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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
11,903,719 | Is Microsoft updating SAPI or any speech components in Windows 8?
I can't seem to find any mention of any updated [APIs](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh920511%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) or [technology](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh920512%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) to be included with Windows 8. | 2012/08/10 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/11903719",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/495499/"
] | No. Windows 8 ships with the same SAPI 5.4 from Windows 7. | For windows 8 ui applications, there are no inbox speech apis. |
42,256,757 | We decided to use jira and confluece with postgre. I have a question about the setup. I red the documentation but its still not clear to me. Do I need to create two databases and two login roles, one for confluence and one for jira with pgAdmin or just one database and one login role?
Thanks
Aleks | 2017/02/15 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/42256757",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1317156/"
] | I just worked this out recently. You want two separate databases for sure.
I would recommend two database users, but you would be able to use just one if you wanted.
For what it's worth I had really good success using phppgadmin.
I'd call one database confluence and the other jira. It's really easy when the usernames match the database. | You can use one database username for both JIRA and Confluence but you need to have **TWO Different Databases** for them. You shouldn't try to install both of them in one database with different schema since it may cause lots of problem with a plugins later since they are using AO tables and sometimes you have same tables for both. |
81,187 | I recently rescued a survivor from a portable toilet in *No Zombies Allowed*. Normally, this nets me some supplies, cash, and coins.
This one, however, awarded me by building a security fence all along my town. My first thought is that this does nothing but give my town a nicer look.
**Does this fence serve any real purpose?** | 2012/08/20 | [
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/81187",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/users/14775/"
] | Surfing around google, I chanced across the [No Zombies Allowed Wiki](http://nozombiesallowed.wikia.com/wiki/Home).
I was looking for an answer to your question, and I chanced upon this in the [FAQ](http://nozombiesallowed.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ).
>
> **How do I upgrade Lola's tower?**
>
>
> Every 5 or 6 survivors you rescue from the portable bathrooms, one of them will upgrade your tower and all
> your walls near your depots.
>
>
>
Thus, the result is not merely a cosmetic upgrade, but also a defensive boost to your walls and fortifications. | You are correct in thinking that it just makes your town look nicer sadly. Would be nice if it had other features. |
253,735 | [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2Ag15.jpg)I have an older outdoor GFCI outlet on a dedicated circuit that trips periodically. I am planning on switching it with a regular outlet and a GFCI breaker in order to get the GFCI circuitry away from the weather. The circuit is landed on a subpanel model CH12L125B that takes Cutler Hammer/Eaton CH type breakers.
My main panel is a Siemens G3040B1200. When the subpanel was installed (3" away from the main panel), the installer brought only the hots into the subpanel and left the neutrals in the main panel. Is this OK? If I put the GFCI breaker in the subpanel I will need to find the neutral and bring it over at least (I suppose). Or should I just swap with another 15a circuit in the main panel and buy a GFCI breaker for the main panel?
I was looking for a 15a single-pole GFCI breaker for the subpanel and I was having a difficult time figuring out the current model number for the breaker I would need. I don't believe this circuit needs AFCI, self-test, or "equipment protection" (but idk). Any advice would be appreciated. | 2022/07/28 | [
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/253735",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/users/126129/"
] | >
> My main panel is a Siemens G3040B1200. When the subpanel was installed (3" away from the main panel), the installer brought only the hots into the subpanel and left the neutrals in the main panel. Is this OK?
>
>
>
No, that is not OK. This was very shabbily done and you should bring in a *competent* electrician to correct it, or DIY.
* The supply breaker to the subpanel needs to be a Siemens QP250, not a GE which does not belong in this panel.
* The Square D HOM breaker also needs to go. What is wrong with people? Replace with Siemes QP230.
* Circuits entering the main panel that have had their hots extended into the sub, need to have their neutrals extended also. Grounds can stay where they are.
And even when you do all that stuff, you'll have panels that are completely full. No, this is not OK. You've been "living from one breaker space to the next" and look where it's gotten you.
If it were me
-------------
Look. I'm a CH super-fan. But just the same, I would tear the CH panel off the wall and throw it in the trash, and replace it with a 30-space Siemens panel. That way you can use the same breakers. 30-space because spaces are cheap, and obviously you go through breaker spaces really fast. 30 space not 30 circuits. With an accessory ground bar.
Same size as your existing panel, so all the ports will line up.
I would use a RMC metal conduit nipple for the feeder and several 3/4" metal conduit nipples linking side ports up and down the unit (just to make thru-wiring more convenient, often the wires can make it to a new breaker).
>
> I have an older outdoor GFCI outlet on a dedicated circuit that trips periodically.
>
>
>
I have an older smoke detector that goes off everytime I burn toast.
The difference between my smoke detector and your GFCI is you can see smoke but you can't see ground faults, so I presume my smoke detector is doing its job, and you presume your GFCI is defective.
The GFCI is probably doing its job, and you're trying to shoot the messenger. **Ground faults on outdoor wiring *is really not a surprise*.** Try opening up all the boxes downline of the GFCI and cleaning out all the paper-wasp condominiums and fixing the water getting into the boxes. | The part number for the breaker you're searching for is: Eaton/Cutler-Hammer CH115GFI 1 Pole Circuit Breaker. The "CH" is important. ETN makes a "BR" breaker and those will not work in your sub panel. As mentioned in the comments, there might be better ways to do this. |
142,215 | I have a double-bowl, stainless steel kitchen sink mounted to a granite countertop, with a faucet with a pull-out spray head (pictured).
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fgfWe.jpg)
The faucet is no longer tightly mounted, so it wobbles back and forth. I'd like to tighten it. Unfortunately, it's not obvious to me how to tighten it. Here's a picture of the underside:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/R1QQb.jpg)
There aren't any obvious screws. All I can guess is that the nut around that brass threaded pipe is how to tighten it? Is tightening that the right way to go? And do you think I can get it tight enough just with that? Or should I expect to have to do something extra (plumber's putty?)? | 2018/07/13 | [
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/142215",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/users/87736/"
] | >
> the nut around that brass threaded pipe is how to tighten it? Is tightening that the right way to go?
>
>
>
YES and YES
>
> do you think I can get it tight enough just with that? Or should I expect to have to do something extra (plumber's putty?)
>
>
>
YES and NO - you should go ahead and try tightening it up with the nut, it should work. Those types of faucets normally have a gasket under the upper portion and no plumbers putty is required.
NOTE- it will likely be difficult to tighten that nut, most of those types of faucets come with a manufacturer-supplied special tool to reach up and tighten the nut with. If you don't have that tool then you will need to improvise.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/0Wq3l.jpg) | That brass nut is what I'd try if you can reach it. It looks like some sort of makeshift clamp blocks access to the nut.
Is that silicone rubber all over one of the fittings? That is non standard and suggests either there was a leak or someone didn't know what they were doing in the first place. There are *two* corrugated hoses which probably have some sort of quick connect/disconnect. The disconnection process can be tricky. These should be easy to temporarily remove for access, but the presence of the silicone rubber and the makeshift clamp suggests there might be problems. |
60,579 | After reading ["Is *everyone*" singular or plural?"](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/225/is-everyone-singular-or-plural), I would refrain from asking this question, but the husband of a colleague of mine (English professor, native speaker of British English) stated against it, so I am looking for further enlightenment.
He advocates *some* should be solely used to refer to plural forms. Thus,
>
> some non-existent towns
>
>
>
is perfectly correct, but
>
> some non-existent town
>
>
>
should be replaced by
>
> a non-existent town
>
>
>
Is that true? | 2012/03/09 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/60579",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/18424/"
] | ***Some*** indeed can be use in this general sense.
If you visit [OneLook](http://www.onelook.com/?w=some&ls=a), you'll see several meanings of the word ***some***. One of them reads:
>
> **some** *used for referring to a person or thing without knowing or without saying exactly which one*
>
>
>
So, saying:
>
> *We'll go to some beach tomorrow.*
>
>
> *We'll stop at some restaurant on the way home.*
>
>
>
are both perfectly acceptable. As a matter of fact, if you made the noun plural:
>
> *We'll stop at some restaurants on the way home.*
>
>
>
That would imply that we are stopping at *more than one* restaurant. | *[Some](http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/some_1)* is used to refer to a particular person or thing without stating which. For example,
>
> **Some** customer called yesterday.
>
>
> |
60,579 | After reading ["Is *everyone*" singular or plural?"](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/225/is-everyone-singular-or-plural), I would refrain from asking this question, but the husband of a colleague of mine (English professor, native speaker of British English) stated against it, so I am looking for further enlightenment.
He advocates *some* should be solely used to refer to plural forms. Thus,
>
> some non-existent towns
>
>
>
is perfectly correct, but
>
> some non-existent town
>
>
>
should be replaced by
>
> a non-existent town
>
>
>
Is that true? | 2012/03/09 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/60579",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/18424/"
] | ***Some*** indeed can be use in this general sense.
If you visit [OneLook](http://www.onelook.com/?w=some&ls=a), you'll see several meanings of the word ***some***. One of them reads:
>
> **some** *used for referring to a person or thing without knowing or without saying exactly which one*
>
>
>
So, saying:
>
> *We'll go to some beach tomorrow.*
>
>
> *We'll stop at some restaurant on the way home.*
>
>
>
are both perfectly acceptable. As a matter of fact, if you made the noun plural:
>
> *We'll stop at some restaurants on the way home.*
>
>
>
That would imply that we are stopping at *more than one* restaurant. | You're right, he's right, they're right, everyone's right.
Just incomplete. No one has mentioned the important detail.
"A non-existent town" - CORRECT
"Some non-existent town" - INFORMAL
That's all there is to it.
"Some" is being used EXACTLY the way "a" is supposed to be used. You can't use "some" in this way in proper speech or writing. It in formal, stressing the indefiniteness. For further emphasis (almost to the point of being silly), we may also say "Some random non-existent town." |
60,579 | After reading ["Is *everyone*" singular or plural?"](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/225/is-everyone-singular-or-plural), I would refrain from asking this question, but the husband of a colleague of mine (English professor, native speaker of British English) stated against it, so I am looking for further enlightenment.
He advocates *some* should be solely used to refer to plural forms. Thus,
>
> some non-existent towns
>
>
>
is perfectly correct, but
>
> some non-existent town
>
>
>
should be replaced by
>
> a non-existent town
>
>
>
Is that true? | 2012/03/09 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/60579",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/18424/"
] | *[Some](http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/some_1)* is used to refer to a particular person or thing without stating which. For example,
>
> **Some** customer called yesterday.
>
>
> | You're right, he's right, they're right, everyone's right.
Just incomplete. No one has mentioned the important detail.
"A non-existent town" - CORRECT
"Some non-existent town" - INFORMAL
That's all there is to it.
"Some" is being used EXACTLY the way "a" is supposed to be used. You can't use "some" in this way in proper speech or writing. It in formal, stressing the indefiniteness. For further emphasis (almost to the point of being silly), we may also say "Some random non-existent town." |
17,341 | I'm looking for historical data of the CAC40 components.
I looked at these previously asked questions:
* [What data sources are available online?](https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/141/what-data-sources-are-available-online)
* [Finding historical data for indices](https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/14687/finding-historical-data-for-indices)
as well as Yahoo Finance and the official CAC40 site (on Euronext).
The issue is that it's easy with Yahoo finance to find:
* the historical data for a CAC40 company
* a list of **current** CAC40 components
but **not** the list of CAC40 components at the time.
Are there any sources from which I could download this information from ?
Edit: If this kind of data is available for the SP500, I would be very interested as well! | 2015/04/11 | [
"https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/17341",
"https://quant.stackexchange.com",
"https://quant.stackexchange.com/users/15910/"
] | I'm not sure if you are looking for the components only or if you want more data, like the weights in the index.
Unfortunately, unlike most other data on the web, it's hard to get any good financial data for free. The only easy way is to pay for accessing it through a financial data provider such as Bloomberg (with MEMB function when you select an index).
For the S&P500, I found this website, where it's a lot cheaper than Bloomberg (USD3 vs USD24000) :
<http://www.daytradingbias.com/?page_id=105159>
For the CAC40 you are lucky, I found this website where it's free (I hope you have some knowledge of French), but there is no more data than the dates and names of components :
<http://www.bnains.org/archives/histocac/histocac.htm>
But free (or cheap) data actually come at a price: I do not guarantee data correctness (actually I'm pretty sure there are some errors, by looking at their building methods). | You can try Quandl. They have a nice API to R and Python which you can use to do the data-wrangling. |
17,341 | I'm looking for historical data of the CAC40 components.
I looked at these previously asked questions:
* [What data sources are available online?](https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/141/what-data-sources-are-available-online)
* [Finding historical data for indices](https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/14687/finding-historical-data-for-indices)
as well as Yahoo Finance and the official CAC40 site (on Euronext).
The issue is that it's easy with Yahoo finance to find:
* the historical data for a CAC40 company
* a list of **current** CAC40 components
but **not** the list of CAC40 components at the time.
Are there any sources from which I could download this information from ?
Edit: If this kind of data is available for the SP500, I would be very interested as well! | 2015/04/11 | [
"https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/17341",
"https://quant.stackexchange.com",
"https://quant.stackexchange.com/users/15910/"
] | I'm not sure if you are looking for the components only or if you want more data, like the weights in the index.
Unfortunately, unlike most other data on the web, it's hard to get any good financial data for free. The only easy way is to pay for accessing it through a financial data provider such as Bloomberg (with MEMB function when you select an index).
For the S&P500, I found this website, where it's a lot cheaper than Bloomberg (USD3 vs USD24000) :
<http://www.daytradingbias.com/?page_id=105159>
For the CAC40 you are lucky, I found this website where it's free (I hope you have some knowledge of French), but there is no more data than the dates and names of components :
<http://www.bnains.org/archives/histocac/histocac.htm>
But free (or cheap) data actually come at a price: I do not guarantee data correctness (actually I'm pretty sure there are some errors, by looking at their building methods). | This data isn't free obviously, but Euronext (the index provider) might be inclined to give you this information if it's for academic purposes. It's advertised on their website here: <https://www.euronext.com/fr/market-data/products/end-day-index-data> |
17,341 | I'm looking for historical data of the CAC40 components.
I looked at these previously asked questions:
* [What data sources are available online?](https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/141/what-data-sources-are-available-online)
* [Finding historical data for indices](https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/14687/finding-historical-data-for-indices)
as well as Yahoo Finance and the official CAC40 site (on Euronext).
The issue is that it's easy with Yahoo finance to find:
* the historical data for a CAC40 company
* a list of **current** CAC40 components
but **not** the list of CAC40 components at the time.
Are there any sources from which I could download this information from ?
Edit: If this kind of data is available for the SP500, I would be very interested as well! | 2015/04/11 | [
"https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/17341",
"https://quant.stackexchange.com",
"https://quant.stackexchange.com/users/15910/"
] | I'm not sure if you are looking for the components only or if you want more data, like the weights in the index.
Unfortunately, unlike most other data on the web, it's hard to get any good financial data for free. The only easy way is to pay for accessing it through a financial data provider such as Bloomberg (with MEMB function when you select an index).
For the S&P500, I found this website, where it's a lot cheaper than Bloomberg (USD3 vs USD24000) :
<http://www.daytradingbias.com/?page_id=105159>
For the CAC40 you are lucky, I found this website where it's free (I hope you have some knowledge of French), but there is no more data than the dates and names of components :
<http://www.bnains.org/archives/histocac/histocac.htm>
But free (or cheap) data actually come at a price: I do not guarantee data correctness (actually I'm pretty sure there are some errors, by looking at their building methods). | Bloomberg or datastream are the only possible sources. |
17,341 | I'm looking for historical data of the CAC40 components.
I looked at these previously asked questions:
* [What data sources are available online?](https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/141/what-data-sources-are-available-online)
* [Finding historical data for indices](https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/14687/finding-historical-data-for-indices)
as well as Yahoo Finance and the official CAC40 site (on Euronext).
The issue is that it's easy with Yahoo finance to find:
* the historical data for a CAC40 company
* a list of **current** CAC40 components
but **not** the list of CAC40 components at the time.
Are there any sources from which I could download this information from ?
Edit: If this kind of data is available for the SP500, I would be very interested as well! | 2015/04/11 | [
"https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/17341",
"https://quant.stackexchange.com",
"https://quant.stackexchange.com/users/15910/"
] | This data isn't free obviously, but Euronext (the index provider) might be inclined to give you this information if it's for academic purposes. It's advertised on their website here: <https://www.euronext.com/fr/market-data/products/end-day-index-data> | You can try Quandl. They have a nice API to R and Python which you can use to do the data-wrangling. |
17,341 | I'm looking for historical data of the CAC40 components.
I looked at these previously asked questions:
* [What data sources are available online?](https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/141/what-data-sources-are-available-online)
* [Finding historical data for indices](https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/14687/finding-historical-data-for-indices)
as well as Yahoo Finance and the official CAC40 site (on Euronext).
The issue is that it's easy with Yahoo finance to find:
* the historical data for a CAC40 company
* a list of **current** CAC40 components
but **not** the list of CAC40 components at the time.
Are there any sources from which I could download this information from ?
Edit: If this kind of data is available for the SP500, I would be very interested as well! | 2015/04/11 | [
"https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/17341",
"https://quant.stackexchange.com",
"https://quant.stackexchange.com/users/15910/"
] | This data isn't free obviously, but Euronext (the index provider) might be inclined to give you this information if it's for academic purposes. It's advertised on their website here: <https://www.euronext.com/fr/market-data/products/end-day-index-data> | Bloomberg or datastream are the only possible sources. |
30,108 | I am on SLiM, and I don't like the default login screen. I want a login screen like the one shown below:
But instead I have a pretty minimal one which has just one textbox and nothing else on the screen. I can't find a screenshot of it, but that is what I got when I am done installing.
Is changing to GDM the only way to get a login screen like this? Is there any other way? | 2012/01/26 | [
"https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/30108",
"https://unix.stackexchange.com",
"https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/4605/"
] | The SLiM website has a page detailing how to [create your own theme](http://slim.berlios.de/themes_howto.php).
You can find additional themes on a number of sites, including [Gnome Look](http://gnome-look.org/) and in the [Arch User Repository](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?O=0&K=slim-theme&do_Search=Go)... | Probably the best way would be to install GDM, beacuse the login manager is much more better than slim, Slim has LITERALLY no scrollbars... or anything. You cannot change your window manager or desktop enviroment either. (On slim) I preffer GDM, since its more reliable and easy to use. It does not require editing the configuration file AFTER logging in to change the de/wm. |
57,219 | I'm trying to pick out the best plants to attract birds to my yard, and have become very interested in serviceberry trees for this purpose. Should I avoid the hybrid varieties of this species (such as *Amelanchier × grandiflora*) in favor of versions like *A. canadensis* which birds and insects may be more familiar with? Or does that not matter, since both "parents" of the hybrid are also native species to my area? Does this apply more generally when selecting native plants to build a better wildlife habitat? | 2021/04/07 | [
"https://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/57219",
"https://gardening.stackexchange.com",
"https://gardening.stackexchange.com/users/24416/"
] | *Amelanchier* × *grandiflora* is an example of a "nativar," that is, a cultivated variety of a native plant.
While there's some range of opinions, reputable sources agree that it's best to plant the native species (eg, *A. canadensis*) if you can get them. If you can't get native species, nativars are at least better than non-native plants.
If you do have to plant a nativar, at least make sure it's not sterile. Beware of varieties that advertise "double flowers." Double flowers are usually sterile because they make extra petals instead of the pollen- and seed-producing parts. (*Amelanchier* × *grandiflora* does make non-sterile flowers, so it's better than some nativars.)
Further reading:
* [Native vs. "Nativar"](https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/garden-scoop/2019-12-28-native-vs-nativar), by Ryan Pankau, Horticulture Extension Educator; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
* [Native, or Not So Much? Native plants transformed into flashy “nativars” may look pretty, but are they good for wildlife?](https://www.nwf.org/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2016/JuneJuly/Gardening/Cultivars), by Janet Marinelli, The National Wildlife Foundation.
* [Citizen Scientists Help Parse the Native/Nativar Debate](https://www.ecolandscaping.org/07/designing-ecological-landscapes/native-plants/citizen-scientists-help-parse-the-native-nativar-debate/) by Jessamine (Jessa) Finch, Ecological Landscape Alliance. | While this is a natural question to ask, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question: it depends on the particular hybrid.
**Naturally-occurring Hybrids**
Some hybrids are naturally occurring and even fertile. For example, in the Mid-Atlantic, the hybrid oak *Quercus x heterophylla*, which is a cross of willow oak (*Q. phellos*) and northern red oak (*Q. rubra*) is found in most counties from southeastern PA and northern DE, east through much of NJ. Not only are both parent species native in this region, but the hybrid itself is. Another, even more widespread native and naturally-occurring hybrid is *Apocynum x floribundum*, or "intermediate dogbane", a hybrid of the two native dogbane species.
There is no reason to avoid most such hybrids, but in some cases, they can be sterile. For example, the hybrid enchanter's nightshade *Circaea x sterilis*, although relatively widepread in the wild, cannot reproduce by seed, so it represents a genetic "dead end". If you wish to contribute genetic diversity to local populations of one of the parent species, you need to plant one of the parents. On the other hand, some gardeners might actively want sterile species, as they will only reproduce vegetatively and not by seed.
**Unnatural Hybrids of Native Species**
*Amelanchier x grandiflora* is a slightly different example. Its parents are both native, but it does not occur in the wild. There might be some ecological consequences for planting such hybrids, but in general I think such hybrids are likely to cause less damage than a hybrid that contains non-native parents.
**Hybrids with one or more non-native parents**
The worst-case would be a hybrid containing one or more non-native parents. An example of this would be *Quercus ×bimundorum* which is a hybrid of English Oak (*Q. robur*), native to Europe, and white oak (*Q. alba*), native to North America. There is potentially more harm that could come from such hybrids, the worst case being introducing new genetics that cause a plant to become invasive. Examples of this phenomenon occurring would be the invasiveness of mulberry (*Morus*) hybrids between the introduced white mulberry and the native red mulberry in North America, and a second example of this phenomenon occurring in the same species would be the common reed, *Phragmites australis*. Anyone who has worked trying to control either of these plants will testify to the importance of avoiding the introduction of new genetic material through hybrids.
**Cultivars that are also hybrids**
It is also, however, worth considering not just whether the plant is a hybrid but also whether or not it is a cultivar. Cultivars are specific, named varieties of plants, usually developed by the nursery industry, but some of them are simply wild plants that were selected for desireable properties and then propagated.
Cultivars can have less ecological value in a long list of ways. Cultivars lack genetic diversity: in most cases all individuals of the cultivar are clones. In many cases, selective breeding has modified the plant in such a way that makes it less adapted to survival in the wild, or modified it in such a way that makes it less attractive to the insects or other animals that depend on it (such as being bred for insect resistance, or a flower structure that may look pretty to humans but pollinators cannot access.) There is also a risk of outbreeding depression and/or maladaptive characteristics for local conditions when using cultivars derived from distant populations. And lastly, there is the risk of creating new problem populations of weedy plants by introducing new genetic material into local plant populations.
Which of these problems, if any, varies based on the cultivar, but if you don't know the answer to these questions, and don't want to put in the time to researching the particular cultivar in question, best practice is to avoid all cultivars.
Does this all seem like a lot of information, perhaps more than you want to think about? Then stick to using wild-type, naturally-occuring hybrids or straight species.
**In Summary**
For a quick-and-dirty answer on best practices, I would say that it is best to only plant hybrids if they are hybrids that occur naturally in the wild in your area, and then, ideally plant one that either occurred naturally in the wild or was propagated from such a plant, not one that was bred in a nursery.
If you can't find these, just stick to straight species (not cultivars) of locally native plants.
I find the best place to look up the range maps in fine detail (to county level) is BONAP. BONAP lists naturally-occurring hybrids. Hybrids are probably under-reported so you're probably fine planting a hybrid a few counties over but I still think pure species are the better choice, especially when the hybrids are sterile. |
57,219 | I'm trying to pick out the best plants to attract birds to my yard, and have become very interested in serviceberry trees for this purpose. Should I avoid the hybrid varieties of this species (such as *Amelanchier × grandiflora*) in favor of versions like *A. canadensis* which birds and insects may be more familiar with? Or does that not matter, since both "parents" of the hybrid are also native species to my area? Does this apply more generally when selecting native plants to build a better wildlife habitat? | 2021/04/07 | [
"https://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/57219",
"https://gardening.stackexchange.com",
"https://gardening.stackexchange.com/users/24416/"
] | *Amelanchier* × *grandiflora* is an example of a "nativar," that is, a cultivated variety of a native plant.
While there's some range of opinions, reputable sources agree that it's best to plant the native species (eg, *A. canadensis*) if you can get them. If you can't get native species, nativars are at least better than non-native plants.
If you do have to plant a nativar, at least make sure it's not sterile. Beware of varieties that advertise "double flowers." Double flowers are usually sterile because they make extra petals instead of the pollen- and seed-producing parts. (*Amelanchier* × *grandiflora* does make non-sterile flowers, so it's better than some nativars.)
Further reading:
* [Native vs. "Nativar"](https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/garden-scoop/2019-12-28-native-vs-nativar), by Ryan Pankau, Horticulture Extension Educator; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
* [Native, or Not So Much? Native plants transformed into flashy “nativars” may look pretty, but are they good for wildlife?](https://www.nwf.org/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2016/JuneJuly/Gardening/Cultivars), by Janet Marinelli, The National Wildlife Foundation.
* [Citizen Scientists Help Parse the Native/Nativar Debate](https://www.ecolandscaping.org/07/designing-ecological-landscapes/native-plants/citizen-scientists-help-parse-the-native-nativar-debate/) by Jessamine (Jessa) Finch, Ecological Landscape Alliance. | Though this answer doesn't supplant the great and detailed ones that were given when I first asked the question, I recently came across a source which addresses the precise nativar cross I was looking into:
<https://www.ecobeneficial.com/ask_ecobeneficial/is-autumn-brilliance-serviceberry-a-good-pollinator-bird-plant/>
Turns out that in my particular case, Autumn Brilliance is still beloved by birds (and produces tasty fruit for humans, too). The article also illustrates some of the perils of nativars more generally, though - such as the lower genetic diversity you get compared to the straight species. |
40,697 | Is condensed milk the same as sweetened condensed milk?
I have a fudge recipe that calls for condensed milk and I can not find strictly condensed milk, only sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk. | 2013/12/30 | [
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/40697",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/users/22232/"
] | Just to add to Marti's answer: If the recipe was written in the US within the past 30-40 (maybe more) years, "condensed" almost *certainly* means sweetened condensed. Sweetened is just assumed if the milk is described as "condensed". At least in the US, unsweetened condensed milk is never called "condensed", it is called "evaporated".
To boost my confidence in this answer before I posted it, I searched Amazon for "Condensed Milk". In 22 pages of results, I was not able to find a *SINGLE* product described as "condensed milk" that was unsweetened. I did however find several that used "condensed milk" without the word sweetened in the name of the product page, but without fail, these *ALL* turned out to be sweetened.
If the recipe is old or if its origins are outside of the US, I can't be absolutely positive what the author intended, but I have *never* seen "unsweetened condensed milk". | No, the two products are different. As the names imply:
* *Condensed milk* is strictly reduced milk
* *Sweetened condensed milk* is reduced milk with considerable sugar added
See [Can evaporated milk be converted to sweetened condensed?](https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/4600/can-evaporated-milk-be-converted-to-sweetened-condensed) You can easily modify the condensed milk with additional sugar. |
40,697 | Is condensed milk the same as sweetened condensed milk?
I have a fudge recipe that calls for condensed milk and I can not find strictly condensed milk, only sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk. | 2013/12/30 | [
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/40697",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/users/22232/"
] | Technically no, it is not the same thing. Sweetened condensed milk has a very high sugar content, something like 40%, while just condensed milk has no sugar at all.
But this still doesn't tell us what the recipe author meant. The availability of different types of condensed and evaporated milks seem to differ a lot in different parts of the world. This being a fudge recipe, I can imagine that it is an American one, because fudge is not as common in other places. If unsweetened condensed milk is unusual in the States, I can also imagine that the recipe author was not aware of the difference and just shortened it to "condensed milk" without knowing that it has a difference in meaning.
Your best strategy is finding a different recipe, which uses a different dairy product. Not only will be there no doubt what the author meant, it will also be much easier for you to make it as it is, instead of having to mess around with substitutes. Candy recipes are generally sensitive when it comes to small differences in ingredients.
If you hang to your recipe very much, you can try looking online for non-sweetened condensed milk, it is possible that you will find products your brick and mortar stores don't carry. | No, the two products are different. As the names imply:
* *Condensed milk* is strictly reduced milk
* *Sweetened condensed milk* is reduced milk with considerable sugar added
See [Can evaporated milk be converted to sweetened condensed?](https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/4600/can-evaporated-milk-be-converted-to-sweetened-condensed) You can easily modify the condensed milk with additional sugar. |
40,697 | Is condensed milk the same as sweetened condensed milk?
I have a fudge recipe that calls for condensed milk and I can not find strictly condensed milk, only sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk. | 2013/12/30 | [
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/40697",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/users/22232/"
] | Technically no, it is not the same thing. Sweetened condensed milk has a very high sugar content, something like 40%, while just condensed milk has no sugar at all.
But this still doesn't tell us what the recipe author meant. The availability of different types of condensed and evaporated milks seem to differ a lot in different parts of the world. This being a fudge recipe, I can imagine that it is an American one, because fudge is not as common in other places. If unsweetened condensed milk is unusual in the States, I can also imagine that the recipe author was not aware of the difference and just shortened it to "condensed milk" without knowing that it has a difference in meaning.
Your best strategy is finding a different recipe, which uses a different dairy product. Not only will be there no doubt what the author meant, it will also be much easier for you to make it as it is, instead of having to mess around with substitutes. Candy recipes are generally sensitive when it comes to small differences in ingredients.
If you hang to your recipe very much, you can try looking online for non-sweetened condensed milk, it is possible that you will find products your brick and mortar stores don't carry. | As a recipe developer / chef... 'Sweetened Condensed Milk' and 'Condensed Milk' are exactly the same product - just labeled differently by different manufacturers for different markets. Condensed milk is ALWAYS sweetened.
Here's the lowdown:
Evaporated Milk, is just that. Milk that has been evaporated with 60% of the water removed. This product has NO sugar added.
'Sweetened Condensed Milk' and 'Condensed Milk' take this evaporation process a step further and add up to 40% sugar by volume.
So to sum up:
* 'Sweetened Condensed Milk' and 'Condensed Milk' are exactly the same product.
* 'Sweetened Condensed Milk' and 'Condensed Milk' are both up to 40% sugar by volume.
* Evaporated milk contains no added sugar.
Really hard to believe that the other answers here are so wrong... |
40,697 | Is condensed milk the same as sweetened condensed milk?
I have a fudge recipe that calls for condensed milk and I can not find strictly condensed milk, only sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk. | 2013/12/30 | [
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/40697",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/users/22232/"
] | Just to add to Marti's answer: If the recipe was written in the US within the past 30-40 (maybe more) years, "condensed" almost *certainly* means sweetened condensed. Sweetened is just assumed if the milk is described as "condensed". At least in the US, unsweetened condensed milk is never called "condensed", it is called "evaporated".
To boost my confidence in this answer before I posted it, I searched Amazon for "Condensed Milk". In 22 pages of results, I was not able to find a *SINGLE* product described as "condensed milk" that was unsweetened. I did however find several that used "condensed milk" without the word sweetened in the name of the product page, but without fail, these *ALL* turned out to be sweetened.
If the recipe is old or if its origins are outside of the US, I can't be absolutely positive what the author intended, but I have *never* seen "unsweetened condensed milk". | As a recipe developer / chef... 'Sweetened Condensed Milk' and 'Condensed Milk' are exactly the same product - just labeled differently by different manufacturers for different markets. Condensed milk is ALWAYS sweetened.
Here's the lowdown:
Evaporated Milk, is just that. Milk that has been evaporated with 60% of the water removed. This product has NO sugar added.
'Sweetened Condensed Milk' and 'Condensed Milk' take this evaporation process a step further and add up to 40% sugar by volume.
So to sum up:
* 'Sweetened Condensed Milk' and 'Condensed Milk' are exactly the same product.
* 'Sweetened Condensed Milk' and 'Condensed Milk' are both up to 40% sugar by volume.
* Evaporated milk contains no added sugar.
Really hard to believe that the other answers here are so wrong... |
40,697 | Is condensed milk the same as sweetened condensed milk?
I have a fudge recipe that calls for condensed milk and I can not find strictly condensed milk, only sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk. | 2013/12/30 | [
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/40697",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/users/22232/"
] | In my experience, "condensed" milk refers to the sweetened product, and "evaporated" milk refers to the unsweetened product. People will often say "sweetened condensed" for clarity, but this is not strictly necessary: if your recipe calls for condensed milk, use the syrupy stuff.
However, if this is an older recipe, all bets are off: older casual usage had "condensed" for both meanings. (Hence using the "sweetened condensed" phrasing, even though it's a bit of a tautology.) | As a recipe developer / chef... 'Sweetened Condensed Milk' and 'Condensed Milk' are exactly the same product - just labeled differently by different manufacturers for different markets. Condensed milk is ALWAYS sweetened.
Here's the lowdown:
Evaporated Milk, is just that. Milk that has been evaporated with 60% of the water removed. This product has NO sugar added.
'Sweetened Condensed Milk' and 'Condensed Milk' take this evaporation process a step further and add up to 40% sugar by volume.
So to sum up:
* 'Sweetened Condensed Milk' and 'Condensed Milk' are exactly the same product.
* 'Sweetened Condensed Milk' and 'Condensed Milk' are both up to 40% sugar by volume.
* Evaporated milk contains no added sugar.
Really hard to believe that the other answers here are so wrong... |
40,697 | Is condensed milk the same as sweetened condensed milk?
I have a fudge recipe that calls for condensed milk and I can not find strictly condensed milk, only sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk. | 2013/12/30 | [
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/40697",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/users/22232/"
] | Technically no, it is not the same thing. Sweetened condensed milk has a very high sugar content, something like 40%, while just condensed milk has no sugar at all.
But this still doesn't tell us what the recipe author meant. The availability of different types of condensed and evaporated milks seem to differ a lot in different parts of the world. This being a fudge recipe, I can imagine that it is an American one, because fudge is not as common in other places. If unsweetened condensed milk is unusual in the States, I can also imagine that the recipe author was not aware of the difference and just shortened it to "condensed milk" without knowing that it has a difference in meaning.
Your best strategy is finding a different recipe, which uses a different dairy product. Not only will be there no doubt what the author meant, it will also be much easier for you to make it as it is, instead of having to mess around with substitutes. Candy recipes are generally sensitive when it comes to small differences in ingredients.
If you hang to your recipe very much, you can try looking online for non-sweetened condensed milk, it is possible that you will find products your brick and mortar stores don't carry. | I've found when I run across the phrase "condensed milk" vs. the more specific "sweetened condensed milk," the recipe has its origins in the UK, such as in this recipe: <http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Banoffee-Pie-Classic>. First, look for clues in the recipe: it's not likely 1/2 cup of brown sugar would create a sufficiently sweet toffee layer, although I'm sure that could be argued by people with a less sweet tooth than mine. Next, look up similar recipes. I looked up other banoffee pie recipes and each US based site referenced *sweetened* condensed milk. Finally, this UK site for the Carnation brand product seems to verify it is indeed what we (in the US) call sweetened condensed milk. Check this out:
<http://www.carnation.co.uk/recipes/8/Classic-Banoffee-Pie>.
Hope that helps. |
40,697 | Is condensed milk the same as sweetened condensed milk?
I have a fudge recipe that calls for condensed milk and I can not find strictly condensed milk, only sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk. | 2013/12/30 | [
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/40697",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/users/22232/"
] | Just to add to Marti's answer: If the recipe was written in the US within the past 30-40 (maybe more) years, "condensed" almost *certainly* means sweetened condensed. Sweetened is just assumed if the milk is described as "condensed". At least in the US, unsweetened condensed milk is never called "condensed", it is called "evaporated".
To boost my confidence in this answer before I posted it, I searched Amazon for "Condensed Milk". In 22 pages of results, I was not able to find a *SINGLE* product described as "condensed milk" that was unsweetened. I did however find several that used "condensed milk" without the word sweetened in the name of the product page, but without fail, these *ALL* turned out to be sweetened.
If the recipe is old or if its origins are outside of the US, I can't be absolutely positive what the author intended, but I have *never* seen "unsweetened condensed milk". | I've found when I run across the phrase "condensed milk" vs. the more specific "sweetened condensed milk," the recipe has its origins in the UK, such as in this recipe: <http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Banoffee-Pie-Classic>. First, look for clues in the recipe: it's not likely 1/2 cup of brown sugar would create a sufficiently sweet toffee layer, although I'm sure that could be argued by people with a less sweet tooth than mine. Next, look up similar recipes. I looked up other banoffee pie recipes and each US based site referenced *sweetened* condensed milk. Finally, this UK site for the Carnation brand product seems to verify it is indeed what we (in the US) call sweetened condensed milk. Check this out:
<http://www.carnation.co.uk/recipes/8/Classic-Banoffee-Pie>.
Hope that helps. |
40,697 | Is condensed milk the same as sweetened condensed milk?
I have a fudge recipe that calls for condensed milk and I can not find strictly condensed milk, only sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk. | 2013/12/30 | [
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/40697",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/users/22232/"
] | I've found when I run across the phrase "condensed milk" vs. the more specific "sweetened condensed milk," the recipe has its origins in the UK, such as in this recipe: <http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Banoffee-Pie-Classic>. First, look for clues in the recipe: it's not likely 1/2 cup of brown sugar would create a sufficiently sweet toffee layer, although I'm sure that could be argued by people with a less sweet tooth than mine. Next, look up similar recipes. I looked up other banoffee pie recipes and each US based site referenced *sweetened* condensed milk. Finally, this UK site for the Carnation brand product seems to verify it is indeed what we (in the US) call sweetened condensed milk. Check this out:
<http://www.carnation.co.uk/recipes/8/Classic-Banoffee-Pie>.
Hope that helps. | No, the two products are different. As the names imply:
* *Condensed milk* is strictly reduced milk
* *Sweetened condensed milk* is reduced milk with considerable sugar added
See [Can evaporated milk be converted to sweetened condensed?](https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/4600/can-evaporated-milk-be-converted-to-sweetened-condensed) You can easily modify the condensed milk with additional sugar. |
40,697 | Is condensed milk the same as sweetened condensed milk?
I have a fudge recipe that calls for condensed milk and I can not find strictly condensed milk, only sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk. | 2013/12/30 | [
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/40697",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/users/22232/"
] | In my experience, "condensed" milk refers to the sweetened product, and "evaporated" milk refers to the unsweetened product. People will often say "sweetened condensed" for clarity, but this is not strictly necessary: if your recipe calls for condensed milk, use the syrupy stuff.
However, if this is an older recipe, all bets are off: older casual usage had "condensed" for both meanings. (Hence using the "sweetened condensed" phrasing, even though it's a bit of a tautology.) | No, the two products are different. As the names imply:
* *Condensed milk* is strictly reduced milk
* *Sweetened condensed milk* is reduced milk with considerable sugar added
See [Can evaporated milk be converted to sweetened condensed?](https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/4600/can-evaporated-milk-be-converted-to-sweetened-condensed) You can easily modify the condensed milk with additional sugar. |
40,697 | Is condensed milk the same as sweetened condensed milk?
I have a fudge recipe that calls for condensed milk and I can not find strictly condensed milk, only sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk. | 2013/12/30 | [
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/40697",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com",
"https://cooking.stackexchange.com/users/22232/"
] | In my experience, "condensed" milk refers to the sweetened product, and "evaporated" milk refers to the unsweetened product. People will often say "sweetened condensed" for clarity, but this is not strictly necessary: if your recipe calls for condensed milk, use the syrupy stuff.
However, if this is an older recipe, all bets are off: older casual usage had "condensed" for both meanings. (Hence using the "sweetened condensed" phrasing, even though it's a bit of a tautology.) | I've found when I run across the phrase "condensed milk" vs. the more specific "sweetened condensed milk," the recipe has its origins in the UK, such as in this recipe: <http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Banoffee-Pie-Classic>. First, look for clues in the recipe: it's not likely 1/2 cup of brown sugar would create a sufficiently sweet toffee layer, although I'm sure that could be argued by people with a less sweet tooth than mine. Next, look up similar recipes. I looked up other banoffee pie recipes and each US based site referenced *sweetened* condensed milk. Finally, this UK site for the Carnation brand product seems to verify it is indeed what we (in the US) call sweetened condensed milk. Check this out:
<http://www.carnation.co.uk/recipes/8/Classic-Banoffee-Pie>.
Hope that helps. |
26,781 | I came across with this video in which the Falcon Heavy boosters' landing burn seems to deaccelerate the 1st stage until a point their speed is constant right before touchdown.
Can the 1st stage maintain a constant speed, and eventually hover? Did they tweaked the 1D enough to throttle deeper than before? | 2018/04/19 | [
"https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/26781",
"https://space.stackexchange.com",
"https://space.stackexchange.com/users/18770/"
] | The falcon 9 first stage **cannot** hover as the thrust of one Merlin engine even at its lowest thrust is able to overcome the mass of the almost-empty first stage. The stage appears to decelerate very slowly in the final moments of the landing as a result of the engine firing pattern SpaceX uses.
Per Elon Musk:
>
> Thanks! 3 of 9 engines are lit initially, dropping to 1 near ground. Even w 1 lit, it can't hover, so always land at high g
> - Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2015
>
>
>
So as soon as the 3 engines are fired, the stage decelerates rapidly, but when the two outer ring engines are shut down for final approach, the deceleration of the stage slows rapidly, giving the illusion that it is hovering. Although this tweet is from early 2015, we know that the engines on the Falcon 9 have only gotten stronger, so it would have no chance of hovering. In order to land, SpaceX uses a hover-slam or suicide burn, so as soon as the stage reaches zero velocity while decelerating, it’s on the ground/ASDS. Blue Origin’s [New Shepard](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Shepard) rocket, however, can hover above the ground and does so to travel laterally before landing on the pad. | The Merlin 1D claims to be able to throttle to 40%, which would be about 350 kN thrust at sea level. The dry mass of a Falcon 9 first stage is about 24 tons, so it can't hover, but it can get pretty close. Thrust to weight would be about 1.3.
All data from wikipedia. |
6,587,098 | What is the best way to reuse code within projects?
Let's say I implemented a UI Element and I want it to be used in both my iphone and ipad application without having to copy the code over and have 2 copies of it. | 2011/07/05 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/6587098",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/242769/"
] | Just create a project, which includes all your shared code in XCode and reference this project in your iPhone and iPad application project. Plain and simple. | For me I would make a static library project which contains the shared code (UI Element in your example) in Xcode.
Then when I need to use the library in the iPhone or iPad app project, then I can just reference the static library project by drag and drop the project to the Project Navigator and configure the correct dependency, library used and header search path. In this way you always have a single source of library source code for easier maintenance and modification.
Certainly you can actually compile the static library into binary and link it to your project, but it just not too flexible when you find bugs in your static library and need to switch to another project to correct the bug, and then do the compile and copy of the binary library file.
I have just wrote an article (link below) on how to link up the static library project to an iOS project on Xcode 4.3.2. This maybe useful for you to solve the header not found problem you encountered. Hope this help.
<http://vicidi.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/linking-an-ios-static-library-project-in-another-project-in-xcode-4-3-2/> |
34,735,778 | I can't seem to think of the word for this, but images in the iPhone simulator appear as though they were of a far lower resolution than they are. At 50% view, the simulator is already larger than the screen, but it is seen even worse at zoom level 25% and, strangely, it appears better in the 100% view, but still pixelated.
The high resolution image should zoom out accurately, but appears lower quality than the source image. It appears fine on the device and when viewing the source images.
25%[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/MVUdz.png)
50%
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Yc703.png)
100%
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1VXsw.png)
Source Images:
At 1x:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6Koil.png)
[At 3x](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Lr2CB.png) | 2016/01/12 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/34735778",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1122069/"
] | The issue was solved by going to Debug menu -> Graphics Quality Override -> High Quality and then restarting the simulator.
On 50% it looks fine now. It did not fix the 25% zoom issue, but I don't use that mode anyway. | The reason why the 50% and 25% images look bad is because you're missing a lot of pixels. The simulator is always run at 100% and if you scale it they will just show every other pixel of every other row, or every fourth pixel of every fourth row. That's 75% or 94% of pixels just thrown away.
You can easily see this effect by scaling an image with nearest neighbor algorithm.
The reason why the 100% image looks jagged on simulator and not on device is because of the pixel sizes. If you take a magnifying lens and look at the phone, it will look as "bad", you just don't see it due to the size. Since you have to scale to 25% to get the full simulator to fit, you clearly don't have a huge resolution in screen, which means big pixels.
You shouldn't use overly big images anyway, since it will just consume memory and may produce unwanted artifacts.
Here is an example of your image resized to 50x50 pixels using nearest neighbor:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/8arsW.png) and you can clearly see that it is totally jagged. |
421,451 | What is the literary device used in “She’s not just showing you what *she made*. She’s showing you what *she’s made of*”
At first, I thought it was chiasmus, but it does not really fit.
Certain that it is a type of repetition, but I do not know what it would be specifically called. | 2017/12/07 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/421451",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/270700/"
] | Examples of the rhetorical figures of speech called zeugma or syllepsis are relatively easy to spot but more difficult to analyze. Even the definitions of these two figures can be difficult to understand!
Nevertheless, syllepsis and zeugma can be effective and even memorable ways of phrasing words and are worthwhile studying for that reason. An example of syllepsis which parallels your example is the following:
>
> He lost his coat and his temper.
>
>
>
Notice the double sense in which the word *lost* is used. Someone can *lose* a possession, such as a coat, by leaving it somewhere absentmindedly, only to return to the place where it was left to find it gone.
By the same token, a temper is something which all people possess, and most of us keep it in check. When it breaks free from its self-imposed captivity, however, we say it was lost, as in
>
> "He lost his temper when his car stalled in the middle of traffic."
>
>
>
Your example takes the verb *made* and uses it in two different senses. The first sense brings to mind, for example, the making of a piece of art, such as a painting or a sculpture. The second sense brings to mind the stuff which a person's character is *made* of--the stuff which comprises a person's character.
That "stuff" could be anything from a creative, inventive spirit, which results in a work of art being *made*, to an angry, invective attitude which results in a real mess being *made*, thus showing people what we're made of (and it's *not* pretty!).
Syllepsis enables the speaker or writer to use fewer words in expressing a thought, but it also requires the reader or listener to "pick up on" the two (or possibly more) senses in which a particular word or phrase is used. | We did this in our English lesson yesterday so I'm pretty sure this is right.
I believe the term you're looking for is '**anaphora**'.
It's basically when you have sentences that are comprised of the same words/phrases (which I think is the case here). |
54,155 | A long-time client has asked us to help screen their work machines for pornography. They're worried about liability if sensitive materials were found. Their main concerns (for obvious reasons) are video, audio, and image files. If possible, they'd also like to scan text-based documents for inappropriate content. They have a hierarchy of not-for-work content starting with blatantly illegal (I don't have to list details), moving down to obviously offensive, and also including things that may be offensive to some - think lingerie ads, joke cards featuring butt cracks, and anything related to Howie Mandel.
My questions are:
* Is this ethical? I think it is since every employee legally agrees that their work machine belongs to the company and is subject to search. The screenings are not to occur on personal machines brought to work.
* Is it feasible? I've done a lot of image processing/indexing but this seems like a whole new world of complexity.
* Any references to successful techniques for discovering porn?
* Is it appropriate for me to archive the results when something is discovered? | 2011/03/03 | [
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/54155",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/users/17429/"
] | There is significant, recent research into detection of pornography using conventional classification methods. Examples are available [here](http://thomas.deselaers.de/publications/papers/deselaers_icpr08_porn.pdf), and [here](http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1631490&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CFID=11052561&CFTOKEN=69356871). | Such things never work reliably.
You can use a blocklist to block domains either on name or on being included on some list (a common practice).
But those lists are never complete, and blocking on name based on criteria can lead to many false positives.
You can block on words appearing in the text of sites, but again this can lead to false positives (and gets very slow as you need to parse every single bit of data that passes through your network in order to detect "naughty bits").
you can block pictures (and maybe sites containing them) that show more than a certain percentage of skintones.
But again it leads to many false positives. A university medical department blocking a medical encyclopedia with images of limbs and torsos showing wounds and skin conditions is a well known example of that.
And of course it'd be racist as it'd only block certain skintones. If you block colours matching Caucasian skin, there's always porn using black actors for example.
Best just trust your employees, and have policies in place for when that trust is broken. |
54,155 | A long-time client has asked us to help screen their work machines for pornography. They're worried about liability if sensitive materials were found. Their main concerns (for obvious reasons) are video, audio, and image files. If possible, they'd also like to scan text-based documents for inappropriate content. They have a hierarchy of not-for-work content starting with blatantly illegal (I don't have to list details), moving down to obviously offensive, and also including things that may be offensive to some - think lingerie ads, joke cards featuring butt cracks, and anything related to Howie Mandel.
My questions are:
* Is this ethical? I think it is since every employee legally agrees that their work machine belongs to the company and is subject to search. The screenings are not to occur on personal machines brought to work.
* Is it feasible? I've done a lot of image processing/indexing but this seems like a whole new world of complexity.
* Any references to successful techniques for discovering porn?
* Is it appropriate for me to archive the results when something is discovered? | 2011/03/03 | [
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/54155",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/users/17429/"
] | You can do this with 90% [Headology](http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php/Headology), 10% software.
Firstly, quietly scan employees computers, build a database of files and sizes for each employee.
Then leak a memo that all PC's will be scanned for questionable content, i.e. The bosses have a [Shazam](http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/shazam/id284993459?mt=8) like program that can identify porn etc.
Then a couple of days later, scan the computers for files and sizes again. Look at any deleted files, are they movie or image files? Then those are the employees you need to keep an eye on.
Routinely scan those employees PC's for images and movies, and manually check them for questionable content. | I don't know, there has to be a middle answer, that isn't as invasive, but solves the real issue, LIABILITY.
Have them sign a waiver, that releases the company of any liability for illegal stuff found on work pc's, that is not work related. |
54,155 | A long-time client has asked us to help screen their work machines for pornography. They're worried about liability if sensitive materials were found. Their main concerns (for obvious reasons) are video, audio, and image files. If possible, they'd also like to scan text-based documents for inappropriate content. They have a hierarchy of not-for-work content starting with blatantly illegal (I don't have to list details), moving down to obviously offensive, and also including things that may be offensive to some - think lingerie ads, joke cards featuring butt cracks, and anything related to Howie Mandel.
My questions are:
* Is this ethical? I think it is since every employee legally agrees that their work machine belongs to the company and is subject to search. The screenings are not to occur on personal machines brought to work.
* Is it feasible? I've done a lot of image processing/indexing but this seems like a whole new world of complexity.
* Any references to successful techniques for discovering porn?
* Is it appropriate for me to archive the results when something is discovered? | 2011/03/03 | [
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/54155",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/users/17429/"
] | There are a number of products in the marketplace that perform "content filtering" of various forms. (A Google search on some obvious terms throws up some obvious candidates.) It is probably a better idea to use one of these products than building a lot of scanning / filtering software from scratch. Another option is to just watch at the borders; e.g. by monitoring external emails and web traffic. Again there are products that do this kind of thing.
While there is no doubt that it is ethical for a company to scan its computers for "bad stuff", this does not mean that there aren't issues.
First issue:
* Determining what is and what is not "objectionable content" is subjective.
* Software for detecting images, videos containing (let us say) "depictions of the naked body" is (AFAIK) likely to be unreliable, resulting in false positives and false negatives.
So ... this means that someone in your customer's organization needs to review the "hits". That costs money.
Second issue: There can be an innocent explanation. The file could have been downloaded by accident, or it could have been planted by a vindictive co-worker. If there is an innocent explanation, the customer's organization needs to be careful what they do / say. (OK this is not really *your* issue, but you might cop some of the backwash.)
Third issue: Not-withstanding that the company has a right to monitor for objectionable material, a lot of employees will find this distasteful. And if they too far, this will impact on employee morale. Some employees will "walk". Others may take protest action ... e.g. by trying to create lots of false positives. (Again, not really *your* issue, but ...)
Fourth issue: People can hide objectionable material by encrypting it, by putting it on portable or removable media, etc. People can fake the metadata to make it look like someone else is responsible. | Image and content analysis to determine the differences between a tasteful photograph of a person, a swimsuit photograph, a nude photograph, depictions of pornography... as far as I know is nowhere near sophisticated enough to do in software alone.
Fortunately crowdsourcing should be useful here, as @ammoQ suggested in a comment. However I don't believe members of 4chan or any other forum would appreciate the vast number of *non*-pornographic images, such as generic web graphics for buttons, frames, advertisements, etc. being posted.
My recommendation would be to look into existing crowdsourcing solutions, such as [Amazon Mechanical Turk](https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome). (However the terms of service may explicitly prohibit the involvement of pornographic content, so be advised you might have to find another solution or roll your own.)
To make crowdsourcing feasible, your software should be prepared to do some or all of the following:
* Store information that links the content with the computer it came from
* Identify exact duplicates across the entire inventory and remove them (but origin information is retained)
* Downsample images to some dimension, perhaps 320x200, which is sufficient to identify the content of the image without retaining unnecessary detail and wasting storage space/bandwidth
* Create still images of video content at some regular interval and apply the same downsampling rule
Finally, the database of reduced images that represent the original image and video content is checked by users (or a designated team if you have the resources) according to your company's code of conduct. The program or interface might show a single image at a time, or a screen of thumbnails--whatever you deem best to obtain accurate information.
The identity of the computer from which images came should absolutely be secret and unknown to the persons evaluating the data. Additionally it should be randomized and each image probably checked more than once to remove bias.
The same technique could be used for text, but first the content could be scored by keyword rankings which remove the bulk of text from crowdsource review. Classifying a long document will of course be more time consuming than classifying an image. |
54,155 | A long-time client has asked us to help screen their work machines for pornography. They're worried about liability if sensitive materials were found. Their main concerns (for obvious reasons) are video, audio, and image files. If possible, they'd also like to scan text-based documents for inappropriate content. They have a hierarchy of not-for-work content starting with blatantly illegal (I don't have to list details), moving down to obviously offensive, and also including things that may be offensive to some - think lingerie ads, joke cards featuring butt cracks, and anything related to Howie Mandel.
My questions are:
* Is this ethical? I think it is since every employee legally agrees that their work machine belongs to the company and is subject to search. The screenings are not to occur on personal machines brought to work.
* Is it feasible? I've done a lot of image processing/indexing but this seems like a whole new world of complexity.
* Any references to successful techniques for discovering porn?
* Is it appropriate for me to archive the results when something is discovered? | 2011/03/03 | [
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/54155",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/users/17429/"
] | You can do this with 90% [Headology](http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php/Headology), 10% software.
Firstly, quietly scan employees computers, build a database of files and sizes for each employee.
Then leak a memo that all PC's will be scanned for questionable content, i.e. The bosses have a [Shazam](http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/shazam/id284993459?mt=8) like program that can identify porn etc.
Then a couple of days later, scan the computers for files and sizes again. Look at any deleted files, are they movie or image files? Then those are the employees you need to keep an eye on.
Routinely scan those employees PC's for images and movies, and manually check them for questionable content. | This is an obvious neural network task. First you need a large training set of images selected by experts in your company.....
A more effective solution is to announce that you will be checking everyones machine for porn NEXT week/month/whatever, then write a simple app that just exercises the disk. I guarantee that the machines will have been cleaned by then.
---
ps - A couple of 'serious' points - you actually **don't** want to find anything.
If you do find a couple of images in a browser cache then perhaps they hit a bad link or a dodgy popup - remember the teacher fired over whitehouse.com? If you fire/discipline them for this then there is going to be a backlash from workers/union. How would your company work if every click had to be submitted to legal for approval before your workers researched a question or checked a price online?
If you find a stack of porn on a machine how are you going to prove it was put there by that employee? Do you have the sort of security and audit systems that would stand up in court? Do you use (or even know of) an OS where a system admin couldn't put them there and make it look like the user's files?
Plus in my experience the most common locations for porn stashes are on the laptops of CxOs and senior VPs.
It's much better to just arrange for the files to just vanish ahead of time. |
54,155 | A long-time client has asked us to help screen their work machines for pornography. They're worried about liability if sensitive materials were found. Their main concerns (for obvious reasons) are video, audio, and image files. If possible, they'd also like to scan text-based documents for inappropriate content. They have a hierarchy of not-for-work content starting with blatantly illegal (I don't have to list details), moving down to obviously offensive, and also including things that may be offensive to some - think lingerie ads, joke cards featuring butt cracks, and anything related to Howie Mandel.
My questions are:
* Is this ethical? I think it is since every employee legally agrees that their work machine belongs to the company and is subject to search. The screenings are not to occur on personal machines brought to work.
* Is it feasible? I've done a lot of image processing/indexing but this seems like a whole new world of complexity.
* Any references to successful techniques for discovering porn?
* Is it appropriate for me to archive the results when something is discovered? | 2011/03/03 | [
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/54155",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/users/17429/"
] | You can do this with 90% [Headology](http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php/Headology), 10% software.
Firstly, quietly scan employees computers, build a database of files and sizes for each employee.
Then leak a memo that all PC's will be scanned for questionable content, i.e. The bosses have a [Shazam](http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/shazam/id284993459?mt=8) like program that can identify porn etc.
Then a couple of days later, scan the computers for files and sizes again. Look at any deleted files, are they movie or image files? Then those are the employees you need to keep an eye on.
Routinely scan those employees PC's for images and movies, and manually check them for questionable content. | About legal aspects, in France:
The boss owns the computers and the internet connection: He can do whatever pleases him.
BUT, employee privacy cannot be violated. If a directory on the computer is labelled PERSONAL, the boss is not allowed to scan it.
The only way to bypass that is to get elements of evidence that employee stores illegal material and to get a court request a scan of computer (Note that pornography is not illegal in France.) |
54,155 | A long-time client has asked us to help screen their work machines for pornography. They're worried about liability if sensitive materials were found. Their main concerns (for obvious reasons) are video, audio, and image files. If possible, they'd also like to scan text-based documents for inappropriate content. They have a hierarchy of not-for-work content starting with blatantly illegal (I don't have to list details), moving down to obviously offensive, and also including things that may be offensive to some - think lingerie ads, joke cards featuring butt cracks, and anything related to Howie Mandel.
My questions are:
* Is this ethical? I think it is since every employee legally agrees that their work machine belongs to the company and is subject to search. The screenings are not to occur on personal machines brought to work.
* Is it feasible? I've done a lot of image processing/indexing but this seems like a whole new world of complexity.
* Any references to successful techniques for discovering porn?
* Is it appropriate for me to archive the results when something is discovered? | 2011/03/03 | [
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/54155",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/users/17429/"
] | >
> * Is this ethical?
>
>
>
Depends on the implementation and reasonable expectations of the employees. For example, if your software scans any machine *connected to* the network, then there's an additional requirement that infra needs to prevent unauthorized machines from plugging in. (Maybe that should be obvious, but it's frequently overlooked on networks I've seen.)
>
> * Is it feasible? I've done a lot of image processing/indexing but this seems like a whole new world of complexity.
>
>
>
Is it feasible to drug test every employee? Maybe so, but I question its worth. I would randomize it. Let employees know their machines may be scanned for inappropriate content at any time.
>
> * Any references to successful techniques for discovering porn?
>
>
>
I'm not touching this one. I don't think I could keep my sense of humor in check. But watch out for [The Scunthorpe Problem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem) when searching text.
>
> * Is it appropriate for me to archive the results when something is discovered?
>
>
>
This one concerns me the most, and I would ask a lawyer. I suspect if you find illegal content you may technically be legally obliged to disclose it. That's bad, particularly if the user was exposed by no real fault of his own. You(r client) will need real legal advice on how to handle this. Get HR and the lawyers involved. | Such things never work reliably.
You can use a blocklist to block domains either on name or on being included on some list (a common practice).
But those lists are never complete, and blocking on name based on criteria can lead to many false positives.
You can block on words appearing in the text of sites, but again this can lead to false positives (and gets very slow as you need to parse every single bit of data that passes through your network in order to detect "naughty bits").
you can block pictures (and maybe sites containing them) that show more than a certain percentage of skintones.
But again it leads to many false positives. A university medical department blocking a medical encyclopedia with images of limbs and torsos showing wounds and skin conditions is a well known example of that.
And of course it'd be racist as it'd only block certain skintones. If you block colours matching Caucasian skin, there's always porn using black actors for example.
Best just trust your employees, and have policies in place for when that trust is broken. |
54,155 | A long-time client has asked us to help screen their work machines for pornography. They're worried about liability if sensitive materials were found. Their main concerns (for obvious reasons) are video, audio, and image files. If possible, they'd also like to scan text-based documents for inappropriate content. They have a hierarchy of not-for-work content starting with blatantly illegal (I don't have to list details), moving down to obviously offensive, and also including things that may be offensive to some - think lingerie ads, joke cards featuring butt cracks, and anything related to Howie Mandel.
My questions are:
* Is this ethical? I think it is since every employee legally agrees that their work machine belongs to the company and is subject to search. The screenings are not to occur on personal machines brought to work.
* Is it feasible? I've done a lot of image processing/indexing but this seems like a whole new world of complexity.
* Any references to successful techniques for discovering porn?
* Is it appropriate for me to archive the results when something is discovered? | 2011/03/03 | [
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/54155",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/users/17429/"
] | This approach of controlling is certainly painful for both employees and IT people. Once anything enters inside the employee machine, there is no sure way of detecting it. You need to stop it entering in the machine at the first place.
The best known practice for this is obviously control over the sites/domain which can be visited. Such list must be available somewhere on the net. Other than this you can also track the number of images, videos the employee has downloaded and from where it has come.
There are chances that the material can come from other than web, like from external hard drive. There could be once a month random scan of the system where you can randomly pick some of the videos and images and check it manually. Not sure how it can be done. But automating of checking the images and videos is certainly out of scope and certainly will be erroneous.
Actually I am not very much with the idea of restricting employees from doing personal stuff. You should trust your employees for this. Your employees should be busy enough in the office so that they don't get any time for this. The more worries are is the employee not doing his/her work right? Or has s/he installed some cracked or hacked software? | Image and content analysis to determine the differences between a tasteful photograph of a person, a swimsuit photograph, a nude photograph, depictions of pornography... as far as I know is nowhere near sophisticated enough to do in software alone.
Fortunately crowdsourcing should be useful here, as @ammoQ suggested in a comment. However I don't believe members of 4chan or any other forum would appreciate the vast number of *non*-pornographic images, such as generic web graphics for buttons, frames, advertisements, etc. being posted.
My recommendation would be to look into existing crowdsourcing solutions, such as [Amazon Mechanical Turk](https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome). (However the terms of service may explicitly prohibit the involvement of pornographic content, so be advised you might have to find another solution or roll your own.)
To make crowdsourcing feasible, your software should be prepared to do some or all of the following:
* Store information that links the content with the computer it came from
* Identify exact duplicates across the entire inventory and remove them (but origin information is retained)
* Downsample images to some dimension, perhaps 320x200, which is sufficient to identify the content of the image without retaining unnecessary detail and wasting storage space/bandwidth
* Create still images of video content at some regular interval and apply the same downsampling rule
Finally, the database of reduced images that represent the original image and video content is checked by users (or a designated team if you have the resources) according to your company's code of conduct. The program or interface might show a single image at a time, or a screen of thumbnails--whatever you deem best to obtain accurate information.
The identity of the computer from which images came should absolutely be secret and unknown to the persons evaluating the data. Additionally it should be randomized and each image probably checked more than once to remove bias.
The same technique could be used for text, but first the content could be scored by keyword rankings which remove the bulk of text from crowdsource review. Classifying a long document will of course be more time consuming than classifying an image. |
54,155 | A long-time client has asked us to help screen their work machines for pornography. They're worried about liability if sensitive materials were found. Their main concerns (for obvious reasons) are video, audio, and image files. If possible, they'd also like to scan text-based documents for inappropriate content. They have a hierarchy of not-for-work content starting with blatantly illegal (I don't have to list details), moving down to obviously offensive, and also including things that may be offensive to some - think lingerie ads, joke cards featuring butt cracks, and anything related to Howie Mandel.
My questions are:
* Is this ethical? I think it is since every employee legally agrees that their work machine belongs to the company and is subject to search. The screenings are not to occur on personal machines brought to work.
* Is it feasible? I've done a lot of image processing/indexing but this seems like a whole new world of complexity.
* Any references to successful techniques for discovering porn?
* Is it appropriate for me to archive the results when something is discovered? | 2011/03/03 | [
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/54155",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/users/17429/"
] | You can do this with 90% [Headology](http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php/Headology), 10% software.
Firstly, quietly scan employees computers, build a database of files and sizes for each employee.
Then leak a memo that all PC's will be scanned for questionable content, i.e. The bosses have a [Shazam](http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/shazam/id284993459?mt=8) like program that can identify porn etc.
Then a couple of days later, scan the computers for files and sizes again. Look at any deleted files, are they movie or image files? Then those are the employees you need to keep an eye on.
Routinely scan those employees PC's for images and movies, and manually check them for questionable content. | I just wanted to comment, but only have 1 rep, so I can't.
In the case of Gravatar, you could add a function to filter out from a list of clean sites in internet cache locations. I.E. Gravatar and other sites you don't want false positives from. You could also filter out things like the desktop wallpaper. If they are displaying porn on the desktop you'd think people would notice outside of your audit. |
54,155 | A long-time client has asked us to help screen their work machines for pornography. They're worried about liability if sensitive materials were found. Their main concerns (for obvious reasons) are video, audio, and image files. If possible, they'd also like to scan text-based documents for inappropriate content. They have a hierarchy of not-for-work content starting with blatantly illegal (I don't have to list details), moving down to obviously offensive, and also including things that may be offensive to some - think lingerie ads, joke cards featuring butt cracks, and anything related to Howie Mandel.
My questions are:
* Is this ethical? I think it is since every employee legally agrees that their work machine belongs to the company and is subject to search. The screenings are not to occur on personal machines brought to work.
* Is it feasible? I've done a lot of image processing/indexing but this seems like a whole new world of complexity.
* Any references to successful techniques for discovering porn?
* Is it appropriate for me to archive the results when something is discovered? | 2011/03/03 | [
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/54155",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/users/17429/"
] | >
> * Is this ethical?
>
>
>
Depends on the implementation and reasonable expectations of the employees. For example, if your software scans any machine *connected to* the network, then there's an additional requirement that infra needs to prevent unauthorized machines from plugging in. (Maybe that should be obvious, but it's frequently overlooked on networks I've seen.)
>
> * Is it feasible? I've done a lot of image processing/indexing but this seems like a whole new world of complexity.
>
>
>
Is it feasible to drug test every employee? Maybe so, but I question its worth. I would randomize it. Let employees know their machines may be scanned for inappropriate content at any time.
>
> * Any references to successful techniques for discovering porn?
>
>
>
I'm not touching this one. I don't think I could keep my sense of humor in check. But watch out for [The Scunthorpe Problem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem) when searching text.
>
> * Is it appropriate for me to archive the results when something is discovered?
>
>
>
This one concerns me the most, and I would ask a lawyer. I suspect if you find illegal content you may technically be legally obliged to disclose it. That's bad, particularly if the user was exposed by no real fault of his own. You(r client) will need real legal advice on how to handle this. Get HR and the lawyers involved. | Image and content analysis to determine the differences between a tasteful photograph of a person, a swimsuit photograph, a nude photograph, depictions of pornography... as far as I know is nowhere near sophisticated enough to do in software alone.
Fortunately crowdsourcing should be useful here, as @ammoQ suggested in a comment. However I don't believe members of 4chan or any other forum would appreciate the vast number of *non*-pornographic images, such as generic web graphics for buttons, frames, advertisements, etc. being posted.
My recommendation would be to look into existing crowdsourcing solutions, such as [Amazon Mechanical Turk](https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome). (However the terms of service may explicitly prohibit the involvement of pornographic content, so be advised you might have to find another solution or roll your own.)
To make crowdsourcing feasible, your software should be prepared to do some or all of the following:
* Store information that links the content with the computer it came from
* Identify exact duplicates across the entire inventory and remove them (but origin information is retained)
* Downsample images to some dimension, perhaps 320x200, which is sufficient to identify the content of the image without retaining unnecessary detail and wasting storage space/bandwidth
* Create still images of video content at some regular interval and apply the same downsampling rule
Finally, the database of reduced images that represent the original image and video content is checked by users (or a designated team if you have the resources) according to your company's code of conduct. The program or interface might show a single image at a time, or a screen of thumbnails--whatever you deem best to obtain accurate information.
The identity of the computer from which images came should absolutely be secret and unknown to the persons evaluating the data. Additionally it should be randomized and each image probably checked more than once to remove bias.
The same technique could be used for text, but first the content could be scored by keyword rankings which remove the bulk of text from crowdsource review. Classifying a long document will of course be more time consuming than classifying an image. |
54,155 | A long-time client has asked us to help screen their work machines for pornography. They're worried about liability if sensitive materials were found. Their main concerns (for obvious reasons) are video, audio, and image files. If possible, they'd also like to scan text-based documents for inappropriate content. They have a hierarchy of not-for-work content starting with blatantly illegal (I don't have to list details), moving down to obviously offensive, and also including things that may be offensive to some - think lingerie ads, joke cards featuring butt cracks, and anything related to Howie Mandel.
My questions are:
* Is this ethical? I think it is since every employee legally agrees that their work machine belongs to the company and is subject to search. The screenings are not to occur on personal machines brought to work.
* Is it feasible? I've done a lot of image processing/indexing but this seems like a whole new world of complexity.
* Any references to successful techniques for discovering porn?
* Is it appropriate for me to archive the results when something is discovered? | 2011/03/03 | [
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/54155",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/users/17429/"
] | About legal aspects, in France:
The boss owns the computers and the internet connection: He can do whatever pleases him.
BUT, employee privacy cannot be violated. If a directory on the computer is labelled PERSONAL, the boss is not allowed to scan it.
The only way to bypass that is to get elements of evidence that employee stores illegal material and to get a court request a scan of computer (Note that pornography is not illegal in France.) | Everyone's computer operating system was probably installed from a disk image.
1. start with the disk image and get a list of files you probably don't need to scan.
2. get a list of all the other files on each PC.
3. pull the actual files from 10-20 random machines and use as a test bed
4. search for items in a profanity and questionable word (hotties, jugs, 'barely legal', joke, etc) dictionary
5. View the video - should anyone have any video at all?
6. View photos
7. Any video or image files that are questionable can be used to search the other machines
It will take one or two employees to get caught before any one will put anything on their work computer.
Charge an obscene amount of money for this service. I'll be Zappos would never do this to their employees. |
41,926 | After reviewing several texts about the second law of thermodynamics and the concept of entropy, from a systemic point of view, it seems to me that entropy is only a circular reasoning concept.
Thermodynamics raised from the study of gases, and gases can't exemplify all types of particles behavior. Gas particles only exert rejection towards others. The main issue is that **natural particles could exert attraction or rejection during an interaction: they don't only exert rejection**. Water molecules, several fundamental particles or simply magnetized particles create attraction forces when they interact. And that is not an isolated natural behavior, it is a very common one.
In consequence, whatever the concept of entropy is, the second law only expresses a circular reasoning idea: On systems that tend to dissipation, dissipation is more probable. True, but stupid, because *on systems that tend to organization, dissipation is less probable along time*.
Let's take the case of magnetized particles (as several natural particles behave) inside an isolated space: after some small time, particles will group.
1. If entropy=chaos, entropy decreases with time.
2. If entropy=membership of a small group of states [see: Daniel Styer, insight into entropy], then, entropy also tends to decrease: small groups happen more often.
3. If entropy=energy dissipation, the same. If particles exert rejection towards others, entropy grows with time. If particles exert attraction, entropy decreases with time. In addition, energy is a subjective concept. An object that is heat for a subject (and therefore can exert work) can be cold for another (not being able to exert work), so energy dissipation becomes a subjective approach.
In final terms, **the root problem of the 2nd law is this: it formulates a law that is applicable only to systems that follow that law**.
So, can the 2nd law of thermodynamics be a circular argument? | 2017/04/09 | [
"https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/41926",
"https://philosophy.stackexchange.com",
"https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/users/23407/"
] | The 2nd law of thermodynamics is an assertion. It is a statement that someone made that they believe to be true. It is also an assertion that is backed by an enormous body of evidence so vast that the prevailing belief is that no counter example exists. We have never observed a closed system in which entropy does not increase, nor have we observed any almost-closed systems that exhibit a sufficient decrease in entropy to cause us to assume the results were caused by the 2nd law failing. It is considered far more likely that the imperfections in the close system were the cause of the results.
Can we prove it? Of course not. Science does not prove anything. That's not its job, never has been. Science's job is to create empirical models of the world which are very effective at predicting what will happen. This happens to be a model which has been empirically validated countless times. However, there's no reason there couldn't be a single pocket of the universe somewhere where the 2nd law doesn't apply. We just haven't seen one, and we currently have no reason to believe there are pockets where the rules are different.
As for the magnetic particles, our models predict that they will indeed follow the second law. Because the system is isolated, energy does not get in or out. Thus, as the particles become attracted, they cannot emit energy outside of the system. They will acquire a high velocity. Quickly their path will be unpredictable, so the entropy of the system will increase. Eventually, if they collide and their collisions are not elastic, some of that magnetic potential energy you put into the system at the start will be converted to the random movements of thermal energy. Eventually, the particles may finally form a "group," but they will do so with a thermal energy that causes them to vibrate in a statistical manner. This is where you find the loss of order. When you started, the velocities of your particles was known, well ordered. Now the velocities are less known, more disordered.
Again, feel free to test this yourself. Science can never prove itself right. But that's what the models say will happen, and some of those models have withstood quite a beating from the scientific community seeking exotic circumstances where their laws might not apply. | Thanks for your answers, I think I have the answer. The problem was trying to find a relation of proportionality between entropy and any of the presented features.
But I realize now that entropy sustains the 2nd law, and viceversa. In simple words, there is some physically measurable quantity (entropy) that always increases (2nd law) on close systems evolving spontaneously. This, independent of order, enthalpy, and even probabilities. A system can get order, evolve towards a particular state out of the median states, or even concentrate its energy, while entropy reaches a maximum. |
84,038 | The Update Manager recently started itself and found two updates. I can tell by the icon in the launcher. The icon has a (2) on it and a little white arrow saying the application is running. I can also see the update-manager process in a 'ps -A' list. Alt-Tab also shows the Update Manager.
The problem is I can't get Update Manager to show up. If I click on the icon or Alt-Tab to it, nothing happens. I've never had any issues starting it manually, but when it starts on it's own after finding an update, I can't switch to it.
What can I try to make this work better? | 2011/11/30 | [
"https://askubuntu.com/questions/84038",
"https://askubuntu.com",
"https://askubuntu.com/users/26562/"
] | I have the same problem. I didn't find this specific issue on launchpad either. For me, even though the update manager doesn't completely open, it still can be closed from the "x" on the top right panel or ctrl+q. Once closed it reopens fine. | I have this problem with libreoffice.
You can use 'super + w'. You will get all the window on screen, click the window you want. |
84,038 | The Update Manager recently started itself and found two updates. I can tell by the icon in the launcher. The icon has a (2) on it and a little white arrow saying the application is running. I can also see the update-manager process in a 'ps -A' list. Alt-Tab also shows the Update Manager.
The problem is I can't get Update Manager to show up. If I click on the icon or Alt-Tab to it, nothing happens. I've never had any issues starting it manually, but when it starts on it's own after finding an update, I can't switch to it.
What can I try to make this work better? | 2011/11/30 | [
"https://askubuntu.com/questions/84038",
"https://askubuntu.com",
"https://askubuntu.com/users/26562/"
] | I have the same problem. I didn't find this specific issue on launchpad either. For me, even though the update manager doesn't completely open, it still can be closed from the "x" on the top right panel or ctrl+q. Once closed it reopens fine. | I've seen scenarios where application windows end up outside of the screen area. Sometimes its caused by having windows placed on secondary screens then disconnecting the screen. Leaving the application "unreachable"
* Go to the desktop that seems to have the application running.
* Make sure the application is selected with alt+tab.
* Press alt+space + m (m for move, if you use english ubuntu) drag the
mouse cursor to the center of the screen.
Your application window should be attached to
the mouse cursor if the issue you had was this. |
84,038 | The Update Manager recently started itself and found two updates. I can tell by the icon in the launcher. The icon has a (2) on it and a little white arrow saying the application is running. I can also see the update-manager process in a 'ps -A' list. Alt-Tab also shows the Update Manager.
The problem is I can't get Update Manager to show up. If I click on the icon or Alt-Tab to it, nothing happens. I've never had any issues starting it manually, but when it starts on it's own after finding an update, I can't switch to it.
What can I try to make this work better? | 2011/11/30 | [
"https://askubuntu.com/questions/84038",
"https://askubuntu.com",
"https://askubuntu.com/users/26562/"
] | I have this problem with libreoffice.
You can use 'super + w'. You will get all the window on screen, click the window you want. | I've seen scenarios where application windows end up outside of the screen area. Sometimes its caused by having windows placed on secondary screens then disconnecting the screen. Leaving the application "unreachable"
* Go to the desktop that seems to have the application running.
* Make sure the application is selected with alt+tab.
* Press alt+space + m (m for move, if you use english ubuntu) drag the
mouse cursor to the center of the screen.
Your application window should be attached to
the mouse cursor if the issue you had was this. |
159,934 | I have Yosemite. I am considering installing OS X server 4.0. According to [developer.apple.com](https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/xcode_guide-continuous_integration/200-Adopting_a_Continuous_Integration_Workflow/adopt_continuous_integration.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40013292-CH3-SW1):
>
> You can, however, install OS X Server and enable Xcode Server on your
> development Mac.
>
>
>
What exactly is OS X Server 4.0? Does installing require me to have a freshly formatted machine? In other words, does it overwrite Yosemite with a totally new OS (similar to Windows Server 2012 vs Windows 8)? Or, does it simply extend my Mac with new capabilities like a powerful program suite? | 2014/12/08 | [
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/159934",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/14731/"
] | OS X Server 4 is an application. (.app) that is installed over the OS. It won't require you to format the entire drive to install it. It will just add the needed features to take advantage of the Server.app suite. | OS X Server is primarily an interface. OS X contains (almost - mail and databases are the main exceptions) all the software you will need, so if you want to set things up from the command line it won't make any difference. However, balance your time to work out the command line setup against the $20 Server.app costs.
Server.app is rather picky about configuration file layouts - if you want to do your own adjustments I recommend you make a separate file and use an include directive. Behaviour ranges from no problem to service won't start to Server.app crashing (so you can't reset it) |
332,242 | 
This showed up while I was playing Pokémon Go and I walked into the cloud, but nothing happened. I walked away and came back, still nothing. I think it might be a glitch. Has anybody out there seen this before and know what it means? | 2018/05/12 | [
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/332242",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/users/211530/"
] | Yes, I’ve seen this before. It’s a bug. That is the animation of a gym under attack, despite there being no gym at the center of it.
I’m not sure if you got this the same way as me, but I frequently get this visual bug when I check on one of my Pokémon that is currently defending a faraway gym (one that is not within range of me but that I can check on remotely) that is being attacked. The game (for some reason) moves the map to where the gym actually is while you view the gym screen and if it’s under attack, the fighting dustcloud will be rendered as well. Occasionally when I close out of the gym screen, the dustcloud continues to rage on. Opening and closing menus does nothing for me when this happens, I just close and restart the app, and everything is fixed. | It is a known bug.
it happens because you feed or looked at your pokemon in a gym you are defending and someone attack it in the same time. |
19,826 | Is there a version of Snow White where her name is a longer description?
[TVTropes says](https://tvtropes.org/Main/NameThatUnfoldsLikeLotusBlossom):
>
> Snow White. Her real name is "Lips Red as Blood, Hair Black as Ebony, Skin White as Snow" based on the wish her mother made. Everyone just calls her Snow White because it's easier. This is even carried over to the Disney version, but they replace "blood" with "the rose".
>
>
>
But at least [this version](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11027/11027-h/11027-h.htm#littlesnowwhite) doesn't sound like it:
>
> a certain queen sat working at her window, the frame of which was made of fine black ebony; and, as she was looking out upon the snow, she pricked her finger, and three drops of blood fell upon it. Then she gazed thoughtfully down on the red drops which sprinkled the white snow and said, "Would that my little daughter may be as white as that snow, as red as the blood, and as black as the ebony window-frame!" And so the little girl grew up; her skin was a white as snow, her cheeks as rosy as blood, and her hair as black as ebony; and she was called Snow-White.
>
>
>
Although, that is just one [of seven](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Snow_White) different translations... But a quick search isolate to that site shows nothing good... | 2021/10/24 | [
"https://literature.stackexchange.com/questions/19826",
"https://literature.stackexchange.com",
"https://literature.stackexchange.com/users/566/"
] | Here’s the start of the story ‘Sneewittchen’ as given by the brothers Grimm:
>
> Es war einmal mitten im Winter und die Schneeflocken fielen wie Federn vom Himmel, da saß eine schöne Königin an einem Fenster, das hatte einen Rahmen von schwarzem Edenholz, und nähte. Und wie sie so nähte und nach dem Schnee aufblickte, stach sie sich mit der Nadel in den Finger, und es fielen drei Tropfen Blut in den Schnee. Und weil das Rothe in dem Weißen so schön aussah, so dachte sie: hätt ich doch ein Kind so weiß wie Schnee, so roth wie Blut und so schwarz wie dieser Rahmen. Und bald darauf bekam sie ein Töchterlein, so weiß wie Schnee, so roth wie Blut, und so schwarz wie Ebenholz, und darum ward es das **Sneewittchen genannt**.
>
>
> Once upon a time, in the middle of winter, when feathery snowflakes fell from the sky, a beautiful queen sat and sewed at a window, which had a frame of black ebony. And as she sewed and looked up at the snow, she pricked her finger with the needle and three drops of blood fell onto the snow. And because the red looked so beautiful against the white, she thought: had I but a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as this frame! Soon afterwards she had a daughter, as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as ebony, and so she was **called Little-snow-white**.
>
>
> Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1812). [*Kinder- und Haus-märchen*, p. 238](https://viewer.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/index.php?id=1&L=1&tx_dlf%5Bid%5D=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de%2Fitems%2FWDQ2HY2DGRLI3TKCYFP6F5OPALSTRG4O%2Fsource%2Frecord&tx_dlf%5Bpage%5D=138&tx_dlf%5Bdouble%5D=0). Berlin: Realschulbuchhandlung.
>
>
>
This is the oldest printed version of the story, and here, it is clear that although the queen’s daughter has all three attributes from her mother’s wish, her name is just “Sneewittchen”.
In the Disney animated film (1937) there is a scene with the following dialogue:
>
> *Queen*: Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?
>
>
> *Magic Mirror*: Famed is thy beauty, Majesty. But hold, a lovely maid I see. Rags cannot hide her gentle grace. Alas, she is more fair than thee.
>
>
> *Queen*: Alas for her! Reveal her name!
>
>
> *Magic Mirror*: **Lips red as the rose. Hair black as ebony. Skin white as snow.**
>
>
> *Queen*: Snow White!
>
>
>
You can see how someone might interpret the highlighted line as the mirror revealing Snow-white’s real name. But I think a more natural interpretation is that the mirror is giving the queen a (not very difficult) riddle, in the usual manner of oracles.
Another version of the story that that uses all three of Snow-white’s attributes as a kind of epithet, is a 1982 retelling by [Nancy Garden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Garden):
>
> “Nothing can save you now, my beauty,” chortled the queen, “for I have used my strongest poison this time, and since you have swallowed it, you will never rise again. So, **Skin-White-as-Snow, Lips-Red-as-Blood, Hair-Black-as-Ebony**, what good is your beauty to you now? This time no one will ever be able to wake you up again.”
>
>
> Nancy Garden (1982). [*Favourite Tales from Grimm*, p. 15](https://archive.org/details/favoritetalesfro00maye/page/14/mode/2up). New York: Four Winds.
>
>
>
Again, you can see how a reader of this passage in Garden’s version might conclude that “Skin-White-as-Snow, Lips-Red-as-Blood, Hair-Black-as-Ebony” is Snow-white’s real or unabbreviated name. This is an appealing kind of fairy-tale idea! But elsewhere in Garden’s version she is just called “Snow White”, so it makes as much, or more, sense to take the queen’s phrase here to be a sarcastic epithet that she made up on the spot. | There are uses of the name "Snow White" in longer names, such as the Italian [Snow-White-Fire-Red](https://www.surlalunefairytales.com/book.php?id=110&tale=3437), or the Norwegian Snow-white and Rosy-red (in [The Twelve Wild Ducks](https://www.surlalunefairytales.com/s-z/six-swans/stories/twelvewilducks.html)). However, the first is a variant on the girl helps the hero flee, with elements of the maiden in the tower (like Rapunzel) and the second is the brothers as birds; they are not Snow White variants.
Indeed, a look at the [variants](https://www.surlalunefairytales.com/s-z/snow-white-seven-dwarfs/snow-white-seven-dwarfs-related.html) reveals none where it's longer than Snow-White but many where it's something unrelated: Myrsina, or Nourie Hadig, or Gold-Tree.
I think that's just someone slipping in a claim made about it and perhaps not even realizing it. |
11,112,515 | I am messing around with Session in my webapp at the moment and I noticed that whenever I restart the development server (the built-in server that came with Django), the session does not reset itself. It carries over eventhough I have restarted the server over and over again.
Where can I set it so that whenever I reset/restart the development server, the sessions are flushed/cleaned out? | 2012/06/20 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/11112515",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/599378/"
] | Couldn't find a solution for this. Redownloaded and regenerated the font numerous times on different computers, clearing cache each time viewed and still didn't work. Other fonts work fine, so my conclusion is the eot generators don't like the font. | Try using the [font-face](http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fontface/generator) generator. |
11,112,515 | I am messing around with Session in my webapp at the moment and I noticed that whenever I restart the development server (the built-in server that came with Django), the session does not reset itself. It carries over eventhough I have restarted the server over and over again.
Where can I set it so that whenever I reset/restart the development server, the sessions are flushed/cleaned out? | 2012/06/20 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/11112515",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/599378/"
] | Couldn't find a solution for this. Redownloaded and regenerated the font numerous times on different computers, clearing cache each time viewed and still didn't work. Other fonts work fine, so my conclusion is the eot generators don't like the font. | Try this solution <http://fontface.codeandmore.com/blog/ie-7-8-error-with-eot-css3111/> as it worked many times for our users. |
55,302 | I think the question title says it all:
Given a distribution board in the house (220 VAC), is it enough to shut off only the room's fuses, or must one shut off the main switch for the board before safely touching wires?
Does the answer depend in any way on the fuse type? | 2014/12/14 | [
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/55302",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/users/7302/"
] | And here is why you check it before hand, even though you have turned off that room. People get into Junction boxes and re-wire - joining two separate circuits into one - in that case one circuit in the house can be fed from two breakers (as long as they are on the same phase). Always check with testor - and NOT JUST a proximity induction testor - but an actual touch the wires testor. OK. Be safe. | Yes. Once you shut off the room fuse, no electricity will be going to that room.
However it is important to test all connections before working on them so you are positive that they are not powered. |
55,302 | I think the question title says it all:
Given a distribution board in the house (220 VAC), is it enough to shut off only the room's fuses, or must one shut off the main switch for the board before safely touching wires?
Does the answer depend in any way on the fuse type? | 2014/12/14 | [
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/55302",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/users/7302/"
] | You say "that room". Circuits are not nearly always designated to one room or area. Many, many times a room will have some devices on one circuit while others on another circuit. It is pretty rare that rooms are strictly wired so that one circuit distinctly feeds one room.
Also, panel directories are not always extremely accurate. So something that says the breaker is for one room might also have other things one it.
Again, a tester is the ONLY way to be sure what you are working on is dead. IMO you should not even pick up a tool or open a box until you are in possession of a decent tester. | Yes. Once you shut off the room fuse, no electricity will be going to that room.
However it is important to test all connections before working on them so you are positive that they are not powered. |
55,302 | I think the question title says it all:
Given a distribution board in the house (220 VAC), is it enough to shut off only the room's fuses, or must one shut off the main switch for the board before safely touching wires?
Does the answer depend in any way on the fuse type? | 2014/12/14 | [
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/55302",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/users/7302/"
] | And here is why you check it before hand, even though you have turned off that room. People get into Junction boxes and re-wire - joining two separate circuits into one - in that case one circuit in the house can be fed from two breakers (as long as they are on the same phase). Always check with testor - and NOT JUST a proximity induction testor - but an actual touch the wires testor. OK. Be safe. | You say "that room". Circuits are not nearly always designated to one room or area. Many, many times a room will have some devices on one circuit while others on another circuit. It is pretty rare that rooms are strictly wired so that one circuit distinctly feeds one room.
Also, panel directories are not always extremely accurate. So something that says the breaker is for one room might also have other things one it.
Again, a tester is the ONLY way to be sure what you are working on is dead. IMO you should not even pick up a tool or open a box until you are in possession of a decent tester. |
55,029,842 | I build an API, which will send data to another API when has been collect 10 hashes. The client sends 1 hash per hour.
For example:
1. The client POST hash to API
2. API need to store it somewhere until the hashes number becomes to 10
3. When the number of hashes becomes 10 need to send data to another API and start from 0 again
My question related to the 2nd point. I can store the hashes in the array, the problem is that the data will be lost when the server will be shut down suddenly.
This is the only data which I need to store in API, so I don't want to use DBS.
By the way, it's my first time of developing API, so will be glad to your help.
Thanks in advance. | 2019/03/06 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/55029842",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/-1/"
] | Sorry but your only options of storing data are either **memory** or **disk**.
If you store data in variables, you're using **memory**. It is fast and instant but it's not durable as you already said.
If you store data in database, you're using disk **storage**. It is slower but it is durable.
If you need durability, then **database** is your only option. Or maybe if you don't want to store the data in your machine, you could use cloud database such as firebase database. | Maybe your problem will be solved with [Redis](https://redis.io/).
I had one feature where I needed to use some user's pieces of information on the server side in runtime and it could not be persisted at the database.
So, I used [this](https://www.npmjs.com/package/express-redis-cache).
In simple words, the redis will save the information in your cache and you can retrieve when you need.
There's no disk use and are more stable than a hand made memory control.
I hope this helps you. |
19,681 | As per the Orange video tutorial: *youtu.be/D6zd7m2aYqU?list=PLmNPvQr9Tf-ZSDLwOzxpvY-HrE0yv-8Fy*
**I'm trying to make predictions** on a new dataset based upon one that's already been 'coded' - both data sets are formatted exactly the same, where the 'training' set has all entries marked as either 1 or 0, see below:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6eF6J.jpg)
whereas the second set contains no values, as I hope the 'predictions' feature will try to guess the status:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/NcZde.jpg)
Trouble is, when I look at the predictions widget, it does nothing, displaying **'Data does not have the same target as predictors'**
I've only been using Orange for two days, so I imagine it's a really simple error on my part.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
John | 2017/06/13 | [
"https://datascience.stackexchange.com/questions/19681",
"https://datascience.stackexchange.com",
"https://datascience.stackexchange.com/users/33361/"
] | This is because we have to exclude the target column from the second document (testing data-set).
In your example remove the column 'Status' from second file.
**Example**:
In below example, in training dataset, 'Loan\_Status' column is present which is the target field, whereas, in testing dataset, 'Loan\_Status' column is not present, and will be computed by the 'Prediction' as shown below:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/dvOe0.png)
*Prediction*:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nV5nl.png) | this may be a bug in orange tool because the data sets look well formatted. I suggest you to put all data (both data sets) in one file and load it onto orange, if it is OK then split the file (separate the data) and reload the two new files and it should work. |
11,471 | If you want to stain and varnish indoor wood furniture during the winter, how do you do it?
It's below freezing outdoors, but I don't want fumes to accumulate in the house. | 2012/01/16 | [
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/11471",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/users/3540/"
] | In the past what I have done is to isolate 1 room, generally in the basement, increase the heat to that room and open the window while running a fan. In general, once I've closed the can and am only waiting for the piece to dry the fumes tend to get much less noticeable and I can start closing the window.
This method doesn't prevent fumes from reaching other rooms, since they can travel through the ducts or even under the door, and so on, but you can reduce those fumes by closing the house ducts to that room, putting a towel over registers/returns/bottom of door.
With this method you'll want a heater for the room. I've used electric oil filled heaters but you'll just want to keep in mind that the fumes can be flammable, so keep your venting method running. | I usually stain or apply brushed or rolled on finishes inside. Spray finishes I do in the garage, but quickly, then I immediately bring things inside to dry in an isolated room (usually the master bedroom, which has an attached bathroom.) I leave the fan on in the bathroom, which pulls the fumes out. If you're spraying from rattlecans or a gun, it's important to keep the materials inside until you're ready to spray, or they'll go on strangely because they're cold and sluggish. Your compressor needs to be outside though or you'll get serious amounts of condensation in the air lines. |
11,471 | If you want to stain and varnish indoor wood furniture during the winter, how do you do it?
It's below freezing outdoors, but I don't want fumes to accumulate in the house. | 2012/01/16 | [
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/11471",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/users/3540/"
] | In the past what I have done is to isolate 1 room, generally in the basement, increase the heat to that room and open the window while running a fan. In general, once I've closed the can and am only waiting for the piece to dry the fumes tend to get much less noticeable and I can start closing the window.
This method doesn't prevent fumes from reaching other rooms, since they can travel through the ducts or even under the door, and so on, but you can reduce those fumes by closing the house ducts to that room, putting a towel over registers/returns/bottom of door.
With this method you'll want a heater for the room. I've used electric oil filled heaters but you'll just want to keep in mind that the fumes can be flammable, so keep your venting method running. | I have a huge problem with paint and stain fumes. I love these projects but the fumes really get to me.
Today I found a good solution. I am very proud. Like said above, put the done woods in a closed room and close off the heater vent in that room. Use a fan and open a window. What I did was add a fragrance oil burning kit. The room will smell pleasant.
Note: always wear protective glasses and mask when painting + staining. You will be less dizzy than me when you are done. |
11,471 | If you want to stain and varnish indoor wood furniture during the winter, how do you do it?
It's below freezing outdoors, but I don't want fumes to accumulate in the house. | 2012/01/16 | [
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/11471",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/users/3540/"
] | I usually stain or apply brushed or rolled on finishes inside. Spray finishes I do in the garage, but quickly, then I immediately bring things inside to dry in an isolated room (usually the master bedroom, which has an attached bathroom.) I leave the fan on in the bathroom, which pulls the fumes out. If you're spraying from rattlecans or a gun, it's important to keep the materials inside until you're ready to spray, or they'll go on strangely because they're cold and sluggish. Your compressor needs to be outside though or you'll get serious amounts of condensation in the air lines. | I have a huge problem with paint and stain fumes. I love these projects but the fumes really get to me.
Today I found a good solution. I am very proud. Like said above, put the done woods in a closed room and close off the heater vent in that room. Use a fan and open a window. What I did was add a fragrance oil burning kit. The room will smell pleasant.
Note: always wear protective glasses and mask when painting + staining. You will be less dizzy than me when you are done. |
49,166,583 | what is the difference between the using the okta-signin-widget and the okta-auth-js?
May I say that the okta-auth-js gives all the functionalities for the authentication and that the widget use these functionalities + build the visual ? | 2018/03/08 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/49166583",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/2272636/"
] | The okta-signin-widget is built on top of the okta-auth-js framework.
The Okta login widget is built with specific flows that work well for
most cases, but in some situations, you might want to change the flow
in some way, you would use the okta-auth-js framework for that.
If you are familiar with javascript, you will likely have no problem
working with the okta-auth-js, but if you just want to authenticate
a user, and enroll them in MFA, you'll probably be fine just using
the okta-signin-widget.
Hope that helps | The okta-signin-widget is build on top of okta-auth-js.
So if you need just simple login functionality you can use okta-signin-widget.
If you have some specific/difficult login flow you can get it under you control by using okta-auth-js api |
222,967 | The context in which we use word "deficiency" is inspection. Let's say, I look at your gas furnace and file a deficiency report describing some component or part.
What would the opposite of "deficiency" in this context? What would I call the "report" that certifies that your gas furnace is working well?
Thanks! | 2015/01/21 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/222967",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/107027/"
] | A Deficiency Report.
A Notice of Compliance ? | After a thorough examination, your gas furnace was found to be...
* **"in compliance with** current regulations".
* **"free of defects"**.
* "**in accordance with** current legislation."
>
> Edit.
>
> compliance (noun) the act or process of doing what you have been asked or ordered to do : the act or process of complying.
>
>
> |
222,967 | The context in which we use word "deficiency" is inspection. Let's say, I look at your gas furnace and file a deficiency report describing some component or part.
What would the opposite of "deficiency" in this context? What would I call the "report" that certifies that your gas furnace is working well?
Thanks! | 2015/01/21 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/222967",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/107027/"
] | A Deficiency Report.
A Notice of Compliance ? | Ah, given your elaboration in the comments, I think I see what you're requesting now: a title for a category of statements/fields in a software interface, to complement "deficiencies" and to mean "things which have not been found to be deficient during this inspection".
In that case, I would use a term like **approvals**, as the inspector is clearly either *approving* of some feature or is marking it as a deficiency. It's not strictly speaking an antonym, as approval implies a person making a value judgment while deficiency implies a problem regardless of the presence of a person, but it seems to be the type of word you're looking for here. |
222,967 | The context in which we use word "deficiency" is inspection. Let's say, I look at your gas furnace and file a deficiency report describing some component or part.
What would the opposite of "deficiency" in this context? What would I call the "report" that certifies that your gas furnace is working well?
Thanks! | 2015/01/21 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/222967",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/107027/"
] | A Deficiency Report.
A Notice of Compliance ? | For home inspections, the opposite of "deficiency" might vary from "barely satisfactory" to "state of the art". To simplify an approval rating, one might title the column "approved" or, to comply with legal issues, **"up to code"**. |
222,967 | The context in which we use word "deficiency" is inspection. Let's say, I look at your gas furnace and file a deficiency report describing some component or part.
What would the opposite of "deficiency" in this context? What would I call the "report" that certifies that your gas furnace is working well?
Thanks! | 2015/01/21 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/222967",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/107027/"
] | For home inspections, the opposite of "deficiency" might vary from "barely satisfactory" to "state of the art". To simplify an approval rating, one might title the column "approved" or, to comply with legal issues, **"up to code"**. | After a thorough examination, your gas furnace was found to be...
* **"in compliance with** current regulations".
* **"free of defects"**.
* "**in accordance with** current legislation."
>
> Edit.
>
> compliance (noun) the act or process of doing what you have been asked or ordered to do : the act or process of complying.
>
>
> |
222,967 | The context in which we use word "deficiency" is inspection. Let's say, I look at your gas furnace and file a deficiency report describing some component or part.
What would the opposite of "deficiency" in this context? What would I call the "report" that certifies that your gas furnace is working well?
Thanks! | 2015/01/21 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/222967",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/107027/"
] | For home inspections, the opposite of "deficiency" might vary from "barely satisfactory" to "state of the art". To simplify an approval rating, one might title the column "approved" or, to comply with legal issues, **"up to code"**. | Ah, given your elaboration in the comments, I think I see what you're requesting now: a title for a category of statements/fields in a software interface, to complement "deficiencies" and to mean "things which have not been found to be deficient during this inspection".
In that case, I would use a term like **approvals**, as the inspector is clearly either *approving* of some feature or is marking it as a deficiency. It's not strictly speaking an antonym, as approval implies a person making a value judgment while deficiency implies a problem regardless of the presence of a person, but it seems to be the type of word you're looking for here. |
67,482,599 | Folks,
greetings from the sunny Spain.
I have build a lightbox.
Pictures attached show the home and clicked image states where you can see whats the issue about.
Im doing everything I know to try to fix it, and I wonder if anybody fancy figuring out what am I doing wrong.
Theres no fancy in a new bee 500 line code that could have been written better I am sure but, would you give it a go and KILL that white margin on the left? (it shows the same on mobile)
[enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/l2mXI.png) | 2021/05/11 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/67482599",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/15893917/"
] | Possible but not practical.
The aim of transfer learning is to give initial weights to the deep learning (DL) models and speed up the learning process. You can find that given one same DL model, when applied to similar applications such as computer vision, all the generated DL models have relative range of values although not entirely significant but better than randomization of weights or even sparse.
Machine learning (ML) models have shallow architectures and you can simply use randomization of weights to train-test the model.
If you insist to do transfer learning, you can use the weights of the previous model you are referred to but make sure you have same input-output data and configure your model accordingly. You will notice that you cannot find transfer learning for ML anywhere and easier, because it is not practical. Better learn from scratch. | One method to use if you want you are using transfer learning to fit a small target dataset and are not concerned about training time. you could use all or part of the original data then add all of the target data in as well. in addition you could augment the target data to ensure the model is 'more fit' to it. I have done this with light GBM and it works well, so in theory, it should also work fine on a random forest.
Also, I found this thesis that explores the topic in more detail [Transfer Learning Using Decision Forests](https://www.cs.technion.ac.il/users/wwwb/cgi-bin/tr-get.cgi/2016/MSC/MSC-2016-02.pdf) by Noam Segev.
>
> In this work we propose three transfer algorithms based on random forests. Two of our algorithms refine a classifier learned on the source set using the available target set, while the last uses both sets directly during tree induction.
>
>
> |
5,720 | I've noticed that people use present perfect when emailing other people, but I'm not sure how to utilize that verb tense. Will my example below work?
>
> "To this email, **I've attached** the copies of the photos you **asked** for. Also, because you *told* me that you **didn't** get the other copies, **I've made** more copies for you. **I've also attached** them to this email."
>
>
>
Or should I use the following?
>
> "To this email, I *attached* the copies of the photos you **asked** for. Also, because you **told** me that you **didn't** get the other copies, I **made** more copies for you. I also **attached** them to this email."
>
>
>
Is there a reason why people use present perfect when emailing? | 2013/04/24 | [
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/5720",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/users/1319/"
] | First one seems reasonably good and enough. Though, I believe you can also phrase 1st line as,
>
> I have, herewith, attached the copies of the photos you asked for.
>
>
>
I also don't see the need for the following phrase in the end.
>
> I've also attached them to this email.
>
>
>
Also, it's usually a good practice to make a list of the attached items to the mail in a sequence - and then perhaps add some information in front of them individually as you may see fit. For instance:
>
> Please find the following files attached herewith:
>
>
> 1. *abc.jpg* - As requested by you in the last mail
> 2. *def.jpg*, *ghi.jpg* - Copies of the earlier photos you were not able to receive
> 3. *jkl.jpg*, *mno.jpg*
>
>
> | Short answer: Use the Past Simple if it's clearer, and it is a bit clearer here, plus is quicker and more common.
Longer answer: The Present Perfect is usually used in three ways.
Life experience (something occurring in the subject's past):
>
> I've participated in scavenger hunts with members of the Royal Family.
>
> I've never studied Martian.
>
> I've tried to, but I only have one larynx.
>
>
>
A change or action which affects or relates to the present situation:
>
> We've sent you the insects you requested. (They're in the mail.)
>
> I've caught a cold. (Now I'm sick.)
>
> My girlfriend has broken my hip. (Now she hops.)
>
>
>
An action or state lasting up until now:
>
> We've been waiting around all day for that asteroid to hit.
>
> I've never been good at wrestling ogres.
>
>
>
In your example, while all of those Present Perfect verbs are examples of a past action having a result relevant to the matter at hand, it's a little clearer if you use Past Simple because when someone's quickly reading an email the Present Perfect may be less obvious. This is because of potential confusion with the 'life experience'.
If you write '...I've made more copies for you.' it may also be read similar to 'I've made more copies for you at times in the past.' and it's subtly more courteous to the reader to remove the confusion. Past Simple may also refer to the past but the context makes it clear here.
Both tenses are correct in this case and we have a choice of whether we want to speak as though we're emphasizing the events when they happened **or** the present situation created by them, and I prefer the Past Simple for clear communication. If this were literature, I'd probably use the Present Perfect because we really are more concerned with the resulting situation, unless I were trying to evoke a more vernacular feel. |
5,720 | I've noticed that people use present perfect when emailing other people, but I'm not sure how to utilize that verb tense. Will my example below work?
>
> "To this email, **I've attached** the copies of the photos you **asked** for. Also, because you *told* me that you **didn't** get the other copies, **I've made** more copies for you. **I've also attached** them to this email."
>
>
>
Or should I use the following?
>
> "To this email, I *attached* the copies of the photos you **asked** for. Also, because you **told** me that you **didn't** get the other copies, I **made** more copies for you. I also **attached** them to this email."
>
>
>
Is there a reason why people use present perfect when emailing? | 2013/04/24 | [
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/5720",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/users/1319/"
] | This is probably one of those cases where British English would use the present perfect tense, while American English would use the simple past tense.
The present perfect tense is used:
* To describe how an even in the past continues to be relevant at a later time
>
> Mario has arrived home.
>
>
>
* To describe a event that started in the past and continue into the present
>
> Michelle has shopped at that store since she was a child.
>
>
>
* To describe an repeated event happened in the past
>
> She has walked downtown everyday for a year.
>
>
>
Supposing that you are talking to somebody, and you say "Mario has arrived home." you are saying that Mario is still at home, while when you say "Mario arrived home." you are not saying where Mario actually is.
In your case, you could say "I have attached the copies of the photos" since the copies of the photos are still attached to the email when you will send it. If you say "I attached the copies of the photo," the person who receives the email will understand that the copies of the photos are still attached to the email, if you don't say something different. | Short answer: Use the Past Simple if it's clearer, and it is a bit clearer here, plus is quicker and more common.
Longer answer: The Present Perfect is usually used in three ways.
Life experience (something occurring in the subject's past):
>
> I've participated in scavenger hunts with members of the Royal Family.
>
> I've never studied Martian.
>
> I've tried to, but I only have one larynx.
>
>
>
A change or action which affects or relates to the present situation:
>
> We've sent you the insects you requested. (They're in the mail.)
>
> I've caught a cold. (Now I'm sick.)
>
> My girlfriend has broken my hip. (Now she hops.)
>
>
>
An action or state lasting up until now:
>
> We've been waiting around all day for that asteroid to hit.
>
> I've never been good at wrestling ogres.
>
>
>
In your example, while all of those Present Perfect verbs are examples of a past action having a result relevant to the matter at hand, it's a little clearer if you use Past Simple because when someone's quickly reading an email the Present Perfect may be less obvious. This is because of potential confusion with the 'life experience'.
If you write '...I've made more copies for you.' it may also be read similar to 'I've made more copies for you at times in the past.' and it's subtly more courteous to the reader to remove the confusion. Past Simple may also refer to the past but the context makes it clear here.
Both tenses are correct in this case and we have a choice of whether we want to speak as though we're emphasizing the events when they happened **or** the present situation created by them, and I prefer the Past Simple for clear communication. If this were literature, I'd probably use the Present Perfect because we really are more concerned with the resulting situation, unless I were trying to evoke a more vernacular feel. |
5,720 | I've noticed that people use present perfect when emailing other people, but I'm not sure how to utilize that verb tense. Will my example below work?
>
> "To this email, **I've attached** the copies of the photos you **asked** for. Also, because you *told* me that you **didn't** get the other copies, **I've made** more copies for you. **I've also attached** them to this email."
>
>
>
Or should I use the following?
>
> "To this email, I *attached* the copies of the photos you **asked** for. Also, because you **told** me that you **didn't** get the other copies, I **made** more copies for you. I also **attached** them to this email."
>
>
>
Is there a reason why people use present perfect when emailing? | 2013/04/24 | [
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/5720",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/users/1319/"
] | I think it's because the past tense sounds somewhat awkward when the author is composing the email.
We use the present perfect tense when we want to talk about unfinished actions that started in the past and continue to the present.[1](http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/present-perfect-use.html)
Well, at the moment you are composing the email, the action is unfinished. The email is still unsent. So, when I'm proofreading my own email:
>
> I attached copies of the photos you asked for.
>
>
>
sounds off. The action isn't done; my email is still sitting in front of me.
I'll grant you, the language would sound just fine if I imagined myself as the reader, reading an already-sent email message, but it seems like *I've attached* reads better **before** the email is sent, which is perhaps why you see that form as often as you do.
Incidentally, I wouldn't be thrown off by either of the two versions you composed. | Short answer: Use the Past Simple if it's clearer, and it is a bit clearer here, plus is quicker and more common.
Longer answer: The Present Perfect is usually used in three ways.
Life experience (something occurring in the subject's past):
>
> I've participated in scavenger hunts with members of the Royal Family.
>
> I've never studied Martian.
>
> I've tried to, but I only have one larynx.
>
>
>
A change or action which affects or relates to the present situation:
>
> We've sent you the insects you requested. (They're in the mail.)
>
> I've caught a cold. (Now I'm sick.)
>
> My girlfriend has broken my hip. (Now she hops.)
>
>
>
An action or state lasting up until now:
>
> We've been waiting around all day for that asteroid to hit.
>
> I've never been good at wrestling ogres.
>
>
>
In your example, while all of those Present Perfect verbs are examples of a past action having a result relevant to the matter at hand, it's a little clearer if you use Past Simple because when someone's quickly reading an email the Present Perfect may be less obvious. This is because of potential confusion with the 'life experience'.
If you write '...I've made more copies for you.' it may also be read similar to 'I've made more copies for you at times in the past.' and it's subtly more courteous to the reader to remove the confusion. Past Simple may also refer to the past but the context makes it clear here.
Both tenses are correct in this case and we have a choice of whether we want to speak as though we're emphasizing the events when they happened **or** the present situation created by them, and I prefer the Past Simple for clear communication. If this were literature, I'd probably use the Present Perfect because we really are more concerned with the resulting situation, unless I were trying to evoke a more vernacular feel. |
21,904 | I'm using/learning geodjango + postgis, and I'm trying to calculate distance between 2 cities in Poland. First using WGS84/4326 I define 2 points, and then after transforming this points into spherical mercator 900913 i get distance which is about 40km too long. Which map projection should I use then? Where can I find proper srid's for different countries?
sorry for the delay, 2 cities (lat; long): Slupsk(54.465249;17.026062) and Koszalin(54.193378;16.179428) | 2012/03/19 | [
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/21904",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/users/6434/"
] | That's what picking a decent map projection is all about. I don't know your lat/long range but you can query projections relevant to a lat/long bounding box at the [EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset](http://www.epsg.org/). This should give some codes to test out.
EDIT: Thanks for posting your coordinates. When you just calculate a cartesian distance between these points in a Plate Carree or something similar projection, you get something like 90km which is obviously the wrong result from a wrong method.
Others have explained the 'math route' using a spherical calculation, so I took the 'tool route' and retrieved the [ETRS89](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Terrestrial_Reference_System_1989) projection from the EPSG database based on your coordinates, measuring in this coordinate system I get about 63km, which is the considerable difference we're seeing.
 | Use latitude and longitude and the [great circle distance](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great-circle_distance), not a map projection. |
17,832 | I am following climate activist Greta Thunberg's sail to N America from Europe on <https://tracker.borisherrmannracing.com/>. The model shows a cyclonic storm forming south of Nova Scotia, east of New York on August 26, 2019. The same thing can be seen on <https://earth.nullschool.net/>. I wasn't aware that this type of storm formed so far north and am wondering why this storm is forming and if this is a rare occurrence that may be related to climate change.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ya8x1.jpg)
Edit to add: Here is the model of air temperature. It appears to me that the storm forms at the interface between cool air from the north and warm air from the south and that the core is warm, but perhaps someone with more expertise can weigh in.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ixN6U.jpg) | 2019/08/25 | [
"https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/17832",
"https://earthscience.stackexchange.com",
"https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/users/1242/"
] | A cyclone is nothing more than a low-pressure system. It can surely form in the North Atlantic; in fact, most low-pressure systems that reach Europe form in the North Atlantic.
You are probably thinking about a *tropical* cyclone, which indeed cannot form that far north. Among others, a tropical cyclone needs high sea temperatures (>27 C), which are usually not present at such high latitudes.
About the present cyclone south of Nova Scotia: I think it is a cold core cyclone, as 500 hPa temperature are lower than in surroundings (which is e.g. not the case for tropical storm Dorian, which is currently east from the Lesser Antilles). Therefore, it's not a tropical cyclone but an ordinary extra-tropical cyclone, which can perfectly form at those latitudes. | No, it's not normal. Hurricanes and typhoons require sun-warmed seas like the Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico to form, because that's where they get their energy from. When meteorologists talk of cyclones and anticyclones, they are talking about high pressure or low pressure weather systems, not hurricanes and typhoons. Storms can form that far north, but probably not hurricanes, typhoons or cyclones, which are just different names for the same thing. When referring to the mega-storms which devastate tropical and subtropical islands, the terms hurricane (Atlantic) or typhoon (Pacific) are usually used. I don't think the weather system featured in your diagram was a hurricane. |
412,084 | A pointer stores/is assigned a memory address;
what about a reference variable?
it stores the actual value of an object just like any other non-pointer simple variables on Stack?
Thanks! | 2009/01/05 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/412084",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/36064/"
] | A reference does contain nothing in itself. The C++ Standard even states that an implementation is not required to allocate any storage for a reference. It's really just an alias for the object or function that it references. Trying to take the value of a reference will take the value of the object or function (in that case, you get a function pointer, just like when you would try to get the value out of the function using its original name) it references, instead.
Of course, when you go on lower levels and look at the assembler code, references are just like pointers. But at the language level, they are completely different beasts. References to const, for example, can bind to temporaries, they are required to implement a copy constructor, for overloading operators and they can't be put into an array (not even if you initialize all elements of it), because references are no objects (as opposed to pointers). They are, as trivial as it may sound, reference types. | >
> it stores the actual value of an object just like any other non-pointer simple variables on Stack?
>
>
>
Not exactly: because you don't have **two** copies of the value (one copy in the object, and another copy in the reference to the object); instead, the reference is probably implemented as a pointer to the object.
Differences between a pointer and an object:
* reference can't be null
* reference can't be uninitialized (must be initialized when it's defined)
* reference can't be changed to reference a different object |
412,084 | A pointer stores/is assigned a memory address;
what about a reference variable?
it stores the actual value of an object just like any other non-pointer simple variables on Stack?
Thanks! | 2009/01/05 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/412084",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/36064/"
] | A reference does contain nothing in itself. The C++ Standard even states that an implementation is not required to allocate any storage for a reference. It's really just an alias for the object or function that it references. Trying to take the value of a reference will take the value of the object or function (in that case, you get a function pointer, just like when you would try to get the value out of the function using its original name) it references, instead.
Of course, when you go on lower levels and look at the assembler code, references are just like pointers. But at the language level, they are completely different beasts. References to const, for example, can bind to temporaries, they are required to implement a copy constructor, for overloading operators and they can't be put into an array (not even if you initialize all elements of it), because references are no objects (as opposed to pointers). They are, as trivial as it may sound, reference types. | I'd say that it's just a pointer with a different syntax. |
412,084 | A pointer stores/is assigned a memory address;
what about a reference variable?
it stores the actual value of an object just like any other non-pointer simple variables on Stack?
Thanks! | 2009/01/05 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/412084",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/36064/"
] | A reference does contain nothing in itself. The C++ Standard even states that an implementation is not required to allocate any storage for a reference. It's really just an alias for the object or function that it references. Trying to take the value of a reference will take the value of the object or function (in that case, you get a function pointer, just like when you would try to get the value out of the function using its original name) it references, instead.
Of course, when you go on lower levels and look at the assembler code, references are just like pointers. But at the language level, they are completely different beasts. References to const, for example, can bind to temporaries, they are required to implement a copy constructor, for overloading operators and they can't be put into an array (not even if you initialize all elements of it), because references are no objects (as opposed to pointers). They are, as trivial as it may sound, reference types. | Internally, it's just a pointer to the object (although the standard not necessarily mandates it, all compilers implement this way). Externally, it behaves like the object itself. Think of it as a pointer with an implicit '\*' operator wherever it is used (except, of course, the declaration). It's also a const-pointer (not to be confused with a pointer-to-const), since it cannot be redirected once declared. |
3,316,120 | I am a sole developer currently backing up my source code to .zip files on an external drive. Is it worthwhile for me to start looking at code repositories? What's the simplest, cheapest option for me? (ie. There is no need for lots of fancy features as the repository is just as a backup and not for sharing with a team).
... Forgot to mention. I use Visual Studio 2010 only. | 2010/07/23 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/3316120",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/384141/"
] | Get yourself subversion, mercurial, git, cvs, anything is a vast improvement over zip files. You can generally get free plugins for VS as well although they aren't necessary. | I've used Mercurial which has a plugin for VS2010 that can be found here:
<http://visualhg.codeplex.com/>
But, as GIT does also, you can use it via command line. |
3,316,120 | I am a sole developer currently backing up my source code to .zip files on an external drive. Is it worthwhile for me to start looking at code repositories? What's the simplest, cheapest option for me? (ie. There is no need for lots of fancy features as the repository is just as a backup and not for sharing with a team).
... Forgot to mention. I use Visual Studio 2010 only. | 2010/07/23 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/3316120",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/384141/"
] | Get yourself subversion, mercurial, git, cvs, anything is a vast improvement over zip files. You can generally get free plugins for VS as well although they aren't necessary. | Since you're working with VS2010 I suggest you start working with [**TFS2010 Basic**](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/bharry/tfs-2010-for-sourcesafe-users/). |
3,316,120 | I am a sole developer currently backing up my source code to .zip files on an external drive. Is it worthwhile for me to start looking at code repositories? What's the simplest, cheapest option for me? (ie. There is no need for lots of fancy features as the repository is just as a backup and not for sharing with a team).
... Forgot to mention. I use Visual Studio 2010 only. | 2010/07/23 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/3316120",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/384141/"
] | Get yourself subversion, mercurial, git, cvs, anything is a vast improvement over zip files. You can generally get free plugins for VS as well although they aren't necessary. | SVN would be perfect for you!!
I use Visual Studio 2010 as well, and there's a great open source plugin for working with SVN - [AnkhSVN](http://ankhsvn.open.collab.net/) |
3,316,120 | I am a sole developer currently backing up my source code to .zip files on an external drive. Is it worthwhile for me to start looking at code repositories? What's the simplest, cheapest option for me? (ie. There is no need for lots of fancy features as the repository is just as a backup and not for sharing with a team).
... Forgot to mention. I use Visual Studio 2010 only. | 2010/07/23 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/3316120",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/384141/"
] | Anything would be better then zip files.
For personal projects I would start with Git or SVN. Both are free and have addons for VS. | I've used Mercurial which has a plugin for VS2010 that can be found here:
<http://visualhg.codeplex.com/>
But, as GIT does also, you can use it via command line. |
3,316,120 | I am a sole developer currently backing up my source code to .zip files on an external drive. Is it worthwhile for me to start looking at code repositories? What's the simplest, cheapest option for me? (ie. There is no need for lots of fancy features as the repository is just as a backup and not for sharing with a team).
... Forgot to mention. I use Visual Studio 2010 only. | 2010/07/23 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/3316120",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/384141/"
] | Anything would be better then zip files.
For personal projects I would start with Git or SVN. Both are free and have addons for VS. | Since you're working with VS2010 I suggest you start working with [**TFS2010 Basic**](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/bharry/tfs-2010-for-sourcesafe-users/). |
3,316,120 | I am a sole developer currently backing up my source code to .zip files on an external drive. Is it worthwhile for me to start looking at code repositories? What's the simplest, cheapest option for me? (ie. There is no need for lots of fancy features as the repository is just as a backup and not for sharing with a team).
... Forgot to mention. I use Visual Studio 2010 only. | 2010/07/23 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/3316120",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/384141/"
] | Anything would be better then zip files.
For personal projects I would start with Git or SVN. Both are free and have addons for VS. | SVN would be perfect for you!!
I use Visual Studio 2010 as well, and there's a great open source plugin for working with SVN - [AnkhSVN](http://ankhsvn.open.collab.net/) |
3,316,120 | I am a sole developer currently backing up my source code to .zip files on an external drive. Is it worthwhile for me to start looking at code repositories? What's the simplest, cheapest option for me? (ie. There is no need for lots of fancy features as the repository is just as a backup and not for sharing with a team).
... Forgot to mention. I use Visual Studio 2010 only. | 2010/07/23 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/3316120",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/384141/"
] | I've used Mercurial which has a plugin for VS2010 that can be found here:
<http://visualhg.codeplex.com/>
But, as GIT does also, you can use it via command line. | Since you're working with VS2010 I suggest you start working with [**TFS2010 Basic**](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/bharry/tfs-2010-for-sourcesafe-users/). |
3,316,120 | I am a sole developer currently backing up my source code to .zip files on an external drive. Is it worthwhile for me to start looking at code repositories? What's the simplest, cheapest option for me? (ie. There is no need for lots of fancy features as the repository is just as a backup and not for sharing with a team).
... Forgot to mention. I use Visual Studio 2010 only. | 2010/07/23 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/3316120",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/384141/"
] | SVN would be perfect for you!!
I use Visual Studio 2010 as well, and there's a great open source plugin for working with SVN - [AnkhSVN](http://ankhsvn.open.collab.net/) | Since you're working with VS2010 I suggest you start working with [**TFS2010 Basic**](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/bharry/tfs-2010-for-sourcesafe-users/). |
5,361 | More specifically, is nicotine in the concentrations that smokers receive when smoking cigarettes toxic? I know that in great enough concentrations it can be toxic (but then, so can just about anything else, including oxygen) and I know that in plants it is used as a defense against insects and can even be used as an insecticide. However, it has always been my understanding that nicotine is irrelevant as far as the harmful effects of smoking go.
I recently had a conversation with another biologist who had just quit smoking and had done quite a bit of research on the subject. He said that nicotine itself is in fact bad for you and, therefore, that tobacco-less alternatives to cigarettes (such as electronic cigarettes) are still harmful **because of the nicotine alone**.
Does anyone have any more information on this? Perhaps some references? Or, even better, a detailed explanation of the pathways involved? Again, I stress, not about nicotine's toxicity in general but about its harmful effects on vertebrates (preferably human) at the kinds of concentrations one could expect to ingest when smoking. | 2012/11/27 | [
"https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/5361",
"https://biology.stackexchange.com",
"https://biology.stackexchange.com/users/1306/"
] | I think its useful to say that nicotine is not very toxic to humans - cells don't die or get sick for typical smoking habits. Secondary health effects are possible, but here is a toxicological profiles.
Nicotine is a toxin in large enough quantities and nicotine has an LD50 (lethal dose for 50% of individuals) of [0.5-1 mg Nicotine / kg of body weight](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine_poisoning#Toxicology). So even a small spill on your skin of the chemical can be life threatening, but for smokers the nicotine itself is not dangerous.
Individuals who smoke intake about 1 mg per cigarette smoked. So a small adult (110 lbs) can smoke 25 cigarettes in a short period of time (or all at once!) and just barely get to the bottom end of that limit. Nicotine is water soluble and clears out through the urine at a fast rate though - half of the nicotine from a cigarette is cleared from your system within 2 hours, which means that 4-5 pack a day smokers are not really killing themselves (from nicotine).
That being said, children are about 5-10 times more sensitive than adults, so even 5-6 cigarettes in an hour can be toxic. That's quite a bit of smoking though.
Not all animals have the same relationship to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors as humans do. [Nicotine is toxic to insects and will kill an insect in a matter of minutes or hours](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insecticide#Neonicotinoids). Rats are about 50x less sensitive than people.
I think its comparable to the question of whether caffeine is harmful to people. In the amount we consume it, sometimes up to grams a day, there is no obvious common side effect, but you figure that decades later it will show up as a problem - a difficult connection to prove. | Nicotine acts as a ligand for nicotinic acetycholine receptors (nAChRs), which are ligand-gated ion channels normally activated by acetylcholine. This family of receptors is expressed in every mammalian cell ([Schuller, 2009](http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrc2590)). *A priori*, at least to me, I'd suggest that it's a bad idea to chronically introduce a foreign substance that mimics the activity of an essential signaling molecule like acetylcholine.
Directly to your question of toxicity, nicotine appears to be linked to many forms of cancer ([Schuller, 2009](http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrc2590)). Cancer promoting signaling pathways are stimulated as a result of calcium entry through nAChRs. Also, interactions of nAChRs with other signalling systems, such as those based on stress hormones, GABA, and dopamine, can lead to cancer.
Nicotine also has important effects in the brain. Chronic exposure to nicotine induces a homeostatic mechanism that upregulates nAChR expression in the brain to maintain responsiveness to endogenous acetylcholine. This effect partially underlies nicotine addiction ([Penton and Lester, 2009](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.semcdb.2009.01.001)). As @Armatus notes, nicotine appears to have some neuroprotective properties against neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's ([Quik, M., Wonnacott, S., 2011](http://dx.doi.org/10.1124/pr.110.003269)) and Alzheimer's ([Mehta et al, 2012](http://dx.doi.org/10.2741/367)).
---
[Schuller, H.M., 2009.](http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrc2590) Is cancer triggered by altered signalling of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors? Nature Reviews Cancer 9, 195–205.
[Penton, R.E., Lester, R.A.J., 2009.](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.semcdb.2009.01.001) Cellular events in nicotine addiction. Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology 20, 418–431.
[Quik, M., Wonnacott, S., 2011.](http://dx.doi.org/10.1124/pr.110.003269) α6β2\* and α4β2\* nicotinic acetylcholine receptors as drug targets for Parkinson’s disease. Pharmacol. Rev. 63, 938–966.
[Mehta, M., Adem, A., Kahlon, M.S., Sabbagh, M.N., 2012.](http://dx.doi.org/10.2741/367) The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor: smoking and Alzheimer’s disease revisited. Front Biosci (Elite Ed) 4, 169–180. |
5,361 | More specifically, is nicotine in the concentrations that smokers receive when smoking cigarettes toxic? I know that in great enough concentrations it can be toxic (but then, so can just about anything else, including oxygen) and I know that in plants it is used as a defense against insects and can even be used as an insecticide. However, it has always been my understanding that nicotine is irrelevant as far as the harmful effects of smoking go.
I recently had a conversation with another biologist who had just quit smoking and had done quite a bit of research on the subject. He said that nicotine itself is in fact bad for you and, therefore, that tobacco-less alternatives to cigarettes (such as electronic cigarettes) are still harmful **because of the nicotine alone**.
Does anyone have any more information on this? Perhaps some references? Or, even better, a detailed explanation of the pathways involved? Again, I stress, not about nicotine's toxicity in general but about its harmful effects on vertebrates (preferably human) at the kinds of concentrations one could expect to ingest when smoking. | 2012/11/27 | [
"https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/5361",
"https://biology.stackexchange.com",
"https://biology.stackexchange.com/users/1306/"
] | Nicotine acts as a ligand for nicotinic acetycholine receptors (nAChRs), which are ligand-gated ion channels normally activated by acetylcholine. This family of receptors is expressed in every mammalian cell ([Schuller, 2009](http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrc2590)). *A priori*, at least to me, I'd suggest that it's a bad idea to chronically introduce a foreign substance that mimics the activity of an essential signaling molecule like acetylcholine.
Directly to your question of toxicity, nicotine appears to be linked to many forms of cancer ([Schuller, 2009](http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrc2590)). Cancer promoting signaling pathways are stimulated as a result of calcium entry through nAChRs. Also, interactions of nAChRs with other signalling systems, such as those based on stress hormones, GABA, and dopamine, can lead to cancer.
Nicotine also has important effects in the brain. Chronic exposure to nicotine induces a homeostatic mechanism that upregulates nAChR expression in the brain to maintain responsiveness to endogenous acetylcholine. This effect partially underlies nicotine addiction ([Penton and Lester, 2009](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.semcdb.2009.01.001)). As @Armatus notes, nicotine appears to have some neuroprotective properties against neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's ([Quik, M., Wonnacott, S., 2011](http://dx.doi.org/10.1124/pr.110.003269)) and Alzheimer's ([Mehta et al, 2012](http://dx.doi.org/10.2741/367)).
---
[Schuller, H.M., 2009.](http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrc2590) Is cancer triggered by altered signalling of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors? Nature Reviews Cancer 9, 195–205.
[Penton, R.E., Lester, R.A.J., 2009.](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.semcdb.2009.01.001) Cellular events in nicotine addiction. Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology 20, 418–431.
[Quik, M., Wonnacott, S., 2011.](http://dx.doi.org/10.1124/pr.110.003269) α6β2\* and α4β2\* nicotinic acetylcholine receptors as drug targets for Parkinson’s disease. Pharmacol. Rev. 63, 938–966.
[Mehta, M., Adem, A., Kahlon, M.S., Sabbagh, M.N., 2012.](http://dx.doi.org/10.2741/367) The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor: smoking and Alzheimer’s disease revisited. Front Biosci (Elite Ed) 4, 169–180. | When exploring whether nicotine is toxic to humans, the discussion isn't complete without the inclusion of non-adult humans / humans-in-development. Nicotine is toxic to humans beginning at conception. Nicotine has adverse effects on sperm, making them malformed, less likely to fertilize eggs, and making the embryos they do create less likely to survive. Mohamad Eid Hammadeh, PhD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology a the University of the Saarland, Homburg/Saar, Germany, in an interview with WebMD, is quoted as saying,
"The DNA alphabet of these sperm has one or two letters missing. And this cannot be repaired. When we inject these damaged sperm into an egg cell, the sperm is not capable of fertilizing the cell. And even if it does, the [miscarriage] rate is very high."
[This paper](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3719292/pdf/JRI-12-201.pdf) talks about the abnormalities seen in sperm exposed to nicotine, whether sperm can recover, and after how long.
[This paper](http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/89/3/238) links the nicotine consumption of fathers to their children's likelihood of developing childhood cancer, citing one possible explanation that smoking causes genetic damage to sperm cells. The sperm cell mutations then become inborn cancer-causing mutations in the offspring.
They jury may be out on the extremity of nicotine's impact on adult health, but it's clear that it's deleterious to the next generation. |
5,361 | More specifically, is nicotine in the concentrations that smokers receive when smoking cigarettes toxic? I know that in great enough concentrations it can be toxic (but then, so can just about anything else, including oxygen) and I know that in plants it is used as a defense against insects and can even be used as an insecticide. However, it has always been my understanding that nicotine is irrelevant as far as the harmful effects of smoking go.
I recently had a conversation with another biologist who had just quit smoking and had done quite a bit of research on the subject. He said that nicotine itself is in fact bad for you and, therefore, that tobacco-less alternatives to cigarettes (such as electronic cigarettes) are still harmful **because of the nicotine alone**.
Does anyone have any more information on this? Perhaps some references? Or, even better, a detailed explanation of the pathways involved? Again, I stress, not about nicotine's toxicity in general but about its harmful effects on vertebrates (preferably human) at the kinds of concentrations one could expect to ingest when smoking. | 2012/11/27 | [
"https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/5361",
"https://biology.stackexchange.com",
"https://biology.stackexchange.com/users/1306/"
] | Nicotine acts as a ligand for nicotinic acetycholine receptors (nAChRs), which are ligand-gated ion channels normally activated by acetylcholine. This family of receptors is expressed in every mammalian cell ([Schuller, 2009](http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrc2590)). *A priori*, at least to me, I'd suggest that it's a bad idea to chronically introduce a foreign substance that mimics the activity of an essential signaling molecule like acetylcholine.
Directly to your question of toxicity, nicotine appears to be linked to many forms of cancer ([Schuller, 2009](http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrc2590)). Cancer promoting signaling pathways are stimulated as a result of calcium entry through nAChRs. Also, interactions of nAChRs with other signalling systems, such as those based on stress hormones, GABA, and dopamine, can lead to cancer.
Nicotine also has important effects in the brain. Chronic exposure to nicotine induces a homeostatic mechanism that upregulates nAChR expression in the brain to maintain responsiveness to endogenous acetylcholine. This effect partially underlies nicotine addiction ([Penton and Lester, 2009](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.semcdb.2009.01.001)). As @Armatus notes, nicotine appears to have some neuroprotective properties against neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's ([Quik, M., Wonnacott, S., 2011](http://dx.doi.org/10.1124/pr.110.003269)) and Alzheimer's ([Mehta et al, 2012](http://dx.doi.org/10.2741/367)).
---
[Schuller, H.M., 2009.](http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrc2590) Is cancer triggered by altered signalling of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors? Nature Reviews Cancer 9, 195–205.
[Penton, R.E., Lester, R.A.J., 2009.](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.semcdb.2009.01.001) Cellular events in nicotine addiction. Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology 20, 418–431.
[Quik, M., Wonnacott, S., 2011.](http://dx.doi.org/10.1124/pr.110.003269) α6β2\* and α4β2\* nicotinic acetylcholine receptors as drug targets for Parkinson’s disease. Pharmacol. Rev. 63, 938–966.
[Mehta, M., Adem, A., Kahlon, M.S., Sabbagh, M.N., 2012.](http://dx.doi.org/10.2741/367) The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor: smoking and Alzheimer’s disease revisited. Front Biosci (Elite Ed) 4, 169–180. | <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3880486/>
Suggesting that the LD50 is an oral LD50 of 6.5–13 mg/kg. |
5,361 | More specifically, is nicotine in the concentrations that smokers receive when smoking cigarettes toxic? I know that in great enough concentrations it can be toxic (but then, so can just about anything else, including oxygen) and I know that in plants it is used as a defense against insects and can even be used as an insecticide. However, it has always been my understanding that nicotine is irrelevant as far as the harmful effects of smoking go.
I recently had a conversation with another biologist who had just quit smoking and had done quite a bit of research on the subject. He said that nicotine itself is in fact bad for you and, therefore, that tobacco-less alternatives to cigarettes (such as electronic cigarettes) are still harmful **because of the nicotine alone**.
Does anyone have any more information on this? Perhaps some references? Or, even better, a detailed explanation of the pathways involved? Again, I stress, not about nicotine's toxicity in general but about its harmful effects on vertebrates (preferably human) at the kinds of concentrations one could expect to ingest when smoking. | 2012/11/27 | [
"https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/5361",
"https://biology.stackexchange.com",
"https://biology.stackexchange.com/users/1306/"
] | I think its useful to say that nicotine is not very toxic to humans - cells don't die or get sick for typical smoking habits. Secondary health effects are possible, but here is a toxicological profiles.
Nicotine is a toxin in large enough quantities and nicotine has an LD50 (lethal dose for 50% of individuals) of [0.5-1 mg Nicotine / kg of body weight](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine_poisoning#Toxicology). So even a small spill on your skin of the chemical can be life threatening, but for smokers the nicotine itself is not dangerous.
Individuals who smoke intake about 1 mg per cigarette smoked. So a small adult (110 lbs) can smoke 25 cigarettes in a short period of time (or all at once!) and just barely get to the bottom end of that limit. Nicotine is water soluble and clears out through the urine at a fast rate though - half of the nicotine from a cigarette is cleared from your system within 2 hours, which means that 4-5 pack a day smokers are not really killing themselves (from nicotine).
That being said, children are about 5-10 times more sensitive than adults, so even 5-6 cigarettes in an hour can be toxic. That's quite a bit of smoking though.
Not all animals have the same relationship to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors as humans do. [Nicotine is toxic to insects and will kill an insect in a matter of minutes or hours](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insecticide#Neonicotinoids). Rats are about 50x less sensitive than people.
I think its comparable to the question of whether caffeine is harmful to people. In the amount we consume it, sometimes up to grams a day, there is no obvious common side effect, but you figure that decades later it will show up as a problem - a difficult connection to prove. | When exploring whether nicotine is toxic to humans, the discussion isn't complete without the inclusion of non-adult humans / humans-in-development. Nicotine is toxic to humans beginning at conception. Nicotine has adverse effects on sperm, making them malformed, less likely to fertilize eggs, and making the embryos they do create less likely to survive. Mohamad Eid Hammadeh, PhD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology a the University of the Saarland, Homburg/Saar, Germany, in an interview with WebMD, is quoted as saying,
"The DNA alphabet of these sperm has one or two letters missing. And this cannot be repaired. When we inject these damaged sperm into an egg cell, the sperm is not capable of fertilizing the cell. And even if it does, the [miscarriage] rate is very high."
[This paper](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3719292/pdf/JRI-12-201.pdf) talks about the abnormalities seen in sperm exposed to nicotine, whether sperm can recover, and after how long.
[This paper](http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/89/3/238) links the nicotine consumption of fathers to their children's likelihood of developing childhood cancer, citing one possible explanation that smoking causes genetic damage to sperm cells. The sperm cell mutations then become inborn cancer-causing mutations in the offspring.
They jury may be out on the extremity of nicotine's impact on adult health, but it's clear that it's deleterious to the next generation. |
5,361 | More specifically, is nicotine in the concentrations that smokers receive when smoking cigarettes toxic? I know that in great enough concentrations it can be toxic (but then, so can just about anything else, including oxygen) and I know that in plants it is used as a defense against insects and can even be used as an insecticide. However, it has always been my understanding that nicotine is irrelevant as far as the harmful effects of smoking go.
I recently had a conversation with another biologist who had just quit smoking and had done quite a bit of research on the subject. He said that nicotine itself is in fact bad for you and, therefore, that tobacco-less alternatives to cigarettes (such as electronic cigarettes) are still harmful **because of the nicotine alone**.
Does anyone have any more information on this? Perhaps some references? Or, even better, a detailed explanation of the pathways involved? Again, I stress, not about nicotine's toxicity in general but about its harmful effects on vertebrates (preferably human) at the kinds of concentrations one could expect to ingest when smoking. | 2012/11/27 | [
"https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/5361",
"https://biology.stackexchange.com",
"https://biology.stackexchange.com/users/1306/"
] | I think its useful to say that nicotine is not very toxic to humans - cells don't die or get sick for typical smoking habits. Secondary health effects are possible, but here is a toxicological profiles.
Nicotine is a toxin in large enough quantities and nicotine has an LD50 (lethal dose for 50% of individuals) of [0.5-1 mg Nicotine / kg of body weight](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine_poisoning#Toxicology). So even a small spill on your skin of the chemical can be life threatening, but for smokers the nicotine itself is not dangerous.
Individuals who smoke intake about 1 mg per cigarette smoked. So a small adult (110 lbs) can smoke 25 cigarettes in a short period of time (or all at once!) and just barely get to the bottom end of that limit. Nicotine is water soluble and clears out through the urine at a fast rate though - half of the nicotine from a cigarette is cleared from your system within 2 hours, which means that 4-5 pack a day smokers are not really killing themselves (from nicotine).
That being said, children are about 5-10 times more sensitive than adults, so even 5-6 cigarettes in an hour can be toxic. That's quite a bit of smoking though.
Not all animals have the same relationship to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors as humans do. [Nicotine is toxic to insects and will kill an insect in a matter of minutes or hours](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insecticide#Neonicotinoids). Rats are about 50x less sensitive than people.
I think its comparable to the question of whether caffeine is harmful to people. In the amount we consume it, sometimes up to grams a day, there is no obvious common side effect, but you figure that decades later it will show up as a problem - a difficult connection to prove. | <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3880486/>
Suggesting that the LD50 is an oral LD50 of 6.5–13 mg/kg. |
5,361 | More specifically, is nicotine in the concentrations that smokers receive when smoking cigarettes toxic? I know that in great enough concentrations it can be toxic (but then, so can just about anything else, including oxygen) and I know that in plants it is used as a defense against insects and can even be used as an insecticide. However, it has always been my understanding that nicotine is irrelevant as far as the harmful effects of smoking go.
I recently had a conversation with another biologist who had just quit smoking and had done quite a bit of research on the subject. He said that nicotine itself is in fact bad for you and, therefore, that tobacco-less alternatives to cigarettes (such as electronic cigarettes) are still harmful **because of the nicotine alone**.
Does anyone have any more information on this? Perhaps some references? Or, even better, a detailed explanation of the pathways involved? Again, I stress, not about nicotine's toxicity in general but about its harmful effects on vertebrates (preferably human) at the kinds of concentrations one could expect to ingest when smoking. | 2012/11/27 | [
"https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/5361",
"https://biology.stackexchange.com",
"https://biology.stackexchange.com/users/1306/"
] | When exploring whether nicotine is toxic to humans, the discussion isn't complete without the inclusion of non-adult humans / humans-in-development. Nicotine is toxic to humans beginning at conception. Nicotine has adverse effects on sperm, making them malformed, less likely to fertilize eggs, and making the embryos they do create less likely to survive. Mohamad Eid Hammadeh, PhD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology a the University of the Saarland, Homburg/Saar, Germany, in an interview with WebMD, is quoted as saying,
"The DNA alphabet of these sperm has one or two letters missing. And this cannot be repaired. When we inject these damaged sperm into an egg cell, the sperm is not capable of fertilizing the cell. And even if it does, the [miscarriage] rate is very high."
[This paper](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3719292/pdf/JRI-12-201.pdf) talks about the abnormalities seen in sperm exposed to nicotine, whether sperm can recover, and after how long.
[This paper](http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/89/3/238) links the nicotine consumption of fathers to their children's likelihood of developing childhood cancer, citing one possible explanation that smoking causes genetic damage to sperm cells. The sperm cell mutations then become inborn cancer-causing mutations in the offspring.
They jury may be out on the extremity of nicotine's impact on adult health, but it's clear that it's deleterious to the next generation. | <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3880486/>
Suggesting that the LD50 is an oral LD50 of 6.5–13 mg/kg. |
120,648 | I use Assert.Fail a lot when doing TDD. I'm usually working on one test at a time but when I get ideas for things I want to implement later I quickly write an empty test where the name of the test method indicates what I want to implement as sort of a todo-list. To make sure I don't forget I put an Assert.Fail() in the body.
When trying out xUnit.Net I found they hadn't implemented Assert.Fail. Of course you can always Assert.IsTrue(false) but this doesn't communicate my intention as well. I got the impression Assert.Fail wasn't implemented on purpose. Is this considered bad practice? If so why?
---
@Martin Meredith
That's not exactly what I do. I do write a test first and then implement code to make it work. Usually I think of several tests at once. Or I think about a test to write when I'm working on something else. That's when I write an empty failing test to remember. By the time I get to writing the test I neatly work test-first.
@Jimmeh
That looks like a good idea. Ignored tests don't fail but they still show up in a separate list. Have to try that out.
@Matt Howells
Great Idea. NotImplementedException communicates intention better than assert.Fail() in this case
@Mitch Wheat
That's what I was looking for. It seems it was left out to prevent it being abused in another way I abuse it. | 2008/09/23 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/120648",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3320/"
] | It was deliberately left out. This is Brad Wilson's reply as to why is there no Assert.Fail():
>
> We didn't overlook this, actually. I
> find Assert.Fail is a crutch which
> implies that there is probably an
> assertion missing. Sometimes it's just
> the way the test is structured, and
> sometimes it's because Assert could
> use another assertion.
>
>
> | Wild guess: withholding Assert.Fail is intended to stop you thinking that a good way to write test code is as a huge heap of spaghetti leading to an Assert.Fail in the bad cases. [Edit to add: other people's answers broadly confirm this, but with quotations]
Since that's not what you're doing, it's possible that xUnit.Net is being over-protective.
Or maybe they just think it's so rare and so unorthogonal as to be unnecessary.
I prefer to implement a function called ThisCodeHasNotBeenWrittenYet (actually something shorter, for ease of typing). Can't communicate intention more clearly than that, and you have a precise search term.
Whether that fails, or is not implemented (to provoke a linker error), or is a macro that doesn't compile, can be changed to suit your current preference. For instance when you want to run something that *is* finished, you want a fail. When you're sitting down to get rid of them all, you may want a compile error. |
231,045 | I have to read several lectures on probability or applications of probability for high school students (of high level). There is no necessary part I must lecture, that is, my aim is just advertisement. What are possible subjects?
There are many nice examples in Alon-Spencer book, with applications to combinatorics and number theory. Is there something in this spirit, but rather on probability itself? | 2016/02/13 | [
"https://mathoverflow.net/questions/231045",
"https://mathoverflow.net",
"https://mathoverflow.net/users/4312/"
] | On a more elementary side, the are these probabilistic paradoxes, such as:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem>,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_envelopes_problem>,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_or_Girl_paradox>,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty_problem>,
etc.
Also, this one is fun: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_problem> | The book "The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives" by Leonard Mlodinow is *probably* close to what you are looking for. |
231,045 | I have to read several lectures on probability or applications of probability for high school students (of high level). There is no necessary part I must lecture, that is, my aim is just advertisement. What are possible subjects?
There are many nice examples in Alon-Spencer book, with applications to combinatorics and number theory. Is there something in this spirit, but rather on probability itself? | 2016/02/13 | [
"https://mathoverflow.net/questions/231045",
"https://mathoverflow.net",
"https://mathoverflow.net/users/4312/"
] | On a more elementary side, the are these probabilistic paradoxes, such as:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem>,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_envelopes_problem>,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_or_Girl_paradox>,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty_problem>,
etc.
Also, this one is fun: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_problem> | 1. A proof using the coupling method, say the coupling proof of the convergence theorem of finite-state Markov chains. See [Lindvall's beautiful book](http://books.google.com/books/about/Lectures_on_the_Coupling_Method.html?id=GUwyU1ypd1wC) for other examples.
2. The proof of existence of phase transition for the percolation model in two dimension is simple and elementary (sub-additivity + counting + coupling), but the conclusion is quite exciting. |
231,045 | I have to read several lectures on probability or applications of probability for high school students (of high level). There is no necessary part I must lecture, that is, my aim is just advertisement. What are possible subjects?
There are many nice examples in Alon-Spencer book, with applications to combinatorics and number theory. Is there something in this spirit, but rather on probability itself? | 2016/02/13 | [
"https://mathoverflow.net/questions/231045",
"https://mathoverflow.net",
"https://mathoverflow.net/users/4312/"
] | Random walk! That is a fascinating topic which can be treated with combinatorial methods. Associated is the ruin problem. Treat the facts that simple random walk is recurrent in dimension two but not in dimension three. | I think the proof that the normal PDF is a PDF (i.e. integrates to 1) is beautiful and deserves to be in a probability course. Obviously, it's mostly calculus, so perhaps not elementary enough for what you have in mind, but it's really beautiful. |
231,045 | I have to read several lectures on probability or applications of probability for high school students (of high level). There is no necessary part I must lecture, that is, my aim is just advertisement. What are possible subjects?
There are many nice examples in Alon-Spencer book, with applications to combinatorics and number theory. Is there something in this spirit, but rather on probability itself? | 2016/02/13 | [
"https://mathoverflow.net/questions/231045",
"https://mathoverflow.net",
"https://mathoverflow.net/users/4312/"
] | Random walk! That is a fascinating topic which can be treated with combinatorial methods. Associated is the ruin problem. Treat the facts that simple random walk is recurrent in dimension two but not in dimension three. | The Central Limit Theorem and how it even works for something as discrete as counting coin flips. |
231,045 | I have to read several lectures on probability or applications of probability for high school students (of high level). There is no necessary part I must lecture, that is, my aim is just advertisement. What are possible subjects?
There are many nice examples in Alon-Spencer book, with applications to combinatorics and number theory. Is there something in this spirit, but rather on probability itself? | 2016/02/13 | [
"https://mathoverflow.net/questions/231045",
"https://mathoverflow.net",
"https://mathoverflow.net/users/4312/"
] | On a more elementary side, the are these probabilistic paradoxes, such as:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem>,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_envelopes_problem>,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_or_Girl_paradox>,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty_problem>,
etc.
Also, this one is fun: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_problem> | The Central Limit Theorem and how it even works for something as discrete as counting coin flips. |
231,045 | I have to read several lectures on probability or applications of probability for high school students (of high level). There is no necessary part I must lecture, that is, my aim is just advertisement. What are possible subjects?
There are many nice examples in Alon-Spencer book, with applications to combinatorics and number theory. Is there something in this spirit, but rather on probability itself? | 2016/02/13 | [
"https://mathoverflow.net/questions/231045",
"https://mathoverflow.net",
"https://mathoverflow.net/users/4312/"
] | Random walk! That is a fascinating topic which can be treated with combinatorial methods. Associated is the ruin problem. Treat the facts that simple random walk is recurrent in dimension two but not in dimension three. | A quincunx (balls dropping through what is typically a triangle of nails, creating a roughly binomial distribution) is fun to watch. Real ones are extremely sensitive to errors in the locations of the nails; there are simulations on the internet, somewhere. |
231,045 | I have to read several lectures on probability or applications of probability for high school students (of high level). There is no necessary part I must lecture, that is, my aim is just advertisement. What are possible subjects?
There are many nice examples in Alon-Spencer book, with applications to combinatorics and number theory. Is there something in this spirit, but rather on probability itself? | 2016/02/13 | [
"https://mathoverflow.net/questions/231045",
"https://mathoverflow.net",
"https://mathoverflow.net/users/4312/"
] | I nominate the **Overlapping Words Paradox**. E.g., see pages 42-44 in a [book excerpt](https://stepic.org/media/attachments/lessons/1/excerpt_1st_printing.pdf), a [research paper](http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/9789814503655_0006), or an [elementary exposition](http://kvant.mccme.ru/1987/05/luchshee_pari_dlya_prostakov.htm) in Russian Kvant journal. | A quincunx (balls dropping through what is typically a triangle of nails, creating a roughly binomial distribution) is fun to watch. Real ones are extremely sensitive to errors in the locations of the nails; there are simulations on the internet, somewhere. |
231,045 | I have to read several lectures on probability or applications of probability for high school students (of high level). There is no necessary part I must lecture, that is, my aim is just advertisement. What are possible subjects?
There are many nice examples in Alon-Spencer book, with applications to combinatorics and number theory. Is there something in this spirit, but rather on probability itself? | 2016/02/13 | [
"https://mathoverflow.net/questions/231045",
"https://mathoverflow.net",
"https://mathoverflow.net/users/4312/"
] | Random walk! That is a fascinating topic which can be treated with combinatorial methods. Associated is the ruin problem. Treat the facts that simple random walk is recurrent in dimension two but not in dimension three. | The obvious application of probability is to gambling. Not only is this the major historical motivation to study probability, coin flips and rolling dice are still the easiest examples for students to understand while containing very meaty problems (e.g. if a friend flips a coin 20 times and 15 are heads, is the coin biased and how certain can you be? ). |
231,045 | I have to read several lectures on probability or applications of probability for high school students (of high level). There is no necessary part I must lecture, that is, my aim is just advertisement. What are possible subjects?
There are many nice examples in Alon-Spencer book, with applications to combinatorics and number theory. Is there something in this spirit, but rather on probability itself? | 2016/02/13 | [
"https://mathoverflow.net/questions/231045",
"https://mathoverflow.net",
"https://mathoverflow.net/users/4312/"
] | On a more elementary side, the are these probabilistic paradoxes, such as:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem>,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_envelopes_problem>,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_or_Girl_paradox>,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty_problem>,
etc.
Also, this one is fun: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_problem> | A quincunx (balls dropping through what is typically a triangle of nails, creating a roughly binomial distribution) is fun to watch. Real ones are extremely sensitive to errors in the locations of the nails; there are simulations on the internet, somewhere. |
43,350 | When a client edits a featured image, they notice that they have the ability to set its "Alignment". If they were working with standard images embedded via the Editor, then this wouldn't be a problem. But since it is a featured image, WordPress doesn't pass in the appropriate class.
Is there a way to know which alignment option was set? If so, I can use that to add a class to the featured thumbnail accordingly. | 2012/02/24 | [
"https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/43350",
"https://wordpress.stackexchange.com",
"https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/users/1766/"
] | Short answer: **you don't**.
The alignment settings only apply to images that the user *adds to the Post Content*. The Featured Image is *incorporated into the template* and is *not added by the user* to the Post Content.
The Featured Image is directly integrated into the template, usually as a "post thumbnail" displayed on archive index pages, or as a "post header image" displayed above the post on archive index pages and/or single blog posts. In such cases, the Theme developer accounts for the *presentation* of the Featured Image via the template markup and CSS.
(That's not to say that the user can't manually add to the post the image used as the Featured Image; the user certainly *can* - and in which case, the manually added image will use/apply the alignment setting.) | I am sort of confused with your question but I hope that this link will help.
<http://codex.wordpress.org/CSS#WordPress_Generated_Classes> |
114,561 | Windows 7 Home Premium has **local users and groups** mmc console snap-in disabled:
Is there any custom utility I can use to manage my accounts? I need no more than adding users and email addresses to have some test accounts for my development purposes.
I don't want to use regular "user accounts" tool in control panel to add users because:
* I don't want them at my welcome screen
* I can't assign mail address to them | 2010/02/19 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/114561",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/8965/"
] | The MMC is disabled since Home Premium does not support active diretory users and the net effect is that it does not support the Users and Groups MMC snap-in.
After some research it is revealed that the only way to do this is using the command-line or PowerShell scripting. There is currently no third party tools simplying this funcationality for Windows Home.
I would suggest looking at either building a Virtual Machine using Windows XP/Vista/7 Professional for this purpose, or alternatively upgrade to Windows 7 Professional. | While you can't use the MMC, there should be a control panel applet allowing local user administration. There's always been a limited applet since XP Home.
'nusermgr.cpl' and 'control userpasswords2' should still work I believe.
If you're looking for a scriptable means to do this you can use 'net user' to add/modify local accounts, (I'm about 90% sure this works for the various Home flavors of Windows) and then add a registry key, via 'reg add', to hide it from the Welcome Screen (See: <http://www.petri.co.il/hide_a_user_from_the_welcome_screen_in_windows_xp.htm>). |
114,561 | Windows 7 Home Premium has **local users and groups** mmc console snap-in disabled:
Is there any custom utility I can use to manage my accounts? I need no more than adding users and email addresses to have some test accounts for my development purposes.
I don't want to use regular "user accounts" tool in control panel to add users because:
* I don't want them at my welcome screen
* I can't assign mail address to them | 2010/02/19 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/114561",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/8965/"
] | The MMC is disabled since Home Premium does not support active diretory users and the net effect is that it does not support the Users and Groups MMC snap-in.
After some research it is revealed that the only way to do this is using the command-line or PowerShell scripting. There is currently no third party tools simplying this funcationality for Windows Home.
I would suggest looking at either building a Virtual Machine using Windows XP/Vista/7 Professional for this purpose, or alternatively upgrade to Windows 7 Professional. | Now it is, I missed this functionality too so I created clone, you can download it here: <http://primocode.blogspot.com/2015/06/prils-local-users-and-groups-for.html>. It is not quite finished yet but basic functionalities work ok. |
114,561 | Windows 7 Home Premium has **local users and groups** mmc console snap-in disabled:
Is there any custom utility I can use to manage my accounts? I need no more than adding users and email addresses to have some test accounts for my development purposes.
I don't want to use regular "user accounts" tool in control panel to add users because:
* I don't want them at my welcome screen
* I can't assign mail address to them | 2010/02/19 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/114561",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/8965/"
] | While you can't use the MMC, there should be a control panel applet allowing local user administration. There's always been a limited applet since XP Home.
'nusermgr.cpl' and 'control userpasswords2' should still work I believe.
If you're looking for a scriptable means to do this you can use 'net user' to add/modify local accounts, (I'm about 90% sure this works for the various Home flavors of Windows) and then add a registry key, via 'reg add', to hide it from the Welcome Screen (See: <http://www.petri.co.il/hide_a_user_from_the_welcome_screen_in_windows_xp.htm>). | Now it is, I missed this functionality too so I created clone, you can download it here: <http://primocode.blogspot.com/2015/06/prils-local-users-and-groups-for.html>. It is not quite finished yet but basic functionalities work ok. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.