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 |
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29,154 | I am not a pilot and have come to this site to ask a question about the measurement of height. This is as a result of the comments made as a result of a question in the Physics Stack Exchange forum ["Does barometer improve gps accuracy?"](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/261185/does-barometer-improve-gps-position-accuracy/261240#261240)
I feel that there will be more of you on this site who have real time experience with flying and so can answer my question which is:
*Which is more accurate for height measurement: GPS or barometer?*
I have noted that those engaged in geocaching often have GPS units with built-in barometers to improve height accuracy.
One of my friends who is a pilot responded as follows:
>
> A light aircraft relies on a barometer that is set to the standard
> 1013 millibars when in cruise at height (or the regional QNH when
> lower) but they set to the local reading for the airfield (QFE) when
> planning their decent. Commercial aircraft also have ground proximity
> radar but they also have a standard set of old fashioned flight
> instruments in case the electronics fail. My old aircraft GPS did
> indeed read out height as well but you were told never to rely on it!
>
>
> | 2016/06/09 | [
"https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/29154",
"https://aviation.stackexchange.com",
"https://aviation.stackexchange.com/users/15334/"
] | For surveying glacier movement, or a mountain range's growth/decay, GPS is more accurate.
For airplanes: refresh rate, reliability, and simplicity matter more. When it comes down to accuracy, ground augmented GPS provides ILS CAT I accuracy using [LPV](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Localizer_performance_with_vertical_guidance). So alongside refresh rate, and accuracy, comes the question of application. For airplanes in cruise, where separation matters, reliable devices are best.
GPS signals can be jammed. As can be seen in the news lately in [California](https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2016/june/08/navy-cancels-planned-gps-outage-in-southern-california) and [Egypt](http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/fresh-terror-fears-hackers-trying-8074849). And GPS signal can be lost due to ionospheric interference. So, any equipment that doesn't rely on external sources is safer. | To amend already existing answers:
Very close to the ground, GPS altitude is unusable for aviation purposes. Vertical accuracy of GPS position is roughly 1.5 times that of the lateral position. Unaugmented GPS signal might have position of over 10 meters, giving even larger vertical error. For that reason, vertical GPS position is not used for approaches if some augmentation method is not available. Even then, GPS altitude is not used to determine approach minima, which is defined as barometric altitude.
There is also problem of momentary degradation of GPS accuracy due to satellite constellation or interference from building, terrain, weather, jamming etc. which would be unacceptable if the signal would be used for terrain clearance.
During takeoff and landing, barometric altitude is referenced to local air pressure, making it very accurate locally at low altitude. In cruise as mentioned, the accuracy does not matter as much as aircraft maintain suitable clearance from the terrain in the area, so even in case of lateral navigation error there will not be a collision.
The benefits of barometric altitude are separation from other aircraft, as any aircraft arriving from distant corners of world are using same barometric reference of 1013hPa (29.92 inHg) during cruise, and the matter of aircraft performance. Aircraft performance depends on local air pressure and temperature, so fixing the altitude to the barometric reference reduces aircraft performance to a single variable problem, ie. temperature. |
29,154 | I am not a pilot and have come to this site to ask a question about the measurement of height. This is as a result of the comments made as a result of a question in the Physics Stack Exchange forum ["Does barometer improve gps accuracy?"](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/261185/does-barometer-improve-gps-position-accuracy/261240#261240)
I feel that there will be more of you on this site who have real time experience with flying and so can answer my question which is:
*Which is more accurate for height measurement: GPS or barometer?*
I have noted that those engaged in geocaching often have GPS units with built-in barometers to improve height accuracy.
One of my friends who is a pilot responded as follows:
>
> A light aircraft relies on a barometer that is set to the standard
> 1013 millibars when in cruise at height (or the regional QNH when
> lower) but they set to the local reading for the airfield (QFE) when
> planning their decent. Commercial aircraft also have ground proximity
> radar but they also have a standard set of old fashioned flight
> instruments in case the electronics fail. My old aircraft GPS did
> indeed read out height as well but you were told never to rely on it!
>
>
> | 2016/06/09 | [
"https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/29154",
"https://aviation.stackexchange.com",
"https://aviation.stackexchange.com/users/15334/"
] | There is a pretty comprehensive description of the issues at [this link](http://www.borgeltinstruments.com/GPSvsPressurealtitude.pdf).
Briefly - the conversion of pressure to altitude makes certain assumptions about the "standard atmosphere" - that is, it works best when the temperature and the lapse rate (change in temperature with altitude) exactly matches that from the model. In the real world, this is almost never the case. For example, on a hot day the air will be less dense, so the weight of a column of air will be smaller - and so when the pressure seems to have dropped by say 200 HPa, you will underestimate your altitude. The example calculation in the link shows that when the surface temperature on a dry day is 42°C, the error at 10,000 feet could be as much as 800 ft - which is considerably bigger than the typical error in a GPS (although GPS is less accurate in the vertical direction, you should routinely be able to get height within about 50 feet when you have an unobstructed view of the sky, and ionospheric activity is not unusually high). In principle it is possible to make corrections for these things - but a simple mechanical pressure-based altimeter probably doesn't.
On the other hand - if everybody else is flying by barometer, you might be "right" about your GPS based altitude, but "wrong" compared to other planes in the vicinity.
So it is advisable to use the same method as everyone else, so you don't crash into each other. On the other hand, when it comes to your final glide, the GPS is more likely to get you home safely on a hot day. | This depends on the accuracy of the barometer and the weather, since the weather influences the air pressure. So even if you're standing still at the same altitude the barometer will show you different readings. This is why a pilot constantly has to adjust his altimeter. An altimeter is designed to measure the altitude above a fixed level. This is why pilots have to calibrate their altimeters before take-off with ATC.
The GPS system, on the other hand, works with an accurate clock and the known positions of the satellites. The satellite sends out packages which are time stamped. The receiver receives these time-stamped packages and uses its own calibrated clock to determine the sequence. Comparing this to the know positions of the satellite at certain positions allow the use of triangulation formulas to solve for the position of the receiver.
The GPS system is owned by the US military and they have this graph about the accuracy improvements over the years.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/EwrZD.png)
So to answer your question, it is determined by the equipment you use, but cost wise it is cheaper to get an accurate reading from a GPS since it is also less influenced by the weather. |
29,154 | I am not a pilot and have come to this site to ask a question about the measurement of height. This is as a result of the comments made as a result of a question in the Physics Stack Exchange forum ["Does barometer improve gps accuracy?"](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/261185/does-barometer-improve-gps-position-accuracy/261240#261240)
I feel that there will be more of you on this site who have real time experience with flying and so can answer my question which is:
*Which is more accurate for height measurement: GPS or barometer?*
I have noted that those engaged in geocaching often have GPS units with built-in barometers to improve height accuracy.
One of my friends who is a pilot responded as follows:
>
> A light aircraft relies on a barometer that is set to the standard
> 1013 millibars when in cruise at height (or the regional QNH when
> lower) but they set to the local reading for the airfield (QFE) when
> planning their decent. Commercial aircraft also have ground proximity
> radar but they also have a standard set of old fashioned flight
> instruments in case the electronics fail. My old aircraft GPS did
> indeed read out height as well but you were told never to rely on it!
>
>
> | 2016/06/09 | [
"https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/29154",
"https://aviation.stackexchange.com",
"https://aviation.stackexchange.com/users/15334/"
] | For surveying glacier movement, or a mountain range's growth/decay, GPS is more accurate.
For airplanes: refresh rate, reliability, and simplicity matter more. When it comes down to accuracy, ground augmented GPS provides ILS CAT I accuracy using [LPV](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Localizer_performance_with_vertical_guidance). So alongside refresh rate, and accuracy, comes the question of application. For airplanes in cruise, where separation matters, reliable devices are best.
GPS signals can be jammed. As can be seen in the news lately in [California](https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2016/june/08/navy-cancels-planned-gps-outage-in-southern-california) and [Egypt](http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/fresh-terror-fears-hackers-trying-8074849). And GPS signal can be lost due to ionospheric interference. So, any equipment that doesn't rely on external sources is safer. | This depends on the accuracy of the barometer and the weather, since the weather influences the air pressure. So even if you're standing still at the same altitude the barometer will show you different readings. This is why a pilot constantly has to adjust his altimeter. An altimeter is designed to measure the altitude above a fixed level. This is why pilots have to calibrate their altimeters before take-off with ATC.
The GPS system, on the other hand, works with an accurate clock and the known positions of the satellites. The satellite sends out packages which are time stamped. The receiver receives these time-stamped packages and uses its own calibrated clock to determine the sequence. Comparing this to the know positions of the satellite at certain positions allow the use of triangulation formulas to solve for the position of the receiver.
The GPS system is owned by the US military and they have this graph about the accuracy improvements over the years.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/EwrZD.png)
So to answer your question, it is determined by the equipment you use, but cost wise it is cheaper to get an accurate reading from a GPS since it is also less influenced by the weather. |
29,154 | I am not a pilot and have come to this site to ask a question about the measurement of height. This is as a result of the comments made as a result of a question in the Physics Stack Exchange forum ["Does barometer improve gps accuracy?"](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/261185/does-barometer-improve-gps-position-accuracy/261240#261240)
I feel that there will be more of you on this site who have real time experience with flying and so can answer my question which is:
*Which is more accurate for height measurement: GPS or barometer?*
I have noted that those engaged in geocaching often have GPS units with built-in barometers to improve height accuracy.
One of my friends who is a pilot responded as follows:
>
> A light aircraft relies on a barometer that is set to the standard
> 1013 millibars when in cruise at height (or the regional QNH when
> lower) but they set to the local reading for the airfield (QFE) when
> planning their decent. Commercial aircraft also have ground proximity
> radar but they also have a standard set of old fashioned flight
> instruments in case the electronics fail. My old aircraft GPS did
> indeed read out height as well but you were told never to rely on it!
>
>
> | 2016/06/09 | [
"https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/29154",
"https://aviation.stackexchange.com",
"https://aviation.stackexchange.com/users/15334/"
] | Directly comparing accuracy of GPS, barometric altimeter and radio altimeter makes little sense, because they each measure **different quantity**.
* *GPS* measures ‘geometric altitude’. This is the actual height above the reference ellipsoid, in units of length. It is fairly accurate, but there are external reasons it might be unavailable.
* *Barometric altimeter* measures ‘pressure altitude’. It is given units of length, but it really is just a barometric pressure, expressed in funny scale. It only corresponds to altitude when the atmospheric conditions match the “International Standard Atmosphere,” which they of course usually don't.
The biggest error is due to pressure, which might be corrected using the altimeter setting. With this, the altimeter reading is better approximation of actual altitude, but since temperature also changes the rate of pressure change with altitude, it still only matches the geometric altitude exactly on the ground at the airport for which the altimeter setting is.
* *Radio altimeter* measures ‘height’ above ground level.
Now in aircraft, each of these quantities has different use:
* The geometric altitude from GPS is, together with a topographic map, used in EGPWS to alert pilots that they are flying too low. Compared to older GPWS that only used the radio altimeter this has the advantage that warning can be given when the aircraft is high enough above ground directly below, but approaching higher ground where it won't be.
GPS is good for this, because when it works, it always gives the geometric altitude without need for setting that might be incorrect. However, it is a new technology that not all aircraft have and it might be unavailable for external reasons (that can't be mitigated by adding redundancy).
* The barometric altimeter is used for aircraft separation. Here, the exact altitude does not matter, what is important is whether the aircraft are at the same altitude or not. Barometric altimeter is excellent for this, because it is old technology, so all aircraft since the early days have it, and it is simple technology, so it is reliable.
Above certain altitude (the ‘transition altitude’, 18,000 ft in the USA, but varies in other parts of the world), all aircraft have the altimeter set to the standard value of 29.92 inHg/1013 hPa. This high, there is no concern of separation from terrain, so everybody just uses the same setting to keep things simpler and errors less likely. The pressure altitude can easily differ from the geometric by couple thousand feet, but nobody cares, because it is only important to know whether the other plane is above, below or same altitude and this serves that purpose well.
Below transition altitude, the altimeter setting from nearest airport is used, so the altimeter reading better approximates the geometric altitude for purpose of separation from terrain. However, the altitudes still only match at the altitude of the airport from which the setting is. Above (and below) the error increases. In cold weather, you can easily be 10% lower height (above ground) than the altimeter says. This is simply handled by adding sufficient margins to the published minimum altitudes.
* The height measured by radio altimeter is used in the GPWS and EGPWS systems to warn pilot of flying too close to the ground and for announcing the height during final approach so the pilot can better judge the landing without having to look at the instrument. However, due to terrain irregularities, radio height is not much use outside these two specific cases. Also, radio altimeters usually only indicate up to 1,500 ft–2,500 ft if installed at all (all airliners have it, but most GA planes don't).
The radio altimeter is accurate to a few feet. The barometric altimeter has to be accurate IIRC to 75 ft. Even simple GPS receiver should be able to do that too, but since the values can be easily off by a few *thousand* feet at high altitudes, they can't be mixed. So barometric altitude is always used for traffic control. | This depends on the accuracy of the barometer and the weather, since the weather influences the air pressure. So even if you're standing still at the same altitude the barometer will show you different readings. This is why a pilot constantly has to adjust his altimeter. An altimeter is designed to measure the altitude above a fixed level. This is why pilots have to calibrate their altimeters before take-off with ATC.
The GPS system, on the other hand, works with an accurate clock and the known positions of the satellites. The satellite sends out packages which are time stamped. The receiver receives these time-stamped packages and uses its own calibrated clock to determine the sequence. Comparing this to the know positions of the satellite at certain positions allow the use of triangulation formulas to solve for the position of the receiver.
The GPS system is owned by the US military and they have this graph about the accuracy improvements over the years.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/EwrZD.png)
So to answer your question, it is determined by the equipment you use, but cost wise it is cheaper to get an accurate reading from a GPS since it is also less influenced by the weather. |
142,029 | In World of Warplanes the default keybinding 'E' is set to "use flaps", when trying to use flaps on the T1 planes(biplanes), it simply says "you don't have any", but on higher tier planes (most of the single wings from what I gather), nothing happens. Speed doesn't change much, maneuverability doesn't seem to get any better, either.
So my question is what do flaps actually do, are they more effective at higher tiers?
[kind of related question](https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/120583/what-do-the-combat-flaps-do) but different game entirely. so it's rules/physics may not apply | 2013/11/14 | [
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/142029",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/users/47011/"
] | After playing for a weekend with different planes. I can say now with certainty that flaps act as airbrakes and improve your turning radius. the amount it improves depends on the plane (heavy fighters seem to benefit more)
In fact I've developed a strategy to use by turning off engine and activating flips while climbing to basically stop the climb immediately and start falling into a very tight loop. helps when being chased and the enemy doesn't know about flaps. | From the [great Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flap_%28aircraft%29):
>
> Flaps are devices used to improve the lift characteristics of a wing
> and are mounted on the trailing edges of the wings of a fixed-wing
> aircraft to reduce the speed at which the aircraft can be safely flown
> and to increase the angle of descent for landing. They shorten takeoff
> and landing distances. Flaps do this by lowering the stall speed and
> increasing the drag.
>
>
>
What this means for the game is: effectively not much.
They're super handy for landing. For example, your stall speed is much lower so you're less likely to run out of runway while you fiddle with your descent rate (i.e., you have more time to plan and react). If you're just flying for the shoot-em-up dogfights (i.e., fly until you die), this won't be much of a factor.
They're marginally useful for ground-attack since, again, you'll have more time to plan your run.
If you're fighting faster aircraft, you might find the the additional maneuverability at low speed keeps you alive longer. |
12,364 | [Our FAQ](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7064/faq-index-for-role-playing-games-stack-exchange) has become quite cluttered and convoluted. There are *many* issues with it, but among the most pressing I currently see:
* There are **3** questions about recommendation questions, which is a mess. We might want to have one that covers **all** those types and points to specific sub-types of why those are banned.
* **2** different FAQs on Frame Challenge. Again, unifying them into a top one and branch from there seems to be in order.
* The Editing section might need serious updates, as we got multiple tools since all those in there were written.
* We have three FAQs that concern spam and trolls... Might we cut those to one somehow?
* Several of the FAQs are linking to a later part in a series of discussions, which makes them appear misplaced... [status-completed](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/status-completed "show questions tagged 'status-completed'") as trivial.
All these issues might need to be addressed separately, but in general, it seems housekeeping is in order. For some of these issues, writing a special new [faq-proposal](/questions/tagged/faq-proposal "show questions tagged 'faq-proposal'") might be the best way to get the best of two worlds - retaining the old discussions and questions as well as incorporating the current stance on topics where it has changed due to the realities of the stack changing. | 2023/02/04 | [
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12364",
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/users/30306/"
] | Frame Challenge FAQ
-------------------
We have [What's a frame challenge?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6842/whats-a-frame-challenge) and
[How do we handle a desire to challenge the frame of a question?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3318/how-do-we-handle-a-desire-to-challenge-the-frame-of-a-question)
Both of them are last updated in 2018 and 2019 respectively, so might warrant a look if everything is still ok. They are very close to one another in topic and might or might not need a slight touchup.
As far as the FAQ page goes, at least they are listed in the wrong order on the FAQ (definition after use), and the use example might benefit from being indented as a lvl-2 bullet point.
Relevant discussion
-------------------
>
> I don't think it's unreasonable, for frame-challenges (or any particular jargon topic) to have separate "What is it?" and "How do we do it here?" entries. I don't feel strongly about it. If we do, I will volunteer to write something up for consideration. –
> Novak
> Feb 5 at 22:14
>
>
> | Recommendation Questions
------------------------
Apparently, recommendation questions need a total revisit - Is that still the stance of the stack? At least 5 people voted on a comment to the opener, that they'd like to discuss the topic of topicality.
* [Are Game Recommendation Questions On Topic, Revisited](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5747/are-game-recommendation-questions-on-topic-revisited)
* [Are tool recommendation questions on topic?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5881/are-tool-recommendation-questions-on-topic)
* [I want to ask for recommendations, but that's off topic. Is there any way to ask my question?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5787/i-want-to-ask-for-recommendations-but-thats-off-topic-is-there-any-way-to-ask)
All of these have different nuances, the stance might be outdated on some points. A standalone question should be asked:
#### Are Recommendation Questions on Topic? [2023]
relevant discussion:
--------------------
>
> 5 - Potentially unpopular opinion: I think it's worth revisiting the ban on recommendation questions instead of just cleaning the FAQ. I understand and at one time agreed with that reasoning behind the ban. Based on experience in other stacks, I increasingly disagree. –
> Novak
> Feb 5 at 22:16
>
>
> 1 - FWIW, I've actioned some of the clear FAQs from the proposal index and also added all outstanding proposals. Once there has been some voting on those I will action the rest. –
> linksassin
> Mod
> Feb 7 at 3:59
>
>
> 2 - @Novak: Given that the ban was put in place before I was even active on the site, I do think it's worth discussing, at the least – the community now isn't necessarily the same as the community when it was put in place. Even if the community decides to keep some or all of the ban in place, I think there is value in having that discussion again (as long as the discussion remains respectful and understanding). –
> V2Blast
> Staff
> Mod
> 2 days ago
>
>
> @V2Blast I was coming to the same conclusion. Going to mull what I want to say until (at least) the weekend, when I will have the time to put effort into a longer post. –
> Novak
> 2 days ago
>
>
> @Novak I like the idea of putting forth one update question, which then encompasses all recommendation questions and replaces them on the FAQ. –
> Trish
> 2 days ago
>
>
> @Trish Updating and polishing sections of the FAQ is quite different from a major modification of site policy. –
> Novak
> yesterday
>
>
> @Novak identifying the need for it is part of maintenance. –
> Trish
> yesterday
>
>
> |
12,364 | [Our FAQ](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7064/faq-index-for-role-playing-games-stack-exchange) has become quite cluttered and convoluted. There are *many* issues with it, but among the most pressing I currently see:
* There are **3** questions about recommendation questions, which is a mess. We might want to have one that covers **all** those types and points to specific sub-types of why those are banned.
* **2** different FAQs on Frame Challenge. Again, unifying them into a top one and branch from there seems to be in order.
* The Editing section might need serious updates, as we got multiple tools since all those in there were written.
* We have three FAQs that concern spam and trolls... Might we cut those to one somehow?
* Several of the FAQs are linking to a later part in a series of discussions, which makes them appear misplaced... [status-completed](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/status-completed "show questions tagged 'status-completed'") as trivial.
All these issues might need to be addressed separately, but in general, it seems housekeeping is in order. For some of these issues, writing a special new [faq-proposal](/questions/tagged/faq-proposal "show questions tagged 'faq-proposal'") might be the best way to get the best of two worlds - retaining the old discussions and questions as well as incorporating the current stance on topics where it has changed due to the realities of the stack changing. | 2023/02/04 | [
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12364",
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/users/30306/"
] | part X in titles - [status-completed](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/status-completed "show questions tagged 'status-completed'")
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* [Are campaign research questions on topic? [2012]](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1604/are-campaign-research-questions-on-topic-part-two)
* [How should we use Community Wiki? [2016]](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6524/how-should-we-use-community-wiki-part-iii)
These had a part number in the title. We might want to rename them to a year of when the consensus came along, removing clarity problems from the previous items. | Recommendation Questions
------------------------
Apparently, recommendation questions need a total revisit - Is that still the stance of the stack? At least 5 people voted on a comment to the opener, that they'd like to discuss the topic of topicality.
* [Are Game Recommendation Questions On Topic, Revisited](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5747/are-game-recommendation-questions-on-topic-revisited)
* [Are tool recommendation questions on topic?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5881/are-tool-recommendation-questions-on-topic)
* [I want to ask for recommendations, but that's off topic. Is there any way to ask my question?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5787/i-want-to-ask-for-recommendations-but-thats-off-topic-is-there-any-way-to-ask)
All of these have different nuances, the stance might be outdated on some points. A standalone question should be asked:
#### Are Recommendation Questions on Topic? [2023]
relevant discussion:
--------------------
>
> 5 - Potentially unpopular opinion: I think it's worth revisiting the ban on recommendation questions instead of just cleaning the FAQ. I understand and at one time agreed with that reasoning behind the ban. Based on experience in other stacks, I increasingly disagree. –
> Novak
> Feb 5 at 22:16
>
>
> 1 - FWIW, I've actioned some of the clear FAQs from the proposal index and also added all outstanding proposals. Once there has been some voting on those I will action the rest. –
> linksassin
> Mod
> Feb 7 at 3:59
>
>
> 2 - @Novak: Given that the ban was put in place before I was even active on the site, I do think it's worth discussing, at the least – the community now isn't necessarily the same as the community when it was put in place. Even if the community decides to keep some or all of the ban in place, I think there is value in having that discussion again (as long as the discussion remains respectful and understanding). –
> V2Blast
> Staff
> Mod
> 2 days ago
>
>
> @V2Blast I was coming to the same conclusion. Going to mull what I want to say until (at least) the weekend, when I will have the time to put effort into a longer post. –
> Novak
> 2 days ago
>
>
> @Novak I like the idea of putting forth one update question, which then encompasses all recommendation questions and replaces them on the FAQ. –
> Trish
> 2 days ago
>
>
> @Trish Updating and polishing sections of the FAQ is quite different from a major modification of site policy. –
> Novak
> yesterday
>
>
> @Novak identifying the need for it is part of maintenance. –
> Trish
> yesterday
>
>
> |
12,364 | [Our FAQ](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7064/faq-index-for-role-playing-games-stack-exchange) has become quite cluttered and convoluted. There are *many* issues with it, but among the most pressing I currently see:
* There are **3** questions about recommendation questions, which is a mess. We might want to have one that covers **all** those types and points to specific sub-types of why those are banned.
* **2** different FAQs on Frame Challenge. Again, unifying them into a top one and branch from there seems to be in order.
* The Editing section might need serious updates, as we got multiple tools since all those in there were written.
* We have three FAQs that concern spam and trolls... Might we cut those to one somehow?
* Several of the FAQs are linking to a later part in a series of discussions, which makes them appear misplaced... [status-completed](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/status-completed "show questions tagged 'status-completed'") as trivial.
All these issues might need to be addressed separately, but in general, it seems housekeeping is in order. For some of these issues, writing a special new [faq-proposal](/questions/tagged/faq-proposal "show questions tagged 'faq-proposal'") might be the best way to get the best of two worlds - retaining the old discussions and questions as well as incorporating the current stance on topics where it has changed due to the realities of the stack changing. | 2023/02/04 | [
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12364",
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/users/30306/"
] | Frame Challenge FAQ
-------------------
We have [What's a frame challenge?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6842/whats-a-frame-challenge) and
[How do we handle a desire to challenge the frame of a question?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3318/how-do-we-handle-a-desire-to-challenge-the-frame-of-a-question)
Both of them are last updated in 2018 and 2019 respectively, so might warrant a look if everything is still ok. They are very close to one another in topic and might or might not need a slight touchup.
As far as the FAQ page goes, at least they are listed in the wrong order on the FAQ (definition after use), and the use example might benefit from being indented as a lvl-2 bullet point.
Relevant discussion
-------------------
>
> I don't think it's unreasonable, for frame-challenges (or any particular jargon topic) to have separate "What is it?" and "How do we do it here?" entries. I don't feel strongly about it. If we do, I will volunteer to write something up for consideration. –
> Novak
> Feb 5 at 22:14
>
>
> | The Editing Section
-------------------
At the very least, the order of the points in the Editing section is convoluted. I propose the following re-order, pretty much sorting from top level "style in general" over "specific points"
* [Is there a style guide for posts?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6367/is-there-a-style-guide-for-posts)
+ The top answer also needs a serious update due to formatting changes.
* [Use real headers instead of fake headers](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6498/use-real-headers-instead-of-fake-headers)
+ Do we have any accessibility updates here?
* [MathJax guide for RPG.SE: How to format pretty tables and equations?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/10074/mathjax-guide-for-rpg-se-how-to-format-pretty-tables-and-equations)
+ This is new, little action needed.
* [Is there a functional purpose to putting things in code text here?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1483/is-there-a-functional-purpose-to-putting-things-in-code-text-here)
+ I don't *quite* think this needs updates, but at least a look might be warranted.
* [Don't signal your edits in text](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3454/dont-signal-your-edits-in-text)
+ I haven't seen a single edit in text in a long time. Retention as separate item is warranted, but pushing it to the last point of the editing and formating FAQ seems like the thing to do. |
12,364 | [Our FAQ](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7064/faq-index-for-role-playing-games-stack-exchange) has become quite cluttered and convoluted. There are *many* issues with it, but among the most pressing I currently see:
* There are **3** questions about recommendation questions, which is a mess. We might want to have one that covers **all** those types and points to specific sub-types of why those are banned.
* **2** different FAQs on Frame Challenge. Again, unifying them into a top one and branch from there seems to be in order.
* The Editing section might need serious updates, as we got multiple tools since all those in there were written.
* We have three FAQs that concern spam and trolls... Might we cut those to one somehow?
* Several of the FAQs are linking to a later part in a series of discussions, which makes them appear misplaced... [status-completed](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/status-completed "show questions tagged 'status-completed'") as trivial.
All these issues might need to be addressed separately, but in general, it seems housekeeping is in order. For some of these issues, writing a special new [faq-proposal](/questions/tagged/faq-proposal "show questions tagged 'faq-proposal'") might be the best way to get the best of two worlds - retaining the old discussions and questions as well as incorporating the current stance on topics where it has changed due to the realities of the stack changing. | 2023/02/04 | [
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12364",
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/users/30306/"
] | Frame Challenge FAQ
-------------------
We have [What's a frame challenge?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6842/whats-a-frame-challenge) and
[How do we handle a desire to challenge the frame of a question?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3318/how-do-we-handle-a-desire-to-challenge-the-frame-of-a-question)
Both of them are last updated in 2018 and 2019 respectively, so might warrant a look if everything is still ok. They are very close to one another in topic and might or might not need a slight touchup.
As far as the FAQ page goes, at least they are listed in the wrong order on the FAQ (definition after use), and the use example might benefit from being indented as a lvl-2 bullet point.
Relevant discussion
-------------------
>
> I don't think it's unreasonable, for frame-challenges (or any particular jargon topic) to have separate "What is it?" and "How do we do it here?" entries. I don't feel strongly about it. If we do, I will volunteer to write something up for consideration. –
> Novak
> Feb 5 at 22:14
>
>
> | Trolls and canned meat (SPAM)
-----------------------------
We got at least two questions on those (I *thought* it was three a few days ago...):
* [Eek! A troll in the Stack! What do I do?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/q/6698)
* [What should I do about spam questions?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/437/what-should-i-do-about-spam-questions)
Both might need a touchup, for example how to deal with a serious returning troll.
Joinder of those two seems very hard, but if someone is up to the challenge, it could shorten the FAQ a tad. |
12,364 | [Our FAQ](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7064/faq-index-for-role-playing-games-stack-exchange) has become quite cluttered and convoluted. There are *many* issues with it, but among the most pressing I currently see:
* There are **3** questions about recommendation questions, which is a mess. We might want to have one that covers **all** those types and points to specific sub-types of why those are banned.
* **2** different FAQs on Frame Challenge. Again, unifying them into a top one and branch from there seems to be in order.
* The Editing section might need serious updates, as we got multiple tools since all those in there were written.
* We have three FAQs that concern spam and trolls... Might we cut those to one somehow?
* Several of the FAQs are linking to a later part in a series of discussions, which makes them appear misplaced... [status-completed](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/status-completed "show questions tagged 'status-completed'") as trivial.
All these issues might need to be addressed separately, but in general, it seems housekeeping is in order. For some of these issues, writing a special new [faq-proposal](/questions/tagged/faq-proposal "show questions tagged 'faq-proposal'") might be the best way to get the best of two worlds - retaining the old discussions and questions as well as incorporating the current stance on topics where it has changed due to the realities of the stack changing. | 2023/02/04 | [
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12364",
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/users/30306/"
] | part X in titles - [status-completed](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/status-completed "show questions tagged 'status-completed'")
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* [Are campaign research questions on topic? [2012]](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1604/are-campaign-research-questions-on-topic-part-two)
* [How should we use Community Wiki? [2016]](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6524/how-should-we-use-community-wiki-part-iii)
These had a part number in the title. We might want to rename them to a year of when the consensus came along, removing clarity problems from the previous items. | The Editing Section
-------------------
At the very least, the order of the points in the Editing section is convoluted. I propose the following re-order, pretty much sorting from top level "style in general" over "specific points"
* [Is there a style guide for posts?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6367/is-there-a-style-guide-for-posts)
+ The top answer also needs a serious update due to formatting changes.
* [Use real headers instead of fake headers](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6498/use-real-headers-instead-of-fake-headers)
+ Do we have any accessibility updates here?
* [MathJax guide for RPG.SE: How to format pretty tables and equations?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/10074/mathjax-guide-for-rpg-se-how-to-format-pretty-tables-and-equations)
+ This is new, little action needed.
* [Is there a functional purpose to putting things in code text here?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1483/is-there-a-functional-purpose-to-putting-things-in-code-text-here)
+ I don't *quite* think this needs updates, but at least a look might be warranted.
* [Don't signal your edits in text](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3454/dont-signal-your-edits-in-text)
+ I haven't seen a single edit in text in a long time. Retention as separate item is warranted, but pushing it to the last point of the editing and formating FAQ seems like the thing to do. |
12,364 | [Our FAQ](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7064/faq-index-for-role-playing-games-stack-exchange) has become quite cluttered and convoluted. There are *many* issues with it, but among the most pressing I currently see:
* There are **3** questions about recommendation questions, which is a mess. We might want to have one that covers **all** those types and points to specific sub-types of why those are banned.
* **2** different FAQs on Frame Challenge. Again, unifying them into a top one and branch from there seems to be in order.
* The Editing section might need serious updates, as we got multiple tools since all those in there were written.
* We have three FAQs that concern spam and trolls... Might we cut those to one somehow?
* Several of the FAQs are linking to a later part in a series of discussions, which makes them appear misplaced... [status-completed](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/status-completed "show questions tagged 'status-completed'") as trivial.
All these issues might need to be addressed separately, but in general, it seems housekeeping is in order. For some of these issues, writing a special new [faq-proposal](/questions/tagged/faq-proposal "show questions tagged 'faq-proposal'") might be the best way to get the best of two worlds - retaining the old discussions and questions as well as incorporating the current stance on topics where it has changed due to the realities of the stack changing. | 2023/02/04 | [
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12364",
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/users/30306/"
] | part X in titles - [status-completed](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/status-completed "show questions tagged 'status-completed'")
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* [Are campaign research questions on topic? [2012]](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1604/are-campaign-research-questions-on-topic-part-two)
* [How should we use Community Wiki? [2016]](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6524/how-should-we-use-community-wiki-part-iii)
These had a part number in the title. We might want to rename them to a year of when the consensus came along, removing clarity problems from the previous items. | Trolls and canned meat (SPAM)
-----------------------------
We got at least two questions on those (I *thought* it was three a few days ago...):
* [Eek! A troll in the Stack! What do I do?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/q/6698)
* [What should I do about spam questions?](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/437/what-should-i-do-about-spam-questions)
Both might need a touchup, for example how to deal with a serious returning troll.
Joinder of those two seems very hard, but if someone is up to the challenge, it could shorten the FAQ a tad. |
325,700 | As far as I know, a cable and a cord are both constructed from wires and some kind of housing, and the words are used interchangeably by most people (in my experience). Are they interchangeable, do either have more specific connotations that the other does not, and is there consensus?
[This post](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/299qav/eli5_the_difference_between_a_cable_a_cord_and_a/) on reddit suggests they're similar, and includes links to definitions that suggest a cable is bigger / stronger etc. | 2016/05/14 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/325700",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/60848/"
] | Both terms are non-specific and the two overlap quite a bit.
A braided steel *cable* (with no insulation) is used to pull cable cars up hills in San Francisco, while a braided *chord* (with no wires) is used to pull down the window shade next to me in this room.
One definition of *cable* is that it consists of multiple strands. By this definition a single strand of drawn or extruded wire is not a "cable", but if you twist or braid together two or more strands (with or without insulation) then you have a "cable". Some would even extend this definition to cover non-metallic strings/threads -- a single strand is not a "cable" but multiple strands together creates one.
The standard electrician's definition is that a single wire is not a "cable", but multiple wires, separately insulated and somehow bound together does comprise a "cable".
*Cord* is less well defined than *cable*, as the word is not used in a technical sense very much (except in medicine). But basically it means (in the general sense of this answer) multiple strands twisted or braided together.
With regard to electrical cables vs cords, the tendency is to use "cord" for a collection of insulated wires intended to be handled frequently (as a lamp cord or the cord for your earphones), and to use "cable" for a relatively fixed connection (as the wires in your walls or the cable connecting your TV to "cable").
But it's not writ in stone. | A wire is its own object, while a cable consists of 2 or more wires (or some other materials) that are wrapped in some sort of coating.
For example, your laptop charger cord contains conductive metallic wires inside it. A wire hanger has no protective coating outside of the wire. |
325,700 | As far as I know, a cable and a cord are both constructed from wires and some kind of housing, and the words are used interchangeably by most people (in my experience). Are they interchangeable, do either have more specific connotations that the other does not, and is there consensus?
[This post](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/299qav/eli5_the_difference_between_a_cable_a_cord_and_a/) on reddit suggests they're similar, and includes links to definitions that suggest a cable is bigger / stronger etc. | 2016/05/14 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/325700",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/60848/"
] | In forty years working in IT when referring to hardware we always used the word cable when referring to something that carried data from one device to another: ethernet cables, printer cables, monitor cables, never a cord. The connection that supplied power was a power cord, never a cable.
But that was in the context of people who worked with hardware. Outside of that you hear (or heard) such things as power cable and telephone cord. | A wire is its own object, while a cable consists of 2 or more wires (or some other materials) that are wrapped in some sort of coating.
For example, your laptop charger cord contains conductive metallic wires inside it. A wire hanger has no protective coating outside of the wire. |
325,700 | As far as I know, a cable and a cord are both constructed from wires and some kind of housing, and the words are used interchangeably by most people (in my experience). Are they interchangeable, do either have more specific connotations that the other does not, and is there consensus?
[This post](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/299qav/eli5_the_difference_between_a_cable_a_cord_and_a/) on reddit suggests they're similar, and includes links to definitions that suggest a cable is bigger / stronger etc. | 2016/05/14 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/325700",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/60848/"
] | Both terms are non-specific and the two overlap quite a bit.
A braided steel *cable* (with no insulation) is used to pull cable cars up hills in San Francisco, while a braided *chord* (with no wires) is used to pull down the window shade next to me in this room.
One definition of *cable* is that it consists of multiple strands. By this definition a single strand of drawn or extruded wire is not a "cable", but if you twist or braid together two or more strands (with or without insulation) then you have a "cable". Some would even extend this definition to cover non-metallic strings/threads -- a single strand is not a "cable" but multiple strands together creates one.
The standard electrician's definition is that a single wire is not a "cable", but multiple wires, separately insulated and somehow bound together does comprise a "cable".
*Cord* is less well defined than *cable*, as the word is not used in a technical sense very much (except in medicine). But basically it means (in the general sense of this answer) multiple strands twisted or braided together.
With regard to electrical cables vs cords, the tendency is to use "cord" for a collection of insulated wires intended to be handled frequently (as a lamp cord or the cord for your earphones), and to use "cable" for a relatively fixed connection (as the wires in your walls or the cable connecting your TV to "cable").
But it's not writ in stone. | In forty years working in IT when referring to hardware we always used the word cable when referring to something that carried data from one device to another: ethernet cables, printer cables, monitor cables, never a cord. The connection that supplied power was a power cord, never a cable.
But that was in the context of people who worked with hardware. Outside of that you hear (or heard) such things as power cable and telephone cord. |
24,483,946 | I had downloaded android vuforia sdk from <https://developer.vuforia.com>.
I want to change teapot object to custom object.
I read so many tutorial but there is no such tutorial to change 3d object.
<https://developer.vuforia.com/resources/dev-guide/replacing-teapot>
also reading this blog but i don't understand.
Please help me. | 2014/06/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/24483946",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/-1/"
] | rajawali is more better to work for 3d game engine with vuforia, i tried many : min3d,jpct-ae, rajawali etc and find rajawali to perform best.
integration complete sample: <https://github.com/MasDennis/RajawaliVuforia> | You can check following source code.
<https://github.com/sidneibjunior/vuforia-jpct>
Use jPCT java 3d game engine. |
10,530 | Three recent questions are much more suited for Literature SE, <https://literature.stackexchange.com/>
See the question about *Pride and Prejudice* [Pride and Prejudice, what does: “decline the office, I will take it on myself” mean?](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/400246/pride-and-prejudice-what-does-decline-the-office-i-will-take-it-on-myself-m), which has an outstanding answer by @Kiloran\_speaking, and another *P&P* question,[What does this passage mean from ‘Pride and Prejudice’?](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/400276/what-does-this-passage-mean-from-pride-and-prejudice), which has a short explanatory comment by anongoodnurse.
Then there is the *Dracula* question, [What does this sentence mean (from 'Dracula')?](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/400130/what-does-this-sentence-mean-from-dracula), which two users voted to send to ELL, which is not the correct place to send it. I understand the English in the Dracula question, but I am not sure what the passage means. This is ideally suited for Literature SE to sink its teeth into.
Should such questions go through the usual VTC/migrate route, or is there is shortcut? | 2017/07/18 | [
"https://english.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/10530",
"https://english.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.meta.stackexchange.com/users/121061/"
] | There has to be a significant number of questions that need migration to a particular site before we include such a site in the usual migration close reasons.
I've not read those linked questions, but there is this 'shortcut'.
Edit to improve it and, if you're sure it's on topic for the target site, custom flag for a moderator's attention and ask for migration.
So there's that. | There should *not* be a shortcut, and it should go through the usual VTC/migrate route. The logic behind the normal route is to prevent what would have happened if a shortcut, to ELL in this case, existed. With the idea of a shortcut in place the *Dracula* question would have (improperly) been migrated to ELL, and then rejected and returned here. The normal method requires more votes, hence more oversight, which increases the likelihood that only questions that deserve to be migrated *are* migrated, and that the target site is the best choice for that migration. |
10,530 | Three recent questions are much more suited for Literature SE, <https://literature.stackexchange.com/>
See the question about *Pride and Prejudice* [Pride and Prejudice, what does: “decline the office, I will take it on myself” mean?](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/400246/pride-and-prejudice-what-does-decline-the-office-i-will-take-it-on-myself-m), which has an outstanding answer by @Kiloran\_speaking, and another *P&P* question,[What does this passage mean from ‘Pride and Prejudice’?](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/400276/what-does-this-passage-mean-from-pride-and-prejudice), which has a short explanatory comment by anongoodnurse.
Then there is the *Dracula* question, [What does this sentence mean (from 'Dracula')?](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/400130/what-does-this-sentence-mean-from-dracula), which two users voted to send to ELL, which is not the correct place to send it. I understand the English in the Dracula question, but I am not sure what the passage means. This is ideally suited for Literature SE to sink its teeth into.
Should such questions go through the usual VTC/migrate route, or is there is shortcut? | 2017/07/18 | [
"https://english.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/10530",
"https://english.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.meta.stackexchange.com/users/121061/"
] | Literature.SE has a brief list of what's on topic:
>
> 1. Questions about how to interpret a specific scene, quote, theme, plot point, etc. in a work of literature.
> 2. Specific questions about the publishing process, literary conventions, or tropes in literature.
> 3. Story and quote identification questions: if you can't remember a story or a quote, we can help you. Please be as detailed as possible when asking these questions.
>
>
>
The first two questions you cite don't obviously fit into those categories: they are simply asking "What does this collection of words mean?" and are therefore on-topic here [subject to our rules about prior research etc.]
The third probably does: that asks "Does he mean that he has made up his mind to become a vampire too if Mina became one, or that he wants to use his love to help Mina ascend to heaven if Mina became a vampire?" That question probably assumes some knowledge of the work, and would appear to fall into category (1) on Lit.SE's list.
It's not clear what you mean by a shortcut. **There are no shortcuts.** Stack Exchange has a defined route for migration, via the close-vote/flag process. In some instances, another site is explicitly mentioned in the close dialog ("This question belongs on..."); in most cases, it isn't. **Beta sites are never offered explicitly.** This is because they may never graduate — until that point there is no guarantee that the site will stay available as a migration target. It is also the case that there should be a significant number of migrations to a particular site before it's offered as an explicit option. It's not a moderator customisation, and staff will need evidence that the change is justified.
Community involvement is important in migration, particularly while a target site is still defining its parameters. That said, moderators have been elected to make this sort of decision on behalf of the community [among other things], and can do so unilaterally.
So, if you feel that a question should be migrated, vote to close. Others may well agree with you. If you feel that there is a *particularly* bad mischaracterisation of a question and it is definitely off-topic on ELU because it requires the specialist knowledge offered by another site, then VTC (with a custom close reason mentioning "...because it belongs on [Literature.se]" and perhaps raise a custom flag as well. Bear in mind that a flag may be declined if a moderator does not feel that a unilateral action is justified; we may well ask the moderators of the suggested target site to see if they will accept the question.
Members with between 15 and 3000 rep can flag to close, which puts the question into a review queue where "real" close votes can be cast. A custom flag for moderator attention can also be raised. | There should *not* be a shortcut, and it should go through the usual VTC/migrate route. The logic behind the normal route is to prevent what would have happened if a shortcut, to ELL in this case, existed. With the idea of a shortcut in place the *Dracula* question would have (improperly) been migrated to ELL, and then rejected and returned here. The normal method requires more votes, hence more oversight, which increases the likelihood that only questions that deserve to be migrated *are* migrated, and that the target site is the best choice for that migration. |
10,530 | Three recent questions are much more suited for Literature SE, <https://literature.stackexchange.com/>
See the question about *Pride and Prejudice* [Pride and Prejudice, what does: “decline the office, I will take it on myself” mean?](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/400246/pride-and-prejudice-what-does-decline-the-office-i-will-take-it-on-myself-m), which has an outstanding answer by @Kiloran\_speaking, and another *P&P* question,[What does this passage mean from ‘Pride and Prejudice’?](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/400276/what-does-this-passage-mean-from-pride-and-prejudice), which has a short explanatory comment by anongoodnurse.
Then there is the *Dracula* question, [What does this sentence mean (from 'Dracula')?](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/400130/what-does-this-sentence-mean-from-dracula), which two users voted to send to ELL, which is not the correct place to send it. I understand the English in the Dracula question, but I am not sure what the passage means. This is ideally suited for Literature SE to sink its teeth into.
Should such questions go through the usual VTC/migrate route, or is there is shortcut? | 2017/07/18 | [
"https://english.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/10530",
"https://english.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.meta.stackexchange.com/users/121061/"
] | Literature.SE has a brief list of what's on topic:
>
> 1. Questions about how to interpret a specific scene, quote, theme, plot point, etc. in a work of literature.
> 2. Specific questions about the publishing process, literary conventions, or tropes in literature.
> 3. Story and quote identification questions: if you can't remember a story or a quote, we can help you. Please be as detailed as possible when asking these questions.
>
>
>
The first two questions you cite don't obviously fit into those categories: they are simply asking "What does this collection of words mean?" and are therefore on-topic here [subject to our rules about prior research etc.]
The third probably does: that asks "Does he mean that he has made up his mind to become a vampire too if Mina became one, or that he wants to use his love to help Mina ascend to heaven if Mina became a vampire?" That question probably assumes some knowledge of the work, and would appear to fall into category (1) on Lit.SE's list.
It's not clear what you mean by a shortcut. **There are no shortcuts.** Stack Exchange has a defined route for migration, via the close-vote/flag process. In some instances, another site is explicitly mentioned in the close dialog ("This question belongs on..."); in most cases, it isn't. **Beta sites are never offered explicitly.** This is because they may never graduate — until that point there is no guarantee that the site will stay available as a migration target. It is also the case that there should be a significant number of migrations to a particular site before it's offered as an explicit option. It's not a moderator customisation, and staff will need evidence that the change is justified.
Community involvement is important in migration, particularly while a target site is still defining its parameters. That said, moderators have been elected to make this sort of decision on behalf of the community [among other things], and can do so unilaterally.
So, if you feel that a question should be migrated, vote to close. Others may well agree with you. If you feel that there is a *particularly* bad mischaracterisation of a question and it is definitely off-topic on ELU because it requires the specialist knowledge offered by another site, then VTC (with a custom close reason mentioning "...because it belongs on [Literature.se]" and perhaps raise a custom flag as well. Bear in mind that a flag may be declined if a moderator does not feel that a unilateral action is justified; we may well ask the moderators of the suggested target site to see if they will accept the question.
Members with between 15 and 3000 rep can flag to close, which puts the question into a review queue where "real" close votes can be cast. A custom flag for moderator attention can also be raised. | There has to be a significant number of questions that need migration to a particular site before we include such a site in the usual migration close reasons.
I've not read those linked questions, but there is this 'shortcut'.
Edit to improve it and, if you're sure it's on topic for the target site, custom flag for a moderator's attention and ask for migration.
So there's that. |
51,875 | They are living their lives to the full.
They are living full lives.
***Updated: I am wondering if the two mean the same thing.*** | 2015/03/02 | [
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/51875",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/users/3751/"
] | The plural noun *lives* is written as *life* in the singular – much like *knives* is the plural of *knife*, and *wives* is the plural of *wife*.
As for whether or not your two similar expressions mean the same thing, it's hard to tell what they even mean without context, really. The expression *living life to the fullest* is a fairly common idiom, but what it means is subject to interpretation. Take a fellow who get drunk with his friends four nights of the week. His partying friends might think he's “living life to the fullest,” but other acquaintances might regard him as an alcoholic who is squandering his talents and gifts. You can find out more about the expression [here on ELL](https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/22131/live-life-to-the-fullest-what-does-it-mean).
If w change the superlative *fullest* to *full*, and does the expression change in meaning? Maybe not too much – perhaps they are both ways of saying *[carpe diem](https://www.google.com/search?q=meaning+of+carpe+diem&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)*. Then again, maybe a *full life* means something different altogether. For example, maybe a person with a “full life” is one who is just very busy with obligations:
>
> Wanna go out for lunch next week?
>
> *I'd love to, but my schedule is packed. My life is so full right now*.
>
> I know what you mean. It seems like I'm running on fumes every day, too.
>
>
>
It sounds like those two friends are living *full lives*, too, but in a very different way. | Live is not a noun. "lives" in your sentences is the plural noun of the word "life". |
23,538,264 | I have created Non partitined table in db2.
create table test (name varchar (22), cell# integer);
table created succesffully.
Now I want to create index on test table in tablespace TEST\_IDX.
I execute following query
CREATE INDEX test1 ON test (cell#) in TEST\_IDX.
It give me following error:
**[CREATE - 0 row(s), 0.000 secs] [Error Code: -109, SQL State: 42601] DB2 SQL Error: SQLCODE=-109, SQLSTATE=42601, SQLERRMC=IN**
db2 database version is DB2/LINUXZ64 9.7.3 | 2014/05/08 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/23538264",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3269758/"
] | Try to remove the application and build again | Please make sure that the FacebookAppID is properly enterd in yourapp.info plist file. And check URL scheme set to fb(your fb app ID, no space after fb). |
23,538,264 | I have created Non partitined table in db2.
create table test (name varchar (22), cell# integer);
table created succesffully.
Now I want to create index on test table in tablespace TEST\_IDX.
I execute following query
CREATE INDEX test1 ON test (cell#) in TEST\_IDX.
It give me following error:
**[CREATE - 0 row(s), 0.000 secs] [Error Code: -109, SQL State: 42601] DB2 SQL Error: SQLCODE=-109, SQLSTATE=42601, SQLERRMC=IN**
db2 database version is DB2/LINUXZ64 9.7.3 | 2014/05/08 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/23538264",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3269758/"
] | Try to remove the application and build again | Here's how I fixed it:
* Go to facebook's [Graph API Explorer](https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer/1429174960511017)
* Select your old application
* Get User Access Token
* Clear
This will fix the error, but you also might want to check this answer: [ios facebook sdk 4.0 login error code 304](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29408299/ios-facebook-sdk-4-0-login-error-code-304) |
42,826 | I don't know if self-contained units like this exist, but I'd like to think they do, and I just don't know what they're called, who makes them, or where to find them.
Please bear with me, for a moment. Imagine a lamp, a simple On/Off latching switch, and a battery connected in series. The lamp is powered when the latching switch is in its *on* position.
Is there another switch-type or device that can be added to the circuit, that if pressed whilst the simple switch is *on*, opens/breaks the circuit until the simple switch is *off*. The new device is effectively a latching normally closed switch, but special because it can reset its own state to closed, if the simple switch changes position to off, and current no longer flows.
Ideally, I'd like something with these characteristics:
* 12V 0.5A
* 10-30mm diameter or width
* panel mountable
* LED indicator (not required, but would be nice!)
* ideally looks like a latching switch but resets mechanically.
Any help appreciated. | 2012/10/04 | [
"https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/42826",
"https://electronics.stackexchange.com",
"https://electronics.stackexchange.com/users/7749/"
] | The function you're looking for is very common in, for example, a sump-pump controller. If the sump starts to overflow (because the pump has failed), an alarm contact closes, and it usually sounds a very loud buzzer. There's a momentary-action switch called "Alarm Silence" that will shut off the buzzer (so that you can fix the problem in peace), but then it will re-arm itself once the original alarm contact opens.
It is easily implemented with a single SPDT relay, as shown below. S1 is the alarm contact, S2 is the "silence" pushbutton, and the relay K1 keeps the load (buzzer) switched off until S1 opens again and the relay drops out. "Power Source" and "Load" can be pretty much anything, as long as the coil of K1 is compatible with the power source.
 | Well, you can combine some transistors working as keys to achieve this behavior.
First of all - I recommend you a good web site about transistors: <http://talkingelectronics.com/projects/200TrCcts/200TrCcts.html>
Please search the page for "push-on push-off" circuit.
Basing on this page I drew this simple circuit:
Please note that values of elements are incorrect - I didn't calculate them. Just wanted to show the idea.
When you turn on SW1 then current flows through normally closed RLY1 and LED is shining. Both transistors are not conducting. When you push switch SW2 then Vcc is applied to R4, some current flows, Q2 opens and starts conducting. Current which flows through R1 cause that Q1 is switched ON, and even you release SW2, the current from Q1 will keep Q2 in ON state. Both transistors will keep each other in ON state. Note that RLY1 is now working, and breaks the current that previously was feeding LED D2. LED stop shining. This situation will remain until you switch off SW1 |
61,951,077 | I wanted to discuss my understanding for impact on existing SQL, PL/SQL scripts and data model due to DB upgrade from 12cto 19c:
As per my own research and understanding-
1. There is no identified change which may lead to failure of my
existing SQL and PL/SQL during ETL load and reporting queries.
2. There is no identified data type change which may impact existing
data model. Only extended data type feature is DE supported in Oracle
Database 19c.We are not using extended data type in existing data model.
3. The database layout of key features between 12.2 and 19c has not been
changed. Hence, your setup for 12.2 and 19c should not result into any issue
Please let me know any further comment or input. | 2020/05/22 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/61951077",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/13503962/"
] | >
> Hence, your setup for 12.2 and 19c should not result into any issue
>
>
>
Exactly.
---
Officially, there are *New Features* which describe what changed. Unoficially, I found a nice [article](https://www.mythics.com/about/blog/oracle-19c-autonomous-or-not-autonomous) written by Dave Partridge who said (and I slightly formatted it):
>
> It would be easy to be concerned that 18c and 19c represent major upgrades. However, this is not the case. 18c and 19c are both 12.2 releases of the Oracle database.
>
>
> * Oracle Database 18c is Oracle 12c Release 2 (12.2.0.2). (...)
> * Oracle 19c is essentially Oracle 12c Release 2 (12.2.0.3).
>
>
>
---
Pretty much clear, I'd say. So, from my point of view, no worries, upgrade. Wouldn't harm if you do it first in your test environment. | In theory you may not have any incompatilbity or issue. But experience show that there always some risks involved in upgrading an Oracle database: mainly changes in SQL execution plans because the Cost Based Optimizer (CBO) is always improved: generally it's OK but you might have some exception (ie an execution plan that has changed and become slow); this is why performance testing should be a mandatory step in your upgrade test. Never do an upgrade directly in production without testing it on a physical copy of the database: doing so would be a possible recipe for disaster !
In addition to Oracle documentation and support.oracle.com, I suggest to always check Mike Dietrich blog which is one of the best - if not the best - Oracle upgrade knowledge base:
<https://mikedietrichde.com/>
If there were no issues during Oracle upgrade and patching, Mike Dietrich blog would be very different from what it is ... |
17,484 | I'm having custom list (SharePoint 2007)
I need to export the list to Excel file.
So I mark all the field that I want to export.
but I when I export the list I can see:
1. the "Path" field, though that I did not mark this field as field that I want him to show in the defualt view.
2. some field that I defined as hide field in the default view.
how can I avoid thos thing | 2011/08/08 | [
"https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/17484",
"https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com",
"https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/users/3329/"
] | What you need to do to ensure that the fields you don't want to see are not exported, is create a view that shows only those fields that you want to see and export that view. As far as the "Path" that field is exported by default, and you will have to manually delete it from the excel spreadsheet. | Record and format an excel macro to format the list and remove the excess fields after export; see this answer for details: [SharePoint 2007 List export to Excel 2007](https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/47847/sharepoint-2007-list-export-to-excel-2007/76849#76849) |
29,685 | I managed to find the shopkeeper once, shortly after arriving at Hengsha, however I'm no longer able to locate him. My inventory is full, and I'd like to sell off my extra items to clear up space.
On your first visit to Hengsha, where is the shopkeeper located? | 2011/09/05 | [
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/29685",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/users/8350/"
] | There are 4 Merchants in Hengsha (3 black, 1 white market).
* LIMB Clinic
* Lin Fu Ren - Hung Hua Hotel (ground floor)
* Pen Xin Hao - Alice Pod Gardens (southwestern storage closet)
+ He later moves to the Youzhao district, in the south east (by the locker with the exploding barrels).
* Lu Pin Rong - Sewers beneath the Hengsha Port, accessible only from Harvester Hideout | There are three, I believe. One on the Ground Floor of the Alice Garden Pods (in one of the closets), one in the basement of the Huang She Hotel (The place with the "working girls").
The third isn't as easily directed to, but it's in the same district as the Harvester Stronghold, at the end of a dead-end street.
(Based on CyberSkull's answer above, the first and third would appear to be the same). |
172,261 | When I delete rows from a table in SQL Server, the size of the database file does not get smaller. Why is that? Even if I delete every row from every table, the file size remains just as large as before the delete.
I'm interested in understanding why, not how to shrink the database file(s). | 2017/04/28 | [
"https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/172261",
"https://dba.stackexchange.com",
"https://dba.stackexchange.com/users/98040/"
] | Space in database files is allocated as needed. When rows are removed from a table, that space is simply marked as unused inside the datafile. Datafiles do not shrink automatically (unless auto-shrink is turned on) because that requires extra disk I/O that is typically counter productive for performance. The assumption is that any unused space will at some point be re-used by new rows.
To summarize, space allocated to the file on disk, and the logical size of tables within the database are not tightly coupled.
In more detail (although still very simplified):
They are definitely related. Rows in a rowstore live on pages, which are 8k in size and arranged into extents. Extents are groupings of 8 contiguous pages on disk.
Rowstore rows lives on pages and when "deleted" are not physically removed from the file - just marked as "free" inside of SQL Server through the use of bitmap and bytemap allocation structures and SQL Server will re-use the space accordingly. | In simplistic terms, it's not like a text file where deleting a few rows of data and saving shrinks the file. SQL keeps the space allocated in the data file to give it free space to accommodate more data over time without having to grow the file again.
Think of it like a bucket - you don't go chopping the top off after you've poured out half of the water just because you don't need that extra six inches of plastic to hold the remaining water in. |
1,365,212 | I have a PC that has been running fine, except with non-functioning front USB ports. Below images explain why. My question is: Can I continue running the PC like this (provided that it's been running like this for weeks) or is there a reason to change the motherboard immediately? Would prefer to do a proper upgrade at a later stage rather, if possible.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cGw9C.jpg)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/j0vl8.jpg) | 2018/10/09 | [
"https://superuser.com/questions/1365212",
"https://superuser.com",
"https://superuser.com/users/360812/"
] | Looks like you had a short in a power supply line near that header, which overheated things considerably. Eventually it got so hot that things separated enough that there was no longer a short. But something must have been limiting the current somewhat - otherwise the power supply would have shut down.
My concern would be that there's no reason (given that things there are just not mechanically stable) that ordinary thermal cycling couldn't cause things to move around enough that it wouldn't short out again, and maybe do more damage.
In other words, I'd replace it as soon as possible. | Well, I'd say it is unlikely that it would catch fire. The traces have already burned away as much as they will. And even if they did short-circuit again for some reason, it didn't burn too bad the first time; the PCB material is called "flame retardant 4" for a reason.
I'd say if you are planning an upgrade soonish, you can keep running it in the meanwhile. It's always a good idea to clean any accumulated dust from the enclosure and to check that your fire alarm works, but that applies equally for any PC.
The actual fault possibly resides in the USB connectors in the chassis, so in addition to the motherboard you should change also the enclosure or at least leave the USB cables unconnected. |
4,124,549 | I've been doing a lot of research to figure out the best way to code an application to get the main article content from almost any HTML webpage. I have a C program that uses libxml2 to parse through the XML, but I came across Alchemy API, which appears to do what I want.
However, it only has an online API and I wanted to keep the application in-house without relying on any external calls.
So does anybody have tips? I was hoping for an off-line alternative that does what Alchemy API can do (paid/non-paid).
My alternative may be to just parse the HTML and use NLP (Natural Language Processing) techniques and other methods to get at the main article content. The types of websites that it will be used include websites with a news section or a blog. | 2010/11/08 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/4124549",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/484091/"
] | there are a few open source tools available that do similar article extraction tasks.
<https://github.com/jiminoc/goose> which was open source by Gravity.com
It has info on the wiki as well as the source you can view. There are dozens of unit tests that show the text extracted from various articles. | AlchemyAPI also offers an on-premise solution so that you don't have to access it online. Generally our customers that have the on-premise solutions are using it if they have special security or latency requirements. More information on on-premise solutions can be found here: <http://www.alchemyapi.com/products/on-premise/> |
105,643 | When I try to import any video file (e.g. AVI files) in Adobe Premiere Pro cc in my Macbook Air, I get this error:
**"codec missing or unavailable"**
What to do about it? | 2013/10/18 | [
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/105643",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/59767/"
] | AVI is just a container for a video format, and can contain videos encoded in different formats. The error you're seeing says that Adobe Premiere does not know how to process the video format that's within the AVI file.
* First, you would have to find out (or know) the codec used for the video within the AVI file and then download and install the appropriate codec on your system.
* To find out the codec for the file, examine it using a tool like QuickTime or VLC and see if you can use the Inspectors in these to get the video and audio codecs for your file.
* If these two don't help, you would have to use a media information tool like [MediaInspector](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/media-inspector/id419975242) or [AviInfo](https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24665/aviinfo) on OS X or [GSpot](http://gspot.headbands.com/) on Windows. Then search and install the codec for the file.
Here's some additional explanation and information from Adobe on "[Troubleshoot file formats and codecs](http://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-elements/kb/troubleshoot-video-premiere-elements.html)":
>
> Video-recording devices and video software applications encode files in a specific file format, such as AVI, QuickTime (MOV), and Windows Media (WMV). For a list of the file formats that Adobe Premiere Elements supports, search "Supported file formats in Adobe Premiere Elements " in the Adobe Knowledgebase.
>
>
> Some video file formats, including AVI and MOV, are container file formats. The data inside these container files is encoded according to a particular codec. Codecs are algorithms for compressing video and audio data. Many different codecs exist.
>
>
> For example, an AVI file can be encoded with the DV codec, a commercial codec (such as DivX), a Motion JPEG codec, among others. (Camcorders that record to miniDV tapes use the DV codec. Some still-image cameras use the Motion JPEG coded.)
>
>
> Adobe Premiere Elements sometimes cannot decode video files that were created with a poorly designed codec or a codec that is not installed on your computer.
>
>
> Knowing the format and, when applicable, the codec of the files you are working with helps you use these solutions. To gather this information, do one or more of the following tasks:
>
>
> * Open the file in Apple QuickTime Player and choose Window > Show Movie Inspector.
> * If the file is from a camcorder, camera, or other video-recording device, see the device's documentation, or locate the device's specifications on the manufacturer's website.
> * Open the file in a third-party application that analyzes media files, such as MediaInfo or GSpot 2.70.
>
>
> | I encountered this recently when my Kodak digital camera recorded in .MOV, and I figured importing it should be a breeze. Nope. I kept running into a very unhelpful "File format contains no audio or video" error when dragging the .MOV file into my clip bin.
The solution was so simple it was almost ridiculous. After Googling for a bit, I found a YouTube saying all you had to do was change the filename extension from .MOV to .MP4, and boom - done. I didn't believe it at first, but sure enough - it worked like a charm! :-)
This was on Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015, Windows 8. |
105,643 | When I try to import any video file (e.g. AVI files) in Adobe Premiere Pro cc in my Macbook Air, I get this error:
**"codec missing or unavailable"**
What to do about it? | 2013/10/18 | [
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/105643",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/59767/"
] | AVI is just a container for a video format, and can contain videos encoded in different formats. The error you're seeing says that Adobe Premiere does not know how to process the video format that's within the AVI file.
* First, you would have to find out (or know) the codec used for the video within the AVI file and then download and install the appropriate codec on your system.
* To find out the codec for the file, examine it using a tool like QuickTime or VLC and see if you can use the Inspectors in these to get the video and audio codecs for your file.
* If these two don't help, you would have to use a media information tool like [MediaInspector](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/media-inspector/id419975242) or [AviInfo](https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24665/aviinfo) on OS X or [GSpot](http://gspot.headbands.com/) on Windows. Then search and install the codec for the file.
Here's some additional explanation and information from Adobe on "[Troubleshoot file formats and codecs](http://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-elements/kb/troubleshoot-video-premiere-elements.html)":
>
> Video-recording devices and video software applications encode files in a specific file format, such as AVI, QuickTime (MOV), and Windows Media (WMV). For a list of the file formats that Adobe Premiere Elements supports, search "Supported file formats in Adobe Premiere Elements " in the Adobe Knowledgebase.
>
>
> Some video file formats, including AVI and MOV, are container file formats. The data inside these container files is encoded according to a particular codec. Codecs are algorithms for compressing video and audio data. Many different codecs exist.
>
>
> For example, an AVI file can be encoded with the DV codec, a commercial codec (such as DivX), a Motion JPEG codec, among others. (Camcorders that record to miniDV tapes use the DV codec. Some still-image cameras use the Motion JPEG coded.)
>
>
> Adobe Premiere Elements sometimes cannot decode video files that were created with a poorly designed codec or a codec that is not installed on your computer.
>
>
> Knowing the format and, when applicable, the codec of the files you are working with helps you use these solutions. To gather this information, do one or more of the following tasks:
>
>
> * Open the file in Apple QuickTime Player and choose Window > Show Movie Inspector.
> * If the file is from a camcorder, camera, or other video-recording device, see the device's documentation, or locate the device's specifications on the manufacturer's website.
> * Open the file in a third-party application that analyzes media files, such as MediaInfo or GSpot 2.70.
>
>
> | It's very simply.
HOW TO FIX: download avid codex pack, install it (on mac -> library->QuickTime), restart and reopen Adobe Premiere.
<http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/download/Avid-QuickTime-Codecs-LE> |
105,643 | When I try to import any video file (e.g. AVI files) in Adobe Premiere Pro cc in my Macbook Air, I get this error:
**"codec missing or unavailable"**
What to do about it? | 2013/10/18 | [
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/105643",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/59767/"
] | AVI is just a container for a video format, and can contain videos encoded in different formats. The error you're seeing says that Adobe Premiere does not know how to process the video format that's within the AVI file.
* First, you would have to find out (or know) the codec used for the video within the AVI file and then download and install the appropriate codec on your system.
* To find out the codec for the file, examine it using a tool like QuickTime or VLC and see if you can use the Inspectors in these to get the video and audio codecs for your file.
* If these two don't help, you would have to use a media information tool like [MediaInspector](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/media-inspector/id419975242) or [AviInfo](https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24665/aviinfo) on OS X or [GSpot](http://gspot.headbands.com/) on Windows. Then search and install the codec for the file.
Here's some additional explanation and information from Adobe on "[Troubleshoot file formats and codecs](http://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-elements/kb/troubleshoot-video-premiere-elements.html)":
>
> Video-recording devices and video software applications encode files in a specific file format, such as AVI, QuickTime (MOV), and Windows Media (WMV). For a list of the file formats that Adobe Premiere Elements supports, search "Supported file formats in Adobe Premiere Elements " in the Adobe Knowledgebase.
>
>
> Some video file formats, including AVI and MOV, are container file formats. The data inside these container files is encoded according to a particular codec. Codecs are algorithms for compressing video and audio data. Many different codecs exist.
>
>
> For example, an AVI file can be encoded with the DV codec, a commercial codec (such as DivX), a Motion JPEG codec, among others. (Camcorders that record to miniDV tapes use the DV codec. Some still-image cameras use the Motion JPEG coded.)
>
>
> Adobe Premiere Elements sometimes cannot decode video files that were created with a poorly designed codec or a codec that is not installed on your computer.
>
>
> Knowing the format and, when applicable, the codec of the files you are working with helps you use these solutions. To gather this information, do one or more of the following tasks:
>
>
> * Open the file in Apple QuickTime Player and choose Window > Show Movie Inspector.
> * If the file is from a camcorder, camera, or other video-recording device, see the device's documentation, or locate the device's specifications on the manufacturer's website.
> * Open the file in a third-party application that analyzes media files, such as MediaInfo or GSpot 2.70.
>
>
> | All I did was add ".mov" to the file name and all is well!!! |
105,643 | When I try to import any video file (e.g. AVI files) in Adobe Premiere Pro cc in my Macbook Air, I get this error:
**"codec missing or unavailable"**
What to do about it? | 2013/10/18 | [
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/105643",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/59767/"
] | I encountered this recently when my Kodak digital camera recorded in .MOV, and I figured importing it should be a breeze. Nope. I kept running into a very unhelpful "File format contains no audio or video" error when dragging the .MOV file into my clip bin.
The solution was so simple it was almost ridiculous. After Googling for a bit, I found a YouTube saying all you had to do was change the filename extension from .MOV to .MP4, and boom - done. I didn't believe it at first, but sure enough - it worked like a charm! :-)
This was on Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015, Windows 8. | All I did was add ".mov" to the file name and all is well!!! |
105,643 | When I try to import any video file (e.g. AVI files) in Adobe Premiere Pro cc in my Macbook Air, I get this error:
**"codec missing or unavailable"**
What to do about it? | 2013/10/18 | [
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/105643",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/59767/"
] | It's very simply.
HOW TO FIX: download avid codex pack, install it (on mac -> library->QuickTime), restart and reopen Adobe Premiere.
<http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/download/Avid-QuickTime-Codecs-LE> | All I did was add ".mov" to the file name and all is well!!! |
60,932 | I am thinking of getting a portable air compressor (for filling tires) that clips directly to the battery because it can draw up to 20A. (As I understand it, the usual max in many vehicles for the lighter socket is 15A, so that is why this air pump has the direct connection.)
That would work fine in my conventional car, but would it still work in the future with a Prius or other hybrid? My concerns are two:
1) From some online photos, it seems that there is not easy access to the 12v auxiliary battery in some hybrids; what disassembly (if any) is required to get access?
2) From some online discussions, I get the idea that the 12v battery in hybrids is not as powerful as a standard 12v. auto battery. Is this true, and would drawing 20A be a problem? | 2018/11/16 | [
"https://mechanics.stackexchange.com/questions/60932",
"https://mechanics.stackexchange.com",
"https://mechanics.stackexchange.com/users/43329/"
] | That coolant has oxidised over time.
It needs testing to see if it will still protect your cooling system down to the required temperature. If it does not, then it needs replacing. Just about all good mechanics or good garages have that measuring device. | Dyes............................. |
2,393 | Hi, I'm a young sound designer about to finish high school and i'd like to know what schools have the most reputable programs. Any suggestions? | 2010/07/30 | [
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/2393",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/users/472/"
] | I graduated from [Berklee College of Music](http://www.berklee.edu/) with a degree in Music Production & Engineering. It's only gotten better since I was there, and I highly recommend it.
Berklee also has a comprehensive curriculum available online. | Savannah College of Art & Design is another place to check out. It's sound department has been developing as a strong contender. The Sound Department is led by David Stone, and Peter Damski is a professor of production sound, amongst other excellent sound professionals.
<http://www.scad.edu/sound-design/>
May be a place to consider along with other options. I had a great experience, although I learned two things from being the education environment: 'you get out of it what you put into it', and 'use everything they have' - many schools are endowed with some great gear and software that real-life work environments may not have all the time.
All of the above listed schools are equally fair choices too, I run into and collaborated with a lot of wonderful sound professionals around town who are alumni from these places, especially Full Sail and Berklee. |
2,393 | Hi, I'm a young sound designer about to finish high school and i'd like to know what schools have the most reputable programs. Any suggestions? | 2010/07/30 | [
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/2393",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/users/472/"
] | I graduated from [Berklee College of Music](http://www.berklee.edu/) with a degree in Music Production & Engineering. It's only gotten better since I was there, and I highly recommend it.
Berklee also has a comprehensive curriculum available online. | @Hearmeout; thanks for the reply man. Im already working on Protools HD and ICON in my current job. also started learning FMOD from youtube videos, but how can one break into the game audio industry from another country or without going to any college like VFS?
How to develop those game audio skills and projects? |
2,393 | Hi, I'm a young sound designer about to finish high school and i'd like to know what schools have the most reputable programs. Any suggestions? | 2010/07/30 | [
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/2393",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/users/472/"
] | I took the Vancouver Film School Sound Design Program; graduated in october 2009. Wow! Makes exactly a year next wendnesday!
It's quite different now. Really very different, as most of my instructors aren't there anymore and the curriculum is different as well. A friend of mine that was TAing overthere told me it was really good! At least all the things i didn't like about the prgram changed dramatically... In my opinion there was to much music theory and production (though the instructors were great!) and the game audio curriculum was painfully bad and unorganized. Not anymore!
They also have one more small mixing room, this one with a procontrol while the other 4 have control 24, and the Theater has an icon now. They're also a bit more well equipped with microphones now, and they have sounddevices 722 recorders.
I have to say i had an insanely great time over there learned a ton, and was really lucky as my classmates were absolutely great! It's super intensive two, in my last 2 months term me and most of my classmates were sleeping on average 3 hours a night.... But then again all of us did many side projects at all times.
It's a great great place to meet people from other fields like 3d and classical animation, film production, business management etc.
(The city is amazing to, i thought it was expensive at a time, but now that i'm in new york i laugh about that :D )
Hope that helps a bit. | I've heard good and bad things about Vancouver Film School.. but I'm still considering it.
The main issue is the tuition ($43,000 excluding living expenses!) Has anybody else heard anything about this program?
Share your insight! |
2,393 | Hi, I'm a young sound designer about to finish high school and i'd like to know what schools have the most reputable programs. Any suggestions? | 2010/07/30 | [
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/2393",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/users/472/"
] | I took the Vancouver Film School Sound Design Program; graduated in october 2009. Wow! Makes exactly a year next wendnesday!
It's quite different now. Really very different, as most of my instructors aren't there anymore and the curriculum is different as well. A friend of mine that was TAing overthere told me it was really good! At least all the things i didn't like about the prgram changed dramatically... In my opinion there was to much music theory and production (though the instructors were great!) and the game audio curriculum was painfully bad and unorganized. Not anymore!
They also have one more small mixing room, this one with a procontrol while the other 4 have control 24, and the Theater has an icon now. They're also a bit more well equipped with microphones now, and they have sounddevices 722 recorders.
I have to say i had an insanely great time over there learned a ton, and was really lucky as my classmates were absolutely great! It's super intensive two, in my last 2 months term me and most of my classmates were sleeping on average 3 hours a night.... But then again all of us did many side projects at all times.
It's a great great place to meet people from other fields like 3d and classical animation, film production, business management etc.
(The city is amazing to, i thought it was expensive at a time, but now that i'm in new york i laugh about that :D )
Hope that helps a bit. | Hi, Can you please layout the tools/software taught in the VFS sound design program, the people, the learning experience and what kind of projects do you work on? Do they provide a recorder or a laptop? and job prospect issues? Does the college help in getting job? How easy/difficult is it to get a job right out of college? With a heft education loan, getting a job is a big priority.. |
2,393 | Hi, I'm a young sound designer about to finish high school and i'd like to know what schools have the most reputable programs. Any suggestions? | 2010/07/30 | [
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/2393",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/users/472/"
] | I graduated from [Berklee College of Music](http://www.berklee.edu/) with a degree in Music Production & Engineering. It's only gotten better since I was there, and I highly recommend it.
Berklee also has a comprehensive curriculum available online. | @Rig I didn't go to VFS, but I've wanted to for a long time. I've researched the school quite a bit and spoken to a handful of people who have graduated from the program. You'll mainly be working with Pro Tools and then some FMOD stuff when you start learning about game sound. You don't get a laptop, but you do receive an H2 recorder, and access to Icon consoles and Sound Devices recorders which is pretty awesome. As far as I can tell it's a pretty decent program but far too expensive and less than half of the people I've spoken to who went there have jobs in the industry. It's different for everyone though. As much as I've wanted to go, I just can't justify spending $50,000 for a year of school. Hope that helps. |
2,393 | Hi, I'm a young sound designer about to finish high school and i'd like to know what schools have the most reputable programs. Any suggestions? | 2010/07/30 | [
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/2393",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/users/472/"
] | I've heard good and bad things about Vancouver Film School.. but I'm still considering it.
The main issue is the tuition ($43,000 excluding living expenses!) Has anybody else heard anything about this program?
Share your insight! | @Rig I didn't go to VFS, but I've wanted to for a long time. I've researched the school quite a bit and spoken to a handful of people who have graduated from the program. You'll mainly be working with Pro Tools and then some FMOD stuff when you start learning about game sound. You don't get a laptop, but you do receive an H2 recorder, and access to Icon consoles and Sound Devices recorders which is pretty awesome. As far as I can tell it's a pretty decent program but far too expensive and less than half of the people I've spoken to who went there have jobs in the industry. It's different for everyone though. As much as I've wanted to go, I just can't justify spending $50,000 for a year of school. Hope that helps. |
2,393 | Hi, I'm a young sound designer about to finish high school and i'd like to know what schools have the most reputable programs. Any suggestions? | 2010/07/30 | [
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/2393",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/users/472/"
] | I've been teaching sound design at Video Symphony in Los Angeles, which offers a Protools certification program and helps with job placement as well. Very solid program. I'm also developing a sound design class for Academy of Art University in San Francisco, both on site and online. I've heard good things about Vancouver school too.
For those who aren't able to get to a school, I'm offering a six week webinar series beginning Sept. 8, which will included hands on assignments and personal feedback. There will be a free intro on Aug. 24. Check it out on SoundDesignForPros.com. | @Rig I didn't go to VFS, but I've wanted to for a long time. I've researched the school quite a bit and spoken to a handful of people who have graduated from the program. You'll mainly be working with Pro Tools and then some FMOD stuff when you start learning about game sound. You don't get a laptop, but you do receive an H2 recorder, and access to Icon consoles and Sound Devices recorders which is pretty awesome. As far as I can tell it's a pretty decent program but far too expensive and less than half of the people I've spoken to who went there have jobs in the industry. It's different for everyone though. As much as I've wanted to go, I just can't justify spending $50,000 for a year of school. Hope that helps. |
2,393 | Hi, I'm a young sound designer about to finish high school and i'd like to know what schools have the most reputable programs. Any suggestions? | 2010/07/30 | [
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/2393",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/users/472/"
] | I've been teaching sound design at Video Symphony in Los Angeles, which offers a Protools certification program and helps with job placement as well. Very solid program. I'm also developing a sound design class for Academy of Art University in San Francisco, both on site and online. I've heard good things about Vancouver school too.
For those who aren't able to get to a school, I'm offering a six week webinar series beginning Sept. 8, which will included hands on assignments and personal feedback. There will be a free intro on Aug. 24. Check it out on SoundDesignForPros.com. | you develop them by working on them, University is all fine and dandy but you will learn most things on a job, shadowing someone above you and asking questions. You are not guaranteed a job if you go to University and they will not do the work for you to find a job, only offer advice. |
2,393 | Hi, I'm a young sound designer about to finish high school and i'd like to know what schools have the most reputable programs. Any suggestions? | 2010/07/30 | [
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/2393",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/users/472/"
] | I graduated from [Berklee College of Music](http://www.berklee.edu/) with a degree in Music Production & Engineering. It's only gotten better since I was there, and I highly recommend it.
Berklee also has a comprehensive curriculum available online. | I attended Full Sail University. It's a bit pricey but they have the most modern equipment and offer great hands on experience. When I was attending (2005) they didn't offer anything in regards to field recording so a lot of the equipment and microphones that are typically used aren't covered in their curriculum. This might and hopefully have changed since then though.
I can say if you're looking for a music engineering school (not music theory) Full Sail is great. They also have film and game design curriculum's there so the chance to network and work with other degree programs is easily feasible. |
2,393 | Hi, I'm a young sound designer about to finish high school and i'd like to know what schools have the most reputable programs. Any suggestions? | 2010/07/30 | [
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/2393",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/users/472/"
] | I've heard good and bad things about Vancouver Film School.. but I'm still considering it.
The main issue is the tuition ($43,000 excluding living expenses!) Has anybody else heard anything about this program?
Share your insight! | Hi, Can you please layout the tools/software taught in the VFS sound design program, the people, the learning experience and what kind of projects do you work on? Do they provide a recorder or a laptop? and job prospect issues? Does the college help in getting job? How easy/difficult is it to get a job right out of college? With a heft education loan, getting a job is a big priority.. |
179,546 | I started working at my current company earlier this year, and I'm concerned that I am wildly unqualified for the role.
In the part of the world where I live and work, the standard practice is to apply to a company (not to a role). In the interviews the company and candidate "get to know" one another, and there will of course be discussion of what sorts of skills the candidate has, as well as what *sorts* of work are available at the company. But it's not at all strange for a candidate to not know what department they'll be working in before their first day. (Although generally placement will be made after training and evaluation in the first few weeks. I assume that this usually results in a fairly good match, since it is still so widespread).
I applied to my current company because of my interest in their field, and in the interviews I received a very favourable impression of their culture.
They seemed interested in my work history with data analysis. And they asked whether I knew any Python, to which I responded that I had studied a bit, privately and not in connection with my previous position.
I was glad to receive an offer, although it only enumerated where my position would fit into their hierarchy. I nevertheless thought I had a fairly decent idea what my work would entail, and this all seemed natural for this part of the world.
I discovered on day one that I was to be a data scientist. And, what is more, the only data scientist in the company. I am the entire department.
I am not a data scientist.
I'm mathematically literate. I took calculus and physics in college.
And I'm quite good with computers (as a consumer). I understand programming structures, and how computers access and use data. But all as a layman.
I have a few years experience in data analysis, but this was a completely backwards company that had their entire data base saved in excel files with filenames incremented for each year-month, going back twenty years.
And I've taken an introductory course on data science and programming in Python, SQL, and R, but this was just introductory.
The company seems to have understood when hiring me that I *was not* a data scientist, but they intended that I would *become* one. How they imagined this would happen is an open question, because there are no training programs or experienced colleagues to guide me, and there is the constant expectation of output, by means of actionable reports.
I've done my best. I've made a training plan, and studied the contents of Hadley Wickham's "R for Data Science" and "Advanced R" books. And I've kept up my output, turning in reports that (apparently) look like data science, but which amount to "here's a graph of sales by month, with a trend line. Here it is by product tag. Here it is by category."
Admittedly, the company has not done well with communicating what they want from any given analysis. It's instead been a continuous repeat of "here's a set of sales figures and dates. Do analysis." And despite my attempts to wring out what exactly their questions or interests in this data is, or to acquire more or more useful data, there doesn't yet seem to be much chance of improvement.
So far my work has achieved absolutely nothing. Nothing I've submitted has had any impact on the company's future direction or current actions. And although it can't be said that I've made *no* progress in developing my skills, this really isn't the way to go about training a functional data scientist. They've been wasting their money on me.
And yet they don't seem to realize it, or not to care.
Both my immediate supervisor and the president of the company are very interested in what data science can offer, and very eager to know what sorts of things I'm working on, but they don't know nearly enough to accurately judge a data scientist's skills or output. And they're (so far) perfectly happy with what I've been outputting, despite it changing nothing.
I feel terrified, both morally and personally, that this is wrong, and that it's going to explode in my face before long.
I'm not contributing, and so I'm getting paid as if under false pretenses. I'm not comfortable with this.
And personally, I'm not getting any meaningful experience. I'm not meaningfully developing as a professional, and if they ever wake up and fire me, or I grow a spine and quit (as I fear, morally, I really ought to), then I'll have wasted my time completely, and be that much worse off trying to find another job.
I've told the company, three times now, to three different people (including HR and my immediate supervisor), that I'm not confident that I'm doing good work. That I'm not confident that I have the skills necessary for this position. And that the best piece of analysis that I can give them is that they should save my salary by getting rid of me, and then hiring an experienced *actual* data scientist. But they take the position that everything's fine, and they know it'll take time to get used to things, and all of that. But my sense continues to grow that they just really don't understand how untoward this situation is.
I don't know what to do. Both morally, as a person who want to do the right thing yet feels horribly in the wrong. And personally, as a person who has to keep making a living and having a career of some sort, and who might just be digging their own grave.
---
I know that other questions have been asked regarding feeling unqualified for a position, but I believe there are two main differences between this question and those.
・Firstly, the answers to those questions have often been "Actually, you're completely qualified! Pat yourself on the back and relax." I am completely confident that this is not the case in my situation. Perhaps I am mistaken, but this question will take it as a given that the employee in question (namely, me) is unqualified.
and
・Secondly, in this case the unqualified person makes up the entire department, and there is therefore no one in the company with the expertise to properly evaluate their skills. | 2021/10/27 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/179546",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | ### Sounds like you're a data scientist to me.
Remember, data scientists often spend [much of their time cleaning data](https://blog.ldodds.com/2020/01/31/do-data-scientists-spend-80-of-their-time-cleaning-data-turns-out-no/) (even if it might not be the 80% figure commonly quoted). If your entire job involves cleaning data and producing visualizations, it sounds like you're doing data science to me. You might not be doing the most impactful data science in the world, but producing graphs of sales by product is still useful for management staff to make decisions with (even if those decisions might not be visible to you). For instance, it might help them decide if a product is selling sufficiently to justify its existence, or to make decisions about inventory levels or about when they need to expand manufacturing for particular products.
Of course, if you want to make higher-quality insights, you might need higher-quality data. You can't make observations about customer behavior without customer data, for instance. You may want to investigate the potential to gain access to that sort of data, if you haven't already done so, and don't already have access to it. It might be possible for you to draw connections between the items that customers often buy, classify customers into groups who buy certain products, or even derive predictions of which customers are pregnant, for instance. If you don't know how to do that, it might suggest a path for you to investigate.
Also, I'd recommend trying to deal with impostor syndrome, and certainly to stop complaining to HR about it! It's possible that if you keep on with it for long enough, they might believe you and you'll find yourself out of a job. | In today's world you can be the leader of a very large nation without being qualified. One would imagine the company knows your capabilities and knowingly gave you this role. If you are bothered by your performance you could have this conversation with your boss and proceed from there. |
179,546 | I started working at my current company earlier this year, and I'm concerned that I am wildly unqualified for the role.
In the part of the world where I live and work, the standard practice is to apply to a company (not to a role). In the interviews the company and candidate "get to know" one another, and there will of course be discussion of what sorts of skills the candidate has, as well as what *sorts* of work are available at the company. But it's not at all strange for a candidate to not know what department they'll be working in before their first day. (Although generally placement will be made after training and evaluation in the first few weeks. I assume that this usually results in a fairly good match, since it is still so widespread).
I applied to my current company because of my interest in their field, and in the interviews I received a very favourable impression of their culture.
They seemed interested in my work history with data analysis. And they asked whether I knew any Python, to which I responded that I had studied a bit, privately and not in connection with my previous position.
I was glad to receive an offer, although it only enumerated where my position would fit into their hierarchy. I nevertheless thought I had a fairly decent idea what my work would entail, and this all seemed natural for this part of the world.
I discovered on day one that I was to be a data scientist. And, what is more, the only data scientist in the company. I am the entire department.
I am not a data scientist.
I'm mathematically literate. I took calculus and physics in college.
And I'm quite good with computers (as a consumer). I understand programming structures, and how computers access and use data. But all as a layman.
I have a few years experience in data analysis, but this was a completely backwards company that had their entire data base saved in excel files with filenames incremented for each year-month, going back twenty years.
And I've taken an introductory course on data science and programming in Python, SQL, and R, but this was just introductory.
The company seems to have understood when hiring me that I *was not* a data scientist, but they intended that I would *become* one. How they imagined this would happen is an open question, because there are no training programs or experienced colleagues to guide me, and there is the constant expectation of output, by means of actionable reports.
I've done my best. I've made a training plan, and studied the contents of Hadley Wickham's "R for Data Science" and "Advanced R" books. And I've kept up my output, turning in reports that (apparently) look like data science, but which amount to "here's a graph of sales by month, with a trend line. Here it is by product tag. Here it is by category."
Admittedly, the company has not done well with communicating what they want from any given analysis. It's instead been a continuous repeat of "here's a set of sales figures and dates. Do analysis." And despite my attempts to wring out what exactly their questions or interests in this data is, or to acquire more or more useful data, there doesn't yet seem to be much chance of improvement.
So far my work has achieved absolutely nothing. Nothing I've submitted has had any impact on the company's future direction or current actions. And although it can't be said that I've made *no* progress in developing my skills, this really isn't the way to go about training a functional data scientist. They've been wasting their money on me.
And yet they don't seem to realize it, or not to care.
Both my immediate supervisor and the president of the company are very interested in what data science can offer, and very eager to know what sorts of things I'm working on, but they don't know nearly enough to accurately judge a data scientist's skills or output. And they're (so far) perfectly happy with what I've been outputting, despite it changing nothing.
I feel terrified, both morally and personally, that this is wrong, and that it's going to explode in my face before long.
I'm not contributing, and so I'm getting paid as if under false pretenses. I'm not comfortable with this.
And personally, I'm not getting any meaningful experience. I'm not meaningfully developing as a professional, and if they ever wake up and fire me, or I grow a spine and quit (as I fear, morally, I really ought to), then I'll have wasted my time completely, and be that much worse off trying to find another job.
I've told the company, three times now, to three different people (including HR and my immediate supervisor), that I'm not confident that I'm doing good work. That I'm not confident that I have the skills necessary for this position. And that the best piece of analysis that I can give them is that they should save my salary by getting rid of me, and then hiring an experienced *actual* data scientist. But they take the position that everything's fine, and they know it'll take time to get used to things, and all of that. But my sense continues to grow that they just really don't understand how untoward this situation is.
I don't know what to do. Both morally, as a person who want to do the right thing yet feels horribly in the wrong. And personally, as a person who has to keep making a living and having a career of some sort, and who might just be digging their own grave.
---
I know that other questions have been asked regarding feeling unqualified for a position, but I believe there are two main differences between this question and those.
・Firstly, the answers to those questions have often been "Actually, you're completely qualified! Pat yourself on the back and relax." I am completely confident that this is not the case in my situation. Perhaps I am mistaken, but this question will take it as a given that the employee in question (namely, me) is unqualified.
and
・Secondly, in this case the unqualified person makes up the entire department, and there is therefore no one in the company with the expertise to properly evaluate their skills. | 2021/10/27 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/179546",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | Take a deep breath. You're actually fine.
Your company hired you, knowing full well that they don't know anything, and that they like you, and like what you have done so far, and you seem to be able to build good rapport. This is great.
You also know that you're not a data scientist, which is, actually fine too. Here is a pyramid on what needs to be done (this is a multi-**year** project):
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/YqVn5.png)
If your company has data in spreadsheets, you guys don't even have the first step of Data Acquisition done yet. You need to learn this pyramid, give your leaders an honest projection about what needs to happen before seeing results from the top tier.
This company may want you to lead them into the next digital age, so you may have to do some courses (on their dime of course...) The way I see it, they're not remotely setup to do any real "data science" work, and even hiring a real data scientists isn't going to solve it because none of the foundation or infrastructure even exists.
Go back to your boss, ask them if it is their long term goals to have real data science as part of their business, and plan your next move from there. | In today's world you can be the leader of a very large nation without being qualified. One would imagine the company knows your capabilities and knowingly gave you this role. If you are bothered by your performance you could have this conversation with your boss and proceed from there. |
179,546 | I started working at my current company earlier this year, and I'm concerned that I am wildly unqualified for the role.
In the part of the world where I live and work, the standard practice is to apply to a company (not to a role). In the interviews the company and candidate "get to know" one another, and there will of course be discussion of what sorts of skills the candidate has, as well as what *sorts* of work are available at the company. But it's not at all strange for a candidate to not know what department they'll be working in before their first day. (Although generally placement will be made after training and evaluation in the first few weeks. I assume that this usually results in a fairly good match, since it is still so widespread).
I applied to my current company because of my interest in their field, and in the interviews I received a very favourable impression of their culture.
They seemed interested in my work history with data analysis. And they asked whether I knew any Python, to which I responded that I had studied a bit, privately and not in connection with my previous position.
I was glad to receive an offer, although it only enumerated where my position would fit into their hierarchy. I nevertheless thought I had a fairly decent idea what my work would entail, and this all seemed natural for this part of the world.
I discovered on day one that I was to be a data scientist. And, what is more, the only data scientist in the company. I am the entire department.
I am not a data scientist.
I'm mathematically literate. I took calculus and physics in college.
And I'm quite good with computers (as a consumer). I understand programming structures, and how computers access and use data. But all as a layman.
I have a few years experience in data analysis, but this was a completely backwards company that had their entire data base saved in excel files with filenames incremented for each year-month, going back twenty years.
And I've taken an introductory course on data science and programming in Python, SQL, and R, but this was just introductory.
The company seems to have understood when hiring me that I *was not* a data scientist, but they intended that I would *become* one. How they imagined this would happen is an open question, because there are no training programs or experienced colleagues to guide me, and there is the constant expectation of output, by means of actionable reports.
I've done my best. I've made a training plan, and studied the contents of Hadley Wickham's "R for Data Science" and "Advanced R" books. And I've kept up my output, turning in reports that (apparently) look like data science, but which amount to "here's a graph of sales by month, with a trend line. Here it is by product tag. Here it is by category."
Admittedly, the company has not done well with communicating what they want from any given analysis. It's instead been a continuous repeat of "here's a set of sales figures and dates. Do analysis." And despite my attempts to wring out what exactly their questions or interests in this data is, or to acquire more or more useful data, there doesn't yet seem to be much chance of improvement.
So far my work has achieved absolutely nothing. Nothing I've submitted has had any impact on the company's future direction or current actions. And although it can't be said that I've made *no* progress in developing my skills, this really isn't the way to go about training a functional data scientist. They've been wasting their money on me.
And yet they don't seem to realize it, or not to care.
Both my immediate supervisor and the president of the company are very interested in what data science can offer, and very eager to know what sorts of things I'm working on, but they don't know nearly enough to accurately judge a data scientist's skills or output. And they're (so far) perfectly happy with what I've been outputting, despite it changing nothing.
I feel terrified, both morally and personally, that this is wrong, and that it's going to explode in my face before long.
I'm not contributing, and so I'm getting paid as if under false pretenses. I'm not comfortable with this.
And personally, I'm not getting any meaningful experience. I'm not meaningfully developing as a professional, and if they ever wake up and fire me, or I grow a spine and quit (as I fear, morally, I really ought to), then I'll have wasted my time completely, and be that much worse off trying to find another job.
I've told the company, three times now, to three different people (including HR and my immediate supervisor), that I'm not confident that I'm doing good work. That I'm not confident that I have the skills necessary for this position. And that the best piece of analysis that I can give them is that they should save my salary by getting rid of me, and then hiring an experienced *actual* data scientist. But they take the position that everything's fine, and they know it'll take time to get used to things, and all of that. But my sense continues to grow that they just really don't understand how untoward this situation is.
I don't know what to do. Both morally, as a person who want to do the right thing yet feels horribly in the wrong. And personally, as a person who has to keep making a living and having a career of some sort, and who might just be digging their own grave.
---
I know that other questions have been asked regarding feeling unqualified for a position, but I believe there are two main differences between this question and those.
・Firstly, the answers to those questions have often been "Actually, you're completely qualified! Pat yourself on the back and relax." I am completely confident that this is not the case in my situation. Perhaps I am mistaken, but this question will take it as a given that the employee in question (namely, me) is unqualified.
and
・Secondly, in this case the unqualified person makes up the entire department, and there is therefore no one in the company with the expertise to properly evaluate their skills. | 2021/10/27 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/179546",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | #### You're not doing anything morally wrong
>
> I feel terrified, both morally and personally, that this is wrong, and that it's going to explode in my face before long
>
>
> ...
>
>
> But my sense continues to grow that they just really don't understand how untoward this situation is.
>
>
> I don't know what to do. Both morally, as a person who want to do the right thing yet feels horribly in the wrong. And personally, as a person who has to keep making a living and having a career of some sort, and who might just be digging their own grave.
>
>
>
I think you're catastrophizing the situation a bit. No-one's died, no-one's gone to prison. You've been very clear and honest with the company about your skills and experience. You're not misleading them, and you're putting in a lot of effort to complete their very vaguely-defined tasks, while trying to both define a new role at this company, and *learn how to actually do it*, almost entirely on your own.
It sounds like you've convinced yourself that the company isn't getting sufficient value out of you, but that's not your decision to make. You're not the CEO. It's up to the company how they spend their money, and right now they're happy spending it on your salary while you try to become a data scientist. I believe data scientists are currently in high demand, so they might not even be able to hire anyone with more experience than you.
#### But is this a job you want to learn?
>
> personally, I'm not getting any meaningful experience. I'm not meaningfully developing as a professional
>
>
>
Brief counterpoint: learning how to train yourself, and establish an ill-defined role at a company where management themselves don't really know what the role is, is actually pretty meaningful experience, even though it's really tough. Situations like this aren't hugely uncommon. Most companies have to innovate how they do things, and if you can get good at doing that, you're incredibly valuable.
But I do think the most important question to ask yourself is whether you *want* to be a data scientist. Establishing a role at a company while learning how to do that role is, as discussed, really hard work.
If you're enjoying getting into the data science, great! This is an excellent opportunity for you to learn how to do the job, and a excellent opportunity for the company to get a (probably relatively cheap) data scientist who's learned how to do exactly what they need, and nothing else.
But if you really don't want to become a data scientist, trying to force yourself to become one (especially with so little support and guidance) is a really tough task. For your own happiness, it might be worth trying to move into a job you actually do want to do. | In today's world you can be the leader of a very large nation without being qualified. One would imagine the company knows your capabilities and knowingly gave you this role. If you are bothered by your performance you could have this conversation with your boss and proceed from there. |
179,546 | I started working at my current company earlier this year, and I'm concerned that I am wildly unqualified for the role.
In the part of the world where I live and work, the standard practice is to apply to a company (not to a role). In the interviews the company and candidate "get to know" one another, and there will of course be discussion of what sorts of skills the candidate has, as well as what *sorts* of work are available at the company. But it's not at all strange for a candidate to not know what department they'll be working in before their first day. (Although generally placement will be made after training and evaluation in the first few weeks. I assume that this usually results in a fairly good match, since it is still so widespread).
I applied to my current company because of my interest in their field, and in the interviews I received a very favourable impression of their culture.
They seemed interested in my work history with data analysis. And they asked whether I knew any Python, to which I responded that I had studied a bit, privately and not in connection with my previous position.
I was glad to receive an offer, although it only enumerated where my position would fit into their hierarchy. I nevertheless thought I had a fairly decent idea what my work would entail, and this all seemed natural for this part of the world.
I discovered on day one that I was to be a data scientist. And, what is more, the only data scientist in the company. I am the entire department.
I am not a data scientist.
I'm mathematically literate. I took calculus and physics in college.
And I'm quite good with computers (as a consumer). I understand programming structures, and how computers access and use data. But all as a layman.
I have a few years experience in data analysis, but this was a completely backwards company that had their entire data base saved in excel files with filenames incremented for each year-month, going back twenty years.
And I've taken an introductory course on data science and programming in Python, SQL, and R, but this was just introductory.
The company seems to have understood when hiring me that I *was not* a data scientist, but they intended that I would *become* one. How they imagined this would happen is an open question, because there are no training programs or experienced colleagues to guide me, and there is the constant expectation of output, by means of actionable reports.
I've done my best. I've made a training plan, and studied the contents of Hadley Wickham's "R for Data Science" and "Advanced R" books. And I've kept up my output, turning in reports that (apparently) look like data science, but which amount to "here's a graph of sales by month, with a trend line. Here it is by product tag. Here it is by category."
Admittedly, the company has not done well with communicating what they want from any given analysis. It's instead been a continuous repeat of "here's a set of sales figures and dates. Do analysis." And despite my attempts to wring out what exactly their questions or interests in this data is, or to acquire more or more useful data, there doesn't yet seem to be much chance of improvement.
So far my work has achieved absolutely nothing. Nothing I've submitted has had any impact on the company's future direction or current actions. And although it can't be said that I've made *no* progress in developing my skills, this really isn't the way to go about training a functional data scientist. They've been wasting their money on me.
And yet they don't seem to realize it, or not to care.
Both my immediate supervisor and the president of the company are very interested in what data science can offer, and very eager to know what sorts of things I'm working on, but they don't know nearly enough to accurately judge a data scientist's skills or output. And they're (so far) perfectly happy with what I've been outputting, despite it changing nothing.
I feel terrified, both morally and personally, that this is wrong, and that it's going to explode in my face before long.
I'm not contributing, and so I'm getting paid as if under false pretenses. I'm not comfortable with this.
And personally, I'm not getting any meaningful experience. I'm not meaningfully developing as a professional, and if they ever wake up and fire me, or I grow a spine and quit (as I fear, morally, I really ought to), then I'll have wasted my time completely, and be that much worse off trying to find another job.
I've told the company, three times now, to three different people (including HR and my immediate supervisor), that I'm not confident that I'm doing good work. That I'm not confident that I have the skills necessary for this position. And that the best piece of analysis that I can give them is that they should save my salary by getting rid of me, and then hiring an experienced *actual* data scientist. But they take the position that everything's fine, and they know it'll take time to get used to things, and all of that. But my sense continues to grow that they just really don't understand how untoward this situation is.
I don't know what to do. Both morally, as a person who want to do the right thing yet feels horribly in the wrong. And personally, as a person who has to keep making a living and having a career of some sort, and who might just be digging their own grave.
---
I know that other questions have been asked regarding feeling unqualified for a position, but I believe there are two main differences between this question and those.
・Firstly, the answers to those questions have often been "Actually, you're completely qualified! Pat yourself on the back and relax." I am completely confident that this is not the case in my situation. Perhaps I am mistaken, but this question will take it as a given that the employee in question (namely, me) is unqualified.
and
・Secondly, in this case the unqualified person makes up the entire department, and there is therefore no one in the company with the expertise to properly evaluate their skills. | 2021/10/27 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/179546",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | It sounds like you're dealing with some major Imposter Syndrome.
Ultimately, if your employer is happy with what they're getting out of you, and you're being paid. That's your employee-obligations filled and you're golden.
That they're doing it by the least efficient or effective means possible is in no way your problem.
That they could do better with someone trained and qualified is not your problem either.
As you note though, if they "wake up" and realise that they could simply hire someone who actually knows the material from the get-go and get better results.
That'd probably put you out of a job and you'd have to find something new.
It's therefore in your interest to get good at the job and do so quickly.
What shouldn't be understated though is that you're in an amazing position here:
You have the resources to learn a whole field and currently have low expectations on your productivity, meaning you have the time and resources to push your career further.
Exploit that to the hilt.
Become the Data-Scientist you believe you should be.
It's always okay to make yourself overqualified for your job.
If your employer is presented with your additional capability, you will be in a position to ask for raises, and more than capable of going to another company if you don't get one.
Remember that Self-Taught is not a bad thing either.
You might be self-taught, but in my field as a software developer *everyone* is.
It is understood that a university course will only teach broad theory and introductory practical material. If you want to be a professional developer, you will need to learn multiple programming languages, plugins, tools and a massive spread of esoteric knowledge which changes and expands constantly from year to year.
No university or college could ever teach a person all the knowledge and skills required to do my job in a few short years.
Almost every software developer is therefore primarily self-taught, usually on the job, and we have to keep learning because the technology is constantly changing underfoot.
Being self-taught is the normal state of things in my field, the IT Industry and indeed Data-Science.
Don't let that worry you.
Build a spread of practical duties that you perform for your company, make notes, make a clear list of what you can do.
Try and expand that list as you do more things.
Then when you eventually move on to another business, put that list in your CV.
Remember that the difference between a professional and an amateur is mostly whether you get paid to do it.
If the imposter-syndrome flares up, read that list again.
Remember that every single thing on that list is something you can do that most people don't know how to do.
That exclusivity is why you are being paid, and the more things you can put on that list, the better you justify your paycheck. | In today's world you can be the leader of a very large nation without being qualified. One would imagine the company knows your capabilities and knowingly gave you this role. If you are bothered by your performance you could have this conversation with your boss and proceed from there. |
179,546 | I started working at my current company earlier this year, and I'm concerned that I am wildly unqualified for the role.
In the part of the world where I live and work, the standard practice is to apply to a company (not to a role). In the interviews the company and candidate "get to know" one another, and there will of course be discussion of what sorts of skills the candidate has, as well as what *sorts* of work are available at the company. But it's not at all strange for a candidate to not know what department they'll be working in before their first day. (Although generally placement will be made after training and evaluation in the first few weeks. I assume that this usually results in a fairly good match, since it is still so widespread).
I applied to my current company because of my interest in their field, and in the interviews I received a very favourable impression of their culture.
They seemed interested in my work history with data analysis. And they asked whether I knew any Python, to which I responded that I had studied a bit, privately and not in connection with my previous position.
I was glad to receive an offer, although it only enumerated where my position would fit into their hierarchy. I nevertheless thought I had a fairly decent idea what my work would entail, and this all seemed natural for this part of the world.
I discovered on day one that I was to be a data scientist. And, what is more, the only data scientist in the company. I am the entire department.
I am not a data scientist.
I'm mathematically literate. I took calculus and physics in college.
And I'm quite good with computers (as a consumer). I understand programming structures, and how computers access and use data. But all as a layman.
I have a few years experience in data analysis, but this was a completely backwards company that had their entire data base saved in excel files with filenames incremented for each year-month, going back twenty years.
And I've taken an introductory course on data science and programming in Python, SQL, and R, but this was just introductory.
The company seems to have understood when hiring me that I *was not* a data scientist, but they intended that I would *become* one. How they imagined this would happen is an open question, because there are no training programs or experienced colleagues to guide me, and there is the constant expectation of output, by means of actionable reports.
I've done my best. I've made a training plan, and studied the contents of Hadley Wickham's "R for Data Science" and "Advanced R" books. And I've kept up my output, turning in reports that (apparently) look like data science, but which amount to "here's a graph of sales by month, with a trend line. Here it is by product tag. Here it is by category."
Admittedly, the company has not done well with communicating what they want from any given analysis. It's instead been a continuous repeat of "here's a set of sales figures and dates. Do analysis." And despite my attempts to wring out what exactly their questions or interests in this data is, or to acquire more or more useful data, there doesn't yet seem to be much chance of improvement.
So far my work has achieved absolutely nothing. Nothing I've submitted has had any impact on the company's future direction or current actions. And although it can't be said that I've made *no* progress in developing my skills, this really isn't the way to go about training a functional data scientist. They've been wasting their money on me.
And yet they don't seem to realize it, or not to care.
Both my immediate supervisor and the president of the company are very interested in what data science can offer, and very eager to know what sorts of things I'm working on, but they don't know nearly enough to accurately judge a data scientist's skills or output. And they're (so far) perfectly happy with what I've been outputting, despite it changing nothing.
I feel terrified, both morally and personally, that this is wrong, and that it's going to explode in my face before long.
I'm not contributing, and so I'm getting paid as if under false pretenses. I'm not comfortable with this.
And personally, I'm not getting any meaningful experience. I'm not meaningfully developing as a professional, and if they ever wake up and fire me, or I grow a spine and quit (as I fear, morally, I really ought to), then I'll have wasted my time completely, and be that much worse off trying to find another job.
I've told the company, three times now, to three different people (including HR and my immediate supervisor), that I'm not confident that I'm doing good work. That I'm not confident that I have the skills necessary for this position. And that the best piece of analysis that I can give them is that they should save my salary by getting rid of me, and then hiring an experienced *actual* data scientist. But they take the position that everything's fine, and they know it'll take time to get used to things, and all of that. But my sense continues to grow that they just really don't understand how untoward this situation is.
I don't know what to do. Both morally, as a person who want to do the right thing yet feels horribly in the wrong. And personally, as a person who has to keep making a living and having a career of some sort, and who might just be digging their own grave.
---
I know that other questions have been asked regarding feeling unqualified for a position, but I believe there are two main differences between this question and those.
・Firstly, the answers to those questions have often been "Actually, you're completely qualified! Pat yourself on the back and relax." I am completely confident that this is not the case in my situation. Perhaps I am mistaken, but this question will take it as a given that the employee in question (namely, me) is unqualified.
and
・Secondly, in this case the unqualified person makes up the entire department, and there is therefore no one in the company with the expertise to properly evaluate their skills. | 2021/10/27 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/179546",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | ### Sounds like you're a data scientist to me.
Remember, data scientists often spend [much of their time cleaning data](https://blog.ldodds.com/2020/01/31/do-data-scientists-spend-80-of-their-time-cleaning-data-turns-out-no/) (even if it might not be the 80% figure commonly quoted). If your entire job involves cleaning data and producing visualizations, it sounds like you're doing data science to me. You might not be doing the most impactful data science in the world, but producing graphs of sales by product is still useful for management staff to make decisions with (even if those decisions might not be visible to you). For instance, it might help them decide if a product is selling sufficiently to justify its existence, or to make decisions about inventory levels or about when they need to expand manufacturing for particular products.
Of course, if you want to make higher-quality insights, you might need higher-quality data. You can't make observations about customer behavior without customer data, for instance. You may want to investigate the potential to gain access to that sort of data, if you haven't already done so, and don't already have access to it. It might be possible for you to draw connections between the items that customers often buy, classify customers into groups who buy certain products, or even derive predictions of which customers are pregnant, for instance. If you don't know how to do that, it might suggest a path for you to investigate.
Also, I'd recommend trying to deal with impostor syndrome, and certainly to stop complaining to HR about it! It's possible that if you keep on with it for long enough, they might believe you and you'll find yourself out of a job. | Take a deep breath. You're actually fine.
Your company hired you, knowing full well that they don't know anything, and that they like you, and like what you have done so far, and you seem to be able to build good rapport. This is great.
You also know that you're not a data scientist, which is, actually fine too. Here is a pyramid on what needs to be done (this is a multi-**year** project):
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/YqVn5.png)
If your company has data in spreadsheets, you guys don't even have the first step of Data Acquisition done yet. You need to learn this pyramid, give your leaders an honest projection about what needs to happen before seeing results from the top tier.
This company may want you to lead them into the next digital age, so you may have to do some courses (on their dime of course...) The way I see it, they're not remotely setup to do any real "data science" work, and even hiring a real data scientists isn't going to solve it because none of the foundation or infrastructure even exists.
Go back to your boss, ask them if it is their long term goals to have real data science as part of their business, and plan your next move from there. |
179,546 | I started working at my current company earlier this year, and I'm concerned that I am wildly unqualified for the role.
In the part of the world where I live and work, the standard practice is to apply to a company (not to a role). In the interviews the company and candidate "get to know" one another, and there will of course be discussion of what sorts of skills the candidate has, as well as what *sorts* of work are available at the company. But it's not at all strange for a candidate to not know what department they'll be working in before their first day. (Although generally placement will be made after training and evaluation in the first few weeks. I assume that this usually results in a fairly good match, since it is still so widespread).
I applied to my current company because of my interest in their field, and in the interviews I received a very favourable impression of their culture.
They seemed interested in my work history with data analysis. And they asked whether I knew any Python, to which I responded that I had studied a bit, privately and not in connection with my previous position.
I was glad to receive an offer, although it only enumerated where my position would fit into their hierarchy. I nevertheless thought I had a fairly decent idea what my work would entail, and this all seemed natural for this part of the world.
I discovered on day one that I was to be a data scientist. And, what is more, the only data scientist in the company. I am the entire department.
I am not a data scientist.
I'm mathematically literate. I took calculus and physics in college.
And I'm quite good with computers (as a consumer). I understand programming structures, and how computers access and use data. But all as a layman.
I have a few years experience in data analysis, but this was a completely backwards company that had their entire data base saved in excel files with filenames incremented for each year-month, going back twenty years.
And I've taken an introductory course on data science and programming in Python, SQL, and R, but this was just introductory.
The company seems to have understood when hiring me that I *was not* a data scientist, but they intended that I would *become* one. How they imagined this would happen is an open question, because there are no training programs or experienced colleagues to guide me, and there is the constant expectation of output, by means of actionable reports.
I've done my best. I've made a training plan, and studied the contents of Hadley Wickham's "R for Data Science" and "Advanced R" books. And I've kept up my output, turning in reports that (apparently) look like data science, but which amount to "here's a graph of sales by month, with a trend line. Here it is by product tag. Here it is by category."
Admittedly, the company has not done well with communicating what they want from any given analysis. It's instead been a continuous repeat of "here's a set of sales figures and dates. Do analysis." And despite my attempts to wring out what exactly their questions or interests in this data is, or to acquire more or more useful data, there doesn't yet seem to be much chance of improvement.
So far my work has achieved absolutely nothing. Nothing I've submitted has had any impact on the company's future direction or current actions. And although it can't be said that I've made *no* progress in developing my skills, this really isn't the way to go about training a functional data scientist. They've been wasting their money on me.
And yet they don't seem to realize it, or not to care.
Both my immediate supervisor and the president of the company are very interested in what data science can offer, and very eager to know what sorts of things I'm working on, but they don't know nearly enough to accurately judge a data scientist's skills or output. And they're (so far) perfectly happy with what I've been outputting, despite it changing nothing.
I feel terrified, both morally and personally, that this is wrong, and that it's going to explode in my face before long.
I'm not contributing, and so I'm getting paid as if under false pretenses. I'm not comfortable with this.
And personally, I'm not getting any meaningful experience. I'm not meaningfully developing as a professional, and if they ever wake up and fire me, or I grow a spine and quit (as I fear, morally, I really ought to), then I'll have wasted my time completely, and be that much worse off trying to find another job.
I've told the company, three times now, to three different people (including HR and my immediate supervisor), that I'm not confident that I'm doing good work. That I'm not confident that I have the skills necessary for this position. And that the best piece of analysis that I can give them is that they should save my salary by getting rid of me, and then hiring an experienced *actual* data scientist. But they take the position that everything's fine, and they know it'll take time to get used to things, and all of that. But my sense continues to grow that they just really don't understand how untoward this situation is.
I don't know what to do. Both morally, as a person who want to do the right thing yet feels horribly in the wrong. And personally, as a person who has to keep making a living and having a career of some sort, and who might just be digging their own grave.
---
I know that other questions have been asked regarding feeling unqualified for a position, but I believe there are two main differences between this question and those.
・Firstly, the answers to those questions have often been "Actually, you're completely qualified! Pat yourself on the back and relax." I am completely confident that this is not the case in my situation. Perhaps I am mistaken, but this question will take it as a given that the employee in question (namely, me) is unqualified.
and
・Secondly, in this case the unqualified person makes up the entire department, and there is therefore no one in the company with the expertise to properly evaluate their skills. | 2021/10/27 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/179546",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | ### Sounds like you're a data scientist to me.
Remember, data scientists often spend [much of their time cleaning data](https://blog.ldodds.com/2020/01/31/do-data-scientists-spend-80-of-their-time-cleaning-data-turns-out-no/) (even if it might not be the 80% figure commonly quoted). If your entire job involves cleaning data and producing visualizations, it sounds like you're doing data science to me. You might not be doing the most impactful data science in the world, but producing graphs of sales by product is still useful for management staff to make decisions with (even if those decisions might not be visible to you). For instance, it might help them decide if a product is selling sufficiently to justify its existence, or to make decisions about inventory levels or about when they need to expand manufacturing for particular products.
Of course, if you want to make higher-quality insights, you might need higher-quality data. You can't make observations about customer behavior without customer data, for instance. You may want to investigate the potential to gain access to that sort of data, if you haven't already done so, and don't already have access to it. It might be possible for you to draw connections between the items that customers often buy, classify customers into groups who buy certain products, or even derive predictions of which customers are pregnant, for instance. If you don't know how to do that, it might suggest a path for you to investigate.
Also, I'd recommend trying to deal with impostor syndrome, and certainly to stop complaining to HR about it! It's possible that if you keep on with it for long enough, they might believe you and you'll find yourself out of a job. | #### You're not doing anything morally wrong
>
> I feel terrified, both morally and personally, that this is wrong, and that it's going to explode in my face before long
>
>
> ...
>
>
> But my sense continues to grow that they just really don't understand how untoward this situation is.
>
>
> I don't know what to do. Both morally, as a person who want to do the right thing yet feels horribly in the wrong. And personally, as a person who has to keep making a living and having a career of some sort, and who might just be digging their own grave.
>
>
>
I think you're catastrophizing the situation a bit. No-one's died, no-one's gone to prison. You've been very clear and honest with the company about your skills and experience. You're not misleading them, and you're putting in a lot of effort to complete their very vaguely-defined tasks, while trying to both define a new role at this company, and *learn how to actually do it*, almost entirely on your own.
It sounds like you've convinced yourself that the company isn't getting sufficient value out of you, but that's not your decision to make. You're not the CEO. It's up to the company how they spend their money, and right now they're happy spending it on your salary while you try to become a data scientist. I believe data scientists are currently in high demand, so they might not even be able to hire anyone with more experience than you.
#### But is this a job you want to learn?
>
> personally, I'm not getting any meaningful experience. I'm not meaningfully developing as a professional
>
>
>
Brief counterpoint: learning how to train yourself, and establish an ill-defined role at a company where management themselves don't really know what the role is, is actually pretty meaningful experience, even though it's really tough. Situations like this aren't hugely uncommon. Most companies have to innovate how they do things, and if you can get good at doing that, you're incredibly valuable.
But I do think the most important question to ask yourself is whether you *want* to be a data scientist. Establishing a role at a company while learning how to do that role is, as discussed, really hard work.
If you're enjoying getting into the data science, great! This is an excellent opportunity for you to learn how to do the job, and a excellent opportunity for the company to get a (probably relatively cheap) data scientist who's learned how to do exactly what they need, and nothing else.
But if you really don't want to become a data scientist, trying to force yourself to become one (especially with so little support and guidance) is a really tough task. For your own happiness, it might be worth trying to move into a job you actually do want to do. |
179,546 | I started working at my current company earlier this year, and I'm concerned that I am wildly unqualified for the role.
In the part of the world where I live and work, the standard practice is to apply to a company (not to a role). In the interviews the company and candidate "get to know" one another, and there will of course be discussion of what sorts of skills the candidate has, as well as what *sorts* of work are available at the company. But it's not at all strange for a candidate to not know what department they'll be working in before their first day. (Although generally placement will be made after training and evaluation in the first few weeks. I assume that this usually results in a fairly good match, since it is still so widespread).
I applied to my current company because of my interest in their field, and in the interviews I received a very favourable impression of their culture.
They seemed interested in my work history with data analysis. And they asked whether I knew any Python, to which I responded that I had studied a bit, privately and not in connection with my previous position.
I was glad to receive an offer, although it only enumerated where my position would fit into their hierarchy. I nevertheless thought I had a fairly decent idea what my work would entail, and this all seemed natural for this part of the world.
I discovered on day one that I was to be a data scientist. And, what is more, the only data scientist in the company. I am the entire department.
I am not a data scientist.
I'm mathematically literate. I took calculus and physics in college.
And I'm quite good with computers (as a consumer). I understand programming structures, and how computers access and use data. But all as a layman.
I have a few years experience in data analysis, but this was a completely backwards company that had their entire data base saved in excel files with filenames incremented for each year-month, going back twenty years.
And I've taken an introductory course on data science and programming in Python, SQL, and R, but this was just introductory.
The company seems to have understood when hiring me that I *was not* a data scientist, but they intended that I would *become* one. How they imagined this would happen is an open question, because there are no training programs or experienced colleagues to guide me, and there is the constant expectation of output, by means of actionable reports.
I've done my best. I've made a training plan, and studied the contents of Hadley Wickham's "R for Data Science" and "Advanced R" books. And I've kept up my output, turning in reports that (apparently) look like data science, but which amount to "here's a graph of sales by month, with a trend line. Here it is by product tag. Here it is by category."
Admittedly, the company has not done well with communicating what they want from any given analysis. It's instead been a continuous repeat of "here's a set of sales figures and dates. Do analysis." And despite my attempts to wring out what exactly their questions or interests in this data is, or to acquire more or more useful data, there doesn't yet seem to be much chance of improvement.
So far my work has achieved absolutely nothing. Nothing I've submitted has had any impact on the company's future direction or current actions. And although it can't be said that I've made *no* progress in developing my skills, this really isn't the way to go about training a functional data scientist. They've been wasting their money on me.
And yet they don't seem to realize it, or not to care.
Both my immediate supervisor and the president of the company are very interested in what data science can offer, and very eager to know what sorts of things I'm working on, but they don't know nearly enough to accurately judge a data scientist's skills or output. And they're (so far) perfectly happy with what I've been outputting, despite it changing nothing.
I feel terrified, both morally and personally, that this is wrong, and that it's going to explode in my face before long.
I'm not contributing, and so I'm getting paid as if under false pretenses. I'm not comfortable with this.
And personally, I'm not getting any meaningful experience. I'm not meaningfully developing as a professional, and if they ever wake up and fire me, or I grow a spine and quit (as I fear, morally, I really ought to), then I'll have wasted my time completely, and be that much worse off trying to find another job.
I've told the company, three times now, to three different people (including HR and my immediate supervisor), that I'm not confident that I'm doing good work. That I'm not confident that I have the skills necessary for this position. And that the best piece of analysis that I can give them is that they should save my salary by getting rid of me, and then hiring an experienced *actual* data scientist. But they take the position that everything's fine, and they know it'll take time to get used to things, and all of that. But my sense continues to grow that they just really don't understand how untoward this situation is.
I don't know what to do. Both morally, as a person who want to do the right thing yet feels horribly in the wrong. And personally, as a person who has to keep making a living and having a career of some sort, and who might just be digging their own grave.
---
I know that other questions have been asked regarding feeling unqualified for a position, but I believe there are two main differences between this question and those.
・Firstly, the answers to those questions have often been "Actually, you're completely qualified! Pat yourself on the back and relax." I am completely confident that this is not the case in my situation. Perhaps I am mistaken, but this question will take it as a given that the employee in question (namely, me) is unqualified.
and
・Secondly, in this case the unqualified person makes up the entire department, and there is therefore no one in the company with the expertise to properly evaluate their skills. | 2021/10/27 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/179546",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | ### Sounds like you're a data scientist to me.
Remember, data scientists often spend [much of their time cleaning data](https://blog.ldodds.com/2020/01/31/do-data-scientists-spend-80-of-their-time-cleaning-data-turns-out-no/) (even if it might not be the 80% figure commonly quoted). If your entire job involves cleaning data and producing visualizations, it sounds like you're doing data science to me. You might not be doing the most impactful data science in the world, but producing graphs of sales by product is still useful for management staff to make decisions with (even if those decisions might not be visible to you). For instance, it might help them decide if a product is selling sufficiently to justify its existence, or to make decisions about inventory levels or about when they need to expand manufacturing for particular products.
Of course, if you want to make higher-quality insights, you might need higher-quality data. You can't make observations about customer behavior without customer data, for instance. You may want to investigate the potential to gain access to that sort of data, if you haven't already done so, and don't already have access to it. It might be possible for you to draw connections between the items that customers often buy, classify customers into groups who buy certain products, or even derive predictions of which customers are pregnant, for instance. If you don't know how to do that, it might suggest a path for you to investigate.
Also, I'd recommend trying to deal with impostor syndrome, and certainly to stop complaining to HR about it! It's possible that if you keep on with it for long enough, they might believe you and you'll find yourself out of a job. | It sounds like you're dealing with some major Imposter Syndrome.
Ultimately, if your employer is happy with what they're getting out of you, and you're being paid. That's your employee-obligations filled and you're golden.
That they're doing it by the least efficient or effective means possible is in no way your problem.
That they could do better with someone trained and qualified is not your problem either.
As you note though, if they "wake up" and realise that they could simply hire someone who actually knows the material from the get-go and get better results.
That'd probably put you out of a job and you'd have to find something new.
It's therefore in your interest to get good at the job and do so quickly.
What shouldn't be understated though is that you're in an amazing position here:
You have the resources to learn a whole field and currently have low expectations on your productivity, meaning you have the time and resources to push your career further.
Exploit that to the hilt.
Become the Data-Scientist you believe you should be.
It's always okay to make yourself overqualified for your job.
If your employer is presented with your additional capability, you will be in a position to ask for raises, and more than capable of going to another company if you don't get one.
Remember that Self-Taught is not a bad thing either.
You might be self-taught, but in my field as a software developer *everyone* is.
It is understood that a university course will only teach broad theory and introductory practical material. If you want to be a professional developer, you will need to learn multiple programming languages, plugins, tools and a massive spread of esoteric knowledge which changes and expands constantly from year to year.
No university or college could ever teach a person all the knowledge and skills required to do my job in a few short years.
Almost every software developer is therefore primarily self-taught, usually on the job, and we have to keep learning because the technology is constantly changing underfoot.
Being self-taught is the normal state of things in my field, the IT Industry and indeed Data-Science.
Don't let that worry you.
Build a spread of practical duties that you perform for your company, make notes, make a clear list of what you can do.
Try and expand that list as you do more things.
Then when you eventually move on to another business, put that list in your CV.
Remember that the difference between a professional and an amateur is mostly whether you get paid to do it.
If the imposter-syndrome flares up, read that list again.
Remember that every single thing on that list is something you can do that most people don't know how to do.
That exclusivity is why you are being paid, and the more things you can put on that list, the better you justify your paycheck. |
179,546 | I started working at my current company earlier this year, and I'm concerned that I am wildly unqualified for the role.
In the part of the world where I live and work, the standard practice is to apply to a company (not to a role). In the interviews the company and candidate "get to know" one another, and there will of course be discussion of what sorts of skills the candidate has, as well as what *sorts* of work are available at the company. But it's not at all strange for a candidate to not know what department they'll be working in before their first day. (Although generally placement will be made after training and evaluation in the first few weeks. I assume that this usually results in a fairly good match, since it is still so widespread).
I applied to my current company because of my interest in their field, and in the interviews I received a very favourable impression of their culture.
They seemed interested in my work history with data analysis. And they asked whether I knew any Python, to which I responded that I had studied a bit, privately and not in connection with my previous position.
I was glad to receive an offer, although it only enumerated where my position would fit into their hierarchy. I nevertheless thought I had a fairly decent idea what my work would entail, and this all seemed natural for this part of the world.
I discovered on day one that I was to be a data scientist. And, what is more, the only data scientist in the company. I am the entire department.
I am not a data scientist.
I'm mathematically literate. I took calculus and physics in college.
And I'm quite good with computers (as a consumer). I understand programming structures, and how computers access and use data. But all as a layman.
I have a few years experience in data analysis, but this was a completely backwards company that had their entire data base saved in excel files with filenames incremented for each year-month, going back twenty years.
And I've taken an introductory course on data science and programming in Python, SQL, and R, but this was just introductory.
The company seems to have understood when hiring me that I *was not* a data scientist, but they intended that I would *become* one. How they imagined this would happen is an open question, because there are no training programs or experienced colleagues to guide me, and there is the constant expectation of output, by means of actionable reports.
I've done my best. I've made a training plan, and studied the contents of Hadley Wickham's "R for Data Science" and "Advanced R" books. And I've kept up my output, turning in reports that (apparently) look like data science, but which amount to "here's a graph of sales by month, with a trend line. Here it is by product tag. Here it is by category."
Admittedly, the company has not done well with communicating what they want from any given analysis. It's instead been a continuous repeat of "here's a set of sales figures and dates. Do analysis." And despite my attempts to wring out what exactly their questions or interests in this data is, or to acquire more or more useful data, there doesn't yet seem to be much chance of improvement.
So far my work has achieved absolutely nothing. Nothing I've submitted has had any impact on the company's future direction or current actions. And although it can't be said that I've made *no* progress in developing my skills, this really isn't the way to go about training a functional data scientist. They've been wasting their money on me.
And yet they don't seem to realize it, or not to care.
Both my immediate supervisor and the president of the company are very interested in what data science can offer, and very eager to know what sorts of things I'm working on, but they don't know nearly enough to accurately judge a data scientist's skills or output. And they're (so far) perfectly happy with what I've been outputting, despite it changing nothing.
I feel terrified, both morally and personally, that this is wrong, and that it's going to explode in my face before long.
I'm not contributing, and so I'm getting paid as if under false pretenses. I'm not comfortable with this.
And personally, I'm not getting any meaningful experience. I'm not meaningfully developing as a professional, and if they ever wake up and fire me, or I grow a spine and quit (as I fear, morally, I really ought to), then I'll have wasted my time completely, and be that much worse off trying to find another job.
I've told the company, three times now, to three different people (including HR and my immediate supervisor), that I'm not confident that I'm doing good work. That I'm not confident that I have the skills necessary for this position. And that the best piece of analysis that I can give them is that they should save my salary by getting rid of me, and then hiring an experienced *actual* data scientist. But they take the position that everything's fine, and they know it'll take time to get used to things, and all of that. But my sense continues to grow that they just really don't understand how untoward this situation is.
I don't know what to do. Both morally, as a person who want to do the right thing yet feels horribly in the wrong. And personally, as a person who has to keep making a living and having a career of some sort, and who might just be digging their own grave.
---
I know that other questions have been asked regarding feeling unqualified for a position, but I believe there are two main differences between this question and those.
・Firstly, the answers to those questions have often been "Actually, you're completely qualified! Pat yourself on the back and relax." I am completely confident that this is not the case in my situation. Perhaps I am mistaken, but this question will take it as a given that the employee in question (namely, me) is unqualified.
and
・Secondly, in this case the unqualified person makes up the entire department, and there is therefore no one in the company with the expertise to properly evaluate their skills. | 2021/10/27 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/179546",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | #### You're not doing anything morally wrong
>
> I feel terrified, both morally and personally, that this is wrong, and that it's going to explode in my face before long
>
>
> ...
>
>
> But my sense continues to grow that they just really don't understand how untoward this situation is.
>
>
> I don't know what to do. Both morally, as a person who want to do the right thing yet feels horribly in the wrong. And personally, as a person who has to keep making a living and having a career of some sort, and who might just be digging their own grave.
>
>
>
I think you're catastrophizing the situation a bit. No-one's died, no-one's gone to prison. You've been very clear and honest with the company about your skills and experience. You're not misleading them, and you're putting in a lot of effort to complete their very vaguely-defined tasks, while trying to both define a new role at this company, and *learn how to actually do it*, almost entirely on your own.
It sounds like you've convinced yourself that the company isn't getting sufficient value out of you, but that's not your decision to make. You're not the CEO. It's up to the company how they spend their money, and right now they're happy spending it on your salary while you try to become a data scientist. I believe data scientists are currently in high demand, so they might not even be able to hire anyone with more experience than you.
#### But is this a job you want to learn?
>
> personally, I'm not getting any meaningful experience. I'm not meaningfully developing as a professional
>
>
>
Brief counterpoint: learning how to train yourself, and establish an ill-defined role at a company where management themselves don't really know what the role is, is actually pretty meaningful experience, even though it's really tough. Situations like this aren't hugely uncommon. Most companies have to innovate how they do things, and if you can get good at doing that, you're incredibly valuable.
But I do think the most important question to ask yourself is whether you *want* to be a data scientist. Establishing a role at a company while learning how to do that role is, as discussed, really hard work.
If you're enjoying getting into the data science, great! This is an excellent opportunity for you to learn how to do the job, and a excellent opportunity for the company to get a (probably relatively cheap) data scientist who's learned how to do exactly what they need, and nothing else.
But if you really don't want to become a data scientist, trying to force yourself to become one (especially with so little support and guidance) is a really tough task. For your own happiness, it might be worth trying to move into a job you actually do want to do. | Take a deep breath. You're actually fine.
Your company hired you, knowing full well that they don't know anything, and that they like you, and like what you have done so far, and you seem to be able to build good rapport. This is great.
You also know that you're not a data scientist, which is, actually fine too. Here is a pyramid on what needs to be done (this is a multi-**year** project):
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/YqVn5.png)
If your company has data in spreadsheets, you guys don't even have the first step of Data Acquisition done yet. You need to learn this pyramid, give your leaders an honest projection about what needs to happen before seeing results from the top tier.
This company may want you to lead them into the next digital age, so you may have to do some courses (on their dime of course...) The way I see it, they're not remotely setup to do any real "data science" work, and even hiring a real data scientists isn't going to solve it because none of the foundation or infrastructure even exists.
Go back to your boss, ask them if it is their long term goals to have real data science as part of their business, and plan your next move from there. |
179,546 | I started working at my current company earlier this year, and I'm concerned that I am wildly unqualified for the role.
In the part of the world where I live and work, the standard practice is to apply to a company (not to a role). In the interviews the company and candidate "get to know" one another, and there will of course be discussion of what sorts of skills the candidate has, as well as what *sorts* of work are available at the company. But it's not at all strange for a candidate to not know what department they'll be working in before their first day. (Although generally placement will be made after training and evaluation in the first few weeks. I assume that this usually results in a fairly good match, since it is still so widespread).
I applied to my current company because of my interest in their field, and in the interviews I received a very favourable impression of their culture.
They seemed interested in my work history with data analysis. And they asked whether I knew any Python, to which I responded that I had studied a bit, privately and not in connection with my previous position.
I was glad to receive an offer, although it only enumerated where my position would fit into their hierarchy. I nevertheless thought I had a fairly decent idea what my work would entail, and this all seemed natural for this part of the world.
I discovered on day one that I was to be a data scientist. And, what is more, the only data scientist in the company. I am the entire department.
I am not a data scientist.
I'm mathematically literate. I took calculus and physics in college.
And I'm quite good with computers (as a consumer). I understand programming structures, and how computers access and use data. But all as a layman.
I have a few years experience in data analysis, but this was a completely backwards company that had their entire data base saved in excel files with filenames incremented for each year-month, going back twenty years.
And I've taken an introductory course on data science and programming in Python, SQL, and R, but this was just introductory.
The company seems to have understood when hiring me that I *was not* a data scientist, but they intended that I would *become* one. How they imagined this would happen is an open question, because there are no training programs or experienced colleagues to guide me, and there is the constant expectation of output, by means of actionable reports.
I've done my best. I've made a training plan, and studied the contents of Hadley Wickham's "R for Data Science" and "Advanced R" books. And I've kept up my output, turning in reports that (apparently) look like data science, but which amount to "here's a graph of sales by month, with a trend line. Here it is by product tag. Here it is by category."
Admittedly, the company has not done well with communicating what they want from any given analysis. It's instead been a continuous repeat of "here's a set of sales figures and dates. Do analysis." And despite my attempts to wring out what exactly their questions or interests in this data is, or to acquire more or more useful data, there doesn't yet seem to be much chance of improvement.
So far my work has achieved absolutely nothing. Nothing I've submitted has had any impact on the company's future direction or current actions. And although it can't be said that I've made *no* progress in developing my skills, this really isn't the way to go about training a functional data scientist. They've been wasting their money on me.
And yet they don't seem to realize it, or not to care.
Both my immediate supervisor and the president of the company are very interested in what data science can offer, and very eager to know what sorts of things I'm working on, but they don't know nearly enough to accurately judge a data scientist's skills or output. And they're (so far) perfectly happy with what I've been outputting, despite it changing nothing.
I feel terrified, both morally and personally, that this is wrong, and that it's going to explode in my face before long.
I'm not contributing, and so I'm getting paid as if under false pretenses. I'm not comfortable with this.
And personally, I'm not getting any meaningful experience. I'm not meaningfully developing as a professional, and if they ever wake up and fire me, or I grow a spine and quit (as I fear, morally, I really ought to), then I'll have wasted my time completely, and be that much worse off trying to find another job.
I've told the company, three times now, to three different people (including HR and my immediate supervisor), that I'm not confident that I'm doing good work. That I'm not confident that I have the skills necessary for this position. And that the best piece of analysis that I can give them is that they should save my salary by getting rid of me, and then hiring an experienced *actual* data scientist. But they take the position that everything's fine, and they know it'll take time to get used to things, and all of that. But my sense continues to grow that they just really don't understand how untoward this situation is.
I don't know what to do. Both morally, as a person who want to do the right thing yet feels horribly in the wrong. And personally, as a person who has to keep making a living and having a career of some sort, and who might just be digging their own grave.
---
I know that other questions have been asked regarding feeling unqualified for a position, but I believe there are two main differences between this question and those.
・Firstly, the answers to those questions have often been "Actually, you're completely qualified! Pat yourself on the back and relax." I am completely confident that this is not the case in my situation. Perhaps I am mistaken, but this question will take it as a given that the employee in question (namely, me) is unqualified.
and
・Secondly, in this case the unqualified person makes up the entire department, and there is therefore no one in the company with the expertise to properly evaluate their skills. | 2021/10/27 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/179546",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | Take a deep breath. You're actually fine.
Your company hired you, knowing full well that they don't know anything, and that they like you, and like what you have done so far, and you seem to be able to build good rapport. This is great.
You also know that you're not a data scientist, which is, actually fine too. Here is a pyramid on what needs to be done (this is a multi-**year** project):
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/YqVn5.png)
If your company has data in spreadsheets, you guys don't even have the first step of Data Acquisition done yet. You need to learn this pyramid, give your leaders an honest projection about what needs to happen before seeing results from the top tier.
This company may want you to lead them into the next digital age, so you may have to do some courses (on their dime of course...) The way I see it, they're not remotely setup to do any real "data science" work, and even hiring a real data scientists isn't going to solve it because none of the foundation or infrastructure even exists.
Go back to your boss, ask them if it is their long term goals to have real data science as part of their business, and plan your next move from there. | It sounds like you're dealing with some major Imposter Syndrome.
Ultimately, if your employer is happy with what they're getting out of you, and you're being paid. That's your employee-obligations filled and you're golden.
That they're doing it by the least efficient or effective means possible is in no way your problem.
That they could do better with someone trained and qualified is not your problem either.
As you note though, if they "wake up" and realise that they could simply hire someone who actually knows the material from the get-go and get better results.
That'd probably put you out of a job and you'd have to find something new.
It's therefore in your interest to get good at the job and do so quickly.
What shouldn't be understated though is that you're in an amazing position here:
You have the resources to learn a whole field and currently have low expectations on your productivity, meaning you have the time and resources to push your career further.
Exploit that to the hilt.
Become the Data-Scientist you believe you should be.
It's always okay to make yourself overqualified for your job.
If your employer is presented with your additional capability, you will be in a position to ask for raises, and more than capable of going to another company if you don't get one.
Remember that Self-Taught is not a bad thing either.
You might be self-taught, but in my field as a software developer *everyone* is.
It is understood that a university course will only teach broad theory and introductory practical material. If you want to be a professional developer, you will need to learn multiple programming languages, plugins, tools and a massive spread of esoteric knowledge which changes and expands constantly from year to year.
No university or college could ever teach a person all the knowledge and skills required to do my job in a few short years.
Almost every software developer is therefore primarily self-taught, usually on the job, and we have to keep learning because the technology is constantly changing underfoot.
Being self-taught is the normal state of things in my field, the IT Industry and indeed Data-Science.
Don't let that worry you.
Build a spread of practical duties that you perform for your company, make notes, make a clear list of what you can do.
Try and expand that list as you do more things.
Then when you eventually move on to another business, put that list in your CV.
Remember that the difference between a professional and an amateur is mostly whether you get paid to do it.
If the imposter-syndrome flares up, read that list again.
Remember that every single thing on that list is something you can do that most people don't know how to do.
That exclusivity is why you are being paid, and the more things you can put on that list, the better you justify your paycheck. |
179,546 | I started working at my current company earlier this year, and I'm concerned that I am wildly unqualified for the role.
In the part of the world where I live and work, the standard practice is to apply to a company (not to a role). In the interviews the company and candidate "get to know" one another, and there will of course be discussion of what sorts of skills the candidate has, as well as what *sorts* of work are available at the company. But it's not at all strange for a candidate to not know what department they'll be working in before their first day. (Although generally placement will be made after training and evaluation in the first few weeks. I assume that this usually results in a fairly good match, since it is still so widespread).
I applied to my current company because of my interest in their field, and in the interviews I received a very favourable impression of their culture.
They seemed interested in my work history with data analysis. And they asked whether I knew any Python, to which I responded that I had studied a bit, privately and not in connection with my previous position.
I was glad to receive an offer, although it only enumerated where my position would fit into their hierarchy. I nevertheless thought I had a fairly decent idea what my work would entail, and this all seemed natural for this part of the world.
I discovered on day one that I was to be a data scientist. And, what is more, the only data scientist in the company. I am the entire department.
I am not a data scientist.
I'm mathematically literate. I took calculus and physics in college.
And I'm quite good with computers (as a consumer). I understand programming structures, and how computers access and use data. But all as a layman.
I have a few years experience in data analysis, but this was a completely backwards company that had their entire data base saved in excel files with filenames incremented for each year-month, going back twenty years.
And I've taken an introductory course on data science and programming in Python, SQL, and R, but this was just introductory.
The company seems to have understood when hiring me that I *was not* a data scientist, but they intended that I would *become* one. How they imagined this would happen is an open question, because there are no training programs or experienced colleagues to guide me, and there is the constant expectation of output, by means of actionable reports.
I've done my best. I've made a training plan, and studied the contents of Hadley Wickham's "R for Data Science" and "Advanced R" books. And I've kept up my output, turning in reports that (apparently) look like data science, but which amount to "here's a graph of sales by month, with a trend line. Here it is by product tag. Here it is by category."
Admittedly, the company has not done well with communicating what they want from any given analysis. It's instead been a continuous repeat of "here's a set of sales figures and dates. Do analysis." And despite my attempts to wring out what exactly their questions or interests in this data is, or to acquire more or more useful data, there doesn't yet seem to be much chance of improvement.
So far my work has achieved absolutely nothing. Nothing I've submitted has had any impact on the company's future direction or current actions. And although it can't be said that I've made *no* progress in developing my skills, this really isn't the way to go about training a functional data scientist. They've been wasting their money on me.
And yet they don't seem to realize it, or not to care.
Both my immediate supervisor and the president of the company are very interested in what data science can offer, and very eager to know what sorts of things I'm working on, but they don't know nearly enough to accurately judge a data scientist's skills or output. And they're (so far) perfectly happy with what I've been outputting, despite it changing nothing.
I feel terrified, both morally and personally, that this is wrong, and that it's going to explode in my face before long.
I'm not contributing, and so I'm getting paid as if under false pretenses. I'm not comfortable with this.
And personally, I'm not getting any meaningful experience. I'm not meaningfully developing as a professional, and if they ever wake up and fire me, or I grow a spine and quit (as I fear, morally, I really ought to), then I'll have wasted my time completely, and be that much worse off trying to find another job.
I've told the company, three times now, to three different people (including HR and my immediate supervisor), that I'm not confident that I'm doing good work. That I'm not confident that I have the skills necessary for this position. And that the best piece of analysis that I can give them is that they should save my salary by getting rid of me, and then hiring an experienced *actual* data scientist. But they take the position that everything's fine, and they know it'll take time to get used to things, and all of that. But my sense continues to grow that they just really don't understand how untoward this situation is.
I don't know what to do. Both morally, as a person who want to do the right thing yet feels horribly in the wrong. And personally, as a person who has to keep making a living and having a career of some sort, and who might just be digging their own grave.
---
I know that other questions have been asked regarding feeling unqualified for a position, but I believe there are two main differences between this question and those.
・Firstly, the answers to those questions have often been "Actually, you're completely qualified! Pat yourself on the back and relax." I am completely confident that this is not the case in my situation. Perhaps I am mistaken, but this question will take it as a given that the employee in question (namely, me) is unqualified.
and
・Secondly, in this case the unqualified person makes up the entire department, and there is therefore no one in the company with the expertise to properly evaluate their skills. | 2021/10/27 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/179546",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | #### You're not doing anything morally wrong
>
> I feel terrified, both morally and personally, that this is wrong, and that it's going to explode in my face before long
>
>
> ...
>
>
> But my sense continues to grow that they just really don't understand how untoward this situation is.
>
>
> I don't know what to do. Both morally, as a person who want to do the right thing yet feels horribly in the wrong. And personally, as a person who has to keep making a living and having a career of some sort, and who might just be digging their own grave.
>
>
>
I think you're catastrophizing the situation a bit. No-one's died, no-one's gone to prison. You've been very clear and honest with the company about your skills and experience. You're not misleading them, and you're putting in a lot of effort to complete their very vaguely-defined tasks, while trying to both define a new role at this company, and *learn how to actually do it*, almost entirely on your own.
It sounds like you've convinced yourself that the company isn't getting sufficient value out of you, but that's not your decision to make. You're not the CEO. It's up to the company how they spend their money, and right now they're happy spending it on your salary while you try to become a data scientist. I believe data scientists are currently in high demand, so they might not even be able to hire anyone with more experience than you.
#### But is this a job you want to learn?
>
> personally, I'm not getting any meaningful experience. I'm not meaningfully developing as a professional
>
>
>
Brief counterpoint: learning how to train yourself, and establish an ill-defined role at a company where management themselves don't really know what the role is, is actually pretty meaningful experience, even though it's really tough. Situations like this aren't hugely uncommon. Most companies have to innovate how they do things, and if you can get good at doing that, you're incredibly valuable.
But I do think the most important question to ask yourself is whether you *want* to be a data scientist. Establishing a role at a company while learning how to do that role is, as discussed, really hard work.
If you're enjoying getting into the data science, great! This is an excellent opportunity for you to learn how to do the job, and a excellent opportunity for the company to get a (probably relatively cheap) data scientist who's learned how to do exactly what they need, and nothing else.
But if you really don't want to become a data scientist, trying to force yourself to become one (especially with so little support and guidance) is a really tough task. For your own happiness, it might be worth trying to move into a job you actually do want to do. | It sounds like you're dealing with some major Imposter Syndrome.
Ultimately, if your employer is happy with what they're getting out of you, and you're being paid. That's your employee-obligations filled and you're golden.
That they're doing it by the least efficient or effective means possible is in no way your problem.
That they could do better with someone trained and qualified is not your problem either.
As you note though, if they "wake up" and realise that they could simply hire someone who actually knows the material from the get-go and get better results.
That'd probably put you out of a job and you'd have to find something new.
It's therefore in your interest to get good at the job and do so quickly.
What shouldn't be understated though is that you're in an amazing position here:
You have the resources to learn a whole field and currently have low expectations on your productivity, meaning you have the time and resources to push your career further.
Exploit that to the hilt.
Become the Data-Scientist you believe you should be.
It's always okay to make yourself overqualified for your job.
If your employer is presented with your additional capability, you will be in a position to ask for raises, and more than capable of going to another company if you don't get one.
Remember that Self-Taught is not a bad thing either.
You might be self-taught, but in my field as a software developer *everyone* is.
It is understood that a university course will only teach broad theory and introductory practical material. If you want to be a professional developer, you will need to learn multiple programming languages, plugins, tools and a massive spread of esoteric knowledge which changes and expands constantly from year to year.
No university or college could ever teach a person all the knowledge and skills required to do my job in a few short years.
Almost every software developer is therefore primarily self-taught, usually on the job, and we have to keep learning because the technology is constantly changing underfoot.
Being self-taught is the normal state of things in my field, the IT Industry and indeed Data-Science.
Don't let that worry you.
Build a spread of practical duties that you perform for your company, make notes, make a clear list of what you can do.
Try and expand that list as you do more things.
Then when you eventually move on to another business, put that list in your CV.
Remember that the difference between a professional and an amateur is mostly whether you get paid to do it.
If the imposter-syndrome flares up, read that list again.
Remember that every single thing on that list is something you can do that most people don't know how to do.
That exclusivity is why you are being paid, and the more things you can put on that list, the better you justify your paycheck. |
155,335 | I have VM1 acting as an Active Directory and DNS server, and have installed [SmarterMail (Free)](http://www.smartertools.com/smartermail/free-mail-server.aspx) on VM2.
If I remote desktop to VM2 I can connect to the mail server fine if I use 127.0.0.1:25. However if I use the computer name VM2:25 or VM2.domain.local:25 the connection times out.
In DNS I've added an MX record and pointed it back to VM2. This didn't make any difference.
I've checked the firewall settings (although I wouldn't think they would apply when logged on to the local machine) and added a rule for TCP on ports 25 and 110.
Still I can't connect when using the actual machine name. Any ideas?
**Update based on [Jim B's answer](https://serverfault.com/questions/155335/unable-to-connect-to-local-mail-server-in-simple-windows-network/155337#155337):**
1. I can ping vm2 and get its IPv6 address returned.
2. Turning off Windows Firewall makes no difference.
3. I've tried enabling every relevant setting without success. (In terms of relay, the default settings seem to let you log in but won't let you relay without an account.)
I didn't mention there are two NICs on this VM, one set on the internal network of 192.168.200.*x* and the other set on NAT. I've bound SmarterMail to 192.168.200.*x* but alas still no progress. | 2010/06/27 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/155335",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/1376/"
] | If you cannot connect there is probably a firewall problem. An MX record is used by other mailservers to look up the ip of the mailserver for the domain specified so it will not affect the ability to connect at all.
I would:
1. ping vm2 and verify the IP returned
2. turn off windows firewall and see if you can connect to the IP of vm2.
3. verify that there are no connection setting inside of smartermail that prevent connections from hosts. Some mail servers have settings that will prevent it from taking mail connections from unspecified IP addresses. | I was able to find SmarterMail binding to 127.0.0.1 instead of 192.168.200.2 (the IP of VM2). After changing that I was able to successfully use telnet to connect to ports 25 and 110.
Unfortunately Outlook still refused to connect, but as SmarterMail has a webmail feature, that is a "good enough" solution for now. |
118,322 | Let's say you had a doctoral student who you were main supervisor for {~advisor) throughout their data collection and most of their write-up, but just before they finished they changed to another main supervisor and you became deputy supervisor (you moved to a new institution in another country and they wanted someone close at hand). Let's say you then counted this student on your CV as supervised to completion as main supervisor because this is 90% true and because these CV points are important for things like promotion. The plan if anyone ever called you out on this would be to just explain the situation as it is and say that 90% of the work felt like it justified the claim. The student is in Sweden (where the regulations say students have the right to supervisor change without even having to make a case) and the supervisor is a Lecturer (~associate prof) at a UK university who wants to make Reader (~full prof) some day. Is this a bad idea? What is likely to go wrong? | 2018/10/12 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/118322",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/99183/"
] | On a generic CV, I would simply make a section of "Graduate students supervised and co-supervised", and include this student. In this context it wouldn't be necessary to go into detail about whether the supervision was "to completion".
But for something like a promotion dossier, where you're asked to tick boxes, I would go to whoever is responsible for overseeing the evaluation process (department head, promotion committee chair, etc), explain the situation, and ask what you should do. If at all possible, get an answer in writing. Then, when you fill out the form, attach a note saying something like:
>
> One student was supervised by me for about 90% of their thesis work (stages X, Y, Z), and then changed supervisors for the last 10%; I am officially listed as their deputy supervisor. I spoke with Department Head Smith on October 24, 2018, and she advised that it was appropriate to include this student as "supervised to completion".
>
>
>
If Smith says "no, don't count it", then you attach a similar note saying "Smith said not to include this student, but I believe that this is a similar accomplishment to supervising a student to completion".
Since academic achievement is generally self-reported and "honor system", this means that any attempt to "cheat" is seen as a serious ethical offense. If someone on the evaluation committee is hostile to you, they could use something like this as ammunition to wreck your entire promotion case. ("Candidate says supervised to completion, but student's dissertation shows someone else as supervisor. Clear-cut fraud.") So that's what could go wrong. But if you disclose the situation, and get someone else to pre-approve the way you're filling the form, you eliminate the possibility; maybe it won't be counted in your favor, but at least you can't be accused of fraud. | The fact that you ask, makes me think that you believe it would be at least a bit wrong. Anything that looks like dishonesty in an academic's statements or record can be very serious.
I suggest two things. One is to be completely honest about it as you have been here. But the other is to talk to the student in question and perhaps get a statement/recommendation from him/her about your helpfulness. A recommendation from a student for a professor might be a very powerful statement to a hiring committee. |
118,322 | Let's say you had a doctoral student who you were main supervisor for {~advisor) throughout their data collection and most of their write-up, but just before they finished they changed to another main supervisor and you became deputy supervisor (you moved to a new institution in another country and they wanted someone close at hand). Let's say you then counted this student on your CV as supervised to completion as main supervisor because this is 90% true and because these CV points are important for things like promotion. The plan if anyone ever called you out on this would be to just explain the situation as it is and say that 90% of the work felt like it justified the claim. The student is in Sweden (where the regulations say students have the right to supervisor change without even having to make a case) and the supervisor is a Lecturer (~associate prof) at a UK university who wants to make Reader (~full prof) some day. Is this a bad idea? What is likely to go wrong? | 2018/10/12 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/118322",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/99183/"
] | The fact that you ask, makes me think that you believe it would be at least a bit wrong. Anything that looks like dishonesty in an academic's statements or record can be very serious.
I suggest two things. One is to be completely honest about it as you have been here. But the other is to talk to the student in question and perhaps get a statement/recommendation from him/her about your helpfulness. A recommendation from a student for a professor might be a very powerful statement to a hiring committee. | ### tl;dr: Just check the binding regulations.
You're asking the wrong people. Some of us think it's bad, some of us don't. In some universities the criteria are this way, in some - that way.
So just open the administrative/academic/promotion-related regulations for your university or department, and see what it says: What *exactly* is supposed to count for promotions? If the wording is not entirely clear, consult the head of your department.
Now, you might be wondering "Ah, but what if he tells me to change my CV, while in fact the promotion committee would have never looked into it?"
Well, maybe. But:
1. It's unethical to do so.
2. The expectation of benefit/damage over both cases is not high enough for this to be appealing even if you have no ethical scruples (or if you think the promotion process is otherwise unfair).
having said all of the above I must also tell you that: **Look, you didn't supervise that PhD to completion.** What can I say? You just didn't. You had planned to do it; you would have done it, had the circumstances allowed it; you put in most of the effort towards it - sure. But at the end of the day, that's not what happened. |
118,322 | Let's say you had a doctoral student who you were main supervisor for {~advisor) throughout their data collection and most of their write-up, but just before they finished they changed to another main supervisor and you became deputy supervisor (you moved to a new institution in another country and they wanted someone close at hand). Let's say you then counted this student on your CV as supervised to completion as main supervisor because this is 90% true and because these CV points are important for things like promotion. The plan if anyone ever called you out on this would be to just explain the situation as it is and say that 90% of the work felt like it justified the claim. The student is in Sweden (where the regulations say students have the right to supervisor change without even having to make a case) and the supervisor is a Lecturer (~associate prof) at a UK university who wants to make Reader (~full prof) some day. Is this a bad idea? What is likely to go wrong? | 2018/10/12 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/118322",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/99183/"
] | On a generic CV, I would simply make a section of "Graduate students supervised and co-supervised", and include this student. In this context it wouldn't be necessary to go into detail about whether the supervision was "to completion".
But for something like a promotion dossier, where you're asked to tick boxes, I would go to whoever is responsible for overseeing the evaluation process (department head, promotion committee chair, etc), explain the situation, and ask what you should do. If at all possible, get an answer in writing. Then, when you fill out the form, attach a note saying something like:
>
> One student was supervised by me for about 90% of their thesis work (stages X, Y, Z), and then changed supervisors for the last 10%; I am officially listed as their deputy supervisor. I spoke with Department Head Smith on October 24, 2018, and she advised that it was appropriate to include this student as "supervised to completion".
>
>
>
If Smith says "no, don't count it", then you attach a similar note saying "Smith said not to include this student, but I believe that this is a similar accomplishment to supervising a student to completion".
Since academic achievement is generally self-reported and "honor system", this means that any attempt to "cheat" is seen as a serious ethical offense. If someone on the evaluation committee is hostile to you, they could use something like this as ammunition to wreck your entire promotion case. ("Candidate says supervised to completion, but student's dissertation shows someone else as supervisor. Clear-cut fraud.") So that's what could go wrong. But if you disclose the situation, and get someone else to pre-approve the way you're filling the form, you eliminate the possibility; maybe it won't be counted in your favor, but at least you can't be accused of fraud. | What could go wrong:
1. You might not be given a chance to explain it.
2. Once someone realizes you fudged this detail a little, it might call all of the other details in your cv into question. |
118,322 | Let's say you had a doctoral student who you were main supervisor for {~advisor) throughout their data collection and most of their write-up, but just before they finished they changed to another main supervisor and you became deputy supervisor (you moved to a new institution in another country and they wanted someone close at hand). Let's say you then counted this student on your CV as supervised to completion as main supervisor because this is 90% true and because these CV points are important for things like promotion. The plan if anyone ever called you out on this would be to just explain the situation as it is and say that 90% of the work felt like it justified the claim. The student is in Sweden (where the regulations say students have the right to supervisor change without even having to make a case) and the supervisor is a Lecturer (~associate prof) at a UK university who wants to make Reader (~full prof) some day. Is this a bad idea? What is likely to go wrong? | 2018/10/12 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/118322",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/99183/"
] | What could go wrong:
1. You might not be given a chance to explain it.
2. Once someone realizes you fudged this detail a little, it might call all of the other details in your cv into question. | ### tl;dr: Just check the binding regulations.
You're asking the wrong people. Some of us think it's bad, some of us don't. In some universities the criteria are this way, in some - that way.
So just open the administrative/academic/promotion-related regulations for your university or department, and see what it says: What *exactly* is supposed to count for promotions? If the wording is not entirely clear, consult the head of your department.
Now, you might be wondering "Ah, but what if he tells me to change my CV, while in fact the promotion committee would have never looked into it?"
Well, maybe. But:
1. It's unethical to do so.
2. The expectation of benefit/damage over both cases is not high enough for this to be appealing even if you have no ethical scruples (or if you think the promotion process is otherwise unfair).
having said all of the above I must also tell you that: **Look, you didn't supervise that PhD to completion.** What can I say? You just didn't. You had planned to do it; you would have done it, had the circumstances allowed it; you put in most of the effort towards it - sure. But at the end of the day, that's not what happened. |
118,322 | Let's say you had a doctoral student who you were main supervisor for {~advisor) throughout their data collection and most of their write-up, but just before they finished they changed to another main supervisor and you became deputy supervisor (you moved to a new institution in another country and they wanted someone close at hand). Let's say you then counted this student on your CV as supervised to completion as main supervisor because this is 90% true and because these CV points are important for things like promotion. The plan if anyone ever called you out on this would be to just explain the situation as it is and say that 90% of the work felt like it justified the claim. The student is in Sweden (where the regulations say students have the right to supervisor change without even having to make a case) and the supervisor is a Lecturer (~associate prof) at a UK university who wants to make Reader (~full prof) some day. Is this a bad idea? What is likely to go wrong? | 2018/10/12 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/118322",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/99183/"
] | On a generic CV, I would simply make a section of "Graduate students supervised and co-supervised", and include this student. In this context it wouldn't be necessary to go into detail about whether the supervision was "to completion".
But for something like a promotion dossier, where you're asked to tick boxes, I would go to whoever is responsible for overseeing the evaluation process (department head, promotion committee chair, etc), explain the situation, and ask what you should do. If at all possible, get an answer in writing. Then, when you fill out the form, attach a note saying something like:
>
> One student was supervised by me for about 90% of their thesis work (stages X, Y, Z), and then changed supervisors for the last 10%; I am officially listed as their deputy supervisor. I spoke with Department Head Smith on October 24, 2018, and she advised that it was appropriate to include this student as "supervised to completion".
>
>
>
If Smith says "no, don't count it", then you attach a similar note saying "Smith said not to include this student, but I believe that this is a similar accomplishment to supervising a student to completion".
Since academic achievement is generally self-reported and "honor system", this means that any attempt to "cheat" is seen as a serious ethical offense. If someone on the evaluation committee is hostile to you, they could use something like this as ammunition to wreck your entire promotion case. ("Candidate says supervised to completion, but student's dissertation shows someone else as supervisor. Clear-cut fraud.") So that's what could go wrong. But if you disclose the situation, and get someone else to pre-approve the way you're filling the form, you eliminate the possibility; maybe it won't be counted in your favor, but at least you can't be accused of fraud. | ### tl;dr: Just check the binding regulations.
You're asking the wrong people. Some of us think it's bad, some of us don't. In some universities the criteria are this way, in some - that way.
So just open the administrative/academic/promotion-related regulations for your university or department, and see what it says: What *exactly* is supposed to count for promotions? If the wording is not entirely clear, consult the head of your department.
Now, you might be wondering "Ah, but what if he tells me to change my CV, while in fact the promotion committee would have never looked into it?"
Well, maybe. But:
1. It's unethical to do so.
2. The expectation of benefit/damage over both cases is not high enough for this to be appealing even if you have no ethical scruples (or if you think the promotion process is otherwise unfair).
having said all of the above I must also tell you that: **Look, you didn't supervise that PhD to completion.** What can I say? You just didn't. You had planned to do it; you would have done it, had the circumstances allowed it; you put in most of the effort towards it - sure. But at the end of the day, that's not what happened. |
11,627 | We have an android app that we have to do a little bit of usability testing/beta testing.All I have found about Utest.com is you can sign up and work on projects, but I was unable to find how to post projects in Utest and how to get people to do usability testing.
I am fine with other paid options as well, but if it is free or something like usabilityhub where we can do testing and then earn points to exchange for credit, then I am fine.
I am not sure if this is the right place to ask, if not please point me to the right place. | 2014/12/25 | [
"https://sqa.stackexchange.com/questions/11627",
"https://sqa.stackexchange.com",
"https://sqa.stackexchange.com/users/10603/"
] | Given that there is disagreement, the answers this question attracts will probably gravitate toward **sometimes** rather than yes/no.
My opinion is that page objects should have assertions in their constructors, so that my code doesn't offer page methods for a page I never reached.
In a made up example, I don't want to return an account page object when I've hit a 404 because I'll eventually hit a NoSuchElementException.
I don't want my debugging journey to begin at:
>
> Where did this element go / did the selector change?
>
>
>
I want to start at:
>
> Why did I get a 404 instead of the account page?
>
>
>
An extension of this model is Selenium's [LoadableComponent](https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/wiki/LoadableComponent) concept.
As your site under test becomes more application-like and less document-like, the page object model becomes a leakier abstraction (at one extreme, imagine the page object for a single page application).
I mention LoadableComponent because I think they mitigate the "Bloated Page Object" problem, and part of their solution is overriding isLoaded and putting in custom assertions. From the docs:
>
> The LoadableComponent is a base class that aims to make writing PageObjects less painful. It does this by providing a standard way of ensuring that pages are loaded and providing hooks to make debugging the failure of a page to load easier. You can use it to help reduce the amount of boilerplate code in your tests, which in turn make maintaining your tests less tiresome.
>
>
> | I would say no, don't put assertions in page objects. I prefer
* a consistent approach using the test framework DSL
* keeping to simple assertions that are self describing
* keeping page objects to more defined roles of locators, actions and services (sets of actions)
* seeing if there are multiple assertions (anit-pattern but common for ui tests) inline |
17,190 | I was reading the [Wikipedia on passports](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passport), and there were numerous important dates in passport history, but I didn't find any date when passports became widely used documents for travelling.
I see passports from late 19th century, and general passports were regulated by League of Nations in 1920s. Based on this my guess is that in 1920 the passports were used by almost all countries of the world.
My question is: **(approximately) when passports and border checks became widespread and commonly used procedures?**
UPDATE: adding more precision: when became passports (or its predecessor) as a travel document standard way to check travellers around the world? | 2014/11/20 | [
"https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/17190",
"https://history.stackexchange.com",
"https://history.stackexchange.com/users/1895/"
] | Forever? Every civilization makes it a priority to know who is who and keep out the unwanted people. In the Book of Judges an incident is described from 3000 years ago whereby a [shibboleth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth) is used to identify aliens. According to the Wikipedia entry on [identity documents](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_document), the [passports](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_Conducts_Act_1414) of [King Henry V](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_of_England) (15th century) were the first such documents, but various personal documentation devices certainly date back to the Romans, if not earlier. Diplomats, of course, have always carried passports since ancient Egyptian times. The word "diplomat", by the way, comes from the Roman word *diploma*, which was a sort of a passport, or at least was used that way.
Note that there has already been a History channel post on [Roman identity documents](https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/9017/how-did-the-roman-state-verify-citizenship) which may be relevant ("How did the Roman state verify citizenship?").
In terms of the first country to be "checking papers" on every Tom, Dick and Harry in the modern sense, I would probably give that honor to Frederick the Great. He was a real bureaucrat and was known for appointing "Passport Meisters" who required passports even of the most ordinary people to get across borders. He definitely bumped up the usage of passports on a massive scale and set the tone for the later Prussian obsession with elaborately documenting each and every individual. | As for passports, AFAIK, they were introduced first in Russia by Michael I, according to ideas of an early socialist Charles Fourier.
Absolute majority (peasants) had no passport and could not travel out of the district. Many people had inner passports, that allowed to travel along the whole empire. And some people got passports that could have leave visa in it.
For example, the greatest Russian poet Pushkin never got such passport, and he had tried many times!
It was absolutely widespread. A person without passport and out of the district where he knew everybody and everybody knew him, had to be catched by police. |
17,190 | I was reading the [Wikipedia on passports](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passport), and there were numerous important dates in passport history, but I didn't find any date when passports became widely used documents for travelling.
I see passports from late 19th century, and general passports were regulated by League of Nations in 1920s. Based on this my guess is that in 1920 the passports were used by almost all countries of the world.
My question is: **(approximately) when passports and border checks became widespread and commonly used procedures?**
UPDATE: adding more precision: when became passports (or its predecessor) as a travel document standard way to check travellers around the world? | 2014/11/20 | [
"https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/17190",
"https://history.stackexchange.com",
"https://history.stackexchange.com/users/1895/"
] | According to [The Guardian](http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2006/nov/17/travelnews), "passports were not generally required for international travel until the first world war". [Wikipedia concurs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Conference_on_Passports_%26_Customs_Formalities_and_Through_Tickets)
This matches accounts I have read of people travelling from London to Moscow without travel documents. During the First World war, they became necessary, and they never stopped being needed. | Forever? Every civilization makes it a priority to know who is who and keep out the unwanted people. In the Book of Judges an incident is described from 3000 years ago whereby a [shibboleth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth) is used to identify aliens. According to the Wikipedia entry on [identity documents](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_document), the [passports](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_Conducts_Act_1414) of [King Henry V](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_of_England) (15th century) were the first such documents, but various personal documentation devices certainly date back to the Romans, if not earlier. Diplomats, of course, have always carried passports since ancient Egyptian times. The word "diplomat", by the way, comes from the Roman word *diploma*, which was a sort of a passport, or at least was used that way.
Note that there has already been a History channel post on [Roman identity documents](https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/9017/how-did-the-roman-state-verify-citizenship) which may be relevant ("How did the Roman state verify citizenship?").
In terms of the first country to be "checking papers" on every Tom, Dick and Harry in the modern sense, I would probably give that honor to Frederick the Great. He was a real bureaucrat and was known for appointing "Passport Meisters" who required passports even of the most ordinary people to get across borders. He definitely bumped up the usage of passports on a massive scale and set the tone for the later Prussian obsession with elaborately documenting each and every individual. |
17,190 | I was reading the [Wikipedia on passports](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passport), and there were numerous important dates in passport history, but I didn't find any date when passports became widely used documents for travelling.
I see passports from late 19th century, and general passports were regulated by League of Nations in 1920s. Based on this my guess is that in 1920 the passports were used by almost all countries of the world.
My question is: **(approximately) when passports and border checks became widespread and commonly used procedures?**
UPDATE: adding more precision: when became passports (or its predecessor) as a travel document standard way to check travellers around the world? | 2014/11/20 | [
"https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/17190",
"https://history.stackexchange.com",
"https://history.stackexchange.com/users/1895/"
] | According to [The Guardian](http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2006/nov/17/travelnews), "passports were not generally required for international travel until the first world war". [Wikipedia concurs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Conference_on_Passports_%26_Customs_Formalities_and_Through_Tickets)
This matches accounts I have read of people travelling from London to Moscow without travel documents. During the First World war, they became necessary, and they never stopped being needed. | As for passports, AFAIK, they were introduced first in Russia by Michael I, according to ideas of an early socialist Charles Fourier.
Absolute majority (peasants) had no passport and could not travel out of the district. Many people had inner passports, that allowed to travel along the whole empire. And some people got passports that could have leave visa in it.
For example, the greatest Russian poet Pushkin never got such passport, and he had tried many times!
It was absolutely widespread. A person without passport and out of the district where he knew everybody and everybody knew him, had to be catched by police. |
82,639 | Recently, I underwent under heavy surgery. My doctor said my recovery would take a few weeks.
My last week was supposed to be this previous week, but my surgeon gave me an extra week (this week) of medical leave because I'm still not at 100% (I'm roughly at 70-80%).
At work, we were a team of 8, but we lost four people recently. Now another one is leaving next week for another company. With my leave, that's 3 people, but one is leaving next week.
So my team leader is putting a lot of pressure on me to come back, calling me every day to have me confirm my return date. It is currently planned for next week.
The thing is that I've spoken informally with several other doctor friends and they all call my surgeon crazy for giving me "so little" recovery time, saying that surgeons are requested to give as little recovery time as possible. And these doctors all say they're ready to extend my medical leave, should I need it.
I miss working. I'm bored at home, but I physically can't work 8 hours straight without having to lie down for a few hours in between. That's just impossible right now and I strongly doubt I'll be able to do so by next week, just like the other doctors think. I know I can't because I miss so much programming that I'm working some time (given my condition, that means 4 hours per day, max, usually 2-3) on my personal (non-commercial) programming project, and I need to stop to go lie down for a few hours before continuing.
Given that one of my colleague is in his last week, the team planned a goodbye event on Wednesday and I agreed to come. I know I'll have a hard time explaining "hey, I can come for 2 hours to lunch with you, but I can't come back to work right now".
I feel like I'm stuck between several parts: my need to rest, my boredom, my surgeon saying I should go back to work, my social need to say goodbye to that friendly colleague, my "kind-of-need" to save the team (since 1 dev isn't viable at all for the good of the project), my project manager insisting on me coming back ASAP.
I've thought about requesting to work from home, but from experience, that's something my PM would say no to.
I'm a bit lost. What should I do? What should I say to whom? | 2017/01/09 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/82639",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | If you are in Belgium (as i'm lead to believe from one of the tags of your question), there are provisions for you to progressively get back to work. This could involve you working 50% (or even less) for a few weeks before returning to working full time. Ask your medical insurance about this. In this case however i would advise against this since it seems like your manager is likely to guilt trip you into working 100% from day one. Just remember that is not your fault nor your problem the team went from 8 to 3. Your manager would be better off using the time he's pressuring you to recruit replacements imo. Assuming you've sent him your doctor's note confirming you're unable to work, him calling you regularly is bordering on harrasment. Make sure your out of office reply is set and stop picking up his calls. | You are all over the board on this issue.
Why are you working on a personal project when you were told to recover by your surgeon and other doctors? Don't you think your working at home may be contributing to your lack of recovery progress? Working at home is simply working...it's NOT recovering.
If your departing friend is truly a friend, why can't that person visit you at home for a short time? And yes, I think it would be very foolish for you to attend a party at work. That makes no sense whatsoever.
Are you recovering or are you partially recovered or are you fully recovered? You need to focus on that fundamental question and proceed accordingly. Perhaps working part time would be acceptable to both your surgeon and your employer.
I think you didn't follow your doctor's orders and now you're in a bind. |
82,639 | Recently, I underwent under heavy surgery. My doctor said my recovery would take a few weeks.
My last week was supposed to be this previous week, but my surgeon gave me an extra week (this week) of medical leave because I'm still not at 100% (I'm roughly at 70-80%).
At work, we were a team of 8, but we lost four people recently. Now another one is leaving next week for another company. With my leave, that's 3 people, but one is leaving next week.
So my team leader is putting a lot of pressure on me to come back, calling me every day to have me confirm my return date. It is currently planned for next week.
The thing is that I've spoken informally with several other doctor friends and they all call my surgeon crazy for giving me "so little" recovery time, saying that surgeons are requested to give as little recovery time as possible. And these doctors all say they're ready to extend my medical leave, should I need it.
I miss working. I'm bored at home, but I physically can't work 8 hours straight without having to lie down for a few hours in between. That's just impossible right now and I strongly doubt I'll be able to do so by next week, just like the other doctors think. I know I can't because I miss so much programming that I'm working some time (given my condition, that means 4 hours per day, max, usually 2-3) on my personal (non-commercial) programming project, and I need to stop to go lie down for a few hours before continuing.
Given that one of my colleague is in his last week, the team planned a goodbye event on Wednesday and I agreed to come. I know I'll have a hard time explaining "hey, I can come for 2 hours to lunch with you, but I can't come back to work right now".
I feel like I'm stuck between several parts: my need to rest, my boredom, my surgeon saying I should go back to work, my social need to say goodbye to that friendly colleague, my "kind-of-need" to save the team (since 1 dev isn't viable at all for the good of the project), my project manager insisting on me coming back ASAP.
I've thought about requesting to work from home, but from experience, that's something my PM would say no to.
I'm a bit lost. What should I do? What should I say to whom? | 2017/01/09 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/82639",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | **If you are too ill to work at a programming job, you are too ill to be doing personal programming projects.** So just stop it. If your employer found out you were doing this, they would rightly want to know why you can't return to work. Likely this attempting to work on the computer is delaying your own recovery. So stop it.
Next, you have approved medical leave, don't let the project manager push you to work when you are not ready physically. You could seriously damage your health that way. Call HR and ask them to explain to your boss why you are not returning to work and why he should not be pressuring you to return before you are healthy. Your boss is creating a legal liability for your company by pressuring you. If you returned to work and then had a relapse because you were not strong enough to work, it would be the company's legal responsibility for pressuring you.
It is not your responsibility to save the team by going back prematurely.
Next, the PM is not going to have a choice about how you will need to return to work. If you need to work from home or work part time, that is what he will legally have to do for you if that is what the doctor tells you that you need to do. Get with your HR on a return to work plan after consulting with your doctor. The PM will have to do whatever they say he has to do. Personally from what you described, it sounds like looking into returning part time woudl be best for you. And it doesn't sound as if you even considered that as a possibility. And if you return part-time, DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, work on those personal programming projects until you are completely back to work full-time. | If you are confirming (again) your return date, make sure that your team leader knows that you are still convalescing and that you will need a couple of weeks to transition to fully available and able to work full time. Have a medical doctor back up what you say.
Contact your PM again, tell him you are due to get back to work on such and such a date but while you are returning, you are still convalescing. Explain to your PM that if you can work from home, it's several extra hours that you can spend on working rather than commuting and that you have only so much energy available. Let your PM know that this arrangement is temporary - say two weeks - and meant to help you transition back to work full time.
In terms of tone: be professional. You are not asking them for a favor or a special dispensation, you are telling them what your condition is and what you can do for them given your condition.
Your health comes first. If you don't have your health, you can't help yourself. If you can't help yourself, forget about being able to help anybody. |
82,639 | Recently, I underwent under heavy surgery. My doctor said my recovery would take a few weeks.
My last week was supposed to be this previous week, but my surgeon gave me an extra week (this week) of medical leave because I'm still not at 100% (I'm roughly at 70-80%).
At work, we were a team of 8, but we lost four people recently. Now another one is leaving next week for another company. With my leave, that's 3 people, but one is leaving next week.
So my team leader is putting a lot of pressure on me to come back, calling me every day to have me confirm my return date. It is currently planned for next week.
The thing is that I've spoken informally with several other doctor friends and they all call my surgeon crazy for giving me "so little" recovery time, saying that surgeons are requested to give as little recovery time as possible. And these doctors all say they're ready to extend my medical leave, should I need it.
I miss working. I'm bored at home, but I physically can't work 8 hours straight without having to lie down for a few hours in between. That's just impossible right now and I strongly doubt I'll be able to do so by next week, just like the other doctors think. I know I can't because I miss so much programming that I'm working some time (given my condition, that means 4 hours per day, max, usually 2-3) on my personal (non-commercial) programming project, and I need to stop to go lie down for a few hours before continuing.
Given that one of my colleague is in his last week, the team planned a goodbye event on Wednesday and I agreed to come. I know I'll have a hard time explaining "hey, I can come for 2 hours to lunch with you, but I can't come back to work right now".
I feel like I'm stuck between several parts: my need to rest, my boredom, my surgeon saying I should go back to work, my social need to say goodbye to that friendly colleague, my "kind-of-need" to save the team (since 1 dev isn't viable at all for the good of the project), my project manager insisting on me coming back ASAP.
I've thought about requesting to work from home, but from experience, that's something my PM would say no to.
I'm a bit lost. What should I do? What should I say to whom? | 2017/01/09 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/82639",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | Well, you seem *physically* incapable of performing your duties at the moment. That's the bottom line, really. Your health should be your primary concern.
Unfortunately, your health is not your *manager's* primary concern. His is getting the work done.
If I were you, I would make a few things clear to your manager:
1. **You are not ready to come back to work, and can't sit through a full work day.**
Either send him an email outlining what your current condition is, or better yet ask your doctor to weigh in either through email, or via a note of some kind. This guy needs to understand that you're not physically capable of sitting through an 8 hours work day.
2. **Him bugging you daily is not cool.**
You have the legal right to sit home and recuperate for another week, or longer. This guy is overstepping the bounds of common decency by trying to guilt trip you into ignoring your health, and coming back to work.
I would block his number, and set your e-mail to auto-reply that you are recovering after a medical procedure and will review your mail at your earliest possible convenience (aka I may read your email sometime today, but don't hold your breath). Before doing this have a conversation with your boss explaining that you are going to do this because the added stress he is putting on you is having a negative effect on your recovery.
3. **You're not ready to come back to work full time, but maybe you can compromise.**
Have a talk with one of those doctors recommending you extend your medical leave. I would take them up on it, and have them give you another week or longer — your health is literally the most important thing in the world for you. Not your manager, not your job. Your health.
However, also discuss with them (the doctors, not your boss) the possibility of returning to work on a part time basis over the next few weeks. Maybe you could work from home, or come in for 4 hours or so a day. If the doctors approve that, and give you such a recommendation in writing, then you might be able to reach some compromise with your boss
>
> **I wouldn't engage in this sort of compromise without the backing of a medical professional.** If you are approved to stay at home, but go to your boss saying that you could work part time, you're opening the door to being accused of exaggerating the seriousness of your condition. If, quite the opposite, you've been approved for full time work, but claim that you can't return to the office for 8 hours a day, you will again be viewed as being lazy, or a lot of trouble — after all, the doctor said you should be fine. The best thing to do is have a medical note saying that you *should* be resting, but 4–5 hours of work a day should be OK.
>
>
>
It would communicate a willingness on your part to get some work done, but not compromise your well-being.
4. **The farewell lunch**
If you feel up to it, and if you really want to attend, I don't see why you wouldn't. There's a big difference between going down to a restaurant for a couple of hours, and sitting through a full workday. However, I won't lie — some people will equate you attending this "party" with you possibly exaggerating your condition (if he can party then surely he can sit on a chair and program!). It's up to you whether you feel confident enough to face this sort of social situation (you may hear comments about it —or colour people's opinion of you— even after you return to work).
If your manager will be attending this might be a good opportunity to speak to him about how you feel, and what your doctors are recommending for your well-being (however, don't make any promises about returning to work). | You are all over the board on this issue.
Why are you working on a personal project when you were told to recover by your surgeon and other doctors? Don't you think your working at home may be contributing to your lack of recovery progress? Working at home is simply working...it's NOT recovering.
If your departing friend is truly a friend, why can't that person visit you at home for a short time? And yes, I think it would be very foolish for you to attend a party at work. That makes no sense whatsoever.
Are you recovering or are you partially recovered or are you fully recovered? You need to focus on that fundamental question and proceed accordingly. Perhaps working part time would be acceptable to both your surgeon and your employer.
I think you didn't follow your doctor's orders and now you're in a bind. |
82,639 | Recently, I underwent under heavy surgery. My doctor said my recovery would take a few weeks.
My last week was supposed to be this previous week, but my surgeon gave me an extra week (this week) of medical leave because I'm still not at 100% (I'm roughly at 70-80%).
At work, we were a team of 8, but we lost four people recently. Now another one is leaving next week for another company. With my leave, that's 3 people, but one is leaving next week.
So my team leader is putting a lot of pressure on me to come back, calling me every day to have me confirm my return date. It is currently planned for next week.
The thing is that I've spoken informally with several other doctor friends and they all call my surgeon crazy for giving me "so little" recovery time, saying that surgeons are requested to give as little recovery time as possible. And these doctors all say they're ready to extend my medical leave, should I need it.
I miss working. I'm bored at home, but I physically can't work 8 hours straight without having to lie down for a few hours in between. That's just impossible right now and I strongly doubt I'll be able to do so by next week, just like the other doctors think. I know I can't because I miss so much programming that I'm working some time (given my condition, that means 4 hours per day, max, usually 2-3) on my personal (non-commercial) programming project, and I need to stop to go lie down for a few hours before continuing.
Given that one of my colleague is in his last week, the team planned a goodbye event on Wednesday and I agreed to come. I know I'll have a hard time explaining "hey, I can come for 2 hours to lunch with you, but I can't come back to work right now".
I feel like I'm stuck between several parts: my need to rest, my boredom, my surgeon saying I should go back to work, my social need to say goodbye to that friendly colleague, my "kind-of-need" to save the team (since 1 dev isn't viable at all for the good of the project), my project manager insisting on me coming back ASAP.
I've thought about requesting to work from home, but from experience, that's something my PM would say no to.
I'm a bit lost. What should I do? What should I say to whom? | 2017/01/09 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/82639",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | **If you are too ill to work at a programming job, you are too ill to be doing personal programming projects.** So just stop it. If your employer found out you were doing this, they would rightly want to know why you can't return to work. Likely this attempting to work on the computer is delaying your own recovery. So stop it.
Next, you have approved medical leave, don't let the project manager push you to work when you are not ready physically. You could seriously damage your health that way. Call HR and ask them to explain to your boss why you are not returning to work and why he should not be pressuring you to return before you are healthy. Your boss is creating a legal liability for your company by pressuring you. If you returned to work and then had a relapse because you were not strong enough to work, it would be the company's legal responsibility for pressuring you.
It is not your responsibility to save the team by going back prematurely.
Next, the PM is not going to have a choice about how you will need to return to work. If you need to work from home or work part time, that is what he will legally have to do for you if that is what the doctor tells you that you need to do. Get with your HR on a return to work plan after consulting with your doctor. The PM will have to do whatever they say he has to do. Personally from what you described, it sounds like looking into returning part time woudl be best for you. And it doesn't sound as if you even considered that as a possibility. And if you return part-time, DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, work on those personal programming projects until you are completely back to work full-time. | You are all over the board on this issue.
Why are you working on a personal project when you were told to recover by your surgeon and other doctors? Don't you think your working at home may be contributing to your lack of recovery progress? Working at home is simply working...it's NOT recovering.
If your departing friend is truly a friend, why can't that person visit you at home for a short time? And yes, I think it would be very foolish for you to attend a party at work. That makes no sense whatsoever.
Are you recovering or are you partially recovered or are you fully recovered? You need to focus on that fundamental question and proceed accordingly. Perhaps working part time would be acceptable to both your surgeon and your employer.
I think you didn't follow your doctor's orders and now you're in a bind. |
82,639 | Recently, I underwent under heavy surgery. My doctor said my recovery would take a few weeks.
My last week was supposed to be this previous week, but my surgeon gave me an extra week (this week) of medical leave because I'm still not at 100% (I'm roughly at 70-80%).
At work, we were a team of 8, but we lost four people recently. Now another one is leaving next week for another company. With my leave, that's 3 people, but one is leaving next week.
So my team leader is putting a lot of pressure on me to come back, calling me every day to have me confirm my return date. It is currently planned for next week.
The thing is that I've spoken informally with several other doctor friends and they all call my surgeon crazy for giving me "so little" recovery time, saying that surgeons are requested to give as little recovery time as possible. And these doctors all say they're ready to extend my medical leave, should I need it.
I miss working. I'm bored at home, but I physically can't work 8 hours straight without having to lie down for a few hours in between. That's just impossible right now and I strongly doubt I'll be able to do so by next week, just like the other doctors think. I know I can't because I miss so much programming that I'm working some time (given my condition, that means 4 hours per day, max, usually 2-3) on my personal (non-commercial) programming project, and I need to stop to go lie down for a few hours before continuing.
Given that one of my colleague is in his last week, the team planned a goodbye event on Wednesday and I agreed to come. I know I'll have a hard time explaining "hey, I can come for 2 hours to lunch with you, but I can't come back to work right now".
I feel like I'm stuck between several parts: my need to rest, my boredom, my surgeon saying I should go back to work, my social need to say goodbye to that friendly colleague, my "kind-of-need" to save the team (since 1 dev isn't viable at all for the good of the project), my project manager insisting on me coming back ASAP.
I've thought about requesting to work from home, but from experience, that's something my PM would say no to.
I'm a bit lost. What should I do? What should I say to whom? | 2017/01/09 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/82639",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | If you are confirming (again) your return date, make sure that your team leader knows that you are still convalescing and that you will need a couple of weeks to transition to fully available and able to work full time. Have a medical doctor back up what you say.
Contact your PM again, tell him you are due to get back to work on such and such a date but while you are returning, you are still convalescing. Explain to your PM that if you can work from home, it's several extra hours that you can spend on working rather than commuting and that you have only so much energy available. Let your PM know that this arrangement is temporary - say two weeks - and meant to help you transition back to work full time.
In terms of tone: be professional. You are not asking them for a favor or a special dispensation, you are telling them what your condition is and what you can do for them given your condition.
Your health comes first. If you don't have your health, you can't help yourself. If you can't help yourself, forget about being able to help anybody. | Zeroth: your health is more important than the deadline, the project, or your job. Deadlines can be missed, projects can be delayed, and you can always get another job.
First up, you need to talk to your doctor and get - in writing - what your condition is. In particular, things like "you can sit for a couple hours at a time *max*". Make sure you and the doc are in agreement as to what your current capabilities are without compromising your recovery.
Second, get a meeting with your manager and HR. The theme of the meeting is "I want to contribute as much as I can without compromising my recovery (as per my doctor's note) - what can we do to facilitate this?" Can I work from home (so I can lay in bed - take breaks as needed?). Can I come in a couple part-days a week to help out on the fires? The doc says I can't work full-time just yet, but I don't want to leave you hanging any more than necessary.
Basically, you're putting the onus on *them* to be flexible. You mentioned your PM wouldn't approve working from home - well, they must not need you so urgently as they claim, if they're not willing to accomodate your medical needs, right? (You'll notice I'm mentioning doctors and medical a lot - that's because you have a hard limit on what you can and can't do, backed by a doctor's note. Don't let them turn it into a question of "oh, you just don't wanna".)
Now, maybe your jurisdiction doesn't allow partial returns (mine actively encourages it). If so, then that's no fault of your own - that's just the way the world turns, and it's not your fault. |
82,639 | Recently, I underwent under heavy surgery. My doctor said my recovery would take a few weeks.
My last week was supposed to be this previous week, but my surgeon gave me an extra week (this week) of medical leave because I'm still not at 100% (I'm roughly at 70-80%).
At work, we were a team of 8, but we lost four people recently. Now another one is leaving next week for another company. With my leave, that's 3 people, but one is leaving next week.
So my team leader is putting a lot of pressure on me to come back, calling me every day to have me confirm my return date. It is currently planned for next week.
The thing is that I've spoken informally with several other doctor friends and they all call my surgeon crazy for giving me "so little" recovery time, saying that surgeons are requested to give as little recovery time as possible. And these doctors all say they're ready to extend my medical leave, should I need it.
I miss working. I'm bored at home, but I physically can't work 8 hours straight without having to lie down for a few hours in between. That's just impossible right now and I strongly doubt I'll be able to do so by next week, just like the other doctors think. I know I can't because I miss so much programming that I'm working some time (given my condition, that means 4 hours per day, max, usually 2-3) on my personal (non-commercial) programming project, and I need to stop to go lie down for a few hours before continuing.
Given that one of my colleague is in his last week, the team planned a goodbye event on Wednesday and I agreed to come. I know I'll have a hard time explaining "hey, I can come for 2 hours to lunch with you, but I can't come back to work right now".
I feel like I'm stuck between several parts: my need to rest, my boredom, my surgeon saying I should go back to work, my social need to say goodbye to that friendly colleague, my "kind-of-need" to save the team (since 1 dev isn't viable at all for the good of the project), my project manager insisting on me coming back ASAP.
I've thought about requesting to work from home, but from experience, that's something my PM would say no to.
I'm a bit lost. What should I do? What should I say to whom? | 2017/01/09 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/82639",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | If you are confirming (again) your return date, make sure that your team leader knows that you are still convalescing and that you will need a couple of weeks to transition to fully available and able to work full time. Have a medical doctor back up what you say.
Contact your PM again, tell him you are due to get back to work on such and such a date but while you are returning, you are still convalescing. Explain to your PM that if you can work from home, it's several extra hours that you can spend on working rather than commuting and that you have only so much energy available. Let your PM know that this arrangement is temporary - say two weeks - and meant to help you transition back to work full time.
In terms of tone: be professional. You are not asking them for a favor or a special dispensation, you are telling them what your condition is and what you can do for them given your condition.
Your health comes first. If you don't have your health, you can't help yourself. If you can't help yourself, forget about being able to help anybody. | You are all over the board on this issue.
Why are you working on a personal project when you were told to recover by your surgeon and other doctors? Don't you think your working at home may be contributing to your lack of recovery progress? Working at home is simply working...it's NOT recovering.
If your departing friend is truly a friend, why can't that person visit you at home for a short time? And yes, I think it would be very foolish for you to attend a party at work. That makes no sense whatsoever.
Are you recovering or are you partially recovered or are you fully recovered? You need to focus on that fundamental question and proceed accordingly. Perhaps working part time would be acceptable to both your surgeon and your employer.
I think you didn't follow your doctor's orders and now you're in a bind. |
82,639 | Recently, I underwent under heavy surgery. My doctor said my recovery would take a few weeks.
My last week was supposed to be this previous week, but my surgeon gave me an extra week (this week) of medical leave because I'm still not at 100% (I'm roughly at 70-80%).
At work, we were a team of 8, but we lost four people recently. Now another one is leaving next week for another company. With my leave, that's 3 people, but one is leaving next week.
So my team leader is putting a lot of pressure on me to come back, calling me every day to have me confirm my return date. It is currently planned for next week.
The thing is that I've spoken informally with several other doctor friends and they all call my surgeon crazy for giving me "so little" recovery time, saying that surgeons are requested to give as little recovery time as possible. And these doctors all say they're ready to extend my medical leave, should I need it.
I miss working. I'm bored at home, but I physically can't work 8 hours straight without having to lie down for a few hours in between. That's just impossible right now and I strongly doubt I'll be able to do so by next week, just like the other doctors think. I know I can't because I miss so much programming that I'm working some time (given my condition, that means 4 hours per day, max, usually 2-3) on my personal (non-commercial) programming project, and I need to stop to go lie down for a few hours before continuing.
Given that one of my colleague is in his last week, the team planned a goodbye event on Wednesday and I agreed to come. I know I'll have a hard time explaining "hey, I can come for 2 hours to lunch with you, but I can't come back to work right now".
I feel like I'm stuck between several parts: my need to rest, my boredom, my surgeon saying I should go back to work, my social need to say goodbye to that friendly colleague, my "kind-of-need" to save the team (since 1 dev isn't viable at all for the good of the project), my project manager insisting on me coming back ASAP.
I've thought about requesting to work from home, but from experience, that's something my PM would say no to.
I'm a bit lost. What should I do? What should I say to whom? | 2017/01/09 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/82639",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | Zeroth: your health is more important than the deadline, the project, or your job. Deadlines can be missed, projects can be delayed, and you can always get another job.
First up, you need to talk to your doctor and get - in writing - what your condition is. In particular, things like "you can sit for a couple hours at a time *max*". Make sure you and the doc are in agreement as to what your current capabilities are without compromising your recovery.
Second, get a meeting with your manager and HR. The theme of the meeting is "I want to contribute as much as I can without compromising my recovery (as per my doctor's note) - what can we do to facilitate this?" Can I work from home (so I can lay in bed - take breaks as needed?). Can I come in a couple part-days a week to help out on the fires? The doc says I can't work full-time just yet, but I don't want to leave you hanging any more than necessary.
Basically, you're putting the onus on *them* to be flexible. You mentioned your PM wouldn't approve working from home - well, they must not need you so urgently as they claim, if they're not willing to accomodate your medical needs, right? (You'll notice I'm mentioning doctors and medical a lot - that's because you have a hard limit on what you can and can't do, backed by a doctor's note. Don't let them turn it into a question of "oh, you just don't wanna".)
Now, maybe your jurisdiction doesn't allow partial returns (mine actively encourages it). If so, then that's no fault of your own - that's just the way the world turns, and it's not your fault. | You are all over the board on this issue.
Why are you working on a personal project when you were told to recover by your surgeon and other doctors? Don't you think your working at home may be contributing to your lack of recovery progress? Working at home is simply working...it's NOT recovering.
If your departing friend is truly a friend, why can't that person visit you at home for a short time? And yes, I think it would be very foolish for you to attend a party at work. That makes no sense whatsoever.
Are you recovering or are you partially recovered or are you fully recovered? You need to focus on that fundamental question and proceed accordingly. Perhaps working part time would be acceptable to both your surgeon and your employer.
I think you didn't follow your doctor's orders and now you're in a bind. |
82,639 | Recently, I underwent under heavy surgery. My doctor said my recovery would take a few weeks.
My last week was supposed to be this previous week, but my surgeon gave me an extra week (this week) of medical leave because I'm still not at 100% (I'm roughly at 70-80%).
At work, we were a team of 8, but we lost four people recently. Now another one is leaving next week for another company. With my leave, that's 3 people, but one is leaving next week.
So my team leader is putting a lot of pressure on me to come back, calling me every day to have me confirm my return date. It is currently planned for next week.
The thing is that I've spoken informally with several other doctor friends and they all call my surgeon crazy for giving me "so little" recovery time, saying that surgeons are requested to give as little recovery time as possible. And these doctors all say they're ready to extend my medical leave, should I need it.
I miss working. I'm bored at home, but I physically can't work 8 hours straight without having to lie down for a few hours in between. That's just impossible right now and I strongly doubt I'll be able to do so by next week, just like the other doctors think. I know I can't because I miss so much programming that I'm working some time (given my condition, that means 4 hours per day, max, usually 2-3) on my personal (non-commercial) programming project, and I need to stop to go lie down for a few hours before continuing.
Given that one of my colleague is in his last week, the team planned a goodbye event on Wednesday and I agreed to come. I know I'll have a hard time explaining "hey, I can come for 2 hours to lunch with you, but I can't come back to work right now".
I feel like I'm stuck between several parts: my need to rest, my boredom, my surgeon saying I should go back to work, my social need to say goodbye to that friendly colleague, my "kind-of-need" to save the team (since 1 dev isn't viable at all for the good of the project), my project manager insisting on me coming back ASAP.
I've thought about requesting to work from home, but from experience, that's something my PM would say no to.
I'm a bit lost. What should I do? What should I say to whom? | 2017/01/09 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/82639",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | Well, you seem *physically* incapable of performing your duties at the moment. That's the bottom line, really. Your health should be your primary concern.
Unfortunately, your health is not your *manager's* primary concern. His is getting the work done.
If I were you, I would make a few things clear to your manager:
1. **You are not ready to come back to work, and can't sit through a full work day.**
Either send him an email outlining what your current condition is, or better yet ask your doctor to weigh in either through email, or via a note of some kind. This guy needs to understand that you're not physically capable of sitting through an 8 hours work day.
2. **Him bugging you daily is not cool.**
You have the legal right to sit home and recuperate for another week, or longer. This guy is overstepping the bounds of common decency by trying to guilt trip you into ignoring your health, and coming back to work.
I would block his number, and set your e-mail to auto-reply that you are recovering after a medical procedure and will review your mail at your earliest possible convenience (aka I may read your email sometime today, but don't hold your breath). Before doing this have a conversation with your boss explaining that you are going to do this because the added stress he is putting on you is having a negative effect on your recovery.
3. **You're not ready to come back to work full time, but maybe you can compromise.**
Have a talk with one of those doctors recommending you extend your medical leave. I would take them up on it, and have them give you another week or longer — your health is literally the most important thing in the world for you. Not your manager, not your job. Your health.
However, also discuss with them (the doctors, not your boss) the possibility of returning to work on a part time basis over the next few weeks. Maybe you could work from home, or come in for 4 hours or so a day. If the doctors approve that, and give you such a recommendation in writing, then you might be able to reach some compromise with your boss
>
> **I wouldn't engage in this sort of compromise without the backing of a medical professional.** If you are approved to stay at home, but go to your boss saying that you could work part time, you're opening the door to being accused of exaggerating the seriousness of your condition. If, quite the opposite, you've been approved for full time work, but claim that you can't return to the office for 8 hours a day, you will again be viewed as being lazy, or a lot of trouble — after all, the doctor said you should be fine. The best thing to do is have a medical note saying that you *should* be resting, but 4–5 hours of work a day should be OK.
>
>
>
It would communicate a willingness on your part to get some work done, but not compromise your well-being.
4. **The farewell lunch**
If you feel up to it, and if you really want to attend, I don't see why you wouldn't. There's a big difference between going down to a restaurant for a couple of hours, and sitting through a full workday. However, I won't lie — some people will equate you attending this "party" with you possibly exaggerating your condition (if he can party then surely he can sit on a chair and program!). It's up to you whether you feel confident enough to face this sort of social situation (you may hear comments about it —or colour people's opinion of you— even after you return to work).
If your manager will be attending this might be a good opportunity to speak to him about how you feel, and what your doctors are recommending for your well-being (however, don't make any promises about returning to work). | If you are in Belgium (as i'm lead to believe from one of the tags of your question), there are provisions for you to progressively get back to work. This could involve you working 50% (or even less) for a few weeks before returning to working full time. Ask your medical insurance about this. In this case however i would advise against this since it seems like your manager is likely to guilt trip you into working 100% from day one. Just remember that is not your fault nor your problem the team went from 8 to 3. Your manager would be better off using the time he's pressuring you to recruit replacements imo. Assuming you've sent him your doctor's note confirming you're unable to work, him calling you regularly is bordering on harrasment. Make sure your out of office reply is set and stop picking up his calls. |
82,639 | Recently, I underwent under heavy surgery. My doctor said my recovery would take a few weeks.
My last week was supposed to be this previous week, but my surgeon gave me an extra week (this week) of medical leave because I'm still not at 100% (I'm roughly at 70-80%).
At work, we were a team of 8, but we lost four people recently. Now another one is leaving next week for another company. With my leave, that's 3 people, but one is leaving next week.
So my team leader is putting a lot of pressure on me to come back, calling me every day to have me confirm my return date. It is currently planned for next week.
The thing is that I've spoken informally with several other doctor friends and they all call my surgeon crazy for giving me "so little" recovery time, saying that surgeons are requested to give as little recovery time as possible. And these doctors all say they're ready to extend my medical leave, should I need it.
I miss working. I'm bored at home, but I physically can't work 8 hours straight without having to lie down for a few hours in between. That's just impossible right now and I strongly doubt I'll be able to do so by next week, just like the other doctors think. I know I can't because I miss so much programming that I'm working some time (given my condition, that means 4 hours per day, max, usually 2-3) on my personal (non-commercial) programming project, and I need to stop to go lie down for a few hours before continuing.
Given that one of my colleague is in his last week, the team planned a goodbye event on Wednesday and I agreed to come. I know I'll have a hard time explaining "hey, I can come for 2 hours to lunch with you, but I can't come back to work right now".
I feel like I'm stuck between several parts: my need to rest, my boredom, my surgeon saying I should go back to work, my social need to say goodbye to that friendly colleague, my "kind-of-need" to save the team (since 1 dev isn't viable at all for the good of the project), my project manager insisting on me coming back ASAP.
I've thought about requesting to work from home, but from experience, that's something my PM would say no to.
I'm a bit lost. What should I do? What should I say to whom? | 2017/01/09 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/82639",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | Well, you seem *physically* incapable of performing your duties at the moment. That's the bottom line, really. Your health should be your primary concern.
Unfortunately, your health is not your *manager's* primary concern. His is getting the work done.
If I were you, I would make a few things clear to your manager:
1. **You are not ready to come back to work, and can't sit through a full work day.**
Either send him an email outlining what your current condition is, or better yet ask your doctor to weigh in either through email, or via a note of some kind. This guy needs to understand that you're not physically capable of sitting through an 8 hours work day.
2. **Him bugging you daily is not cool.**
You have the legal right to sit home and recuperate for another week, or longer. This guy is overstepping the bounds of common decency by trying to guilt trip you into ignoring your health, and coming back to work.
I would block his number, and set your e-mail to auto-reply that you are recovering after a medical procedure and will review your mail at your earliest possible convenience (aka I may read your email sometime today, but don't hold your breath). Before doing this have a conversation with your boss explaining that you are going to do this because the added stress he is putting on you is having a negative effect on your recovery.
3. **You're not ready to come back to work full time, but maybe you can compromise.**
Have a talk with one of those doctors recommending you extend your medical leave. I would take them up on it, and have them give you another week or longer — your health is literally the most important thing in the world for you. Not your manager, not your job. Your health.
However, also discuss with them (the doctors, not your boss) the possibility of returning to work on a part time basis over the next few weeks. Maybe you could work from home, or come in for 4 hours or so a day. If the doctors approve that, and give you such a recommendation in writing, then you might be able to reach some compromise with your boss
>
> **I wouldn't engage in this sort of compromise without the backing of a medical professional.** If you are approved to stay at home, but go to your boss saying that you could work part time, you're opening the door to being accused of exaggerating the seriousness of your condition. If, quite the opposite, you've been approved for full time work, but claim that you can't return to the office for 8 hours a day, you will again be viewed as being lazy, or a lot of trouble — after all, the doctor said you should be fine. The best thing to do is have a medical note saying that you *should* be resting, but 4–5 hours of work a day should be OK.
>
>
>
It would communicate a willingness on your part to get some work done, but not compromise your well-being.
4. **The farewell lunch**
If you feel up to it, and if you really want to attend, I don't see why you wouldn't. There's a big difference between going down to a restaurant for a couple of hours, and sitting through a full workday. However, I won't lie — some people will equate you attending this "party" with you possibly exaggerating your condition (if he can party then surely he can sit on a chair and program!). It's up to you whether you feel confident enough to face this sort of social situation (you may hear comments about it —or colour people's opinion of you— even after you return to work).
If your manager will be attending this might be a good opportunity to speak to him about how you feel, and what your doctors are recommending for your well-being (however, don't make any promises about returning to work). | **If you are too ill to work at a programming job, you are too ill to be doing personal programming projects.** So just stop it. If your employer found out you were doing this, they would rightly want to know why you can't return to work. Likely this attempting to work on the computer is delaying your own recovery. So stop it.
Next, you have approved medical leave, don't let the project manager push you to work when you are not ready physically. You could seriously damage your health that way. Call HR and ask them to explain to your boss why you are not returning to work and why he should not be pressuring you to return before you are healthy. Your boss is creating a legal liability for your company by pressuring you. If you returned to work and then had a relapse because you were not strong enough to work, it would be the company's legal responsibility for pressuring you.
It is not your responsibility to save the team by going back prematurely.
Next, the PM is not going to have a choice about how you will need to return to work. If you need to work from home or work part time, that is what he will legally have to do for you if that is what the doctor tells you that you need to do. Get with your HR on a return to work plan after consulting with your doctor. The PM will have to do whatever they say he has to do. Personally from what you described, it sounds like looking into returning part time woudl be best for you. And it doesn't sound as if you even considered that as a possibility. And if you return part-time, DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, work on those personal programming projects until you are completely back to work full-time. |
82,639 | Recently, I underwent under heavy surgery. My doctor said my recovery would take a few weeks.
My last week was supposed to be this previous week, but my surgeon gave me an extra week (this week) of medical leave because I'm still not at 100% (I'm roughly at 70-80%).
At work, we were a team of 8, but we lost four people recently. Now another one is leaving next week for another company. With my leave, that's 3 people, but one is leaving next week.
So my team leader is putting a lot of pressure on me to come back, calling me every day to have me confirm my return date. It is currently planned for next week.
The thing is that I've spoken informally with several other doctor friends and they all call my surgeon crazy for giving me "so little" recovery time, saying that surgeons are requested to give as little recovery time as possible. And these doctors all say they're ready to extend my medical leave, should I need it.
I miss working. I'm bored at home, but I physically can't work 8 hours straight without having to lie down for a few hours in between. That's just impossible right now and I strongly doubt I'll be able to do so by next week, just like the other doctors think. I know I can't because I miss so much programming that I'm working some time (given my condition, that means 4 hours per day, max, usually 2-3) on my personal (non-commercial) programming project, and I need to stop to go lie down for a few hours before continuing.
Given that one of my colleague is in his last week, the team planned a goodbye event on Wednesday and I agreed to come. I know I'll have a hard time explaining "hey, I can come for 2 hours to lunch with you, but I can't come back to work right now".
I feel like I'm stuck between several parts: my need to rest, my boredom, my surgeon saying I should go back to work, my social need to say goodbye to that friendly colleague, my "kind-of-need" to save the team (since 1 dev isn't viable at all for the good of the project), my project manager insisting on me coming back ASAP.
I've thought about requesting to work from home, but from experience, that's something my PM would say no to.
I'm a bit lost. What should I do? What should I say to whom? | 2017/01/09 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/82639",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | Well, you seem *physically* incapable of performing your duties at the moment. That's the bottom line, really. Your health should be your primary concern.
Unfortunately, your health is not your *manager's* primary concern. His is getting the work done.
If I were you, I would make a few things clear to your manager:
1. **You are not ready to come back to work, and can't sit through a full work day.**
Either send him an email outlining what your current condition is, or better yet ask your doctor to weigh in either through email, or via a note of some kind. This guy needs to understand that you're not physically capable of sitting through an 8 hours work day.
2. **Him bugging you daily is not cool.**
You have the legal right to sit home and recuperate for another week, or longer. This guy is overstepping the bounds of common decency by trying to guilt trip you into ignoring your health, and coming back to work.
I would block his number, and set your e-mail to auto-reply that you are recovering after a medical procedure and will review your mail at your earliest possible convenience (aka I may read your email sometime today, but don't hold your breath). Before doing this have a conversation with your boss explaining that you are going to do this because the added stress he is putting on you is having a negative effect on your recovery.
3. **You're not ready to come back to work full time, but maybe you can compromise.**
Have a talk with one of those doctors recommending you extend your medical leave. I would take them up on it, and have them give you another week or longer — your health is literally the most important thing in the world for you. Not your manager, not your job. Your health.
However, also discuss with them (the doctors, not your boss) the possibility of returning to work on a part time basis over the next few weeks. Maybe you could work from home, or come in for 4 hours or so a day. If the doctors approve that, and give you such a recommendation in writing, then you might be able to reach some compromise with your boss
>
> **I wouldn't engage in this sort of compromise without the backing of a medical professional.** If you are approved to stay at home, but go to your boss saying that you could work part time, you're opening the door to being accused of exaggerating the seriousness of your condition. If, quite the opposite, you've been approved for full time work, but claim that you can't return to the office for 8 hours a day, you will again be viewed as being lazy, or a lot of trouble — after all, the doctor said you should be fine. The best thing to do is have a medical note saying that you *should* be resting, but 4–5 hours of work a day should be OK.
>
>
>
It would communicate a willingness on your part to get some work done, but not compromise your well-being.
4. **The farewell lunch**
If you feel up to it, and if you really want to attend, I don't see why you wouldn't. There's a big difference between going down to a restaurant for a couple of hours, and sitting through a full workday. However, I won't lie — some people will equate you attending this "party" with you possibly exaggerating your condition (if he can party then surely he can sit on a chair and program!). It's up to you whether you feel confident enough to face this sort of social situation (you may hear comments about it —or colour people's opinion of you— even after you return to work).
If your manager will be attending this might be a good opportunity to speak to him about how you feel, and what your doctors are recommending for your well-being (however, don't make any promises about returning to work). | If you are confirming (again) your return date, make sure that your team leader knows that you are still convalescing and that you will need a couple of weeks to transition to fully available and able to work full time. Have a medical doctor back up what you say.
Contact your PM again, tell him you are due to get back to work on such and such a date but while you are returning, you are still convalescing. Explain to your PM that if you can work from home, it's several extra hours that you can spend on working rather than commuting and that you have only so much energy available. Let your PM know that this arrangement is temporary - say two weeks - and meant to help you transition back to work full time.
In terms of tone: be professional. You are not asking them for a favor or a special dispensation, you are telling them what your condition is and what you can do for them given your condition.
Your health comes first. If you don't have your health, you can't help yourself. If you can't help yourself, forget about being able to help anybody. |
112,825 | I am a junior developer. I usually google some difficult problems if I don't manage to solve problem myself. But today I googled a site that looked it might contain a solution. Unfortunately there was some pornographic material.
How bad a mistake this is? Is there some guidelines how to find help on the Internet if I meet some problem I'm unable to solve on my own and I won't get any help from other people from my work? Should I just use [Lynx](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_%28web_browser%29)?
Also, is it okay to ask help for programming problems from, say, Stack Overflow or do employer assume that one has to find out the solutions by themselves?
I studied only basics of computer science in the university as I read it as my minor subject. But my current job involves data science and mathematics where I am good at and programming where I am a novice. | 2018/05/24 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/112825",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/87394/"
] | Use Stack Overflow as your first port of call in searching for answer.
Otherwise, explore the idea of using Ad Blocking plugins for whatever browser you're using. This will minimise adverts popping up. Also, don't log into a browser at work with the same account that you use at home (otherwise you'll be "suggested" things that you search for at home).
The more you search, the more you'll recognize websites that are both informative and advert-safe. | Depends very much on the company, I would say. And by that I mean if it is bad you stumbled upon pornographic material when using google to find a solution. I would just mention it casually to my colleague / supervisor but would not make a big deal out of it. But this is very depending on the company culture and probably also the country / culture. I'm in Europe (Netherlands)
As for googling to find help on problems encountered while programming, I don't know a single developer that doesn't do this. I think we all do. I used to program in Python, and now I'm programming in ABL (Progress) and it is much harder to find anything about that on the net. I don't like it :D |
112,825 | I am a junior developer. I usually google some difficult problems if I don't manage to solve problem myself. But today I googled a site that looked it might contain a solution. Unfortunately there was some pornographic material.
How bad a mistake this is? Is there some guidelines how to find help on the Internet if I meet some problem I'm unable to solve on my own and I won't get any help from other people from my work? Should I just use [Lynx](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_%28web_browser%29)?
Also, is it okay to ask help for programming problems from, say, Stack Overflow or do employer assume that one has to find out the solutions by themselves?
I studied only basics of computer science in the university as I read it as my minor subject. But my current job involves data science and mathematics where I am good at and programming where I am a novice. | 2018/05/24 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/112825",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/87394/"
] | Use Stack Overflow as your first port of call in searching for answer.
Otherwise, explore the idea of using Ad Blocking plugins for whatever browser you're using. This will minimise adverts popping up. Also, don't log into a browser at work with the same account that you use at home (otherwise you'll be "suggested" things that you search for at home).
The more you search, the more you'll recognize websites that are both informative and advert-safe. | If there is any ambiguity in what you are allowed to do I would start by **asking a coworker.** A coworker will know exactly what you can and cannot do.
Next, are you expected to know the answer to every problem? As a junior programmer, probably not. They will expect you to use the skills your demonstrated in your interview though.
What is the consensus on using websites for research? In general if you are a programmer you are allowed (even expected?) to use stackoverflow.com. Use that site first for all your programming related questions. After that, you should become familiar with the 4 or 5 sites that generally have the answers to your questions and try to reuse them. That is usually how research plays out.
I would under no circumstances visit a site with pornographic material in the office. If you must read the answer then maybe try to do it on your phone, or try to use an ad blocker. In the worst case, did you know you can just right click the ad and select inspect in firefox/google-chrome/Microsoft-edge and just delete the div where the ad is? That will make the ad go away. Realtime ad-blocking.
Try to be professional. Especially if you are new. |
112,825 | I am a junior developer. I usually google some difficult problems if I don't manage to solve problem myself. But today I googled a site that looked it might contain a solution. Unfortunately there was some pornographic material.
How bad a mistake this is? Is there some guidelines how to find help on the Internet if I meet some problem I'm unable to solve on my own and I won't get any help from other people from my work? Should I just use [Lynx](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_%28web_browser%29)?
Also, is it okay to ask help for programming problems from, say, Stack Overflow or do employer assume that one has to find out the solutions by themselves?
I studied only basics of computer science in the university as I read it as my minor subject. But my current job involves data science and mathematics where I am good at and programming where I am a novice. | 2018/05/24 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/112825",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/87394/"
] | Depends very much on the company, I would say. And by that I mean if it is bad you stumbled upon pornographic material when using google to find a solution. I would just mention it casually to my colleague / supervisor but would not make a big deal out of it. But this is very depending on the company culture and probably also the country / culture. I'm in Europe (Netherlands)
As for googling to find help on problems encountered while programming, I don't know a single developer that doesn't do this. I think we all do. I used to program in Python, and now I'm programming in ABL (Progress) and it is much harder to find anything about that on the net. I don't like it :D | If there is any ambiguity in what you are allowed to do I would start by **asking a coworker.** A coworker will know exactly what you can and cannot do.
Next, are you expected to know the answer to every problem? As a junior programmer, probably not. They will expect you to use the skills your demonstrated in your interview though.
What is the consensus on using websites for research? In general if you are a programmer you are allowed (even expected?) to use stackoverflow.com. Use that site first for all your programming related questions. After that, you should become familiar with the 4 or 5 sites that generally have the answers to your questions and try to reuse them. That is usually how research plays out.
I would under no circumstances visit a site with pornographic material in the office. If you must read the answer then maybe try to do it on your phone, or try to use an ad blocker. In the worst case, did you know you can just right click the ad and select inspect in firefox/google-chrome/Microsoft-edge and just delete the div where the ad is? That will make the ad go away. Realtime ad-blocking.
Try to be professional. Especially if you are new. |
61,768 | It's what it sounds like:
I want to know whether sending a probe builder to orbit a moon or a planet (for this question I'm thinking of Titan or another smallish body in the outer system.), to build probes there instead of here.
I can think of issues with this already: RTG manufacturing, powering the builder etc.
However, the main advantage I see is that the journey would take a while with today's technology, and thus being able to manufacture the latest tech for the probe once it gets there instead of when it leaves (or years before, in some cases) would seem to be very beneficial, especially as we might have come up with a better probe design by the time it gets there. This would give the engineering and science team a greater freedom with design too: the probes, which have empty space in them, could be manufactured from bulk resource instead of to fit inside a payload bay. They also wouldn't have their electronics degrade on the way there.
Can someone please tell me this is wrong in some significant way? I feel like something is, but I can't work out what...
Thanks guys | 2023/02/07 | [
"https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/61768",
"https://space.stackexchange.com",
"https://space.stackexchange.com/users/49831/"
] | In addition to the point raise by [notovny](https://space.stackexchange.com/a/61770/26356) even once we do have some degree of on site fabrication we probably end up with worse tech than flying an earth built version.
This is because many tech advances in hardware are not 'recipes' but 'things'. An obvious example is silicon fabrication, where current chips and transistors sit on the end of a long series of machines that humans used to build a slightly better machine. For ore smelting and machining this is less of problem, but if a clever process requires an instrument or sensor using a rare and complex to extract element/compound then things get tricky for our factory in a box.
So it is likely that any near future version of this will fly a bunch of CPUs and other complex parts, and the 'made' parts will be boring things like structural elements and wheels. Which also benefit from in situ iteration as you [find out](https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/3187/curiosity-why-did-they-reinvent-the-wheel-instead-of-using-pressure-tires) what [works](https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/7997/curiosity-wheel-damage) far more than making a better CPU does.
Where this process makes sense is when you can setup a decent number of humans somewhere. They have much better chances of using the machines they have to make better machines, and it quite possibly makes more sense to have a team building and repairing rovers controlled by scientists from earth than trying to do all the science themselves. | It's not possible at this time. Humanity has no experience in building a dollar-store-quality hammer from raw materials on any non-Earth body, much less a space probe.
If it were possible to autonomously build a space probe from local raw materials gathered on-site in a package less massive than sending an assembled space probe, that level of autonomous manufacturing capability would already be in use everywhere on Earth for everyday household items. |
2,165,895 | I am looking for recommendations for a tool that will let me construct a binary image out of a series of smaller images.
I have an embedded system with a flash ROM that I program using a single image. That image consists of a series of smaller objects (data, compiled code, etc) placed at specific offsets. The build system I inherited uses a disturbing amalgam of old 16-bit DOS utilities to hack the image together. I was hoping to find a modern tool that would do the job in a less arcane (and less bug-prone) manner.
The tool needs to be able to run from a config file. That is, I specify that file A.bin needs to be placed at offset 4KB, file B.bin needs to be placed at offset 16KB, etc etc in a configuration file so that the tool does not require repeated manual command-line invocations. This is mainly because we have another system that will be auto-generating these config files.
The tool also needs to be open source (or at a minimum, cross-platform). We have developers using Windows and automated build systems using Linux and the tool would need to work on both.
I have debated hacking together my own utility in C, but before I went through all the trouble developing and debugging I wanted to ask and see if someone knew of a tool that was already out there that I missed.
**Edit:** Cygwin-related tools are unfortunately not an option for us. One of our critical build tools will crash if it is run on a system with Cygwin installed (I think it uses a specific, older cygwin DLL but that's an entirely different fiasco unto itself). | 2010/01/29 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/2165895",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/79566/"
] | I usually write my own, but via Jack Ganssle's [Embedded Muse](http://www.ganssle.com/tem-back.htm) newsletter No. 184 I came across <http://srecord.sourceforge.net/> which will do just about anything with almost any type of binary image file (despite its name it handles far more formats than just Motorola S-Records, including raw binaries). It may save you some time. | [dd](http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/dd-invocation.html) would be definitively your best friend.
Use cygwin for windows users. |
2,165,895 | I am looking for recommendations for a tool that will let me construct a binary image out of a series of smaller images.
I have an embedded system with a flash ROM that I program using a single image. That image consists of a series of smaller objects (data, compiled code, etc) placed at specific offsets. The build system I inherited uses a disturbing amalgam of old 16-bit DOS utilities to hack the image together. I was hoping to find a modern tool that would do the job in a less arcane (and less bug-prone) manner.
The tool needs to be able to run from a config file. That is, I specify that file A.bin needs to be placed at offset 4KB, file B.bin needs to be placed at offset 16KB, etc etc in a configuration file so that the tool does not require repeated manual command-line invocations. This is mainly because we have another system that will be auto-generating these config files.
The tool also needs to be open source (or at a minimum, cross-platform). We have developers using Windows and automated build systems using Linux and the tool would need to work on both.
I have debated hacking together my own utility in C, but before I went through all the trouble developing and debugging I wanted to ask and see if someone knew of a tool that was already out there that I missed.
**Edit:** Cygwin-related tools are unfortunately not an option for us. One of our critical build tools will crash if it is run on a system with Cygwin installed (I think it uses a specific, older cygwin DLL but that's an entirely different fiasco unto itself). | 2010/01/29 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/2165895",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/79566/"
] | [dd](http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/dd-invocation.html) would be definitively your best friend.
Use cygwin for windows users. | The Elfweaver utility that is distributed with OKL4 may be appropriate for you. From the manual:
"Elfweaver is a tool that may be used to manipulate ELF files. Elfweaver is written as a Python 2.3 application that only uses cross-platform libraries. Therefore Elfweaver should run on Linux, Mac-OS X and Windows. The main functionality of Elfweaver is that it allows the user to merge multiple ELF files into a single ELF file"
<http://wiki.ok-labs.com/downloads/release-3.0/okl4-ref-manual-3.0.pdf>
If you think that looks suitable, you can get the tool along with the okl4 source code from the OKL4 website. |
2,165,895 | I am looking for recommendations for a tool that will let me construct a binary image out of a series of smaller images.
I have an embedded system with a flash ROM that I program using a single image. That image consists of a series of smaller objects (data, compiled code, etc) placed at specific offsets. The build system I inherited uses a disturbing amalgam of old 16-bit DOS utilities to hack the image together. I was hoping to find a modern tool that would do the job in a less arcane (and less bug-prone) manner.
The tool needs to be able to run from a config file. That is, I specify that file A.bin needs to be placed at offset 4KB, file B.bin needs to be placed at offset 16KB, etc etc in a configuration file so that the tool does not require repeated manual command-line invocations. This is mainly because we have another system that will be auto-generating these config files.
The tool also needs to be open source (or at a minimum, cross-platform). We have developers using Windows and automated build systems using Linux and the tool would need to work on both.
I have debated hacking together my own utility in C, but before I went through all the trouble developing and debugging I wanted to ask and see if someone knew of a tool that was already out there that I missed.
**Edit:** Cygwin-related tools are unfortunately not an option for us. One of our critical build tools will crash if it is run on a system with Cygwin installed (I think it uses a specific, older cygwin DLL but that's an entirely different fiasco unto itself). | 2010/01/29 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/2165895",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/79566/"
] | I usually write my own, but via Jack Ganssle's [Embedded Muse](http://www.ganssle.com/tem-back.htm) newsletter No. 184 I came across <http://srecord.sourceforge.net/> which will do just about anything with almost any type of binary image file (despite its name it handles far more formats than just Motorola S-Records, including raw binaries). It may save you some time. | The Elfweaver utility that is distributed with OKL4 may be appropriate for you. From the manual:
"Elfweaver is a tool that may be used to manipulate ELF files. Elfweaver is written as a Python 2.3 application that only uses cross-platform libraries. Therefore Elfweaver should run on Linux, Mac-OS X and Windows. The main functionality of Elfweaver is that it allows the user to merge multiple ELF files into a single ELF file"
<http://wiki.ok-labs.com/downloads/release-3.0/okl4-ref-manual-3.0.pdf>
If you think that looks suitable, you can get the tool along with the okl4 source code from the OKL4 website. |
12,595,623 | I have been using android c2dm push notifications for my app, but since Google is going to stop c2dm I need to know how fast I should move all my users to android GCM so as to avoid any problems faced by my app users. | 2012/09/26 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/12595623",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1149140/"
] | As you can see from the notice in the [official page of c2dm](https://developers.google.com/android/c2dm/),
>
> Important: C2DM has been officially deprecated as of June 26, 2012.
> This means that C2DM has stopped accepting new users and quota
> requests. No new features will be added to C2DM. However, apps using
> C2DM will continue to work. Existing C2DM developers are encouraged to
> migrate to the new version of C2DM, called Google Cloud Messaging for
> Android (GCM). See the C2DM-to-GCM Migration document for more
> information. Developers must use GCM for new development.
>
>
>
This means, you can continue using c2dm, it will work as before. But there won't be any support for it going forward. Any new features would be added to GCM.
By the way migration to GCM is pretty simple, and they have helper libraries for GCM. Move to it asap for reliable and quota-less delivery. | Google has announced end of life for C2DM notifications. The end of life date is July 30, 2015.
Found on the [C2DM home page](https://developers.google.com/android/c2dm/):
>
> Important: C2DM was officially deprecated on June 26, 2012, and will
> be shut down completely as of July 30, 2015. Existing C2DM developers
> are encouraged to migrate to [Google Cloud Messaging for Android](http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/index.html) (GCM).
> See the [C2DM-to-GCM Migration document](http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/c2dm.html) for more information.
> Developers must use GCM for new development.
>
>
> |
12,595,623 | I have been using android c2dm push notifications for my app, but since Google is going to stop c2dm I need to know how fast I should move all my users to android GCM so as to avoid any problems faced by my app users. | 2012/09/26 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/12595623",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1149140/"
] | C2DM has been officially deprecated as of June 26, 2012. This means that C2DM has stopped accepting new users and quota requests. No new features will be added to C2DM. However, apps using C2DM will continue to work
<https://developers.google.com/android/c2dm/>
GCM is the right option for you.
Google Cloud Messaging for Android (GCM) is a service that helps developers send data from servers to their Android applications on Android devices. This could be a lightweight message telling the Android application that there is new data to be fetched from the server (for instance, a movie uploaded by a friend), or it could be a message containing up to 4kb of payload data (so apps like instant messaging can consume the message directly). The GCM service handles all aspects of queueing of messages and delivery to the target Android application running on the target device
This document describes how to write an Android application and the server-side logic, using the helper libraries (client and server) provided by GCM.
Check these links,
<http://developer.android.com/guide/google/gcm/gs.html>
<http://developer.android.com/guide/google/gcm/demo.html>
<http://www.basic4ppc.com/forum/basic4android-getting-started-tutorials/19226-android-push-notification-gcm-framework-tutorial.html>
<http://fundroiding.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/google-cloud-messaging-for-android-gcm-simple-tutorial/>
for client side app you can find the code here
<https://github.com/marknutter/GCM-Cordova> | Google has announced end of life for C2DM notifications. The end of life date is July 30, 2015.
Found on the [C2DM home page](https://developers.google.com/android/c2dm/):
>
> Important: C2DM was officially deprecated on June 26, 2012, and will
> be shut down completely as of July 30, 2015. Existing C2DM developers
> are encouraged to migrate to [Google Cloud Messaging for Android](http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/index.html) (GCM).
> See the [C2DM-to-GCM Migration document](http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/c2dm.html) for more information.
> Developers must use GCM for new development.
>
>
> |
84,248 | I made peanut butter cookie dough twice. I got the recipe from searching online, so I'm fairly sure it's a good recipe (one of the to search results).
The first time, I put half a cup of peanut butter instead of butter (as instructed), refrigerated the dough overnight, and it became really gravel-like and crumbly; difficult to form into cookies.
Thinking it was a lack of peanut butter, I made it again with a full cup of peanut butter the second time; same results.
Thinking more, it's probable that the peanut butter is hardening in the fridge, which is where I'm storing the dough. Is there anything I can do about this? How do I make the dough more malleable? | 2017/09/08 | [
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/84248",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/users/5714/"
] | Experimenting with recipes is great, but on the first pass it is usually best to stay with exactly what the recipe says unless you are adjusting for altitude or another standard substitutions. In truth, it is why we usually look up recipes to begin with, to start with something others have found to be tried and true.
I experiment and substitute all the time myself, but try to keep it like items with similar qualities, but maybe a taste a little more to my liking. PB and butter have very different qualities and a straight one for one swap in a recipe where they are major ingredients are like to not be the results you want.
Call it a lesson learned and try it as written would be my suggestion. If you want more PB punch, add a bit extra, but keep the butter in. I have seen recipes without an additional fat, but typically they would call for a much shorter cook time and likely would produce a cookie that is drier and crumbly even then. Most PB cookies I have made or had tend to me to have a dry taste, even when visibly not dry, and this increases quickly when even slightly over-cooked, and that is without removing a key ingredient. | I've made a *ton* of peanut butter cookies. I use the [Cook's Illustrated recipe](https://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/853-big-super-nutty-peanut-butter-cookies) (behind a paywall, sorry) which is amazing. It's designed to enhance the peanut flavor by adding additional salt and using chopped peanuts in addition to extra chunky peanut butter (they specifically recommend Jif brand).
Your recipe, based on mine, is all wrong. Mine uses twice that amount of butter (two sticks, salted) and sugar (one cup each of white and light brown) for the same amount of flour and eggs. It uses a cup of extra crunchy peanut butter *in addition to* the butter.
I don't think you can blame the peanut butter alone for the grainy texture, though. It's likely a lack of moisture content because a half cup or even a full cup of fat really isn't a lot when it comes to 2.5 cups of flour. When you refrigerate dough, it loses moisture - fridges dry things out - so whatever small amount of moisture you *had* is reduced even further.
Chilling cookie dough is certainly a good way to restrict the cookie's spread but overnight is probably a bit of overkill. [This article from King Arthur Flour](http://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2015/05/17/chilling-cookie-dough/) states that as little as 30-60 minutes is more than enough time to combat spread and chill the dough.
>
> **The longer you chill cookie dough, the smaller the changes become.**
>
> Call it the law of diminishing returns. The major difference is between no chilling at all vs. chilling for 30 minutes. After that, the baked cookie continues to evolve – though very gradually.
>
>
>
The longer it sits, the more grainy it will get, so you need to allow for that:
>
> [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ejthE.jpg)
>
> *That’s fresh dough, at left; three-day-old dough, at right. The longer the dough chills, the drier it becomes.*
>
>
>
---
As a note, the recipe used for the test above (for chocolate chip cookies) is [here](http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/chocolate-chip-cookies-recipe). It uses 2 c flour, 1 egg, 1-1/3 c sugar (half and half white and light brown), and a full cup of fat (half butter, half shortening). |
40,998 | Proposed senario:
A current member enters their email address on a profile form. If the email address matches a current CiviCRM member then the member is registered in Joomla and an email is sent to their email address with login credentials and a link to the login page.
From what I've read this should be possible. The issue is the available information that I have found is vaugue and does not explain the concept and steps in implementing the process in much detail. I understand that I need to set up Joomla to allow self registration and a profile must be created in CiviCRM that will check the membership status.
Which type of profile and which profile settings need to be activated?
When Joomla is set up for self registration an unwanted registration link is shown on the login page that sends the user to a Joomla registration form that bypasses the CiviCRM profile form. How do I work around that?
A step by step guide and any advice would be very helpful.
Thank you for any help you can provide.
Keith | 2022/01/04 | [
"https://civicrm.stackexchange.com/questions/40998",
"https://civicrm.stackexchange.com",
"https://civicrm.stackexchange.com/users/12785/"
] | See whether [this extension](https://github.com/aydun/CiviCRM-JoomlaReg) helps. The usage is a bit different in that it uses the standard self-registration process but only allows registration to succeed if the email address is already in CiviCRM. It does not check membership but could do.
[CiviAuthenticate](https://extensions.joomla.org/extension/civiauthenticate-for-civicrm/) might also be useful. It does not restrict registration but does restrict login access to members. | You could hide the registration link via CSS on the login page, and add a module (on the same page) with a "Create a user account here" link, leading to your CiviCRM profile. (Or you could create a template override for this page, but it's a bit more complex, and the above should do, IMHO.)
As for the CiviCRM profile for the registration page, you can create your own, and make sure you include all the key fields, including first name, last name and email (at minimum), and in the 'Advanced Settings' section of the profile setup you check off the "Account creation required" option for the 'Joomla user account creation option?' field.
While we're happy with the above set-up, we are also allowing for user registration via social network accounts (Facebook and Google in our case ... via the JFBConnect component), which bypasses the CiviCRM profile registration form. So, for that we've implemented this extension (<https://civicrm.org/extensions/joomla-2-civicrm-user-synchronization>), which creates a new contact (if it doesn't exist), or maps the new user to an existing contact (if it does exist).
Feel free to @ me if you'd like to chat more, and I'd be happy to connect. |
29,607 | I'm so tired of cleaning my cat's poop and having to wash clean clothes because he pees on them. How do I train him? He has a litter box and he’s allowed to go outside. I love him to bits but I got so frustrated today I beat him up. I feel so bad, but I had a bad day and came back home to a messed up wardrobe. He wasn’t always like this.
As a kitten he always preferred to poop outside, but since mid last year he just chooses to ruin my mood. He will literally come into the house from outside, running, to poop on my stuff. How do I train him? I come from a country where sending him to the SPCA is basically killing him. He’s my baby and I love him but I am so tired right now, what do I do? | 2021/01/23 | [
"https://pets.stackexchange.com/questions/29607",
"https://pets.stackexchange.com",
"https://pets.stackexchange.com/users/19704/"
] | Changes in toileting behavior in cats are a very common sign of illness; **if you have not taken your cat to a vet** to have them evaluate the issue, **you should do so immediately**, as it sounds like **you've been letting this issue go on for a very long time without properly addressing it**. Male cats in particular can be very susceptible to urinary tract issues that can turn fatal.
**In addition**, you need to look at how you are handling cleaning of both his litter box and the other areas where he's relieved himself. **Keep the litter box clean**; if you aren't cleaning it at least once a day, start doing that. Additionally, while you might think your clothes are clean, regular detergent does not break down all the enzymes in cat urine, which will make them smell like an appropriate toilet to your cat until you properly remove them. **Get an enzymatic laundry additive** specifically for cleaning pet messes, and wash everything with that, whether or not you think it's clean. Use it every time your cat urinates or defecates on a garment. Furthermore, you'll need to **clean the surfaces below those items**, using a surface enzymatic cleaner for pet messes (appropriate to the surface you're cleaning up). Lastly, **pick up your clothes** and put them away properly. If you don't leave them where the cat can use them as a toilet, the cat won't do so.
**None of the above is a substitute for a vet visit, and a vet visit is not a substitute for any of the above cleaning steps.** You will need to do both to properly address the situation. In the meantime, **stop taking your anger out on your cat**. He isn't feeling well, and you lashing out at him isn't making him feel any better. Treat him with kindness, and make sure you address the root causes of the problem. He's not doing any of this because he's "mad at you" or "naughty," there are always underlying reasons, and unless you address those, nothing will ever change. | poor you! Poor Cat. Sounds like you both need a fully paid luxury holiday, possibly seperate holiday destinations and stay overs. Frustration is not only a human condition but also an animal's. Wehn you return spend quality time together, change his diet, and yours, relax, meditate, excercise, entertain yourself by installing a 'rage room' I hear celebrities like Nicole Kidman have rage rooms in the homes, so they can let off steam and her hubby (cant think of his name offhand) visits opp shops and charities to get a supply of baseball bats. Try to play with him, but him a new toy or if budget restrictions apply buy loved ones and spoil him and you both. If that fails, a good wake up call is to watch some videos of abused cats and kittens. On the news, I saw how a 7 year old child with his mates was kicking and bashing a kitten only to end up killing it and throwing it in the bin. You may need to think of re training your cat. There are great videos on you tube as well of a kitten school it gives great advice, instructions and guides. God speed and God bless you and your cat. |
5,222 | I am playing against an Imperial Guard player at 1500 pts. He has ~ 7 lascannon squads + an assault cannon squad. He just sits there and shoots at me while I try to advance.
I have since switched away from anything coming from reserve since my army would be eaten piece by piece. Instead I am going for a lot of troops:
* 3x Rhino (with Storm bolter) + 10-man Tactical squad (heavy bolter, flamer), sergeant has storm bolter
* 5-man Scout squad (all with combat blades)
* 10-man Assault squad
* 5-man Devastator Squad (3 lascannon, 1 heavy bolter)
* Librarian in Terminator Armour (Avenger, Force Dome) + 5 Shooting Terminators
* Dreadnought with Multi-melta
* Dreadnought with Assault Cannon
Since most Imperial Guard troops have 5+ armour, any hit I make with the storm bolter or heavy bolter means death. Since each Rhino has a sergeant and a flamer guy, I can move 6" and still fire 4 shots (+template if I survive long enough). Is this a viable tactic to help my main force get into close combat action? | 2011/10/31 | [
"https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/5222",
"https://boardgames.stackexchange.com",
"https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/1882/"
] | List tailoring is a bit of a Faux Pas in miniature gaming. You, shouldn't build a list specifically to beat a single opponent. Massing heavy bolters would be a step down on that path. Heavy bolters are also a fairly limited weapon, since they are nearly useless against most armor. A better weapon choice would be autocannons or asssault cannons. They strike a balance that makes them good for anti-infantry and light anti-armor work.
I would say that your current list does lack in long range anti-infantry fire power. This would make you easy pickings for a foot heavy guard list. Here are a few units that you could add to your army to try to address that:
* Predator with Autocannon and Heavy Bolter sponsons. This is a cheap option at 85 points each. They bring front armor 13 and 2 ST 7 shots and 6 ST 5 ones. Taking 3 is a good use of your heavy support slots.
* Dreadnought with two twin-linked Autocannons. For 125 points, you get 4 ST 7 shots with re-rolls. This is a great fire support unit as it will also give your guard opponent trouble if he decides to mount his army up in Chimeras. It's fairly common to see 2 or 3 in a Marine army.
* Speeder with Multi-Melta and Heavy Flamer. Not specifically long range, but they are fast and can deep strike. You can drop them right on your opponent's infantry squads and use that Flamer template to kill plenty of guardsmen outright.
For your tactical squads, Missile Launchers or Multi-meltas should be your choice 90% of the time. You'l get the most use out of them. You should give your sergeants either power fists or a combi-weapon. You already have plenty of ST 4 firepower in a tac-squad; you need your sergeants to cover your weaknesses.
Another completely different approach is to load up on flame template weapons, mount up in drop pods, and land in his face. He won't ever want to run foot guard again after that. | If you want to turn the tables on him a bit, take a couple of drop pods with some flamer tac squads and a dreadnought with a flamer / multi-melta. This would force him to choose between starting with his army on the table (and then having it horribly burned by the drop pod assault) or starting his army in reserve (to dodge the drop pod assault) and then giving your main force the time it needs to sprint across the table. |
24,803 | In most variants of Mahjong with restrictions on when a player can complete their hand off a discarded tile (especially Japanese Mahjong with *furiten*), the English rules refer to the situation as a "sacred discard". This confuses me, because the kanji etymology for furiten (振聴) seems to mean something more like "thrown-away tenpai" (as in 振り聴牌, *furi-tenpai*), and no other variant that I know of has a specific word for it like Japanese does.
Where did the term "sacred discard" come from, in that case? Was it just a culturally interpretive term invented by English-speaking players? Or does this term actually exist in some variant? | 2015/06/25 | [
"https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/24803",
"https://boardgames.stackexchange.com",
"https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/3543/"
] | I do not know the answer, but I asked in a experienced Mahjong group I'm in, kindly received a most valuable pointer and was subsequently able to extend it to this answer:
>
> Was it just a culturally interpretive term invented by English-speaking players?
>
>
>
**Probably**. An online search brough up [http://i.imgur.com/crKOGnw.png](https://i.imgur.com/crKOGnw.png) (*A Mah Jong Handbook: How to Play, Score, and Win*, <https://books.google.de/books?isbn=1462905005>), which is from 1964 and may be a root source others copied from.
Note that Mahjong was introduced to Japan only in 1924, so it took some time for it to divert from the Chinese rules (and create Riichi), and further more for it to be adapted into English and into books. That this took about 40 years is not unlikely.
From the group's reaction it also appears that, depending where and with whom you play Mahjong, there is a fair chance you won't encounter the term 'sacred discard' at all, even though Wikipedia uses it occasionally (especially in introductory articles). Personally, I've also always seen, heard and used the original *furiten* instead (but I am not a regular player, so that amounts to not much). | "Sacred discard" is a western interpretation of the rules they perceived to be in place around 1964. However, the details provided in that 1964 book describe many rules that conflict with each other and that are not part of the modern game today.
More imaginative terms that reflect better the fallen aspect of "furi" are hallowed or damned. Sacred is a bit of language that has a positive connotation: being in furiten is exactly **not that**. |
59,064,248 | I'm learning java and I have a problem, I'm working on library system and can't figure out how to send information about created user to list(hashMap) of users...
On the picture below is my code, in red circle admin call method to create librarian. Problem is I can't figure out how to send information about this to blue circle to add this new librarian to list of users... I thought I would move hashMap activeUsers to class admin but i need librarians to create customers as well so...
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xRSyS.png)
any idea please? | 2019/11/27 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/59064248",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/-1/"
] | You can either make the variables public, so you can access to them from all the other classes, or you could write methods that return their value that you can call from any other class. You can find more information [here](https://www.google.it/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://medium.com/%40peterekeneeze/passing-data-between-activities-2d0ef122f19d&ved=2ahUKEwiW7KfZ4YnmAhVBCewKHZChDwQQFjAKegQICRAB&usg=AOvVaw21onVbE8fHWEXXagA0Sz0R) too, if you need. | You can try addUser(l.name, l.psw) in createLibrarian() function. Thanks |
7,656 | I just bought a pair of BaoFeng 888s radios and they don't work out of the box. I know they are on the illegal freqs, but I expected them to work.
I got the cable, reprogrammed them to the recommended freqs (does any one has a good \*.dat file for USA?) and they still don't work with each other.
What could I possibly do wrong? I select the same channel (1-1 or 2-2) and press button to talk, but I don't hear anything coming from the other radio.
The speaker is working, because I can hear it saying "power on".
UPD: here are the frequencies I'm trying to use by following the Amazon review comment:
Out/Simplex Repeater input (use only first column if you don't have a repeater)
* 462.550 ---- 467.550
* 462.575 ---- 467.575
* 462.600 ---- 467.600
* 462.625 ---- 467.625
* 462.650 ---- 467.650
* 462.675\* --- 467.675\*
* 462.700 ---- 467.700
* 462.725 ---- 467.725 | 2017/05/25 | [
"https://ham.stackexchange.com/questions/7656",
"https://ham.stackexchange.com",
"https://ham.stackexchange.com/users/9733/"
] | A channel can transmit on one frequency and receive on another. When you push the PTT button, watch the display to see if the frequency changes. If so, pick a channel for testing where this does not happen.
Radios can also encode tones in the audio path that must match on the transmitter and receiver or the receiver must be programmed to ignore these tones. The tones go by a variety of names such as PL, CTCSS, DCS, or tone. Pick a channel for testing that does not use tones.
If you are testing on frequencies for which you are not licensed, you should transmit into a dummy load instead of an antenna to prevent violating the regulations or law. | You have to program the ctcss codes or the dcs codes. Like say your on channel 8 on both radios but one is on channel 8 127 and the other radio is on channel 8 134, they have a certain amount of privacy codes per channel and if the codes aren't the same on both radio they will not work properly. |
27,416,798 | We are using IT Hit WebDAV Ajax Library for our project to read and edit documents.
We have an issue on opening non-office files like pdf, txt.
When we try to open the file, the java applet (ajaxfilebrowser) is used to open the file. It shows a messagebox to allow the browser to run the exe and then the file is not opened. Instead My Documents folder is opened from the desktop.
Please advise how can we open the file? | 2014/12/11 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/27416798",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/4331503/"
] | This behavior is by design. From the [documentation](http://jqueryvalidation.org/documentation/)
>
> Before a field is marked as invalid, the validation is lazy: Before submitting the form for the first time, the user can tab through fields without getting annoying messages – they won't get bugged before having the chance to actually enter a correct value
> Once a field is marked invalid, it is eagerly validated: As soon as the user has entered the necessary value, the error message is removed
>
>
> | Use jquery. You can use [focusout()](http://api.jquery.com/focusout/) or [blur()](http://api.jquery.com/blur/).
Take a look at examples, might help. |
12,305,711 | Trying to Encrypt a text message using RSA algorithm. To encrypt the message the key from client is required. How are the keys exchanged. I have studied few key exchange algorithms but could not find any example code.
Can some one guide to a tutorial, on how to exchange the keys on internet. | 2012/09/06 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/12305711",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/464615/"
] | U can use this sample [program](http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/java7sdk/v7r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.java.security.component.doc/security-component/JceDocs/api_sampleprograms.html) for key exchange algorithm. Its a Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange between 2 Parties. Just try to understand what this algo is [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffie%E2%80%93Hellman_key_exchange). | The main methods of distributing keys are through e.g. PGP, which uses signatures from other trusted parties to confer trust in keys. X509 certificates, such as used in browsers, use certificate chains, where a certificate from a higher up authority is explicitly trusted. These methods of trusting certificates is called PKI, public key infrastructure.
If you don't have an established trust you might send each other a certificate or public key, by mail then calculate a "fingerprint" over the certificate. Then use an out of band procedure (telephone, envelope etc.) to validate the fingerprint. Or simply meet up and exchange a USB thumb drive after checking each others credentials. |
34,051,057 | I am attempting to troubleshoot a problem with our application that only occurs on a particular server belonging to one of our customers.
The application sometimes crashes, and the core files are showing an illegal memory access. I suspect the reason for that is some kind of failure with the malloc function. It is probably returning a NULL pointer, but when this occurs the machine still has plenty of free memory. My theory is that the memory was too fragmented, and when it tried to allocate some more memory (18MB), it may have failed.
What steps can I take to troubleshoot this problem? For example, does Windows log any information when a memory allocation fails? Or does it just ignore it?
The server in question is running Windows Server 2008 R2 and the Windows Event Log service is running.
At this point I can't include any code, because I don't know what part of the application is causing the problem. How can I narrow this down? | 2015/12/02 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/34051057",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/5547128/"
] | Thanks to [JaredPar](https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/profile/jaredpar%20msft/) for the work around
<http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bharry/archive/2015/11/30/vs-2015-update-1-and-tfs-2015-update-1-are-available.aspx?CommentPosted=true#10659560>
>
> Add the following line before the call to al.exe in your nmake file or
> post build events
>
>
> chcp 437
>
>
> This will reset the console code page to a known value before running
> al.exe.
>
>
> | I just run into the same issue when trying to build my ASP.NET project.
>
> 1>C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(3441,5):
> error MSB6006: "al.exe" exited with code -1073741819.
>
>
>
This will happen after you changed the **Default code page** in Default console window properties:
Just revert it to `437` and the problem is gone. |
549,746 | I have windows 8 and don't have daemon tools and didn't know if windows 8 could replace daemon tools. Does it? | 2013/02/11 | [
"https://superuser.com/questions/549746",
"https://superuser.com",
"https://superuser.com/users/197474/"
] | Windows 8 can mount ISOs natively. That is about all, but for any legitimate purposes this suffices quite fine and there is no longer a need for daemon tools/virtual clone drive/etc. | You can find a Windows 8 compatible version of Daemon tools here. [Daemon Tools lite](http://astroddl.com/daemon+tools+lite+free+download+windows+8+64+bit.html) |
38,126,134 | How can i add text outline in unity over a text UI object?
I want to do it in the designer/editor view. i cant see to find any useful topic and i also cant see how to add it from the designer view.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZoH5H.png)
My project is 2d and i'm using the latest unity version 5.3. I want to achieve similar effect. | 2016/06/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/38126134",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/6533965/"
] | Or. Alternatively to Joe's answer. To simply add a outline effect to a normal .ttf font :
1. Click on the text object from the Hierarchy
2. Click the Add Component button in the inspector
3. Type "outline" in the search bar.
4. Add the outline component. | Note! This explains how to make custom type ("sprite sheet type") in Unity.
Before reading it, check Uri's & Programmer's answer which explains using the handy new "outline" feature in .UI ! It may well be enough!
---
Unity does not have **any fancy type handling at all**.
You can drop in "normal" .ttf fonts,
or, you can drop in "image fonts", called **custom fonts** by Unity, where you literally make each letter on a sprite sheet.
A font sprite sheet looks something like this:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/mzZ7I.png)
Here's exactly how to do it ...
(1) you have to use **GlyphDesigner** (or any similar product) to actually make your custom font sheet. Find the product you like for your Mac or PC to do this.
(2) There is a **critical trick**.
Unity completely forgot to include a type matcher for custom fonts. (They may fix this in Unity 6.) It's one of the stupidest things in Unity. So, fortunately there is a free and perfect script
BitmapFontImporter.cs
<https://github.com/BenoitFreslon/BitmapFontImporter>
There's a full and long tutorial link at that page.
You have to include that to make custom fonts work. It's just one of those weird things about Unity.
So in short, **firstly** you have to literally "draw" such custom fonts, letter by letter. In fact you need to use something like GlyphDesigner to do that.
Secondly in Unity you have to use the extremely handy script mentioned above or it won't work. Enjoy!
<http://answers.unity3d.com/answers/1105527/view.html> |
38,126,134 | How can i add text outline in unity over a text UI object?
I want to do it in the designer/editor view. i cant see to find any useful topic and i also cant see how to add it from the designer view.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZoH5H.png)
My project is 2d and i'm using the latest unity version 5.3. I want to achieve similar effect. | 2016/06/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/38126134",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/6533965/"
] | Note! This explains how to make custom type ("sprite sheet type") in Unity.
Before reading it, check Uri's & Programmer's answer which explains using the handy new "outline" feature in .UI ! It may well be enough!
---
Unity does not have **any fancy type handling at all**.
You can drop in "normal" .ttf fonts,
or, you can drop in "image fonts", called **custom fonts** by Unity, where you literally make each letter on a sprite sheet.
A font sprite sheet looks something like this:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/mzZ7I.png)
Here's exactly how to do it ...
(1) you have to use **GlyphDesigner** (or any similar product) to actually make your custom font sheet. Find the product you like for your Mac or PC to do this.
(2) There is a **critical trick**.
Unity completely forgot to include a type matcher for custom fonts. (They may fix this in Unity 6.) It's one of the stupidest things in Unity. So, fortunately there is a free and perfect script
BitmapFontImporter.cs
<https://github.com/BenoitFreslon/BitmapFontImporter>
There's a full and long tutorial link at that page.
You have to include that to make custom fonts work. It's just one of those weird things about Unity.
So in short, **firstly** you have to literally "draw" such custom fonts, letter by letter. In fact you need to use something like GlyphDesigner to do that.
Secondly in Unity you have to use the extremely handy script mentioned above or it won't work. Enjoy!
<http://answers.unity3d.com/answers/1105527/view.html> | [TextMesh Pro](https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/essentials/beta-projects/textmesh-pro-84126) from the Asset Store does the job and it can be imported for free.
This gives plenty of possibilities fort texts, including how thick the outline should be. |
38,126,134 | How can i add text outline in unity over a text UI object?
I want to do it in the designer/editor view. i cant see to find any useful topic and i also cant see how to add it from the designer view.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZoH5H.png)
My project is 2d and i'm using the latest unity version 5.3. I want to achieve similar effect. | 2016/06/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/38126134",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/6533965/"
] | Or. Alternatively to Joe's answer. To simply add a outline effect to a normal .ttf font :
1. Click on the text object from the Hierarchy
2. Click the Add Component button in the inspector
3. Type "outline" in the search bar.
4. Add the outline component. | [TextMesh Pro](https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/essentials/beta-projects/textmesh-pro-84126) from the Asset Store does the job and it can be imported for free.
This gives plenty of possibilities fort texts, including how thick the outline should be. |
34,704 | Here is the situation. Playing best of minors (with four diamonds and 14 points with no five card suit) I opened one diamond. Opponent on my left Doubled. My partner Redoubled. Her partner passed and I passed…not comprehending what she was telling me or asking. As it turned out she just thought it was the right thing to do having four diamonds and a minimal supporting hand. We made two diamonds, and scored it accordingly, but left all of us still wondering what the Redoubled meant.
What could it have meant, or what should it have meant under the Goren system of bidding? Was redoubling the right thing for partner to do with a minimum supporitng hand? | 2017/03/26 | [
"https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/34704",
"https://boardgames.stackexchange.com",
"https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/7440/"
] | Playing a basic Goren system the Redouble (of a Take-Out Double of an opening 1 of a suit bid) shows a hand of 10+ points. It tends to show a balanced hand as it suggests that Opener Double the escape by 4th hand if it is into a good 5-card suit (or 4-card suit at the two level) in his hand, otherwise pass. It also tends to deny good support in Opener's suit for the same reason, as with a good fit Opener's side may find more profit in a Game contract than in penalizing the opponents.
The more strength there is in Redoubler's hand the more likely that it is short in Opener's suit, again because the likely profit in a penalty double increases from the potential mis-fit.
With sound support for Opener's suit the modern tendency is to make a pre-emptive raise: to the 2-level with 4-6 HCP and good 3-card support and the three level with 7-9 HCP and either a side-singleton or 4-card support and a doubleton.
For the situation you described Fourth hand should have taken out the redouble: You scored a nice profit considering the opponents can probably make 8 or 9 tricks in a major themselves. | The redouble is not forcing on the original bidder, so the responder must be willing to see the hand played in the bid contract. That means:
1. The responder has support for the original bid (at least 3 diamonds, and at least six points.)
2. The responder must have neither the points or the distribution that would make game (or a slam) virtually certain -- otherwise bid a new suit or NT.
3. The responder does not have a hand thaat would make a preemptive raise reasonable, to prevent the opponents for finding game or slam. |
34,704 | Here is the situation. Playing best of minors (with four diamonds and 14 points with no five card suit) I opened one diamond. Opponent on my left Doubled. My partner Redoubled. Her partner passed and I passed…not comprehending what she was telling me or asking. As it turned out she just thought it was the right thing to do having four diamonds and a minimal supporting hand. We made two diamonds, and scored it accordingly, but left all of us still wondering what the Redoubled meant.
What could it have meant, or what should it have meant under the Goren system of bidding? Was redoubling the right thing for partner to do with a minimum supporitng hand? | 2017/03/26 | [
"https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/34704",
"https://boardgames.stackexchange.com",
"https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/7440/"
] | Playing a basic Goren system the Redouble (of a Take-Out Double of an opening 1 of a suit bid) shows a hand of 10+ points. It tends to show a balanced hand as it suggests that Opener Double the escape by 4th hand if it is into a good 5-card suit (or 4-card suit at the two level) in his hand, otherwise pass. It also tends to deny good support in Opener's suit for the same reason, as with a good fit Opener's side may find more profit in a Game contract than in penalizing the opponents.
The more strength there is in Redoubler's hand the more likely that it is short in Opener's suit, again because the likely profit in a penalty double increases from the potential mis-fit.
With sound support for Opener's suit the modern tendency is to make a pre-emptive raise: to the 2-level with 4-6 HCP and good 3-card support and the three level with 7-9 HCP and either a side-singleton or 4-card support and a doubleton.
For the situation you described Fourth hand should have taken out the redouble: You scored a nice profit considering the opponents can probably make 8 or 9 tricks in a major themselves. | Based on what you have written, your partner should not have redoubled with a "minimum supporting hand," which I take to be 6-9 points, perhaps more like 6-7 for reasons discussed below.
A redouble after an opening bid and takeout double means, "I think we've got them." It shows 10 high card points or more, which opposite your 14 means, "we've got at least 60% (out of 40) of the high card points between us.
You did the right thing to pass. If partner really had ten high card points, you would have made three diamonds. Two doubled overtricks are 200 points, and you would also have gotten 80 points below the line. If the opponents had fled to a major suit, you should have been able to double and set them with your partnership's presumed 24+ points, and relatively balanced hand.
The fact that you made only two diamonds, not three, suggests that partner had only 6-7 points; you and partner together had about 20, not 24+, and likewise the opponents, had about 20. (Unless this was an "unlucky" hand in which all the breaks and finesses went the wrong way.) If this was the case, one of your opponents should have bid one of a major, with the final likely contract being two of their major (which outranks two diamonds).
Your actual result seems to have been "fortuitous," (although possibly wrong: partner probably overbid with a redouble and scared the opponents out of what should have been a plus score for them. Even if they went down one, their minus 50 not vulnerable or minus 100 vulnerable (neither doubled), would have been less than letting you have 280 at a redoubled contract. |
34,704 | Here is the situation. Playing best of minors (with four diamonds and 14 points with no five card suit) I opened one diamond. Opponent on my left Doubled. My partner Redoubled. Her partner passed and I passed…not comprehending what she was telling me or asking. As it turned out she just thought it was the right thing to do having four diamonds and a minimal supporting hand. We made two diamonds, and scored it accordingly, but left all of us still wondering what the Redoubled meant.
What could it have meant, or what should it have meant under the Goren system of bidding? Was redoubling the right thing for partner to do with a minimum supporitng hand? | 2017/03/26 | [
"https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/34704",
"https://boardgames.stackexchange.com",
"https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/7440/"
] | Based on what you have written, your partner should not have redoubled with a "minimum supporting hand," which I take to be 6-9 points, perhaps more like 6-7 for reasons discussed below.
A redouble after an opening bid and takeout double means, "I think we've got them." It shows 10 high card points or more, which opposite your 14 means, "we've got at least 60% (out of 40) of the high card points between us.
You did the right thing to pass. If partner really had ten high card points, you would have made three diamonds. Two doubled overtricks are 200 points, and you would also have gotten 80 points below the line. If the opponents had fled to a major suit, you should have been able to double and set them with your partnership's presumed 24+ points, and relatively balanced hand.
The fact that you made only two diamonds, not three, suggests that partner had only 6-7 points; you and partner together had about 20, not 24+, and likewise the opponents, had about 20. (Unless this was an "unlucky" hand in which all the breaks and finesses went the wrong way.) If this was the case, one of your opponents should have bid one of a major, with the final likely contract being two of their major (which outranks two diamonds).
Your actual result seems to have been "fortuitous," (although possibly wrong: partner probably overbid with a redouble and scared the opponents out of what should have been a plus score for them. Even if they went down one, their minus 50 not vulnerable or minus 100 vulnerable (neither doubled), would have been less than letting you have 280 at a redoubled contract. | The redouble is not forcing on the original bidder, so the responder must be willing to see the hand played in the bid contract. That means:
1. The responder has support for the original bid (at least 3 diamonds, and at least six points.)
2. The responder must have neither the points or the distribution that would make game (or a slam) virtually certain -- otherwise bid a new suit or NT.
3. The responder does not have a hand thaat would make a preemptive raise reasonable, to prevent the opponents for finding game or slam. |
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