Just like what I am asking in the title. I see nearly all the financial datas take logs before the data analysing step, Why? Dose it have nice properties?
Say I have some historical data e.g., past stock prices, airline ticket price fluctuations, past financial data of the company...  Now someone (or some formula) comes along and says "let's take/use the log of the distribution" and here's where I go WHY?  Questions:   WHY should one take the log of the distribution in the first place? WHAT does the log of the distribution 'give/simplify' that the original distribution couldn't/didn't? Is the log transformation 'lossless'? I.e., when transforming to log-space and analyzing the data, do the same conclusions hold for the original distribution? How come? And lastly WHEN to take the log of the distribution? Under what conditions does one decide to do this?   I've really wanted to understand log-based distributions (for example lognormal) but I never understood the when/why aspects - i.e., the log of the distribution is a normal distribution, so what? What does that even tell and me and why bother? Hence the question!  UPDATE: As per @whuber's comment I looked at the posts and for some reason I do understand the use of log transforms and their application in linear regression, since you can draw a relation between the independent variable and the log of the dependent variable. However, my question is generic in the sense of analyzing the distribution itself - there is no relation per se that I can conclude to help understand the reason of taking logs to analyze a distribution. I hope I'm making sense :-/  In regression analysis you do have constraints on the type/fit/distribution of the data and you can transform it and define a relation between the independent and (not transformed) dependent variable. But when/why would one do that for a distribution in isolation where constraints of type/fit/distribution are not necessarily applicable in a framework (like regression). I hope the clarification makes things more clear than confusing :)  This question deserves a clear answer as to "WHY and WHEN"
I've only played one placement match so far and I won it because my opponents were less than stellar.  I'm afraid that if I get similar placement matches in the future and end up winning them all I might get put into a league beyond my skill.  How many different leagues are there?  Once placed in a league, is there any way to move to a different one?  How? How to use Terminal to delete all .svn folders recursively? Disable HTTPS for a domain that shares IP with another domain that is under HTTPS I am running into a weird problem trying to disable HTTPS for one domain, but the other domain has HTTPS. They both are different websites running on a dedicated server, sharing the same IP address for the domains.  However, I have a domain that does not have a SSL certificate, but the other does. I want to disable HTTPS for the non-certified domain while leaving the other domain with HTTPS on.  I have two different separate vhosts in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/,   domain1.org (no HTTPS)  server {      listen                      80;     server_name                 www.domain1.org domain1.org;     root                        /var/www/domain1.org;     index                       index.html index.php index.htm;      error_log                   /var/www/logs/domain1.errors.log;      [ ... ]   domain2.com (with HTTPS)  server {      listen                      443 ssl;     server_name                 domain2.com www.domain2.com;      # INCLUDE SSL CERTIFICATE     include                     sites-enabled/domain2_ssl_include;       root                        /home/domain2/www/www;     index                       index.html index.php index.htm;      [ ... ]   I've included a listener to the port 443 for domain1.org, but once I do that, I get an aborted error from Firefox saying (when accessing ):     This Connection is Untrusted      You have asked Firefox to connect securely to domain1.org, but we can't confirm that your connection is secure.   I opened the technical data, it appears that the domain1.org is using the domain2.com SSL certificate:     domain1.org uses an invalid security certificate.      The certificate is only valid for the following names:    *.domain2.com , domain2.com        (Error code: ssl_error_bad_cert_domain)   So I added this to domain1.org vhost configuration:  server {      server_name                 domain1.org www.domain1.org;      listen                      443 ssl;      rewrite ^ http://domain1.org permanent; }   Which still gets me prompted with the Firefox error.  Now... when I access to , I get an 400 error from nginx saying this:     400 Bad Request      The plain HTTP request was sent to HTTPS port   I am not entirely sure what to do, disabling the https with ssl off; has no effect. How can I actually disable HTTPS for domain1.org but not for domain2.com?  I am using Ubuntu 12.04 running nginx 1.2.6. Billing Information Required for App Updates I'm trying to update 3 apps on my iPad and 3 things happen that never usually happen.   It asks me to sign in. It asks for my billing information. My card gets denied.   Now I know my card still works fine so that isn't the problem. The same thing happens when I try to install previously downloaded apps (that cloud button) or install new free apps.  I have no outstanding payments (is it even possible to have outstanding payments with Apple?) so why is this happening?  In case it's needed, I'm using an iPad Air running the latest version. 16GB Harddrive and Wi-Fi only.  I should also make it clear that "None" isn't an option for payment. Javascript - Get Image height I need to display a bunch of images on a web page using AJAX. All of them have different dimensions, so I want to adjust their size before displaying them. Is there any way to do this in JavaScript?  Using PHP's getimagesize() for each image causes an unnecessary performance hit since there will be many images. I wonder if it is possible to consider $\mathbb R$ as a Cartesian product $X\times X$ for some set $X$. From the point of view of the dimensionality, there are spaces with a Hausdorff dimension $1/2$ (sort of Cantor sets), but I guess there are other problems in this construction  unrelated to the dimension.  Edited: replying on the comment by Asaf. I want that for all $r\in\mathbb R$ there exists a unique representation $r=\langle x,y\rangle$ where $x\in X$ and $y\in X$. Also, what if we want to have $X$ to be a topological space and $h:X\times X\to\mathbb R$ to be a homeomorphism? , clicking &quot;link&quot; &quot;share&quot; for anwers yields a short (traceable) URL in the &quot;share a link to this answer&quot; dialog, such as †:  These short URLs show no clue about the linked question whatsoever. Also, when different people use a short URL for the very same post, then the user id suffix makes those be different URLs for a browser. Such links will then not be shown as visited‡. I know how to get URLs that have a proper slug. But as I see  pop up on these sites (where referrals ), I assume many others just don't realize full URLs would be better for use on these sites themselves? Or many don't want to do the little effort to get the full URL? So: can we please have an easy way to get the full URL as well, in a way that is easily found for those who don't know about the different links? (Currently for questions, clicking &quot;link&quot; has the same effect. But then one can also right-click the title, or take the URL from the location bar, to get the full human-readable URL. Once, Jeff .)  † The short links for answers are not (yet) [automatically converted][6] into a clickable question title either, unlike links such as `https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/74274/privacy-leak-in-permalink#75963`, which renders as https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/74274/privacy-leak-in-permalink#75963 But I guess that will change soon.  ‡ On Meta the CSS for posts doesn't indicate such difference anyway, which is a different issue. So I'm using an app that stores images heavily in the DB. What's your outlook on this? I'm more of a type to store the location in the filesystem, than store it directly in the DB.  What do you think are the pros/cons? I'm really interested in quantum theory and would like to learn all that I can about it. I've followed a few tutorials and read a few books but none satisfied me completely. I'm looking for introductions for beginners which do not depend heavily on linear algebra or calculus, or which provide a soft introduction for the requisite mathematics as they go along.  What are good introductory guides to QM along these lines? What is the right tool to process big .xel files (SQL Server Extended Events logs)? My aim is to audit all queries on an instance, who's running them and from where, how many reads, in order to consolidate/migrate on another instance.   Figured out the best way is via Extended Events to .xel files, over 2 weeks, copy those and analyse on my well-specd desktop. Set up the capture with the minimal number of details (fields), so really can't make it smaller than this - aprox 12GB in 12 files. Used "Merge Extended Event Files" in SSMS to load the .xel files and process as detailed in   Is this really the best way to do it ? Is there a better tool to load the files ? It's really slow with SSMS 17.7 - example: with only 4 filters so far (before getting into grouping and aggregates) it took over 12h to get to crunch through 50% of the logs. How do I grant sudo privileges to an existing user? I want to grant a newly created user sudo privileges in Ubuntu.  I tried  sudo adduser hduser admin   but it says no admin group exists. How can I do it? Should we use 'Title Case' or 'Sentence case' for headlines and buttons? I am wondering if we should use  or  for buttons and headings in websites and web/mobile apps? Title Case: Manage my Account Delete my Account  Sentence case: Manage my account Delete my account  In  I found the recommendation 'choose your style and be consistent'. This is it? Aren't there any other (additional) recommendations or sources. Like for specific use cases or apps where the one style would be preferred over the other? Edit: The question refers primarily to English, but differences in other languages are also good to know. Does the shape of a containter affect the apparent mass of liquid inside it when measured by a scale? For both containers it is true that:  $p_{bottom}=p_{atm}+\rho gh$ and $F_{bottom}=a*p_{bottom} \iff F_{bottom}=a*p_{atm} + a\rho gh$  I do not know how a scale functions, but I guess that the only force it can count is the force by the liquid on the bottom of each container (the only surface that is in touch with the scale is the bottom of the container). Thus, if we measured the mass of these two masses of water (lets assume that the mass of the containers is negligible) it would appear to be the same in each case. Am I right? Why isn’t the definite article used in "The commission commanded that work [...] should cease"? In this sentence:     The commission commanded that work on the building should cease.   Why isn't the used before the word work? It seems that the work is specified by on the building.  Another example is,     Construction of the building will start next week.   I understand construction here is something like putting up the building, and so the construction isn’t general in meaning. But the definite article isn’t used here, either.  I’ve asked about this several times, but none gave me a good answer. Books on cosmology I have finished Carroll's general relativity book, Spacetime and Geometry. I am specifically interested in cosmology, so is there any book which goes more in depth into cosmology? I prefer a mathematically rigorous book, which goes beyond the cosmology chapter in Carroll's book. The Big Bang and inflation theory should be dealt with in depth. Word for feeling conflicting emotions simultaneously When I compile the Python code below, I get      IndentationError: unindent does not match any outer indentation level     import sys  def Factorial(n): # Return factorial     result = 1     for i in range (1,n):         result = result * i     print "factorial is ",result     return result   Why? No analytic function in $\{|z|<1\}$ such that $f(0)=1$ and $|f(z)|\ge 1+|z|^2$. Proof strategy Show there is no analytic function in $\{|z|&lt;1\}$ such that $f(0)=1$ and $|f(z)|\ge 1+|z|^2$. I guess something went wrong along the way and I would like your assistance.   $f$ does'nt get a maximum in the domain, because if it did, it would be constant in the domain, meaning $|f(z)|=1\ge 1+|z|^2$ which doesn't hold for all z. Since $f$ isn't zero in the domain, ${1\over f}$ is analytic in the domain. but $|{1\over f(z)}|\le {1\over 1+|z|^2}\le 1={1\over f(0)}$, which indicates a local maximum making ${1\over f}$ constant, contradiction the fact the $f$ isn't. What am I really lacking here? According to , the only restriction on self-deleting an answer is that you can't delete an answer that's been accepted.  But I've also heard of users getting in trouble for deleting (non-accepted) answers, and there's the CC-SA license to consider, so -- quite aside from what is technically possible -- my question is when it's permitted to delete your own answer.  Some cases to consider:   You now believe the answer is incorrect. Your answer is correct, but another answer covers the same territory better. You aren't satisfied with the quality/rigor of your answer, e.g. it's speculative and you didn't back it up (on a site that expects that). Something in the answer embarrasses you and you'd rather just make it go away. Your answer wasn't well-received by the community (whether that's "meh" or "make the rep bleeding stop please"). (I'm sure there are others; this isn't meant to be an exhaustive list.)   Does voting matter, either in absolute terms or in comparison to other answers?  For example, maybe it's ok to delete a lower-voted one but not the top-voted answer, or one with score > N??  There is a badge, Disciplined, for deleting your own post of score 3 or higher.  This tells me that it's sometimes ok to delete upvoted answers.  But I'm not sure how much policy we can infer from badges.  Could we have some clarification please? How to install a "pdf printer"? Is there a way to install a printer that prints to pdf?  There's a lot of discussions about this in the web foruns, but none seens to work.