a Ghoul is in the context of the Tokyo Ghoul series, but I was wondering what does Ghoul mean in japanese. Is it a made up word or it is the same "Ghoul" from Arabic? What do the kanji which composes the word mean separately?
Comment: I don't understand what you're asking. "Ghoul" is a loanword in both English and Japanese, and means the same thing in both languages. There is no Japanese folklore associated with ghouls.
Answer: If you look at the word for ghoul as it's written in the title of Tokyo Ghoul, you can see that there's both kanji and furigana (pronunciation) for it. The furigana is グール, which the katakana word for ghoul. It's a phonetic loanword, pronounced guuru, which (based on the Japanese Wikipedia page for it) seems to have been taken from the English "ghoul", which was of course taken from the Arabic al ghûl.
The kanji, 喰種, doesn't seem to directly translate to anything, but 喰 means eat and 種 translates to a number of things, but the most relevant ones here are species or kind. Basically, it can be loosely translated to a species that eats.
Answer: Let's look at kanji of Tokyo Ghoul (東京喰種) :

東京 means Tokyo.
喰 used in different words. 食べる(taberu) means eating. 食い物(kuimono) means food. 喰 also means eating.
種(shu) means species or kind.

So in conclusion "ghoul" part of title is means eating kind/species. 喰種 both doesnt mean anything however because of the popularity even Google Translate translates it like Tokyo Ghoul if you put full title.

What does Ghoul mean in japanese?


What happens if I shoot a police officer in self-defense during a SWAT raid?

Question: No-knock SWAT raids are very popular, especially in the US. But how do you know that the heavily armed persons are policemen? Isn't it very easy to mistake them for robbers? What if I try to defend myself and my family and start shooting, killing one of them in a believed act of self-defense? You could recognise them by the label on their uniform that says "SWAT", but this is not a valid indicator. Anyone could wear something like this. The only real way to identify the "intruders" as lawful police officers is their badge, but this won't help.
What would happen to me if something like this happened? Are there any special legislations considering this topic?
Comment: Well, no. Anyone could scream "Police" and anyone (in America) can buy pistols or shotguns. And how can I make educated split-second guess on how their gear has been obtained? Many airsoft-players have equipment that is very close to army or SWAT equipment going by the looks.
Comment: @Nij: Surely that depends on circumstances?  Suppose there is a gang of robbers or kidnappers operating in the area who are known to wear imitation police uniforms and gear and to identify themselves as police.  Suppose further that the victim has received threats from this gang, and conversely is generally law-abiding and has no particular reason to expect to be raided by the actual police.  Under those circumstances, might not a reasonable person assume that a group of intruders wearing police uniforms and shouting "police" is actually the gang?
Comment: The non-legal answer is that you will likely end up shot and killed yourself, so there will be no need to make a self-defense argument.
Comment: @Nij Why not? If that results in people not shooting them, why wouldn't intruders do that?
Comment: A reasonable person would not assume an intruder that identifies themselves as police and is wearing typical or heavier police garb and equipment, is in fact not police. You'd be hit with every charge possible for obstruction, assaults officer, misuse of weapons and GBHWI/murder.
Comment: The fact that they're screaming "police!" at you repeatedly, and wielding equipment which is either exceeding difficult or impossible to obtain for anybody except police, wouldn't make it abundantly clear?
Comment: I know this question was addressed previously, at least in comments.  [This answer has relevant links and some comment discussion](http://law.stackexchange.com/a/8125/10).  Note that even a badge is not sufficient *in practice* to verify that someone is an official police officer, although some states consider it *statutorily sufficient*.
Comment: That's what I thought. And badges are still hard to see when they run into your house and throw flashbangs
Comment: Exactly how many cases do you know of people impersonating police on a raid? Compared to the number of actual police raids that happen? That's why.
Comment: Does this answer your question? [Can I defend myself from excessive police force?](https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/2208/can-i-defend-myself-from-excessive-police-force)
Comment: @K-C: Ok, so voting to close as "unclear" until a state is specified.
Comment: As @mikeazo comments, unless you can wipe out the whole group, you shouldn't shoot at them at all, because, even if you take out a few of them, you are outnumbered. Etc.
Answer: This area of law is dependent on affirmative defenses that states may choose to provide. I found two law review articles that present the situations in Georgia and Indiana.1, 2
Georgia
Georgia Code 16-3-23 provides a defense for the occupant in this situation. Epstein argues that this statute is somewhat ambiguous but it most likely even applies when the occupant only has a reasonable belief that the entry is unlawful (i.e. the entry doesn't have to actually be unlawful).1
Indiana
Indiana Code 35-41-3-2 provides a similar defense. The Indiana Legislature enacted 35-41-3-2 in response to a court decision that did not allow a jury to consider self-defense to an unlawful police entry.
Patterson analyzes Indiana's statute and comes to the same conclusion as Epstein did about Georgia's: "the statute allows an
individual to use force on a reasonable belief that a police official is unlawfully entering their home".2
Policy conflict
Both Epstein and Patterson note the policy conflict that arises when states allow both no-knock warrants and affirmative defenses when an occupant reasonably believes an entry may be unlawful. They both suggest that states with such defenses available remove the permission for no-knock entries.

1. Epstein, Dimitri (2009) "Cops or Robbers? How Georgia's Defense of Habitation Statute Applies to No-Knock Raids by Police,"
Georgia State University Law Review: Vol. 26: Iss. 2, Article 5.
2. Patterson, C. (2014) "Don't Forget to Knock: Eliminating the Tension Between Indiana's Self Defense Statute and No-Knock Warrants," Ind. L. Rev., 47, 621.
Answer: In the situation described, the defender is unlikely to get out alive. In most such cases the police will be very proactive in trying to kill the shooter. They have radios and if a "man down" alert occurs, they will be out for blood.
If the shooter survives, the odds in court are against him, but not impossible. In one cases the defendant survived and argued that he was disoriented by the "flash-bang" grenade the police used and that he had no way of knowing the attackers were police. The jury acquitted him, although he spent two years in jail before the trial was granted.
Another related case, that of Corey May, became famous. May shot a cop busting into his apartment and was eventually freed, but not before he was convicted of capital murder and spent 5 years in jail. In May's case the cops did not even have a warrant for his particular apartment and were just busting down random doors. At the trial the cops lied repeatedly saying that they "knocked and identified themselves" and other such bullshit.
Note that if the feds are involved the shooter's chances of survival are much lower. Not only do the feds go in with take-no-prisoners attitudes, but the federal legal system is very heavily stacked against defendants. In multiple cases feds have raided some random person, fired so many rounds that they killed one of their own men, yet the (unarmed) defendant was convicted of the "murder". Federal officers are essentially immune to prosecution, so if you shoot at them your chance of survival is very low. In one case an unarmed suspect was found with multiple gunshots to the back, including a shot to the back of the head administered from close range when the suspect was lying on the ground. The subsequent "investigation" involved the agents being asked a few questions by their boss and then exonerated them. The FBI decided it was "justified use of force". Federal prosecutors never indict FBI agents, except for corruption. Keep that in mind before firing at the feds.
Comment: Re *'In one case an unarmed suspect was found with multiple gunshots to the back, including a shot to the back of the head administered from close range when the suspect was lying on the ground. '*: this interesting incident deserves a link with more specific information.
Comment: *At the trial the cops lied repeatedly saying that they "knocked and identified themselves" and other such bullshit.* This one could also use a link.
Comment: I agree. And I also think it is justified when policemen shoot at you after you gunned down one of them. If you get killed in the process it is bad luck, even when you had legitimate doubts about the intruders being policemen. The officers should not be prosecuted. But if you survive, in my opinion, you shouldn't go to jail either.
Comment: You have the right for a jury trial in federal cases too. So you might still get acquitted by a jury.
Answer: This actually happened in Germany in 2010: When police raided the home of a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, the member fired a gun through the closed door before the police could identify themselves. One officer was killed.
The killer was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2011, but was acquitted on appeal by the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice). The court accepted the killer's claims that he thought he was being attacked by members of a rival gang and fired in self-defense.
So yes, if you can convince the court that you believed you were being attacked unlawfully, your action may count as self-defense. However, once you know (or could reasonably know) it is a police action, you can probably no longer claim this.
Comment: I would have guessed this but still thank you
Answer: Apparently, it can go either way: http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/texas-no-knock-swat-raid. It will depend on lots of things, including potentially various facts and circumstances, how the DA is feeling, whether the judge/jury is in a good mood, etc. but in general, you have a right to defend yourself if you believe you are in serious imminent danger.
That said - it might be hard to convince people you thought police were robbers. It is theoretically possible someone could use the ruse you propose, but in reality, I think it's vanishingly rare. Why? Robbers want your stuff, not a fight. People that want you, not your stuff, are much less common and probably could find a better place to get you besides in your house.
Even if you have a genuine belief you are in danger and really don't know they're cops, shooting at them is (a) probably an immediate sentence of death by cop and (b) otherwise a fairly harrowing self defense case.
I'll refrain from posting rants about abuses by police except to say that you are free and sometimes you have to protect freedom by putting other people in the ground.
Comment: This "People that want you, not your stuff, are much less common and probably could find a better place to get you besides in your house." supports the presumption that someone breaking into your home is a robber.
Answer: Self defence varies by jurisdiction but the following is a reasonable approximation (except in Colorado where it is the law):

In People v. La Voie, Supreme Court of Colorado, 395 P.2d 1001 (1964), The court wrote, "When a person has reasonable grounds for believing, and does in fact actually believe, that danger of his being killed, or of receiving great bodily harm, is immanent, he may act on such appearances and defend himself, even to the extent of taking human life when necessary, although it may turn out that the appearances were false, or although he may have been mistaken as to the extent of the real actual danger."

The evidence would be presented and the jury would decide if such "reasonable grounds" existed. In my opinion, they don't.
Comment: The reference from Wikipedia is not really correct.  If https://h2o.law.harvard.edu/cases/1511 is accurate, the quoted passage does appear in the *La Voie* decision, but it was quoted from an earlier decision, *Young v. People*, 47 Colo. 352, 107 P. 274.  Also, "immanent" should be "imminent".


Why does Thai have no words for "yes" or "no"?

Question: There are words like /chaj/ and /mej/, but as far as I understand they are not exactly yes and no.
Comment: It can be hard to answer "why" questions like this. There are other languages with no word for "yes" or "no", and there are languages with a word for one but not the other, or that have separate words for responding to negative vs. positive questions.
Comment: In Portuguese we have words for no and yes, but I hardly ever use the word for yes in informal situations. If I were to say "yes", I wouldn't say "sim"; I'd say "é" (it is) instead. But that's not like this in other accents.
Comment: Thai: yes is chai: ใช่, no is mai: ไม่. No idea why you believe they have no yes and no.
Answer: Short answer: Because Thai language has other tools for expressing polarity (affirmation and negation).

Polarity is a grammatical category for expressing the speaker's assertion that a certain clause is true (positive polarity, or affirmation) or false (negative polarity, or negation).
There are numerous linguistic tools to encode both polarities, and each language chooses its own set of these tools.
English has much more than simple "yes" and "no". Consider yea and nay, the two forms originally intended for answering questions "is it...?" (yes and no were originally used for answering inverted questions "is it not...?"
English also has an essential difference between no (negative), no (qualifier), and not.

As I said, Thai has different tools for expressing polarity:
First off, ไม่ [mâj] is a negative particle (NEG), quite similar to English not. Likewise in English, it is also used with verbs only:

ผมเอา [pʰǒm ʔaw] — I want¹
  ผมไม่เอา [pʰǒm mâj ʔaw] — I don't want¹

¹ hereinafter I'm skipping polite particles for brevity; don't omit polite particles in real speech.
The positive polarity is encoded with verbs; and the negative polarity simply adds the NEG particle mentioned above:

repeating the verb:

— คุณเอาไหม [kʰun ʔaw mǎj] — "do you want…?", literally "you want…, {INTERROG}"
  — เอา [ʔaw] — {I} want
  — ไม่เอา — [mâj ʔaw] — {I} don't want

an indirect flavor of "to be" is affirmed with ใช่ [tɕʰâj]:

— ฟ้าใสไหม [fáː sǎj mǎj] — {the} sky {is} clear, isn't it?
  — ใช่ [tɕʰâj] — {it} is.
Comment: @Miztli, thank you for attempting to help, but formatting IPA as code make screen readers process it char-by-char and never treat it as words in a random language. While I admit that some old systems' monospace fonts lack support of combining characters, this must be a client's problem, not this site's. See also: https://linguistics.meta.stackexchange.com/q/15/ for the rest of your edits where I'm going to thankfully accept proofreads, but not the removal of formatting.


Scientific articles linking personal-professional growth

Question: I am writing an allegation letter to obtain funds to enroll in an activity for personal development, although the frame in which I ask for the finds is in "transversal activities related to research career". I am a PhD Student. The response to the first letter I wrote asking for funds states that the activity I requested is too related to personal growth. So I am writing the allegation to say that professional growth goes together with personal growth, that they are inseparable, for example, in creative mental estates. So, can anyone help me by pointing to scientific articles that correlate both? Or, if my supposition is wrong, articles that prove that I am wrong?
Answer: There is a difference between personal development and professional development, although they can cross over each other.
Personal development
This can be achieved through

clinical supervision which is separate and completely different to line-management but necessary for effective line-management,
self-awareness through self-reflection and self-evaluation,
counselling where required

Professional Development
This is achieved through continuing training and learning, which is recognised by your governing body as training and learning which forms part of CPD (Continuous Personal Development).
Training and learning opportunities may range from formal classes and distance learning, perhaps working towards a qualification, to informal learning experiences, such as conferences, workshops, peer discussion groups, volunteering, and so on.
Some governing bodies award "CPD Points", for example, 1 hour of CPD may count as 1 point of CPD for the year.
The following are examples of CPD (not exhaustive):

Keeping up-to-date with current research and new books in your area of work
Expanding your knowledge outside your area of work (only if you intend on expanding the area of your work)
Organising further training, where relevant or to update existing skills.
Some of this can cross over into personal development where the knowledge and learning gained helps towards this.

Minimum CPD Required
The minimum required depends on your governing body so if you do not know, get in contact with them or you could lose your license to practice if you fail to meet the requirements.
The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), for example, expects all members to gain 30 hours of CPD per year as a minimum (BACP, n.d.) and the requirement forms part of their ethical framework everyone has to follow as a member of BACP.
References
BACP (n.d.). CPD Guidance for registered members [Online]Retreived from: https://www.bacp.co.uk/membership/registered-membership/guide-to-cpd


Change of plans in Schengen visa

Question: I have a Schengen visa issued from German consulate and my first entry and main entry country will be Germany. In my application form, I mentioned that I will visit Italy, too. However, I have changed my plans and I intend to go to Hungary instead of Italy. Is the exit country will be a problem for me? I mean is it possible that exit stamp from Hungary will be a problem in my future Schengen applications?
Comment: Whilst not an exact duplicate of http://travel.stackexchange.com/q/13362/1820 the principle of the visa having to be from the main country you stay in from the following answer will no doubt apply here.  So I think you'd be fine
Answer: It's very unlikely to be a problem. Importantly, your visa is perfectly valid for Hungary too. Showing up somewhere completely different and not going to the country that issued the visa might be a problem (see Should my first trip be to the country which issued my Schengen Visa? and Can I use my Schengen visa for a completely different purpose and entry point?) but if you went to Germany on a German visa and did not overstay, I doubt any consulate would care about the point of exit.

Change of plans in Schengen visa


What is weapon spread as it relates to Team Fortress 2?

Question: "Weapon Spread" seems to be a term used ofter in regards to "vanilla" servers in Team Fortress 2.  What does this term mean, and how does it relate to server settings and gameplay?
Comment: See the related topic of "Damage Spread": http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/3021/what-is-damage-spread-as-it-relates-to-team-fortress-2
Comment: @T I've heard people discuss having a "fixed weapon spread", as opposed to the "default weapon spread". It's my understanding that this is fundamentally different than damage spread, but I'm not super familiar with it.
Answer: Weapon Spread refers to the random pattern of "spread out" that pellet weapons in TF2 have when fired. As distance increases, each pellet that was fired spreads out.
Some pellet weapons in TF2 include (this is not a full list, more weapons are being added to TF2 pretty quickly recently):

Shotgun
Scattergun
Force-A-Nature
Frontier Justice

Some servers use a "fixed weapon spread", which means that the pellets still spread out, but do so in a nonrandom fashion, so that each shot is the same.
This is the fixed weapon pattern most commonly used:

This is controlled by the server setting: tf_use_fixed_weaponspreads 1. Some servers like to use this setting because they feel it removes more luck from the competition and makes the outcome of battles more based on skill.
However, one side effect of making this change is that due to the increased accuracy and reliability, pellet weapons become more powerful than they are normally.
Note that server setting does not have an impact on any other weapons than those listed above.
Some other weapons may appear to have weapon spread, but they in fact do not. They do however have inaccurate firing, and/or recoil that effects how straight a shot will go. In terms of TF2, weapon spread only refers to the situation where multiple projectiles are fired from a single shot, and spread out from each other as they travel.
Answer: "Weapon Spread" is how the shot from the weapon spreads out as it travels.
Basically you can think of it as a cone with it's apex at the muzzle of the gun and base at the extreme range of the weapon.
This can apply to weapons that fire multiple projectiles in one go - such as a shotgun or weapons that fire multiple projectiles sequentially - such as a minigun. Most of the projectiles will be in the centre of the cone, but a proportion will be at the extremes. This proportion could be constant or randomised (to a degree) at run-time.
This means that if you are closer to your target your shot will deal more damage as more of the projectiles will hit. It also means you don't have to be as accurate with your shots as a slightly off target shot will still deal some damage.
Comment: @Jeffrey - at least I managed to delete my answer from the other question before someone down-voted me for not answering the question.


Using free fonts for logos

Question: I want a typography logo for an application. If I use free fonts for that, can I just use them directly without mentioning the creator of the free font, or without linking the page where I download them? Or do I have to?
Comment: Depends on the licence and the applicable law in the territory concerned, neither of which you have stated. (In the UK, using a font does not infringe its copyright. Making an unlicensed copy of the font file does, though.)
Answer: Each font should have a licence that tells you exactly what you can or cannot do without it. Some require that you give them attribution, some require that you buy a licence if it's going to be used for commercial work. If you are unsure about the licence, contact the author of the font.
Answer: Spiral is right, you have to read the licence in order to see how you can use the font for free. I'm also a logo designer and when I need a free font for some commercial work I like to use http://www.fontsquirrel.com/ - a great collection of free fonts that can be used for commercial purposes.
Cheers!

Using free fonts for logos


Block apps from accessing the Internet on Android device

Question: In Android, is it possible to block apps from accessing the Internet? Many apps will often connect to remote servers in the background, including Google's own apps or system services. Over time this can eat away at a user's data limit set by a mobile carrier. Does Android allow an app to act as a firewall whereby the user can select which apps have access to the Internet? Or does the device have to be rooted to have that ability?
Comment: Also: [Allow only specific apps to use cell data, only when on 3G](http://android.stackexchange.com/q/37067)
Comment: possible duplicate of [How can I prevent my phone from using any kind of internet?](http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/5273/how-can-i-prevent-my-phone-from-using-any-kind-of-internet)
Comment: The closest duplicate we have is [Preventing mobile data use for select apps on non-rooted phone?](http://android.stackexchange.com/q/10414/440). But this explicitly asks for a non-root solution. Here we do not have this constraint.
Comment: Related: [How to view network traffic requested by a specific app?](https://android.stackexchange.com/a/204022/218526)
Comment: `On certain Android phones (Android 9.0 Pie onwards), you can do the same thing by going to "Settings -> Network & Internet -> Mobile network -> Data usage -> Network access", then controlling which apps have access to data and Wi-Fi using the check boxes.`

https://www.maketecheasier.com/block-internet-access-for-specific-android-apps/
Answer: If you don't have root access on the device, then you can use mobiwol to control the access various apps have to the Internet. Mobiwol creates a 'virtual' VPN connection on the device which allows control of the individual app connections. However, although the app starts when the device starts it is possible that there may be a brief period prior to Mobiwol executing in which apps could get Internet access despite the Mobiwol configuration.
If you have root access, there are more alternatives:

Remove the 'internet' permission using an app like Permissions Denied
If your kernel supports IPTables, you can use an app such as AFWall+ to control which apps have access to the internet.
Comment: Unfortunately, you can't change the sequence in which apps start on phone start-up and since the device isn't rooted you can't actually block apps from loading on start-up. The safest bet is to simply disable your mobile data and wifi prior to restarting your device, and then re-enable it once the device has restarted.
Comment: That's amazing. I spent time searching Google Play and could not find any apps, other than those that required rooting. Yet this app claims to be the only app that can do it without rooting. I'll give it a try. Is it possible in Android to arrange the order in which some apps boot up when the system starts?
Comment: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=inc.salzburg.company.easywall
I have created an app, which is easy to handle.
Comment: What if I want to block internet access from my keyboard? You know, just so it stops sending all my passwords out there. So without root, the only other way is compromising it with another app that can track everything...
Comment: @Dpedrinha here you might find some useful info: https://github.com/PhilippC/keepass2android/blob/master/docs/Documentation.md#should-i-use-the-kp2a-keyboard-for-entering-passwords
Answer: Without rooting your device, you won't have much choice: you can either disable the network when the app runs in foreground, as LinX64 suggested – or "hibernate" (suspend) it when it goes to background (is not actively used), as suggested by Dalvik. Of course, you could combine the two – which should effectively prevent that app from accessing the network. But still on the cost of bringing your entire network connection down as soon as you want to use that app.
With root-access, things look different: there are apps available dealing with other apps' permissions, allowing you to revoke some of them after you've installed that app. That way you could e.g. revoke the permission to access mobile data and/or WiFi just from that app: Your network connection would not be affected at all (so background-checks for mail and updates in WhatsApp/Viber/Skype/SE-App would keep working) – while the app-in-question would be told "there's no network available currently" (faking a "network down" just for that app).

Update:
Meanwhile there are Internet Firewalls available which also work on non-rooted devices. Simeon already mentioned Mobiwol – but a much better choice is NetGuard, available from F-Droid as well as from Playstore. Availability at F-Droid already indicates it's Open Source (almost a must in the security sector), and it comes for free. This is up to version 2.44 (added on 2016-08-06). Later versions from the Playstore have non-free dependencies, so the app is no longer updated in F-Droid's "official" repo anymore, and will likely not be. You still can obtain up-to-date versions via my F-Droid compatible repository, though.

NetGuard (Source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)
As you can see in the first screenshot, if gives you very granular control:

Generally forbid an app access to WiFi or mobile data
Permit an app access to WiFi or mobile data only when screen is on
Regardless of above settings, keep it from accessing mobile data when roaming

It's by far the best rated app in this section – and though I haven't tried it myself, I'd say it's the one to recommend if your device is not rooted. Update: Note that recent versions of Netguard include Google Ads as well as Firebase Analytics – two things which IMHO have no business in a firewall (or any other security) application – which most likely is the reason it is no longer updated on F-Droid's official repo (still available in mine with the appropriate warnings).
With root access available, the candidate most likely is AFWall+:

AFWall+ (source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)
Like NetGuard, this app is open source (available at F-Droid and at Google Play), and allows to control internet access by WiFi and mobile data separately. But while it is more powerful in some ways, it seems to lack NetGuard's features of "screen-on" and roaming control (or I didn't see that).
Comment: Thanks, @IsmaelMiguel – glitch on the keyboard (typing too fast, caught two neighbor keys at once). Be welcome [edit]ing out such typos yourself (earning some rep ;) // Temporary root in this case would only work as long as it's active: removing the *permission* would make most apps crash, so the "preventer" needs to "permanently fake the network-down" to the app. Same applies to most other permissions: apps get fed fake data like "empty calendar/contact list", "IMEI=0123456789", etc. instead of a real permission-removal. Safer this way :)
Comment: @IsmaelMiguel OK, that's a different situation. See e.g. [Revoke App Permissions Without Root?](http://android.stackexchange.com/q/24101/16575) and also check the questions "linked to it". And remember: Expect crashes – especially force-closes.
Comment: Thank you a lot! I would upvote you 100 times just for that! I would love to revoke the right for the bloody apps to start when I turn on the tablet, but it wouldn't have anything to do with this question and your answer. The link you provided would be a great plus on your question, in case the O.P. is as desperate as the other guy. But I will take a look at it. Once again, thank you a lot!
Comment: I'm not worried about being safe or not. I cracked the screen of my tablet out of rage because it was too slow. And the ROM where it is installed is protected against re-flashing. I don't even have a recovery menu! (The one with the power button and the volume key). And I'm not worried about apps crashing, as long as nothing else accesses the internet besides VNC.
Answer: Try the app No-Root Firewall.  It allows you to control what apps have Internet access over both wifi and cell data.  It works by setting up a VPN on your phone.
Answer: Droidwall
The app Droidwall will do this, but it requires a rooted android device. It works very well, though, giving you the option of allowing either cellular or wifi internet access to each app (or both or neither), as well as disabling the rules entirely while keeping the settings so you can easily give everything full normal access when desired, then go back to the rules easily without clicking a lot of options.

Afwall+
Afwall+ is another very similar app with some compelling additional features. It also lets you choose, on a per-app basis, access to wifi, 3G/4G, and additionally roaming which could be very useful for those who have roaming data charges.
It also allows profiles to be set up so you can easily change configurations without spending time setting all the app permissions if you want, for instance, different configuration for home vs work use.
Like all the other comprehensive solutions it also requires root access.
Comment: droidwall is old. Use AFWall+
Comment: Droidwall was bought by Avast. Avast now offers it in its app [here](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.avast.android.mobilesecurity&referrer=utm_source%3Dwww.avast.com%26utm_medium%3Dlink%26utm_content%3Dfree-mobile-security%26utm_campaign%3DAMS) on Play Store. As obvious, it needs root access.
Comment: @samsung: Could you please write a similar answer about AFWall+? Thanks!
Comment: @samsung thanks for the info, I've updated my answer with your suggestion.
Answer: Following are some apps that claims to be a firewall, mostly using IP-tables or VPN to restrict internet access to apps:
Root access not required:

Mobiwol
NoRoot Data Firewall
LostNet NoRoot Firewall

Root access required:

Root Firewall
MsWall Firewall
Advanced Firewall
DroFirewall
Antivirus and Security
Firewall Plus
Firewall Gold

Access not mentioned:

NetStop Firewall
App Firewall 2014

Note: These are those apps which were not covered in answers mentioned at the time of writing this answer. There can be many more in Play Store or on the web.
Answer: You can try the Greenify app.
It saves your battery as well as you data.  You can suspend the app and the app only runs when you open it.
Comment: This would only prevent the app accessing the network when it's not running in foreground; as soon as you want to use it, *Greenify* resumes ("un-hibernates") it, and it will access the network again.  OP asked "to prevent some apps from accessing to internet when wi-fi or mobile data is on" – not "when the app is in background". To me, that includes "when the app is in foreground" (i.e. actively used) – where *Greenify* wouldn't prevent network access. Unless that's a new feature I've missed, that is :)
Comment: Yepp, I wasn't saying "it's not an answer" (see [my answer](http://android.stackexchange.com/a/106985/16575), where I pointed that out with a few more details – and even linked yours) – just that it's "somehow incomplete". Don't get me wrong: Greenify is a great app – and yes, it's covering at least part of what the user wants. You've got that upvote for a reason :)
Comment: there is no such feature in greenify still :) ... I suggested this app because it will do what the user wants at some extent
Answer: For CyamogenMod Users
There is a built in Privacy Guard. (Settings -> Privacy)
It can prevent app from using Internet (wifi and/or mobile)
Answer: I am amazed no one has mentioned the Google solution, Datally. No root required. More information on the Google blog:
https://blog.google/technology/next-billion-users/meet-datally-new-way-understand-control-and-save-mobile-data/
Or download immediately from the Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.freighter
Comment: Best answer for me so far. No root, free, no malware.
Comment: Looks like this was yet another perfect app that Google decided to remove (they really don't like things that work TOO well).  Sigh.
https://9to5google.com/2019/10/17/google-datally/
Answer: Yes, with APK APP :
Net Blocker - Google Play
To block networks for specified apps:

1. Open "Net blocker"
2. Tap app that you would like to block it from accessing the Internet access
3. Check the network types that you'd like to block
4. "Net blocker" app will automatically disable the Internet connection when the blocked app is running in the foreground
5. A new notification icon will tell you which networks are blocked
6. Tap the notification icon to restore the Internet connection, tap again to disable the Internet

or, check the below link :
Block apps from accessing the Internet on Android device
Comment: It seems net blocker just turns off or on wi-fi and does nothing else.
Comment: That would mean bringing the entire network connection down as soon as that app is running – so no more update-checks (e.g. for new mails) or GCM notifications (WhatsApp etc.) in the background then. But yeah, without root, not much choice …
Answer: Well I would personally have a service running where I can get the currently running application like here
Also what you can do is that you can turn the mobile packet data off if the activity is the one which you want to block
like here in this example
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3644144/how-to-disable-mobile-data-on-android
except for this method I don't think there is a easy way you can deny internet to a application because it requested for it at the time of download itself.
Answer: You can also control which apps may access Internet with LostNet Firewall: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lostnet.fw.free
While your requirements are pretty simple and many apps can satisfy your needs,
with LostNet Firewall you can do a little research on the countries your apps connect to and, may be, you will completely block access to certain countries.
Comment: Please read the documentation regarding self-promotion in the [Help Center](http://android.stackexchange.com/help/behavior).
Answer: To disable mobile data from the carrier :

Make sure the sim card is in the phone and the phone is not in airplane mode , otherwise the option is not shown.
From Settings->Data Usage->Mobile data switch to off

Works for Samsung J3 2016
Answer: Force stopping an app in Android stops it from doing anything, even using the internet, unless you open up the app again. This mainly solves my problem most of the time. Or else restricting background data prevents all the apps from using the internet in the background, aside from some stock Android apps.
Comment: The first method is very inconvenient and way too extreme. I want to use a game or an app but don't want it to connect to internet. Clearly, force-stopping isn't the way to go here. The second method won't be restricting my active game or app to access the internet either. Maybe a bit more research on the situation would help you to post a  more relevant answer.
Comment: Most apps have wakeup services programmed to undo exactly that
Answer: I use Easy Battery Saver. Choose super power mode and configure the apps that allowed to accessing network.
Comment: A link to the app would be useful. Could you make it clear whether this app needs root?


(When) are police required to identify themselves?

Question: It was my understanding that when a citizen asks for an officer's name and badge number, they're required to provide it to you (in Michigan).
Is there a law pertaining to this? If so, is it only the case if I'm being detained, cited, or arrested, or any time I request?
Comment: A quick internet search suggests that most states do not have laws requiring police officers to identify themselves but that many police departments do have *policies* to that effect.
Comment: I suspect that there is a difference between a person who doesn't identify himself as a police officer, and a person who claims to be a police officer. So if a drug dealer asks a potential customer "are you a police officer" a police officer is allowed to lie. If a police officer tries to arrest the drug dealer then he probably has to show proof that he is a police officer and not a random person pretending to be one.
Comment: Are you asking in the scope of uniformed officers who are on duty? If so can you edit your question to include that?
Comment: Notwithstanding the fact the citizen's arrests are still legal in many (most?) parts of the US, the fact that a police department has a policy means that it may be unlawful for them not to produce identification as adherence to the policies may be a requirement of their employment contract, and _so_ failure to do so may be a breach of contract. Note that in this case, only the employer is entitled to seek remedy.
Answer: I can't prove a negative, but it seems quite clear from my research that providing name and badge number is policy, not law. i.e. Many departments have a policy that their officers will provide name and badge number on request, but the punishment for failure to do so would be at the employment level not the legal level.
This site has a fairly good selection of various police department policies
I will note that Massachusetts appears to be an exception as mentioned by jimsug in his comment to another answer, they do require police to carry and show ID upon legal request (I did not look up what a "legal request" is)
Answer: Contrary to the myth, police are not required to identify themselves as such, unfortunately.
Comment: This doesn't provide a citation or reference to a particular law that answers the question being asked above.
Comment: This answer is incorrect in at least MA - https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleVII/Chapter41/Section98d police are required to carry and produce identification upon lawful request.
Comment: @jimsug: It says "for processes of identification". I think that might apply to anyone who _claims_ to be a police officer or walks around in a police uniform, but not someone who doesn't want to be recognised as a police officer.
Comment: @jimsug Note that there's at least some leeway in that: Massachusetts undercover cops aren't expected to carry IDs (in fact, they're probably expected *not* to).
Comment: @JasonAller, correct. There is no law to cite that requires an officer to provide their name and badge number
Comment: @cpast Sure. But an answer that doesn't make that qualification or else limit itself to some jurisdiction is at least partially incorrect.
Comment: @jimsug, is a law that is not enforced or posses no penalty constitute a requirement? Is there a penalty defined for MA?