Specific questions versus general questions A meta question. After spending 6 hours trying install XYZ I found that I need to put one line in one file and this is information is missing from the docs of the package/library/language. One of the great strengths of SO is that these things often can be found very quickly browsing through the questions. The FAQ and responses at meta-SO however are tending in the direction that too specific questions are not of great value.  Background: I have been starting moving into developing more seriously again, and find SO of great value in many regards. I'm just wondering how SO will develop in the, say ecosystem of programming knowledge. In a way I'm confused, because too specific questions are frowned up, at the same time too general questions are often not wanted also.  The general question is a "canonical" one, meaning that it has been asked many, many times, in one form or another. A single canonical question (i.e. a mini tutorial) substitutes for the many specific questions.  However the problem is that:  What annoyed me is that the "canonical" answer just has a bunch of links to [XYZ].   See:
Should one ask generic or specific question? Let's assume that one has some problems with coding or designing specific project. Should one ask general question about techniques, algorithms, generic problem (anonymising the project references), or should one ask about specific problem in specific problem? Or perhaps something in between?  Example:   generic: Cross-browser implementation of “HTTP Streaming” (push) AJAX pattern specific: How to implement AJAX-y 'incremental blame' view in gitweb (git web interface in Perl)?   If one should ask generic questions, how to anonymise problem? If one should ask specific question, how avoid 'homework' syndrome?
What can I do to increase battery life on my Android device? What can I do to get better battery life on my Droid? Battery life seems awful. Less than 15 hours or so on normal usage. Return matched elements' attribute ar array using jQuery Keyboard shortcut to autocomplete the user in comments RELATED,ESTABLISHED state in iptables What do the words 'RELATED' and 'ESTABLISHED' individually signify in RELATED,ESTABLISHED state in iptables? Who are the 3 men who would have a chance against Jaime Lannister in a sword fight? In Game of Thrones season 2, episode 8, "The Prince of Winterfell" , Jaime Lannister says to Brienne:     There are three men in the kingdoms who might have a chance against me [in a sword fight]   Who are those three people?                                  I don't believe this quote, or any variation, appears in the books. There was this quote from A Storm of Swords when he is fighting Brienne:     She is stronger than I am.      The realization chilled him. Robert had been stronger than him, to be sure. The White Bull Gerold Hightower as well, in his heyday, and Ser Arthur Dayne. Amongst the living, Greatjon Umber was stronger, Strongboar of Crakehall most likely, both Cleganes for a certainty. The Mountain’s strength was like nothing human. It did not matter. With speed and skill, Jaime could beat them all.   So in the books it suggest that Jaime can beat anyone, though he is only referring to people of great strength, not necessarily of great skill (somebody such as Barristan Selmy, who is not considered to be exceptionally strong but is exceptionally skillful, may be able to beat him).  Is there any canon evidence to suggest who these three people may be?  I won't accept any purely speculative answers. However if there is no direct canon quote answering the question (which I believe to be the case) I will consider answers that are strongly inferred from canonical sources (such as a canon quote saying X is the greatest fighter in the kingdom, for example). How to make the term "page" show in the Glossary list? Did all Headmasters get a portrait in Hogwarts? Throughout the Harry Potter series, we see that deceased Headmasters of the school get a semi-sentient portrait of themselves in the Headmaster's Office, at the service of the current Headmaster. Do all Headmasters get a portrait? What are the conditions of getting one? For instance, there are a couple of times when Dumbledore is temporarily deposed as Headmaster: Dolores Umbridge takes over the job in Order of the Phoenix, and Minerva McGonagall takes the job in Chamber of Secrets and Half Blood Prince. Will Umbridge and McGonagall have portraits in the Headmaster's Office when they expire? Prove $[A,B^n] = nB^{n-1}[A,B]$ I am trying to show that $[A,B^n] = nB^{n-1}[A,B]$ where A and B are two Hermitian operators that commute with their commutator. However, I am running into a little problem and would like a hint of how to proceed.  If A and B commute then $[A,B] = ABA^{-1}B^{-1} = e$ where e is the identity element of the group.  $$\therefore AB=BA$$  $$n=1; [A,B^1] = (1)B^0[A,B] = e$$ This statement is certainly true. however moving on to $n = 2$ I find...  $$[A,B^2] = AB^2A^{-1}B^{-2} = ABBA^{-1}B^{-1}B^{-1} = BBAA^{-1}B^{-1}B^{-1}$$  Where in the last step I have used the fact that A and B commute to rearange the terms. However, it is plain to see that this last term simply reduces to the identity as well and for the n = 2 case we have:  $$[A,B^2] = e \ne 2B[A,B] = 2Be = 2B$$  Clearly I have assumed something I shouldn't have. The fact that there is a multiplicative factor of n implies I should be adding things, but I thought if I kept it as general as possible, the answer should just fall out naturally. I don't want an answer please, only guidance. Compile gvim from sources? Easiest way to setup Ubuntu as a VPN server Is it possible for information to be transmitted faster than light by using a rigid pole? Is it possible for information (like 1 and 0s) to be transmitted faster than light?   For instance, take a rigid pole of several AU in length. Now say you have a person on each end, and one of them starts pulling and pushing on his/her end.   The person on the opposite end should receive the pushes and pulls instantaneously as no particle is making the full journey.  Would this actually work? Whenever I'm running or playing a game, I consistently run into an issue of setting atmosphere. I've realized the best way to do this is through more effective, engaging descriptions of settings, actions, and objects that the characters see and feel.  As a player, I feel that my actions are generally "I attack the goblin," or some variation thereof, but I'm afraid that I'll stumble over my words and further confuse the other players and I'll resort to "I attack the goblin" as to not drag the game out longer.  As a DM, my issue tends to be more with setting atmosphere with settings, locations, and objects. Effectively, the flavor texts that comes with walking into some amazing location that the characters (not necessarily the players) should be suitably impressed by. My goal here is to engage the players with some degree of spectacle, and be more inquisitive in their environment and whatever lies within it.  How can I create more descriptive, concise flavor text for the games I play in? Should I test private methods or only public ones? I am looking for a pipe symbol that can be made to vary in height automatically.  One of the common ways of writing "such that" in mathematics is with the pipe symbol (|). The pipe can be represented in LaTeX directly as the character | or as \vert, but neither of these expands vertically in math presentation mode. I can adjust it manually this way:  \[\mathcal{H}=\left\lbrace h(x)=\sum_{i=0}^{k-1}a_{i}x_{i}\mod m\ \Bigg\vert      \ a_{i}\in\mathbb{Z}_{m^{k}}\right\rbrace\]     but I am looking for a true variable-sized option, parallel to \lbrace etc.  The amsmath package provides \lvert and \rvert, but I do not find them expanding as expected, and the amsmath documentation specifies that they should be used as binary delimiters (one on each side of something else), rather than alone. Book a return flight a year in advance Is it possible to buy an airline ticket that has me returning to my country after a year being abroad? I can't seem to book a flight that far in advance online. Rogue DHCP Server Can't be found Over the last 3-4 weeks I have been trying to find a rogue DHCP server on my network but have been stumped! It is offering IP Addresses that do not work with my network, so any device that needs a Dynamic Address is getting one from the Rogue DHCP and then that device stops working. I need help to find and destroy this thing! I think it might be a Trojan of some sort.  My Main Router is the only valid DHCP Server and is 192.168.0.1 which offers a range of 192.160.0.150-199, and I have this configured in my AD as Authorized. This ROGUE DHCP claims to be coming from 192.168.0.20 and offering an IP Address in the range of 10.255.255.* which is messing up EVERYTHING on my network unless I assign a static IP Address to it. 192.168.0.20 does not exist on my network.  My network is a single AD Server on Windows 2008R2, 3 other physical servers (1-2008R2 and 2 2012R2) about 4 Hypervisor VM's, 3 laptops and a Windows 7 box.  I can't ping the rogue 192.160.0.20 IP, and I can't see it in the ARP -A output, so I can't get its MAC address. I'm hoping that someone reading this post has come across this before. How does Ubuntu partition the disk when we choose "Erase disk and install Ubuntu" during installation? I added this to /etc/crontab on a few different linux &amp; freebsd systems:  # monthly reboot: 3rd Tuesday of every month 56 07 15-21 * 2 root /sbin/shutdown -r now   I want a reboot on the 3rd TUESDAY of every month.  However, all the systems rebooted on the 3rd Wednesday of this month (the 19th).  What am I doing wrong?  Update: Thanks to Ranon's answer below, looks like the below revision will work, can anyone confirm or is there an even better way of doing it?  # monthly reboot: 3rd Tuesday of every month 56 07 15-21 * * root test $(date +\%u) -eq 2 &amp;&amp; /sbin/shutdown -r now Do compound subjects like "everyone ... and everyone..." take singular or plural verb agreement? Here are the examples of compound subjects:      Everything on the bed and everything in the closet was organised   in under an hour.   Everybody who witnessed the shooting and everybody   in the room were interviewed.   Anyone on the soccer team and   anybody on the basketball team was eligible for the scholarship.   Should I also use was instead of were in the second example? Or the first and the third examples are incorrect that I should use were instead of was. How do  I create a desktop wallpaper slideshow with my own set of images?   With the images coming from a pictures folder, or pre-selected With the images displayed in order, or randomly With the images changing every few minutes, or after random periods of time