charts - Best visualization for combinations

What kind of a visualization/chart should I use for showing all the ways you can choose from a set of items? (i.e., number of possible combinations)

Concretely, I am showing potential offspring from two animals, where each parent may possess some number of genes, and the offspring inherits 0, 1, or both parent genes of each type. The genes have fun names (e.g., fire), and sometimes combinations of those genes have their own names (fire + pastel = firefly), but this is beside the point.

Here's a simple example that shows 2 and 2 genes from parents (with 1 shared), which makes for 2^2 = 16 possibilities.

The current UI shows the list of possibilities, but nothing visually conveys the magnitude. Secondly, it would be great if the outcomes which share commonality (i.e., contain same genes) could be visually related.

My idea is something like a diamond shaped graph, or layered network, where at the top is the outcome where all genes are chosen, and below that a row of nodes with N-1, and so forth until the bottom row has 0 selected. Edges would connect the nodes beween layers with shared genes. Size of nodes could indicate probability. Something like this graph maybe(but ignore the data).

I'm aware of Punnett Squares, but I'm not sure it's the best for combinations of this order (for one it doesn't not combine equivalent outcomes).

Thanks!

print design - How to make a smooth PMS gradient transition in Illustrator

I'm currently working on versions of a logo that has some gradients. CMYK looks fine but I'm getting poor results with PMS. I would normally fix this by building a mixed ink in Indesign but it doesn't seem possible in Illustrator. I also tried putting the lightest color solid on the bottom layer and putting the gradient on a top layer in overprint fill but I'm afraid that's not the best way to submit my file.

Any ideas? Here is a screenshot of the gradient in CMYK (left) and PMS (right); I want to make the zone where colors are transitioning smoother and have a printer-friendly file.

Answer

I had exactly the same problem you have, with almost the same colours: two blues. My solution was very similar to what Scott suggested in his answer but, (instead of overprinting one gradient on the other one) I ended up, by the suggestion of the printer, overprinting a gradient of 0 to 100% of the darker blue over an area of 100% of the lighter blue.

This is what I originally did (no overprint), and the result was awful:

This is what I ended up doing

The are two reasons why I did it this way:

Why Overprinting?

As Scott suggested, the reason for overprinting is that when you have two gradients, one that goes from 0 to 100% an the other one going for 100 to 0%, there will be an area of lower density where both gradients meet, sort of mid way (depends on how fast your gradients change). There will be less ink in that area so the resulting colour in this area can look kind of washed out.

Why one gradient over a 100% flat area?

The reason for this was to avoid banding. When you have two gradient screens printed one on top of the other, if they are not perfectly registered, they can create an artifact that results in visible bands of colour instead of smooth gradients. I am sure you have seen this in low quality prints.

Word of caution: depending on the transparency of the darker ink, the colour at the bottom of the gradient, where both inks are at 100%, might not be exactly the darker PMS but a mix of both PMS inks.

This is how it ended up looking in different strata:

Cardboard:

Metal and Plastic (including labels). These strata are less absorbent so the overprint result is a bit bolder.

How can I make the color white look as white as possible?

In designing websites and applications, I have noticed that when mixing colors with white, certain colors make white look more "greenish" or "purple-ish". This happens to a much greater degree when using tints of white.

As a designer, how can we understand how white is influenced by the colours it is contrasted with?

Is it possible to add a field/button to a pdf that allows a user to insert an image using Reader?

A client of mine wants to be able to edit text and add images to a PDF. I've set the text fields but struggling with adding images. I've created a button that runs JavaScript to add a PDF but can this be changed to add JPEGs.

Is anyone any else having this problem?

gui design - Affordance discovery on clickable elements: icons vs buttons

The proposed duplicate is symbol plus label. This is button versus symbol which is similar. I was hoping for advice on how to get users to realize the symbols are clickable. Putting a label next to the symbol is not going to help the user realize it is clickable. The question is not how to get them to recognize the symbol but to realize they are clickable. In WPF users are used to clicking buttons (not text or symbols)

This is for a document management application

This is a thick client (WPF) not a browser application
But it will have a sister browser application
In demo we get comments the screen looks busy
The button line and image / icon lines are two options (will go with only one of those options)
Search, browse history back, browse history forward, snapshot
I like the image / icon
Will users figure out they are clickable?
What can I do to help the user figure out they are clickable?

This is the top left of here. There are 6 click symbol/icon.

What make a user know the symbols are clickable?

Sorry if I wrote poor question but duplicates and answers are not addressing my question.
What can I do to help the user figure out the symbols clickable?
This may be a better perspective. There a 6 clickable symbols on this page.
How do I get users to recognize the symbols are clickable (even if they don't know what it means)?

From the aswer from Devin I am trying to represent the context of navigation bar.
This is were I am currently:

I am not UX trained but I don't like the label. I think it is too much noise/clutter. It makes identification harder. It is not sexy. They can learn the function of a button in a mouse over and will quickly memorize.

Another pattern for Dynamic/Expanding forms?

Usually we just have a table rows with Delete row and Add new row button.

But what if there's just too many columns? Can't provide a mockup since I'm just thinking on top of my head.

A closest I can find on google image is this:

I am thinking of a table and a button that would open a modal with the form inside. Spacing issue is solved here because the inputs are vertical.

The problem tho is, after closing that modal, how should the inputted data look like in the table? Less column?

Currently not having this issue but who knows when I will be needing it. I just cant really think of a solution on how to solve this issue.

Must also say that wizard might not be applicable since it is a group of related data rather than "relationship" like

style - What pronoun should a hermaphrodite species use?

In my fantasy novel, I have a species that is fully hermaphroditic: all individuals have both male and female reproductive organs. Like garden snails. Consequently, they have only one gender.

They explicitly state that they don't mind when confused humans refer to them as he/she/it/they. Humans consider "it" to be impolite, but that's a human thing. However, what pronoun should members of this species use when talking about each other (to a human)?

1. "He was my mate"


2. "She was my mate"


3. "It was my mate"


4. "They were my mate"

All four don't sound quite right, do they? I should perhaps add that I don't want this species to sound awkward. They're supposed to be, in some ways, higher being than humans.

Answer

Unlike the engineered hermaphroditic humans in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan universe, who might be speaking a future version of English, your hermaphrodites are an alien species and do not speak English among themselves. They will therefore have a pronoun in their language that has no correspondence in contemporary English.

If you want your narrator to convey this linguistic feature to your readers, you may invent (part of) that alien language and use that alien pronoun in your narration. This should not be a problem to your readers after some introductory explanation (in text or in a preface) and a few reminders every now and then during the narrative.

---

If you want to write in English without using words from another language, you could look at what translators do when they translate text into English from one of the existing genderless languages.

In my opinion, the best you can do, if you want to represent the absence of gender in a gendered language such as contemporary English, is:

• use neuter pronouns (it/its/itself)



• use one gendered pronoun (either he/his or she/her) consistently throughout the text, and explain your usage either in text (through the narrator) or in an author's note prefacing the text


• singular they


• use one


• avoid pronouns

he or she

I have frequently seen the second option employed in published fiction, often with female pronouns, often by feminist authors, and mostly for human or humanoid species. Sometimes this was done without the explanation, as a conscious play on gender expectations in the reader.

A recent close example is Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, in which English "she" is used for both genders in a culture that "doesn't much care about gender" and does not have gendered pronouns in its language:

She was probably male, to judge from the angular mazelike patterns quilting her shirt. I wasn't entirely certain. It wouldn't have mattered, if I had been in Radch space. Radchaai don't care much about gender, and the language they speak – my own first language [represented by English, in the book] – doesn't mark gender in any way.

it

The first option (using "it") would emphasize the fact that your beings aren't human, which might or might not be something you want. A clear advantage is that your readers wouldn't have to constantly remind themselves that "she" doesn't mean "female".

they

Singular they isn't commonly accepted as correct, so I don't see it as an option for most writers. As the English language changes, singular they may eventually become Standard English or even replace gendered pronouns, but today too many readers see it as grammatically incorrect or "policing speech". I wouldn't use singular they in my writing before it has been accepted by the majority of my target audience. Other writers may want to take a stand for gender neutral language and use singular they in their writing as a political act.

one

This is the option I prefer. It is free of prejudice, clearly singular, and its slight suggestion of Broken English fits the fact that it is spoken by aliens perfectly.

(no pronoun)

Certain languages have no third person pronouns and their speakers use nouns (such as boku "servant" in Japanese) to refer to other persons. Small children use their names to refer to themselves. Something akin to this will give a decidedly alien touch to your aliens' speech.

This is my second favourite option. It's not the first, because it will take quite an effort to worldbuild the aliens' culture to find a term that works well.

usability - How to convey a true/false value to a user?

I'm developing an application where users will be allowed to create custom fields that are part of a record, in addition to the fields that are provided by default. Users will be able to choose names for such fields, as well as their values of course.

To provide some additional validation, users will also be able to choose the data types of these fields using a drop-down list. Because the software is not specifically geared towards technical users, I'm aiming to use terms that will be recognizable to the widest audience.

For example, "text" vs string, "integer" vs int, "number" vs float... however I'm unable to find a suitable synonym for "boolean". Is this word generally recognized outside of mathematics/computing? How can I convey "boolean" to the widest audience possible?

Answer

Checkbox. It seems customers are used to this term. I would expect Yes/No but during my experience I got a lot of bug reports mentioning checkboxes, even from non-technical people.

And since customer is always right, after some time I switched from Yes/No to checkboxes so we can speak the same language.

forms - Best UI to allow expert users to enter an ip address? (IPv4)

I am working on a web application which requires users to enter an IPv4 address (in dotted-quad decimal notation) for most of the primary tasks they need to perform. Our primary target "user" is a small business IT administrator. They are very familiar with IP addresses.

I am wondering which style of accepting form input is best? We are currently using Option 1.

^{download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups}

Answer

Option 3 with no intrusive validation.

1 sucks because it's out of the norm. Copy and paste may or may not work. Tabbing to the next field may or may not work. People are good at correcting mistakes and the limited fields mess up their muscle memory. For example I might type

1912

When I meant

192

My fingers will nearly instantaneously correct that but the field that forces me to 3 digits means that I my pressing backspace twice then typing '2' to fix it ends up with '12' or ends up with 191 in the first box and nothing in the second. In either case I curse the UX designer who in trying to be clever made it worse.

Option 2 is really the same as option 1 just visually different. A space separating or a period separating. The same issues come up. Possibly more as now do I type periods or not? If I do what happens? If type period I then again, with muscle memory press DEL erase my mistake only to have it erase a digit since it didn't insert the period. Ugh!

Option 3 is best but validation should wait until I hit submit or at least validation should be unobtrusive. In other words it should appear somewhere else on the page, not be a popup or something that effects my typing for the same reasons mentioned above.

I might type

19w

When I meant

192

Because my fingers slipped but perception and my muscle memory is fast enough that I'll immediately try to correct it. If the validation interrupts my input then I'll curse the UX designer again. For example I've used forms with validation that when I type the 'w' an alert or modal dialog appears "Numbers only!" which ends up tripping me up since I was already in the process of fixing it.

While were on it, while aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd is the norm for an IP address why not not care what the separator is? If I type

1-2-3-4

or

1 2 3 4

Why can't those be just as acceptable? This comes up because it's so annoying when being asked for a phone number and being told it must be XXXYYYZZZZ instead of just accepting XXX-YYY-ZZZZ or (XXX)YYY-ZZZZ etc and having the computer figure it out. Similarly with CC numbers. Accept AAAABBBBCCCCDDDD and AAAA BBBB CCCC DDDD and AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD; in fact how about just extract the digits, then figure out if the digits make a valid CC numbers. Similarly for IP addresses. Maybe parse it by looking for

• zero or more non digits


• one or more digits


• one or more non digits



• one or more digits


• one or more non digits


• one or more digits


• one or more non digits


• one or more digits


• zero or more non digits

That way

[space]1.2.3.4[space]

will also work and not annoy the user with stupid messages about fixing their input when the computer is perfectly capable of dealing with it.

mobile - How do I handle secondary navigation within a wizard-style form that will work for touch screens?

I am working on redesigning the UI for a Web app that registers users for something work-related (so my audience is captive). One of the main reasons for the redesign is to make it mobile-friendly; I need it to work on smartphones and tablets, as well as desktops.

The place I am stuck is secondary navigation. The registration form is currently in multiple steps, but some are quite lengthy (30+ inputs on one page), so I am planning to break it up into more steps. The old version has breadcrumbs at the top as the user steps through the form, allowing navigation back to pages you have already completed, but not forward.

One advantage to the breadcrumb approach that I don't want to lose is giving the user that sense of where they are in the process. I am concerned that the increased number of screens will make the list of steps too long. I am also concerned about the use of breadcrumbs for mobile devices, especially touchscreens.

Are breadcrumbs still a valid option? Do they make sense in a mobile/touch screen arena at all? If not, what other options do make sense?

EDIT - Here is the first draft of my solution:

Answer

Touch-screen UX is a really interesting field. You really need to factor in the quality of the touch-panel, the type of panel (resistive vs. capacitive vs. infrared, etc.), whether the UI can be zoomed via multi-touch, which kinds of devices the UI will run on (just iPad? just mobile tablets? kiosks? tablets and desktop browsers).

The best solution I have for this is vertical breadcrumbs. Here's how I've done it before with some success in usability testing:

^{download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups}

Just be aware that the nav items along the side need to be large enough to easily target with a finger (40px square at a standard DPI is a good rule of thumb minimum on high-quality touch panel like a tablet or mobile phone. You can get slightly smaller on a resistive touch panel and you need to be much bigger on a standard SAW or PCT kiosk touch panel).

Note too that this UI also expects you not to enable multi-touch zooming of the interface, which may be a problem.

If, as your recent comment suggests, you need to be able to zoom into the interface a more traditional breadcrumb trail (modified only slightly to permit easier targeting with a finger) can be used effectively (although naturally this can somewhat limit your number of steps; something you should probably be doing anyway):

^{download bmml source}

Momentum strategy cumulation of K-monthly returns over multiple months

In a momentum strategy, every month you form a portfolio of winners. Each of these portfolio you hold for K months. So after K months you sell the 1st portfolio, after K+1 months you sell the next and so on. This results in a K-monthly return, every month. How do you cumulate these returns over time?

Imagine you keep every portfolio 12 months. After 1 year you start selling these portfolios every month, resulting in returns (1+r) of for example 1.07 , 1.065 , 1.067, ... What is the cumulative return? 1.07 x 1.065 x 1.067 x ... ? Or something else?

Thank you in advance!

Answer

There are various ways to do this calculation. The "K equal sub-portfolios, buy and hold" method was used by Jegadeesh and Titman in their 1993 paper (they also mentioned another method, the "monthly rebalancing" method but did not show results from that method in the paper).

The method is relatively simple, but only an approximation of real investing. At the end of each month you form a sub-portfolio and hold it for K months. This generates K numbers, which are the buy and hold portfolio returns for each of the next K months.

Now consider how to determine the returns for the strategy for a specific calendar month, such as May 2017. During this month you hold K sub-portfolios: The newest is the sub-portfolio that was formed at the end of April 2017, then there is one a little older that was formed in March 2017, and so on, until you get to a sub-portfolio formed K months ago, which is about to be liquidated at the end of this month. Jegadeesh and Titman assume that you hold these sub-portfolios with equal weights, so they find they the return for the strategy for May 2017 by simply averaging the May 2017 returns for these K sub-portfolios.

adobe illustrator - Placed image doesn't show when saving as PDF

I am using Illustrator 17.1.0 to prepare some scientific figures. I have two layers: the bottom one has some placed PDF figures and the top one has annotations.

When saving this as a PDF, the placed figures simply don't show, regardless of the PDF viewer being used (Acrobat, Mac Preview).

Why does this happen? Is this a common/known problem? Is there a solution other than embedding the placed figures?

The reason why I use placed figures is that they're generated by a plotting software and I wanted to make it easy to update them when necessary.

---

Here's a link to an example showing the problem. plot.pdf is placed and annotated_plot.pdf is saved from Illustrator with "Preserve editing capabilities". When opened with illustrator it shows everything correctly, but when opened with any PDF viewer, it doesn't show the placed file.

---

This appears to be a bug in Illustrator and happens when placing any PDF exported by Mathematica version 10. It does preserve the placed PDF file, but it sets the bounding box to be of zero width.

Possible workarounds (other than embedding), only for the case when the placed PDF uses no transparency:

• Re-save the file using Mac Preview before placing it.


• Re-process the file using GhostScript before placing it. gs -q -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=output.pdf -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -c save pop -f input.pdf Using the command-line is advantageous for batch-processing or automation.

Answer

(Reposting my answer from this thread.)

Setting Compatibility: Acrobat 4 (PDF 1.3) in the Save Adobe PDF dialog in Illustrator solves the issue (checked with Illustrator 17):

In the resulting PDF file the transparency will be flattened without rasterization.

fonts - DejaVu Sans Condensed not showing up in Inkscape, despite installed

My system came with DejaVu Sans and DejaVu Sans Condensed installed by default.

PROBLEM: Inkscape only shows DejaVu Sans.

• Do I have to configure something special in Inkscape?


• Or is DejaVu Sans Condensed supposed to be obtained by selecting DejaVu Sans and pressing Toggle bold or normal weight?


• Or am I misundertanding something about fonts?

Answer

The Inkscape text toolbar only allows you to select the font family and size, and to toggle bold and italic type, but it doesn't include any way to select a specific font variant. This has actually been reported as a bug in Inkscape, and should be fixed in the next version (0.49).

In order to select a specific font variant in current versions of Inkscape, you need to open the Text and Font dialog, either via the Text menu or by pressing Shift+Ctrl+T. This will open a floating dialog window that looks like this:

Note that this dialog is currently not dockable, although that should also be fixed in Inkscape 0.49.

shapes - How to produce a effect like this? Illustrator Distort Effect

I'm trying to recreate the following shape in Adobe Illustrator:

adobe illustrator - How can I fill in 4, 6, 8, 9, 0 etc with writing without it ignoring the center circle?

I'm trying to enter a list of names as text into the shape of an "8", but they won't go around the center holes of the 8, meaning I'm having to try, and failing, to justify it manually.

How can I enter the text without it ignoring the center holes?

Answer

You can't fill compound paths (as in paths with "holes") with text, you can use a text wrap as a workaround though...

1. 
   

   Separate your paths... (ungroup or release compound path or whatever).

   
   



2. 
   

   Use the Area Type Tool to fill the main shape with your text...

   
   

   

   
   


3. 
   

   Set the inner shapes to have no fill and with them selected, go to Object → Text Wrap → Make (change the offset in the Text Wrap Options, in the same menu too if needs be).

   
   

   Done...

   
   

   

   
   

adobe photoshop - Website design - adjusting the size of picture

I have a stock photo, it's original size is 5616 × 3744 px. I would like to change its size to be used for my web design in photoshop - to size 1600 x 600. I do not want to crop the image because I would loose some picture content - if I crop e.g. the top half. I tried to use in Photoshop Image - Image size function, but I found that with its proportion locked(aspect ratio) it's height is way too big. Could you please help me?

Answer

If you want to avoid have to distort the image, you will have to crop it, at least partially. Since distorted images rarely look good, cropping is often unavoidable. You can reduce it to a minimum, though:

• Use Image > Image Size... (Alt+Ctrl/Option+I or right Alt+I) to reduce the width of your image to 1600 pixels. Make sure 'constrain proportions' is checked to avoid distortion.

You'll end up with an image 1600 pixels wide and 1067 pixels high.

• Use the Crop tool (C) and type your desired dimensions in the two fields:

• Drag around the crop box to cut off part of top and bottom of your picture.


• Press Enter/Return or click the checkmark at the right side of the option bar to accept the crop.

If you think you're losing too much from the top and bottom, you might want to try and use Photoshop's photo editing tools (eg. content-aware move in 'Extend' modus) to add more content to the sides of your image before cropping. Good and convincing extension is hard, though.

adobe illustrator - How to send tiled pages to virtual printer in DIN A0 Format with default margins?

My problem is closely connected to my old problem here, however it is a new question so I open a new thread. The problem is that I am able to split my large pdf file into smaller DIN A0 and send it to a virtual printer to print these pages in a copyshop. However the problem is that this way the generated pdf's have NO margin. When I add cut marks and labels it does get a default margin, however this margin is not large enough and cut marks are not allowed in the copyshop. In general all online services ask for a small margin (5mm) if one wants to plot a DIN A0 format.

What I do is the following: I open my pdf file in acrobat reader or in illustrator. The original file can be found here.

There I choose the option to tile and I choose A0 format. I can choose A0 if I preselect a virtual pdf printer before. I have different ones installed, PDFCreator PDF24 and others. Then I click on print and it prints and the virtual pdf creator opens the file and I get 8 pages with the splitted/tiled file:

The file with the 8 pages can be found here.

However there are no margins (zoom in to see it at the edge):

I need at least 5mm margins. It is possible to get margins, since when I select cutmarks or labels then there are small margins:

However this is less than 5mm:

I tried it with acrobat reader and with Illustrator. Illustrator gives me more option, however there is the same problem.

So how can I send it to the virtual printer that at the end there is a margin? Would be great if I can set it manually, so for example 10mm or 20mm, but I would be already ok if I get it with 5mm. So this is crucial since the online print services ask for this. I also thought about selecting a custome size. Then I choose A0 minus 1 cm. Then I output this to pdf. Then I open the pdf in Illustrator, select everything and copy it to a new area of exactly A0. Then I can arrange it that I have 0.5cm margin at each side. However I have to do it manually with every page. And it opens the door for quite a few mistakes if I do it manually.

(Just for notice: I need 5mm at every edge, so not only left and right, but also on top and bottom.)

EDIT: I also tried the options in illustrator:

(Translated in the lower part is: Bleedoptions, use bleed options from the document, top bottom left right.) However it does not work. The lines still are on the borders, no margin.

2nd EDIT:

The solution proposed by Cai does not work in my case. I tried it with different virtual printers and setups, however the option to set up the margins is always disabled:

And here is it step by step with Illustrator:

I tried it with all the virtual printers I have and it never worked (I have PDF24 PDF, PDFCreator, Virtual PDF Printer). First I make sure I select as Cai said "Tile Imageable Areas". I cross-checked it to avoid translational errors:

In my case this is "Fläche besteht aus Druckbereichen" and not "Fläche besteht aus ganzen Seiten". Ok, so next step is that I try to set up the margins in the page setup options. However here I notice that I have only one button and not two, as in Cai posts or also in the screenshot from the internet I saw. I only have setup.

I click on it. New window opens, however no option to set up margins.

Also not if I further click on "Einstellungen" ("Setup"). I never get this option. Also not if I choose another virtual printer.

fiction - Creating a story in which the hero(es) lose

So I am still in the primitive stages of creating my own world and story, if I even do it that is. I am still trying to get a feel for where I want to go with it. The biggest issue would be that, my world would be heavily influenced from novels like Lord of The Rings, Redwall (children's series similar to Lord of the Rings with personification of animals), Shannara series, and so on. These are stories I grew up with and loved. This would also mean that, my story would be very cookie cutter fantasy. You can apply various elements from across literature works, but they will have a familiar feel due to the fact that the story wouldn't be "original" as the influence would be pretty evident.

1) Would having a cookie cutter story be okay? We see this recipe often repeated in anime where the story has a similar feel and an expected outcome with similar character personalities. It seems to work in anime as many of these shows are popular.

2) Because stories and books for that matter seem to be on the decline as more and more visual media becomes available, would I need surprise elements or twists that are otherwise unexpected from the said genre in hopes that the story would be read and not passed over as "another one of these"?

3) Would creating a story that ends with the enemy winning be something interesting to others? Let's face it, if a more realistic version of LOTR was created, chances are, middle earth would be ruled by Sauron right now. I for one, would love to read a follow up novel about a world ruled by orcs. Would a story that ended with the "bad side" winning be a desirable fresh outcome that people would read? The anime Attack on Titan is heavily popular. This story is depressing, hopeless, many main characters die, and humanity is losing the fight.

I hope these questions are not too opinion based as I am more interested to see if such a world would be desirable by an audience. What literature works would fall into a dark fantasy? Game of Thrones would be the closest body of work, however it still isn't quite the tone I am looking for. Would this be too niche?

I wonder if I would alienate the fantasy reader because it would be a different expected outcome. Take Star Wars for example. I personally was kind of put off with Rogue One for deviating too far from the Star Wars theme and plot. Many people do not feel this way, but I personally did.

EDIT: "If you yourself aren't going to buy into the world you're creating, you can cast-iron guarantee no-one else will." Let me clarify something that I have been seeing popping up in responses. It isn't that I am not passionate enough about my idea or that I am not 100% sold on the idea, it's that I am writing for others and not myself. You can be 100% passionate about the earth being flat and you believe it to your core, but that doesn't mean I am going to listen to you just because you are passionate.

I just wanted to say WOW. The feedback and offering of help and good research materials (books to read) has been more than I ever hoped to have received. I really appreciate everyone's positive critique that gave me a TON of thoughts to ponder over. It probably is pretty evident that this is my first attempt at writing a non academic piece of work so that is also why I am a bit nervous/hesitant. So thank you to everyone who offered advice and will provide any future insight after this edit. It is greatly appreciated and it gives me more confidence that I should further pursue this.

Answer

Well, consider the term cookie cutter. Now imagine that you love cookies and you want to go into the cookie business. Which do you think would be the best strategy:

1. 
   

   Bring out a totally original line of rhubarb and pickle cookies.

   
   



2. 
   

   Bring out a line of exceptionally well made chocolate chip cookies.

   
   

Like you, there are millions or readers who grew up reading these stories and want to read more. At the same time, of course, there are thousands of people trying to write these stories. So, there is a definite demand for these types of stories. And there are a lot of, frankly, pretty lousy attempts to write them. So if you want to be in this market, learn to write this sort of story really well so you stand out above the crowd.

Either way, you need to learn to be really good. Because frankly, if you want to sell rhubarb and pickle cookies, you are going to have to make them really really good rhubarb and pickle cookies, because no one want a mediocre rhubarb and pickle cookie. But lots of people want a really good chocolate chip cookie.

plot - How to invest readers in a story that (initially) has no clear direction?

The main character of my novel (third person limited) is an outlaw, on the run from government agents and living from day to day trying to survive.

In the first quarter of the story, she doesn't really have any sort of "end goal" that she is working towards outside of trying to remain free. She is just sort of carrying on surviving on her own, angry at the world and devoid of any solutions to her situation.

She eventually gets captured by the government, and has to work for them to obtain her freedom, but up until this point she has no long-term ambitions or desires outside of evading the law.

I feel like the beginning of the book is quite balanced between world-building, character development and actual interesting events happening, but the main character isn't working towards any specific objective, nor does she have any real idea of one.

My concern is that it will be difficult for readers to invest in a story about a character that doesn't really know what they want or where they are going. Obviously this changes later on, but my issue is that the reader may have put the book down before this change happens if they don't know what the book is about or working towards.

My understanding is that most novels (specifically in the sci-fi/ fantasy genre that I'm writing in) introduce very early in the story at least some sort of notion of an antagonist, a plot or an overall theme of "something is wrong and needs to change" that the protagonist will confront in the climax of their journey. This usually lets the reader know what to expect of the forthcoming story.

The point of my story and main character, however, is that they are completely separated from these things, living outside of society and minimizing contact with others, cutting herself off from the wider world.

So how can you convince readers to be invested in a story that initially has no recognizable trajectory? Or alternatively, how do you manufacture an end-solution for a character that doesn't really have any sort of direction?

Answer

You say "the first quarter of the story". That is close enough to ACT I, the setup, and it ends with a crisis that propels the character into ACT II, in your case, capture by the government. You are probably writing to the Three Act Structure instinctively; we absorb this by examples of the tens of thousands of commercial stories we listen to almost every night (TV, movies and books).

That's a good thing.

In the first Act, we establish the normal world of your hero; her day to day life. So it is okay if we begin with her normal world being on the run evading the law. You begin "in the middle" which is good, provides action, and makes your character reasonably competent and (hopefully) proactive in trying to escape.

The end of the first act ends in a turning point moment, when the characters life will never be the same, and a major failure is very common. It is not the only thing; a plane crash or other accident is common too, being victim of a crime is common. But her major failure of being captured, failing her goal of escape, is a good one.

And the rest of your story follows that: Eventually she does escape, by working for her freedom by completing her indentured servitude to the government. (Which I hope is very dangerous work.)

The solution to your problem is giving your character either false goals, or sub-goals, she is pursuing during Act I. Here is the synopsis of ACT I of Die Hard:

New York City policeman John McClane (Bruce Willis) is visiting his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia) and two daughters on Christmas Eve. He joins her at a holiday party in the headquarters of the Japanese-owned business she works for. But the festivities are interrupted by a group of terrorists who take over the exclusive high-rise, and everyone in it. Very soon McClane realizes that there's no one to save the hostages -- but him.

Note that McClane has a "false goal" in the beginning of his story, his marriage is on the rocks, he has daughters he has to go someplace to visit. This establishes he has something to lose if he doesn't fight, but otherwise has nothing to do with the main plot of the story, stopping ruthless terrorists. (Maybe we show them once in awhile to reinforce the stakes so he doesn't give up, I don't recall.) I believe in the end McClane's "false goal" of a better relationship with his wife and kids is achieved, by credit for his heroism.

Your fugitive does have a goal, a life of freedom, which seems interrupted but is ultimately achieved even though her life is changed. That is what you need to reinforce, that her goal is to escape and find a place where she won't be constantly on the run.

You do that with a series of Try-Fail cycles in the first Act.

• She tries one thing, it fails but she easily escapes. She learned something that leads her to another goal.


• She tries, it fails. The law has more men after her this time, and she narrowly escapes! That gave her a different idea.


• She tries. It fails, and the law has even more men and more competent in the bargain, and she narrowly misses escape. She is captured.

We escalate in these cycles; Escape was [Easy, Hard, Impossible]. The law men are [Few, Many, Overwhelming].

• Your villain in ACT I is The Government and law enforcement.


• Her goal is freedom, both from prison and pursuit.

You need to make her very good at something (which is why the government is willing to bend the rules and employ her instead of imprisoning her), and that needs to be on display in her exploits to escape and find some sanctuary. Being good at something is one component of a likable character; another is to not just be constantly reacting to problems, but find a way for her to initiate actions to solve them. She must have her own ideas and pursue them.

publishing - Can a literary agent be hired?

I've sent my manuscript to tens of literary agents. Strangely enough, I received no positive response.

My question: Can I hire a literary agent? If yes, how much it costs?

Are there other ways (except of vanity presses) to publish and widely distribute my religious book?

I may probably get a grant for publishing this book (instead of my own expenses). But I don't even know how much to ask, because I don't know how much I need to pay for publishing.

How to continue someone else's story gracefully, with fan-fiction?

I've been juggling some ideas for NaNoWriMo and one of them is a Doctor Who story. Now I've not read a great deal of fan fiction but I've never read any that I'd say that compares to the original, and often I feel most fan fiction is a written exercise in Misery, with the fan fic author directing the characters, plot and theme over to their (often wildly different) point of view. Reading these back feels unnatural and clunky, as though the very act of trying to continue someone else's story ruin's your own.

How can I avoid the pitfalls of writing fan-fiction? Or should I avoid it entirely?

Edit:

For the purpose of this question 'dangerous' means that it will naturally lead to the things I mentioned above: characters becoming Mary Sue's, and plot veering wildly from the original theme, as the author forces the plot to work their way. In short is it possible to continue someone else's story gracefully?

Which "Like" symbol to use?

The "Like" button has quite possibly become one of the most clicked buttons on the internet through social networks, but if you are also using a symbol, which is the best to use? Facebook and Youtube use the "thumbs up" whereas Instagram and Tumblr use the "heart" symbol.

Is it just personal preference for using each symbol or is one symbol better to use than the other?

Answer

I would say it depends on the context of your application. Facebook and twitter use the thumbs up icon to denote an appreciation while the heart icon is used to convey a more "cute" emotion. You also have to realize that tumblr and instagram have generally a younger population as compared to the diverse user group of Fb and you tube.

User base of tumblr which states

Here are some of the trends that I’ve found to have pretty significant influence among the Tumblr user base.

Female wannabe-indie tweens

Tumblr is often referred to as ‘4chan for girls.’

While for Instagram, the user base as per this article is

Online consumer metric analysis service Experian Hitwise estimates that greater than 50 percent of Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 34, with teen users accounting for a significant proportion of the rest. In contrast, the majority of Facebook users are over 25 and, compared to their younger counterparts, do not rely as heavily on mobile devices and applications.

user behavior - Is duping the consumer really a good business practice?

I have had this at the back of my mind for sometime and I believe UX is the proper place to post this though I may not phrase the question right so please chime in if you have suggestions!

There are many examples showing that corporations in general believe that the road to profitability and longevity comes from delivering products that don't just perform well but show that they have put in the extra effort to make it better for the consumer. A couple examples: when my electric toothbrush is running low on power, it blinks for several uses before it runs out, giving ample notice to recharge it; when I leave my headlights on and open the door, the car reminds me to turn them off.

The glaring counter-example to this in the US is liquid laundry detergent. The instructions typically say to fill the cap to line 1 for a medium load. Simple in principle but in practice line 1 is usually difficult to find and the casual user (i.e. all of us) is misled to believe the obvious demarcation is synonymous with "line 1" when it is well above the usually subtly marked "line 1". The user (needlessly) consumes more product; the manufacturer (purposefully) makes more profit. The blogger NCN describes it well in Beware Of The Laundry Detergent Cap, complete with a photograph of a typical misleading laundry cap.

What brought this to a tipping point for me is one manufacturer carrying this nefarious arrangement to an absurd height--still indicating "line 1" as the necessary amount but not even bothering to include line 1 on the cap! Perhaps this was just an oversight in manufacturing. Sure.

In any case, my intent here is not to rant but to wonder if a misleading business practice like this is really a good business practice, counter to my (anecdotal) claim that I began with in the first paragraph?

2012.07.31 Update

Just thought of an equivalent example for software: deceptive download pages. I am sure you have seen them. You search for a product and go to its presumptive download page. The real link to download is usually there but overshadowed by a link to something else, usually tied to an advertisement. The real link is typically much smaller and often "below the fold" (i.e. you have to scroll to see it). Bill Pytlovany (of WinPatrol fame) points out that these show up even on highly reputable sites like CNet--see the screenshots in Dangerous Downloads on Legitimate Websites & Search Engines)

Answer

Similar to Dark Patterns in interface design. The laundry cap is a good example. I'm sure they could make a smaller cap, one which is the adequate size for a normal load, instead of providing an overly large cap which will cause over-consumption. The game of packaging is a tricky one, often designed to benefit the manufacturer. It's not overly ethical, but I think it's widely accepted. Manufacturers will play dumb until someone calls them on it.

I seem to remember a mini-scandal with batteries that had a 'test strip' down the side. Many users were replacing batteries unnecessarily because of the coloring of the test strip. What was wrong with using the battery until it wouldn't power something any more?

adobe illustrator - Why can I not use the brush tool to paint my object?

I drew an image in Illustrator and now I would like to fill it with color. I created a second layer and placed it under the line art.

However when I try to painting with the brush tool I get a really annoying 🛇 (international prohibition sign / no symbol).

Why is that?

Answer

You have no actual brush selected, it's just set to basic - which isn't a brush type (just a weird default).

Just load in any actual brush and then you will be able to select a stroke/width and draw.

Load in a brush by clicking on the Brush Libraries Menu icon:

copyright - Do I own the rights to show my designs in my portfolio?

I was hired as a freelancer to do some work for a company. I made a design that I love which included some of the company's data within it. I asked to put it on my portfolio and they got very defensive and angry about their data right off the bat and we no longer work together. I updated the design to not include ANY of their data or anything referring to them as I love the design and I want to showcase it on my portfolio site that I am working on.

I would really like for them not to use my design for any future items, but I'm not sure if I am legally allowed to.

This is the text in my contract:

a. Inventions Assignment.  Company owns all right, title and interest (including patent rights, copyright rights, trade secret rights, mask work rights, trademark rights, sui generis database rights and all other intellectual and industrial property rights of any sort throughout the world) relating to any and all inventions (whether or not patentable), technologies, works of authorship, software, mask works, designs, know-how, ideas, data and other information and work products that are made, conceived, reduced to practice or obtained, in whole or in part, by Consultant, and that arise out of the Services or that are based on or otherwise reflect any Proprietary Information (as defined below) (collectively, Inventions). Consultant will promptly provide and fully disclose all Inventions to Company. All Inventions are works made for hire to the extent allowed by law and, in addition, Consultant agrees to make and does hereby make all assignments necessary to accomplish the foregoing ownership. Consultant shall assist Company, at Company's expense, to further evidence, confirm, record and perfect such assignments, and to perfect, obtain, maintain, enforce, and defend any rights assigned. Consultant hereby irrevocably designates and appoints Company and its officers as its agents and attorneys-in- fact (coupled with an interest), with full power of substitution, to act for and in Consultant's behalf to execute and file any document and to do all other lawfully permitted acts to further the foregoing with the same legal force and effect as if executed by Consultant.

Thoughts?

Why is it common practice to send newsletters from fake email addresses?

Has someone researched the amount of recipients who respond to newsletter emails, and see "Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently"? -The ratio is probably high.

People who reply generally have an interest in your product, but need further convincing. You're losing potential customers by ignoring their questions!

What are your thoughts?

editing - Correct spelling errors while writing or after you've finished?

With the "write, don't edit" rule in mind, how should one handle mistyping?

I usually stop or go back to fix the error as soon as I spot it, but often I feel this breaks the flow of writing.

Should one keep going, or stop to correct? I'm afraid I might miss some errors if I don't. And the thought of going back to fix everything in the end seems overwhelming.

Why should I prefer one over the other?

Answer

It sounds like you are struggling between two possiblities:

1. Fixing typos but having your concentration on the forward movement of your writing broken, or


2. Moving on but facing a daunting task of catching all of your errors during editing and re-writing.

Personally I would be driven crazy by not fixing a mistake I knew was there, and that would break my concentration far worse than going back, re-typing a word, and moving on. You may be totally different, however.

Since you have already tried fixing typos, try working on a segment for about 3/4 of your normal writing time without fixing typos. Then use the last quarter of your time to go back and fix typos - read the work out loud to yourself, read backwards, do whatever you need to do so that the brain's automatic comprehension features don't kick in and keep you from spotting errors. See if this way of working is better for you than fixing typos.

You may want to try both ways of working more than once. As you work you might come up with a hybrid approach. Perhaps you want to write short segments and then fix all the typos in them while deciding what to write next. Perhaps you want to figure in some time spent fixing basic typos. Perhaps you want to leave it all for your first round of editing, or even your last.

Whatever you do, make sure it keeps you writing.

vector - Why does Adobe Illustrator have a limit on the maximum zoom?

Considering that it is an application that uses vectors which can scale to any size because they're mathematically calculated, why can I only zoom to a certain level and what is the deciding factor?

Is it based on my hardware?

Is it based on limitations of the software?

What can I do, if anything, to be able to zoom in further?

Answer

Infinite zoom is not possible in any [Adobe] app.

All apps have to cap the zoom somewhere. 6400% is a decent cap to use. I'd guess it was merely an arbitrary decision on the part of the developers/Adobe. I don't think there's any real reason why it's 6400% other than it's a nice round number.

When looking at the defaults, the percentages merely double - 100%, 200%, 400%, 800%, 1600%, 3200%, and finally 6400%. They probably could have gone to 12800% but that seems like a considerably big jump.

The problem is, when working on a 15px x 15px image 6400% may not be enough. But when working on a 36in x 36in poster, 6400% is plenty. So.. it's all relative.

To zoom further, you could increase the size of the art. IF that's not possible you can use third party apps which zoom the screen rather than relying on Illustrator to go beyond 6400%. For example, on the Macintosh you can turn on zoom in the system preferences (accessibility) and that allows you to zoom the screen. This in conjunction with Illustrator's zoom will let you go far beyond 6400%.

resize - How to fit a vertical headshot into a horizontal frame

I am frequently asked to make vertical headshots fit into a horizontal size, to display on my company's website. I'm often given low-quality images with sharp cuts to the person's shoulders or backgrounds that are difficult to extend.

I usually do one of two things...

1. Recreate or draw in shoulders of my own, using the clone stamp, then create some simple background to fill the space, as I did here. This is time consuming, though, and anyone with an eye for detail can spot the fake shoulder(s) a mile away

2. Duplicating the headshot behind the original, enlarging it to fill the frame, blurring it - like below

I want to start doing the second option more, because it's the easiest for me and I see it's a pretty common method (thanks to those vertical video takers), but it's not the most visually appealing.

Is there a better way of fitting portrait images into a landscape container?

Answer

#3. Get your client to see the benefits of a proper photoshoot

After years of doing your #1 i finally managed to introduce an updated design for my clients' company profile, website and corporate presentations. After seeing what things can really look like, the client finally found the time to send all 30+ employees, management included, to a studio and got their pictures taken professionally in landscape format, with the same background, lighting, etc.

If that can't work then you're probably stuck with #1.

usability - Change negative checkbox labels to positive?

I know that the ideal state would be to use positive connotation for checkbox labels as in

[✔️] do this

rather than

[✔️] don't do this

The system I am working on has many checkboxes in many different areas. Some of them with the ideal (positive) caption, most of them unfortunately with the not so ideal (negative) caption.

This has the following reason: In the past large sets of data were affected and all checkboxes which were implemented later either deactivated or at limited that data set. For example:

All images and their entire meta data are indexed.
[✔️] Don't index gps data
[✔️] Don't index caption date

Every time I bump in to a checkbox with negative caption a little kitten dies... It would be possible to negate all checkboxes and their states within the entire system. But I'm positive that

a) this would confuse existing power users and b) this would be technically quite time consuming

Shall we continue with this "system"? Shall we implement every checkbox with positive caption from now on? Should we negate all existing checkmark captions and states?

I'm not sure.

Answer

I would suggest that if a checkbox is used frequently and without little thought, either leave the label and its behavior unchanged or, if you do change it, make that change very prominent and easily noticeable. If the control looks the same at first glance apart from a slight text change, those regular users may not notice that the wording and the underlying logic has changed and will continue to rely on the same mental models and learnt behaviours.

If however a checkbox is buried away and used infrequently, perhaps in a settings or configuration interface, go ahead and change the label to use positive phrasing. Experienced users are less likely to have strict mental models about these areas and are more likely to pay attention to the labels when they do.

Replace specific symbols in scatter plot in Illustrator

I am very new to Adobe Illustrator, so I apologize in advance if my question is offensively simple. To my excuse, I spent and failed to look for a solution online, even though I am sure I am not the first one to encounter the problem.

I created the following plot of the Austrian party positions over-time:

Now, I would like to change each symbol for which the party names end with 58 to something else (like an unfilled triangle); the ones with 63 to a second symbol and the ones with 56 to a third symbol. The idea would be to show how parties cluster on the plot, as a function of the specific election.

However, I can't figure out how to change the symbols without manually copy pasting something there. Any ideas?

UPDATE: I should have added earlier: AI does not recognize the circles as symbols, therefore the replace symbol option in the symbol panel does not work. Is there a way to get them recognized as symbols?

Answer

To easily replace objects I recommend installing and using the wonderful copyToMultipleObjects script by John Wundes.

To install opposite click on the link and save it to your desktop.

With Illustrator closed, navigate to your Illustrator's Script folder, which is in the following example location (the actual location will depend on your installation of Illustrator and language):

Windows: C:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator CC 2014/Presets/en_GB/Scripts

Mac OS: Applications/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator CC 2014/Presets/en_GB/Scripts

And paste a copy of the .js file into the folder and open Illustrator.

To use, have the new shape made and on the topmost layer/position above the shapes you want to replace.

Next select the shapes you want to replace and the shape you are replacing them with.

Navigate to File-> Scripts-> copyToMultipleObjects. Click yes to scale objects and you are done!

android - Mobile - Sorting Items on one tab

I am currently working on an android application and I try to follow the material design specification.

Now I am in a situation where I have 2 tabs with different content.
I need to present sorting possibilities on ONE of them.

Usually you would have a sorting icon in the top app bar.

But this could lead to confusion as from I hierarchical point of view I would understand that I can sort both tabs.

So I see different possibilities here:

• hide & show the icon in the app bar depending on which tab is selected


• Put the sorting possibility under the tab (only in the relevant tab)

Unfortunately the second possibility somehow does not "look nice".

Do you see any other possibilities, or which approach would you uggest?

Should the search box always be placed in the upper right corner?

I placed the search box close to the results, so the user knows he is searching within the results and not globally. Is this a good approach?

Answer

If the search box is related to the items list at the right side of the page, it's great to leave it there. Because it really looks like a filter feature.

But if the search box take the user to another page with different results (that weren't in the first list), it shouldn't be there, 'cause in this case it wouldn't be a filter.

telephone - Automatic calling system: "Press star" or "Press asterisk"?

I'm not a native English speaker and currently have a task on my desk to translate some texts for an automatic telephone calling system. You know the stuff: to confirm your request, press one, to cancel, press pound.

And the question is: Should I use "star" or "asterisk", down left on the keypad, when your computer program talks to someone over phone?

Edit:

The calling system will be addressing both native English speakers and people who have English as their second or third language.

Asterisk is easier to understand in over low-quality telephone connection, but may confuse non-native English speakers.

Star is more or less clear to everyone, but may get misheard as it is only one syllable (especially when the phone connection is suboptimal).

Edit 2:

The system is supposed to give calls to people around the world in case of emergency with system they are responsible for. It allows for translation to any language, but the company running the system will not pay translation for one or two people, so everyone for whom there is no translation will get the call in English.

We use software synthesized voice messages (and not recorded human voice) and so the messages need to be as clear and concise as possible.

Answer

Press star.

Asterisk is the correct term, however some people will not know if * or # is an asterisk.

In fact, if they have heard * referred to as 'star' then they might assume that # must be 'asterisk'.

The word 'star' however will allow people to know what button to press, even if they have never heard of the correct terms, as it is a word with much more common usage and understanding.

This is not an English language question, as suggested, as the correct English word would be 'asterisk'.

If you have control over the software behind this, then it would be a good idea to make the system recognise presses of either * or #, in case people press the wrong one (assuming that # does not already have a different purpose).

adobe illustrator - How to wrap type around a ring?

How I can wrap type like this?

style - Examples for books that don't use (traditional) chapters?

I'm a big fan of Terry Pratchett, and he doesn't use chapters (mostly). Are there any other authors who tend to not use traditional chapters or chapters at all in novels?

hedging - Dynamic Hedge of Quanto Options

Can anybody explain to me step-by-step how can I dynamically hedge and/or replicate a quanto option with the foreign underlying asset, the foreign cash account and the domestic cash account as detailed as possible? And if you could recommend books or articles that would be also great. Thanks

Answer

Your simulation is basically fine, though you need to discount in USD. For hedging purpose, you need to use the instruments available in USD.

Let $S=\{S_t, \, t\ge 0\}$ be the stock price process in EUR, $X=\{X_t, \, t\ge 0\}$ be the exchange rate process from one unit EUR to units USD, $r_f$ and $r_d$ be interest rates in EUR and USD. Moreover, let $B_t^f=e^{r_f t}$ and $B_t^d=e^{r_d t}$ be respectively the money market account values in EUR and USD. Then the available instruments in USD are $XS$, $B^d$, and $B^fX$. Specifically, we assume that $X$ and $S$ satisfy a system of SDEs of the form \begin{align*} dS_t &= S_t\left(\mu_s dt + \sigma_s dW_t^1 \right),\\ dX_t &= X_t\left[\mu_x dt + \sigma_x \left(\rho dW_t^1 + \sqrt{1-\rho^2}dW_t^2\right) \right], \end{align*} where $\mu_s$ and $\mu_x$ are drift terms, $\rho$ is the correlation, $\{W_t^1, t\ge0\}$ and $\{W_t^2, t\ge0\}$ are two independent standard Brownian motions.

Let $C(t, S_t)$ be the quanto option price at time $t$. We seek a self-financing portfolio such that \begin{align*} C(t, S_t) = \Delta_t^1 X_tS_t + \Delta_t^2 X_t B_t^f + \Delta_t^3 B_t^d.\tag{1} \end{align*} Then, \begin{align*} dC &= \Delta_t^1 d\left(X_tS_t\right) + \Delta_t^2 d\left(X_t B_t^f\right) + \Delta_t^3 d\left(B_t^d\right)\\ &=\Delta_t^1X_tS_t\left[\left(\mu_s + \mu_x + \rho\sigma_s\sigma_x \right) dt + \sigma_s dW_t^1 + \sigma_x \left(\rho dW_t^1 + \sqrt{1-\rho^2}dW_t^2\right) \right]\\ &\quad + \Delta_t^2 X_t B_t^f\left[(\mu_x + r_f) dt + \sigma_x \left(\rho dW_t^1 + \sqrt{1-\rho^2}dW_t^2\right) \right] + r_d\Delta_t^3 B_t^d dt. \end{align*} On the other hand \begin{align*} dC &= \frac{\partial C}{\partial t}dt + \frac{\partial C}{\partial S}S_t \left(\mu_s dt + \sigma_s dW_t^1 \right) + \frac{1}{2}\frac{\partial^2 C}{\partial S^2}S_t^2 \sigma_s^2 dt. \end{align*} That is, \begin{align*} \frac{\partial C}{\partial S}S_t\sigma_s dW_t^1 &= \Delta_t^1X_tS_t\left[\sigma_s dW_t^1 + \sigma_x \left(\rho dW_t^1 + \sqrt{1-\rho^2}dW_t^2\right) \right]\\ &\qquad\qquad\qquad + \Delta_t^2 X_t B_t^f \sigma_x \left(\rho dW_t^1 + \sqrt{1-\rho^2}dW_t^2\right),\tag{2} \end{align*} and \begin{align*} &\ \frac{\partial C}{\partial t}dt + \frac{\partial C}{\partial S}S_t \mu_s dt + \frac{1}{2}\frac{\partial^2 C}{\partial S^2}S_t^2 \sigma_s^2 dt \\ =&\ \Delta_t^1X_tS_t\left(\mu_s + \mu_x + \rho\sigma_s\sigma_x \right) dt+\Delta_t^2 X_t B_t^f(\mu_x + r_f) dt+r_d\Delta_t^3 B_t^d dt.\tag{3} \end{align*} From $(2)$, \begin{align*} &\Delta_t^1X_tS_t \sigma_x + \Delta_t^2 X_t B_t^f \sigma_x =0,\\ &\frac{\partial C}{\partial S}S_t\sigma_s = \Delta_t^1X_tS_t\left(\sigma_s+ \sigma_x \rho\right) + \Delta_t^2 X_t B_t^f \sigma_x \rho. \end{align*} Combining with $(1)$ above, \begin{align*} \Delta_t^1 &= \frac{1}{X_t}\frac{\partial C}{\partial S}, \\ \Delta_t^2 &= -\frac{S_t}{B_t^f}\Delta_t^1, \\ \Delta_t^3 &=\frac{C(t, S_t)}{B_t^d}. \end{align*} From $(3)$, we obtain the Black-Scholes type PDE \begin{align*} \frac{\partial C}{\partial t} + \left(r_f - \rho\sigma_s\sigma_x \right)S_t \frac{\partial C}{\partial S} + \frac{1}{2}\frac{\partial^2 C}{\partial S^2}S_t^2 \sigma_s^2 = r_d C. \end{align*} See also the notes here.

website design - Dark on Light or Light on Dark?

For a very technical site documenting code, sharing code snippets, and documentation, I have been told that using dark fonts on light backgrounds is recommended for people being able to read the information clearly as possible.

While, for my eyes and designing skills, dark backgrounds and light text works way better for me. A few clients have said that that does not work at all for the type of site which I have created.

Which would work better for a technical site: dark backgrounds with light colour fonts or light backgrounds with dark fonts?

Answer

Rather than the other answers that just express personal opinions let me direct you to this article that in turn cites some actual research which I will quote here as well:

However, most studies have shown that dark characters on a light background are superior to light characters on a dark background (when the refresh rate is fairly high). For example, Bauer and Cavonius (1980) found that participants were 26% more accurate in reading text when they read it with dark characters on a light background.

The explanation for this they provide is

People with astigmatism (aproximately 50% of the population) find it harder to read white text on black than black text on white. Part of this has to do with light levels: with a bright display (white background) the iris closes a bit more, decreasing the effect of the "deformed" lens; with a dark display (black background) the iris opens to receive more light and the deformation of the lens creates a much fuzzier focus at the eye.

I have to admit that I am surprised this is the case as I have light astigmatism and yet still prefer white on black, so there definitely is some preference factor here still, but it seems that black on white is actually better which I always believed to be an artifact from printing times when it was and is cheaper to print black on white. (auch, as one of my applications is white on black in android style).

Added side note, the 50% statistic is plain wrong, I have just looked at a fair number of studies and all sources I have just seen are givings numbers below 35%. Add to that that not everyone with astigmatism has a problem with this (e.g. I) and you get to the point where you are talking about less than 25% of your users probably. Is that a lot? Definitely, but it does put it into perspective.

Overall giving the user the choice might still be a good idea, although maintaining 2 separate designs never is fun. An alternative is directing them to screen inversion tools. True, it's not the nicest solution, but it can at least solve the issue for those with extreme astigmatism.

user centered design - Using genders in physiologically oriented UCD

I've this problem: as a policy, we usually strive to leave out gender considerations if possible. If not possible, we use a wide range of genders . Not as extreme as Facebook, but something more rational around physiological genres (Male, Female) and commonly accepted LGBT concept (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual).

Problem is that now we need genres based on physiological aspects due to an algorithm we're using were physiology is the key (and obviously, a woman is not physiologically the same as a man, despite the chosen gender identity).

Our closest solution is to include male/female and a short message explaining the reasons for this. However, this approach deals with genitalia, and transexuals were born as one sex and now are another sex, which means that physiological aspects are mixed.

So question is: is there an accepted way to deal with this kind of problem without leaving out anyone, yet covering all bases?

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EDIT: this is for a healthcare app dashboard The thing is this app uses an algorithm to define certain specific vital stats that are different for males and females BUT transgender uses hormones that modifies some of these vitals. We don't know until at least a V2 if the app will have transgender users, so my question goes around some wording or conceptual approach to deal with such sensitive information. Note that We're ok with just using male, female, other ** and if **other is chosen, explain the Other option and why we ask for that, but I was wondering if there's a better way

EDIT 2: I completely forgot about this question. For those interested, we went with "Other", and when this option is selected, a dialog with a sensible message pops up asking user to specify what they mean, and also requests information on treatment based on their answer. Thank you Zoe, Ivonne and all those who commented, you were really helpful. Sorry for being this late

Answer

If this is a healthcare app, there is at least two very different ways to tackle the issue, based on the diversion of mental health and physical health. If this is a non-healthcare app, asking for this kind of information is quite invasive.

Hoping this is a healthcare app, to give a definitive answer I would need more information on use cases, but based on your question:

1. 
   

   If you need users to choose what gender/sex they were assigned at birth, before the possible transition to a gender they identify with now, the term you need is just that, "gender assigned at birth". This will answer to "which set of visible genitalia they were born with". NB: sex assignment at birth is often a faulty method that doesn't spot people born with the mosaic sex, one set of hidden genitalia or else https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_assignment

   
   



2. 
   

   If you need users to identify their current set of genitalia, I think you could just be blunt and ask them to choose from four options:

   
   
   
   
   • female genitalia
   
   
   • male genitalia
   
   
   • female and male genitalia
   
   
   • mosaic genitalia.
   
   
   
   

Important thing here would be to add a memo tooltip where you would explain why the service needs such private information. Another important thing would be to never mix language for gender (social construct and compound of behavior) and sets of genitalia, because these are two completely different things.

3. 
   

   Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual is not a gender, it's a sexual orientation.

   
   


4. 
   

   Some other genders: agender, bigender, queer.

   
   

Upd: adding a classification for clarity:

transparency - Is there an "inverse eraser" tool on Photoshop?

I have a PNG with some transparency.

In PhotoPaint I have a tool "transparency brush" where I simply choose 100% opacity and the transparency is removed.

In Photoshop the eraser tool only gives me more transparency on this already transparent zone.

I know I can duplicate the layer a dozen times to remove the transparency, but I am wondering if such a tool exists on Photoshop.

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Edited some time later. My own answer provides a workaround using the original transparency as a mask.

Answer

I found a really easy way to do this.

1. On the Channels panel click on the little menu and choose Split Channels.

You will get now four different windows: R,G, B and A.

2. 
   
   

   Now click again the menu and chose Combine Channels.

   
   


3. 
   

   Choose RGB as the combination mode.

   
   


4. 
   

   Confirm that each channel is in the right position.

   
   

You now have a "transparency free" RGB file with an additional file with the original transparency to be used as a layer mask.

This layer mask can be used to paint on and work as my original question was asking.

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To add the mask.

• 
  

  Select the grayscale image (Ctrl+A) and copy it to the clipboard.

  
  


• 
  
  

  On the color image on the layer's dialog box, click the "Add Mask"

  
  


• 
  

  (Alt+Click) on the mask, and paste the Clipboard.

  
  

forecasting - What type of analysis is appropriate for assessing the performance time-series forecasts?

When using time-series analysis to forecast some type of value, what types of error analysis are worth considering when trying to determine which models are appropriate.

One of the big issues that may arise is that successive residuals between the 'forecast' and the 'realized' value of the variable may not be properly independent of one another as large amounts of data will be reused from one data point to its successive one.

To give an example, if you fit a GARCH model to forecast volatility for a given time horizon, the fit will use a certain amount of data, and the forecast is produced and then compared to whatever the realized volatility was observed for the given period of time, and it is then possible to find some kind of 'loss' value for that forecast.

Once everything moves forward a time period, assuming we refit (but even if we reuse the data parameters), there will be a very large overlap in all the data for this second forecast and realized volatility.

Since it is common to desire a model that minimises these 'losses' in some sense, how do you deal with the residuals produced in this way? Is there a way to remove the dependency? Are successive residuals dependent, and how could this dependency be measured? What tools exist to analyse these residuals?

Answer

I think you're looking for some way to test for autocorrelation in your residuals. If your model is good -- let's say you have an ARMA(1, 1) model for your forecast -- then the residuals from this model will be white noise. Which is to say that the difference between your forecast and the realization can not be predicted any better. The residual is some zero mean normally-distributed error.

Let's pick an extreme example. If your residual (the diff between forecast and realized) were always 1, then the residuals would be autocorrelated. Clearly if your model is always off by 1, then you can do better. So if the residuals in your model are autocorrelated, then you can do better.

The standard test for this these days in Ljung-Box, but in the past Box-Pierce and Durbin-Watson were also used.

copyright - Can you reprint screen shots of a game application or program without permission?

It seems pretty normal to see screenshots of MS Word, steps for "this is how you generate a template". I don't think Microsoft would object.

But I'm not sure about reprinting images from in-game scenes for specific games, like Diablo II. Do you need to obtain permission to include a screenshot of a game in your book?

creative writing - Weaving VERY IMPORTANT OPINIONS into a story without murdering it

In Bad Webcomics Wiki, a place for reviews of bad webcomics, there's a common phrase: the "VERY IMPORTANT OPINIONS".

The novelists who endeavor to enforce what they are pleased to call "moral truths," cease to be artists. They create two kinds of characters -- types and caricatures. The first has never lived, and the second never will. The real artist produces neither. In his pages, you will find individuals, natural people, who have the contradictions and inconsistencies inseparable from humanity. The great artists "hold the mirror up to nature," and this mirror reflects with absolute accuracy.

Well, I hate Captain Planet and Ted Turner from the bottom of my heart, but the idea of killing off Mao Tse-tung with Zyklon B (a pesticide) is too charming.

So, I want to convey very important opinions, but without becoming the written equivalent of Better Days or Captain PSA's “If It’s Doomsday, This Must Be Belfast” episode.

Tips and important thing to keep in mind?

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HELP: I only know one web series, that managed to be good whilst having VERY IMPORTANT OPINIONS, and it's the If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device, which basically consists of a Corpse Emperor complaining about stuff to a gold-encrusted banana.

Answer

Lots of great authors had very important opinions. Dickens. Steinbeck. Solzhenitsyn. Dostoyevsky. What they all understood is that a story is not a vehicle to express an opinion, but a vehicle for leading people to form the same opinion themselves by leading them through the experiences that would lead someone to form that opinion.

That does not mean, of course, that there cannot be any preaching in a story. People preach in real life. When Tom Joad gives his impassioned speech at the end of Grapes of Wrath, it does not feel like the author preaching, though of course it is, it feels like the character preaching because that is exactly the speech that that character would give in that situation (whether the author agreed with him or not).

probability - Baye's rule for conditional expectations (Proof review)

The Baye's rule for conditional expectations states

$$ E^Q[X|\mathcal{F}]E^P[f|\mathcal{F}]=E^P[Xf|\mathcal{F}] $$

With $f=dQ/dP$ - thus being the Radon-Nikodyn derivative and $X$ being some random variable and $\mathcal{F}$ being some sigma-algebrad.

For I wasn't able to find the proof in any of the books that I usually use I tried to prove it myself. This rule is often used in the context of the change of numeraire technique.

The proof uses the definition/characterization of conditional expectations. Thus one mainly needs to show

$$\int_A E^Q[X|\mathcal{F}]E^P[f|\mathcal{F}]dP=\int_AE^P[Xf|\mathcal{F}]dP $$ For all $A\in\mathcal{F}$

Again using the characterisation of conditional expectation the right side equals $\int_A Xf dP$ and with $f$ being the Radon-Nikodyn-derivative this is equal to $\int_A X dQ$ thus

$$\int_AE^P[Xf|\mathcal{F}]dP=\int_A X dQ $$

On the other side using measurability of $E^Q[X|\mathcal{F}]$ with respect to $\mathcal{F}$ the left side equals $$\int_A E^P\left[(E^Q[X|\mathcal{F}] f)\vert \mathcal{F}\right] dP$$ Once again using the characterisation of conditional expectation this is $$\int_A E^P\left[(E^Q[X|\mathcal{F}] f)\vert \mathcal{F}\right] dP=\int_A fE^Q[X|\mathcal{F}] dP$$ Finally with $f$ being the Radon-Nikodyn density one arrives at

$$\int_A fE^Q[X|\mathcal{F}] =\int_A E^Q[X|\mathcal{F}] dQ=\int_A X dQ$$ and thus $$\int_A E^Q[X|\mathcal{F}]E^P[f|\mathcal{F}]dP=\int_A X dQ$$

This concludes the proof.

Two question:

• does anyone know of a source where I could cross-check that


• is there an alternative way to proof the result ?

Answer

Is this the proof you are looking for?

-- from Shreve, S. E.'s book "Stochastic calculus for finance II, continuous-time Models", chapter 5.