How to thin chocolate for dipping

Question: How do you make chocolate thin enough to dip strawberries?
If I make it thin enough to dip (with butter) will that affect allowing it to set-up and harden?
I saw another question about the thickness but nothing about hardening.
Answer:
How do you make chocolate thin enough to dip strawberries?

Melt it. I'm not trying to be funny here -- you should have no problem dipping strawberries or pretty much anything else (that's solid) in melted chocolate. When candy makers coat things in chocolate, that's all they're using -- they don't add anything to make the chocolate thinner. If you're really having trouble in this respect, then perhaps your chocolate isn't fully melted, or perhaps it's something other than real chocolate.
If you want the chocolate to be "tempered" when it hardens/dries/crystalizes, you're going to have to read up on tempering and be pretty careful with the temperature (but you'll end up with a superior product if you do).

If I make it thin enough to dip (with butter) will that affect
  allowing it to set-up and harden?

Yes, that will definitely affect the way the chocolate sets up. When chocolate hardens, the cocoa butter contained in the chocolate forms crystals. The crystals can actually take several different forms, and only one of those forms makes for the best appearance and hardness. That's why you temper chocolate, btw. Adding other substances, particularly another fat, will affect or prevent that crystallization process.
Comment: I assume I'm not using real chocolate. I didn't think to add that to my question. in fact it is beanut butter/chocolate mix. thanks for the tips!
Comment: I would like to add that sometimes chocolate for dipping does have additional cocoa butter added to help the texture when it's melted. This will solidify at the same temperature as regular chocolate (and it's a component of chocolate, so it's not adding anything that's not already present).
Answer: Caleb has great answer that pretty much covers it.
The only thing I would add is this: If you want to lower the melting point of your chocolate (or keep it liquid longer), I add cream.
The cream stops it from solidifying quickly, which is great if you have fondue set which is warmed with a candle.

It also doesn't affect the flavour (much).
Be careful though, adding too much can stop it from solidifying at all.
Answer: adding just a little melted wax works fine for me, and helps it set up when it cools. I do this particularly for dark chocolate, which is really too thick for dipping.

How to thin chocolate for dipping


Should we add "PTIJ:" in the title of all Purim Torah questions?

Question: Should there be a rule to have to add "PTIJ:" before the title on all Purim Torah questions? This way it seems that people won't click on a question without overlooking the fact it's a Purim Torah.
Comment: @Daniel You can't see tags easily on mobile or in the related question list or the hot network questions list or with an rss reader or...
Comment: When I'm looking for serious issues, the flood of PTIJ questions can sometimes get annoying. I think prepending the title is a good way to be able to visually skip over them and not waste time when someone is not looking for PT.
Comment: I think this is something that some people have done in the past, but it seems like people should be able to tell from the question's tag that it's PTIJ.
Answer: status-completed Ok we're implementing this. Please do this for all new questions. (Don't bump an old question just for this, but if you are bumping it anyway then go ahead and do this too.)

I suggested this at https://judaism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/3838/759
It is currently voted +10/-3.
I still strongly support it. How does it hurt to be more clear?
Comment: Agreed. It never hurts to be more clear.


Who was Thalia's mother?

Question: I do not mean Thalia the muse/grace/nereid. I speak of Thalia the nymph, daughter of Hephaestus. She has a stub Wikipedia page that says Zeus forced he in the form of an eagle and buried her body to avoid Hera's jealousy. But , it makes no note of who Thalia's mother was.
Answer: I've done some preliminary research, and found nothing on Thaleia.
This is one of those wonderful little "mythical myths" where the only sources are secondary: all we know of this nymph comes from a mention in ancient text "The Life of Aeschylus" with no author attributed. The mention is apparently in relation to a lost play of Aeschylus.
So that's all the information there is, and it's highly unlikely there will be any more information forthcoming.

PS- thanks for raising this question.  The wikipedia article should be amended to use the spelling in the sole reference, Thaleia, because the current spelling in the wiki injects needless confusion.
Comment: Θάλεια to *Thalīa* is a very standard transformation on the standard route from Greek to English via Latin. It is accompanied by a shift in accentuation from the antepenult (third-to-last syllable) to the penult (second-to-last syllable). Greek ει generally transliterates into Latin as ī, which in the penult must take the accent in Latin. The same thing happens with Ιφιγένεια becoming Iphigenīa.
Comment: @BrianDonovan I don't disagree, just that, who made the call when opening up the wiki for this?  It confused me because I had to reconcile the source with the spelling of the wikipedia page.  If would be another story if the wiki had reference to peer reviewed papers making a link between the Muse/Grace Thalia and the nymph Thaleia (so that the confusion is warranted.)   I'll also note that, although Theoi is not an academic site, I've found it to be quite reliable, and the main stub there uses "Thaleia"
Comment: @BrianDonovan Essentially, the only reference to this nymph comes from an 1873 dictionary of mythology, referencing commentary on a lost play.  The source (*A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology*, Smith) is available online at Perseus, where the entry is listed as "Thaleia": http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aentry%3Dthaleia-bio-3
Answer: We don't really know... although I have a theory.
Several ancient sources mention this nymph Thaleia (or Thalia) but only one, Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Palikê, says anything about her parentage.
One of the dozens of the lost works of the playwright Aeschylus is mentioned by other authors using so many different versions of its title that there is a fair amount of modern debate about which title is the "real" one among Aitne (or Aetna), Aitnai and Aitnaiai, whose meanings would each signify rather different concepts affecting the (speculative) interpretation of the play's content.
Aitna
According to Stephanus, this Aitna/i/ai play is the source for Hephaistos [Hephaestus] being Thaleia's father. No mother is mentioned. I think, though, that it's probably Aitna/Aitne [Aetna].
Thaleia's primary role in the mythology is to become the mother, by Zeus, of the twin Sicilian daemons called the Palikoi [Palici]. There is also scholarly debate about whether or not the Aeschylus play referenced by Stephanus contained, as part of its main plot, Thaleia's abduction by Zeus and the subsequent birth of the Palikoi, as laid out, e.g., in Letizia Poli-Palladini's 2001 article "Some Reflections on Aeschylus' Aetnae(ae)" in the Journal for the Rheinisches Museum für Philologie. Perhaps such information as Thaleia's mother's identity was revealed in the play.
According to Servius' Commentary on Virgil's Aeneid 9.584, there are "others" who say that the Palikoi  are the sons, not of Zeus and Thaleia, but of Hephaistos and Aitna (i.e. under their Roman names Vulcan and Aetna, since Servius is writing in Latin).
If we combined those two sources, we have (what I figure is a plausible) alternate tradition which excludes Zeus and in which Hephaistos is the father of Thaleia as well as of the Palikoi, with Aitna being the mother of all three offspring.
Thaleia = Aitna ?
The inclusion of Aitna as a character in this throws further confusion onto the pile. Louise Mary Savocchi, in her 2012 Master's thesis "The Deinomenids of Sicily: The Appearance and Representation of a Greek Dynastic Tyranny in the Western Colonies," mentions an idea which is contested in Poli-Palladini's article, i.e., that Thaleia and Aitna are actually aliases for the same personage.
If this is the case, that would cast the answer to your Question towards the (at least) three different versions of Aitna's parentage, in only one of which her mother is explicitly named, and that is where is appears as a daughter of Ouranos (the Sky) and Gaia (the Earth).
In the different appearances of Aitna, it is tricky to tell whether she is supposed to be "a nymph, woman, city and/or a volcano," especially in connection with the Aeschylus play, as pointed out by David G. Smith in "The Reception of Aeschylus in Sicily," which is Ch. 1 of Brill's Companion to the Reception of Aeschylus (ed. Rebecca Futo Kennedy, 2017).
It would make sense for the personification of the volcanic Mt Aetna to be a daughter of Heaven and Earth. There are, however, less common occurrences of Aitna as a daughter of the Hundred-Handed Giant Briareus or of the Titan Okeanos [Oceanus].
Maternity is not provided for the latter two versions, although we could perhaps guess fairly easily in either case. Briareus' wife Kymopoleia [Cymopoleia] is a likely candidate in the former, while either Tethys (Okeanos' wife) or Gaia (the mother of some of Okeanos' other children) is probably intended in the latter.
Beyond all that dot-connecting, though, we are simply not told by whom Thaleia is supposed to have been borne to Hephaistos, a parallel that occurs with about half of all the fire-god's children.

Who was Thalia's mother?


Upgrade using downloaded $40 to Win8 x64 to blank SSD using only retail 32Bit XP install CD

Question: I have purchased the downloadable $40 UPGRADE version of Windows 8.
I want to install this upgrade to a new/blank SSD drive WITHOUT prior installation of retail version of XP/service pack 3 (preferred).
I have the retail purchased 32Bit XP installation media and I also have a slipstreamed disc that contains service pack 2.  This 32bit XP license was installed to a desktop PC that I have NOT used for years (its broke).
Questions:
Can I upgrade using the $40 download upgrade version from retail 32Bit XP to 64Bit Windows 8 directly to new SSD? without first installing 32bit XP to new SSD? If 32bit XP needs to be installed to perform the upgrade to 64bit Win 8 is service XP service pack 3 still available; likewise, if the boxed retail version of XP 32bit is required to be pre-installed to the new SSD before attempting the downoladed $40 upgrade to 64Bit Win, can a clean install be performed or is a undesired actual upgrade performed?
From what I have read this is way to complicated.  Ideally, I should be able to install $40 upgrade version Win 64bit directly to new/blank SSD, then during the license verification process enter both the Win8 64Bit upgrade key and retail XP 32bit key (over internet or phone call).
Answer:
Install this upgrade to a new/blank SSD drive WITHOUT prior
  installation of retail version of XP/service pack 3 (prefered).

You are not allowed to do this per the license.  The license you purchase will require the Windows XP installation.

I have the retail purchased 32Bit XP installation media and I also
  have a slipstreamed disc that contains service pack 2. This 32bit XP
  license was installed to a desktop PC that I have NOT used for years
  (its broke).

If its an OEM license you won't be able to migrate it to the machine you want to install Windows 8 on.

Can I upgrade using the $40 download upgrade version from retail 32Bit
  XP to 64Bit Windows 8 directly to new SSD? without first installing
  32bit XP to new SSD?

Legally, no

If 32bit XP needs to be installed to perform the upgrade to 64bit Win
  8 is service XP service pack 3 still available; likewise, if the boxed
  retail version of XP 32bit is required to be pre-installed to the new
  SSD before attempting the downoladed $40 upgrade to 64Bit Win, can a
  clean install be performed or is a undesired actual upgrade performed?

You need to install the license, then select "Clean Install", that is all thats required to install Windows 8 x64.

From what I have read this is way to complicated. Ideally, I should be
  able to install $40 upgrade version Win 64bit directly to new/blank
  SSD, then during the license verification process enter both the Win8
  64Bit upgrade key and retail XP 32bit key (over internet or phone
  call).

Its not complicate at all, you just brought the wrong product, the System Builder OEM license is what you wanted to purchase.


Does touching semen make you junub?

Question: If someone became junub, then he made ghusl without washing his trousers, but then he washes the trousers after the ghusl. Does touching the maniy (semen) in this case make you junub, thus requiring to make another ghusl?
Answer: First of all janabah is the state after emission of semen be it via intercourse (be it legal or illegal), masturbation or a wet dream.
And for leaving this state and being able to pray and worship Allah we are required to perform ghusl:

... And if you are in a state of janabah, then purify yourselves. But if you are ill or on a journey or one of you comes from the place of relieving himself or you have contacted women and do not find water, then seek clean earth and wipe over your faces and hands with it. Allah does not intend to make difficulty for you, but He intends to purify you and complete His favor upon you that you may be grateful. (5:6)

However scholars differed about the reason for this ghusl some say it is the state itself (and only or more exactly the act of emission of semen) others considered semen as a najasah (too) that must be cleaned during the ghusl after janabah.
As for the semen itself scholars differed about it being najis or tahir due to the fact that there are ahadith saying once that it was washed out of the clothes and another time says that it was scratched out once dry.
But there's no backup for a necessity of any "purity" ritual after touching it if a person was in a tahir state (by ghusl for example). As for the case that it is regarded as impure (najis) the fact that it is washed out with water which is a "clean and cleaning" tool in fiqh there's no necessity to do taharah on oneself. And for the case that it is regarded as pure (tahir) there's no issue here at all.
Answer:
Does touching the maniy (semen) in this case make you junub?

The answer is: No
Evidence of this is what 'Aisha (rad) said in Hadith Sahih:

Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) used to wash the semen and then go out for
  prayer in that (very) garment and I could still see the trace of the
  washing on it. [Agreed upon]
(Narrated by "Bukhari" (229) and "Muslim" (289)) [1]

In Arabic

عَنْ عَائِشَةَ رَضِيَ اَللَّهُ عَنْهَا, قَالَتْ: { كَانَ رَسُولُ اَللَّهِ - صلى الله عليه وسلم -يَغْسِلُ اَلْمَنِيَّ,
ثُمَّ يَخْرُجُ إِلَى اَلصَّلَاةِ فِي ذَلِكَ اَلثَّوْبِ, وَأَنَا أَنْظُرُ إِلَى أَثَرِ اَلْغُسْلِ فِيهِ } مُتَّفَقٌ عَلَيْه ِ

Summary
Based on the content in Hadith the semen is pure (Taher) and doesn't require ghusl if you touched him by your hand when you washing your trousers
Note: The ghusl is required when semen is exit lustily (Shahwa)
I hope my answer is clear.
And Allah knows best!
References

[1] Bulugh al-Maram 27 (Chapter: The Cleansing of Najasah and its nature)
For more information Please, Take a look at this hadith , this hadith and These Hadiths

Does touching semen make you junub?


The forum deleted a post without saying why

Question: I am a member of a forum concerned with camping, caravanning and campers and I applied for insurance of my camper which was duly granted.  A day or so latter it was withdrawn without reason so I asked.  The reply was that the underwriters declined to insure people over 80 years of age so I complained to the Underwriters who refused to justify their stance on the cop out grounds that it would breach their confidential base.
I wrote a post criticising the underwriters saying that the forum should not deal with such organisations and my post was simply deleted with no reason given and they refuse to say why after a number of requests.
Is there any control that supervises forums that I can complain to?
Comment: No, I don't know of any. And if you don't mention what forum or country, this is hard to answer anyway.
Comment: Not an answer about your forum but a suggestion about your situation.  There are a number of cowboy insurers in the UK camper market.  You will be better served by posting a review on the likes of Trustpilot.  It is likely to reach more eyeballs.  Remember that many forums are sponsored by these insurers - that can also lead to deletion of negative posts.
Answer: Anybody can set up a forum using whatever rules that person wants.  There is no overall authority over forums.  Forum owners are bound by the laws where they and their servers live (for example, laws about handling young users, copyright, and so on), but that's it.
There is no law that says that the owner of a forum has to host all submissions or explain deletions.  If you want to find out why your post was deleted, your best route is to politely and constructively use whatever path they provide for issues about the forum -- a meta site (like Stack Exchange), a "talk" page (like Wikipedia), or a contact link.


Do old LEGO bricks contain lead, cadmium, or other hazardous elements?

Question: I have a set of LEGO bricks from Denmark and they were made in the late 1960's; should I be concerned about my son playing with them because of any danger of lead, cadmium, or other substances in the product?
Answer: No, you should not be concerned about lead.  LEGO has always used lead-free colors in their elements, even back in the beginning.
However, not all LEGO-compatible bricks are lead free.  For example, Mega Bloks, which are made in China, suffered from the poor quality control that led to massive recalls over lead-tainted products a few years ago.

David Clerk, the magazine's publisher and the executive director of
  Les Editions Protégez-Vous, said that after consulting with Health
  Canada, the magazine hired an independent lab in Quebec to perform
  what he called a "total lead test" on 32 toys, including the Maxi
  blocks.
Essentially, the process involves scraping off a sample of the toy's
  plastic, dissolving it in acid and then analyzing the solution.
When the results were returned by a lab, which Clerk said he could not
  identify because of a confidentiality agreement, a yellow Maxi block
  was the only toy that exceeded the 600-parts-per-million limit for
  lead set by Canada and the United States. Blue and red Maxi blocks
  showed no lead at all.
For confirmation, the magazine tested a second yellow block. It
  contained 1,180 parts per million of lead, nearly double the initial
  result.
Comment: Ouch, "Protegez-vous" is a Quebec (Canada) magazine - their headquarter country.
Answer: While this question was asked in 2012, in late 2018 there was a flurry of inflammatory headlines and blog posts on the topic. The origin of these is a January 2018 study "Concentrations and Migratabilities of Hazardous Elements in Second-Hand Children's Plastic toys", in the scientific journal Environmental Science & Technology, by Andrew Turner, open access. The author also gave a needlessly provocative (in my view) quote to the BBC: "Lego bricks from the 70s and 80s are the big fail".
The study compared a couple dozen vintage plastic toys to modern European safety standards for nine hazardous elements, including lead and cadmium. Among other things, it found that a few colors of LEGO bricks exceeded modern standards for cadmium (but not lead). The key findings are in Table 3 on page 4 of the PDF. So then the question becomes: is this a genuine safety concern?
The specific standard in question is related to swallowing: "ingestion of a small quantity of material and defined by 2 [hour] extraction under simulated gastric conditions". Being hard plastic, LEGOs fall under the "scraped-off" standard (as opposed to "brittle, powder, pliable" or "liquid, sticky") of 23 micrograms cadmium per gram of LEGO (µg/g) (Table 1).
The worst-scoring LEGOs were red bricks from "sets that appear to have been purchased in the 1970s". These had 274 µg/g of cadmium, about 12× the limit.
My own view as a layperson (scientist in a different field) is that this is not a significant health concern for LEGOs, for two reasons. First, safety standards are appropriately quite conservative, so consuming a small number of bricks I would guess is not a problem. More importantly, however, consuming LEGO bricks presents far more serious mechanical risks (choking, intestinal damage, etc.).
DUPLOs may be a little different since their audience is definitely the chew-on-stuff crowd. However, it seems the risk is swallowing material rather than licking the blocks, so any child scraping off a non-trivial amount of material with their teeth also risks breaking off and swallowing larger fragments, again putting us into mechanical territory.
Bottom line in my view, don't eat your LEGOs and don't let your kids eat them, but the reason is not cadmium.
(Quotations from the study unless otherwise specified.)
Answer: Read this blog post on the topic
https://tamararubin.com/2019/05/vintage-1970s-legos-test-positive-for-a-high-level-of-a-known-carcinogen-how-can-i-tell-if-my-legos-are-safe/
Comment: Hi Anne and welcome to Bricks.SE! Thank you for your contribution, but please consider that linked resources are necessarily ephemeral and may change or vanish any time or may simply not be available for everyone. Therefore it is generally considered a good practice to include the relevant parts or a summary of the linked article as a quote to prevent future link rot.
Answer: Wrong. Lego had lead in its bricks up to 1984. The probability of finding lead in Lego bricks exponentially over the years, but there was still a small probability of finding lead in the early 1980s.
Here is one article that covers the topic.
https://offspring.lifehacker.com/your-old-legos-might-be-toxic-1822608757
Comment: Here's a [link to the original study](https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.7b04685?journalCode=esthag#). It might be interesting to note that it was *not* lead, but cadmium that was found in Lego bricks.
Comment: According to your own source and the test linked in that article you can see that none of "LEGO" bricks listed under "construction" category have any Lead/Pb detected.


Scale raster in ArcGIS using raster calculator

Question: I have a raster with values ranging from 0 to 8991130624. This raster is actually the result of a cost distance analysis.
I want to scale the raster to range from 0 to 1 and take the inverse? so that a cell with the highest cost/value (e.g. 8991130624) will now have a value of 0 while a cell with the lowest cost/value (e.g. 0) will now have a value of 1.
I am using raster calculator with the following expression:
1-(x/8991130624)
where I add x to the expression by clicking on the raster from the list of available rasters when using the tool
This is not working and producing an error:
"ERROR 000539: Error running expression; rcexec() :ERROR 999998:Unexpected Error."
Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?
Answer: Make sure you have spaces on either side of the mathematical operators:
<code>1 - (x / 8991130624)
</code>


Is "dataset size" and "model size" same thing?

Question: I mean what is determine my model size, connection amount between layers and neurons, or size of my dataset?
Answer: Dataset and model refer to different things. Dataset means part of data available for training (training dataset) or validation (validation dataset). Model is the learning process goal, the state of the computer "brain" after it has been fully educated (or made its learning). Model size refers to size of the container which contains the model. In deep learning it can be measured by width and depth of the network used, I also found a site comparing different models by npy file size, that physically contains the generated model as computer code. In that case model contained a more complex structure which was documented and size in bytes was for comparison purposes.
So in short, it is roughly speaking the size of layers and neurons, if I have to take one of your options. Dataset is a different thing.
More precise explanation about what is model and what is dataset:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-different-models-in-machine-learning
Comment: Thank you for your answer
I understand that size of dataset doesn't effect the size of model.
For example I have keras sequential model with 3 layers of `Dense()` with 64 units each. This amount of layers and units detmermine the size of model and this size is not depend on what size of dataset I use (1 GB or 50GB) right?
Comment: That is my understanding. The model is more accurate the more you train it, but that does not add the size, at least on Deep Learning where I am familiar with.


I have anxiety and hard time asking questions because I am concerned that I can be identified

Question: This is not my first question about privacy at Meta. In the recent year, I got more paranoid, but the following question where a user asked something, and literally, everyone can find out who he is, returned my fear of being exposed. I am so afraid that people can do even with me, that I hide my real name.
What should I do to release this stress, since my first point of joining here is to liberate myself from fear?
Or maybe SE is not for me?
Answer:
where a user asked something, and literally, everyone can find out who he is

Yes, but this user clearly gives away identifying information. That's their own responsibility.

what should I do to release this stress since my first point of joining here is to liberate myself from fear?

You can:

Avoid an account name (or any personal details) that bear a connection to you.
Make an account for the sole purpose of asking your question.
This way you avoid that somebody can deduce your identity from your other posts on the site.
Note that if you do this, you must avoid any interaction between your two accounts, such as voting for each other (see this Meta post for details).
After you drafted your post, check it as follows:
Imagine yourself in the position of a stranger reading the post, and see if it's possible to discover the identity of the poster with the information from the question and what's generally available on the Internet.
Even better: Ask somebody you trust to do this for you.
Remove all irrelevant details that are irrelevant to the question or swap them to obfuscate your identity.
For example, swap the gender of a person involved if you are sure that gender does not pertain to the question.
Note that this is a bit risky, as you may not know which details are actually relevant to the question.
Ask somebody you trust to write (not post) your question for you to avoid being identifiable by your writing style.

Or maybe SE is not for me?

As long as you use a separate account for your question, I would say that you are as safe from identification as anywhere else on the public Internet.
Comment: @SSimon: The technical term is *sockpuppetting,* but: yes, as long as you do not do anything that you could not do with a single account (see the linked post on Meta SE).
Comment: Oh, so cloning is allowed on stak exchange? @wrzlprmft?
Comment: I don't understand "Try to uncover your identity from the question you wish to ask. Even better: Ask somebody you trust to do this for you."  I can't edit it to make it clearer because I can't figure out what you mean with that bullet point.  Could you explain your idea in a comment, please?
Comment: @aparente001: See my edit.
Comment: Thanks.  Check my edit, please -- did I understand your idea right?  (At first, I thought when you wrote "uncover," you meant the opposite -- "cover up"!) // If my edit is correct, I will separately write a comment about that part of your answer -- but first I'd like to be sure I understood your idea.
Comment: @aparente001: Yes, I updated a bit, but you got it quite well.
Comment: OK, I like the addition of what's generally available on the internet.  I guess I'm not as concerned about this bullet point as I was.  (I was imagining the effect on a person with a lot of anxiety, to get instructions on how to obsess even more about the intrusive thought.  But now I think I'm okay with this bullet point because it gives an objective procedure to follow.)


Water draining from a height into the bottom of a reservoir

Question: If I hang one 5 gal. Bucket directly above another, put a hole in the bottom of the upper bucket with a tube inserted just inside hanging all the way to the bottom of the lower bucket and fill the upper, will it drain completely into the bottom bucket?
Answer: Yes, at least if you ignore the little droplets that leave the bottom of the upper bucket a little damp.  There will also be some water in the tube, but it won't be much higher than the level of the water in the lower bucket.  (There might be some capillary action that raises it a little, but probably not much.)
I suspect the reason you ask this is because you wonder if the pressure at the top of the tube will be lower than the pressure at the bottom of the tube -- because the bottom will be immersed under a bucketful of water, but the top of the tube will have no pressure.  And indeed, that pressure difference will be there.  So it might seem as if the water should want to drain from high pressure to low, and thus up the tube.
The reason it doesn't do that is because of the weight of the water in the tube itself.  Once the draining is done, the pressure just inside the bottom of the tube will equal the pressure just outside it in the lower bucket, which means that the water won't move any more.  The source of the pressure in the tube is exactly the same as the source of pressure in the bucket: the weight of the water above.
Answer: Yes, provided you wait an infinite length of time :)
First, forget the tube. It has no effect on the problem, except maybe to minimize splashing.
Assuming the rate of flow out of the top bucket is proportional to the pressure at the hole, you can write a 1-term linear differential equation for the amount of fluid in that bucket, for which the solution is an exponential decay.
In the field of Pharmacokinetics, the flow of drug compound from gut to plasma to/from tissue to/from liver and kidney are modeled in terms of "compartments", where compartments are essentially the same as your buckets, connected by tubes.


Mobile App Patent

Question: I would like to know, if a basic search of patent database will give me an idea on whether my idea is patent-able? or I need to perform any specific patentiblity search?
Answer: You can perform a patentability search by searching on Google patents and on the USPTO to figure out generally what has already been patented and what patent applications have been filed.  However, in the US you when you file a patent application you can elect to not have anything published until the application issued as a patent as long as you agree to not file outside of the United States.
You can spend a small amount of time searching or a very large amount of time searching and may find some things but you may miss other things.  Performing a search is generally a good idea, but it is not a failsafe.  Keep in mind that you do not have to perform a search before filing an application, but it may save you time and money down the road because you may decide to not move forward with filing an application.  In addition, if you do perform a search, and find related prior art, you have the duty of disclosing the related prior art to the USPTO.

Mobile App Patent


how can i add a menu link that goes to an external page

Question: i started a new blog and i see that there are two pages it starts out with:

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i want to add a third one but instead of having it load up an internal page, i want to have this go to an external link.  is this possible ?
Answer: Admin Dashboard -> Appearance -> Menus
If the theme is WP 3.0 ready, you will have an option to add a custom link (ie external link) on the left side, and you can drag and drop it into the order you want.
Justin Tadlock wrote an awesome post about 3.0 menus - http://justintadlock.com/archives/2010/06/01/goodbye-headaches-hello-menus
If your theme isn't 3.0 ready, I believe you can still use the custom menu widget.
Answer: If memory serves, look under the pages. If not, somewhere else in the menu editor. Somewhere in there youve the possibility to enter an arbitrary URL.
Answer: If your Theme is not 'Menu' ready, I suggest you to use my plugin 'Redirector'
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirector/
After activating the plugin you have a new meta box on the 'page' screen.
There you can select any of your pages or an external url


Neural Network - Sparsity of collaborative based filtering and modelling the prediction problem

Question: I'm fairly new to machine learning and for that matter, neural networks, but for the past couple of days I decided to take a stab at a fairly classical and practical problem of neural networks/machine learning which is recommendation systems.
Apologies if this is an unnecessarily broad question, but I found it hard to read up on resources answering this particular question. My main question is, how do you even model the problem (or what directions/advice is there on how to model it)?
Let $M$ denote the set of all movies you can recommend, each of which have an associated $id$ to them. What exactly would the input to the model be (and the output) and how would you segregate the training data and the observed results? For example, if I have a row of training data (row of size $|M|$ and each entry is a number between $1$ and $10$ that denotes the user's rating, or $0$ if the user has not seen it yet), would I just remove, say half of the user's ratings that are between $1$ and $10$ (so are meaningful) and replace them with $0$ in the training row and then in my observed row (for testing) it would be the entire row with no missing ratings like illustrated below?
$$\underbrace{[9 \ 0 \ 0 \ 5 \ 7 \ 0 \ ... \ 8 \ 0 \ 10 \ 0]}_{Information} \rightarrow \underbrace{[0 \ 0 \ 0 \ 0 \ 0 \ 0 \ ... \ 8 \ 0 \ 10 \ 0]}_{Training} \rightarrow \underbrace{[9 \ 0 \ 0 \ 5 \ 7 \ 0 \ ... \ 8 \ 0 \ 10 \ 0]}_{Observed} $$
A few naive ways that are obvious are:
Input size = $|M|$, output size = $|M|$
Each input neuron is given the associated user rating for the $i^{th}$ movie. Assume some number of intermediate layers and then we get to the output size, which is $|M|$ output neurons each of which attempt to predict the predicted rating of the user for that movie. This seems weird, because basically almost all of the input neurons will be given $0$ and almost all of the output neurons will try to output $0$ (since it's likely a user has only seen an insignificant portion of all $|M|$ movies). This doesn't seem like the neural network will learn anything useful. And what do I do for movies that the user hasn't seen? Do I just consider this a $0$ loss? So the loss function for neuron $i$ is just:
$$\text{Loss}(y^{(i)}) = 0 \ \text{if the user hasn't seen ith movie, otherwise: } \ \phi{(y^{(i)}, t^{(i)})}$$
Where $\phi$ is some loss function of the neuron predicted output $y^{(i)}$ and the observed value (the actual user rating) $t^{(i)}$. I find it difficult to believe that this will yield any useful ratings though..since the loss has no effect on the nonsensical outputs of my neural network (it doesn't affect the $i^th$ neurons' values if the user hasn't seen it yet). This also poses the problem of how a prediction will be made then. Do I just take all the highest predicted values from the neural network and return the respective movies?
Because of the above problems, I tried to express the model differently, but I don't think there is anyway to overcome the sparsity of the data and also the fact that the output size must be $|M|$ as I can't have it try to predict discrete integer movie ids. Could someone please enlighten me on this topic or provide some possible insight to obvious mistakes I am making?
Answer: You don't have to use full input and output vectors to predict the ratings for a user.
Use the embedding idea and make pairs of (user_id,movie_id) for training. So your input could be like this: (112,1456)=7, it means the user with id number 112 watched the movie number 1456 and the rating was 7.So the size of embedding for the User is  |unique users|  and movies are |unique movies| you call it |M|.
With this trick, we changed the structure of the problem to what we already know. It's regression!
Now you can add all the bias(and whatever you want) to movies and users embeddings. Use the known loss functions for regression like
RMSE and you all set. For sure you can add other linear layers, relu, and dropouts on top of this embeddings and make it just like fully connected NN and get even better results.


Bluetooth settings shows the error "No bluetooth adaptor found"

Question: I'm gettng a "No bluetooth adaptor" found message under blutooth settings when i have an adaptor and it's on.
Why?
I have a sony vaio cr343nb.
Answer: I found  the answer, well not exactly but it worked.I had to enable the bluetooth that i had disabled on my windows partition and then boot from my Ubuntu pen drive and it recognized the bluetooth device and worked perfectly. thanks
Answer: The Linux kernel was not made to work with proprietary drivers, so it's possible that if you're computer was manufactured with windows/mac in mind, there will be components that don't work. For instance, my dvd drive won't eject unless I push the button.Ubuntu has a compatibility site here:     http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/
Check to see if you're computer is "Ubuntu certified", otherwise there's no gurantees. And even then...


Car over heating when idle

Question: My Mazda 6 started overheating during a heavy traffic day. Ever since, I noticed it would only start over heating only when the car is idle at a light, traffic, or parked for about 5 minutes and then slowly start creeping up. If I give it some rpm, the gauge comes back to normal reading. *Additional info - Heater only works when riding - I have to add a bit of coolant everyday - Changed thermostat, fan control module and fans work well. My suspicion is the water pump has gone bad. Help!!
Comment: ...if you're adding coolant, then the coolant is going somewhere. It's either leaking or coming out of the tailpipe. If it's going through the tailpipe (hopefully not), you should have whiteish/greyish smoke. Also, hopefully it's not going out the tailpipe :/
Comment: No greyish smoke coming out the tail pipe, could it be leaking through water pump?
Answer: I'm too new to comment, what year is it? What you describe makes it sound like the water pump isn't getting the correct power from the belt. Check all your pulleys and the tensioner, if one thing isn't working right on that belt it will cause other things to go wrong down the road.
Also driving warm (hot) regularly can cause innocent leaks from hoses because they aren't meant to get too hot.  Easy test, after driving, park and wait 20-30 minutes to cool off a bit and fill up the car with luke warm water. Lay cardboard under the engine and radiator. Let the car run for 2-3 minutes. You'll find dripping coolant if theres a leak.

Car over heating when idle


Could bitcoin be destroyed if an entity cornered the market?

Question: I know the US Government is opposed to competing currencies.  It seems that it would be a rather simple solution for them to destroy Bitcoin before it grows too much by merely buying all the currency, which would be rather feasible given today's market cap of $80M (as of July 2012), and never selling.
Comment: The chosen answer is wrong, because it doesn't consider the option of destruction through volatility, and thus it doesn't consider that manipulators can fool the speculators on timing.
Comment: Let's assume they actually did manage to buy all the coins. What's stopping us from starting Bitcoin2, the exact same protocol under a different name?
Answer: The exchange rate at any one point in time is determined by supply and demand at the markets.
The value of all bitcoins at the current market price is $80 million because the current market price is the point where the demand for bitcoins at a certain price meets the supply.  You are describing introducing an artificial demand that would indeed cause incredible rallies in the exchange rate and cause tremendous exchange rate volatility
While some people cash out in a rally, others are buying.  This government taking this action would be enriching speculators mostly -- certainly not the best use of the governed's tax dollars.
Even in a hypothetical scenario where this party you describe were somehow able to acquire 9.49 of the 9.5 million coins issued today, there are just about 11 million more that will be issued, so this entity would need to continue buying.  But even with just 10,000 coins remember that Bitcoin is divisible down to a Satoshi (0.0000001 BTC).  That 10K BTC gives 1,000,000,000,000 Satoshi trading units.  That allows plenty enough time to get an update out that provides for even greater divisibility.
Of course, the risk then is that those 9.49 million coins are not destroyed but find their way back onto the market, creating again huge volatility and price inflation.  That can technically be done, yes.
I don't think too many speculators are losing even a wink of sleep over it though.
Comment: Speculators would be elated if that happened. It'd be really easy to make money in that situation.
Comment: Whoa dude! Hold your bravado! You assume that the attacker would simply buy. They have another option which is to raise the volatility of the currency to make it unattractive to hold and use. See my answer. Can you market-time the manipulators in the real markets? Of course not!
Comment: @theymos, And really easy to lose money too ;)
Answer: The process of attempting to buy all of the currency would drive the price up arbitrarily high.
For example, I have some bitcoins and plan to sell 10% of what I have left every time the price doubles. I will never run out of bitcoins to sell, no matter how high the price, so it is impossible for anybody to buy them all.
The US government could try to destroy Bitcoin by repeatedly buying and driving up the price, then selling to make the price crash. Eventually they should get tired of paying transaction fees to the exchanges (or run out of money to pay the exchange fees). And, of course, if their buying and selling is at all predictable everybody else will just repeatedly sell high and buy low.
Comment: That is an interesting strategy for selling! Thank you. I made a chart, but formatting was tough. At any rate, Gavin will make 1.8-fold more USD each doubling period.
Comment: But what do you do if the manipulators cause the volatility to never reach a doubling, rather a downward grind of debilitating volatility with adoption going into a tailspin? At some point, you sell too at less than your fancied speculation.
Answer: It's impossible to tell the difference between bitcoins that have been lost forever and bitcoins that are being hoarded, so the US government would never be able to tell when they had bought all available bitcoins.  And they're going to have to offer a lot more than the current market prices for some people to sell.
Comment: Yes but if their goal was to reduce the bit coin supply to the point where it was not useful for much of anything they don't have to get every last bitcoin. If they got enough so that the remaining supply was small enough that commerce shuts down then they will probably have met their goals. Of course this could be almost any government no just the USA, $80million USD is not that much money to a government or bank
Answer: It is unrealistic to believe that such a purchase would survive

Executive scrutiny
Congressional scrutiny
Judicial scrutiny

More than likely, a call for Congressional action would come not from the legislative branch, but from the executive or judicial branch. Alternatively, pressure may come from lobbying entities.
Moreover, a Congressperson who authors or support a bill outlawing digital currencies would likely face severe pressure from voters who use them. Remember that laws a written very vaguely, so digital currencies may include in-game currencies like WoW and Diablo gold, Linden dollars, Eve ISK, etc.
Lastly, can you image the headlines?

Rep. Smith introduces bill to outlaw in-game currencies
Obama administration authorizes $100M purchase of entire on-line currency system
Obama spends $300M to disable fledgling Internet currency used by fewer than 5,000 people
Comment: You forgot black budgets. See my answer.
Answer: As stated before: if the government or who ever tries to buy all existing BTC this would lead to enormous volatility. But what are the consequences(?): Increasing price volatility would harm the possibility of storing value. But as prices for goods and services which are offered in exchange of BTC are flexible, BTC could still be used as a mean of exchange.
Answer: There are many exchanges (this reason is good enough by itself) and most exchanges "must" follow some kind of an AML policy so they can get bank accounts opened quickly, safely, ... Just because of that most of exchanges refuse to work with governments, agencies since they know there could problems. Also person with lot of money usually "must" be identified by the exchange.
Answer: The powers that be could theoretically accomplish horrendous volatility of the value of Bitcoins by running the price up and then selling. Thus rendering Bitcoin unsuitable as currency.
If speculators think they can game this by market-timing the manipulations better than an insider such as JP Morgan, I suggest they prove in the futures markets for gold or silver to receive their reality-check spanking.
As documented by Catherine Austin Fitts former Managing Director and Member of the Board of Directors of the Wall Street investment bank, Dillon, Read & Co., Inc.; Assistant Secretary of Housing/Federal Housing Commissioner at HUD in the first Bush Administration; and President and Founder of Hamilton Securities Group, Inc. . . .
. . . TPTB have access to at least $4 trillion "black budget" off-balance sheet funds that need no public oversight to be used.
And it probably wouldn't require any where near a majority share of the coins to create debilitating volatility. Remember when it fell from $17 to 1 cent briefly because of one account hacked and sold.
Comment: Can you define acronyms the first time you use them in your answers? I had to google TPTB to figure out what the heck you were talking about.
Comment: welcome to Stack Exchange, hermeister and shelby--the place people are clicking on in their search results to find out those answers.  let's save them a step.
Comment: welcome to the internet, gavin `:)`
Comment: TPTB: "The Powers That Be". I, too, had to search for it. Too bad some people think it not rude to use acronym and imply everybody else should understand it.
Answer: It is unrealistic to assume that one entity such as the US Government would actually care enough about Bitcoin to drive it to the ground. Hypothetically, yes, one could destabilize it. But the developers would likely add preventative measures to stop this from happening.
Comment: What preventative measure can stop someone from buying and selling to create volatility? That doesn't make any sense to me. The only counter-measure I can think of is to have the debasement self-adjust, but in Bitcoin the debasement is on a fixed schedule to stop at 21 million coins. I would downvote this answer if I had enough rep power.
Comment: If Bitcoin came to challenge the USD the government would be very much interested in its demise in order to protect the billions they create through inflation.


How should I distribute my bonus points with my Paladin at level up?

Question: In Diablo 2, how should I use the bonus points at time of level up for my Paladin? I haven't been putting much into mana since I usually use an active skill for defense or attack. I stick with using my weapon instead of using his magic skills as well. My health gets depleted rather quickly so I don't know if it's an armor/resistance thing, or if I'm not putting the right points where they need to go.
Answer: This depends highly on what you want your paladin to do in the late game.
In almost all cases, you want to hit the 75% block after holy shield (max block) by putting enough dex to get to that point.
For smiters and hammerdins, you'll need the minimum strength requirement to wear all the gear you plan to wear.  Any points left over should be dumped into vitality (though its arguable for a poorly equipped hammerdin to get some energy).
If you plan to go melee oriented, such as a zealer or charger, you'll want some strength instead of all vitality (its a balancing act) for more damage.
For both smiters and zealers, it helps a lot if you can find yourself a cheap wand has charges of life tap).  Putting it on bosses and large groups greatly increases survivability.  You can try searching shops for one pretty easily (I think on nightmare but its been a while).
Answer:

Enough Strength to equip gear
Enough Dexterity to equip your weapon or achieve 75% blocking (Paladins should almost-always go for max block; holy shield leaves no excuse)
All else Vitality
Nothing in Energy

This rule will optimally cover about 99% of all possible builds in Diablo II. If you have all your gear ahead of time, you can spend some time with a calculator to figure out how much Strength and Dexterity you need, and just plug the rest in Vitality. I typically do not bother with quite that much planning in a character, so I leave myself a little cushion (either extra points in Str or Dex, or unspent points) until the end of the game when my gear is finalized. (I also don't like respecs.)
Two Major Exceptions
The only major exceptions to the above rule are glass cannon amazons (who will sacrifice some Vitality for extra Dexterity, purely for the damage) and energy shield sorceresses (who use Energy mostly in place of Vitality, though some Vitality is still absolutely necessary).
Importance of Vitality
The reason for this rule is simple: opportunity cost. Vitality gives you Life, and therefore keeps you alive. It allows you to travel and fight more safely, and reduces the chances of being killed faster than you can react to whatever's killing you (especially important on Battle.net due to lag issues). The damage you get from Strength is very minor compared to skill bonuses; the bonus from Dexterity isn't any better but ranged amazons can safely drop some Vitality.
Strength: Obvious minimums, strong incentive to make them the maximums
But of course, you do want to equip the best weapons/armor, which means you need Strength (even so, equipment with high Strength requirements have that fact counted heavily against them; equipping an Ogre Maul or Myrmidon Greaves requires a lot of forethought).
Dexterity: To block or not to block, that is the question
Dexterity requirements on most weapons aren't too high (with bows as a major exception already noted), but blocking is an incredibly valuable option. As a Paladin, you have holy shield and the excellent paladin shields, so you should be blocking (Chargers are the only real possible exception, and even they should strongly consider a shield), but it won't require too much Dexterity with the right shield (Herald of Zakarum is a popular option that can actually be reasonably found, and many cheap shield runewords like Spirit or Sanctuary go very well in paladin shields; to get Exile legitimately takes quite a bit of dedication).
Other classes may not bother with blocking if  they need a two-handed weapon (or dual wield, for barbarians and assassins), or if the shield they want has terrible blocking properties. Stormshield, Whitstan's Guard, Rhyme, and Sanctuary are common non-paladin-shield choices for max-block on these classes. Spirit Monarchs, with the 156 Strength requirement and atrocious blocking, are the most common shield with which builds will ignore Dexterity (between the 156 Strength and huge Dexterity, very little indeed would be left for Vitality, and Spirit-using classes typically don't have the best base Life to begin with). Other poor-blocking shields with desirable properties include Wall of the Eyeless and Splendor.
Energy: You (almost certainly) won't need it
Energy is the big loser. Mana concerns, for most characters, evaporate almost entirely in the latter half of the game, due to base Mana bonuses from leveling, the prevalence (and desirability) of Mana Stolen or Mana Per Kill mods, and the fact that Insight (a runeword, Ral Tir Tal Sol in a 4 socket polearm, that gives a high-level meditation aura when equipped, and can be equipped by an Act II mercenary) can be equipped at level 27 (when playing untwinked, finding a Sol rune by level 27 can be mildly tedious; I typically wait until Nightmare Countess to get one, at which point I'm usually in the upper half of the 30s).
Unfortunately, this is a trap for many new players, since Mana is extremely tight and unforgiving at low levels, implying that Energy is an important investment. With the new respec ability, of course, you are free to invest in Energy early on, when it's useful, and then swap that out for the more important Vitality later on, once you have decent Mana Steal and/or Insight.
Note that some builds (war cry barbarians, nova and/or frost nova sorceresses, frozen arrow amazons) do require a great deal of Mana, since they rely on spamming high-Mana-cost skills. These may be forced, depending on available gear, to invest in Energy. And of course energy shield sorceresses turn everything on its head and make Energy the most important stat.
Answer: I haven't played D2 in ages, but when I leveled my Paladin, if I didn't have a piece of gear I wanted to use, I would always put 2 points into Strength and 2 into Vitality and 1 into Energy.
I relied on my auras (like Spikes and Might) and Zeal to do most of my damage. This worked great until I came across a lightning enchanted boss. Hitting those guys rapidly caused more harm than good! Yikes!
Answer: If you are playing online then you should level-up ASAP. Levels 1-15 in Tristram, lvl 15-25 in the Tombs(end of Act 2), 25-45 normal Baalruns, at level  45 you go to NM, get to act 5 asap, level up till 75ish on NM baalruns, then go to Hell and repeat Baalruns till you have a decent level and somewhat of a decent gear.
Concerning stat points: enough strength to equip all your items, enough dexterity to have 75% block with Holy Shield and all the rest goes to Vitality. That's what my Paladin was when I played Diablo 2.
But since patch 1.13 you shouldn't really care about spending points into wrong stats, you can always respec. You gain that possibility after finishing Den of Evil quest(the very first quest in the game). Even if you used all 3 of them(Normal, NM and Hell) you can always craft a respec potion in a Horadric cube.
So try to achieve max block(75%), enough strength for all items(with good items you don't need to waste a single point into strength) and all the rest goes into Vitality. If you don't like it or if you need more strength for items you can always restat :)
Comment: Having not played D2 much since this was added, I didn't realize respecs reset your *stat* points as well, interesting!
Answer: I discovered this Charger build, which I call The Thunder Charger.
This Paladin build uses the aura Holy Shock fused with the skill Charger.
We know how much damage holy shock can do at maximum level with the bonus damage added by the gear and other skills such as lightning resist.
It can dish out more than 4700 light damage.
We also know that charge improves damage at very high rate by more than 1000% only when we Max it with other skills such as the Aura might which powers it.
Here is the skill distribution:

20 in holy shock
20 in lightning resist
20 in charger
20 in might
20 in any skill that powers charge or Holy shock ur choice
The last 10 points in salvation

With a powerful two handed thunder maul or a very heavy damaging weapon will dish out
More than 18k
PS. I recommend a little ice damage with your weapon to give it a bit of cold touch


Prove that you deleted the file

Question: Is it possible to prove a date that you Deleted a file through the recycle bin? I delete a folder of pictures 2 months ago and somebody is asking to prove that I did it.
Comment: If you manage to prove non-existence of _anything_ and it didn't involve checking existence of _everything_, please let us know where we should deliver your Nobel prize. I'm not being cynical, just trying to say that it's only possible to prove you don't have something by inspecting that it isn't among everything that you do have.
Comment: Tell that somebody to read this. You cannot, ever, never, ever, ever, prove that you deleted a file. You can always copy it somehow, hide the copy somewhere, try to restore the deleted file somehow. It _can_ be possible to prove that yous still have it, but it's nearly impossible to prove that you don't have it.
Comment: If you show them the file in your Recycle Bin, that's proof that you _didn't_ delete it in any meaningful sense. When you "delete" a file by putting it in your Recycle Bin it's just moved to a different folder, not actually deleted.
Comment: What you asks reminds me of "[proof of burn](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Proof_of_burn)".
Answer: Respond by asking them to prove that they brushed their teeth on the night of March 14th 2013.

From a technical perspective, this isn't possible unless you've explicitly set up directory auditing to log when files are deleted. Since I almost guarantee that you haven't done this: no, there is pretty much no way you can prove such a thing. Even with auditing, you may well have copied the data to a secondary place via other channels - even something as low-tech as a print screen or taking a photo of your monitor.
Answer: What you are talking about would require a perfect DRM system that can prove that you can only access the file in the way that is governed by a system that does not allow copying and provides a cryptographic receipt for deletion.
There are systems that try to do this, but all are susceptible to being cracked as thus far DRM is not really a secure platform and never will be unless hardware stops being owned by the user.  (Which would be very bad for a number of reasons and hopefully will never happen.)
As far as your simple case of a non-DRM system where you simply put the file in the trash, there is absolutely no way to prove it what so ever because the system doesn't even attempt to keep track of what files have been copied and when, so even if you could prove you deleted A copy (which would require undeleting the file most likely), you can't prove that even a copy of the file has been permanently deleted the way most file systems work.
Answer: Having built eDiscovery systems for corporations, ALL philosophy aside... on a computer system - even with all auditing in place there is NO legal way to prove a file has been deleted without sworn witnesses, and then that is even specious. Even if you had a file system audit, I have written low-level eDiscovery tools that while moving items around had to manipulate file time-stamp information to keep them in synch and not loose forensically valuable information (yes, I know a cheat, but unfortunately a required cheat). So it is possible to cheat.
The existence of a file is either there or not. The proof of any act of removal on a given time/date, is entirely another issue that computers would not be capable of providing a reliable, legally acceptable proof - without human intervention.
Answer: Ok, before telling you that you if you can or not, let's analyze what happens in the computer, step by step.
1- You got a picture somehow. Be it by copying from the cell phone, or downloading it from a site, or saving from an attachment from a email.
(I imagine that you're using Windows, but it would work almost the same if it is a Mac or a Linux or anything else)
In that case, Windows will store the picture (the file) in your hard disk. And it will create references to that file, like the name, the size, in which folder it was saved, etc. When you open Windows Explorer, your able to navigate through the folders and find the file, open it, etc.
2- Someone asks you to delete the file.
You move it to trash bin. Windows just updates the information he had: now he knows the file is in the Trash bin, but was in the blahblah folder earlier, allowing you to untrash (undelete) it. Ok ?
3- You delete it from the Trash bin.
You empty the trash bin, or you go inside the trash bin and delete just the file. Windows will know that you don't want to recover that file anymore, so it removes all references for that file. The content is still in your hard disk, but there's no way to open it using Windows Explorer anymore.
3.1 - Let's say it was an important file that you wish to recover.
Some special programs could access the whole of your hard drive, trying to read the file. Since the content of the file would be inside the hard disk, it could find it. And then the program would recover it, creating again all the references to folders, etc., so that you could open it again.
But, as time passes by, that space in the hard disk could have just been rewritten: since Windows doesn't know anymore that in that position used to be a file, it can overwrite it with some newer file, and you will never be able to recover it again.
Ok, so we know that you can have a file inside your computer, can erase it, can try to recover it, but it might not be that easy.
What you are asking is "have Windows recorded, somewhere, that I have deleted the file?"
As you can see, we never said that Windows would keep a log of your activities, so there are many things that Windows won't know:
1. it won't know if you have copied the file to a pendrive, or to another folder, or have copied and renamed it..
2. it won't record, anywhere, when you moved the file to trash, when you emptied the Trash bin
3. it won't know if that position in the hard drive was overwritten, because it won't know where the picture was saved, anymore, since you deleted it. It will just know where new files are stored.
Some special systems try to keep track of everything. Some versions of Windows, for example, when auditing options are enable, can keep a track of all your actions in the computer. But not the general, home-version of Windows.
And even in those systems there are ways to fool it and copy the file, making a "backup" of the picture, etc.
What the other answers are trying to tell you is exactly that: in general, a home computer won't keep a track of your actions, so that you can prove that you don't have the file anymore. Some programs might be able to prove the other way round: that you had the file, that there is still some copy of it inside your hard disk, etc. But is impossible to prove that you don't have it anymore.
And that's what you'll have to explain to the person that is asking you about it: your computer doesn't keep a track of all your actions, and even if it did, there are people with special knowledge that can circumvent it.
Comment: Note also that "special knowledge" could be as simple as "if you can't get the data out of the computer, just take a photograph of the computer screen while content is displayed." Sometimes the low-tech methods work best ;)
Answer: This is almost beyond a technical question (going into the information theory/philosophical), as you're attempting to prove a negative (the nonexistence of said pictures). If you actually did delete them then s/he is just going to have to trust you. If you're comfortable with it you could let them perform some level of search on your system(s) to satisfy some level of verification, but there is no technological way of proving this.
Also, use SnapChat next time (if you trust them not to use the screenshot hack).
Comment: The point you make about trust is good.  But your reference to Snapchat, even with the caveat, suggests that you haven't considered all the other ways documented on this page that a recipient can keep a copy.

Prove that you deleted the file


What wiped the Buddhism traces from Kerala History?

Question: I have been told and taught that,Keralam like all the South Indian states, was a destination of Buddhism. But I see literally no traces of Buddhism here now.I would like to know what actually happened that wiped away the signs of Buddhism from Kerala.
Comment: It says in the Wikipedia that it was wiped out in the  Chera-Chola wars. You are supposed to read the Wikipedia before coming here to ask easily answered questions.
Comment: However that's not the entire story. @TylerDurden
Comment: Thank you..Its my first time here.So I had no idea that I was supposed to read Wikipedia before coming here.I will do that next time.But thanks anyway.
Comment: @Rajib,as you mentioned I also don't believe that Chera -Chola war wiped out a religion of epic gravity from Keralam.Our cognitive box is extremely different.But cant completely agree that Sankaracharya was a major influence.He did wonders in northern part of India.But in Keralam,he still remains a myth.He established no institutions in Keralam.People say that,he established some temples.But a man who preached strong philosophies of Hinduism with convergent Buddhism could have done much better.But he never appeared to be a prominent religious leader in Keralam. Correct me if I am wrong.
Answer: Origins:
There are slightly different views on when Buddhism entered, flourished and declined in the Kerala region. The region itself has been variously designated through history as part of the Chola kingdom (from 150 C.E.) and later as the state of Travancore under the Tirunals prior to India's independence.
One view is that Buddhism flourished only for a short period of 200 years or so in Kerala.
Other views may hold that Buddhism entered Kerala on its way to Sri Lanka, or may have even come the other way round as Theravada Buddhism from Sri Lanka.
The Paliyam Copper plate apparently proves that in the reign of Ashoka Buddhism was introduced to Kerala.

During this period, the Emperor`s son Mahindra headed a Buddhist
  mission to Sri Lanka. For more than 700 years, Buddhism flourished in
  Kerala. The Paliyam Copper plate of the Ay King, Varaguna (885-925AD)
  shows that at least in South Kerala, Buddhists continued to enjoy
  royal patronage even until 1000 AD.

Decline:
From 800 C.E. there was a Bhrahmanical revival in the region.

During the time of Maurya Sharman, a Kadamba King, large colonies of
  Brahmins from North India were invited to settle in Tulu and Kerala.
  In 792 AD, King Udaya Varman of Mooshika dynasty settled 237 Brahmin
  families in Kerala. One tradition has it that six outstanding Brahmins
  came with these immigrants, defeated Buddhist leaders in public
  debates and established the intellectual supremacy of Hinduism.

S Ramanath Aiyer, in his A Brief Sketch of Travancore (this version printed in 1903) wrote:

Bhattacharya, Bhattabana, Bhattavijaya, Bhattamayukha, Bhattagopala
  and Bhattanarayana were the apostles and they brought all the forces
  of their dialectics to bear upon the subject and converted all to the
  cause of the Hindu Triad. Sasthrakali, or a species of worship
  peculiar to this country is the sole product of their triumphant
  compromise. The deity worshipped is Sastha, the divine offspring of
  Vishnu and Siva.

It is contended that Buddha was re-assimilated into Hinduism as "Shasta", a Hindu deity- the afore-mentioned snake deity.
Later, scholars like Guru Prabhakara and Shankaracharya (788-820 AD) reinforced the supremacy of Hinduism. This led to the royal patronage and promotion of Vaishnavism by Kulashekara Kings of the Second Chera Empire. Budhhist and Jaina temples were taken over and appropriated by the Hindus, and converted to Hindu temples. Examples of such temples are still extant.

The temple in Chitral in South Travancore is one of the several
  instances  in point. It was formerly a Buddhistic Temple. The idols
  that we see in and about the temple prominently suggest Buddhistic
  Sculpture.

However, one of the main reasons of the decline of Buddhism could be inherent complexities in its philosophy.
In his 1980 essay "The Disappearance of Buddhism and the survival of Jainism in India: A study in Contrast", Padmanabh S. Jaini mentions R. C. Mitra's reasons for decline of Buddhism:

"Exhaustion"
Withdrawal of royal patronage
Brahmanical persecution
Muslim invasion
Internal corruption and decay
Divisive effect of sectarianism
Insufficient cultivation of the laity.

He however contests these on several counts, including exhaustion. His main point is that Buddhist philosophy itself led to inner contradictions that were difficult to resolve:

...the doctrine of the heavenly bodhisattvas made Buddhism uniquely
  vulnerable to the assimilating tendencies of the surrounding Hindu
  cults. The development of the heavenly bodhisattvas theory, and indeed
  that of the entire Mahayana in Buddhism, can perhaps be ultimately
  traced back to the celebrated "silence (avyiikrta) of the Buddha", his
  unwillingness to commit himself regarding certain fundamental
  philosophical issues. The inability of the Buddhists to agree upon the
  meaning of this silence led to a situation in which various
  contradictory absolutist doctrines could emerge, each one claiming to
  be the correct interpretation of the master's teachings.

For another answer which deals with decline of Buddhism in India from 12th century, also see this thread
Answer: There is no absolute consensus on this matter,
A few scholars have even contended that Buddhism never disappeared as such from India.  On this view, Buddhism simply changed form, or was absorbed into Hindu practices.
<code>   Buddha is even viewed as an avatar of the god Vishnu in Vaishnava Hinduism
although buddha himself denied it..
</code>
But What is not disputed is the gradual decline of Buddhism in India, as the testimony of the Chinese traveler, Hsuan Tsang, amply demonstrates.Though Buddhism had already entered into something of a decline by the time of Hsuan Tsang's visit to India during the reign of Harsha of Kanauj in the early seventh century, it has also been argued that its further demise, particularly in the early part of the second millennium AD, was hastened by the arrival of Islam.

Even Ambedkar, whose animosity towards Hinduism is palpable, was
  nonetheless firmly of the view that Islam dealt Buddhism a death blow.
  As he was to put it, "brahmanism beaten and battered by the Muslim
  invaders could look to the rulers for support and sustenance and get
  it.  Buddhism beaten and battered by the Muslim invaders had no such
  hope.  It was uncared for orphan and it withered in the cold blast of
  the native rulers and was consumed in the fire lit up by the
  conquerors."  Ambedkar was quite certain that this was "the greatest
  disaster that befell the religion of Buddha in India."

So declination of Buddhism was due to Hinduism and Islamic Invasion.
A detailed study can be done at:
The decline of Buddhism in India around the 12th century
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_Buddhism_in_India
http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2012/06/09/why-buddhism-prospered-asia-died-india
EDIT
Declination of BUDDHISM in Kerela.
The persecution and eventual exodus of Buddhists from Tamil Nadu to Kerala in the seventh century was occasioned by the fall of the Buddhist Kalabhras at the hands of the Pandyas.
The Buddhists came to Kerala and established their temples and monasteries in different parts of the country. The following Hindu temples were once Buddhist shrines: the Vadakkunnathan Temple of Trichur, the Kurumba Bhagavathi Temple of Cranganore etc.,

The Paliyam Copper Plate of the Ay King, Varaguna (885-925 A.D.) shows
  that the Buddhists enjoyed some royal patronage even in the tenth
  century.
The decline of Buddhism started in the eighth century with the arrival
  of the Aryan missionaries and the Brahminical religion. As mentioned
  earlier, the Brahmin scholars defeated Buddhist monks in debates and
  established the superiority of the Hindu religion. Adi Sankaracharya,
  the Hindu revivalist, was also responsible for the fall of Buddhism;
  he founded Hindu monasteries and trained Hindu priest-scholars to
  combat his Buddhist adversaries. Buddhism faded away gradually and
  completely disappeared during the reign of the Vaishnavite
  Kulasekharas in the eleventh century. What actually happened was that
  Buddhism was reabsorbed into Hinduism from which it broke away. Many
  Keralites, like the Ezhavas, who were most likely Buddhists once,
  gradually became Hindus.

Further reading
Though i haven't read this book, it seems to be worth reading.
<code>Buddhamathavum Jaathi vyavasthayum" by K.Suganthan.
</code>
Comment: I like this answer; not my field so I can't judge the accuracy, but I admire the fact that you identified the contentious concepts and provided a link to further reference material.
Comment: @TylerDurden That's exactly what I said. Read the comment.
Comment: +1 for the answer- especially about assimilation into Hinduism. You can however, figure that the decline of Buddhism was not due to the same reasons everywhere. And in Kerala there were some special circumstances, such as Shankaracharya's influence. You might also look at [this](http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/11556/the-decline-of-buddhism-in-india-around-the-12th-century/11617#11617) for a general answer to decline all over India, especially the south.
Comment: He is talking about Karalam, not India. Keralam was an area of India that had special characteristics, notably being invaded and occupied by northerners much more than adjoining regions of the south. Buddhism died out in Karalam while it was still going strong in other parts of south India. Your answer does not seem to realize that the question is about KERALA.
Answer: Buddhism was predominant in Kerala until it was swallowed by Brahminism. Many Buddhist idols were excavated from various parts of Kerala by Archaeological Survey.  Here is one good article about the Buddhist traces in Kerala
Answer:
Buddhism did not get wiped out because of lack of laity - In Sri Lanka and South East Asia millions of Laity are there.

Buddhism did not get wiped out because of Muslim invasion. Ashoka built a very storng Buddhist empire with Buddhist armies. Myanmar and Thailand all had ancient Buddhist armies and fought battles.  Only monks are not permitted to fight. Lay believers can fight in wars.

Buddhism weakened because of Hinduism and the acceptance of Hinduism by rulers. Buddhist monks were persecuted and killed. Lay people had no one to guide them and soon fell into Hinduism.
Buddha considered Brahmanism to be a corrupted form of Dharma.
Comment: This would benefit from some supporting sources.


Can I use cream cheese in a sauce?

Question: I made a white sauce with butter flour and milk, intending to add cheddar for a cheese sauce.  Then I realized I'd run out the day before.  Could I have used Philadelphia cream cheese instead?  I'm in the UK if it makes any difference.
Answer: Yes, you can. The taste will be obviously different, but I don't expect any consequence that would make it unpalatable to the average person. You would be better off if you start with softened cream cheese, but if all you have now is fridge-cold cream cheese, that should work too.
Comment: I would disagree with the "tasteless" part. For me, even pure bechamel has a taste, and a Mornay with cream cheese has more taste than bechamel. Maybe even more than of made with bad cheddar. The hearing behavior is a good point, for me cream cheese (Philadelphia style, not turro like styles) melts well, but I can easily imagine that the are brands which don't, and at some point we had a question where somebody asserted that Philadelphia itself has very different textures on different continents.
Comment: It won't be unpalatable, just tasteless.  And not all cream cheeses will react well to being heated up a lot.  I'd skip it entirely
Comment: True, Philadelphia is not exactly the same on different continents/countries.  Although personally I think it's pretty tasteless everywhere, or at least that waxy texture makes my tongue curl. And of course bechamel has a taste :-).  But I was assuming most people would be using Philadelphia, even though I usually get Trader Joe's cream cheese, which has a lot more taste, sorry for the prejudice
Answer: I frequently use Cream Cheese in situations like this, but I would generally go for one of the Garlic and Herb or Chive flavoured ones (If using Philadelphia itself.) Alternatively, Lidl and Aldi do, to my taste, much superior Cream Cheeses ...

Can I use cream cheese in a sauce?


Why are there different vertical gradients of temperature in different layers of the atmosphere?

Question: The temperature of the troposphere decreases with altitude whereas it is opposite in the stratosphere and again fluctuates. Why is this so?
Comment: If you [do some homework](https://www.google.nl/search?q=atmosphere+temperature+gradients) you will find perfectly good explanations [like this one](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/High_School_Earth_Science/Atmospheric_Layers).
Comment: @JanDoggen - That's not a very good explanation. For one thing, it omits the extreme importance of greenhouse gases. For another, it contradicts itself: "Temperatures in the thermosphere can exceed 1000°C" versus "The higher layers contain few gas molecules and are very cold."
Comment: @DavidHammen I noticed that too when I read it earlier, but I figured they were talking about local effects (I understand that it would dissipate basically instantly since there are no nearby molecules). Is it possible that some molecules could locally, both in time and space, achieve that temperature?
Answer: The strong heat flux through the Earth's atmosphere, the presence of greenhouse gases, convection, and mixing conspire to push the troposphere away from thermodynamic equilibrium (isothermal atmosphere) and toward an adiabatic atmosphere. The natural drop in density with altitude means an adiabatic atmosphere is subject to a lapse rate, a nearly linear drop in temperature with increasing altitude.
Temperature rises with altitude in the stratosphere because this is where the ozone layer exists. The troposphere is primarily heated from below. In contrast, the stratosphere is primarily heated from within via absorption of ultraviolet sunlight by oxygen and ozone. A similar situation exists in the thermosphere, which is where the extreme ultraviolet and higher frequencies of sunlight are absorbed.
The thermosphere is where atmospheric temperatures attain their highest values. (BTW, you wouldn't feel those extreme temperatures if you put on a spacesuit and took a spacewalk in the thermosphere. There's hardly anything there that high up.) In between the thermosphere and stratosphere is where atmospheric temperatures attain their lowest values. This is the mesosphere. Most of the extreme wavelength radiation has already been absorbed in higher layers. The mesosphere is too thin to support an oxygen-ozone cycle. All that's left is radiational cooling supported by a strong greenhouse effect, making the top of the mesosphere (the mesopause) extremely cold.
Comment: @gansub - That is a separate question.
Comment: how will global warming affect the stratosphere or is that a separate question ? :-)
Comment: From @Emily: The low temperatures in the mesopause cannot be explained only by radiative balance (difference to measured temperature is about 90K in summer hemisphere and 60 K in winter hemisphere). Summer mesopause is cooler than expected by radiative balance because of ascending air parcels (adiabatic cooling). In the winter hemisphere air parcels descend and temperatures are higher in stratosphere/mesosphere/mesopause than expected because of adiabatic heating. The key-word here is the so called Brewer-Dobson-Circulation.


If U238 ions were circulating in a particle accelerator would their neutron absorption cross section spectra change?

Question: If U238 ions were circulating in a particle accelerator would their neutron absorption cross section spectra change?
Answer: The neutron cross-section is a function of energy in the CoM frame for the pair:
$$ \sigma = \sigma(E) ,$$
so unless the neutrons are boosted to match, they will be a different relative energy, and yes the cross-section changes.
But you haven't learned anything interesting by doing that.
If the question concerns neutrons that have been boosted to move more-or-less in coincidence with the Uranium, then the principle of relativity tells us that no the cross-section will not differ from that measured at rest in the lab frame.
Again, you haven't learned much.
Comment: You have learnt a basic principle of electron cooling: why the electrons do not recombine with the ion beam. Not that bad :)
Answer: what clearly matters is the relative speed of the ions and the neutrons that may be absorbed; you won't change anything fundamental about the reaction if both particles are moving by the same speed, by the principle of relativity. For reasonably small energies, this is usually parameterized by the relative velocity $v$. See a graph how the cross section depends on $v$:
http://www.tpub.com/content/doe/h1019v1/css/h1019v1_113.htm
Quite generally, the cross section decreases with $v$. For neutron kinetic energies below 1 eV (in the nucleus' rest frame), the cross section decreases as $1/v$ - it's the $1/v$ region. Then you have resonance peaks for neutron energy between $1$ and $100$ eV, before the cross section returns to a decrease that is getting slower and slower.
The graph is only drawn up to neutron energies of order $1$ MeV. You don't really want to go to GeVs or even TeVs because the kinetic energy will then be large enough to create pions and the process itself will be dominated by the usual "collider-like" inelastic collisions rather than a simple absorption which is only an important process for relatively small relative velocities.
Of course that if you accelerate neutrons against ions so that the center-of-mass energy will be in hundreds of GeVs or TeVs, then you will have a standard hadron collider and the results won't be too different from those at the LHC. After all, protons and neutrons don't differ too much. Only a tiny fraction of events will look like a smooth "nuclear physics" absorption. At very high energies and relativistic speeds, it is simply inappropriate to think about the processes in terms of nuclear physics - neutrons and ions - which is just an effective theory for small energies (and velocities). You should think in terms of subnuclear i.e. particle physics - it's a collision of high-energy quarks and gluons, just like at the LHC. That's why the science about quarks etc. belongs to something called the high-energy physics: you need it when the energies are high!
Nuclear physics - such as neutron absorption - is pretty much a low-energy physics even though it is 1 million times higher an energy than the truly low-energy physics which contains atomic physics, chemistry, and biology. The low-energy physics concepts are only good enough approximations to describe the world when the energies are low enough.
Best wishes
Lubos


Disk status on Dell Powervault 1200 attached storage?

Question: I have a RHEL box with direct attached storage (Dell Powervault 1200) containing 10 disks in RAID 10.  There are two logical volumes set up on the server.  I am wondering how to determine the health of the drives from the operating system.  How can I determine if there is a drive that is in degraded mode from the operating system?  Are there tools that Dell provides to monitor the drives?
Answer: How's the MD1200 connected to the server -- Dell PERC (5e/6e/H800) or similar RAID card, or is it a SAS HBA (and software RAID)?
If it's using a RAID controller, the management software that comes with it should handle drive health notifications. (For a Dell card, that's part of OpenManage Server Administrator -- although I've not tried to use that on a non-Dell host system).
You can also use utilities like smartmontools directly with many RAID controllers (including the PERC), much like you would with a SAS HBA that presents the disks individually. There are Nagios plugins that inteface with the MegaCLI tools (for LSI-based cards like the PERC) -- and similar for other cards -- that also pull health information.
Answer: If you're running in a supported configuration, you're nearly guaranteed to be able to monitor this from Open Manage Server Administrator. You can see RAID LUN status, individual disk health status, and even export RAID controller module logs to view error and event history.
OMSA 7.2 for RHEL 6:
http://ftp.us.dell.com/FOLDER01184959M/1/OM-SrvAdmin-Dell-Web-LX-7.2.0-6945.RHEL6.x86_64.tar.gz
OMSA 7.2 for RHEL 5:
http://ftp.us.dell.com/FOLDER01184956M/1/OM-SrvAdmin-Dell-Web-LX-7.2.0-6945.RHEL5.x86_64.tar.gz
Other versions available here:
http://ftp.us.dell.com/Pages/Drivers/poweredge-r710.html


E. Coli growth inhibited in Powdered Honey

Question: I ran into problem with my method validation since the E. Coli that I've spiked into my Honey Powder sample can't grow in the media. The media I've used is Merck CCA (Chromogenic Coliform Agar). I've also used the MPN method (3 tubes) using LST Broth with the same result.
Really appreciate if someone Can  lead me into why would this happen and give any suggestion on how to troubleshoot this?
Regards.
Answer: If I understood correctly you want to grow E. coli in the presence of honey, right?
This migth be the problem as honey inhibits bacterial grow. See here. Therefore, it also doesn't matter which medium you are using.


What is "HAT Compatible"

Question: I see "HAT-Compatible" in marketing but a description is not easy to find. What is "HAT"? Is it an acronym for something? Is it simply the 40-pin pin out for connecting supported add-on modules?
Answer: Hat compatible refers to the standard developed by the Pi Foundation for add on boards, and yes HAT it is an acronym for Hardware Attached on Top. You can read more about it here. The release coincided with the move to 40 pin boards B+. Quoting from the page linked above:

In a nutshell a HAT is a rectangular board (65x56mm) that has four
mounting holes in the (nicely rounded) corners that align with the
mounting holes on the B+, has a 40W GPIO header and supports the
special autoconfiguration system that allows automatic GPIO setup and
driver setup. The automatic configuration is achieved using 2
dedicated pins (ID_SD and ID_SC) on the 40W B+ GPIO header that are
reserved for an I2C EEPROM. The EEPROM holds the board manufacturer
information, GPIO setup and a thing called a 'device tree' fragment –
basically a description of the attached hardware that allows Linux to
automatically load the required drivers.

So yes it is more than the 40 pin connector it includes the size and location of the mounting holes, how the board and its capabilities are identified and software is configured.
It remains to be seen if and how this changes given the recent release of the Pi zero which is much smaller than the size of current HAT standard.
Comment: I mentioned it as I think those from an Arduino background may assume HATs could be stacked.
Comment: I think it is true to say that HATs are inferior to Arduino shields.  You can generally stack Arduino shields but I don't believe that to be the case for HATs.
Comment: @joan your correct stacking is not supported by the HAT standard, but  comparing it to an Arduino shield is a bit of an apples and oranges comparison. Besides the GPIO the Pi has USB and Ethernet (except on the model A and Zero boards) built in meaning that there is less of a need to stack addons. Also, stacking Arduino shields physically is usually not a problem, it can often present several issues with pin assignments etc.

What is "HAT Compatible"


How does Edo Tensei Madara get back his Rinnegan?

Question: Madara gave his Rinnegan to Nagato. But after Kabuto brings him back using Edo Tensei, he still has the Rinnegan. How is this possible?
Comment: When Edo Tensei Madara appeared on the battlefield, Kabuto (in Mū's body) tells that he modified Madara's body to reflect his prime state. Which includes physical prime from his youth, wisdom and memory till his age of death, Hashirama implants, etc. These are the in-story details that support the Rinnegan in ET Madara
Comment: Same happen to Itachi , related question [Nagato's Eye in Edo tensei Mode](http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/7147/nagatos-eye-in-edo-tensei-mode)
Comment: Reincarnation technique gives the user all their abilities, every single one they ever had. (thanks to 2nd Hokage and damn Orochimaru!)
Answer: Narutopedia:

A reincarnated individual will have all the abilities they had during their life, including kekkei genkai and kekkei tōta. They are psychically restored as they were at the time of their death, including any physical handicaps they may have possessed, such as Nagato's damaged legs.

Since Madara had the Rinnegan when he died, he is resurrected with it again (with the help of Kabuto's modifications, if you remember).
However, the Edo Tensei Rinnegans are fake. Although Edo Tensei Madara can use them to absorb ninjutsu, he can't use it to summon the Gedo Mazo, or use Limbo. It's kinda the same with Nagato's Rinnegan or Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan.
For further proof, when Madara was revived in flesh through Rinne Rebirth, he lost his fake Rinnegan.
Comment: Just a small correction, he didn't revive with the Rinnegan because of Kabuto's modifications. He would have been Edo Tensei revived with it regardless because he had it when he died. Kabuto's "modifications" revived Madara with his youthful, most powerful body instead of the old and frail one he died in.
Answer: Actually Madara didn't give Nagato the Rinnegan,he only awakened it in him,and as he was an Uzumaki (which are distant relatives of Senju),he was able to control it.Madara got the Rinnegan by merging Hashirama's cells with his heart,awakening his Rinnegan very late in his life,after which he shortly died.That is why,when he was resurrected he had the Rinnegan.
Comment: Do you have any reference for that? I thought madara gave the rinnegan to Nagato so that he could use it to bring madara back to life.
Comment: Madara flat out said he gave his rinnegan to "someone" while talking to obito, and he only had one regular sharingan eye. Before he did that, he summoned the Gedo mazo and extended his life until he chose to die, leaving everything to obito.
Comment: Yeah, but Nagato has two rinegans not only one, and he awakened in chieldhood, so is not Madara's rinegan
Comment: @Rezende Nagato has only one rinnegan
Comment: Nagato had two Rinnegan eyes, which was transplanted by Madara when Nagato was just a child. The Rinnegan was indeed Madara's.
Comment: Yes, thats it, Two by Madara


How to get weather alerts using RSS in Conky?

Question: Quick question about how to get weather alerts with conky.
I'm using the following bit of code:
<code>${execpi 3600 ~/.conky/scripts/conky-rss.sh "http://www.weather.gov/alerts/wwarssget.php?zone=MDZ006"|sed '1,3d'|fold -sw 62}
</code>
This (correctly) display a message to the effect "There are no weather alerts for ...." when there are no weather alerts. However, when there is an alert, it simply displays a message like "Short-term forecast for ..." with no further information.
Any suggestions?
How are other people getting weather alert info in their conkys?
Answer: Can this link be of help? https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=37381


Is it possible to build CLI app for android that can be executed from adb shell?

Question: Just wondering is it possible to build CLI app that can be run from adb shell?
Answer: Currently it is possible, though not officially supported/encouraged.
The easiest way is probably to set up a project directory and within it a jni folder with an Android.mk and your C sources - use the hello-jni ndk sample as a guide.
Then change the BUILD_SHARED_LIBRARY in the Android.mk to BUILD_EXECTUABLE and run ndk-build from the parent project directory as normal.
You could probably also use the ndk standalone toolchain generation feature, or there have at times in the past been various unofficial wrapper systems to make the ndk gcc easier to (ab)use.
There is no excess of places where you can put an executable on a secured device.  The sdcard is out due to the mount-level blocking of the executable bit.  From approximately Android 2.2 the directory /data/local is writable by the adb shell user, and on earlier versions there is an /sqlite_stmt_journals directory people often abused for tests.
Another possibility is to use an APK to deploy the executables in its private storage and make them world readable and executable (it might take jni to call chmod() to get the execute bit set for others, or I suppose you could exec the chmod shell utility).  A downside is that the shell will have to work with long /data/data/some.package.name paths, where the intermediate /data folder is not browsable!
Answer: Yes it is possible, with Android NDK using C. You may need to be rooted in order to store the binary somewhere to be executed, note, it will not run off the sdcard, usually  /data/local/tmp is one spot that comes to mind. And when you push the binary across to the said location, you will have to set the permission's execute bit on the binary itself in order to run it. Quite possibly also, the ownership and group owner would have to be changed.
Your mileage will vary depending on the ROM.


Do Google's feed statistics include former users?

Question: I'm currently not using any sort of fancy stat tracking software such as feedburner, but I occasionally look at Google's stats in their Webmaster Tools just to get a rough idea of whether the number of subscribers is going up or down. This only gives the number of users subscribed through Google products, as they explain in their help documents:

Subscriber stats display the number of Google users who have subscribed to your feeds using any Google product (such as Reader, iGoogle, or Orkut). Because users can subscribe to feeds using many different aggregators or RSS readers, the actual number of subscribers to your site may be higher.

I used to use Google Reader very regularly but haven't opened it in a while now. The way I understand it, this will mean that even though I haven't touched any of those feeds in a long time I'm still technically subscribed to them and will therefore be included in Google's statistic.
Is this correct? Also since Google runs Feedburner, does this have any effect on their stats as well?
Answer: To answer your second question, if you read further down that help page it says that those stats do include feedburner (but only for people subscribed using your sites URL).


How to disable rotation during zooming in the Google Maps app?

Question: I'm not talking about the feature for navigation where it rotates the map based on the direction you're currently driving. The problem is that when I zoom in and out using two fingers it sometimes happens that I rotate the map accidentally instead. I know I can press the compass icon to turn it back upright, but I would rather want to block the rotation completely. I've looked through all the settings and didn't find one, is there any way I can do this?
Answer: If I open the app, and make sure I first make a pinch movement with my fingers, it doesn't rotate the map when I rotate my fingers in the same movement afterwards.
So if you want to only zoom, it is best to first make a little pinch movement, to let the app know you're going to zoom.
If you on the other hand rotate your fingers first, it will start rotating the map.
If you only want to zoom in, you can also use the double tap option. That will not change anything to the rotation. But this is a little more work if you want to zoom in a lot.
Comment: @MaxD Do realize that with the double tap method, if you hold the finger down and move up or move down across the screen you can zoom in/out without "twisting". But as "twisting" is a feature of two fingers, I agree on not possible with two fingers.
Comment: @MorrisonChang Thanks didn't know that. It's not perfect cause it can only zoom to the current center of the screen but maybe I'll get used to it.
Comment: So you're saying you know that what I actually want is impossible?
Comment: Blocking the rotation completely is indeed not possible at the moment.


Which focus points on the Nikon D750 support f/8?

Question: The Nikon D750 has 11 autofocus points rated up to f/8. Which ones are the f/8 points?
Comment: I guess that those will be the save as ones for D4S - more [**here**](http://nps.nikonimaging.com/technical_solutions/d4s_tips/basic_settings/index.htm)
Comment: Unless something has changed recently, Nikon has historically been very closed-lipped about the exact specifications of their AF systems. Unlike Canon, who publish comprehensive guides about theirs, Nikon seems to treat that information like state secrets. Good luck.
Comment: Thanks @MichaelClark. I'm going to contact Nikon with this question and will post here if they respond.
Answer: According to Nikon D750 User's Manual (rev. 03), there are 11 to 15 autofocus points rated up to f/8. On page 430, the manual details which points work with different lens and teleconverter combinations.
The 15 points that usually work at f/8 comprise the 3×3 square around the center point, a row of 3 points to the right of the square's middle right point and a row of 3 points to the left of the square's middle left point.
The 11 points that always work at f/8 are the center point, a row of 4 points to the right of the center point and a row of 4 points to the left of the center point, the point directly above the center point and the point directly below the center point.

The TC-14E series of teleconverters lose about 1 stop of light, the TC-17E II loses about 1.5 stops, and the TC-20E series lose about 2 stops.