qid int64 1 74.7M | question stringlengths 12 33.8k | date stringlengths 10 10 | metadata list | response_j stringlengths 0 115k | response_k stringlengths 2 98.3k |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
185,783 | I just started learning Haskell and it seems like you can't get too far in the language without being comfortable ( or at least exposed ) to certain branches of mathematics. Unfortunately I have major holes in such areas and am wondering what is a good introductory textbook that covers all the concepts Haskell uses?
For what it's worth, I have an undergraduate engineering degree ( not comp-sci or EE ), though the math I was exposed to was of the hand-wave and memorize variety. I also took an intro to comp-sci course where we did a few weeks of oCaml. | 2013/02/04 | [
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/185783",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/users/75810/"
] | ["Basic Category Theory for Computer Scientists"](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0262660717) by Benjamin C. Pierce is a pretty good introduction to elementary category theory. It's been a while seen I've looked through it but I think the code examples are in Haskell. If you're trying to learn the fundamentals of Haskell then you don't need any category theory. Knowing some basic type theory is enough. | I doubt any such book exists, and the closest you'll get would be from a book about Haskell.
The problem is that Haskell makes shallow use of concepts from a wide range of relatively deep mathematics. For anyone who isn't already a mathematician, learning enough of the math to help understand Haskell is very unlikely to be easier than just learning Haskell directly.
This is particularly true of category theory, where introductions aimed at mathematicians tend to use motivating examples that assume substantial prior knowledge of other fields of mathematics, and introductions aimed at Haskell programmers, unsurprisingly, use motivating examples in Haskell.
I recommend just continuing with Haskell. You can look up unfamiliar terms on Wikipedia--it often has definitions that are accessible enough that you can at least relate things back to programming. If you get stuck and need help on something specific, ask about it on Stack Overflow or the #haskell IRC channel on Freenode.
In short, just treat the math as opaque jargon--it's not like programming isn't full of that already, good grief--and learn what it means as you go. You can return to the mathematics itself later, if you're interested, to get a deeper understanding of the underlying abstractions. |
5,457,993 | Python: Clustering Search Engine Keywords
Hi,
I have a CSV, up to 20,000 rows (I have had 100,000+ for different websites), each row containing a referring keyword (i.e. a keyword someone typed into a search engine to find the website in question), and a number of visits.
What I'm looking to do is cluster these keywords into clusters of "similar meaning", and create a hierarchy of the clusters (structured in order of summed total number of searches per cluster).
An example cluster - "womens clothing" - would ideally contain keywords along these lines:
womens clothing, 1000
ladies wear, 300
womens clothes, 50
ladies clothing, 6
womens wear, 2
I could look to use something like the Python Natural Language Toolkit: <http://www.nltk.org/> and WordNet, but, I'm guessing that for some websites the referring keywords will be words/phrases that WordNet knows nothing about. For example, if the website is a celebrity website WordNet is unlikely to know anything about "Lady Gaga", worse situation if the website is a news website.
So, I'm also guessing therefore that the solution has to be one that looks to use just the source data itself.
My query is very similar to the one raised at [How to cluster search engine keywords?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4617023/how-to-cluster-search-engine-keywords), only I'm looking for somewhere to start but using Python instead of Java.
I did also wonder whether Google Predict and/or Google Refine might be of any use.
Anyway, any thoughts/suggestions most welcome,
Thanks,
C | 2011/03/28 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/5457993",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/679134/"
] | I like Woosh a lot. It is a pure python search engine that provides, among other things, that kind of functionality. Check it out.
<http://packages.python.org/Whoosh/index.html>
The feature that you are looking is call "faceted search results"
<http://packages.python.org/Whoosh/facets.html>
Hernan | Well I am a noob myself..But I think the way to go about it is nltk and wordnet.(as you already said)
First remove all the numbers and any special characters (basically clean up the keywords)
Check for basic string matches/substring matches
Tag POS tags, (take default tagger as noun)
If its other than a noun then use wordnet to get all its synonyms homonyms and heteronyms and match them as well.
If its a Noun then use some basic techniques like a [lowest common substring match](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_common_subsequence_problem) or lavenshtein distance, B/K Tree etc.
You can nest the levels according to your need of false positives/negatives
As for the high level clustering you can use a Python machine learning module (like PyML, Reverend etc), and use already given data to train..like the [google's ngram data on LDC](http://www.ldc.upenn.edu/Catalog/CatalogEntry.jsp?catalogId=LDC2006T13) |
40,826,725 | The past couple of iphone apps I have released have gotten clicks on admob before they even get released to the appstore! I do not know what's going on. Every time I test I always use the xcode simulator which uses test ads and I never install on my iphone! I do not want to get my admob account banned. Does anybody have any ideas about what is going on? I tried using different phones to archive and upload my build but still this problem persists. I have looked everywhere and I have not found anybody who has had this same problem. Is it maybe incorrectly displaying where the revenue is coming from? Also any time a test interstitial popped up on the simulator, I never clicked on it, always x'ed it out. | 2016/11/27 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/40826725",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3554599/"
] | There are various possibilities:
It is possible that also the test ads are counted.
Apple review team may be playing with the app.
You are not always connected to the test Ad service. | i think that making sure that test ads are turned on and not counted on Admob's side would be a solution. also this link might be useful <https://support.google.com/admob/answer/2753860?hl=en> |
63,701,904 | Presto coordinator does not have inbuilt support for High Availability.Its a **SPOF**, single point of failure.
Is there an approach to overcome this ? | 2020/09/02 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/63701904",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1387142/"
] | HA can mean multiple things.
There is no HA for ongoing queries and Presto project provides no HA for coordinator, as this inherently needs to be tied to deployment and monitoring system.
Your options include:
* use Starburst for deployment, it provides coordinator's quick fail over for more than a year now
* AWS's EMR may also provide fail over for the coordinator (need verification)
* build it yourself
Currently these solutions are limited, they cannot help ongoing or currently queued queries from failing, so you still need a kind of retry on the client side. You can follow <https://github.com/trinodb/trino/issues/455> for future improvements in Presto which would allow for more resilience. | **Presto Coordinator HA setup**
**( Ongoing queries will be impacted if a coordinator goes down )**
**Active/Active**
**Requirements**
* *N+1 hostnames for the ELB.*
Or
* *N+1 ports on the ELB.*
N is the number of presto clusters.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/JkQUZ.png)
Clients are configured with one of the elb host names that is not used as a servername.
In the current setup, the **presto.client.abc.com**.
**Presto Query protocol**
<https://github.com/prestodb/presto/wiki/HTTP-Protocol>
It's a cursor based implementation. A query results in a cursor and the clients iterate the cursor. Every cursor iteration response contains a next uri to fetch the next set of results from.
All the next uri links for a query must be routed to the coordinator the original query was handled by.
Used nginx server names to bind a query to a coordinator.
Can also be setup with multiple ports ( ELB with multiple ports instead of multiple host names ). |
63,701,904 | Presto coordinator does not have inbuilt support for High Availability.Its a **SPOF**, single point of failure.
Is there an approach to overcome this ? | 2020/09/02 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/63701904",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1387142/"
] | **Presto Coordinator HA setup**
**( Ongoing queries will be impacted if a coordinator goes down )**
**Active/Active**
**Requirements**
* *N+1 hostnames for the ELB.*
Or
* *N+1 ports on the ELB.*
N is the number of presto clusters.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/JkQUZ.png)
Clients are configured with one of the elb host names that is not used as a servername.
In the current setup, the **presto.client.abc.com**.
**Presto Query protocol**
<https://github.com/prestodb/presto/wiki/HTTP-Protocol>
It's a cursor based implementation. A query results in a cursor and the clients iterate the cursor. Every cursor iteration response contains a next uri to fetch the next set of results from.
All the next uri links for a query must be routed to the coordinator the original query was handled by.
Used nginx server names to bind a query to a coordinator.
Can also be setup with multiple ports ( ELB with multiple ports instead of multiple host names ). | Since you asked about Prestodb, the issue of the single coordinator is being investigated to come up with a design for multiple coordinators for prestodb.
It is a hard problem to solve given the current coordinator design.
<https://github.com/prestodb/presto/issues/3918>
As you mention, using HA proxy on two coordinators is the best way to achieve some sort of coordinator HA at the moment.
If you run containers in Kubernetes, K8s can detect a down pod and auto restart the coordinator to give you HA to some extent as well.
While AWS EMR provides multi-master environment, because Presto doesn't have support for multiple coordinators, it is currently not supported. (that is not in the list of services that can use this feature) |
63,701,904 | Presto coordinator does not have inbuilt support for High Availability.Its a **SPOF**, single point of failure.
Is there an approach to overcome this ? | 2020/09/02 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/63701904",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1387142/"
] | HA can mean multiple things.
There is no HA for ongoing queries and Presto project provides no HA for coordinator, as this inherently needs to be tied to deployment and monitoring system.
Your options include:
* use Starburst for deployment, it provides coordinator's quick fail over for more than a year now
* AWS's EMR may also provide fail over for the coordinator (need verification)
* build it yourself
Currently these solutions are limited, they cannot help ongoing or currently queued queries from failing, so you still need a kind of retry on the client side. You can follow <https://github.com/trinodb/trino/issues/455> for future improvements in Presto which would allow for more resilience. | Since you asked about Prestodb, the issue of the single coordinator is being investigated to come up with a design for multiple coordinators for prestodb.
It is a hard problem to solve given the current coordinator design.
<https://github.com/prestodb/presto/issues/3918>
As you mention, using HA proxy on two coordinators is the best way to achieve some sort of coordinator HA at the moment.
If you run containers in Kubernetes, K8s can detect a down pod and auto restart the coordinator to give you HA to some extent as well.
While AWS EMR provides multi-master environment, because Presto doesn't have support for multiple coordinators, it is currently not supported. (that is not in the list of services that can use this feature) |
841,529 | I need to remotely access 100+ work computers (Windows XP, Vista and 8).
The PCs are all on the same local network, their dynamic IPs set by DHCP. They're behind a NAT and the public IP address is fixed.
We have chosen to use VNC. From a local computer I can provide the local IP and connect just fine. How can I connect from external locations?
I know I can use port forwarding on the router to forward port 5900 on the router to the same port on a given local IP, but it would provide me access to a single PC only.
(***This is not a software recommendation question***. I have thought of a few options, I'd like feedback about its advantages and disadvantages, and / or new suggestions -- the way I see it, it is not a "primary opinion based" question as well).
Here's some options I'm considering
* Use port forwarding to remote into a "machine-in-the-middle" that is then used to remote into the desired machine: this is the setup currently implemented. Other than not having to configure multiple port forwardings on the router, I can't think of any advantage. The obvious disadvantages are (1) this machine has to be perpetually on, and (2) I supposte it adds more complexity and unnecessary data throughput, latency, etc.
* Use port forwarding on the router, so that port 5900 forwards to PC1:5900, port 5901 forwards to PC2:5900, port 5903 forwards to PC2:5900, and so on. It forces me to have a "mapping table" of which port forwards to which IP. There's also the fact the local machines use DHCP and the IPs aren't fixed, so I suppose it forces me to set all the PCs to us fixed IPs.
* Some sort of local or external service that keeps track of which PCs are online and what their local IPs are. I'm not sure if something like that exists, or if it can be achieved with simple tools or scripts.
* Use anything other than VNC: this could be a valid and welcome answer to this question. Unfortunately in my particular case, we can only use free (as-in-freedom) software, or at least software free for commercial use, and that doesn't publish information to third-parties. | 2014/11/18 | [
"https://superuser.com/questions/841529",
"https://superuser.com",
"https://superuser.com/users/165442/"
] | Ideally, you could use an open source VPN (OpenVPN being one example) to tunnel into the network, then VNC to any PC you wish. More secure IMO, and less holes opened in the firewall. | Try VNC'ing into the machine you want but specifying the port in the connection. i.e. "10.0.0.2:5901"<>b
"10.0.0.2:5902"
etc.
That seemed to work for me. |
163,964 | When Obi Wan kills Darth Maul, he uses his master's lightsaber to defeat the Sith Lord. After that, the lightsaber's fate is unknown according to this [answer.](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/75855/70135) Anakin becomes Obi Wan's Apprentice after the death of Qui-Gon Jinn. When Anakin is now a Jedi Padawan, he has constructed his first [lightsaber.](https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/d/d4/Anakin_Skywalkers_first_lightsaber_-_SW_Card_Trader.png/revision/latest?cb=20160709211740) Now here's my question, **Why didn't Obi Wan just gives his master's lightsaber to Anakin?** | 2017/07/17 | [
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/163964",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/users/70135/"
] | Why would he?
In the clone wars episodes [The Gathering](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2493136/) and [A Test of Strength](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2493138/) we see that lightsaber construction is an expected part of a Jedi youngling's training, and that each uses a crystal that is uniquely suited to them. One would assume then that there are advantages in using this crystal instead of just any old crystal.
The selection of the crystal also appears to be a part of the training / a rite of passage for the younglings, so I doubt Anakin would have avoided this. Thus if he had to make his own, and his own was likely better, or at least more personalised for him, why would he need to use Qui-gon's? | At least in *Legends*, it was a Jedi tradition to travel to Ilum and take part in a ritual called the Gathering. During the days of the Jedi Order, lightsabers were not generally inherited from a Jedi to Jedi, but initiates had to find the crystal that "spoke to them", and then construct their own unique weapon. Like Obi-Wan Kenobi said:
>
> This weapon is your life!
>
>
>
Interestingly, Kenobi himself wanted to use his master's lightsaber for some years, due to losing his own in a duel against Darth Maul. That's also another obvious reason why he didn't give it to Anakin. |
16,130 | I've been asked to create a website for a *very* small church. Given the limited budget and lack of technical staff, what is the best option for building a site that is low-cost (or preferably free) which a church member can easily maintain and modify?
The church's previous site was hosted on Geocities if that gives you any idea of the type of site they are looking for. The site doesn't necessarily have to contain a CMS, the emphasis here is on cheap and easy. | 2011/06/29 | [
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/16130",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | [WordPress](http://wordpress.org/) is very easy to use as a CMS. It provide a GUI that allows them to create new pages and content with little knowledge of how the Web works required. You could then get a cheap hosting plan from a reliable web hosting provider like [Hostgator](http://www.hostgator.com/shared.shtml) for as little as $4 a month. WordPress is very active and I believe open source so you don' have to worry about it disappearing on you. Hostgator is one of the largest webhosts in the world so the odds of them disappearing anytime soon is very small.
Or you could go with Wordpress' hosted solution and cut out the hosting provider altogether. It's [free for the basic package](http://en.wordpress.com/features/). | WordPress is best option for small to medium business.
Can easy installed by hosting provider hostrivers.com etc
In other hand Joomla is fantastic option for a website that requires multiple user privileges or custom database work.. |
16,130 | I've been asked to create a website for a *very* small church. Given the limited budget and lack of technical staff, what is the best option for building a site that is low-cost (or preferably free) which a church member can easily maintain and modify?
The church's previous site was hosted on Geocities if that gives you any idea of the type of site they are looking for. The site doesn't necessarily have to contain a CMS, the emphasis here is on cheap and easy. | 2011/06/29 | [
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/16130",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | [WordPress](http://wordpress.org/) is very easy to use as a CMS. It provide a GUI that allows them to create new pages and content with little knowledge of how the Web works required. You could then get a cheap hosting plan from a reliable web hosting provider like [Hostgator](http://www.hostgator.com/shared.shtml) for as little as $4 a month. WordPress is very active and I believe open source so you don' have to worry about it disappearing on you. Hostgator is one of the largest webhosts in the world so the odds of them disappearing anytime soon is very small.
Or you could go with Wordpress' hosted solution and cut out the hosting provider altogether. It's [free for the basic package](http://en.wordpress.com/features/). | Guess, [Google Apps](http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/nonprofit/index.html) for non-profit organization will suits your needs. |
16,130 | I've been asked to create a website for a *very* small church. Given the limited budget and lack of technical staff, what is the best option for building a site that is low-cost (or preferably free) which a church member can easily maintain and modify?
The church's previous site was hosted on Geocities if that gives you any idea of the type of site they are looking for. The site doesn't necessarily have to contain a CMS, the emphasis here is on cheap and easy. | 2011/06/29 | [
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/16130",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | [WordPress](http://wordpress.org/) is very easy to use as a CMS. It provide a GUI that allows them to create new pages and content with little knowledge of how the Web works required. You could then get a cheap hosting plan from a reliable web hosting provider like [Hostgator](http://www.hostgator.com/shared.shtml) for as little as $4 a month. WordPress is very active and I believe open source so you don' have to worry about it disappearing on you. Hostgator is one of the largest webhosts in the world so the odds of them disappearing anytime soon is very small.
Or you could go with Wordpress' hosted solution and cut out the hosting provider altogether. It's [free for the basic package](http://en.wordpress.com/features/). | I have no experience of [Church123](http://www.church123.com/welcome.htm), but they are trying to do what you want - keeping it simple. Whether you count it low cost ($370/year plus more for domain names) is your call. |
16,130 | I've been asked to create a website for a *very* small church. Given the limited budget and lack of technical staff, what is the best option for building a site that is low-cost (or preferably free) which a church member can easily maintain and modify?
The church's previous site was hosted on Geocities if that gives you any idea of the type of site they are looking for. The site doesn't necessarily have to contain a CMS, the emphasis here is on cheap and easy. | 2011/06/29 | [
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/16130",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | Guess, [Google Apps](http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/nonprofit/index.html) for non-profit organization will suits your needs. | WordPress is best option for small to medium business.
Can easy installed by hosting provider hostrivers.com etc
In other hand Joomla is fantastic option for a website that requires multiple user privileges or custom database work.. |
16,130 | I've been asked to create a website for a *very* small church. Given the limited budget and lack of technical staff, what is the best option for building a site that is low-cost (or preferably free) which a church member can easily maintain and modify?
The church's previous site was hosted on Geocities if that gives you any idea of the type of site they are looking for. The site doesn't necessarily have to contain a CMS, the emphasis here is on cheap and easy. | 2011/06/29 | [
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/16130",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | I have no experience of [Church123](http://www.church123.com/welcome.htm), but they are trying to do what you want - keeping it simple. Whether you count it low cost ($370/year plus more for domain names) is your call. | WordPress is best option for small to medium business.
Can easy installed by hosting provider hostrivers.com etc
In other hand Joomla is fantastic option for a website that requires multiple user privileges or custom database work.. |
16,130 | I've been asked to create a website for a *very* small church. Given the limited budget and lack of technical staff, what is the best option for building a site that is low-cost (or preferably free) which a church member can easily maintain and modify?
The church's previous site was hosted on Geocities if that gives you any idea of the type of site they are looking for. The site doesn't necessarily have to contain a CMS, the emphasis here is on cheap and easy. | 2011/06/29 | [
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/16130",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | Guess, [Google Apps](http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/nonprofit/index.html) for non-profit organization will suits your needs. | I have no experience of [Church123](http://www.church123.com/welcome.htm), but they are trying to do what you want - keeping it simple. Whether you count it low cost ($370/year plus more for domain names) is your call. |
332,232 | I have a MacBook Air running Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5. I wish to upgrade it to macOS Sierra, but it requires at-least OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 which is not available anymore in the App Store.
Is there any other way to update the OS? | 2018/07/28 | [
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/332232",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/297008/"
] | I figured out I can still download El Capitan so should solve the problem. | If you aren't specifically looking to run macOS Sierra, Apple recommends upgrading to macOS High Sierra.
You can find the instructions to download and install macOS Sierra here:
[How to download macOS Sierra](https://support.apple.com/HT208202) |
191,693 | I am interested in studying abroad in America. I am currently doing a M.Sc. in Quantum Science and Technology in Germany and would like to start a Ph.D. in the same subject at one of the big American universities (MIT, Harvard, Caltech ...) after I've finished my degree. I noticed that every one of these programs has another master's integrated, for which I should already have completed the coursework. Can I skip that part's courses? If only a portion, how large of a portion could I skip?
Is there anyone who knows about this stuff (especially for the universities mentioned above) or who might've already gone through what I described above? | 2022/12/16 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/191693",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/165922/"
] | This question's in a bit of a gray area in that the main answer is, as a comment points out: Whether you can skip any courses, requirements, or recommendations tends to vary on a program-by-program basis. You'll need to contact Departments individually if this is a serious consideration.
To add a quick anecdote that may display the scope of variance, I can report different allowances within a **single** PhD program. The punchline in this particular circumstance is that the requirements were written flexibly. That probably does not generalize, however.
1. I was an undergraduate student at the same place as my PhD, but did a 1 year Masters in Europe in between. The Dept allowed me to skip the graduate courses I took with them during my undergraduate and nothing else. I sat "first year" and PhD qualifying examinations in the same semester, and eventually graduated in 4 academic years (accounting for the 1 year MSc). That last part basically required my PhD adviser to approve.
2. Some friends were undergraduate students in the same Dept. and then continued directly to a PhD in the same Dept. They too were not required to re-sit graduate classes they had taken as undergraduates, and I learned later were also allowed to skip some "first year" examinations as well. No other requirements waived, they eventually graduated in 5 academic years.
3. Some PhD students started directly from undergraduate programs at different US institutions. They had taken comparable graduate level courses as undergraduates, but were required to take those again at the PhD institution.
These are just 3 of several variants I encountered within one Dept. It's not going to be useful to you to conceptualize of US PhD programs as consisting of 1 European Masters + 1 European PhD. Each US PhD program has its own requirements which often includes some coursework that a European MS might cover. | You would transfer classes you already took in Germany into the program at the US. Rules for transferring are specific to the university and will depend on the class you took and the class you want to transfer. There are also rules about the amount of classes (credit units) you are allowed to transfer into a program.
For a Ph.D., you usually do not lack credit hours to graduate, so the latter might or might not be a problem.
However, there is (in general) no way to just skip ahead to the thesis part that you know from Germany. You might have to pass a comprehensive examination and defend your thesis approval. |
191,693 | I am interested in studying abroad in America. I am currently doing a M.Sc. in Quantum Science and Technology in Germany and would like to start a Ph.D. in the same subject at one of the big American universities (MIT, Harvard, Caltech ...) after I've finished my degree. I noticed that every one of these programs has another master's integrated, for which I should already have completed the coursework. Can I skip that part's courses? If only a portion, how large of a portion could I skip?
Is there anyone who knows about this stuff (especially for the universities mentioned above) or who might've already gone through what I described above? | 2022/12/16 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/191693",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/165922/"
] | Most US doctoral students start with only a bachelors. Few require a masters at any point, though many make one available along the way, sometimes just by filing paperwork and sometimes by writing a masters thesis (my case).
Actual requirements vary. In my doctoral program (math, but long ago), there were only two requirements: pass comprehensives and write a dissertation acceptable to the faculty.
But all students took courses as they were more advanced than undergraduate courses and were designed to enable passing comps, as well as giving a broad math background. Quite a number of the courses I took in the doctoral program had the same names as undergraduate courses but the level of instruction and difficulty was quite a bit higher. One way to think of it is that undergrad courses give the basics, but if you want real math insight you may need to go beyond what you can get in undergrad education.
Contrary to a comment, there was no "cohort" of students that needed to progress together. That may be different in other fields than math, I suppose. But you needed to pass those courses that you did take.
A doctoral student will probably have an advisor, not necessarily their research advisor, to help them choose whatever necessary courses are needed. So you get some guidance and aren't entirely on your own. The research advisor can be chosen later and isn't normally needed for admissions. If a student is already skilled enough in the required (comp exam) topics they might need to choose a research advisor relatively soon.
And, as mentioned in a comment, I always recommend students to "cast a wide net" of doctoral institutions. You don't just "enroll" at a place like MIT (or anywhere). You "apply" and are accepted or (most often) not. Top level institutions are very (very) competitive in admissions, accepting some fraction which tends to be smaller at the top since there are a lot of applicants and a limited number of slots. You need good letters of recommendation for admissions.
You won't need to repeat a masters, certainly. You might need some courses. But you probably won't need to take any courses in things you've already *mastered*, though mastering has a high bar. The masters program you are in might prepare you to take comps in some US institution or not. Probably there will be overlap. Possibly (probably?) there will be some gaps.
There are really two gates. The first is admissions. Your background and potential will be weighed and measured. The second gate is comprehensives, sometimes including orals, and folks may (will?) be looking for insight, not just competence. Now you can do the dissertation, which I'm not terming a gate, though there is a high bar there, also. | You would transfer classes you already took in Germany into the program at the US. Rules for transferring are specific to the university and will depend on the class you took and the class you want to transfer. There are also rules about the amount of classes (credit units) you are allowed to transfer into a program.
For a Ph.D., you usually do not lack credit hours to graduate, so the latter might or might not be a problem.
However, there is (in general) no way to just skip ahead to the thesis part that you know from Germany. You might have to pass a comprehensive examination and defend your thesis approval. |
191,693 | I am interested in studying abroad in America. I am currently doing a M.Sc. in Quantum Science and Technology in Germany and would like to start a Ph.D. in the same subject at one of the big American universities (MIT, Harvard, Caltech ...) after I've finished my degree. I noticed that every one of these programs has another master's integrated, for which I should already have completed the coursework. Can I skip that part's courses? If only a portion, how large of a portion could I skip?
Is there anyone who knows about this stuff (especially for the universities mentioned above) or who might've already gone through what I described above? | 2022/12/16 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/191693",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/165922/"
] | This question's in a bit of a gray area in that the main answer is, as a comment points out: Whether you can skip any courses, requirements, or recommendations tends to vary on a program-by-program basis. You'll need to contact Departments individually if this is a serious consideration.
To add a quick anecdote that may display the scope of variance, I can report different allowances within a **single** PhD program. The punchline in this particular circumstance is that the requirements were written flexibly. That probably does not generalize, however.
1. I was an undergraduate student at the same place as my PhD, but did a 1 year Masters in Europe in between. The Dept allowed me to skip the graduate courses I took with them during my undergraduate and nothing else. I sat "first year" and PhD qualifying examinations in the same semester, and eventually graduated in 4 academic years (accounting for the 1 year MSc). That last part basically required my PhD adviser to approve.
2. Some friends were undergraduate students in the same Dept. and then continued directly to a PhD in the same Dept. They too were not required to re-sit graduate classes they had taken as undergraduates, and I learned later were also allowed to skip some "first year" examinations as well. No other requirements waived, they eventually graduated in 5 academic years.
3. Some PhD students started directly from undergraduate programs at different US institutions. They had taken comparable graduate level courses as undergraduates, but were required to take those again at the PhD institution.
These are just 3 of several variants I encountered within one Dept. It's not going to be useful to you to conceptualize of US PhD programs as consisting of 1 European Masters + 1 European PhD. Each US PhD program has its own requirements which often includes some coursework that a European MS might cover. | Most US doctoral students start with only a bachelors. Few require a masters at any point, though many make one available along the way, sometimes just by filing paperwork and sometimes by writing a masters thesis (my case).
Actual requirements vary. In my doctoral program (math, but long ago), there were only two requirements: pass comprehensives and write a dissertation acceptable to the faculty.
But all students took courses as they were more advanced than undergraduate courses and were designed to enable passing comps, as well as giving a broad math background. Quite a number of the courses I took in the doctoral program had the same names as undergraduate courses but the level of instruction and difficulty was quite a bit higher. One way to think of it is that undergrad courses give the basics, but if you want real math insight you may need to go beyond what you can get in undergrad education.
Contrary to a comment, there was no "cohort" of students that needed to progress together. That may be different in other fields than math, I suppose. But you needed to pass those courses that you did take.
A doctoral student will probably have an advisor, not necessarily their research advisor, to help them choose whatever necessary courses are needed. So you get some guidance and aren't entirely on your own. The research advisor can be chosen later and isn't normally needed for admissions. If a student is already skilled enough in the required (comp exam) topics they might need to choose a research advisor relatively soon.
And, as mentioned in a comment, I always recommend students to "cast a wide net" of doctoral institutions. You don't just "enroll" at a place like MIT (or anywhere). You "apply" and are accepted or (most often) not. Top level institutions are very (very) competitive in admissions, accepting some fraction which tends to be smaller at the top since there are a lot of applicants and a limited number of slots. You need good letters of recommendation for admissions.
You won't need to repeat a masters, certainly. You might need some courses. But you probably won't need to take any courses in things you've already *mastered*, though mastering has a high bar. The masters program you are in might prepare you to take comps in some US institution or not. Probably there will be overlap. Possibly (probably?) there will be some gaps.
There are really two gates. The first is admissions. Your background and potential will be weighed and measured. The second gate is comprehensives, sometimes including orals, and folks may (will?) be looking for insight, not just competence. Now you can do the dissertation, which I'm not terming a gate, though there is a high bar there, also. |
30,638,540 | I want to serialize several C++ objects into JSON, and deserialize them back. Obviously since C++ is lacking reflection, this can't be done automatically. I will need to somehow tell the serializer which data member goes into which JSON property.
I can do that with C++, but I'd rather use something like Protobuf's `message` to specify the mapping. Out of the many many JSON C++ libraries out there, is there one that support some sort of metadata that allows me to map the serialization process without implementing it myself? | 2015/06/04 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/30638540",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/871910/"
] | You can simply use the JSON cpp or C files and use them as API. That is what I have done for my previous project. C++ does not come with inbuilt JSON support like JAVA.
So include the files and use the JSON function as APIs. You can build it separately and link it statically to your program. Go to the JSON home page for language wise files:
<http://json.org/>
For CPP files:
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/jsoncpp/>
i think its moved to git repo. The link is present there.
Hope this helps. | The ASN.1 tools from OSS Nokalva support JSON encoding rules for ASN.1 schemae.
You write an ASN.1 schema (protobufs schema are similar but inferior), compile it to whatever language you want (C++ in your case), and you get the bunch of classes that can serialise to/from JSON.
Not free I'm afraid.
ASN.1 is great - there's all sorts of encoding rules to suit all occasions. |
37,114 | Think *action movie*. Think two heavily-armed men - one chasing the other over rooftops, down through buildings and into the mean streets of a crowded city. Think big guns, explosions and other loud noises. Think danger. Think high-octane thrills.
The scene fades, the noise ends and then we are seeing a child being chastised by a father-figure. It becomes clear, after an extended scene, that this is the past and that the child will become one of the figures involved in the chase. It turns out that this scene is background information that tells us why the character has turned out to be a violent man. This is backstory, info-dump and (some might say) a darned nuisance all at the same time.
Question: **what innovative ways are available to deliver background information without preventing the reader from enjoying the main storyline?** | 2018/06/21 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/37114",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/31570/"
] | I wouldn't call this innovative, just borrowing a technique from other walks of life.
**The Sandwich method**. You start with something they like, then something they might like less, then immediately follow up with something they like again.
So, take your chase scene. Start with bullets flying and things exploding. Then, when one of them stops to catch their breath (or what have you), you segue into a part of a flashback.
You show one of the characters being all sentimental. Maybe even the bad buy.
>
> I lost him, for now. Doubling over, my lungs feel about ready to explode. Maybe I'm getting too old for this shit. Or maybe it was more fun when it was mom chasing me around the house with a broom, screaming that she was gonna beat be bloody.
>
>
>
Then, out of nowhere, there's a sound, a snapped twig, a door jerked open, and the chase is back on. It allows the character to catch his breath, it allows the reader to relax a little, but it always comes with the tension that this little break will end sooner or later. | Movies and books are different mediums. With a skillfully engineered scene, a movie director can deliver *enormous* amounts of information in seconds; a 30 second chase scene tells us all we need to know about good guy & bad guy & setting & time period & character. We don't need their names or a single word of dialogue; their emotions are on their faces and in their body language, including when the villain succeeds and the hero fails. The average reader consumes 200 wpm, 100 words in 30 seconds. Less than half a page, 2 or 3 paragraphs, and you simply cannot do the same job as film inside the reader's window of "I don't care anymore."
So rule 1: Do not open with a high-stakes action sequence; readers will not care because they don't care about the characters, and you can't write a high-stakes battle or pursuit and get across enough information to make them care **in the opening.** They don't know who to root for; unlike the movie where a skillful director can show them who to root for in the first second.
Elsewhere, BG information can be delivered by direct internal contemplation (thoughts, memories), indirect contemplation (*she recognized him, the weatherman from channel 7, the only reason her mother watches the weather*) direct dialogue (me telling you about my past, or a story from my past that reveals something about my character), indirect dialogue (my sibling or lifelong friend or parent telling you about my past), or things like detection and inference (reading my diary, seeing an old home movie or photographs with me in it). Or flashback, though I never use that mechanism.
Those are mechanisms. They can stray into info-dump, but the way to prevent that is to be *stingy* with background information, and deliver only what is immediately relevant to the reader and character; only reveal, through some mechanism, what the reader (or another character) needs to know to clarify this character, her emotions and actions. Dole out background and don't be in a rush to deliver it.
***Just like with new acquaintances IRL.*** We can meet somebody new, in the office or school or on a flight somewhere, and feel something on the spectrum from "dislike" to "indifference" to "like" without knowing anything about their background. One harsh line to a child may be all it takes; one tasteless joke or even expression or lingering glance resting on a woman's breasts. We don't need to know this guy's life story to know he is a lecherous old jerk.
The same with characters, for readers. Don't aim to get us invested in your character ***all at once***. Give us **one important point** through one of the above mechanisms, a few dozen words, then refrain; dole it out to us in pieces small enough to swallow without choking on it.
This does not really demand much planning on the part of the author, as the story progresses opportunities to express "character" will appear. Elements of the character are expressed then, when they ***matter*** to the story; when they have ***consequences*** in how this fictional character reacts, decides, chooses, etc. As an author, keep your eyes open to constantly creating tiny conflicts, which help reveal character. Mary arrives at the pasticciere half an hour late, all that is left is a lemon danish, and a blueberry one. She usually buys one apple turnover. Which does she buy? The lemon? The blueberry? Both, in case she doesn't like one of them? Neither? Is it a firm choice; definitely lemon? or she hates lemon? Maybe she decides *Screw fruit! I'm having chocolates for breakfast, it's all sugar anyway.*
Reveal what is necessary for the reader to know about your character, as they need to know it. If you have a good story, those details will be crucial to how the story turns out, who she is will guide her actions and decisions and be crucial to the turning points in the plot, so there will be plenty of opportunities to show the background as you go, a hundred words or so at a time. |
37,114 | Think *action movie*. Think two heavily-armed men - one chasing the other over rooftops, down through buildings and into the mean streets of a crowded city. Think big guns, explosions and other loud noises. Think danger. Think high-octane thrills.
The scene fades, the noise ends and then we are seeing a child being chastised by a father-figure. It becomes clear, after an extended scene, that this is the past and that the child will become one of the figures involved in the chase. It turns out that this scene is background information that tells us why the character has turned out to be a violent man. This is backstory, info-dump and (some might say) a darned nuisance all at the same time.
Question: **what innovative ways are available to deliver background information without preventing the reader from enjoying the main storyline?** | 2018/06/21 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/37114",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/31570/"
] | I wouldn't call this innovative, just borrowing a technique from other walks of life.
**The Sandwich method**. You start with something they like, then something they might like less, then immediately follow up with something they like again.
So, take your chase scene. Start with bullets flying and things exploding. Then, when one of them stops to catch their breath (or what have you), you segue into a part of a flashback.
You show one of the characters being all sentimental. Maybe even the bad buy.
>
> I lost him, for now. Doubling over, my lungs feel about ready to explode. Maybe I'm getting too old for this shit. Or maybe it was more fun when it was mom chasing me around the house with a broom, screaming that she was gonna beat be bloody.
>
>
>
Then, out of nowhere, there's a sound, a snapped twig, a door jerked open, and the chase is back on. It allows the character to catch his breath, it allows the reader to relax a little, but it always comes with the tension that this little break will end sooner or later. | In the book I'm reading right now, [The Bone Clocks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bone_Clocks), David Mitchell does an excellent job of giving background information without it feeling like an information dump. In the first section of the book, "A Hot Spell", he switches between the primary story and a background story from 8 years prior.
Both the primary and background stories are told in a first person by our protagonist, Holly Sykes. The background sections are told at natural moments in the story. They are short, but clearly demarcated, in the character's voice, as "Holly Sykes and the Weird Shit, Part 1", "Holly Sykes and the Weird Shit, Part 2", "Weird Shit, Last Act".
As I reader, I'm already primed for this because, well, so far it appears to be a realist novel told from the perspective of a 15 year old girl, but some slightly weird shit has happened already (Holly's brother appears to read her mind, for one), and I'm looking for some explanation. Both the primary story line and the background story line are compelling, they're both in the same voice, and I get a clear and almost immediate payoff for paying attention. The things I learn in the brief "weird shit" parts are relevant to understanding both the characters AND the action of the primary story line.
To sum up, good techniques in *The Bone Clocks* for back story:
1. Doesn't break the narrative flow (in style, voice, and content, it's clearly part of the same story)
2. The reader is looking for it
3. It's compelling on its own
4. It's relevant at more than one level (character and action)
5. There is an immediate payoff |
37,114 | Think *action movie*. Think two heavily-armed men - one chasing the other over rooftops, down through buildings and into the mean streets of a crowded city. Think big guns, explosions and other loud noises. Think danger. Think high-octane thrills.
The scene fades, the noise ends and then we are seeing a child being chastised by a father-figure. It becomes clear, after an extended scene, that this is the past and that the child will become one of the figures involved in the chase. It turns out that this scene is background information that tells us why the character has turned out to be a violent man. This is backstory, info-dump and (some might say) a darned nuisance all at the same time.
Question: **what innovative ways are available to deliver background information without preventing the reader from enjoying the main storyline?** | 2018/06/21 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/37114",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/31570/"
] | The least obtrusive way to deliver background information is to leave it out. ...for now.
You are painting an action scene with your words. Your goal is to keep the reader spellbound, excited and emotionally involved. This is no time to delve into the psychological roots of why the characters are fighting. One of them wants to kill the other and the other wants to survive. There is no need for more details than that in the opening scene.
It is vital that you know why your characters are fighting. Finding those answers for yourself may involve a lot of work, world-building and character-building. You may have to develop dozens of pages of backstory to get your characters to where your story begins, but none of that hard-won knowledge is needed or welcome in the opening scenes. Most of it will probably never make it into your book at all.
Backstory provides completeness and therefore continuity to your story. A long and detailed backstory is like a treasure chest which you can turn to when a current chapter needs something special. By slowly revealing previous hidden details about your characters, you gradually fill in the reader's understanding of the "why" behind what is going on. By trickling those details out slowly, you keep the reader curious and thereby keep them engaged.
If some (most) of your backstory never gets included, that is okay. Readers are pretty intuitive and will figure out or at least have a fan theory about the bits you leave out. And those undisclosed treasures will be very useful should you choose to write a sequel.
Keep Writing | Movies and books are different mediums. With a skillfully engineered scene, a movie director can deliver *enormous* amounts of information in seconds; a 30 second chase scene tells us all we need to know about good guy & bad guy & setting & time period & character. We don't need their names or a single word of dialogue; their emotions are on their faces and in their body language, including when the villain succeeds and the hero fails. The average reader consumes 200 wpm, 100 words in 30 seconds. Less than half a page, 2 or 3 paragraphs, and you simply cannot do the same job as film inside the reader's window of "I don't care anymore."
So rule 1: Do not open with a high-stakes action sequence; readers will not care because they don't care about the characters, and you can't write a high-stakes battle or pursuit and get across enough information to make them care **in the opening.** They don't know who to root for; unlike the movie where a skillful director can show them who to root for in the first second.
Elsewhere, BG information can be delivered by direct internal contemplation (thoughts, memories), indirect contemplation (*she recognized him, the weatherman from channel 7, the only reason her mother watches the weather*) direct dialogue (me telling you about my past, or a story from my past that reveals something about my character), indirect dialogue (my sibling or lifelong friend or parent telling you about my past), or things like detection and inference (reading my diary, seeing an old home movie or photographs with me in it). Or flashback, though I never use that mechanism.
Those are mechanisms. They can stray into info-dump, but the way to prevent that is to be *stingy* with background information, and deliver only what is immediately relevant to the reader and character; only reveal, through some mechanism, what the reader (or another character) needs to know to clarify this character, her emotions and actions. Dole out background and don't be in a rush to deliver it.
***Just like with new acquaintances IRL.*** We can meet somebody new, in the office or school or on a flight somewhere, and feel something on the spectrum from "dislike" to "indifference" to "like" without knowing anything about their background. One harsh line to a child may be all it takes; one tasteless joke or even expression or lingering glance resting on a woman's breasts. We don't need to know this guy's life story to know he is a lecherous old jerk.
The same with characters, for readers. Don't aim to get us invested in your character ***all at once***. Give us **one important point** through one of the above mechanisms, a few dozen words, then refrain; dole it out to us in pieces small enough to swallow without choking on it.
This does not really demand much planning on the part of the author, as the story progresses opportunities to express "character" will appear. Elements of the character are expressed then, when they ***matter*** to the story; when they have ***consequences*** in how this fictional character reacts, decides, chooses, etc. As an author, keep your eyes open to constantly creating tiny conflicts, which help reveal character. Mary arrives at the pasticciere half an hour late, all that is left is a lemon danish, and a blueberry one. She usually buys one apple turnover. Which does she buy? The lemon? The blueberry? Both, in case she doesn't like one of them? Neither? Is it a firm choice; definitely lemon? or she hates lemon? Maybe she decides *Screw fruit! I'm having chocolates for breakfast, it's all sugar anyway.*
Reveal what is necessary for the reader to know about your character, as they need to know it. If you have a good story, those details will be crucial to how the story turns out, who she is will guide her actions and decisions and be crucial to the turning points in the plot, so there will be plenty of opportunities to show the background as you go, a hundred words or so at a time. |
37,114 | Think *action movie*. Think two heavily-armed men - one chasing the other over rooftops, down through buildings and into the mean streets of a crowded city. Think big guns, explosions and other loud noises. Think danger. Think high-octane thrills.
The scene fades, the noise ends and then we are seeing a child being chastised by a father-figure. It becomes clear, after an extended scene, that this is the past and that the child will become one of the figures involved in the chase. It turns out that this scene is background information that tells us why the character has turned out to be a violent man. This is backstory, info-dump and (some might say) a darned nuisance all at the same time.
Question: **what innovative ways are available to deliver background information without preventing the reader from enjoying the main storyline?** | 2018/06/21 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/37114",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/31570/"
] | The least obtrusive way to deliver background information is to leave it out. ...for now.
You are painting an action scene with your words. Your goal is to keep the reader spellbound, excited and emotionally involved. This is no time to delve into the psychological roots of why the characters are fighting. One of them wants to kill the other and the other wants to survive. There is no need for more details than that in the opening scene.
It is vital that you know why your characters are fighting. Finding those answers for yourself may involve a lot of work, world-building and character-building. You may have to develop dozens of pages of backstory to get your characters to where your story begins, but none of that hard-won knowledge is needed or welcome in the opening scenes. Most of it will probably never make it into your book at all.
Backstory provides completeness and therefore continuity to your story. A long and detailed backstory is like a treasure chest which you can turn to when a current chapter needs something special. By slowly revealing previous hidden details about your characters, you gradually fill in the reader's understanding of the "why" behind what is going on. By trickling those details out slowly, you keep the reader curious and thereby keep them engaged.
If some (most) of your backstory never gets included, that is okay. Readers are pretty intuitive and will figure out or at least have a fan theory about the bits you leave out. And those undisclosed treasures will be very useful should you choose to write a sequel.
Keep Writing | In the book I'm reading right now, [The Bone Clocks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bone_Clocks), David Mitchell does an excellent job of giving background information without it feeling like an information dump. In the first section of the book, "A Hot Spell", he switches between the primary story and a background story from 8 years prior.
Both the primary and background stories are told in a first person by our protagonist, Holly Sykes. The background sections are told at natural moments in the story. They are short, but clearly demarcated, in the character's voice, as "Holly Sykes and the Weird Shit, Part 1", "Holly Sykes and the Weird Shit, Part 2", "Weird Shit, Last Act".
As I reader, I'm already primed for this because, well, so far it appears to be a realist novel told from the perspective of a 15 year old girl, but some slightly weird shit has happened already (Holly's brother appears to read her mind, for one), and I'm looking for some explanation. Both the primary story line and the background story line are compelling, they're both in the same voice, and I get a clear and almost immediate payoff for paying attention. The things I learn in the brief "weird shit" parts are relevant to understanding both the characters AND the action of the primary story line.
To sum up, good techniques in *The Bone Clocks* for back story:
1. Doesn't break the narrative flow (in style, voice, and content, it's clearly part of the same story)
2. The reader is looking for it
3. It's compelling on its own
4. It's relevant at more than one level (character and action)
5. There is an immediate payoff |
37,114 | Think *action movie*. Think two heavily-armed men - one chasing the other over rooftops, down through buildings and into the mean streets of a crowded city. Think big guns, explosions and other loud noises. Think danger. Think high-octane thrills.
The scene fades, the noise ends and then we are seeing a child being chastised by a father-figure. It becomes clear, after an extended scene, that this is the past and that the child will become one of the figures involved in the chase. It turns out that this scene is background information that tells us why the character has turned out to be a violent man. This is backstory, info-dump and (some might say) a darned nuisance all at the same time.
Question: **what innovative ways are available to deliver background information without preventing the reader from enjoying the main storyline?** | 2018/06/21 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/37114",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/31570/"
] | Movies and books are different mediums. With a skillfully engineered scene, a movie director can deliver *enormous* amounts of information in seconds; a 30 second chase scene tells us all we need to know about good guy & bad guy & setting & time period & character. We don't need their names or a single word of dialogue; their emotions are on their faces and in their body language, including when the villain succeeds and the hero fails. The average reader consumes 200 wpm, 100 words in 30 seconds. Less than half a page, 2 or 3 paragraphs, and you simply cannot do the same job as film inside the reader's window of "I don't care anymore."
So rule 1: Do not open with a high-stakes action sequence; readers will not care because they don't care about the characters, and you can't write a high-stakes battle or pursuit and get across enough information to make them care **in the opening.** They don't know who to root for; unlike the movie where a skillful director can show them who to root for in the first second.
Elsewhere, BG information can be delivered by direct internal contemplation (thoughts, memories), indirect contemplation (*she recognized him, the weatherman from channel 7, the only reason her mother watches the weather*) direct dialogue (me telling you about my past, or a story from my past that reveals something about my character), indirect dialogue (my sibling or lifelong friend or parent telling you about my past), or things like detection and inference (reading my diary, seeing an old home movie or photographs with me in it). Or flashback, though I never use that mechanism.
Those are mechanisms. They can stray into info-dump, but the way to prevent that is to be *stingy* with background information, and deliver only what is immediately relevant to the reader and character; only reveal, through some mechanism, what the reader (or another character) needs to know to clarify this character, her emotions and actions. Dole out background and don't be in a rush to deliver it.
***Just like with new acquaintances IRL.*** We can meet somebody new, in the office or school or on a flight somewhere, and feel something on the spectrum from "dislike" to "indifference" to "like" without knowing anything about their background. One harsh line to a child may be all it takes; one tasteless joke or even expression or lingering glance resting on a woman's breasts. We don't need to know this guy's life story to know he is a lecherous old jerk.
The same with characters, for readers. Don't aim to get us invested in your character ***all at once***. Give us **one important point** through one of the above mechanisms, a few dozen words, then refrain; dole it out to us in pieces small enough to swallow without choking on it.
This does not really demand much planning on the part of the author, as the story progresses opportunities to express "character" will appear. Elements of the character are expressed then, when they ***matter*** to the story; when they have ***consequences*** in how this fictional character reacts, decides, chooses, etc. As an author, keep your eyes open to constantly creating tiny conflicts, which help reveal character. Mary arrives at the pasticciere half an hour late, all that is left is a lemon danish, and a blueberry one. She usually buys one apple turnover. Which does she buy? The lemon? The blueberry? Both, in case she doesn't like one of them? Neither? Is it a firm choice; definitely lemon? or she hates lemon? Maybe she decides *Screw fruit! I'm having chocolates for breakfast, it's all sugar anyway.*
Reveal what is necessary for the reader to know about your character, as they need to know it. If you have a good story, those details will be crucial to how the story turns out, who she is will guide her actions and decisions and be crucial to the turning points in the plot, so there will be plenty of opportunities to show the background as you go, a hundred words or so at a time. | In the book I'm reading right now, [The Bone Clocks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bone_Clocks), David Mitchell does an excellent job of giving background information without it feeling like an information dump. In the first section of the book, "A Hot Spell", he switches between the primary story and a background story from 8 years prior.
Both the primary and background stories are told in a first person by our protagonist, Holly Sykes. The background sections are told at natural moments in the story. They are short, but clearly demarcated, in the character's voice, as "Holly Sykes and the Weird Shit, Part 1", "Holly Sykes and the Weird Shit, Part 2", "Weird Shit, Last Act".
As I reader, I'm already primed for this because, well, so far it appears to be a realist novel told from the perspective of a 15 year old girl, but some slightly weird shit has happened already (Holly's brother appears to read her mind, for one), and I'm looking for some explanation. Both the primary story line and the background story line are compelling, they're both in the same voice, and I get a clear and almost immediate payoff for paying attention. The things I learn in the brief "weird shit" parts are relevant to understanding both the characters AND the action of the primary story line.
To sum up, good techniques in *The Bone Clocks* for back story:
1. Doesn't break the narrative flow (in style, voice, and content, it's clearly part of the same story)
2. The reader is looking for it
3. It's compelling on its own
4. It's relevant at more than one level (character and action)
5. There is an immediate payoff |
1,244,619 | Our company has a handful of Mac users. I recently built a Winform application and now my main user is using a Mac. Is it possible to run this application on a Mac? What would have to be done to convert it? If it is too much, I may just rebuild it is asp.net as a web application.
Thanks in advance!
JCC | 2009/08/07 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/1244619",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/-1/"
] | Maybe. Many .Net programs can be compiled with mono as well, winforms usually is not a problem, but some libraries (e. g. MS Office libraries for editing Excel files). I am not sure about VB, as mono coders mostly use C#, but you can analyse your code with the [Mono Migration Analyzer](http://mono-project.com/Moma) for portability to mono. | Depending a bit on features and controls used, it may run on [Mono](http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page). Since you can run Mono on Windows as well it's rather easy to download and test it. |
1,244,619 | Our company has a handful of Mac users. I recently built a Winform application and now my main user is using a Mac. Is it possible to run this application on a Mac? What would have to be done to convert it? If it is too much, I may just rebuild it is asp.net as a web application.
Thanks in advance!
JCC | 2009/08/07 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/1244619",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/-1/"
] | Depending a bit on features and controls used, it may run on [Mono](http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page). Since you can run Mono on Windows as well it's rather easy to download and test it. | Your basic options are (from least intrusive to most intrusive, from the point of view of a Mac user):
1. Convert it to a web app.
2. Run it on a Terminal Server and have them use Remote Desktop.
3. Run the application in a virtual machine (VMWare or Parallels) that is running Windows.
4. Try to get it running under Mono.
If there isn’t a strong reason for it to be a desktop application, you really should be thinking in terms of web apps for new applications—at least, that’s an unwritten rule where I work. |
1,244,619 | Our company has a handful of Mac users. I recently built a Winform application and now my main user is using a Mac. Is it possible to run this application on a Mac? What would have to be done to convert it? If it is too much, I may just rebuild it is asp.net as a web application.
Thanks in advance!
JCC | 2009/08/07 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/1244619",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/-1/"
] | Maybe. Many .Net programs can be compiled with mono as well, winforms usually is not a problem, but some libraries (e. g. MS Office libraries for editing Excel files). I am not sure about VB, as mono coders mostly use C#, but you can analyse your code with the [Mono Migration Analyzer](http://mono-project.com/Moma) for portability to mono. | Your basic options are (from least intrusive to most intrusive, from the point of view of a Mac user):
1. Convert it to a web app.
2. Run it on a Terminal Server and have them use Remote Desktop.
3. Run the application in a virtual machine (VMWare or Parallels) that is running Windows.
4. Try to get it running under Mono.
If there isn’t a strong reason for it to be a desktop application, you really should be thinking in terms of web apps for new applications—at least, that’s an unwritten rule where I work. |
148,200 | In my grammar book the following examples for present perfect continuous (PPC) are given:
Example no. 1:
>
> Is it raining?
>
> No, but the ground is wet.
>
> It'**s been** raining. ( = It **has been** ... )
>
>
>
In this example, it is **not raining any longer** at the present moment.
Example no. 2:
>
> It began raining two hours ago and it is still raining now.
>
> How long **has** it **been** raining?
>
> It **has been** raining for two hours.
>
>
>
In this example, it is **still raining** at the present moment.
Are these combinations, namely
* PPC **without a duration** => no more raining,
* PPC **with a duration** => still raining,
just coincidences?
Or does a given duration imply that the action/event is still ongoing, whereas an absent duration implies that the action/event is no more ongoing?
Or to put in examples. Are the following examples gramatically still valid?
Example no. 1\*:
>
> Is it raining?
>
> No, but the ground is wet.
>
> It **has been** raining for two hours.
>
>
>
In this example, it is **not raining any longer** at the present moment.
Example no. 2\*:
>
> It began raining two hours ago and it is still raining now.
>
> **Has** it **been** raining?
>
> Yes, it'**s been** raining.
>
>
> | 2017/11/24 | [
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/148200",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/users/64727/"
] | I believe that the phrase "in its purest form" is a translation of the Latin **"per se"** (by itself) or "not mixed with anything else." | The language of the texts suggests that the leadership provided by most people is ***adulterated*** by lesser things (self-interest, power-seeking, hypocrisy, or whatever). On the other hand, leadership that is not contaminated by these other things (and is therefore pure) consists of leading by setting an example.
Note that the text does not say the ***leader*** is pure, but that the ***leadership*** is pure. As you say, a leader may be great, but we do not normally call him or her pure in this context. Pure normally means something else, like moral/sexual purity, when applied to a person. However, a person may demonstrate ***pure leadership*** by not allowing other things to pervert their leadership. In this context we may also use "in its best form" as a substitute.
One might also demonstrate generosity or any other attribute in its purest form---unadulterated by lesser things. |
3,726 | Martin Gardener was a great recreational mathematics expert and his column "Mathematical Games" is an all time hit. But is there any archive available online consisting of his articles (preferably in PDF format)? I searched online but I got only one or two articles in PDF format. | 2016/05/04 | [
"https://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/3726",
"https://hsm.stackexchange.com",
"https://hsm.stackexchange.com/users/2891/"
] | About 20 of Martin Gardner's books are available. In print, in iBooks, in Kindle, and probably other sources. Is there some reason you cannot pay for them?
**added**
All the "Mathematical Games" columns from Scientific American: you can get them on one [CD](http://www.maa.org/press/books/martin-gardner-s-mathematical-games-the-entire-collection-of-his-scientific-american-columns-on-one) ...about $51 from Amazon.com, cheaper from the MAA if you are a member. | Not strictly an archive, but some related materials to Martin Gardner and his history can be found at <https://www.gathering4gardner.org/> |
3,726 | Martin Gardener was a great recreational mathematics expert and his column "Mathematical Games" is an all time hit. But is there any archive available online consisting of his articles (preferably in PDF format)? I searched online but I got only one or two articles in PDF format. | 2016/05/04 | [
"https://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/3726",
"https://hsm.stackexchange.com",
"https://hsm.stackexchange.com/users/2891/"
] | About 20 of Martin Gardner's books are available. In print, in iBooks, in Kindle, and probably other sources. Is there some reason you cannot pay for them?
**added**
All the "Mathematical Games" columns from Scientific American: you can get them on one [CD](http://www.maa.org/press/books/martin-gardner-s-mathematical-games-the-entire-collection-of-his-scientific-american-columns-on-one) ...about $51 from Amazon.com, cheaper from the MAA if you are a member. | Try here: <https://z-lib.org/>
In this site, just by typing 'Martin Gardner', you'll find almost all the books and papers written by Gardner, in particular, all the 'Mathematical Games' articles published in 'Scientific American'. |
3,726 | Martin Gardener was a great recreational mathematics expert and his column "Mathematical Games" is an all time hit. But is there any archive available online consisting of his articles (preferably in PDF format)? I searched online but I got only one or two articles in PDF format. | 2016/05/04 | [
"https://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/3726",
"https://hsm.stackexchange.com",
"https://hsm.stackexchange.com/users/2891/"
] | Not strictly an archive, but some related materials to Martin Gardner and his history can be found at <https://www.gathering4gardner.org/> | Try here: <https://z-lib.org/>
In this site, just by typing 'Martin Gardner', you'll find almost all the books and papers written by Gardner, in particular, all the 'Mathematical Games' articles published in 'Scientific American'. |
6,753 | Some background links to Aravona's question [here](https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6748/how-to-clean-vomit-from-camping-gear). Basically I am her other half and over the course of the night the tent was opened many times. As people will know opening a tent in the wee hours of the morning will lose all the heat accumulated through the day and take a long time to warm back up. It warming up is nearly impossible if a certain someone has to keep leaving, bolting for open ground.
My question is this: What methods / equipment can be used to warm a tent up rather quickly? | 2014/09/15 | [
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6753",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/3673/"
] | Basically you should never find yourself in such a situation under normal circumstances. Tents are supposed to keep you warm, and not the other way round. If you are doing that more often then I'd say you have the wrong gear being used at the wrong place.
Yet, there may rise a situation when you need to do it, there are ways to do it, but honestly you'll need to be very careful and cautious about them.
Firstly, Larger tents require more heating, and require more insulation to keep the heat in.
1. The weather will keep on making it cold, so I'll say as a preventive measure you should try and arrange something that can keep you warm, and then may be think about having something that keeps the whole tent warm from inside. Its always necessary to have a insulation between you and the ground, you can do that by means of using air mattresses and inflatable sleeping pads, these are convenient to carry. This was more like a corrective measure just in case if you fail to keep your tent warm.
2. As an additional measure you can put a lukewarm water bottle in the sleeping bag before getting into bed.
3. You can built a small fire in front of the tent at a distance with a flat rock set up as a heat reflector. Wake up once in a while and check if everything is good and in control. But IMHO, You sleep way better when not having to worry about your heat source sometimes. I do this when its absolutely cold, and I am no longer able to sleep.
4. You could consider a newly introduced thing called [a catalytic heater](http://www.coleman.com/product/2000004165#.VBcGPsKSygw) or [this](http://www.campingworld.co.uk/en/Summit-2kW-Portable-Gas-Heater/m-10774.aspx) that are safe to use in an enclosed area, and are made specifically for car camping when things get cold. You'll need to take care of the ventilation though.
But IMHO, I'd certainly count on my sleeping gear and body warmers more than these products. | First of all a tent is made from two thin layers of fabric, expecting it to have sufficient thermal efficiency to retain heat, even with the door closed is perhaps a bit ambitious. Any heat built up in the daytime will be long gone before it even gets to the wee hours. A tent is a shelter that keeps off the rain and the wind, nothing more.
Since any attempt to retain heat is utterly futile, the only way to actually warm the tent is to produce heat faster than it dissipates. The quickest way to do that (here I assume large family tent) is to put the cooker on. Alternatively gas lanterns are dual purpose, producing heat as well as light. Both of these come with a word of extreme caution though. Fire + Tent + People + Alcohol = Disaster waiting to happen. Once these are switched off the temperature will drop sharply, even with the door closed.
Since you're talking about the 'wee hours', when you're in bed presumably and putting the cooker or lantern on isn't an option, then perhaps a better wording for your question would have been "How to stay warm in a tent". The simple answer to this is to get a better sleeping bag and ground insulation. Being too warm is a nicer problem than being too cold.
I'm not one for putting extra layers on to go to bed, so I have a 3 season synthetic fill bag, (rated down to 0 degrees) for the warmer months and a 4 season goose down bag for the winter (rated down to -20 degrees). I've found these work perfectly for the UK.
There are plenty of 2 season bags in the shops, but I'd only recommend these for warmer climates than the UK. Any sleeping bag will deteriorate over time, so I'd recommend getting one that is a little too warm at the beginning of it's life, then it's good for ten or more years.
My 4 season bag is super lush and cosy (and expensive) but ironically is actually only a one season bag, winter, it's simply too warm at any other time of year. So whilst advocating thicker sleeping bags on one hand, I'd also say that there is definitely a point where that will become overkill.
My girlfriend didn't make it as far as the door, that's a different story. All I can say is that sleeping bags with synthetic insulation can be cleaned far more easily than down filled ones. They also will still have some thermal efficiency even when wet.
P.S. I also answered your girlfriends previous question, sounds like you had a good time lol. Hope the weather was kind, I've since camped in north wales in the rain on a swamped campsite, ha ha. :-) |
6,753 | Some background links to Aravona's question [here](https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6748/how-to-clean-vomit-from-camping-gear). Basically I am her other half and over the course of the night the tent was opened many times. As people will know opening a tent in the wee hours of the morning will lose all the heat accumulated through the day and take a long time to warm back up. It warming up is nearly impossible if a certain someone has to keep leaving, bolting for open ground.
My question is this: What methods / equipment can be used to warm a tent up rather quickly? | 2014/09/15 | [
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6753",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/3673/"
] | Basically you should never find yourself in such a situation under normal circumstances. Tents are supposed to keep you warm, and not the other way round. If you are doing that more often then I'd say you have the wrong gear being used at the wrong place.
Yet, there may rise a situation when you need to do it, there are ways to do it, but honestly you'll need to be very careful and cautious about them.
Firstly, Larger tents require more heating, and require more insulation to keep the heat in.
1. The weather will keep on making it cold, so I'll say as a preventive measure you should try and arrange something that can keep you warm, and then may be think about having something that keeps the whole tent warm from inside. Its always necessary to have a insulation between you and the ground, you can do that by means of using air mattresses and inflatable sleeping pads, these are convenient to carry. This was more like a corrective measure just in case if you fail to keep your tent warm.
2. As an additional measure you can put a lukewarm water bottle in the sleeping bag before getting into bed.
3. You can built a small fire in front of the tent at a distance with a flat rock set up as a heat reflector. Wake up once in a while and check if everything is good and in control. But IMHO, You sleep way better when not having to worry about your heat source sometimes. I do this when its absolutely cold, and I am no longer able to sleep.
4. You could consider a newly introduced thing called [a catalytic heater](http://www.coleman.com/product/2000004165#.VBcGPsKSygw) or [this](http://www.campingworld.co.uk/en/Summit-2kW-Portable-Gas-Heater/m-10774.aspx) that are safe to use in an enclosed area, and are made specifically for car camping when things get cold. You'll need to take care of the ventilation though.
But IMHO, I'd certainly count on my sleeping gear and body warmers more than these products. | You can dig a hole then burn wood in it when it turns to coals put dirt back on it then tent over that believe me it works good |
6,753 | Some background links to Aravona's question [here](https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6748/how-to-clean-vomit-from-camping-gear). Basically I am her other half and over the course of the night the tent was opened many times. As people will know opening a tent in the wee hours of the morning will lose all the heat accumulated through the day and take a long time to warm back up. It warming up is nearly impossible if a certain someone has to keep leaving, bolting for open ground.
My question is this: What methods / equipment can be used to warm a tent up rather quickly? | 2014/09/15 | [
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6753",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/3673/"
] | You don't.
The tent is not an insulated structure. It protects from the wind and the rain.
Inside your tent, you need insulation, such as a sleeping bag or warm clothes. That's what you warm up. A good trick to warm your sleeping bag is to fill a nalgene with boiling water, put it in a sock, and put that in your sleeping bag. It'll be toasty for hours.
I spent 7 field seasons camping for 5 weeks each on Mt Erebus, Antarctica. Inside the tent it's usually well below freezing, and that's fine. For warmth, you are either wearing clothes (down booties for the win!), or in a sleeping bag.
I also have done some high-altitude mountaineering in the Cascades and the Andes, and the same rules hold. A warm tent is generally an annoyance that happens due to the greenhouse effect in the morning if you're not climbing for whatever reason.
edit: Ok so... I remembered that there is at least one couple that likes to warm up their tent on Erebus, for reasons. They use a stove, but these are Scott tents that we cook in all the time. The thing is, there is extreme danger of carbon monoxide poisioning and we've had some close calls so you're actually supposed to have the tent door open whenever the stove is on, which means it's cold. This couple breaks that rule. Never ever light a stove in a tent and then lie down for a rest... if you fall asleep, there is a very good chance you won't be waking up. | The question is how to ***quickly*** warm a tent.
Answer is: use the most efficient way to turn material into heat energy, which will speedily bring up the temperature in the tent.
I have used a fuel stove to warm the air inside the tent before, the draw back on this is that you need to bring extra fuel. This method is only suitable for certain type of fuel stoves - the one that burns fuel thoroughly because carbon monoxide is poisonous & it does not heat up the ground below because you don't want a hole on the floor of your tent. Also the roof of your tent need to be high enough so the naked flame would not affect it.
There are portable heaters that you can buy that run on the same bottled gas you use for camp cooking. It uses the identical principle - turning fuel into heat energy. There are quite a few youtube videos on that: ([1](https://youtu.be/_9BtZaOWzNs?t=456), [2](https://youtu.be/co62EMjGH68?t=432) ...). But if you use a stove, you can put it to other uses while warming yourself: i.e. brewing yourself a cup of tea which you also can use to quickly make yourself feel warmer. |
6,753 | Some background links to Aravona's question [here](https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6748/how-to-clean-vomit-from-camping-gear). Basically I am her other half and over the course of the night the tent was opened many times. As people will know opening a tent in the wee hours of the morning will lose all the heat accumulated through the day and take a long time to warm back up. It warming up is nearly impossible if a certain someone has to keep leaving, bolting for open ground.
My question is this: What methods / equipment can be used to warm a tent up rather quickly? | 2014/09/15 | [
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6753",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/3673/"
] | I spent every night in my tent with temperatures between -15 °C to -35 °C. However, I only have a sleeping bag for +3 °C. This is how I keep myself warm anyway:
* I have a crappy foamy which I put inside my bag
* I put a huge pile of pine branches and ...
* ... a blanket on top of that underneath me
* I have 2 1-quart paint cans which I fill with tea light candles
* I wear 2 pairs of socks, shoes, long john's shorts, t-shirt, sweater, regular coat, a cotton vest, a downfill coat, 2 tooks and 1 pair of gloves | You can dig a hole then burn wood in it when it turns to coals put dirt back on it then tent over that believe me it works good |
6,753 | Some background links to Aravona's question [here](https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6748/how-to-clean-vomit-from-camping-gear). Basically I am her other half and over the course of the night the tent was opened many times. As people will know opening a tent in the wee hours of the morning will lose all the heat accumulated through the day and take a long time to warm back up. It warming up is nearly impossible if a certain someone has to keep leaving, bolting for open ground.
My question is this: What methods / equipment can be used to warm a tent up rather quickly? | 2014/09/15 | [
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6753",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/3673/"
] | A lot of good and correct things have been said here. However I want to add something:
When I used to sleep in a tent, I took a UCO candle lantern (<http://www.amazon.de/Relags-UCO-Kerzenlaterne/dp/B0028BY9N8>) to give me light, but also heat. It works similar to the hot stone, but is much more safe and easy to operate.
If the tent is good enough, this small and quite safe to use, lantern, will heat up your tent quite quickly.
In general you can also say: The smaller the tent, the more warm it will get. | You can dig a hole then burn wood in it when it turns to coals put dirt back on it then tent over that believe me it works good |
6,753 | Some background links to Aravona's question [here](https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6748/how-to-clean-vomit-from-camping-gear). Basically I am her other half and over the course of the night the tent was opened many times. As people will know opening a tent in the wee hours of the morning will lose all the heat accumulated through the day and take a long time to warm back up. It warming up is nearly impossible if a certain someone has to keep leaving, bolting for open ground.
My question is this: What methods / equipment can be used to warm a tent up rather quickly? | 2014/09/15 | [
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6753",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/3673/"
] | One way I was taught in the uk armed forces (a very long time ago) was to use dry rocks.
Heat the rock in your camp fire, then carefully just before bed time, place the rock inside your shelter, the rock releases it's heat slowly and acts very much like a radiator producing a consistent source of dry heat.
A word of warning though
------------------------
**this method was never designed with polyester tents in mind, it was designed more for the hand made shelters that you may build in a survival situation, and where the heated rocks would be placed on bare earth.**
---
With a little bit of common sense however, for example place the hot rock on some logs or a layer of thick sticks, and not allowing it to touch portions of the tent that prolonged contact with t may melt, then you should be pretty much ok.
The heat it will generate will be dry dissipated heat such as would be obtained from a radiator or convection heater, so should not in any way damage the tent, also make sure that you heat rocks that are 100% dry, if there is any moisture at all in them then you run the risk of them cracking and even exploding in the fire, it's not funny when it happens either, I know from experience!!
It's not a perfect solution, and it does take you a few hours to heat the rocks up, then you also need a suitable way to carry them, because they WILL burn flesh quite easily, but if done with care, it will work and should work well.
Update - 23/9/2014
------------------
I was just re-reading this, when I remembered something else that's of use in this situation.
Many of you who do outdoor type stuff might carry with your supplies some of those reflective Mylar survival blankets (Like the type rescuers use when they rescue people who are hypothermic).
Whats often not realized though is these things are not just good for wrapping yourself in, but, if you use a bit of duct tape fashioned into a loop you can stick them up on the inside of your tent above your head and up the sides.
Beacuse of the reflective properties a lot of the heat that rises from things like body heat, or other heat sources in the tent, gets immediately reflected back down over back into the main tent space.
Also because of the general thermal properties of Mylar, any heat that does make it through will be a lot less than any heat that would escape directly through the polyester/canvas on it's own.
Shawty | You can dig a hole then burn wood in it when it turns to coals put dirt back on it then tent over that believe me it works good |
6,753 | Some background links to Aravona's question [here](https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6748/how-to-clean-vomit-from-camping-gear). Basically I am her other half and over the course of the night the tent was opened many times. As people will know opening a tent in the wee hours of the morning will lose all the heat accumulated through the day and take a long time to warm back up. It warming up is nearly impossible if a certain someone has to keep leaving, bolting for open ground.
My question is this: What methods / equipment can be used to warm a tent up rather quickly? | 2014/09/15 | [
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6753",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/3673/"
] | To warm a tent, you need to produce more heat. There is a fun way to do this if you're sharing with another person. If this question is aimed at settling an argument with your girlfriend, I would definitely advocate this method. Other than generating more heat with your body, you could burn fossil fuels (risky, poisonous) or use an electric heating element (risky, battery operated).
If you're looking at heat loss from the tent, you either need to make sure the minimum heat escapes when you open the door (e.g. by not opening it if possible), or to make the tent a better insulator. Making the tent out of a thicker material like canvas may go some way to keeping the heat in, or using a foil / mylar covering that reflects the heat back in. As you lose most of your heat through the ground, making the groundsheet from an insulating material would make any heat produced in the tent stick around for longer. | You don't.
The tent is not an insulated structure. It protects from the wind and the rain.
Inside your tent, you need insulation, such as a sleeping bag or warm clothes. That's what you warm up. A good trick to warm your sleeping bag is to fill a nalgene with boiling water, put it in a sock, and put that in your sleeping bag. It'll be toasty for hours.
I spent 7 field seasons camping for 5 weeks each on Mt Erebus, Antarctica. Inside the tent it's usually well below freezing, and that's fine. For warmth, you are either wearing clothes (down booties for the win!), or in a sleeping bag.
I also have done some high-altitude mountaineering in the Cascades and the Andes, and the same rules hold. A warm tent is generally an annoyance that happens due to the greenhouse effect in the morning if you're not climbing for whatever reason.
edit: Ok so... I remembered that there is at least one couple that likes to warm up their tent on Erebus, for reasons. They use a stove, but these are Scott tents that we cook in all the time. The thing is, there is extreme danger of carbon monoxide poisioning and we've had some close calls so you're actually supposed to have the tent door open whenever the stove is on, which means it's cold. This couple breaks that rule. Never ever light a stove in a tent and then lie down for a rest... if you fall asleep, there is a very good chance you won't be waking up. |
6,753 | Some background links to Aravona's question [here](https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6748/how-to-clean-vomit-from-camping-gear). Basically I am her other half and over the course of the night the tent was opened many times. As people will know opening a tent in the wee hours of the morning will lose all the heat accumulated through the day and take a long time to warm back up. It warming up is nearly impossible if a certain someone has to keep leaving, bolting for open ground.
My question is this: What methods / equipment can be used to warm a tent up rather quickly? | 2014/09/15 | [
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6753",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/3673/"
] | One way I was taught in the uk armed forces (a very long time ago) was to use dry rocks.
Heat the rock in your camp fire, then carefully just before bed time, place the rock inside your shelter, the rock releases it's heat slowly and acts very much like a radiator producing a consistent source of dry heat.
A word of warning though
------------------------
**this method was never designed with polyester tents in mind, it was designed more for the hand made shelters that you may build in a survival situation, and where the heated rocks would be placed on bare earth.**
---
With a little bit of common sense however, for example place the hot rock on some logs or a layer of thick sticks, and not allowing it to touch portions of the tent that prolonged contact with t may melt, then you should be pretty much ok.
The heat it will generate will be dry dissipated heat such as would be obtained from a radiator or convection heater, so should not in any way damage the tent, also make sure that you heat rocks that are 100% dry, if there is any moisture at all in them then you run the risk of them cracking and even exploding in the fire, it's not funny when it happens either, I know from experience!!
It's not a perfect solution, and it does take you a few hours to heat the rocks up, then you also need a suitable way to carry them, because they WILL burn flesh quite easily, but if done with care, it will work and should work well.
Update - 23/9/2014
------------------
I was just re-reading this, when I remembered something else that's of use in this situation.
Many of you who do outdoor type stuff might carry with your supplies some of those reflective Mylar survival blankets (Like the type rescuers use when they rescue people who are hypothermic).
Whats often not realized though is these things are not just good for wrapping yourself in, but, if you use a bit of duct tape fashioned into a loop you can stick them up on the inside of your tent above your head and up the sides.
Beacuse of the reflective properties a lot of the heat that rises from things like body heat, or other heat sources in the tent, gets immediately reflected back down over back into the main tent space.
Also because of the general thermal properties of Mylar, any heat that does make it through will be a lot less than any heat that would escape directly through the polyester/canvas on it's own.
Shawty | First of all a tent is made from two thin layers of fabric, expecting it to have sufficient thermal efficiency to retain heat, even with the door closed is perhaps a bit ambitious. Any heat built up in the daytime will be long gone before it even gets to the wee hours. A tent is a shelter that keeps off the rain and the wind, nothing more.
Since any attempt to retain heat is utterly futile, the only way to actually warm the tent is to produce heat faster than it dissipates. The quickest way to do that (here I assume large family tent) is to put the cooker on. Alternatively gas lanterns are dual purpose, producing heat as well as light. Both of these come with a word of extreme caution though. Fire + Tent + People + Alcohol = Disaster waiting to happen. Once these are switched off the temperature will drop sharply, even with the door closed.
Since you're talking about the 'wee hours', when you're in bed presumably and putting the cooker or lantern on isn't an option, then perhaps a better wording for your question would have been "How to stay warm in a tent". The simple answer to this is to get a better sleeping bag and ground insulation. Being too warm is a nicer problem than being too cold.
I'm not one for putting extra layers on to go to bed, so I have a 3 season synthetic fill bag, (rated down to 0 degrees) for the warmer months and a 4 season goose down bag for the winter (rated down to -20 degrees). I've found these work perfectly for the UK.
There are plenty of 2 season bags in the shops, but I'd only recommend these for warmer climates than the UK. Any sleeping bag will deteriorate over time, so I'd recommend getting one that is a little too warm at the beginning of it's life, then it's good for ten or more years.
My 4 season bag is super lush and cosy (and expensive) but ironically is actually only a one season bag, winter, it's simply too warm at any other time of year. So whilst advocating thicker sleeping bags on one hand, I'd also say that there is definitely a point where that will become overkill.
My girlfriend didn't make it as far as the door, that's a different story. All I can say is that sleeping bags with synthetic insulation can be cleaned far more easily than down filled ones. They also will still have some thermal efficiency even when wet.
P.S. I also answered your girlfriends previous question, sounds like you had a good time lol. Hope the weather was kind, I've since camped in north wales in the rain on a swamped campsite, ha ha. :-) |
6,753 | Some background links to Aravona's question [here](https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6748/how-to-clean-vomit-from-camping-gear). Basically I am her other half and over the course of the night the tent was opened many times. As people will know opening a tent in the wee hours of the morning will lose all the heat accumulated through the day and take a long time to warm back up. It warming up is nearly impossible if a certain someone has to keep leaving, bolting for open ground.
My question is this: What methods / equipment can be used to warm a tent up rather quickly? | 2014/09/15 | [
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6753",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/3673/"
] | First of all a tent is made from two thin layers of fabric, expecting it to have sufficient thermal efficiency to retain heat, even with the door closed is perhaps a bit ambitious. Any heat built up in the daytime will be long gone before it even gets to the wee hours. A tent is a shelter that keeps off the rain and the wind, nothing more.
Since any attempt to retain heat is utterly futile, the only way to actually warm the tent is to produce heat faster than it dissipates. The quickest way to do that (here I assume large family tent) is to put the cooker on. Alternatively gas lanterns are dual purpose, producing heat as well as light. Both of these come with a word of extreme caution though. Fire + Tent + People + Alcohol = Disaster waiting to happen. Once these are switched off the temperature will drop sharply, even with the door closed.
Since you're talking about the 'wee hours', when you're in bed presumably and putting the cooker or lantern on isn't an option, then perhaps a better wording for your question would have been "How to stay warm in a tent". The simple answer to this is to get a better sleeping bag and ground insulation. Being too warm is a nicer problem than being too cold.
I'm not one for putting extra layers on to go to bed, so I have a 3 season synthetic fill bag, (rated down to 0 degrees) for the warmer months and a 4 season goose down bag for the winter (rated down to -20 degrees). I've found these work perfectly for the UK.
There are plenty of 2 season bags in the shops, but I'd only recommend these for warmer climates than the UK. Any sleeping bag will deteriorate over time, so I'd recommend getting one that is a little too warm at the beginning of it's life, then it's good for ten or more years.
My 4 season bag is super lush and cosy (and expensive) but ironically is actually only a one season bag, winter, it's simply too warm at any other time of year. So whilst advocating thicker sleeping bags on one hand, I'd also say that there is definitely a point where that will become overkill.
My girlfriend didn't make it as far as the door, that's a different story. All I can say is that sleeping bags with synthetic insulation can be cleaned far more easily than down filled ones. They also will still have some thermal efficiency even when wet.
P.S. I also answered your girlfriends previous question, sounds like you had a good time lol. Hope the weather was kind, I've since camped in north wales in the rain on a swamped campsite, ha ha. :-) | You don't.
The tent is not an insulated structure. It protects from the wind and the rain.
Inside your tent, you need insulation, such as a sleeping bag or warm clothes. That's what you warm up. A good trick to warm your sleeping bag is to fill a nalgene with boiling water, put it in a sock, and put that in your sleeping bag. It'll be toasty for hours.
I spent 7 field seasons camping for 5 weeks each on Mt Erebus, Antarctica. Inside the tent it's usually well below freezing, and that's fine. For warmth, you are either wearing clothes (down booties for the win!), or in a sleeping bag.
I also have done some high-altitude mountaineering in the Cascades and the Andes, and the same rules hold. A warm tent is generally an annoyance that happens due to the greenhouse effect in the morning if you're not climbing for whatever reason.
edit: Ok so... I remembered that there is at least one couple that likes to warm up their tent on Erebus, for reasons. They use a stove, but these are Scott tents that we cook in all the time. The thing is, there is extreme danger of carbon monoxide poisioning and we've had some close calls so you're actually supposed to have the tent door open whenever the stove is on, which means it's cold. This couple breaks that rule. Never ever light a stove in a tent and then lie down for a rest... if you fall asleep, there is a very good chance you won't be waking up. |
6,753 | Some background links to Aravona's question [here](https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6748/how-to-clean-vomit-from-camping-gear). Basically I am her other half and over the course of the night the tent was opened many times. As people will know opening a tent in the wee hours of the morning will lose all the heat accumulated through the day and take a long time to warm back up. It warming up is nearly impossible if a certain someone has to keep leaving, bolting for open ground.
My question is this: What methods / equipment can be used to warm a tent up rather quickly? | 2014/09/15 | [
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/6753",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/3673/"
] | Basically you should never find yourself in such a situation under normal circumstances. Tents are supposed to keep you warm, and not the other way round. If you are doing that more often then I'd say you have the wrong gear being used at the wrong place.
Yet, there may rise a situation when you need to do it, there are ways to do it, but honestly you'll need to be very careful and cautious about them.
Firstly, Larger tents require more heating, and require more insulation to keep the heat in.
1. The weather will keep on making it cold, so I'll say as a preventive measure you should try and arrange something that can keep you warm, and then may be think about having something that keeps the whole tent warm from inside. Its always necessary to have a insulation between you and the ground, you can do that by means of using air mattresses and inflatable sleeping pads, these are convenient to carry. This was more like a corrective measure just in case if you fail to keep your tent warm.
2. As an additional measure you can put a lukewarm water bottle in the sleeping bag before getting into bed.
3. You can built a small fire in front of the tent at a distance with a flat rock set up as a heat reflector. Wake up once in a while and check if everything is good and in control. But IMHO, You sleep way better when not having to worry about your heat source sometimes. I do this when its absolutely cold, and I am no longer able to sleep.
4. You could consider a newly introduced thing called [a catalytic heater](http://www.coleman.com/product/2000004165#.VBcGPsKSygw) or [this](http://www.campingworld.co.uk/en/Summit-2kW-Portable-Gas-Heater/m-10774.aspx) that are safe to use in an enclosed area, and are made specifically for car camping when things get cold. You'll need to take care of the ventilation though.
But IMHO, I'd certainly count on my sleeping gear and body warmers more than these products. | The question is how to ***quickly*** warm a tent.
Answer is: use the most efficient way to turn material into heat energy, which will speedily bring up the temperature in the tent.
I have used a fuel stove to warm the air inside the tent before, the draw back on this is that you need to bring extra fuel. This method is only suitable for certain type of fuel stoves - the one that burns fuel thoroughly because carbon monoxide is poisonous & it does not heat up the ground below because you don't want a hole on the floor of your tent. Also the roof of your tent need to be high enough so the naked flame would not affect it.
There are portable heaters that you can buy that run on the same bottled gas you use for camp cooking. It uses the identical principle - turning fuel into heat energy. There are quite a few youtube videos on that: ([1](https://youtu.be/_9BtZaOWzNs?t=456), [2](https://youtu.be/co62EMjGH68?t=432) ...). But if you use a stove, you can put it to other uses while warming yourself: i.e. brewing yourself a cup of tea which you also can use to quickly make yourself feel warmer. |
134,393 | Good day, I know very little about this topic and need some advice on where to start.
I have two Microsoft SQL production databases that I would like to replicate so that I can run my reporting on them instead of the production databases.
Question 1: Does it make sense to use replication for the above scenario?
Question 2: What do I need in terms of Microsoft licenses for replication?
Thanks for reading. | 2016/04/05 | [
"https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/134393",
"https://dba.stackexchange.com",
"https://dba.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | Transactional replication works well in this scenario for replicating your data to your reporting databases.
It's cheaper than availability groups as you can replicate back to your single server instance to create a reporting database, rather than having an availability group where you have to pay for a second licence if you are reading the secondary data.
SQL Server 2014 Standard edition supports transactional replication for the publisher (you can use a lower edition for the subscriber as per the editions [here](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645993(v=sql.120).aspx#Replication)), whereas AlwaysOn Availability Groups require Enterprise edition.
Your options for replication setup would be
* Production Instance > Separate Distributor > Reporting Instance
* Production Instance > Separate Distributor > Production Instance
* Production Instance > Distributor on Production Instance > Production
Instance
Option 1 requires a licence for each instance, however would remove reporting load from the production server if required (remember you can use lower editions for subscribers)
Option 2 requires a licence for the production instance and the distributor, but gives a balance between cost and load on your production instance
Option 3 just requires the single licence but can cause additional load if you're replicating a lot of data.
You can read more about it [here](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms151176.aspx), although I'm sure you have checked it out already. others may have views on other replication methods, but this works in a environment I work on well. It all depends on balancing cost vs up time (AlwaysOn AGs vs replication) | It does make sense, actually it's a rather common scenario. Both servers have to be fully licensed.
Alternatively, with AGs, you can use read-only replica for reporting. It does have it's limitation (eg, you cannot modify schema to suit the reporting needs), not least being an enterprise-only feature (but not any more with 2016, I believe). |
1,497,074 | What are the settings required to access network for those who dont have ADSL connection?
Thanks... | 2009/09/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/1497074",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/168924/"
] | If your network connection goes through a proxy to get out to the internet, you will need to set the proxy for the android emulator:
If using eclipse on windows,do the following:
Window -> Preferences -> Android -> Launch -> Default Emulator Options
-http-proxy="http://w.x.y.z:8080" | If your Computer has an internet connection your Emulator should also have an internet connection by default. It does not matter what kind of internet connection you have. |
135,595 | I am currently creating a Spacefaring Race that regularly travels between planetary systems in order to harvest resources, but due to the fact that the conditions required for them to Breed are fairly specific, they must regularly return to their homeworld in order to reproduce, in much the same way Salmon on Earth do. This has been a fairly constant theme throughout their species' evolutionary history, and since they are driven by instinct to return to their birthplace on their own planet they have developed remarkable navigational skills that have served them well as they ventured out into space.
However, on their own planet, at least part of their success in accurately navigating complex long-distance migration paths came through their acute sense of smell (Again, much like Salmon). While I do have a means by which they can fairly accurately navigate in space (in addition to Extremely Advanced Spacial Awareness Skills and a natural penchant for gauging the distances/positions/speeds/sizes of Objects, they also have developed Spectroscopic Vision that allows them to use stars of particular compositions as Landmarks or Waypoints), I was wondering if there would be a way for them to incorporate Scent, or if this would have be limited specifically to their exploration of planets and moons.
If they *could* somehow sniff the vacuum of space without suffocating... Is there even anything to smell, if there's no air to carry it? What would space even smell like? Could things leave a reliable scent-trail in a vacuum?
If not, is there another alternative that they might find similarly intuitive? | 2019/01/04 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/135595",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/60031/"
] | **Most likely not**
To simplify smell, a creature is taking in atoms or molecules into a sensor, and those atoms or molecules stimulate the sensor.
Searching the web it seems it's generally accepted that there are approximately 100,000 - 1,000,000 atoms per cubic meter in Space. Contrast this with Earth's atmosphere at sea level, which has about 300,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms per cubic meter (3\*10^22).
Which means for every 1 atom in space you'll find 60 quadrillion atoms here on Earth. Your animals' senses of smell would have to be extraordinarily more powerful than any Earth creature's. | Smelling is almost the exact same as tasting with your tongue and they are very closely linked. It happens because particles react with certain cells, and those cells send a signal telling you what you are tasting/smelling.
Because it's space, there's almost no particles to interact with. You also can't create a lower-pressure area in your body to attract those particles into your nose.
The solution, if you want it, would be to have large sail-like pieces around your body that use their surface area to get enough particles to interact and give you an idea of your surroundings. Using Nex Terrans answer you would need to make it large and travel fast to interact with more volume of space. Since you are traveling interplanetary distances you should be encountering enough particles. Using this article: <https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://tools.niehs.nih.gov/wetp/Public/DOE_Trainers/13_HANDOUT_SENSE_OF_SMELL.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjJ1NLS09bfAhUIJVAKHcmVDUQQFjAAegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw3BDR52z0714Pyk4lO_U5o9> you can see that some particles can already be smelled at 0.008 parts per million, combine that with traveling through space at interplanetary speeds and you'll be scooping up more than the 3\*10^22 particles per m3 every second to smell.
You would have to know the particular (average) composition of particles of different solar systems and solar winds to make sense of them. I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm not saying it's possible, but it's not going to be a very easy or aestetically pleasing thing I think. |
135,595 | I am currently creating a Spacefaring Race that regularly travels between planetary systems in order to harvest resources, but due to the fact that the conditions required for them to Breed are fairly specific, they must regularly return to their homeworld in order to reproduce, in much the same way Salmon on Earth do. This has been a fairly constant theme throughout their species' evolutionary history, and since they are driven by instinct to return to their birthplace on their own planet they have developed remarkable navigational skills that have served them well as they ventured out into space.
However, on their own planet, at least part of their success in accurately navigating complex long-distance migration paths came through their acute sense of smell (Again, much like Salmon). While I do have a means by which they can fairly accurately navigate in space (in addition to Extremely Advanced Spacial Awareness Skills and a natural penchant for gauging the distances/positions/speeds/sizes of Objects, they also have developed Spectroscopic Vision that allows them to use stars of particular compositions as Landmarks or Waypoints), I was wondering if there would be a way for them to incorporate Scent, or if this would have be limited specifically to their exploration of planets and moons.
If they *could* somehow sniff the vacuum of space without suffocating... Is there even anything to smell, if there's no air to carry it? What would space even smell like? Could things leave a reliable scent-trail in a vacuum?
If not, is there another alternative that they might find similarly intuitive? | 2019/01/04 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/135595",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/60031/"
] | If I wanted to "smell" space I'd use a mass spectrometer
with such a long mean free path, smelling would be highly directional with all the limitations that implies (like line of sight) | Smelling is almost the exact same as tasting with your tongue and they are very closely linked. It happens because particles react with certain cells, and those cells send a signal telling you what you are tasting/smelling.
Because it's space, there's almost no particles to interact with. You also can't create a lower-pressure area in your body to attract those particles into your nose.
The solution, if you want it, would be to have large sail-like pieces around your body that use their surface area to get enough particles to interact and give you an idea of your surroundings. Using Nex Terrans answer you would need to make it large and travel fast to interact with more volume of space. Since you are traveling interplanetary distances you should be encountering enough particles. Using this article: <https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://tools.niehs.nih.gov/wetp/Public/DOE_Trainers/13_HANDOUT_SENSE_OF_SMELL.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjJ1NLS09bfAhUIJVAKHcmVDUQQFjAAegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw3BDR52z0714Pyk4lO_U5o9> you can see that some particles can already be smelled at 0.008 parts per million, combine that with traveling through space at interplanetary speeds and you'll be scooping up more than the 3\*10^22 particles per m3 every second to smell.
You would have to know the particular (average) composition of particles of different solar systems and solar winds to make sense of them. I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm not saying it's possible, but it's not going to be a very easy or aestetically pleasing thing I think. |
135,595 | I am currently creating a Spacefaring Race that regularly travels between planetary systems in order to harvest resources, but due to the fact that the conditions required for them to Breed are fairly specific, they must regularly return to their homeworld in order to reproduce, in much the same way Salmon on Earth do. This has been a fairly constant theme throughout their species' evolutionary history, and since they are driven by instinct to return to their birthplace on their own planet they have developed remarkable navigational skills that have served them well as they ventured out into space.
However, on their own planet, at least part of their success in accurately navigating complex long-distance migration paths came through their acute sense of smell (Again, much like Salmon). While I do have a means by which they can fairly accurately navigate in space (in addition to Extremely Advanced Spacial Awareness Skills and a natural penchant for gauging the distances/positions/speeds/sizes of Objects, they also have developed Spectroscopic Vision that allows them to use stars of particular compositions as Landmarks or Waypoints), I was wondering if there would be a way for them to incorporate Scent, or if this would have be limited specifically to their exploration of planets and moons.
If they *could* somehow sniff the vacuum of space without suffocating... Is there even anything to smell, if there's no air to carry it? What would space even smell like? Could things leave a reliable scent-trail in a vacuum?
If not, is there another alternative that they might find similarly intuitive? | 2019/01/04 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/135595",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/60031/"
] | **Most likely not**
To simplify smell, a creature is taking in atoms or molecules into a sensor, and those atoms or molecules stimulate the sensor.
Searching the web it seems it's generally accepted that there are approximately 100,000 - 1,000,000 atoms per cubic meter in Space. Contrast this with Earth's atmosphere at sea level, which has about 300,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms per cubic meter (3\*10^22).
Which means for every 1 atom in space you'll find 60 quadrillion atoms here on Earth. Your animals' senses of smell would have to be extraordinarily more powerful than any Earth creature's. | There's a YT video of a former space station astronaut. Amongst the things he discusses is what he believes is the "smell" of outer space. Basically he said if you broke seal in the airlock before the space properly re-pressurized, you would smell "slightly burned meat." He explains why he thinks that odor is detected.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6rHHnABoT8> |
135,595 | I am currently creating a Spacefaring Race that regularly travels between planetary systems in order to harvest resources, but due to the fact that the conditions required for them to Breed are fairly specific, they must regularly return to their homeworld in order to reproduce, in much the same way Salmon on Earth do. This has been a fairly constant theme throughout their species' evolutionary history, and since they are driven by instinct to return to their birthplace on their own planet they have developed remarkable navigational skills that have served them well as they ventured out into space.
However, on their own planet, at least part of their success in accurately navigating complex long-distance migration paths came through their acute sense of smell (Again, much like Salmon). While I do have a means by which they can fairly accurately navigate in space (in addition to Extremely Advanced Spacial Awareness Skills and a natural penchant for gauging the distances/positions/speeds/sizes of Objects, they also have developed Spectroscopic Vision that allows them to use stars of particular compositions as Landmarks or Waypoints), I was wondering if there would be a way for them to incorporate Scent, or if this would have be limited specifically to their exploration of planets and moons.
If they *could* somehow sniff the vacuum of space without suffocating... Is there even anything to smell, if there's no air to carry it? What would space even smell like? Could things leave a reliable scent-trail in a vacuum?
If not, is there another alternative that they might find similarly intuitive? | 2019/01/04 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/135595",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/60031/"
] | **Most likely not**
To simplify smell, a creature is taking in atoms or molecules into a sensor, and those atoms or molecules stimulate the sensor.
Searching the web it seems it's generally accepted that there are approximately 100,000 - 1,000,000 atoms per cubic meter in Space. Contrast this with Earth's atmosphere at sea level, which has about 300,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms per cubic meter (3\*10^22).
Which means for every 1 atom in space you'll find 60 quadrillion atoms here on Earth. Your animals' senses of smell would have to be extraordinarily more powerful than any Earth creature's. | Believe it or not, there are aromatic molecules in space, and these molecules come in a number of fun flavors which vary depending on where you are. [There is a dust cloud near the center of our galaxy that contains ethyl formate, the same chemical that gives raspberries their smell](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/apr/21/space-raspberries-amino-acids-astrobiology). Other chemicals found in space include familiar smells like ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and formaldehyde.
Nothing could breathe vacuum, but fortunately breathing and smell don't have to go together. Plenty of Earth animals smell through organs completely unrelated to their breathing tubes, in fact the best sniffers on Earth - moths - smell using their wide, feathery antennae. Space doesn't have a lot of molecules to go around, but I'd expect any space-dwelling creature to have wide solar "sails" to provide it with energy and it's not an altogether bad idea to put some chemosensing organs on the same sails.
That being said, smell is probably not a great way of navigating the void. While smells don't need air to carry them (smells are simply gas molecules and gas can spread out through space once it is released) it tends to fade away to nothingness pretty quick unless the smells are created in vast quantities by something like an exploding star. But a spacefaring species that *could* smell in space for whatever reason could very well recognize the scent of its home system. |
135,595 | I am currently creating a Spacefaring Race that regularly travels between planetary systems in order to harvest resources, but due to the fact that the conditions required for them to Breed are fairly specific, they must regularly return to their homeworld in order to reproduce, in much the same way Salmon on Earth do. This has been a fairly constant theme throughout their species' evolutionary history, and since they are driven by instinct to return to their birthplace on their own planet they have developed remarkable navigational skills that have served them well as they ventured out into space.
However, on their own planet, at least part of their success in accurately navigating complex long-distance migration paths came through their acute sense of smell (Again, much like Salmon). While I do have a means by which they can fairly accurately navigate in space (in addition to Extremely Advanced Spacial Awareness Skills and a natural penchant for gauging the distances/positions/speeds/sizes of Objects, they also have developed Spectroscopic Vision that allows them to use stars of particular compositions as Landmarks or Waypoints), I was wondering if there would be a way for them to incorporate Scent, or if this would have be limited specifically to their exploration of planets and moons.
If they *could* somehow sniff the vacuum of space without suffocating... Is there even anything to smell, if there's no air to carry it? What would space even smell like? Could things leave a reliable scent-trail in a vacuum?
If not, is there another alternative that they might find similarly intuitive? | 2019/01/04 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/135595",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/60031/"
] | **Most likely not**
To simplify smell, a creature is taking in atoms or molecules into a sensor, and those atoms or molecules stimulate the sensor.
Searching the web it seems it's generally accepted that there are approximately 100,000 - 1,000,000 atoms per cubic meter in Space. Contrast this with Earth's atmosphere at sea level, which has about 300,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms per cubic meter (3\*10^22).
Which means for every 1 atom in space you'll find 60 quadrillion atoms here on Earth. Your animals' senses of smell would have to be extraordinarily more powerful than any Earth creature's. | **You could have them smell the solar wind.**
<https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/what-is-the-solar-wind-made-of/>
>
> The solar wind is a stream of energetic particles ejected by the Sun.
> These include electrons and protons from hydrogen, along with atomic
> nuclei like helium, otherwise known as alpha particles.
>
>
> There are also traces of ‘heavy ions’ and atomic nuclei of carbon,
> nitrogen, oxygen, neon and magnesium. Recent missions have even
> detected tiny amounts of potassium, titanium and nickel.
>
>
>
Probably the solar wind produced by each star is characteristic of that star. Maybe just as salmon can taste their own home stream even far out at sea, your creatures can taste the particular components of their home star even far away in space. Of course this wind is made of charged particles moving very fast through the vacuum - but they are particles, not electromagnetic radiation or vibrations, and so smell or taste would be the most relevant sensory modality. |
135,595 | I am currently creating a Spacefaring Race that regularly travels between planetary systems in order to harvest resources, but due to the fact that the conditions required for them to Breed are fairly specific, they must regularly return to their homeworld in order to reproduce, in much the same way Salmon on Earth do. This has been a fairly constant theme throughout their species' evolutionary history, and since they are driven by instinct to return to their birthplace on their own planet they have developed remarkable navigational skills that have served them well as they ventured out into space.
However, on their own planet, at least part of their success in accurately navigating complex long-distance migration paths came through their acute sense of smell (Again, much like Salmon). While I do have a means by which they can fairly accurately navigate in space (in addition to Extremely Advanced Spacial Awareness Skills and a natural penchant for gauging the distances/positions/speeds/sizes of Objects, they also have developed Spectroscopic Vision that allows them to use stars of particular compositions as Landmarks or Waypoints), I was wondering if there would be a way for them to incorporate Scent, or if this would have be limited specifically to their exploration of planets and moons.
If they *could* somehow sniff the vacuum of space without suffocating... Is there even anything to smell, if there's no air to carry it? What would space even smell like? Could things leave a reliable scent-trail in a vacuum?
If not, is there another alternative that they might find similarly intuitive? | 2019/01/04 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/135595",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/60031/"
] | If I wanted to "smell" space I'd use a mass spectrometer
with such a long mean free path, smelling would be highly directional with all the limitations that implies (like line of sight) | There's a YT video of a former space station astronaut. Amongst the things he discusses is what he believes is the "smell" of outer space. Basically he said if you broke seal in the airlock before the space properly re-pressurized, you would smell "slightly burned meat." He explains why he thinks that odor is detected.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6rHHnABoT8> |
135,595 | I am currently creating a Spacefaring Race that regularly travels between planetary systems in order to harvest resources, but due to the fact that the conditions required for them to Breed are fairly specific, they must regularly return to their homeworld in order to reproduce, in much the same way Salmon on Earth do. This has been a fairly constant theme throughout their species' evolutionary history, and since they are driven by instinct to return to their birthplace on their own planet they have developed remarkable navigational skills that have served them well as they ventured out into space.
However, on their own planet, at least part of their success in accurately navigating complex long-distance migration paths came through their acute sense of smell (Again, much like Salmon). While I do have a means by which they can fairly accurately navigate in space (in addition to Extremely Advanced Spacial Awareness Skills and a natural penchant for gauging the distances/positions/speeds/sizes of Objects, they also have developed Spectroscopic Vision that allows them to use stars of particular compositions as Landmarks or Waypoints), I was wondering if there would be a way for them to incorporate Scent, or if this would have be limited specifically to their exploration of planets and moons.
If they *could* somehow sniff the vacuum of space without suffocating... Is there even anything to smell, if there's no air to carry it? What would space even smell like? Could things leave a reliable scent-trail in a vacuum?
If not, is there another alternative that they might find similarly intuitive? | 2019/01/04 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/135595",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/60031/"
] | If I wanted to "smell" space I'd use a mass spectrometer
with such a long mean free path, smelling would be highly directional with all the limitations that implies (like line of sight) | Believe it or not, there are aromatic molecules in space, and these molecules come in a number of fun flavors which vary depending on where you are. [There is a dust cloud near the center of our galaxy that contains ethyl formate, the same chemical that gives raspberries their smell](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/apr/21/space-raspberries-amino-acids-astrobiology). Other chemicals found in space include familiar smells like ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and formaldehyde.
Nothing could breathe vacuum, but fortunately breathing and smell don't have to go together. Plenty of Earth animals smell through organs completely unrelated to their breathing tubes, in fact the best sniffers on Earth - moths - smell using their wide, feathery antennae. Space doesn't have a lot of molecules to go around, but I'd expect any space-dwelling creature to have wide solar "sails" to provide it with energy and it's not an altogether bad idea to put some chemosensing organs on the same sails.
That being said, smell is probably not a great way of navigating the void. While smells don't need air to carry them (smells are simply gas molecules and gas can spread out through space once it is released) it tends to fade away to nothingness pretty quick unless the smells are created in vast quantities by something like an exploding star. But a spacefaring species that *could* smell in space for whatever reason could very well recognize the scent of its home system. |
135,595 | I am currently creating a Spacefaring Race that regularly travels between planetary systems in order to harvest resources, but due to the fact that the conditions required for them to Breed are fairly specific, they must regularly return to their homeworld in order to reproduce, in much the same way Salmon on Earth do. This has been a fairly constant theme throughout their species' evolutionary history, and since they are driven by instinct to return to their birthplace on their own planet they have developed remarkable navigational skills that have served them well as they ventured out into space.
However, on their own planet, at least part of their success in accurately navigating complex long-distance migration paths came through their acute sense of smell (Again, much like Salmon). While I do have a means by which they can fairly accurately navigate in space (in addition to Extremely Advanced Spacial Awareness Skills and a natural penchant for gauging the distances/positions/speeds/sizes of Objects, they also have developed Spectroscopic Vision that allows them to use stars of particular compositions as Landmarks or Waypoints), I was wondering if there would be a way for them to incorporate Scent, or if this would have be limited specifically to their exploration of planets and moons.
If they *could* somehow sniff the vacuum of space without suffocating... Is there even anything to smell, if there's no air to carry it? What would space even smell like? Could things leave a reliable scent-trail in a vacuum?
If not, is there another alternative that they might find similarly intuitive? | 2019/01/04 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/135595",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/60031/"
] | If I wanted to "smell" space I'd use a mass spectrometer
with such a long mean free path, smelling would be highly directional with all the limitations that implies (like line of sight) | **You could have them smell the solar wind.**
<https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/what-is-the-solar-wind-made-of/>
>
> The solar wind is a stream of energetic particles ejected by the Sun.
> These include electrons and protons from hydrogen, along with atomic
> nuclei like helium, otherwise known as alpha particles.
>
>
> There are also traces of ‘heavy ions’ and atomic nuclei of carbon,
> nitrogen, oxygen, neon and magnesium. Recent missions have even
> detected tiny amounts of potassium, titanium and nickel.
>
>
>
Probably the solar wind produced by each star is characteristic of that star. Maybe just as salmon can taste their own home stream even far out at sea, your creatures can taste the particular components of their home star even far away in space. Of course this wind is made of charged particles moving very fast through the vacuum - but they are particles, not electromagnetic radiation or vibrations, and so smell or taste would be the most relevant sensory modality. |
2,570,761 | Is there a way to sort Devexpress QuantumGrid rows on data from a different column other than the one whose header has been clicked? For example, when the header of column A is clicked the rows of the grid are sorted on the data from column B. Visually it should still appear that it is column A that has been sorted as the sort glyphys will be shown in column A's header. | 2010/04/03 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/2570761",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/63116/"
] | @norgepaul you must check the [DevExpress Support Center](http://www.devexpress.com/Support/Center/) for the questions related to the DevExress products, This site has thousands of answers and articles related to its products.
check theses links
* [Sorting by other field (when clicking header) in ExpressGrid 6](http://www.devexpress.com/Support/Center/p/AQ16058.aspx?searchtext=sort&p=T1|P0|83)
* <http://www.devexpress.com/Support/Center/SearchResults.aspx?searchtext=sort&p=T1|P0|83> | I don't have DevExpress here to check, but i would look to see if there is a custom sort event. like OnCustomSort, where you get to decide whether a value or cell sorts higher or lower. I think you'll have the ability to know what rows are being compared, so you could look across to B cells, and make your own comparision. |
39,684,411 | I am using the latest iOS platform and plugins in my cordova application. The app works fine on older versions of iOS but not on iOS 10. I am getting timeout error. Tried removing platform and adding again. Also created a fresh project. Still no luck. The app works fine on Android as well. | 2016/09/25 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/39684411",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/6367129/"
] | I ran into the same Problem and apparently there is no fix at this time. Here is the current thread with this bug in the apple forum: <https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/64526> | This is a similar issue to this one : [Cordova whitelist iOS 10 SSL error: Failed to load resource: An SSL error has occurred and a secure connection to the server cannot be made](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39501523/cordova-whitelist-ios-10-ssl-error-failed-to-load-resource-an-ssl-error-has-oc)
I found that it solved my problem with API calls and WebViews that broke when iOS 10 came out. |
53,632 | Which of the following is correct to indicate a key signature change from D Major to G Major? [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3GCaE.png) | 2017/02/21 | [
"https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/53632",
"https://music.stackexchange.com",
"https://music.stackexchange.com/users/37069/"
] | I would say both of them are correct. I have seen many publications where key changes are written by first naturalizing all accidentals that are not required and then adding whatever additional accidentals are required (as in the second one). A publication that uses this convention is the G. Schirmir Library of Classics.
Edit: I was browsing through some other posts, when I came across [this post](https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/53595/indicating-key-signature-change). Could be something you want to check out. | Actually, only the first is correct. Key signature indicators would never naturalize a note only to follow it immediately with a sharp. It would be permissible to naturalize just the C, though. |
53,632 | Which of the following is correct to indicate a key signature change from D Major to G Major? [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3GCaE.png) | 2017/02/21 | [
"https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/53632",
"https://music.stackexchange.com",
"https://music.stackexchange.com/users/37069/"
] | Neither is typical. It would be typical to first cancel the C sharp (or actually any accidentals that aren't at least as "strong" in the right "direction", so f sharp to f double sharp does not need a cancellation)
and then repeat the F sharp, like
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6ZvAH.png) | Actually, only the first is correct. Key signature indicators would never naturalize a note only to follow it immediately with a sharp. It would be permissible to naturalize just the C, though. |
53,632 | Which of the following is correct to indicate a key signature change from D Major to G Major? [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3GCaE.png) | 2017/02/21 | [
"https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/53632",
"https://music.stackexchange.com",
"https://music.stackexchange.com/users/37069/"
] | I summarize from *Behind bars* by Elaine Gould ("The Definitive Guide to Music Notation", as its cover claims):
* **Traditional practice** cancels a key signature before a new one is created. There are slight variations, whether the cancelling happens before or after the bar line introducing the new signature as well as whether the natural signs precede or follow the new flat and sharps. Generally the new signature consists of as many "accidentals" (used here as generic term for sharps, flats, and naturals) as the old key-signature did, if the same type of accidental is used. If accidental type changes, all old ones have to be cancelled and the new ones written out.
* **Contemporary practice** simply writes the new signature without any cancellation; the only exception is the change to a signature-less key as C major, where all active accidentals are cancelled | Actually, only the first is correct. Key signature indicators would never naturalize a note only to follow it immediately with a sharp. It would be permissible to naturalize just the C, though. |
53,632 | Which of the following is correct to indicate a key signature change from D Major to G Major? [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3GCaE.png) | 2017/02/21 | [
"https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/53632",
"https://music.stackexchange.com",
"https://music.stackexchange.com/users/37069/"
] | Neither is typical. It would be typical to first cancel the C sharp (or actually any accidentals that aren't at least as "strong" in the right "direction", so f sharp to f double sharp does not need a cancellation)
and then repeat the F sharp, like
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6ZvAH.png) | I would say both of them are correct. I have seen many publications where key changes are written by first naturalizing all accidentals that are not required and then adding whatever additional accidentals are required (as in the second one). A publication that uses this convention is the G. Schirmir Library of Classics.
Edit: I was browsing through some other posts, when I came across [this post](https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/53595/indicating-key-signature-change). Could be something you want to check out. |
53,632 | Which of the following is correct to indicate a key signature change from D Major to G Major? [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3GCaE.png) | 2017/02/21 | [
"https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/53632",
"https://music.stackexchange.com",
"https://music.stackexchange.com/users/37069/"
] | Neither is typical. It would be typical to first cancel the C sharp (or actually any accidentals that aren't at least as "strong" in the right "direction", so f sharp to f double sharp does not need a cancellation)
and then repeat the F sharp, like
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6ZvAH.png) | I summarize from *Behind bars* by Elaine Gould ("The Definitive Guide to Music Notation", as its cover claims):
* **Traditional practice** cancels a key signature before a new one is created. There are slight variations, whether the cancelling happens before or after the bar line introducing the new signature as well as whether the natural signs precede or follow the new flat and sharps. Generally the new signature consists of as many "accidentals" (used here as generic term for sharps, flats, and naturals) as the old key-signature did, if the same type of accidental is used. If accidental type changes, all old ones have to be cancelled and the new ones written out.
* **Contemporary practice** simply writes the new signature without any cancellation; the only exception is the change to a signature-less key as C major, where all active accidentals are cancelled |
8,325 | Why do some people say that biofuels are renewable energy source if producing biofuels requires nitrogen fertilizers that are produced from natural gas (and energy output of biofuels is less than that of burning natural gas directly)?
They also require phosphates which are scarce. | 2019/06/12 | [
"https://sustainability.stackexchange.com/questions/8325",
"https://sustainability.stackexchange.com",
"https://sustainability.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | They're called renewable because it's possible to do them in a renewable manner. Specifically, the energy in them comes from the sun, in a fairly short time span (i.e. years, rather than millennia or longer). So the original energy source is renewable, and the route from original source to usable power is short.
It is also possible to do them in a non-renewable manner.
Nitrogen fertilizers don't have to be produced from fossil fuels. They are currently, but they don't have to be. There are renewable alternatives.
Using biofuels doesn't remove any of the essential elements (phosphorus, potassium) etc from their respective cycles. They're still around in the biosphere. This is most easily visible if the route is from biomass to biogas to energy; in that case, the solid matter left over after the extraction of the biogas (carbon and hydrogen) has all the nutrients, and can feed the next generation of biomass. | There are dozens of sources that say that ethanol from corn is not carbon neutral.
But then ethanol from sorghum is carbon neutral. And hydrogen from ethanol from sorghum might be carbon neutral.
Now sorghum can be grown in areas of 25" of annual rainfall without irrigation and doesn't need to be grown in corn-belt areas. And sorghum requires less fertilizer than corn. Of course sorghum produces a thick growth.
Grain-sorghum can be processed to ethanol using enzymes and the entire plant is used. Or sweet-sorghum syrup can be fermented to ethanol and the part of the plant not used is livestock feed.
Ethanol doesn't have to go into cars. Ethanol can be run in gas-turbines at 60% efficiency to produce electricity. Or ethanol can be reformed to hydrogen and run in stationary hydrogen fuel cells at 85% efficiency. (These efficiencies are based on using waste heat in an additional process.)
To have a good profit margin, sorghum can only be transported short distances. So the distance to an ethanol plant from the farmland should be 10 miles or less. |
434,604 | Has the pronoun "me" been discarded from general usage? More and more, I hear people say something like, "He served pizza to my sister and I" or "Between you and I, that dinner was not very good." It seems the nominative is out of favor. | 2018/03/08 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/434604",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/285689/"
] | >
> Has the pronoun "me" been discarded from general usage?
>
>
>
Quite the contrary. In ordinary colloquial English object-form *me* has largely usurped the function of subject-form *I*. *I* is almost never encountered as a predicate these days—"It is I" is insufferably pompous—and is increasingly rare in conjunct subjects: you are far more likely to hear "Joe and me went" than "Joe and I went".
The contrary use you hear is a hypercorrection. People with an imperfect grasp of the Standard English (whatever that is) have been badgered throughout their school years to avoid *X and me* in subject contexts, so in relatively formal discourse they strain to speak 'properly' by replacing *me* with *I*—as often as not in object contexts. | A construction such as *to my sister and I* is often rationalized as a [hypercorrection](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercorrection#Personal_pronouns), the application of a grammar rule in the wrong context, the assumption being that having been taught to avoid something like:
>
> My sister and me went shopping.
>
>
>
some native speakers instead avoid it even where it belongs, as in your example sentence.
The actual state of affairs, however, is that any construction on the pattern
>
> [personal noun] and I
>
>
>
is being felt more and more as a single noun phrase whose elements are fixed. Otherwise, it's difficult to explain why so many native speakers would come up with
>
> [my husband and I's](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS7myRa7Ho3hL6eC4NYKeaXwr-4elPaGV) slow dance at our wedding
>
> [my brother and I's](https://books.google.de/books?id=9FE0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT39&lpg=PT39&dq=%22my%20brother%20and%20I%27s%22&source=bl&ots=BK2CT05IG3&sig=CqCn2lerLFIdjNL-jrNkLH150fs&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj3sIusjd7ZAhUHRhQKHVJVBIkQ6AEwFnoECAYQAQ) childhoods
>
> One of [John and I's](https://books.google.de/books?id=BX5dgWhSC_0C&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=%22John%20and%20I%27s%22&source=bl&ots=5MF0vKs-ve&sig=lenA7cLacCcUkLTKmUKX2zyarbU&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjY85_Qj97ZAhXIwxQKHSzOBfY4ChDoATAGegQIABAB) hopes and dreams
>
>
>
This usage dates, at least in print, to around [2004](https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2013/10/i-strain.html), but can in no way be parsed as a hypercorrection. No new possessive personal pronoun *\*I's* has been coined: it is merely the logical outcome of treating the *x and I* construction as a fixed unit that resists being declined for case — except, of course, this novel way of forming the possessive.
Pronoun paradigms like *I, me, my/mine* and a few strange plurals like *child-children*, along with so-called "irregular" verbs like *sing, sang, sung* and comparisons with *-er* and *est*, are some of the few grammatical remnants of English's Germanic past. It's no surprise, then, that with pronouns there is a tendency toward [paradigm leveling](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_leveling), eliminating morphological distinctions such as case from everyday, unfiltered language and considerable insecurity in determining what is "correct." |
434,604 | Has the pronoun "me" been discarded from general usage? More and more, I hear people say something like, "He served pizza to my sister and I" or "Between you and I, that dinner was not very good." It seems the nominative is out of favor. | 2018/03/08 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/434604",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/285689/"
] | >
> Has the pronoun "me" been discarded from general usage?
>
>
>
Quite the contrary. In ordinary colloquial English object-form *me* has largely usurped the function of subject-form *I*. *I* is almost never encountered as a predicate these days—"It is I" is insufferably pompous—and is increasingly rare in conjunct subjects: you are far more likely to hear "Joe and me went" than "Joe and I went".
The contrary use you hear is a hypercorrection. People with an imperfect grasp of the Standard English (whatever that is) have been badgered throughout their school years to avoid *X and me* in subject contexts, so in relatively formal discourse they strain to speak 'properly' by replacing *me* with *I*—as often as not in object contexts. | You hear "between you and I" more and more these days because most people have no idea what is correct. You even hear professionals say, "Call the nurse and I." Or worse,"Call the doctor and myself," because people assume (Wrongly!) that me/myself/I are interchangeable.
They are not. They have their own specific uses.
The perfectly good pronoun "ME" has been so maligned by parents correcting little Billy from saying, "Me and Joey are going to play." So all Billy heard being drummed into his head was: Joey and I, Joey and I. So, no matter the circumstances, Billy did his best to never utter the word "me" again, even when used as an object.
So, whether the subject or direct/indirect object of a sentence, the word "me" was wiped out of little Billy's vocabulary, making no distinction between its legitimate and accurate use. |
434,604 | Has the pronoun "me" been discarded from general usage? More and more, I hear people say something like, "He served pizza to my sister and I" or "Between you and I, that dinner was not very good." It seems the nominative is out of favor. | 2018/03/08 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/434604",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/285689/"
] | A construction such as *to my sister and I* is often rationalized as a [hypercorrection](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercorrection#Personal_pronouns), the application of a grammar rule in the wrong context, the assumption being that having been taught to avoid something like:
>
> My sister and me went shopping.
>
>
>
some native speakers instead avoid it even where it belongs, as in your example sentence.
The actual state of affairs, however, is that any construction on the pattern
>
> [personal noun] and I
>
>
>
is being felt more and more as a single noun phrase whose elements are fixed. Otherwise, it's difficult to explain why so many native speakers would come up with
>
> [my husband and I's](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS7myRa7Ho3hL6eC4NYKeaXwr-4elPaGV) slow dance at our wedding
>
> [my brother and I's](https://books.google.de/books?id=9FE0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT39&lpg=PT39&dq=%22my%20brother%20and%20I%27s%22&source=bl&ots=BK2CT05IG3&sig=CqCn2lerLFIdjNL-jrNkLH150fs&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj3sIusjd7ZAhUHRhQKHVJVBIkQ6AEwFnoECAYQAQ) childhoods
>
> One of [John and I's](https://books.google.de/books?id=BX5dgWhSC_0C&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=%22John%20and%20I%27s%22&source=bl&ots=5MF0vKs-ve&sig=lenA7cLacCcUkLTKmUKX2zyarbU&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjY85_Qj97ZAhXIwxQKHSzOBfY4ChDoATAGegQIABAB) hopes and dreams
>
>
>
This usage dates, at least in print, to around [2004](https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2013/10/i-strain.html), but can in no way be parsed as a hypercorrection. No new possessive personal pronoun *\*I's* has been coined: it is merely the logical outcome of treating the *x and I* construction as a fixed unit that resists being declined for case — except, of course, this novel way of forming the possessive.
Pronoun paradigms like *I, me, my/mine* and a few strange plurals like *child-children*, along with so-called "irregular" verbs like *sing, sang, sung* and comparisons with *-er* and *est*, are some of the few grammatical remnants of English's Germanic past. It's no surprise, then, that with pronouns there is a tendency toward [paradigm leveling](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_leveling), eliminating morphological distinctions such as case from everyday, unfiltered language and considerable insecurity in determining what is "correct." | You hear "between you and I" more and more these days because most people have no idea what is correct. You even hear professionals say, "Call the nurse and I." Or worse,"Call the doctor and myself," because people assume (Wrongly!) that me/myself/I are interchangeable.
They are not. They have their own specific uses.
The perfectly good pronoun "ME" has been so maligned by parents correcting little Billy from saying, "Me and Joey are going to play." So all Billy heard being drummed into his head was: Joey and I, Joey and I. So, no matter the circumstances, Billy did his best to never utter the word "me" again, even when used as an object.
So, whether the subject or direct/indirect object of a sentence, the word "me" was wiped out of little Billy's vocabulary, making no distinction between its legitimate and accurate use. |
45,438 | C.W Lewis's Narnia and J.R.R Tolkien's Middle-Earth series all had creation myths for their characters to believe.
I want to have a go for one of my projects but I'm stuck.
I would like suggestions, What do creation myths involve? What themes do I need to remember to put into one? | 2016/06/26 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/45438",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/22153/"
] | Creation myths need to include an idea of the structure of the world - its size, the sky, the seas - who made it, and how. The why isn't usually important, it's assumed that creating worlds is what creators *do*.
The Wikipedia articles on [Creation Myth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_myth) and [List of Creation Myths](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_creation_myths) have lots of examples. | Think about what you want the creators to be? are they(he) good? bad? smart? stupid? creative? boring? mischievous? cleaver? What do they value? Your creation story should be written in such a way that it helps the reader understand the creators.
As a side I try to create worlds with multiple creation stories (each one with various different yet with the basic story the same) I know which one is true but a never let my readers know. |
45,438 | C.W Lewis's Narnia and J.R.R Tolkien's Middle-Earth series all had creation myths for their characters to believe.
I want to have a go for one of my projects but I'm stuck.
I would like suggestions, What do creation myths involve? What themes do I need to remember to put into one? | 2016/06/26 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/45438",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/22153/"
] | Creation myths need to include an idea of the structure of the world - its size, the sky, the seas - who made it, and how. The why isn't usually important, it's assumed that creating worlds is what creators *do*.
The Wikipedia articles on [Creation Myth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_myth) and [List of Creation Myths](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_creation_myths) have lots of examples. | Before you do this, you need to make some basic determinations about your world.
Is it flat or is it a sphere (or something else entirely)? Is the sun a ball of plasma and gas or a great crystal in the sky? Is the sun the center of the universe or does the universe centered on your world?
All of these questions and more need to be answered first. Following that, you need to develop an understanding of you god or gods (creators and lesser created). When you understand your creators well enough, you will know better how they would create the world.
One key will be that ultimate power will need to be removed from your world or limitations placed on the creators. For example, Tolkien's creator acted as a passive creator who only intervened occasionally. I've not read the whole Cronicles of Narnia series; however, I did see that the Lion was not invulnerable and nor is he all powerful (as he wouldn't have had to wait for the children to find their way to Narnia to move against the Witch).
Probably the key is that something should go wrong during the creation. Something the limited powers in the world did not anticipate. In Tolkien, we aren't talking about Illuvatar, but the Valar. They did not foresee the discord of Melkor. In Narnia, the arrival of the Witch during the birth of Narnia was the unexpected event. Both of these events set the stage for the chaos that would ensue. |
45,438 | C.W Lewis's Narnia and J.R.R Tolkien's Middle-Earth series all had creation myths for their characters to believe.
I want to have a go for one of my projects but I'm stuck.
I would like suggestions, What do creation myths involve? What themes do I need to remember to put into one? | 2016/06/26 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/45438",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/22153/"
] | Creation myths need to include an idea of the structure of the world - its size, the sky, the seas - who made it, and how. The why isn't usually important, it's assumed that creating worlds is what creators *do*.
The Wikipedia articles on [Creation Myth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_myth) and [List of Creation Myths](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_creation_myths) have lots of examples. | The examples you give are not creation myths as such, they are background stories for the setting written in the format of a creation myth. So you you should write, design, and use them as any other background story you give to characters, places, or important factions, but using mythological language and conventions.
Formatting them as myths is **not** really necessary though. Wizards or long lived races might very well describe the creation in perfectly factual terms, just like modern science does. Elves might write it up as a song. Dwarves might make a drinking song out of it.
It might help to think your setting as a character with its own features and personality and start from that. Giving your settings distinct personality is a step many authors forget. Often it might be easier to model it as a family of characters corresponding to different aspects of the development of your setting. And yes, that is very similar to a pantheon of gods, and there is a reason for that similarity, so you should make sure your gods and setting match in this sense. |
45,438 | C.W Lewis's Narnia and J.R.R Tolkien's Middle-Earth series all had creation myths for their characters to believe.
I want to have a go for one of my projects but I'm stuck.
I would like suggestions, What do creation myths involve? What themes do I need to remember to put into one? | 2016/06/26 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/45438",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/22153/"
] | Creation myths need to include an idea of the structure of the world - its size, the sky, the seas - who made it, and how. The why isn't usually important, it's assumed that creating worlds is what creators *do*.
The Wikipedia articles on [Creation Myth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_myth) and [List of Creation Myths](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_creation_myths) have lots of examples. | Creation myths also, sometimes, have a kernel of truth to them.
You have an incident, you tell your friend about it, he tells others, if it's a funny/sad/romantic etc enough story it is turned into a tale or a song sung through the centuries. Then you have people forgetting parts and adding extra verses. Someone comes along and purposely mixes two stories to create a newer fresher feel. These turn in legend, legends into myths and very soon (give or take a couple centuries) you have Joe Bob's fairly simple story of flirting and chasing an uninterested maiden into the masculine sun forever chasing after the moon, and in the chase, causing the earth to rotate and create day and night. Something to that effect.
Also, society and knowledge epps and flows, sometime reaching a peak before tumbling to some backward backwater. So you can have an educated people, searching the sky's and good medicine etc. They come up with theories of how the world was 'scienticially' created and then there is a loss of knowledge, a plague or religious war where all books are burnt etc so then the general populace can take what they remember and tell their kids and grandkids about how things used to be or how the world was thought to have been formed.
For example, the Christian bible's creation in Genesis is fairly accurate. Give or take a few days :). You have nothing, and from nothing you have everything. Light and dark is created. Then the land and seas are separated. Then plants are created. Then birds and fish and then animals are created. And then man is created. And then the creator stops.
You could take that to mean, you had nothing except the singularity. The singularity exploded and created the universe. Creating areas of darkness and light. Sun's and planets form. Seas are formed over the barren planets and slowly organic plant life starts to evolve. Fish and then birds evolve (the bible seems to have skipped over the whole dinosaur era but that is hardly surprising as the fossilised remains are spread out far and wide under rock). Animals (mammals) come along next, and the last to evolve is humans.
So you have however many billions of years old the universe is, described in just a few paragraphs in a religious book written billions of years after the fact (or roughly 6000years if you are in fact a creationist). That is one hell of a creation myth and I have no doubt it incorporates knowledge from several lost civilisations of mankind's past. |
497,063 | This seems like perhaps a naive question, but I got into a discussion with a co-worker where I argued that there is no real need for a cache to be thread-safe/synchronized as I would assume that it does not matter who is putting in a value, as the value for a given key should be "constant" (in that it is coming from the same source ultimately). If the values can change readily, then the cache itself does not seem to be all the useful (in that if you care that the value is "currently correct" you should go to the original source).
The main reason I see to make at least the GET synchronized is that if it is very expensive to miss in the cache and you don't want multiple threads each going out to get a value to put back in the cache. Even then, you'd need something that actually blocks all consumers during a read-fetch-put cycle.
Anyhow, my working assumption is that a hash is by its very nature thread-safe because for any {key,value} combination, the value is either null or something that it doesn't matter who go there "first" to write.
Question is: Is this a reasonable assumption?
Update: The real scope of my question is around very simple id->value style caches (or {parameters}->{calculated value} where no matter who writes to the cache, the value will be the same and we are just trying to save from "re-calculating"/going back to the database. The actual graph of the object isn't relevant and the cache is generally long-lived. | 2009/01/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/497063",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/22752/"
] | For most implementations of a hash, you'd need to synchronize. What if the hash table needs to be expanded/rehashed? What if two threads are trying to add something to the hash table where the keys are different, but the hashes collide? They could both be modifying the same slot in the hash table in different ways at the same time. Assuming you're using a hash table to implement your cache (which you imply in your question) I suggest reading a little about the details of how [hash tables are implemented](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_table) if you're not already familiar with this. | As long as the cost for acquiring and releasing a lock is less than the cost for recreating the object (from a file or database or whatever) all accesses to a cache should indeed be synchronized. If it’s not you don’t really need a cache at all. :) |
497,063 | This seems like perhaps a naive question, but I got into a discussion with a co-worker where I argued that there is no real need for a cache to be thread-safe/synchronized as I would assume that it does not matter who is putting in a value, as the value for a given key should be "constant" (in that it is coming from the same source ultimately). If the values can change readily, then the cache itself does not seem to be all the useful (in that if you care that the value is "currently correct" you should go to the original source).
The main reason I see to make at least the GET synchronized is that if it is very expensive to miss in the cache and you don't want multiple threads each going out to get a value to put back in the cache. Even then, you'd need something that actually blocks all consumers during a read-fetch-put cycle.
Anyhow, my working assumption is that a hash is by its very nature thread-safe because for any {key,value} combination, the value is either null or something that it doesn't matter who go there "first" to write.
Question is: Is this a reasonable assumption?
Update: The real scope of my question is around very simple id->value style caches (or {parameters}->{calculated value} where no matter who writes to the cache, the value will be the same and we are just trying to save from "re-calculating"/going back to the database. The actual graph of the object isn't relevant and the cache is generally long-lived. | 2009/01/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/497063",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/22752/"
] | Writes aren't always atomic. You must either use atomic data types or provide some synchronization (RCU, locks etc.). No shared data is thread-safe per se. Or make this go away by sticking to lock-free algorithms (that is, where possible and feasible). | As long as the cost for acquiring and releasing a lock is less than the cost for recreating the object (from a file or database or whatever) all accesses to a cache should indeed be synchronized. If it’s not you don’t really need a cache at all. :) |
497,063 | This seems like perhaps a naive question, but I got into a discussion with a co-worker where I argued that there is no real need for a cache to be thread-safe/synchronized as I would assume that it does not matter who is putting in a value, as the value for a given key should be "constant" (in that it is coming from the same source ultimately). If the values can change readily, then the cache itself does not seem to be all the useful (in that if you care that the value is "currently correct" you should go to the original source).
The main reason I see to make at least the GET synchronized is that if it is very expensive to miss in the cache and you don't want multiple threads each going out to get a value to put back in the cache. Even then, you'd need something that actually blocks all consumers during a read-fetch-put cycle.
Anyhow, my working assumption is that a hash is by its very nature thread-safe because for any {key,value} combination, the value is either null or something that it doesn't matter who go there "first" to write.
Question is: Is this a reasonable assumption?
Update: The real scope of my question is around very simple id->value style caches (or {parameters}->{calculated value} where no matter who writes to the cache, the value will be the same and we are just trying to save from "re-calculating"/going back to the database. The actual graph of the object isn't relevant and the cache is generally long-lived. | 2009/01/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/497063",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/22752/"
] | As long as the cost for acquiring and releasing a lock is less than the cost for recreating the object (from a file or database or whatever) all accesses to a cache should indeed be synchronized. If it’s not you don’t really need a cache at all. :) | If you are using Java 5 or above you can use a ConcurrentHashMap. This supports multiple readers and writers in a threadsafe manner. |
497,063 | This seems like perhaps a naive question, but I got into a discussion with a co-worker where I argued that there is no real need for a cache to be thread-safe/synchronized as I would assume that it does not matter who is putting in a value, as the value for a given key should be "constant" (in that it is coming from the same source ultimately). If the values can change readily, then the cache itself does not seem to be all the useful (in that if you care that the value is "currently correct" you should go to the original source).
The main reason I see to make at least the GET synchronized is that if it is very expensive to miss in the cache and you don't want multiple threads each going out to get a value to put back in the cache. Even then, you'd need something that actually blocks all consumers during a read-fetch-put cycle.
Anyhow, my working assumption is that a hash is by its very nature thread-safe because for any {key,value} combination, the value is either null or something that it doesn't matter who go there "first" to write.
Question is: Is this a reasonable assumption?
Update: The real scope of my question is around very simple id->value style caches (or {parameters}->{calculated value} where no matter who writes to the cache, the value will be the same and we are just trying to save from "re-calculating"/going back to the database. The actual graph of the object isn't relevant and the cache is generally long-lived. | 2009/01/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/497063",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/22752/"
] | For most implementations of a hash, you'd need to synchronize. What if the hash table needs to be expanded/rehashed? What if two threads are trying to add something to the hash table where the keys are different, but the hashes collide? They could both be modifying the same slot in the hash table in different ways at the same time. Assuming you're using a hash table to implement your cache (which you imply in your question) I suggest reading a little about the details of how [hash tables are implemented](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_table) if you're not already familiar with this. | Writes aren't always atomic. You must either use atomic data types or provide some synchronization (RCU, locks etc.). No shared data is thread-safe per se. Or make this go away by sticking to lock-free algorithms (that is, where possible and feasible). |
497,063 | This seems like perhaps a naive question, but I got into a discussion with a co-worker where I argued that there is no real need for a cache to be thread-safe/synchronized as I would assume that it does not matter who is putting in a value, as the value for a given key should be "constant" (in that it is coming from the same source ultimately). If the values can change readily, then the cache itself does not seem to be all the useful (in that if you care that the value is "currently correct" you should go to the original source).
The main reason I see to make at least the GET synchronized is that if it is very expensive to miss in the cache and you don't want multiple threads each going out to get a value to put back in the cache. Even then, you'd need something that actually blocks all consumers during a read-fetch-put cycle.
Anyhow, my working assumption is that a hash is by its very nature thread-safe because for any {key,value} combination, the value is either null or something that it doesn't matter who go there "first" to write.
Question is: Is this a reasonable assumption?
Update: The real scope of my question is around very simple id->value style caches (or {parameters}->{calculated value} where no matter who writes to the cache, the value will be the same and we are just trying to save from "re-calculating"/going back to the database. The actual graph of the object isn't relevant and the cache is generally long-lived. | 2009/01/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/497063",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/22752/"
] | For most implementations of a hash, you'd need to synchronize. What if the hash table needs to be expanded/rehashed? What if two threads are trying to add something to the hash table where the keys are different, but the hashes collide? They could both be modifying the same slot in the hash table in different ways at the same time. Assuming you're using a hash table to implement your cache (which you imply in your question) I suggest reading a little about the details of how [hash tables are implemented](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_table) if you're not already familiar with this. | If you want to avoid data corruption, you must synchronize. This is especially true when the cache contains multiple tables that must be updated atomically. Imagine you have a database for a DMV (department of motor vehicles). You add a new person to the database, that person will have records for auto registrations plus records for tickets received for records for home address and perhaps other contact information. If you don't update these tables atomically -- in the database **and** in the cache -- then any client pulling data out of the cache may get inconsistent data.
Yes, any one piece of data may be constant, but databases very commonly hold data that -- if not updated together and atomically -- can cause database clients to get incorrect or incomplete or inconsistent results. |
497,063 | This seems like perhaps a naive question, but I got into a discussion with a co-worker where I argued that there is no real need for a cache to be thread-safe/synchronized as I would assume that it does not matter who is putting in a value, as the value for a given key should be "constant" (in that it is coming from the same source ultimately). If the values can change readily, then the cache itself does not seem to be all the useful (in that if you care that the value is "currently correct" you should go to the original source).
The main reason I see to make at least the GET synchronized is that if it is very expensive to miss in the cache and you don't want multiple threads each going out to get a value to put back in the cache. Even then, you'd need something that actually blocks all consumers during a read-fetch-put cycle.
Anyhow, my working assumption is that a hash is by its very nature thread-safe because for any {key,value} combination, the value is either null or something that it doesn't matter who go there "first" to write.
Question is: Is this a reasonable assumption?
Update: The real scope of my question is around very simple id->value style caches (or {parameters}->{calculated value} where no matter who writes to the cache, the value will be the same and we are just trying to save from "re-calculating"/going back to the database. The actual graph of the object isn't relevant and the cache is generally long-lived. | 2009/01/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/497063",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/22752/"
] | For most implementations of a hash, you'd need to synchronize. What if the hash table needs to be expanded/rehashed? What if two threads are trying to add something to the hash table where the keys are different, but the hashes collide? They could both be modifying the same slot in the hash table in different ways at the same time. Assuming you're using a hash table to implement your cache (which you imply in your question) I suggest reading a little about the details of how [hash tables are implemented](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_table) if you're not already familiar with this. | If you are using Java 5 or above you can use a ConcurrentHashMap. This supports multiple readers and writers in a threadsafe manner. |
497,063 | This seems like perhaps a naive question, but I got into a discussion with a co-worker where I argued that there is no real need for a cache to be thread-safe/synchronized as I would assume that it does not matter who is putting in a value, as the value for a given key should be "constant" (in that it is coming from the same source ultimately). If the values can change readily, then the cache itself does not seem to be all the useful (in that if you care that the value is "currently correct" you should go to the original source).
The main reason I see to make at least the GET synchronized is that if it is very expensive to miss in the cache and you don't want multiple threads each going out to get a value to put back in the cache. Even then, you'd need something that actually blocks all consumers during a read-fetch-put cycle.
Anyhow, my working assumption is that a hash is by its very nature thread-safe because for any {key,value} combination, the value is either null or something that it doesn't matter who go there "first" to write.
Question is: Is this a reasonable assumption?
Update: The real scope of my question is around very simple id->value style caches (or {parameters}->{calculated value} where no matter who writes to the cache, the value will be the same and we are just trying to save from "re-calculating"/going back to the database. The actual graph of the object isn't relevant and the cache is generally long-lived. | 2009/01/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/497063",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/22752/"
] | Writes aren't always atomic. You must either use atomic data types or provide some synchronization (RCU, locks etc.). No shared data is thread-safe per se. Or make this go away by sticking to lock-free algorithms (that is, where possible and feasible). | If you want to avoid data corruption, you must synchronize. This is especially true when the cache contains multiple tables that must be updated atomically. Imagine you have a database for a DMV (department of motor vehicles). You add a new person to the database, that person will have records for auto registrations plus records for tickets received for records for home address and perhaps other contact information. If you don't update these tables atomically -- in the database **and** in the cache -- then any client pulling data out of the cache may get inconsistent data.
Yes, any one piece of data may be constant, but databases very commonly hold data that -- if not updated together and atomically -- can cause database clients to get incorrect or incomplete or inconsistent results. |
497,063 | This seems like perhaps a naive question, but I got into a discussion with a co-worker where I argued that there is no real need for a cache to be thread-safe/synchronized as I would assume that it does not matter who is putting in a value, as the value for a given key should be "constant" (in that it is coming from the same source ultimately). If the values can change readily, then the cache itself does not seem to be all the useful (in that if you care that the value is "currently correct" you should go to the original source).
The main reason I see to make at least the GET synchronized is that if it is very expensive to miss in the cache and you don't want multiple threads each going out to get a value to put back in the cache. Even then, you'd need something that actually blocks all consumers during a read-fetch-put cycle.
Anyhow, my working assumption is that a hash is by its very nature thread-safe because for any {key,value} combination, the value is either null or something that it doesn't matter who go there "first" to write.
Question is: Is this a reasonable assumption?
Update: The real scope of my question is around very simple id->value style caches (or {parameters}->{calculated value} where no matter who writes to the cache, the value will be the same and we are just trying to save from "re-calculating"/going back to the database. The actual graph of the object isn't relevant and the cache is generally long-lived. | 2009/01/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/497063",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/22752/"
] | Writes aren't always atomic. You must either use atomic data types or provide some synchronization (RCU, locks etc.). No shared data is thread-safe per se. Or make this go away by sticking to lock-free algorithms (that is, where possible and feasible). | If you are using Java 5 or above you can use a ConcurrentHashMap. This supports multiple readers and writers in a threadsafe manner. |
497,063 | This seems like perhaps a naive question, but I got into a discussion with a co-worker where I argued that there is no real need for a cache to be thread-safe/synchronized as I would assume that it does not matter who is putting in a value, as the value for a given key should be "constant" (in that it is coming from the same source ultimately). If the values can change readily, then the cache itself does not seem to be all the useful (in that if you care that the value is "currently correct" you should go to the original source).
The main reason I see to make at least the GET synchronized is that if it is very expensive to miss in the cache and you don't want multiple threads each going out to get a value to put back in the cache. Even then, you'd need something that actually blocks all consumers during a read-fetch-put cycle.
Anyhow, my working assumption is that a hash is by its very nature thread-safe because for any {key,value} combination, the value is either null or something that it doesn't matter who go there "first" to write.
Question is: Is this a reasonable assumption?
Update: The real scope of my question is around very simple id->value style caches (or {parameters}->{calculated value} where no matter who writes to the cache, the value will be the same and we are just trying to save from "re-calculating"/going back to the database. The actual graph of the object isn't relevant and the cache is generally long-lived. | 2009/01/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/497063",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/22752/"
] | If you want to avoid data corruption, you must synchronize. This is especially true when the cache contains multiple tables that must be updated atomically. Imagine you have a database for a DMV (department of motor vehicles). You add a new person to the database, that person will have records for auto registrations plus records for tickets received for records for home address and perhaps other contact information. If you don't update these tables atomically -- in the database **and** in the cache -- then any client pulling data out of the cache may get inconsistent data.
Yes, any one piece of data may be constant, but databases very commonly hold data that -- if not updated together and atomically -- can cause database clients to get incorrect or incomplete or inconsistent results. | If you are using Java 5 or above you can use a ConcurrentHashMap. This supports multiple readers and writers in a threadsafe manner. |
24,631 | I'm starting to go through the book "freedom of the hills". Somewhere in the initial pages, it states that a climbing party must consist of a minimum of three members. A bit later it states that during glacier travel, there should be a minimum of two rope teams.
Near the end of the first chapter, in the subsection "Gaining the freedom of the hills", there is a sub-subsection titled "Climbing code" with an itemized list. One of the list items states:
>
> “A climbing party of three is the minimum, unless adequate prearranged support is available. On glaciers, a minimum of two rope teams is recommended.”
>
>
>
Excerpt From: Mountaineers. “Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills.” iBooks.
Does it make sense to split up into two rope teams in case of a 3-4 member climbing party? I hardly think it makes sense to have a rope team of one member. But what about two? Were one member to slip into a crevasse would it not be easier to arrest their fall if the rope had more members?
To rephrase the question, how should a 3-5 member climbing party split up into rope teams for glacier travel? | 2020/01/06 | [
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/24631",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/17115/"
] | >
> A bit later it states that during glacier travel, there should be a minimum of two rope teams.
>
>
>
Is there any explanation why there should be 2 teams? The only case where this makes really sense is that a whole team falls into a crevasse. This must not happen under any circumstances.
If the idea is that a second team can start the rescue immediately, this is a dangerous approach. After a crevasse fall has been stopped, it is paramount to build a reliable anchor (T-anchor or ice screw, depending on conditions) before anybody moves on untested terrain. A second team rushing to the rescue can easily cause a second fall into another crevasse nearby.
Probably the perfect size for glacier travel is 3 persons. The chances of holding a fall in a 3 person team are sufficiently good and recovery of the fallen person is relatively easy with 2 persons at the top. On the other hand, the smaller the team the more agile. Every irregularity in your pace (either by terrain or irregular pace of the leader) will add with every person on the rope. This turns the last position of a team into a kind of stop and go (or rather stop and run) pace. [1](https://www.msrgear.com/blog/backcountry-basics-recognizing-assessing-avalanche-terrain/)
Considering this, for a 3 and 4 person team there is only one option which is going as a single team. For 5 persons there is the option of a single team as well, which is still ok as long as the terrain is rather regular [2]. If this is not the case or if the teams are preferring smaller teams and sufficient experience for the smaller teams, you can split this into a 3 person team on the front and a 2 person team behind. This combines the advantages of small teams with the benefit of a second team in case something goes horribly wrong. Note that in this case the second team has a tested trail and therefore the disadvantage of having only a second person for holding a fall is greatly diminished although not completely removed
[1](https://www.msrgear.com/blog/backcountry-basics-recognizing-assessing-avalanche-terrain/) For this reason it is often recommended to have the fittest members of your team towards the back and the weakest at the second or third positon.
[2] A typical example of an irregular terrain is a crevasse zone where you have to change direction all the time. Keeping the rope taut all the time is more difficult with a bigger team.
edit:
On the concept of avalanche terrain and a second team digging the first team out. This is extremely wrong.
1. Avalanche terrain is not the norm on a glacier. Most glaciers are quite flat most of the time and there is no risk of avalanches.
2. If there is a realistic danger of avalanches and you cannot turn around or do not want to, the sensible thing is to keep a bigger distance between members (~50m). This has two positive effects. First, the snow is loaded less at a single point and the risk of triggering an avalanche is smaller (minimizing the risk). Second, in case of an avalanche only one person is affected (minimizing the damage). Roping up makes it impossible to keep a good distance and is a guarantee that the whole team is affected by an avalanche. (It has to be noted that in this situation you are likely in a spring ski tour where the glacier is snowed up properly and the risk of a crevasse fall is very small anyways)
3. Avalanches can only be triggered in steeper terrain ([dry snow avalanches are most common on slopes between 30° and 45°](https://www.msrgear.com/blog/backcountry-basics-recognizing-assessing-avalanche-terrain/)). In steep terrain a single member stumbling can pull the whole team with them if the snow is sufficiently hard. This is definitely a situation where you do not want to go roped (even though a lot of mountain guides have no issues short-roping 4 clients on an icy 35° slope...) | You are not going to like the answer, but a 5 member team should recruit a 6th person. I think 3 people per rope is ideal. 4 people always seems like too many and 2 people makes stopping a fall really hard. A one person rope team is not a rope team.
The way I would break things down:
1 person - Find more people to climb with
2 people - If you are both experienced and the risk of falls is relatively low and the route well traveled (e.g., the standard route on Mt Rainer), this is ok. If the route is not well traveled, the risk of a fall is high, or you are not experienced, find more people to climb with
3 people - This is perfect for all but the most remote and infrequently traveled routes.
4 people - Kick someone off the team, find more people to climb with, or be prepared for logistical difficulties
5 people - See 2 people (but with the added benefit of a second team)
6 people - You are golden |
24,631 | I'm starting to go through the book "freedom of the hills". Somewhere in the initial pages, it states that a climbing party must consist of a minimum of three members. A bit later it states that during glacier travel, there should be a minimum of two rope teams.
Near the end of the first chapter, in the subsection "Gaining the freedom of the hills", there is a sub-subsection titled "Climbing code" with an itemized list. One of the list items states:
>
> “A climbing party of three is the minimum, unless adequate prearranged support is available. On glaciers, a minimum of two rope teams is recommended.”
>
>
>
Excerpt From: Mountaineers. “Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills.” iBooks.
Does it make sense to split up into two rope teams in case of a 3-4 member climbing party? I hardly think it makes sense to have a rope team of one member. But what about two? Were one member to slip into a crevasse would it not be easier to arrest their fall if the rope had more members?
To rephrase the question, how should a 3-5 member climbing party split up into rope teams for glacier travel? | 2020/01/06 | [
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/24631",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/17115/"
] | You are not going to like the answer, but a 5 member team should recruit a 6th person. I think 3 people per rope is ideal. 4 people always seems like too many and 2 people makes stopping a fall really hard. A one person rope team is not a rope team.
The way I would break things down:
1 person - Find more people to climb with
2 people - If you are both experienced and the risk of falls is relatively low and the route well traveled (e.g., the standard route on Mt Rainer), this is ok. If the route is not well traveled, the risk of a fall is high, or you are not experienced, find more people to climb with
3 people - This is perfect for all but the most remote and infrequently traveled routes.
4 people - Kick someone off the team, find more people to climb with, or be prepared for logistical difficulties
5 people - See 2 people (but with the added benefit of a second team)
6 people - You are golden | I went ahead and fished out my copy of [Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills](https://www.mountaineers.org/books/books/mountaineering-the-freedom-of-the-hills-9th-edition-1), which happens to be the 50th anniversary 8th edition.
The reason there isn't much detail in the list you quote is that it's in the primer chapter. In **chapter 17**, **Glacier travel and crevasse rescue** (p.375), you have to go to the **Fundamentals of glacier travel** (pp.381-382) in the **Rope Teams** paragraph. There, you find a good explanation of the line you quote:
>
> Rope teams of three climbers each are ideal for travel on glacier where no technical climbing will be encountered. With a rope team of three, two people are available to arrest a rope mate's fall into a crevasse. A minimum party size of two rope teams is recommended so that a team involved in an accident will have backup help. In some instances, a party of four may climb on a single rope; for example, if one of the climbers may not be able to arrest a crevasse fall, or if just one of the party is experienced in crevasse rescue.
>
>
> [...]
>
>
> On technical glacier terrain - with slopes steeper than 40 degrees or with severe crevassing - belaying may be necessary, making it more efficient to travel in two-person rope teams. In this situation, having a second rope team as rescue backup becomes even more important. While the person who is on the same rope as the fallen climber holds the rope fast, the second team can setup a snow anchor and initiate the rescue (see "Crevasse Rescue Response" later in this chapter).
>
>
>
As mentioned in other answers, if you can't meet the safe minimums for rope teams for glacier travel, it is probably the best idea to change plans. 4 climbers could potentially rope up into two teams or as one team, but in the second case it requires a full-length rope (or double ropes):
>
> Glacier travelers usually put 3 people on a 37-meter (120-foot) rope, and three or four people on a 50- or 60-meter (165- to 200-foot) rope. These configurations space the climbers far enough apart so that as the rope team crosses a typical crevasse, only one person at a time is at risk. Where there are truly humongous crevasses - in the himalaya or the Alaska Range, for example - greater spacing may be necessary.
>
>
>
A team of more than 5 becomes more risky as the distance between members isn't large enough for safe travel. There is also an efficiency component as the larger the rope-team, the worse the rubber-banding will affects travel speed as each member tries to keep the rope taut. |
24,631 | I'm starting to go through the book "freedom of the hills". Somewhere in the initial pages, it states that a climbing party must consist of a minimum of three members. A bit later it states that during glacier travel, there should be a minimum of two rope teams.
Near the end of the first chapter, in the subsection "Gaining the freedom of the hills", there is a sub-subsection titled "Climbing code" with an itemized list. One of the list items states:
>
> “A climbing party of three is the minimum, unless adequate prearranged support is available. On glaciers, a minimum of two rope teams is recommended.”
>
>
>
Excerpt From: Mountaineers. “Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills.” iBooks.
Does it make sense to split up into two rope teams in case of a 3-4 member climbing party? I hardly think it makes sense to have a rope team of one member. But what about two? Were one member to slip into a crevasse would it not be easier to arrest their fall if the rope had more members?
To rephrase the question, how should a 3-5 member climbing party split up into rope teams for glacier travel? | 2020/01/06 | [
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/24631",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/17115/"
] | >
> A bit later it states that during glacier travel, there should be a minimum of two rope teams.
>
>
>
Is there any explanation why there should be 2 teams? The only case where this makes really sense is that a whole team falls into a crevasse. This must not happen under any circumstances.
If the idea is that a second team can start the rescue immediately, this is a dangerous approach. After a crevasse fall has been stopped, it is paramount to build a reliable anchor (T-anchor or ice screw, depending on conditions) before anybody moves on untested terrain. A second team rushing to the rescue can easily cause a second fall into another crevasse nearby.
Probably the perfect size for glacier travel is 3 persons. The chances of holding a fall in a 3 person team are sufficiently good and recovery of the fallen person is relatively easy with 2 persons at the top. On the other hand, the smaller the team the more agile. Every irregularity in your pace (either by terrain or irregular pace of the leader) will add with every person on the rope. This turns the last position of a team into a kind of stop and go (or rather stop and run) pace. [1](https://www.msrgear.com/blog/backcountry-basics-recognizing-assessing-avalanche-terrain/)
Considering this, for a 3 and 4 person team there is only one option which is going as a single team. For 5 persons there is the option of a single team as well, which is still ok as long as the terrain is rather regular [2]. If this is not the case or if the teams are preferring smaller teams and sufficient experience for the smaller teams, you can split this into a 3 person team on the front and a 2 person team behind. This combines the advantages of small teams with the benefit of a second team in case something goes horribly wrong. Note that in this case the second team has a tested trail and therefore the disadvantage of having only a second person for holding a fall is greatly diminished although not completely removed
[1](https://www.msrgear.com/blog/backcountry-basics-recognizing-assessing-avalanche-terrain/) For this reason it is often recommended to have the fittest members of your team towards the back and the weakest at the second or third positon.
[2] A typical example of an irregular terrain is a crevasse zone where you have to change direction all the time. Keeping the rope taut all the time is more difficult with a bigger team.
edit:
On the concept of avalanche terrain and a second team digging the first team out. This is extremely wrong.
1. Avalanche terrain is not the norm on a glacier. Most glaciers are quite flat most of the time and there is no risk of avalanches.
2. If there is a realistic danger of avalanches and you cannot turn around or do not want to, the sensible thing is to keep a bigger distance between members (~50m). This has two positive effects. First, the snow is loaded less at a single point and the risk of triggering an avalanche is smaller (minimizing the risk). Second, in case of an avalanche only one person is affected (minimizing the damage). Roping up makes it impossible to keep a good distance and is a guarantee that the whole team is affected by an avalanche. (It has to be noted that in this situation you are likely in a spring ski tour where the glacier is snowed up properly and the risk of a crevasse fall is very small anyways)
3. Avalanches can only be triggered in steeper terrain ([dry snow avalanches are most common on slopes between 30° and 45°](https://www.msrgear.com/blog/backcountry-basics-recognizing-assessing-avalanche-terrain/)). In steep terrain a single member stumbling can pull the whole team with them if the snow is sufficiently hard. This is definitely a situation where you do not want to go roped (even though a lot of mountain guides have no issues short-roping 4 clients on an icy 35° slope...) | I went ahead and fished out my copy of [Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills](https://www.mountaineers.org/books/books/mountaineering-the-freedom-of-the-hills-9th-edition-1), which happens to be the 50th anniversary 8th edition.
The reason there isn't much detail in the list you quote is that it's in the primer chapter. In **chapter 17**, **Glacier travel and crevasse rescue** (p.375), you have to go to the **Fundamentals of glacier travel** (pp.381-382) in the **Rope Teams** paragraph. There, you find a good explanation of the line you quote:
>
> Rope teams of three climbers each are ideal for travel on glacier where no technical climbing will be encountered. With a rope team of three, two people are available to arrest a rope mate's fall into a crevasse. A minimum party size of two rope teams is recommended so that a team involved in an accident will have backup help. In some instances, a party of four may climb on a single rope; for example, if one of the climbers may not be able to arrest a crevasse fall, or if just one of the party is experienced in crevasse rescue.
>
>
> [...]
>
>
> On technical glacier terrain - with slopes steeper than 40 degrees or with severe crevassing - belaying may be necessary, making it more efficient to travel in two-person rope teams. In this situation, having a second rope team as rescue backup becomes even more important. While the person who is on the same rope as the fallen climber holds the rope fast, the second team can setup a snow anchor and initiate the rescue (see "Crevasse Rescue Response" later in this chapter).
>
>
>
As mentioned in other answers, if you can't meet the safe minimums for rope teams for glacier travel, it is probably the best idea to change plans. 4 climbers could potentially rope up into two teams or as one team, but in the second case it requires a full-length rope (or double ropes):
>
> Glacier travelers usually put 3 people on a 37-meter (120-foot) rope, and three or four people on a 50- or 60-meter (165- to 200-foot) rope. These configurations space the climbers far enough apart so that as the rope team crosses a typical crevasse, only one person at a time is at risk. Where there are truly humongous crevasses - in the himalaya or the Alaska Range, for example - greater spacing may be necessary.
>
>
>
A team of more than 5 becomes more risky as the distance between members isn't large enough for safe travel. There is also an efficiency component as the larger the rope-team, the worse the rubber-banding will affects travel speed as each member tries to keep the rope taut. |
24,631 | I'm starting to go through the book "freedom of the hills". Somewhere in the initial pages, it states that a climbing party must consist of a minimum of three members. A bit later it states that during glacier travel, there should be a minimum of two rope teams.
Near the end of the first chapter, in the subsection "Gaining the freedom of the hills", there is a sub-subsection titled "Climbing code" with an itemized list. One of the list items states:
>
> “A climbing party of three is the minimum, unless adequate prearranged support is available. On glaciers, a minimum of two rope teams is recommended.”
>
>
>
Excerpt From: Mountaineers. “Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills.” iBooks.
Does it make sense to split up into two rope teams in case of a 3-4 member climbing party? I hardly think it makes sense to have a rope team of one member. But what about two? Were one member to slip into a crevasse would it not be easier to arrest their fall if the rope had more members?
To rephrase the question, how should a 3-5 member climbing party split up into rope teams for glacier travel? | 2020/01/06 | [
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/24631",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/17115/"
] | >
> A bit later it states that during glacier travel, there should be a minimum of two rope teams.
>
>
>
Is there any explanation why there should be 2 teams? The only case where this makes really sense is that a whole team falls into a crevasse. This must not happen under any circumstances.
If the idea is that a second team can start the rescue immediately, this is a dangerous approach. After a crevasse fall has been stopped, it is paramount to build a reliable anchor (T-anchor or ice screw, depending on conditions) before anybody moves on untested terrain. A second team rushing to the rescue can easily cause a second fall into another crevasse nearby.
Probably the perfect size for glacier travel is 3 persons. The chances of holding a fall in a 3 person team are sufficiently good and recovery of the fallen person is relatively easy with 2 persons at the top. On the other hand, the smaller the team the more agile. Every irregularity in your pace (either by terrain or irregular pace of the leader) will add with every person on the rope. This turns the last position of a team into a kind of stop and go (or rather stop and run) pace. [1](https://www.msrgear.com/blog/backcountry-basics-recognizing-assessing-avalanche-terrain/)
Considering this, for a 3 and 4 person team there is only one option which is going as a single team. For 5 persons there is the option of a single team as well, which is still ok as long as the terrain is rather regular [2]. If this is not the case or if the teams are preferring smaller teams and sufficient experience for the smaller teams, you can split this into a 3 person team on the front and a 2 person team behind. This combines the advantages of small teams with the benefit of a second team in case something goes horribly wrong. Note that in this case the second team has a tested trail and therefore the disadvantage of having only a second person for holding a fall is greatly diminished although not completely removed
[1](https://www.msrgear.com/blog/backcountry-basics-recognizing-assessing-avalanche-terrain/) For this reason it is often recommended to have the fittest members of your team towards the back and the weakest at the second or third positon.
[2] A typical example of an irregular terrain is a crevasse zone where you have to change direction all the time. Keeping the rope taut all the time is more difficult with a bigger team.
edit:
On the concept of avalanche terrain and a second team digging the first team out. This is extremely wrong.
1. Avalanche terrain is not the norm on a glacier. Most glaciers are quite flat most of the time and there is no risk of avalanches.
2. If there is a realistic danger of avalanches and you cannot turn around or do not want to, the sensible thing is to keep a bigger distance between members (~50m). This has two positive effects. First, the snow is loaded less at a single point and the risk of triggering an avalanche is smaller (minimizing the risk). Second, in case of an avalanche only one person is affected (minimizing the damage). Roping up makes it impossible to keep a good distance and is a guarantee that the whole team is affected by an avalanche. (It has to be noted that in this situation you are likely in a spring ski tour where the glacier is snowed up properly and the risk of a crevasse fall is very small anyways)
3. Avalanches can only be triggered in steeper terrain ([dry snow avalanches are most common on slopes between 30° and 45°](https://www.msrgear.com/blog/backcountry-basics-recognizing-assessing-avalanche-terrain/)). In steep terrain a single member stumbling can pull the whole team with them if the snow is sufficiently hard. This is definitely a situation where you do not want to go roped (even though a lot of mountain guides have no issues short-roping 4 clients on an icy 35° slope...) | I would not agree that 4 members is a bad number. Having 4 roped together during glacier travel with the risk of creavasses is still quite good and not much worse than 3 but if things become more technical (with the need for belaying) they can split into two parties of two which is the ideal number for climbing with belays.
I myself did all my climbs as a party of two which is not ideal for glacier travel but that's how we ended up always. I did many climbs in the Alps, South- and North America, Central Asia and only once fell into a crevasse completely but as you can tell from this post the fall was arrested by my partner.
If you are a party of two it's a good practice to have the lighter person below (i.e. behind on the way up and in front on the way down) This way the lighter person has to be pulled upwards in case of a fall of the heavier, so it should be easier for her/him to stop the fall. |
24,631 | I'm starting to go through the book "freedom of the hills". Somewhere in the initial pages, it states that a climbing party must consist of a minimum of three members. A bit later it states that during glacier travel, there should be a minimum of two rope teams.
Near the end of the first chapter, in the subsection "Gaining the freedom of the hills", there is a sub-subsection titled "Climbing code" with an itemized list. One of the list items states:
>
> “A climbing party of three is the minimum, unless adequate prearranged support is available. On glaciers, a minimum of two rope teams is recommended.”
>
>
>
Excerpt From: Mountaineers. “Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills.” iBooks.
Does it make sense to split up into two rope teams in case of a 3-4 member climbing party? I hardly think it makes sense to have a rope team of one member. But what about two? Were one member to slip into a crevasse would it not be easier to arrest their fall if the rope had more members?
To rephrase the question, how should a 3-5 member climbing party split up into rope teams for glacier travel? | 2020/01/06 | [
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/24631",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com",
"https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/17115/"
] | I would not agree that 4 members is a bad number. Having 4 roped together during glacier travel with the risk of creavasses is still quite good and not much worse than 3 but if things become more technical (with the need for belaying) they can split into two parties of two which is the ideal number for climbing with belays.
I myself did all my climbs as a party of two which is not ideal for glacier travel but that's how we ended up always. I did many climbs in the Alps, South- and North America, Central Asia and only once fell into a crevasse completely but as you can tell from this post the fall was arrested by my partner.
If you are a party of two it's a good practice to have the lighter person below (i.e. behind on the way up and in front on the way down) This way the lighter person has to be pulled upwards in case of a fall of the heavier, so it should be easier for her/him to stop the fall. | I went ahead and fished out my copy of [Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills](https://www.mountaineers.org/books/books/mountaineering-the-freedom-of-the-hills-9th-edition-1), which happens to be the 50th anniversary 8th edition.
The reason there isn't much detail in the list you quote is that it's in the primer chapter. In **chapter 17**, **Glacier travel and crevasse rescue** (p.375), you have to go to the **Fundamentals of glacier travel** (pp.381-382) in the **Rope Teams** paragraph. There, you find a good explanation of the line you quote:
>
> Rope teams of three climbers each are ideal for travel on glacier where no technical climbing will be encountered. With a rope team of three, two people are available to arrest a rope mate's fall into a crevasse. A minimum party size of two rope teams is recommended so that a team involved in an accident will have backup help. In some instances, a party of four may climb on a single rope; for example, if one of the climbers may not be able to arrest a crevasse fall, or if just one of the party is experienced in crevasse rescue.
>
>
> [...]
>
>
> On technical glacier terrain - with slopes steeper than 40 degrees or with severe crevassing - belaying may be necessary, making it more efficient to travel in two-person rope teams. In this situation, having a second rope team as rescue backup becomes even more important. While the person who is on the same rope as the fallen climber holds the rope fast, the second team can setup a snow anchor and initiate the rescue (see "Crevasse Rescue Response" later in this chapter).
>
>
>
As mentioned in other answers, if you can't meet the safe minimums for rope teams for glacier travel, it is probably the best idea to change plans. 4 climbers could potentially rope up into two teams or as one team, but in the second case it requires a full-length rope (or double ropes):
>
> Glacier travelers usually put 3 people on a 37-meter (120-foot) rope, and three or four people on a 50- or 60-meter (165- to 200-foot) rope. These configurations space the climbers far enough apart so that as the rope team crosses a typical crevasse, only one person at a time is at risk. Where there are truly humongous crevasses - in the himalaya or the Alaska Range, for example - greater spacing may be necessary.
>
>
>
A team of more than 5 becomes more risky as the distance between members isn't large enough for safe travel. There is also an efficiency component as the larger the rope-team, the worse the rubber-banding will affects travel speed as each member tries to keep the rope taut. |
7,385,357 | I want to find out what win message is / are sent when we change the locale settings, Date Time and Language in particular.
I know when window Theme is changed we receive WM\_THEMECHANGED. | 2011/09/12 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/7385357",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/164184/"
] | [WM\_SETTINGSCHANGE](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms725497%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) for locale settings and [WM\_TIMECHANGE](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms725498%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) for time changes.
You will get [WM\_INPUTLANGCHANGEREQUEST](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms632630%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) before the language is changed (and you can choose whether to accept or reject the change), and then [WM\_INPUTLANGCHANGE](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms632629%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) after the language is successfully changed (if you pass WM\_INPUTLANGCHANGEREQUEST to the DefWindowProc). | [WM\_TIMECHANGE](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms725498%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) is sent whenever system time is changed.
[WM\_SETTINGCHANGE](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms725497%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) is also sent upon change of some modifications. However, it's done on a volunteer base by the app that changes the setting. One can assume standard Control Panel applets are fair players. |
85,626 | Looking at signing up for <http://www.opendns.com/start/> but was hoping someone who has used it can shed some light.
Basically, where privacy is concered, OpenDNS will know each and every website you go to correct?
Do they have access to all the data that is transfered also or just the domain/ip's you visit? | 2009/12/20 | [
"https://superuser.com/questions/85626",
"https://superuser.com",
"https://superuser.com/users/3183/"
] | I've used OpenDNS and really like it. DNS is basically just a phonebook service for URLs. You give it a url (well, domain name) and it gives you back the IP address. That does mean OpenDNS will have knowledge of every domain you've visited, but right now your ISP does so it's just shifting who knows that information. The actual conversation does not go through OpenDNS so they won't see anything but the requests for domain names.
The primary advantage of OpenDNS is that it can be used to filter domains based on the sort of information that resides there. This is especially useful if you have kids in the house. Just check the box and any attempt to go to a porn site (playboy.com) will end up at a page explaing that it is blocked and why. There are dozens of categories to choose from and you can explicity opt in/out of any domain as well.
Setup is very simple and if you do so with your router, will automatically apply to every machine in the network. | DNS is a little like a phone book - you use it for lookups, but your data does not pass through them. So it would just be the latter. There's a load of decent public DNS servers as an alternative, or you could run our own- the main advantage of OpenDNS is their filtering system IMO |
85,626 | Looking at signing up for <http://www.opendns.com/start/> but was hoping someone who has used it can shed some light.
Basically, where privacy is concered, OpenDNS will know each and every website you go to correct?
Do they have access to all the data that is transfered also or just the domain/ip's you visit? | 2009/12/20 | [
"https://superuser.com/questions/85626",
"https://superuser.com",
"https://superuser.com/users/3183/"
] | I've used OpenDNS and really like it. DNS is basically just a phonebook service for URLs. You give it a url (well, domain name) and it gives you back the IP address. That does mean OpenDNS will have knowledge of every domain you've visited, but right now your ISP does so it's just shifting who knows that information. The actual conversation does not go through OpenDNS so they won't see anything but the requests for domain names.
The primary advantage of OpenDNS is that it can be used to filter domains based on the sort of information that resides there. This is especially useful if you have kids in the house. Just check the box and any attempt to go to a porn site (playboy.com) will end up at a page explaing that it is blocked and why. There are dozens of categories to choose from and you can explicity opt in/out of any domain as well.
Setup is very simple and if you do so with your router, will automatically apply to every machine in the network. | This question is about **OpenDNS**, but since Google (also) offers a competing service, it might also help to understand *their* DNS resolution "product":
from <https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/>
>
> The DNS protocol is an important part of the web's infrastructure,
> serving as **the Internet's phone book**: every time you visit a website,
> your computer performs a DNS lookup. Complex pages often require
> multiple DNS lookups before they start loading, so your computer may
> be performing hundreds of lookups a day.
>
>
>
and
>
> **Google Public DNS** is a free, global Domain Name System (DNS) resolution service, that you can use as an alternative to your current DNS provider.
>
>
> |
3,866 | There's a [work](https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/work "show questions tagged 'work'") tag. Looks like it was missed in the [Posse request: jobs/career/etc. tag cleanup](https://softwareengineering.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1963/posse-request-jobs-career-etc-tag-cleanup)
Burninate/cleanup? Seems like a likely target of off topic questions, so I'd recommend going through them and removing the tag as they're closed/edited. There's ~~80~~ **13**. As a mod from Workplace I can already tell you The Workplace won't be accepting any old questions with the tag. | 2012/08/03 | [
"https://softwareengineering.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3866",
"https://softwareengineering.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://softwareengineering.meta.stackexchange.com/users/35414/"
] | I have gone through and re-tagged the closed questions and put more appropriate tags where possible. I have also re-tagged a few of the questions that didn't really need improvement.
Will work on looking at the other questions in the list and editing/tagging/flagging where appropriate, and try not to spam the home page (or the review queue as my rep here is too low to edit).
**Edit**: We're down to 35 now, still slowly working on it. Having troubles deciding whether some should be open or not, I'll seek clarification in chat. I've found a few where they are linked to questions that have been closed as duplicates of the question in context - so I just removed the tags on those ones.
**Edit edit**: All burned now.. I see 0 questions under the work tag. Yay | All questions have been retagged or destroyed. |
19,740,180 | What I mean is, if I want to compile and distribute my program, do I have to include folders in the download that have the images and then link a relative path to those folders in my code? Or if I include the images as a resource, is their data saved in the machine code of the program, allowing me to just handout out an executable? | 2013/11/02 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/19740180",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/2813824/"
] | [Resources](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_%28Windows%29) are embedded into the EXE / DLL.
* [MSDN: Using Resources](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms648008%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) | Windows uses a resource section so technically its not part of the machine code, it just handled elsewhere within the exe.
Resource compilation is by default unconditional ( opposed to some compiler/linker settings when code only gets compiled/linked when it's used ) so if you specify the binary file as a resource the final exe will have it regardless if it's being used or not.
Later you can use the [windows resource functions](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff468901%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) windows resource functions to get the data, altho keep in mind that its just data if it's a resource so you have to explicitly write it to the disk and then you can executed it, not from the resource itself. |
185,533 | I've been looking at the [DropBox](http://www.getdropbox.com/install?os=mac) Mac client and I'm currently researching implementing a similar interface for a different service.
How exactly do they interface with finder like this? I highly doubt these objects represented in the folder are actual documents downloaded on every load? They must dynamically download as they are needed. So how can you display these items in finder without having actual file system objects?
**Does anyone know how this is achieved in Mac OS X?**
Or any pointer's to Apple API's or other open source projects that have a similar integration with finder? | 2008/10/09 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/185533",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3415/"
] | Dropbox is likely using [FSEvents](http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/FSEvents_Ref/FSEvents/index.html) to watch for changes to the file system. It's a great API and can even bundle up changes that happened while your app was not running. It's the same API that Spotlight uses. The menubar app likely does the actual observing itself (since restarting it can fix uploads being hung, for instance).
There's no way they're using MacFUSE, as that would require installing the MacFUSE kernel extension to make Dropbox work, and since I definitely didn't install it, I highly doubt they're using it. | To me it feels like a heavily modified revision control system. It has all the features: updates files based on deltas, options to recover or restore old revisions of files. It almost feels like they are using git ([GitFS](http://www.sfgoth.com/~mitch/linux/gitfs/)?), or some filesystem they designed. |
185,533 | I've been looking at the [DropBox](http://www.getdropbox.com/install?os=mac) Mac client and I'm currently researching implementing a similar interface for a different service.
How exactly do they interface with finder like this? I highly doubt these objects represented in the folder are actual documents downloaded on every load? They must dynamically download as they are needed. So how can you display these items in finder without having actual file system objects?
**Does anyone know how this is achieved in Mac OS X?**
Or any pointer's to Apple API's or other open source projects that have a similar integration with finder? | 2008/10/09 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/185533",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3415/"
] | Dropbox is not powered by either MacFUSE or WebDAV, although those might be perfectly fine solutions for what you're trying to accomplish.
If it were powered by those things, it wouldn't work when you weren't connected, as both of those rely on the server to store the actual information and Dropbox does not. If I quit Dropbox (done via the menu item) and disconnect from the net, I can still use the files. That's because the files are actually stored here on my hard drive.
It also means that the files don't need to be "downloaded on every load," since they are actually stored on my machine here. Instead, only the deltas are sent over the wire, and the Dropbox application (running in the background) patches the files appropriately. Going the other way, the Dropbox application watches for the files in the Dropbox folder, and when they change, it sends the appropriate deltas to the server, which propagates them to any other clients.
This setup has some decided advantages: it works when offline, it is an order of magnitude faster, and it is transparent to other apps, since they just see files on the disk. However, I have no idea how it deals with merge conflicts (which could easily arise with one or more clients offline), which are not an issue if the server is the only copy and every edit changes that central copy.
Where Dropbox really shines is that they have an additional trick that badges the items in the Dropbox folder with their current sync status. But that's not what you're asking about here.
As far as the question at hand, you should definitely look into MacFUSE and WebDAV, which might be perfect solutions to your problem. But the Dropbox way of doing things, with a background application changing actual files on the disk, might be a better tradeoff. | Dropbox on the client is written in python.
The client seems to use a sqlite3 database to index files.
I suppose Dropobox split a file in chunks, to reduce bandwith usage.
By the way, it two people has the same file, even if they do not know each other, the server can optimize and avoid to transfer the file more times, only copying it on the server side |
185,533 | I've been looking at the [DropBox](http://www.getdropbox.com/install?os=mac) Mac client and I'm currently researching implementing a similar interface for a different service.
How exactly do they interface with finder like this? I highly doubt these objects represented in the folder are actual documents downloaded on every load? They must dynamically download as they are needed. So how can you display these items in finder without having actual file system objects?
**Does anyone know how this is achieved in Mac OS X?**
Or any pointer's to Apple API's or other open source projects that have a similar integration with finder? | 2008/10/09 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/185533",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3415/"
] | Two suggestions:
* [MacFUSE](http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/)
* [WebDAV](http://www.webdav.org/)
The former will allow you to write an app that appears as a filesystem and does all the right things; the latter will allow you move everything server-side and let the user just mount your service as a file share. | Dropbox on the client is written in python.
The client seems to use a sqlite3 database to index files.
I suppose Dropobox split a file in chunks, to reduce bandwith usage.
By the way, it two people has the same file, even if they do not know each other, the server can optimize and avoid to transfer the file more times, only copying it on the server side |
185,533 | I've been looking at the [DropBox](http://www.getdropbox.com/install?os=mac) Mac client and I'm currently researching implementing a similar interface for a different service.
How exactly do they interface with finder like this? I highly doubt these objects represented in the folder are actual documents downloaded on every load? They must dynamically download as they are needed. So how can you display these items in finder without having actual file system objects?
**Does anyone know how this is achieved in Mac OS X?**
Or any pointer's to Apple API's or other open source projects that have a similar integration with finder? | 2008/10/09 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/185533",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3415/"
] | Two suggestions:
* [MacFUSE](http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/)
* [WebDAV](http://www.webdav.org/)
The former will allow you to write an app that appears as a filesystem and does all the right things; the latter will allow you move everything server-side and let the user just mount your service as a file share. | To me it feels like a heavily modified revision control system. It has all the features: updates files based on deltas, options to recover or restore old revisions of files. It almost feels like they are using git ([GitFS](http://www.sfgoth.com/~mitch/linux/gitfs/)?), or some filesystem they designed. |
185,533 | I've been looking at the [DropBox](http://www.getdropbox.com/install?os=mac) Mac client and I'm currently researching implementing a similar interface for a different service.
How exactly do they interface with finder like this? I highly doubt these objects represented in the folder are actual documents downloaded on every load? They must dynamically download as they are needed. So how can you display these items in finder without having actual file system objects?
**Does anyone know how this is achieved in Mac OS X?**
Or any pointer's to Apple API's or other open source projects that have a similar integration with finder? | 2008/10/09 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/185533",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3415/"
] | Dropbox is likely using [FSEvents](http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/FSEvents_Ref/FSEvents/index.html) to watch for changes to the file system. It's a great API and can even bundle up changes that happened while your app was not running. It's the same API that Spotlight uses. The menubar app likely does the actual observing itself (since restarting it can fix uploads being hung, for instance).
There's no way they're using MacFUSE, as that would require installing the MacFUSE kernel extension to make Dropbox work, and since I definitely didn't install it, I highly doubt they're using it. | Dropbox on the client is written in python.
The client seems to use a sqlite3 database to index files.
I suppose Dropobox split a file in chunks, to reduce bandwith usage.
By the way, it two people has the same file, even if they do not know each other, the server can optimize and avoid to transfer the file more times, only copying it on the server side |
185,533 | I've been looking at the [DropBox](http://www.getdropbox.com/install?os=mac) Mac client and I'm currently researching implementing a similar interface for a different service.
How exactly do they interface with finder like this? I highly doubt these objects represented in the folder are actual documents downloaded on every load? They must dynamically download as they are needed. So how can you display these items in finder without having actual file system objects?
**Does anyone know how this is achieved in Mac OS X?**
Or any pointer's to Apple API's or other open source projects that have a similar integration with finder? | 2008/10/09 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/185533",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3415/"
] | Dropbox is not powered by either MacFUSE or WebDAV, although those might be perfectly fine solutions for what you're trying to accomplish.
If it were powered by those things, it wouldn't work when you weren't connected, as both of those rely on the server to store the actual information and Dropbox does not. If I quit Dropbox (done via the menu item) and disconnect from the net, I can still use the files. That's because the files are actually stored here on my hard drive.
It also means that the files don't need to be "downloaded on every load," since they are actually stored on my machine here. Instead, only the deltas are sent over the wire, and the Dropbox application (running in the background) patches the files appropriately. Going the other way, the Dropbox application watches for the files in the Dropbox folder, and when they change, it sends the appropriate deltas to the server, which propagates them to any other clients.
This setup has some decided advantages: it works when offline, it is an order of magnitude faster, and it is transparent to other apps, since they just see files on the disk. However, I have no idea how it deals with merge conflicts (which could easily arise with one or more clients offline), which are not an issue if the server is the only copy and every edit changes that central copy.
Where Dropbox really shines is that they have an additional trick that badges the items in the Dropbox folder with their current sync status. But that's not what you're asking about here.
As far as the question at hand, you should definitely look into MacFUSE and WebDAV, which might be perfect solutions to your problem. But the Dropbox way of doing things, with a background application changing actual files on the disk, might be a better tradeoff. | Dropbox is likely using [FSEvents](http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/FSEvents_Ref/FSEvents/index.html) to watch for changes to the file system. It's a great API and can even bundle up changes that happened while your app was not running. It's the same API that Spotlight uses. The menubar app likely does the actual observing itself (since restarting it can fix uploads being hung, for instance).
There's no way they're using MacFUSE, as that would require installing the MacFUSE kernel extension to make Dropbox work, and since I definitely didn't install it, I highly doubt they're using it. |
185,533 | I've been looking at the [DropBox](http://www.getdropbox.com/install?os=mac) Mac client and I'm currently researching implementing a similar interface for a different service.
How exactly do they interface with finder like this? I highly doubt these objects represented in the folder are actual documents downloaded on every load? They must dynamically download as they are needed. So how can you display these items in finder without having actual file system objects?
**Does anyone know how this is achieved in Mac OS X?**
Or any pointer's to Apple API's or other open source projects that have a similar integration with finder? | 2008/10/09 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/185533",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3415/"
] | Dropbox is not powered by either MacFUSE or WebDAV, although those might be perfectly fine solutions for what you're trying to accomplish.
If it were powered by those things, it wouldn't work when you weren't connected, as both of those rely on the server to store the actual information and Dropbox does not. If I quit Dropbox (done via the menu item) and disconnect from the net, I can still use the files. That's because the files are actually stored here on my hard drive.
It also means that the files don't need to be "downloaded on every load," since they are actually stored on my machine here. Instead, only the deltas are sent over the wire, and the Dropbox application (running in the background) patches the files appropriately. Going the other way, the Dropbox application watches for the files in the Dropbox folder, and when they change, it sends the appropriate deltas to the server, which propagates them to any other clients.
This setup has some decided advantages: it works when offline, it is an order of magnitude faster, and it is transparent to other apps, since they just see files on the disk. However, I have no idea how it deals with merge conflicts (which could easily arise with one or more clients offline), which are not an issue if the server is the only copy and every edit changes that central copy.
Where Dropbox really shines is that they have an additional trick that badges the items in the Dropbox folder with their current sync status. But that's not what you're asking about here.
As far as the question at hand, you should definitely look into MacFUSE and WebDAV, which might be perfect solutions to your problem. But the Dropbox way of doing things, with a background application changing actual files on the disk, might be a better tradeoff. | Two suggestions:
* [MacFUSE](http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/)
* [WebDAV](http://www.webdav.org/)
The former will allow you to write an app that appears as a filesystem and does all the right things; the latter will allow you move everything server-side and let the user just mount your service as a file share. |
128,189 | Suppose a paper has authors A, B, C, and D. The first author, A, isn't in academia anymore, and much of my work is inspired by the senior author, D. I've also only communicated with author D.
Can I say/write "author D et al."?
When I looked this up, "first author et al." is the recommended version, but I would rather prefer to say "author D et al."
This isn't for a formal paper submission, but rather for something like a blog post describing my recent findings, which I hope will be published in the near future. | 2019/04/15 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/128189",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | Your feelings and the journal citation rules might not align the way you want them to be. Therefore, I suggest you stick with the accepted norms and go with author a et al., even if it is an informal conversation or blog.
Using any author other than the first author in citation would not only do injustice to that author, but would also be a disservice to the readers. Readers would probably be confused when trying to find the bibliography of that citation in the reference list. | Not enough reputation to comment, hence writing as answer.
The other answers didn't address the "I've also only communicated with author D." part.
If that personal communication yielded information that is not in the paper, you can cite (in addition to the paper) "D: Personal Communication". |
128,189 | Suppose a paper has authors A, B, C, and D. The first author, A, isn't in academia anymore, and much of my work is inspired by the senior author, D. I've also only communicated with author D.
Can I say/write "author D et al."?
When I looked this up, "first author et al." is the recommended version, but I would rather prefer to say "author D et al."
This isn't for a formal paper submission, but rather for something like a blog post describing my recent findings, which I hope will be published in the near future. | 2019/04/15 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/128189",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | The only situation when this is common is if you're referring to multiple papers at once. However, even then you'd probably want to use formal citations in parentheses (like mentioned by LarrySnyder):
*LAST AUTHOR et al. have done a lot of work showing phenomenon X (AUTHOR A et al., year; AUTHOR B et al., year).* | When using citations in an informal text, one often refers to papers in the form (Author A *et al.*, 2018) mainly **to make it easy for the reader to know which paper is being addressed** without the need to scroll to the end and see the full list of citations (which you should always include, be it a blog post, Powerpoint slides, or a journal article).
In my field (computer science), it is common that people rarely produce multiple first author publications within one year, so referring to a paper as (Author A, 2018) usually narrows it down to a single publication. However, the last place in the author list is usually reserved for a PI/senior researcher, who has his name on dozens of papers every year. Referring to a paper as (Famous Researcher, 2018) tells very little about the actual paper you are talking about.
As long as you care about the reader, I would use the first author's name. |
128,189 | Suppose a paper has authors A, B, C, and D. The first author, A, isn't in academia anymore, and much of my work is inspired by the senior author, D. I've also only communicated with author D.
Can I say/write "author D et al."?
When I looked this up, "first author et al." is the recommended version, but I would rather prefer to say "author D et al."
This isn't for a formal paper submission, but rather for something like a blog post describing my recent findings, which I hope will be published in the near future. | 2019/04/15 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/128189",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | When using citations in an informal text, one often refers to papers in the form (Author A *et al.*, 2018) mainly **to make it easy for the reader to know which paper is being addressed** without the need to scroll to the end and see the full list of citations (which you should always include, be it a blog post, Powerpoint slides, or a journal article).
In my field (computer science), it is common that people rarely produce multiple first author publications within one year, so referring to a paper as (Author A, 2018) usually narrows it down to a single publication. However, the last place in the author list is usually reserved for a PI/senior researcher, who has his name on dozens of papers every year. Referring to a paper as (Famous Researcher, 2018) tells very little about the actual paper you are talking about.
As long as you care about the reader, I would use the first author's name. | It just isn't that much work to name everyone. Think of all the work all the authors put into that paper. We can all afford to spend one extra second reading all of their names. And that extra second might make someone recognize the name on a file and result in someone getting a job they otherwise wouldn't have. There's no justification for using "et al." |
128,189 | Suppose a paper has authors A, B, C, and D. The first author, A, isn't in academia anymore, and much of my work is inspired by the senior author, D. I've also only communicated with author D.
Can I say/write "author D et al."?
When I looked this up, "first author et al." is the recommended version, but I would rather prefer to say "author D et al."
This isn't for a formal paper submission, but rather for something like a blog post describing my recent findings, which I hope will be published in the near future. | 2019/04/15 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/128189",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | I think in an informal medium like a blog post, you could convey that author D is the main character in the “story” you are trying to tell while still maintaining proper citation standards by saying something like, “Author D and his/her colleagues (Author A, et al., 2018) have shown that...” | Not enough reputation to comment, hence writing as answer.
The other answers didn't address the "I've also only communicated with author D." part.
If that personal communication yielded information that is not in the paper, you can cite (in addition to the paper) "D: Personal Communication". |
128,189 | Suppose a paper has authors A, B, C, and D. The first author, A, isn't in academia anymore, and much of my work is inspired by the senior author, D. I've also only communicated with author D.
Can I say/write "author D et al."?
When I looked this up, "first author et al." is the recommended version, but I would rather prefer to say "author D et al."
This isn't for a formal paper submission, but rather for something like a blog post describing my recent findings, which I hope will be published in the near future. | 2019/04/15 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/128189",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | I think in an informal medium like a blog post, you could convey that author D is the main character in the “story” you are trying to tell while still maintaining proper citation standards by saying something like, “Author D and his/her colleagues (Author A, et al., 2018) have shown that...” | When using citations in an informal text, one often refers to papers in the form (Author A *et al.*, 2018) mainly **to make it easy for the reader to know which paper is being addressed** without the need to scroll to the end and see the full list of citations (which you should always include, be it a blog post, Powerpoint slides, or a journal article).
In my field (computer science), it is common that people rarely produce multiple first author publications within one year, so referring to a paper as (Author A, 2018) usually narrows it down to a single publication. However, the last place in the author list is usually reserved for a PI/senior researcher, who has his name on dozens of papers every year. Referring to a paper as (Famous Researcher, 2018) tells very little about the actual paper you are talking about.
As long as you care about the reader, I would use the first author's name. |
128,189 | Suppose a paper has authors A, B, C, and D. The first author, A, isn't in academia anymore, and much of my work is inspired by the senior author, D. I've also only communicated with author D.
Can I say/write "author D et al."?
When I looked this up, "first author et al." is the recommended version, but I would rather prefer to say "author D et al."
This isn't for a formal paper submission, but rather for something like a blog post describing my recent findings, which I hope will be published in the near future. | 2019/04/15 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/128189",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | I think in an informal medium like a blog post, you could convey that author D is the main character in the “story” you are trying to tell while still maintaining proper citation standards by saying something like, “Author D and his/her colleagues (Author A, et al., 2018) have shown that...” | The only situation when this is common is if you're referring to multiple papers at once. However, even then you'd probably want to use formal citations in parentheses (like mentioned by LarrySnyder):
*LAST AUTHOR et al. have done a lot of work showing phenomenon X (AUTHOR A et al., year; AUTHOR B et al., year).* |
128,189 | Suppose a paper has authors A, B, C, and D. The first author, A, isn't in academia anymore, and much of my work is inspired by the senior author, D. I've also only communicated with author D.
Can I say/write "author D et al."?
When I looked this up, "first author et al." is the recommended version, but I would rather prefer to say "author D et al."
This isn't for a formal paper submission, but rather for something like a blog post describing my recent findings, which I hope will be published in the near future. | 2019/04/15 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/128189",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | Not enough reputation to comment, hence writing as answer.
The other answers didn't address the "I've also only communicated with author D." part.
If that personal communication yielded information that is not in the paper, you can cite (in addition to the paper) "D: Personal Communication". | When using citations in an informal text, one often refers to papers in the form (Author A *et al.*, 2018) mainly **to make it easy for the reader to know which paper is being addressed** without the need to scroll to the end and see the full list of citations (which you should always include, be it a blog post, Powerpoint slides, or a journal article).
In my field (computer science), it is common that people rarely produce multiple first author publications within one year, so referring to a paper as (Author A, 2018) usually narrows it down to a single publication. However, the last place in the author list is usually reserved for a PI/senior researcher, who has his name on dozens of papers every year. Referring to a paper as (Famous Researcher, 2018) tells very little about the actual paper you are talking about.
As long as you care about the reader, I would use the first author's name. |
128,189 | Suppose a paper has authors A, B, C, and D. The first author, A, isn't in academia anymore, and much of my work is inspired by the senior author, D. I've also only communicated with author D.
Can I say/write "author D et al."?
When I looked this up, "first author et al." is the recommended version, but I would rather prefer to say "author D et al."
This isn't for a formal paper submission, but rather for something like a blog post describing my recent findings, which I hope will be published in the near future. | 2019/04/15 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/128189",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | The only situation when this is common is if you're referring to multiple papers at once. However, even then you'd probably want to use formal citations in parentheses (like mentioned by LarrySnyder):
*LAST AUTHOR et al. have done a lot of work showing phenomenon X (AUTHOR A et al., year; AUTHOR B et al., year).* | Not enough reputation to comment, hence writing as answer.
The other answers didn't address the "I've also only communicated with author D." part.
If that personal communication yielded information that is not in the paper, you can cite (in addition to the paper) "D: Personal Communication". |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.