Which forensic techniques should I use to identify intrusion or monitoring of my computer or cellphone

Question: If I suspect my computer or cellphone is being monitored by an unknown attacker, what tools or techniques could I use to detect or identify such monitoring?
Comment: Your premise may or may not be correct (also, which government? AFAIK there's no global New World Order (yet ;))); depending on this, the argument may or may not make sense. I'm guessing that there's no super-advanced universal crack-everything secret governmental key - for economical reasons: to crack into most computers, it would be far easier (and cheaper) to use the common tools available to mortal men; and even easier (for a powerful enough government) to just come and confiscate the equipment, then work on cracking it through physical access.
Comment: If we tell you, we'll have to kill you!
Comment: Hello!  This question could use some editing to make it snappier and clearer.
Comment: I would start by doing a format on your machine, and doing a wipe on your iPhone. The problem with your computer can be solve, the fact they are able to listen to your conversations is someting you won't be able to avoid, since they access to the source.**A few weeks ago, I saw an article about one hacker that discovered a way to send virus packages through verified software updates, and this lead me to wonder about the government legal techniques used when they need access to a determined device.** - Do not believe everything you read.
Comment: That said, it *could* be possible that someone has crafted undetectable backdoors into all common products (and there have been such controversies in the past - e.g. the Diginotar hacker *claimed* to be able to push fake-yet-validating Windows Updates), it's just not very likely that they'd all go undetected (and likely they would be secret, which is somewhat in opposition to well-known). In summary: real life is very different from CSI:Miami, such tools seem unlikely to me (but that could be just a confirmation that I have a part in the conspiracy, right?).
Comment: A terminus technicus for governmental monitoring is "lawful interception". Google will point you to marketing material advertising such systems in more or less great detail. Especially those systems for the northern American "market" that claim that they can issue valid certificates are interesting.
Comment: @DanBeale, feel free to improve it. Nowadays even users with less 2,000 rep can edit posting. (The edit will end up in queue for review but good edits are usually approved very quickly)
Comment: @DanBeale I've edited, hope it helps.
Comment: Please, check again @Piskvor.
Comment: @HendrikBrummermann I've reformulated my question. I think now you can get my point.
Comment: @Ramhound Already did before write this post, but nothing.
Comment: Have you checked your computer for unknown material (USB devices or unknown parts inside the computer)? Do you use a wireless keyboard?
Comment: @Arkh No, I don't have wireless keyboards. Until now, I haven't identified any unknown parts on my notebook.
Comment: Offline inspection from another computer, preferably live media.  This should include checks with the NSRL and looking for ADS.  I don't expect anything from a mobile to be secure.  That about covers how I would handle it.
Answer: There's a broad spectrum of methods that could be used to monitor your communication.
External Monitoring ("Lawful Intercept")
Your attacker could be monitoring your communication upstream. This could be because they're working with your ISP, or they're sniffing your home network (wired or wireless). You said that your attacker knows things you typed... were you typing these over a clear channel?
Defense against upstream monitoring and local network sniffing: Don't send any communications in the clear. Use only encrypted channels, and use only protocols that provide you assurance that you know who is at the receiving end. The attacker will still see all of your communication, but (assuming the encryption is strong, you don't leak the key, and any passwords are strong) they will be unable to read it.
Defense against local network sniffing: Stop using wireless; disconnect the antenna from your access point, disable wireless in software. For your wired network, inspect your cables. If your cables go through the walls, run new cables between the router and computer that are exposed (visible). You may be able to detect sniffers through various techniques, but it isn't always possible.
Defense against anybody brute-forcing your encrypted communications: (Assuming you're encrypting everything...) Flood the attacker with noise. Through whatever communication channel you're using, make sure that you are always sending something -- random garbage. (It doesn't have to be random, anything will do -- the works of Shakespeare, the text of the tax code, etc.) It should still be encrypted; this makes it so that even if the attacker can feasibly brute-force your communications it is even harder because they won't know which comms are legit and which are noise.
Internal Monitoring (rootkit, keystroke logger)
If your attacker has hacked your computer or phone, there could be a monitoring process that is running and sending all of your keystrokes to the attacker.
Defense against rootkits/loggers: You can run a rootkit detector or anti-malware software to try to find it. If the attack is really clever or uses some new technique, you may not find the logger.
Defense to detect them: They have to get the keystrokes off the machine somehow. Run a sniffer. If you detect outbound traffic that is not yours, investigate it. It may lead you to the process that is sending your keystrokes. As another poster mentioned here, you can jailbreak your phone and run a sniffer to detect any unexplained outbound traffic. This is not foolproof; the logger could be using a covert channel that is not detectable using the common monitoring techniques. Careful analysis of a capture file might reveal a covert channel, but a sophisticated attacker might be using an out-of-band channel or other mechanism that is very hard to detect.
Defense to avoid them on your phone: Ditch the smart phone. Get a "dumb", disposable phone and a prepaid account. Use it for phone calls. Use your (wired) computer (see next item) for Internet commnication.
Defense to avoid them on your computer: Go to the store, buy a USB stick (best if you can find one with a physical read-only switch). From a reliable source, put a bootable copy of your OS of choice on the drive. Switch the drive to read-only. Boot from the drive. (This assumes that you are going to install a hardened copy of the OS onto your read-only drive.) For the most protection, don't access your existing HDD. Wipe it (with every reboot if you're paranoid) and use it as swap/tmp space.
Defense to distinguish between monitoring via rootkit and monitoring via network: Using a clean OS (see above), send a message that you want intercepted from your home network. If the message is intercepted, it is very likely that your network is compromised and not your computer.
Physical Monitoring
If the attacker has placed listening devices or cameras in your home, workplace, or other areas that you commonly use, they could be monitoring you that way. Keep in mind that you could be watched through open windows, or someone could listen through the walls of a neighboring apartment.
Defense to detect this monitoring: (Assuming that you can get feedback on whether particular messages are captured.) Assuming you can surreptitiously disconnect your keyboard from your computer, type something that you want to deliberately be intercepted (in a situation where the keystrokes would not be echoed to the screen). If you find out that the communication was intercepted, you can assume that there's something monitoring your keyboard. Repeat as desired, possibly moving to different rooms. Repeat with the keyboard connected to the computer and characters echoed to the screen, but actual network comms disabled.
If your messages are only intercepted when echoed to the screen, you could be subject to Van Eck phreaking. In this case, you would need to shield your LCD from leaking electromagnetic emissions.
Defense: If you think your home and/or office is bugged, don't communicate from those locations.
Defense: If you think your phone is bugged, get another phone (see above). Never let the phone off your person.
Defense: Hire a specialist to sweep your home for RF bugs. (Or move.) After it is verified clean (or you have moved), apply physical security measures to avoid physical compromise and/or at least have the ability to confidently detect it.
Finally, don't discount the possibility that the person you are communicating with has been compromised. Maybe their computer/phone has been hacked, they are being monitored, or they are otherwise providing with your attacker with info. It's also possible that any servers/services that are relaying messages for you have been compromised and are disclosing your messages.
Answer: Okay - there are definitely two important points to remember here:

Some governments do have the ability to target a particular individual and tap into everything they do, but
They just don't have the resources to do this unless you are an astonishingly valuable target/criminal/spy

The technology is all simple stuff, but really, your government don't care - they have trouble justifying resource to track criminal gangs who are getting away with millions. Typing something into notepad and then hearing someone else talk about it is a little at odds with a government that you think is making a determined effort to snoop on you, don't you think?
So - ruling the government out of the equation, what other possibilities do we have?
(I wrote this bit before noticing you mentioned a neighbour who is a policeman - makes it even more likely:)
Someone who knows you - this is actually significantly more likely. A neighbour, colleague or friend would certainly be infinitely higher up my list of probables than a government. But again, what makes you so important that your communications are being tampered with?
Which brings me to the single most likely outcome, statistically:
The points you discuss in your question don't strike me as evidence of anything, I'm afraid. iPhones and other smart phones sometimes run slowly, apps are written by fallible humans, and to top it all off you say you haven't been able to detect anything.
You say you have security software up to date on your PC and have reformatted it, and you have a router with access controls (I'm assuming you do have them enabled?) so you are already doing the right things. Make sure your windows firewall is enabled, and perhaps look in to Microsoft Security Essentials.
So really, unless you are a valuable target, stop worrying and learn to love the internet :-)
Comment: Right, that's not the government. It's just a guy who have worked his entire life as an authority and he have administrative rights. And, as confirmed, they are not just talking about what I'm typing but, also about images that I have not even taken. I'm a target due to a series of robberies in my building. The reason I'm a target (in his vision) can not be posted here due to personal reasons. But I can say that I do not have any relation with that.
Comment: I'm starting to think that I will never have way to confirm that though technical ways unless I turn my self into a security expert. Right?
Comment: So, following your devices, I've changed the question title and now I'm focusing on forensic techniques, so that we not loose the question due to the subjectiveness. Thank you.
Answer: Go to, for example, the GCHQ website.  Read what they say - they are the largest computing centre in Europe; they employ very many mathematicians and computer people; they are responsible for monitoring communications "from DC to light".
With that information you can invent various conspiracy theories about what they are capable of.
Mix in information from previous known work, for example the EU parliament report on ECHELON, and you can ramp up those conspiracy theories.
A lot of software is either insecure or installed and maintained so as to be insecure and most users are hopelessly insecure and clueless.  Do governments need to install super secret backdoors into all software?  Probably not.  They just need to employ people who can 'hack'/'crack'.
Comment: Edited my question. Please, see again.
Answer:
Do you know or have any experience with that kind of attack?

No. (but I can not be trusted)

Can you list more techniques?

Many, my favorite is using half of a psychoactive chemical in a food product and half in a hygine beauty product. When a populatious uses enoguh of both types of products... Oh wait that's from Batman.

Do you know if the government have total control over which computer are monitored to prevent the inadvertent use of "national security"'s tools?

Every computer is monitored especially the ones monitoring the computers being monitored, but I can only guess who monitors those monitoring the monitors.

And finally: Is it possible for mortal users (probably, IT guys like you and me) to detected this kind of intrusion? Or, in most cases, given the amount of resources, the government is undetectable?

The stealthy capabilites of national governments are undeniable.
USA The bay of pigs
Israel Mossad agents caught on tape in Dubai
UK's George Blake
Austraila's ASIS with the Sheraton Hotel incident
France's DGSE with the Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
Germany's MAD with surveilance of their own foreign minister Georg Leber
Answer: Have you read about the Stuxnet virus? One place to begin reading about it is http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/07/how-digital-detectives-deciphered-stuxnet/all/1
Then you can extrapolate the history to your question:

yes, if you don't have the source code and don't analyze it, you can't trust what's being used
If you don't check everything that comes to your computer, you might be under attack. Read about how DirecTV defeated some pirates that were using fake cards (do some search in google), or how US government would give a bomb-software to Russia (in this history : http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/363580/when-computers-go-wrong - don't know if it's true).

3 - If you remember the NSA Key inside windows (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY), you can see that rumours about what you're asking have being spreading long ago...
Comment: Edited my question. See again.
Answer: I'm going to assume, for the purposes of winning the bounty, that you aren't crazy, or paranoid, or schizo, or whatever.
Here's the thing about surveillance...  If you KNOW its happening to you, but you can't figure out how it's being done, then you likely never will figure it out (or you're bonzo).  At some point, you will have to resign yourself to the certainty that you are being monitored, and that there is nothing you will be able to do.  Once you make that decision, the decision to stop fighting and investigating, there are several other options open to you.
First, you can just decide you just don't care.  Let them listen to your personal business all they want, you just don't care anymore.  This works especially well if you aren't doing anything to be ashamed of, or illegal, or against the prevailing party in the country.  I don't know the political and legal situation in Brazil, so I can't really recommend this position either way.
If this isn't an option, you can also just disconnect and go dark.  No information transfer means nothing to monitor.   These guys can sit at their computers all day, and hear nothing but static from you.  This means that they'll have to get more deep into your business to keep tabs, and run a greater risk of you discovering their methods, possibly bringing them to the attention of law enforcement or a civil rights group.
Lastly, you can change the game, and bombard them.  If you can't continue 'in the clear', and you can't go dark, then you increase the 'noise' (it's called disinformation).  You recite long strings of random numbers into your phone.  Send cryptic texts to international numbers.  Post buggy JPG's on international bulletin boards.  Seed the output of dev/random on bittorrent.  Encrypt stupid things, but use nothing larger than a 10 character key, with no symbols or numbers (that's about 40-60 days of cracking time).  Call random people over skype, and use obscure phrases, odd mannerisms, an just plain gibberish.  Wear a certain color shirt, and go to the same mailbox every Wednesday, while turning over rocks in the park.  Leave random notes with GPS coordinates lying around.  Surf google for strange phrases.  You could turn any monitoring of you into a loss leading activity, which will force them to determine if you are REALLY a viable target.  Maybe you are, in which case good luck.  Otherwise, they will eventually fire whomever is monitoring you for wasting a metric ton of money.
Best of luck, solidarity, the jade falcon flies at midnight.  Latitude: -58.21642, Longitude: 65.62804.  xyzzyverboten.
Mike
Answer: I guess one way to see what's going on on your iphone would be to jailbreak it, run a 24/7 tcpdump (while not using the internet in order to keep the .cap small) output it to a .cap file and have a look at it in wireshark. Quite a bit of work to do, but with the right filters you can surely see if there's something going on.
That's obviously one definite technique to expose malware which is calling home via TCP/IP... GPS would be a different topic.
Same procedure can be done on Windows 7.


Can I replace Windows 8 with Ubuntu?

Question: I currently have a Duel boot process with Windows 7 and 8. I wish to replace 8 with Ubuntu because 8 has been disappointing me greatly. It's taking up space that I could use for something better like, Ubuntu! I was thinking just booting 8 and installing Ubuntu from there but I wanted to make sure. Any advice on this one? I don't want Windows 7 to be deleted.
Answer: Go to http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop and get a copy of Ubuntu. Burn it to DVD and boot from it. Give it a try, then install it. You will be given a choice as to where to (which partition) you should install and if you want to use it along side Windows.
Make your choices and have a good time. Follow this tutorial  http://www.ubuntu.com/download/help/install-ubuntu-with-windows and you should have no problem.
Answer: For a better answer provide more information about how your HDD is partitioned and where are your systems installed. But for now I can say that installing ubuntu from windows 8 will put ubuntu as a third option on your select boot screen and you end up having all three OS'es (this depends on what options you chose when installing ubuntu). Then you can manually delete the files of the one you dont want, and edit grub config to display only two options.
Answer: I would start by labelling the different partitions for easy identification (Win_7 and Win_8).
Download the Ubuntu iso. Create a liveUSB with Unetbootin or simply burn a DVD.
Boot from an Ubuntu liveDVD or liveUSB and see if hardware works (Wifi, touchpad, screen brightness control, etc).
If you're satisfied, click the Install Ubuntu icon. Choose the something else option. In the partition manager, delete the Win_8 partition, create a small 4GB Swap partition and partition the rest as ext4, mount point /.
Continue with the installation.

Can I replace Windows 8 with Ubuntu?


Are there any reliable and/or easy to use "rule of thumb" guides for windchill calculations?

Question: Weather forecasters often give two tempertures, the actual air temperature and a 'feel like' temperture that takes into account wind speed. Is there a rule of thumb for calcualting the 'feels like temperature'? Something like -1 °C for every 0.5m/s wind.
Comment: Temperature and wind speed individually are more important than wind chill. You won't get frostbite at 33F, no matter how hard the wind is blowing, and you certainly need to dress differently if it's cold and the wind is blowing 40 mph.
Comment: @xpda at 33°F you might not get frostbite, but wind chill could still affect how you need to dress (above 50°F the effects of wind chill are minimal). You've got to consider temperature and wind speed together because they act in synergy.
Comment: Yes, but windchill alone is insufficient.
Answer: Personally, I would use a wind chill chart, e.g this keyring compass includes a wind chill chart that would be easy to carry. It's still not going to be accurate, but it would provide a guide when you have nothing better.
Take a look at the Wikipedia page on wind chill, the calculations look a bit "frightening" - not something I would like to do in my head.
Comment: Interestingly, only one of those calculations accounts for relative humidity, which always seems (to me) to be a pretty big factor in "feels like temperature".  A damp cold often seems worse to me than a dry cold.
Answer: This question has been answered already, but this problem interested me and I thought I'd share for future readers what I found by playing around with it.
The North American Wind Chill Index as presented by NOAA here is based on the formula (itself an approximation),

The chart applies to temperatures T from 40F to -45F and wind speeds 5mph to 60mph, and is said (by Wikipedia) to be accurate to within about a degree. The hard part above (apart from decimals which are hard to remember) is the V^{0.16} part.  We can approximate that with a line-of-best-fit (rounded) to get

We can plug this into the NOAA formula to get the following linear approximation on that range of wind speeds:

This still doesn't help with the hard-to-remember decimals, so we can round to the nearest easy numbers to get the following rule-of-thumb:

It's still a formula, but it makes a whole heck of a lot more sense than the NOAA formula.  What me might really like to know, though, is: how good is the approximation?  I set up some tables so you can compare the three different methods.
First, the NOAA advertised method:

The table is set up just like the chart on the website - wind speed increases going down the left column, and temperature decreases going left to right.
Next comes the linear approximation, rounded to the nearest degree:

As you can see, the linear approximation is within a degree or so of the NOAA chart (I didn't see anything farther off, but I didn't check the whole table, either).
Finally, the easier-to-remember version, again, rounded:

The rule-of-thumb version isn't as close as the linear approximation, but looks to usually be within a few degrees.  The discrepancy looks largest at the boundaries (V = 5 and V = 60), which makes sense, because the linear approximation is worst at the boundaries.  Definitely the above shouldn't be used for wind speeds larger than 60mph, but in that case, a person should be inside curled up by a fire rather than figuring crude wind chills anyway.
I suppose a person could come up with all sorts of rules-of-thumb, depending on the method used to approximate V^{0.16}. I don't know the details of how NOAA came up with their published approximation, but there might be something there, too, a person could use to come up with something that might work in a pinch.
Edit
Going  back to the original question, we can say that for a fixed wind speed, if the temperature drops 5F then the wind chill temperature drops approx 6F.  For a fixed temperature, the wind chill temp drops approx 1F for each additional 3mph of wind speed.  Both of the above are neglecting a little bit (of V/200 and T/200, respectively), and are only valid in the given ranges.
Answer: Relative humidity is doing to be a big factor here, both on the too wet and too dry sides.  Staying warm is generally not something you want to try to do "by the numbers".  If you're out in the cold and wind, you need to pay attention to the feedback your body is giving you about the conditions you are in.  Pay attention for the signs of hypothermia, frostbite, and/or dehydration and react accordingly.  Don't just check the windspeed and temperature and rely on that to determine who fine you are.
If you are planning in advance of a trip and want to know how cold it will be, don't use a rule of thumb, use a real calculation, but don't forget to add in humidity.  Generally you should carry enough extra clothes to cover any extreme weather changes anyways.
Answer: The whole concept of wind chill is not very meaningful. This can be obscured by all the fancy-looking formulas, which lend it an air of precision. It's little better than junk science, especially if used uncritically by people who assume that it must be meaningful because it's a mathematical formula.
If you're completely covered and have an outer layer that blocks the wind completely, then there is very little difference between windy and calm conditions. More typically, you might have boots that block the wind completely, some wool layers on your upper body that block the wind partially, and skin completely exposed on your face. In this situation, the wind chill is almost irrelevant for your feet, is partially meaningful for your upper body, and has a full impact on your face. In this example, your ability to maintain your core body temperature would be determined by the total rate at which you were losing heat in all these different parts of your body. There is no way that these factors are going to be correctly described by a generic formula.
As Graham has pointed out in a comment, a lot of this also depends on what health risk you're talking about.
Suppose the temperature is 35 F (2 C), the wind is 40 mi/hr (65 km/hr), and you're wearing a couple of thin layers of cotton clothing and soaking wet. In this situation, you are almost certainly going to die of hypothermia unless you can find shelter, but your risk of frostbite is probably zero. The fact that you're going to die of hypothermia is almost completely determined by the wind. If you could get out of the wind, you'd probably survive.
But say the temperature is -20 F (-29 C), the wind is 20 mi/hr (30 km/hr), and you're clothed in a thick wool base layer, a wool sweater, a thick down jacket, goggles, and a balaclava -- but you're wearing lightweight goretex boots. If you keep moving, you're probably not going to get hypothermic, but you're at risk of frostbite on your toes. The wind chill is a non-issue, because the only risk is frostbitten toes, and your toes are sealed inside the boots where they're not exposed to the wind. It's true that the rate of heat convection away from the outside surface of your boots is somewhat influenced by the speed at which air flows over them, but this is a relatively minor effect here.


How to know whether it is the time to change the nipples?

Question: How to know whether the bottle nipple is damaged or not? What are the indications and how frequently should it be replaced?
Answer: Most brands recommend replacing the nipples on a regular basis usually 3 months I think, however I've found they tend to last longer than their recommendations. Usually by the time the baby is ready to move to the next flow the nipples are still working fine. It helps to take good care of them and not use brushes to clean them.
As to how to tell if there's damage the best thing to do is compare them to a new, unused one. If there are marks, cuts, or big creases that is a sign that the nipple's pretty worn. Put some hot water in the bottle then turn it over and see how quickly the water comes out compared to the new one. If you have much more water coming out of the used one than the new one then there may be a tear or it's just plain worn.
Answer: I too have found that nipples tend to last longer than the recommendations; they just want another $20 from me to replace all the nipples in all my baby's bottles every 3 months. While they do grow into more free-flowing nipples over time, once you reach the Stage 3 and 4 steady-state the nipples are durable enough for your child to use for the 6 to 9 months (or longer) until they've moved on to sippy cups, unless your child is actively teething on them (and our daughter found that we gave her plenty of other more chewy things than the bottle).
I prefer the clear silicone nipples to the yellowish beige rubber, and those are easy to tell when they've been damaged; you'll see the split almost like you would a crack in glass. Typically the cracks show best when dry. Especially check around the tip; for bottles that aren't y-cut, any visible split anywhere in the silicone is an indicator that it's about to fail if it hasn't already, and it needs to be replaced.


Is there a preferred string gauge for different styles of music?

Question: Generally speaking is there a preferred string gauge for different styles of music?
E.g. Will the fingerpicking folk player choose one gauge and the rock lead guitarist another gauge, how about the blues rhythm guitarist?
Answer: Generally, certainly from my own experience, string gauge is up to a player's preference, using what they think gives either the best tone, or is easier to play.
However, despite this, various trends and consistencies have emerged between string gauges and musical style. I've listed some examples of this below;
Rock: more often than not you will find that rockier guitarists that tend to solo a bit more favour either 9's or 10's; the strings are easier to manipulate and bend in solos. Beyond 10's strings require so much more work to bend fully. I have even known of people using 8's, which made for a ridiculously light playing experience, you could hardly feel the strings at all.
Metal/Heavy Metal: As Dr. Mayhem mentioned, usually metal players will utilise heavier gauges (12-13) in order to tune down to C or D while the strings still retain good playing tension. Lower tunings give a much darker sound, as well as the higher string gauge giving what players call a 'phatter' tone, which has the advantage of sounding a lot broader when overdriven.
Jazz: jazz guitarists tend to use, again, higher gauge strings, for the 'phatter' tone, that sounds smoother when played clean.
Blues: Particularly early blues acoustic guitarists usually used very heavy strings. An example of this was Leadbelly, 'the king of the 12 string guitar.' He loaded his guitar with a very heavy set of strings, a tuned down to either open C or D, which gave his guitar playing a very piano-like sound, with the guitar resonating so much some describe it as 'roaring.'
Despite these examples, some inconsistencies between genres occur. Johnny Marr and Peter Buck, both jangle-meisters and both Rickenbacker users, use very different strings. Marr uses D'addario 10's I think I read in an interview somewhere, and Buck famously uses a Dean Markly set of custom 13's (!).
Kurt Cobain also reputedly used piano strings on his guitar, for overdriven heaviness presumably.
But, again, strings are personal preferences, with a player often using whatever strings sound best and are easier to play to them.
Sidenote: there is a very interesting deleted scene to the documentary 'It Might Get Loud,' a film I recommend to everybody. It covers Jack White, Jimmy Page, and The Edge all discussing their string stories, as well as other influential guitarists habits.
Hope this helped!
Comment: It's worth noting that there's the common idea that larger strings give a better sound, which is usually accepted without much questions.  However Hendrix, BB King, Billy Gibbons, and many other famous guitarists with sought after sounds are known to play very light strings (below .09)
Answer: Not really- it all comes down to personal preference. That said, in some metal genres, downtuning is popular, either just the low string, or the whole guitar, so thicker guages do make this simpler.
Having a thicker gauge gives a stronger sound, in many cases, but may not be as fast - you see a lot of blues guitarists using 10s and 11s, whereas metal guitarists may be more on the 9s and 10s with a thick low E downtuned to a D or C.
Jazz seems to attract slightly thicker strings as well - providing a mellower, rounder sound - but agian, there is a wide variety.
Answer: As Dr. Mayhem points out, there is a wide variety.  As he also points out, some blues player use 010s and 011s, and some tune down half a step, to get a certain sound.  Apparently SRV used 013s (ref: String Myths Part 1, Premier Guitar, July 2010) and frequently tuned down half a step.
You might also find some country players prefer 009s, or perhaps even thinner, because of some of the extensive string bending they do.  I thought Jerry Donahue was one of them, but according to his FAQ he uses a hybrid 010-set (source), which shows you that there's quite some variation going on.
Answer: I play 11's and I play very clean classical type stuff, as well as, very very fast technical metal.
I started playing high gauge strings when I played an electric with 13's on it. I absolutely loved it because the strings were far far tighter and as a result they have (in my opinion) a much quicker response/attack. When I tried to play fast on 9's my rythms were sometimes getting lost in the "slink" of the string.
I have to say that any "difficulties" that come about from higher gauge strings are easily overcome after a weekend or so of playing.
As has been stated before, there was a noticable tone difference - for the better. I would encourage anyone, especially tone junkies or metal players, to try high guage strings.
Remember: You have to do a full setup (Saddle hights, Saddle depths, truss rod, etc..) on your guitar everytime you change your string gauge to give it a real try.
Answer: I also am about the groove as I kick bass pedals and play to sing. Lately I am adding more attempts to solo in Simple songs suck as Spooky. The change adds another texture to my music.I use 9s because I am also playing bass with my feet. Yet when I play the Brian Moore synth, I must have minimal 10s for the better string tracking of the synth sounds which reveals more output with thicker strings.
Answer: I think it has more to do with the type of guitar being played than the genre of music. Generally, acoustic steel-string guitars and hollow-bodied archtop electric guitars produce a stronger tone with heavier strings. With solid-body electric guitars, the difference in tone between heavy strings and light strings is not as pronounced, but it still makes a difference.
I would observe that, across different genres, electric guitarists who play strictly rhythm guitar tend to use heavier strings, whereas lighter strings are prefered by guitarists whose style includes melodic playing with a lot of string bending.
But you can find many exceptions to this rule among rhythm and lead guitar players because it is up to a player's individual preference and playing technique.
It is generally also accepted that heavier gauges of strings will enable a guitar to stay in tune better than lighter gauges, so again it comes down to playing style--do you need to do a lot of heavy strumming, or delicate and expressive melodic playing, and how often are you willing to put up with the need to retune on stage?
Acoustic guitarists who play unamplified need heavy strings to produce adequate volume. This was a more important issue before the 1980s when there was no practical way to use a pickup in an acoustic guitar, and an acoustic guitarist playing with an electric band on a concert stage could only hope to have a microphone in front of his acoustic guitar. Since that time, there are now many good acoustic guitars that come with various pickup systems already installed, and many acoustic guitarists have gone to lighter strings because they are easier to play and the on-board pickup and preamp system compensates for not having heavy gauge strings.
However, string gauge on any guitar has an impact on tone, so assuming that matters of acoustic volume and amplification are all equal, guitarists select a certain gauge based on the tone they want to create.
Answer: There is a yes to this question and a no..
Many will say it is all personal preference, while that is partially true most musicians in specific genres have the same preference for strings.
Each different gauge of string can bring a completely different tonal quality to the music you play. Some gauges come with certain benefits for different music. You will see that many guitarists that play in drop tuning will often use a heavier gauge. Like my self, I have a guitar that is specifically for drop tuning and I use .012, .016, .024, .032, .044, and .056. The benefit that provides is not having the feeling of having loose strings.
To answer your question there is, but it mostly depends on the artist playing
Answer: im a rhythm player and I use rotosound 10s-52 gauge on my squire 50s classic vibe telecaster and it sounds fantastic I will never go back to 9s-42 gauge
Answer: I play rhythm 90-95% of the time. The fatter, chunkier the better. Chords and walking lines. Few years ago switched to 12-52s cuz they felt more like my acoustic, which always sports 12s or 13s. Fingers got so toughened up, I can't even feel 9s or 10s under my fingers any more. Have no desire to be another Eddie or Yngvie. I'm about the groove. Let the gloryhogs play lead. Without me doing what I do, shredder ain't nothin' but a noodler!
Comment: IMHO this answer doesn't seem to deal with string gauges as much as it does deal with personal pride.


Uses of the Chern--Connes Pairing?

Question: The backbone of Connes' approach to noncommutative geometry is the Chern--Connes pairing. By discovering the cyclic homology of an algebra and then pairing it the $K$-theory of that algebra, Connes showed how to find numerical invariants of $K$-theory classes. This is analaogous to the way in which the Chern character map gives numerical invariants of vector bundles. I would like to know what has the Chern--Connes pairing been used for? Besides its intrinsic interest as a noncommutative version of a classical phenomenon, why is it important?
Answer: The Selberg principle in representation theory of semisimple $p$-adic groups $G$, says that the orbital integral of a coefficient of supercuspidal representation of $G$, on a hyperbolic conjugacy class in $G$, is $0$. Connes suggested around 1982 that this might be interpreted by means of the Chern-Connes pairing: indeed a coefficient of supercuspidal representation is, up to a scalar factor, an idempotent in the convolution algebra $C_c^\infty(G)$, while an orbital orbital gives a trace over $C_c^\infty(G)$; hence the interpretation of the Selberg principle by saying that certain traces give the zero pairing on the $K$-theory $K_0(C_c^\infty(G))$. This program was implemented for rank 1 groups in this paper:
http://www.theta.ro/jot/archive/1986-016-002/1986-016-002-007.pdf
Answer: I guess you named already one if the biggest points yourself: getting invariants! So more specifically, Connes obtained (with Moscovici and others) invariants of pretty ugly foliations, it helps in the classifying certain $C^*$-algebras etc. There are also more algebraic versions in deformation quantization, where people have formulated index theorems using this pairing. In some sense, it is also a new way of understanding index theorems in general, though I must admit that I'm not really an expert here...

Uses of the Chern--Connes Pairing?


One stripped post mount on suspension fork

Question: I have a suspension fork, which has a stripped lower post mount, i.e. the bolt used to attach the brake caliper doesn't grip the post. Before anyone asks - yes, it is the correct size bolt, as the upper post is fine. Would it be possible to use something like a heli-coil insert to repair the thread or would you consider this unsafe ? FYI I am running a 160mm disc up front, and only do XC/Trail riding - so nothing too mental :-)..Thanks for any advice.
Answer: You might consider tapping this thread back out if you have a decent tap-and-die set.  Otherwise, a heli-coil should work for this application.  I would be more concerned with a heli-coil if you were using it on a post-bolt that would experience tensile stress--that is, "pull-out" force.  This bolt will be under mostly shear-stress, which means that the majority of the strength will be derived from the body of the post rather than from the threads.
I'm not an engineer--engineers, please correct me--but this is what my thinking is when I fix a broken piece of metal in a situation like yours.
If you are a little paranoid, you might goop the bolt threads with some JB Weld before threading them into the heli-coil.  This will add a little tensile strength and piece of mind, but should be pretty easy to break out with a breaker-bar if and when you choose to remove the part.
Note also that, in my experience, any use of a heli-coil or JB weld has the potential to be an "ultimate" fix.  That is, once it's fixed... it's fixed for all practical purposes and subject to failure if "fixed" again in the same place.  I might do this to my 90's Rockhopper, but I don't suggest it for your 2011 Santa Cruz Blur that you plan to change everything out on next season.
Short answer:  With the sort of riding you are suggesting, I would do the fix you are suggesting on my beater mountain bike.  On my high-end down-hill ride... I would take it to a frame builder and have the post replaced.


How does one separate the acceleration due to gravity from other motion in accelerometer input?

Question: How does one separate the acceleration due to gravity from other motion in accelerometer input?
Answer: When working on Wii titles, i found that a low pass filter on the accelerometer reading could be used as a reasonable approximation of the gravity vector component. Subtracting this from the real values then left me with a good basis stream for instantaneous gesture analysis. My low pass was around 1hz (just the average of enough packets of data) but tweaked dependent on the gesture being developed.
Comment: That sounds sensible enough.
Answer: That really depends on what you are trying to do.
If you are planning to use the accelerometers for navigation (essentially building an inertial navigation device) you need to keep track of which way  is down in your integration cycle. If you device is being accellerated with an accelleration equal to g in a lateral direction and you have no measurement history, you have no way of telling which is which.
If you are using the accelerometers as a sort of tilt sensor you can just assume your measurement is gravity, that is your local down vector. Decomposing it along the device's body will yield the orientation.
Answer: Several techniques only use the difference in acceleration, not the instantaneous value. In those situations, constant acceleration is removed for you.


vectors with entries from a finite ring

Question: I've been working recently with vectors over finite fields, but I was hoping to work in a more general setting and consider vectors over finite commutative rings.  The question I had is as follows: if I fill $n$ vectors with random entries over a given finite commutative ring (call it $\mathcal{R}$), then what is the probability that the resulting vectors are a basis for (or at least span) $\mathcal{R}^n$?  I'm pretty sure I have this worked out for the case of finite fields, but I'm having trouble generalizing so any help would be great.  Thanks!
Comment: I've not thought too hard about this, but: a general finite ring is semi-local so a product of local rings, so that reduces the question to local rings. And then via a Nakayama argument my gut feeling is that you'll be able to reduce to the case of the residue field, which you've already done.
Comment: Kevin, this is indeed true. $v_1, \dots, v_n \in \mathcal{R}^n$ give a basis of $\mathcal{R}^n$ iff $\det (v_1, \dots, v_n) \in \mathcal{R}^\ast$, and this is the case iff $\det (v_1, \dots, v_n) \neq 0$ modulo every maximal ideal of $\mathcal{R}$. Hence, the probability that a random $n \times n$-matrix is invertible is the product of the probabilities for random $n \times n$-matrices to be invertible over all residue fields of $\mathcal{R}$.
Answer: This question was more-or-less answered in the comments already; here is a summary posted as an actual answer:
If $R$ is any commutative ring, then a square matrix $A$ over $R$ is invertible if and only if $\det A$ is a unit.  It is a polynomial identity that $(\text{adj}\;A)A = \det A$, where $\text{adj}\;A$ is the adjugate matrix.  So, if $\det A$ is a unit, you can divide and make $A^{-1}$.  On the other hand, if $A^{-1}$ exists, then $\det A^{-1}$ is the reciprocal of $\det A $, by the polynomial identity $\det AB = (\det A)(\det B)$.
If $R$ is any commutative ring and $x \in R$, then $x$ is a unit if and only if its image $x_I$ is non-zero in $R/I$ for every maximal ideal of $R$.  If $x$ is a unit, then $x^{-1}$ is the reciprocal in every $R/I$.  On the other hand, if $x$ is not a unit, then the ideal $(x)$ is proper and is contained in a maximal ideal $I$, and then $x_I = 0$ for that choice of $I$.
If $R$ is a finite commutative ring, then it is the direct sum of local rings.  (Where by definition a local ring is one with only one maximal ideal.)  This implies that if $x \in R$ is uniformly random, then the variables $x_I$ are independent and uniformly random for the different maximal ideals.  (When $R$ is infinite, the same thing can be approximately true for various natural distributions.  For instance if $R = \mathbb{Z}$ and $x$ is chosen randomly in $\{1,\ldots,N\}$, then for small primes $p$, $x$ is approximately random mod $p$.)
If $I$ is maximal and $R/I$ is finite, then $R/I \cong \mathbb{F}_{q_I}$ for some prime power $q_I$.  So, if $R$ is finite and $A$ is a random matrix over $R$, then the matrices $A_I$ over $R/I$ are independent random matrices over the finite fields $\mathbb{F}_{q_I}$.  The probability that $A$ is invertible is thus the product of these probabilities, which for a random $n \times n$ matrix over $\mathbb{F}_q$ is:
$$p = (1-\frac1{q})(1-\frac1{q^2})\cdots(1-\frac1{q^n}).$$
Answer: Is this $n$ vectors of length $n$? Whatever it is, for the case of integers mod $m$ where $m$ is square free it is just the product of the probabilities over the prime factors.
In the case that $n=1$ and the ring is the integers mod $m$ then it could be very small if $m$ was the product of the first many primes (it goes under 0.1 for the product of the primes up to 257).
Comment: @Aaron: if you want a smaller ring where the probability is tiny then just consider a product of lots of $\mathbf{Z}/2\mathbf{Z}$s.

vectors with entries from a finite ring


How should a washed rind cheese be stored in the refrigerator?

Question: There's a dispute about whether to use plastic wrap, wax paper, aluminum foil, zip-loc bags and so on.  Also, I've heard that its a good idea to take the cheese out and let it breath from time to time.
Any washed rind cheese care advice?
Answer: Your best bet is probably a specialty product intended to wrap chese—that is, cheese paper.
Cook's Illustrated tested and found that (for cheese in general), wrapping the cheese first in wax or parchment paper, then over-wrapped loosely with aluminum foil performs better than either alone, and almost as well as cheese paper.
They report that the wax paper-aluminum foil wrap kept brie and cheddar almost as good as new for over a month.
They also found that plastic (either bags or wrap) developed mold before any of the other methods.
(Unfortunately, unless you have a Cook's Illustrated online subscription, you won't be able to see that link.)
Answer: Sadly, nothing anyone can say will end that dispute.
Some things to keep in mind when storing most cheeses (other than, perhaps, fresh cheeses like ricotta):
(1) Cheese is alive with the yeasts, lactobacilli, and/or other wee beasties that helped to make the cheese, and they are a big part of your cheese's defenses against bacterial invaders.  They need oxygen to survive.  If the cheese goes anaerobic, the cheese will get funky in a not-so-pleasant way (likely sulfur, perhaps ammonia).  It is therefore a good idea to store the cheese in a way that it can get a little oxygen.  Just taking it out once in a while probably won't be enough.
(2) Wee beasies other than those that made the cheese (the molds, mildews, and other bacteria in your fridge) would love to munch on the cheese, given the chance.  They are helped if the cheese is kept in a moist environment, or in a place where condensation will collect next to the cheese.  Plastic bags and wrap are probably the worst for this, but that doesn't mean you should never wrap cheese in plastic, just be careful not to let water collect.
(3) Fats are like velcro for odors.  If you keep your cheese on just any old shelf, then the cheese will quickly begin to resemble last night's salmon mixed with Tuesday night's Chinese take-out.  Better to use a cheese drawer or, if your refrigerator does not have one, then get a plastic box and punch a couple holes in its lid.
(4) Finally, cheeses with a rind will deteriorate faster once the rind is cut, so get only as much as you expect will be eaten in a couple weeks.
Comment: The OP asked specifically about washed rind cheeses. Are your points 1 - 3 specific to washed rind varieties, or are you talking cheese in general? Do you have any sources you can include to back up your points?
Answer: I make artisan cheeses and here is my answer:
If it is a hard cheese (parmesan or cheddar like) just keep it dry, cool and not exposed to the elements..a plastic container of ANY kind is fine.
If it is a fresh cheese or soft cheese it needs some space to breathe and not get "wetter" than it already is. Keep it in a plastic container with a paper towel in the bottom.
Really...storing cheese (unless you mean for months) is pretty much just simple common sense.
If you are storing it for months than do some research on aging conditions (affinage) for the particular type of cheese you want to store.
Cheese papers are for bries and camemberts primarily. The average consumer had no need for them. Period


What are some of the good features that Sharepoint 2007 has and Sharepoint 2010 doesn't?

Question: I would like to hear from SharePoint experts who have experience in both SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010 to share with the community on what are some of the great (or good) features that SharePoint 2007 has but however SharePoint 2010 does not have it.
Answer: The way SharePoint handles different authentication methods.
In SharePoint 2007 you could extent a web application and set up FBA in one zone and Windows authentication in the other zone, and you had different URLs to access each type of authentication. This obviously wasn't the best solution but it worked.
In SharePoint 2010 you can now have both FBA and Windows authentication in the same zone (woohoo!) except the catch is you end users have to select which authentication type they wish to use before logging in and this is not user friendly at all (boohoo!).
I thought, OK - I'll extend the web app just like I did in 2007! This works, except unless you turn on FBA in your Windows Auth zone and Windows Auth in your FBA zone the users can't see each other at all (in 2007 this worked fine) and the problem with this is the point I mentioned above - the login screen is just awful.
In the FBA zone I was able to point it to the default FBA login screen as a "custom" screen but it wasn't so easy in 2010. I had to write a custom login page that redirected the users to the windows auth login url. This seemed work but as time goes on we have been finding problems with it. For example, our search account could no longer authenticate on that zone and as such wouldn't crawl it.
Needless to say, this has been a pain for me to support. A feature that Microsoft supposedly improved upon shouldn't be this much of a hassle.
Outside of this one thing, I pretty much find 2010 amazing compared to 2007.
Answer: Not sure there would be too many. Usually, if a feature is 'good', it is left in the product for the next release. Features that don't work well or those 'not so good' features will be generally improved upon for the next release.
An example would be the service application architecture in 2010 as an improvement over shared services in 2007, or Business Connectivity Services in 2010 as an improvement over the Business Data Catalog in 2007.
In addition, I'd say Microsoft generally try to make versions backwards compatible with each other as much as possible, so unless there are significant changes in architecture such as the examples above, they will try to avoid removing functionality just for the sake of it.
Comment: I would agree with Paul. There isn't anything from 2007 that I miss in 2010. There might be specific differences, but nothing that stands out significantly as "better in 2007"
Answer: One thing I miss from 2007 is the My Links functionality. It's possible to "enable" it with some changes, but they replaced it for Tagging and Notes. Not exactly the same thing.
Otherwise, i have't missed anything else in 2010


As a monk what magical attributes should I care about the most on weapons and jewelry?

Question: This refers to items I find and items I craft. There are a lot of attributes on items from extra fire damage to strength to intelligence and it's hard to compare what I'm currently wearing with what I have in inventory. Are there should basic guidelines to follow for the monk? Should I focus more on dexterity rather than strength?
Answer: Equipment selection is dependent upon personal preference and intended usage. The monk's primary attack attribute is Dexterity.
Relevant information can be found in this question, but essentially each stat has a use outside of damage calculation:

Dextertity = Dodge
Strength = Armor
Vitality = Health
Intelliegence = Resistances

Elemental attack stats are useful if you can discern enemy elemental affinity.
Other stats to be concerned about are Money Find and Rare Find which are useful for farming cash or rare equips/components respectively.
Attack rate increases your DPS, but more importantly it decreases the amount of time between attacks which is important for attacks with effects like stunning the enemy for example.
Health for each kill or health from orbs increases will serve to keep you healthy.
XP bonuses from kills will help you level faster.
Spirit regen is useful if you use your abilities a lot.
Movement speed is extremely useful for attacking and exploring and running away.
Straight damage or armor increases are very straightforward to understand and can be compared mostly straight across against primary attack stat and Strength for the most part.
Subjective opinion to follow:
Personally, I don't worry about it too much. I try to boost magic or money find as much as possible in order to find better base stat equipment and/or materials. As far as other stats, my personal preference is to boost Dex because it boosts both attack and evasion. I try to raise my attack whenever possible because if you kill the enemies before they hit you, your defense wasn't really helping. I also like to keep some movement speed boost on because it is extremely useful.
Comment: Sure there is preference but there must be cases where extra fire damage is better/worse than extra intelligence, etc.
Comment: @RyanDetzel I would always go for more straight-up damage than intelligence because I play more aggressively. I don't run into many instances where an increase in resistances really does much of anything except on the harder difficulties, but the extra damage even if elemental will almost if not always improve the damage you're dealing.
Answer: Highly depends on your playstile, however i myself prefer the following.
Weapons:
1. Life on hit (preferably an amount of 700+, or 300+ and an socket)
2. Attack speed (the more the merrier)
3. Dexterity
Life on hit is self explainatory, att speed is second due to fater heals through loh, and dex increases dodge/dmg (and armor with seize the initiative).
Ring
1. Life on hit (preferably an amount of 200+)
2. Attack speed (the more the merrier)
Everything else depends on your liking. You could look for more resistances if you need them, more vit if your hp is low, more dex for obvious reasons. Best case scenariois if  you find decent amounts of all of them.
Amulet
Almost exactly the same as an ring, however you cam probably set the life on hit to 300+.
This is highly dependable on your other gear, but it could be better to look for %life instead of vit if your healh pool is large enough.


How does automatic redirection for the redirection plugin work?

Question: I am experimenting with the Redirection plugin and I really like it so far, but I can't figure out how automatic redirections work. If you go to the options section there is this section:
URL Monitoring - You can have Redirection detect changes in URLs and have an automatic redirection created in a specific group.
However, I can't seem to trigger this. What I would expect is that manually modifying the slug or changing my permalink structure would trigger the creation of the automatic redirects. However this doesn't happen. Does anyone have experience with this plugin?
Answer: Check redirection/models/monitor.php
It's pretty simple to follow whats doing.


How can I study or prepare myself for an exam with the help of my Android device?

Question: I want to learn a language or prepare for an exam with the help of my Android phone or tablet.
Are there any efficient and fun methods out there to do so?
Comment: Note to fellow reviewers: Please view the answers and the vote cound before VC'ing...
Comment: Slightly OT, but they are going to eventually have Android apps.... I highly recommend http://memrise.com and http://duolingo.com for language learning. I think they do work inside of an Android browser
Comment: What ce4 said and please leave a comment why you are VC'ing. Not sure what should be wrong with this question, even if it wasn't that popular or didn't have any quality answers.
Comment: It's essentially a poll. There's not an actual Android problem to be solved here.
Comment: I beg to differ: I want to use my Android device(s) to prepare for an exam. Isn't that an actual Android related problem to solve? At least I think so.
Answer: I could list up a bunch of stuff here now, but that would get quite long. So let's better organize it by groups:
Covering multiple topics
First, of course, there are mentioned Flashcard apps (best-rated here are probably Learn Easy and AnyMemo -- a longer List can be found at my AndroidPIT overview Vokabeln & FlashCards (Google Translate version here).
These are not only restricted to languages, as mentioned AnyMemo shows1: being able to also use images, you can use it for everything -- think e.g. of images of molecules, electronic wiring examples, and others.

Languages
Second, there are the "big language guides" -- again I can refer to an overview at AndroidPIT: Sprachführer (and the Google Translate variant here). Though this latter mainly addresses German native speakers, the end of the list has some generic hints.

While FlashCards & Co focus on learning words, the more complex language guides also cover grammar and complete phrases. I guess best is to use a combination. As for the FlashCards, any solution should do: they are mostly not language specific. Other with the language guides, where it lies in the nature of this type that it has to be specific at least to the target language you want to learn. Examples here include French Class Demo3 and Italian in a Month Free4.
A third category should not be forgotten to mention here: Get yourself a good eBook Reader, and add some books to it which are written in the language you want to learn. I recommend Moon+ Reader5 here, which already includes a huge Online Library list for multiple languages (which actually is sorted by languages even), so the reader immediately has some ressources at hand. Having trouble with some words while reading? Simply long-tap the word to open a dictionary -- either online translation, or an offline dictionary like Fora or ColorDict6, which both can deal with StarDict files saved on the sd card. Being able to mark and even annotate with Moon+ Reader (see the picture5), one could also use this app for other subjects/classes.

Number four now should be obvious: There's that Youtube app one could check some language specific movie[clip]s with. Or get some other movie player (MoboPlayer probably being a good choice), plus some videos in the targeted language.
Guess number 5? Right: Music. There are plenty of music players around, and songs to pick. Repeating them over and over is baking some phrases to ones brains :) Beside this fact, there are also some audio books and language-learning audio files around.
Science
So far on language-learning -- but your question was not restricted to that, as I just notice. So let's go for some more possibilities -- pointed out in the AP overview Formelsammlungen & Referenzen (Google Translate: formulas & references). There are tons of references for chemistry, like e.g. the very famous Merck PTE HD (periodic table)7, mathematics calculation helpers and references like e.g. Mathematics8, physics references, electronics, stuff for engineers... So learning is clearly not restricted to languages.

School Organizers
Learning for school or study? Multiple subjects to cover, and courses to keep track of? This also can be covered using your Android smartphone or tablet. The AP overview dealing with this would be Stundenpläne und Schul-Organizer (Google Translate: school organizers). From simple timetables like School Schedule9 to just keep track of what subject is running when and where, to apps also keeping track of related tasks and even silence the device during classes (e.g. My Class Schedule -- note the tiny numbered boxes on the blue items in the screenshot10, which indicate connected tasks), you can find many solutions.

Summary
To sum up: There's a lot of stuff you can pre-load to your tablet -- and then use to learn on-the-go.
Comment: Add Wolfram Alpha in atleast science section..
Answer: Flashcards are a great way to study. I can recommend Anki and Ankidroid (Google Code Project Page) for Android. It's fun to use and really efficient. There are even existing card decks from various topics that you can use to learn, extend with information and then share again to the community.
Comment: +infinite for Anki :) though I think pre-made decks are bad.
Comment: Some are good, some are bad. But sometimes a good starting point.
Comment: I highly recommend Anki
Answer: Check with your local Public Library (talk to your librarian). Many offer research apps, or free access to language tools. My library gives me free access to Mango Languages for example. Unless they are very small they will likely have a ton of other resources educational and informative as well.
If you are in the US, you might look up semi-local libraries in the same state. Most libraries in the US will give cards to anyone in the same state. If the library has useful apps available for free, they'll likely also have a good web presence that will tell you what you need to do to access the apps (probably just have a library card) and what you need to do to get a library card.
Answer: For learning a new language, Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone approaches are considered to be widely accepted (can't avoid Weasel words).
I've used both in computer and I am glad to know that Rosetta Stone has an android app named TOTALe for this purpose.
While Pimsleur's approach involves listening to audio and referring PDFs, this approach can work out on any device.
Where as Rosetta Stone's approach is little bit interactive and can be done only through an application.
Answer: Learning a language could be really fun if you could snap a photo of a word in your native language (I've only tested to translate from English -worked- and from Arabic -didn't work-) and find a translation quickly to another; for that I found Google Goggles ; a convenient solution that also doubles as a QR-code reader (requires Internet access). Google Goggles only makes out the words in the image taken, and thus you would need to also install a translator Google Translate  to direct your image's text to for translation (I presume it isn't narrowed down to only Google Translate, of that however I am unsure).
Also organizing to-do lists could be nicely done on tablets/phones. Wunderlist is my current choice to managing to-do lists, since it has both a chrome add-on (found here) and a mobile app (here's the link to that on Android). It helps you categorize your to-do's through separate lists, prioritize to-dos (only 2 priorities: either important by clicking on a star, or normal priority), and easily view/add tasks for nearing times, such as "Today", "Tomorrow" and "Next 7 days". You need internet connection for syncing.
Of the most obvious features for a tablet (or phone) is to have any needed reading material on the go, and easily accessible. If however you're reading from your computer, it could be more convenient to have a remote to help you navigate through your documents/presentation slides; reading easily without having to reach out for the keyboard. Although this might seem as lethargic behavior, it could be used to the contrary of purposes; for example using a treadmill while flicking through presentation slides or perhaps rehearsing a presentation (where there would be someone assisting with the slide navigation) without the need to reach out to the keyboard/mouse. Such apps would need wireless connection (WiFi and/or bluetooth; I think it varies- I haven't tried out remote apps much). The remote app I've recently came across is Unified remote for which you should need to download a server on your computer (it also has a portable version). I haven't quite tried out this remote (or others), so cannot give a review.
Hope this helps. Happy learning!
Comment: Please don't use URL shorteners. This isn't twitter.
Comment: You don't immediately know where you're going there's an additional layer of tracking and they're not neater as you can hide them anyway.
Comment: Apologies for the inconvenience although may I ask why so? I consider them neater given that they're condensed.
Answer: Check this app for vocab building(English)...
Link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wordLearner.Free
Description:
Word Learner helps you build and retain a strong vocabulary.
Prepares you for competitive exams like GRE, CAT, CMAT, XAT, SAT, GMAT..etc.
This free app has the following features:
1.A collection of 380 words categorized as Beginner/Expert.
2.Filter-Based Search Mode.(similar to a dictionary)
3.Daily Word Notifications- No more widgets required, instead get notified with a new word daily.
4.Learn Word Mode.
5.Test Mode - Test based on the words learnt by you.
6.Review List - Lets you easily access all the words you find difficult at one place.
7.Statistics regarding your performance.
8.Integrated with Wiktionary - Long press a word to get more details about it like
Etymology(i.e word origin).
9.U.S & U.K vocal pronunciations


Fresh basil storage

Question: How should fresh basil be stored? The packaging suggests that the optimal temperature is around 50°F, but I can't think of anywhere in an average kitchen at that temperature. A pantry is too warm, and a fridge is too cold. So which of the two is lesser of two evils? I recently had a whole pack get moldy after one use, and it was in the pantry. I think I'm going to start storing it in the fridge now and deal with whatever quality loss I get, unless there's a better solution.
Answer: From StillTasty. This site has done wonders with helping us extend the life of our fresh herbs

To store fresh basil: (1)Trim the ends and place basil in a glass containing about one inch of water; (2) Cover with a loose-fitting plastic bag and leave at room temperature; (3) Replace water when it gets cloudy.
Refrigeration of fresh basil is not recommended, as it can cause the leaves to turn black.
Answer: Here's one method I've used successfully in the past:
Cut the stems slightly, remove the rubber band, then put it all into a vase (a regular glass is fine too).  Fill it with a few inches of water, then cover it all with a plastic bag with several holes poked into it.
Keep it out of direct sunlight and maintain the water level, and it will actually start to grow.  It will keep for weeks this way.  There's a more detailed description of this technique (with pictures!) here.
Note: These days I tend to go through basil so quickly that I don't even worry about storage.  I prefer to buy fresh herbs in small enough quantities so that I don't need to store them, but I realize that not everybody has this option.
Answer: Fresh packet herbs, if not taken care of, will only last a few days, at best. There are two things you can do. If you have a South facing window and the herb is in a pot, place it on a dish and give it lots and lots of direct sunlight and just enough water.
When you pick the leaves, take the outer growth and leave the smaller, inner leaves to come through. If you don't have a South facing aspect, you could purchase a full spectrum light to supplement the requirement.
If you don't have a pot I'd suggest drying or possibly freezing the leaves. Personally, I've never gad a great deal of luck with freezing.
To dry the herb, place it in a brown paper bag, and tie it off at the top. make several small holes in the bag, then hang it somewhere warm and airy.
Answer: mince it, add large amount of it into a small amount of stock of choice (the stock that you use most commonly, or the most innocent stock that you can think of, e.g. chicken stock), throw it into the ice tray, freeze it, remove from ice tray into resealble bag, then serve PRN.
Answer: How much basil are we talking about, and for how long?
I don't tend to keep fresh leaves in the fridge, as it's the one thing that grows well in my garden, but you can take a length of paper towel, lay out the leaves, roll it up, then put it in the fridge -- it'll dry out rather then rot, so you won't have to pitch the whole if you forget about it.
If you have a massive batch of basil (that last harvest when they call for frost warnings on the news), I make up a large batch of pesto, minus the cheese, and freeze it in ice cube trays or muffin tins.  (don't use plastic ice cube trays that you also use for water, or you'll have garlic ice ... I keep a set for freezing stock, pesto and such)
You can also blanch the basil in boiling water for a few of seconds, cool in ice water, drain, then place it into a pot with cold olive oil, and bring it up to just below a simmer and hold for um ... maybe 10? 15 minutes?  Strain, bottle, and if strained well it'll keep in the fridge all winter.
Answer: This really works...  Cut stems just before emmersing in a cool water bath to remove sand and to generally wash the leaves. This also refreshes the basil.  Place in a tall glass with water sufficient for all stems to be immersed.  Don't immerse leaves if possible.  Keep on counter until most of the liquid on the leaves has evaporated.  Place a clear plastic bag over the greens and either tuck under the glass or use a rubber band to secure to the glass.  Place on the top shelf of the refrigerator, but not on the back wall since it is often too cold there.  The leaves will become erect and fresh while they wait for your gentle hand to call them to your recipe. Replace water if it clouds. I wash in advance because I prefer to have clean, dry basil ready-to-go rather than cleaning and drying them when I am busy cooking.  This method keeps basil serviceable for nearly a week.  Try that on the counter!
Comment: Oh, if you're not using your basil over a few days, it's a good idea to take it out of the refrigerator and take off its 'ventilator' bag for an hour or so.  This will evaporate any condensation on the leaves that can accelerate spoilage.
Answer: I bought basil at a farm market in Florida.
The farmer said to wrap a wet paper towel around the stems and then put it in a brown paper bag and it would keep for days....up to a week.
I did it and it works!
Now I have fresh basil at my finger tips.
Answer: The best choice is obviously to grow it yourself and only cut of as much as you need at a time. :-)
Other than that, storing it in the fridge works well for about a week. For storing it longer than that, you might want to try the freezing method bubu suggested, but i never had much luck with it.
Answer: In my experience, fresh basil is froze the best using the following method:
Cut the leaves and put them shortly in cold water to refresh.
Let the leaves dry
Chop the basil up
Mix the basil with olive oil
Freeze basil mixed with oils as ice cubes :-)
Lasts for ages like this and the leaves don't get brown because of the oils protecting the basil.

Fresh basil storage


when do you say amen

Question: Can you say amen to a bracha if you hear the last part, see a gesture of ending, or is it only if you hear all of the brachah.
Answer: The Mishnah (Berachos 8:8) states that we answer Amen even after hearing a partial berachah from a Jew, but not from a Cuthean (who is suspect of having addressed the blessing to Mt. Gerizim, the site of their place of worship).
This is codified as halachah in Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 215:2). Mishnah Berurah there (subsection 6) records variant opinions as to whether this applies only when one heard everything from Hashem's name onwards (i.e., basically the entire blessing except for the words "baruch atah"), or if it is also when one hears just the very end of the blessing (e.g., "borei minei mezonos").
Answer: To support Alex's point there is a Gemara in Yoma among other places that talks about the Shul in Alexandria that had flags which helped people indicate when to say Amen

when do you say amen


How to connect to Internet via wired USB ADSL modem in Ubuntu LiveUSB edition?

Question: I have Alcatel Thomson SpeedTouch 330  USB model modem.I can Ubuntu Desktop 64 liveUSB flawlessly but I don't know how to set up my Internet connection? I tried Network manager and entered my ISP, username and password but it didn't work. Can somebody help me?
Answer: In my experience no way to use NetworkManager, you can follow the adverts in this guide. For me Method 1 worked, impossible to follow Method 2 because some packets are not available for the 12.04 version.I don't know if you can use it on a live environment, perhaps if you use a usb live with persistent mode


How do I make a MTB shifter fit on a Road dropbar?

Question: I'm about to buy a MTB, since we don't have cyclocrosses here in my country. I'd like to have a road dropbar, but can't spend money on a road shifter like tiagra sti. I know the mtb handlebars are thinner than the road handlebars. Is there a way to make, say, a deore shifter on a road drop handlebar?
Answer: I'd recommend trying out some bar end shifters. You can get indexed ones for a few different gearing combinations. There are some ultegra bar end shifters on amazon for around $75usd. However, you could probably score some used ones cheaper via ebay. These are like what come on the surly cross check in the stock configuration.
You could mount regular rapidfire shifters on the top center part of the drop bars.  It might take some widening of the clamp to get it to work.  There is a thread on MTBR about an experience like this.
Answer: This is an older question but since no answer is marked "accepted" I'll add another.
If you are asking if you can move your shifters and brake levers to a road bar with no other change the answer is no unless someone is making a drop bars with an MTB bar diameter (I don't know of any).  Your question doesn't mention levers but I assume you want to move those too :-)
There are adapters, bar end and stem mount shifters and there are alternative brake levers but they all amount to an expense that will start to approach the solution you want to avoid. A simpler option might be to just choose an MTB with a flat bar and add Origin-8 drops.
Answer: You might try mounting them as close to the center of the bar as possible, where you can reach them easily with your hands on the top of the bar, or reach both of them easily with one hand off the bar.  I know this sounds clunky, but my first multi-speed bike was a Schwinn Varsity that had the shifters on the stem, and it was less difficult to use than you might expect without trying it.  True, you can't change gears when pumping hard, but if you expect to need to be able to, you probably wouldn't be switching to drop handlebar.
Answer: According to Sheldon Brown's handlebar dimension page, older steel drop bars have the same clamp and grip size measurements as most newer upright bars.  You should be able to find an old pair of steel drops that will be able to fit your shifters.


When is マイ・ワイフ used?

Question: While looking up マイカー in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gairaigo_and_wasei-eigo_terms, I came across マイ・ワイフ. Is マイ・ワイフ used in real life, or mainly in anime?
If the former, what differences does it have to other words for "wife"?
Comment: This is very likely an anime subculture term.
Comment: Flaw: That is the only place where I have ever heard the phrase used.
Answer: It is an anime-subculture term. "Mai waifu" is commonly used to refer to one's favourite female character, and may also imply having an imaginary relationship with the character.
Answer: At least in daily life, there is no word マイ・ワイフ or マイワイフ.
The prefix マイ means "personal (property)" or "private (property)" as opposed to "public" such as マイカー "privately owned car (as opposed to public transportation or company owned vehicles)" or マイマヨネーズ "mayonaise personally carried into restaurants (as opposed to those that restaurants are equipped with)". If there were such word as マイワイフ, it would most likely mean "a personal wife (as opposed to a shared one)".
Comment: Just for fun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AgDbAT56I0
Comment: http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=85sIJcC8zbs ... Opps, close but not it.
Comment: which video were you linking to?
Comment: @AndrewGrimm It is still linked. It is just a pun.
Answer: Well there is this open paper English Loanwords in Japanese (Gillian Kay,1995) that has a nice short summary on The function of English Loanwords in the Japanese Language (3rd to last page of PDF) that I paraphrase here:

The existence of many loanwords which have Japanese equivalents provides an alternative tone of discourse.
Loanwords are sometimes used for special effect, especially in writing where the angular katakana contrasts with the curvey hiragana to emphasize or reveal a foreign connotation.
English loans do not have as deep undertones of meaning as native words, and can be used more easily to express sentiments or describe situations which may be difficult to talk about in Japanese. This is the euphemistic utility of Loanwords.

Kay doesn't really say much about all the social aspects of 外来語 but, to risk speculation, I'm guessing that マイワイフ, and most 外来語 in general, are used only because they are so conspicuous. Clearly 外来語 carries a class of connotations that native Japanese words don't provide (superficial or not), and its usage is at least one effective way to add some colour to one's diction. As for the difference between マイワイフ and the lexeme 妻 or 奥さん, I would think that the most important and salient contrast is at the discourse level  where it seems that the set of social contexts for which マイワイフ would be appropriate are quite different from those contexts in which 妻 would be appropriate. It is kind of hard to articulate specifically the contextual conditions that afford the employment of マイワイフ, but to take a guess at it, I would think that the situational usage of マイワフ is characterized by what social behaviour is tolerated or permissible. So, マイワイフ would be observed in contexts where, for example, irony is permissible. Between friends, or between a manga author and its readership, irony is certainly a permissible language device. But between doctor and patient, politician and citizen, plaintiff and defendant, teacher and student, etc. irony cannot be employed so productively due to the potential violation of social factors.
Some further examples where my マイワイフ may be permissible/appropriate/tolerated:

Critical information is not being communicated
A low demand for explicit or unambiguous information
The speaker/writer is entertaining the listener/reader
Innovative/atypical/conspicuous word choice is acceptable, or even desirable
Intimacy. Specifically, an intimate relationship affords a wider or different scope of admissible words

So, in general, マイワイフ probably differs from the Japanese equivalent in the same way that all 外来語 differ from their Japanese equivalents. The differences might be described as particular specifications of a more general social criteria of what is acceptable behaviour and what is not for which 外来語 must conform too.
Answer: Usage of マイ is pretty important, but ケースバイケース as pointed out above. For example, back in the '80s マイペース トレーニング was commonly heard on TV sumo commentary to describe those wrestlers who took a (too) leisurely approach to training. If you're living in Japan and using TV as study resource, you can drop this kind of thing into conversation to gain respect (especially if they know you can use keigo, too). Pronunciation has to be dead-on Japanese, though. At any rate You need マイ__ to read ads.

When is マイ・ワイフ used?


How can I send a parameter with a RouteTask and get it back in RouteResult

Question: I'd like to send a parameter with the Route Task and be able to get that same parameter in the RouteResult object.
The goal is to be able to recognize the routes I receive from the server when I perform many solve operations on the same RouteTask.
Answer: There is no need to send something along to the server (and expecting it back).  The AsyncResponder supports a third argument "token" which can be used for this.  There is no need to create special classes or wrap it when the Adobe/Apache Flex SDK support it already :)
token:Object (default = null) — Additional information to associate with this request.
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/mx/rpc/AsyncResponder.html#AsyncResponder()
Some of the ArcGIS API for Flex samples take advantage of this, for example in the "Routing Directions" example which use it to keep track of the "from" and "to" geocodes:
http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/flex-api/samples/index.html#/Route_Directions/01nq0000000p000000/
Answer: One solution would be to create your own custom geoprocess that wraps the RouteTask. You pass all the parameters for the RouteTask and your extra parameters and then return the result of the RouteTask along with your own parameters. I used this method to take geocoding parameters and my own custom parameters, then called the geoprocess function and returned geocoding results along with my own tracking parameters that I had passed in.
Comment: Yes but geoprocessing services are very slow in comparison with NA services. I need my request to be processed by the server in ~1 sec.
Answer: I think I'm going to create a new class that will contain its own RouteTask, the callback function for the RouteTask and my own parameters. Then each time I need to use a routeTask, I will use my new object created.
What do you think?


Nonseparable example in dimension theory?

Question:
Could you give me an example of a complete metric space with covering dimension $> n$ all of which closed separable subsets have covering dimension $\le n$?

The question closely related to this one.
Comment: @Gerald: Why?, maybe one day I will get an answer...
Comment: Nice question. I'd keep it.
Comment: time to close?  nothing since November ... but still frequently bumped to the front page.
Answer: There are completely metrizable spaces $X$ with $\dim(X)=1$ and $\mathrm{ind}(X)=0$, where $\dim$ denotes the covering dimension and $\mathrm{ind}$ the small inductive dimension. The first such example is due to P. Roy (see "nonequality of dimensions for metric spaces", TAMS 1968), but there are many others. My favourite is due to E.K. van Douwen (see "The small inductive dimension can be raised by the adjunction of a single point", Indag.Math. 1973).
Note that if $Y$ is a separable (not necessarily closed) subspace of such an $X$ then $\dim(Y)=0$ since $\dim$ and $\mathrm{ind}$ coincide for separable metrizable spaces. So any such $X$ satisfies what you want for $n=0$.
Answer: Let $X$ the river metric on the positive plane $(R^+)^2$:
$d((x,y),(u,v)) = |y-v|$ if $x=u$ and $|y| + |v| + |x-u|$ otherwise.
(the x-axis is the river, there are othogonal paths in which we can move
"as in R", while otherwise we have to go via the river first).
Let $v_x$ the vertical line by orizonatal quote $x$, then  the subspace topology of $v_x\setminus$ {$(x,0)$} is the euclidean topology, but any open that containing a point of $r_0$ the the bottom horizontal line is  non-separable (involving a no countable vertical segments) we call a such open a "b-open" .
THen any covering $\mathcal{U}$ of $X$ as order 2, i.e. there exixt almost 3 elemets by no-empty intersection:
Considering a b-open $U\in \mathcal{U}$, exist a point $x\in r_o \cap (Cl(U)\setminus U)$ (i.e. in its boundary in $r_0$) then there exixt another b-open $V\in \mathcal{U}$ containing $x$, and $U\cap V$ is a b-open. The sets $U$, $V$ and $U\cap V$ are also open in the euclidean topology and we can assume also connected and containing its own projection on $r_0$, then because $R^2$ has dimension 2 follow that exist a point $(x', y)\notin U\cup V$ such that any open set containing $(x', y) $ intersect $U\cap V$ (otherwise we can make a cover of order 2, then any refinement has order 2). Then the element $F\in \mathcal{U}$ containing $(x', y)$ (like a open interval in the $v_{x'}$) meet also $U\cap V$ :
IF NO,the $sup$-extrem of the quote that $U\cap V$ can reachedin in the $v_{x'}$ vertical is minor of $y$. Any (open ball) $B_\epsilon(x)$ with $x\in r_0$ is like a halph-square triangle then if this is included in $U\cap V$ it dont meet the follow open part  $S\subset R^2$:
Considering the two halph line by base in $x',y$ at right by $45°$ pendence and $-45°$ at left (like the graph of $y=|x|$ traslated from origin to $(x', y)$) and consider the superior part $S$ of plane $R^2$ these halph-line  cut off, by these halph line included.
but then $U\cap V$ being union of (open) balls dont meet $S$, then exixt a (euclidean) open neighbord of $(x', y)$ that dont meet $U\cap V$ .
Comment: If I understand you correctly, $X$ is $\mathbb R_+$ with attached $\mathbb R_+$ to each point. In this case $X$ is 1-dimensional; i.e. your argument should be wrong somewhere...
Comment: @$\varepsilon-\delta$: No the distance is euclidean on vertical line, but for go from a pont $(x,y)$ to a point $(x', y')$ with $x\neq x'$ you have to go vertically from  $(x, y) $ to $(x, 0)$ then  horizontally to $(x',0)$ then go vertically to $(x',y')$.

These path's define the distance in $X$.

PS. We can chose copy af a finite close interval instead  the vertical lines (copies of $R^+$) then any subspace compact is separable. This answere to another question in this forum.

Please I wish delete my bad formatted comment above.
Comment: It is nearly impossible to read your comments...
Comment: The sets U, V and U∩V are NOT open in the euclidean topology!!!
Comment: I'm sorry about the mistake of latex on the comment, add Another answer
Answer: @: $\varepsilon-\delta$: $X$ isn't the the topological sum of real lines. You consider this "more shorty paths" logic:
For move in a vertical line you go on the line. But for go from $(x, y)$  to $x', y')$  ($x\neq x'$)  you go (vertically) from $(x, y)$ to $(0, x)$ then go (horizontally) to $(x', 0)$ then go (vertically) to $(x', y').
These "more short paths" distance describe the metric of $X$.
Now  a open ball centered in $(x, 0)$ and radius $\epsilon$  is a triangle isosceles, with the top right corner (the half of a square), its hight is $\epsilon$,  and its base (intersection by the $x$-axis) is a open interval of lenght $2\epsilon$  (centered in $x$),  and the intersection by {$(x, y)\in R^2 | y>0 $} is a open euclidean triangle.
Comment: Sorry, the metric you construct, gives $\mathbb R_+$ with $\mathbb R_+$ attached to each point. And I know this is 1-dimensional...
Your statement about $\epsilon$-ball is correct, but for opens sets it is not longer true.


Why would a virus writer bother to check to see if a machine is infected before infecting it?

Question: I was looking at the tripartite structure of a virus, and it seems to check to see if a computer is infected before infecting it with the virus. Would this be an attempt to use files that are already present to infect, instead of transferring another copy of the virus onto the machine?
Answer: The goal of most malware is to remain active as long as possible. The longer it can collect keystrokes, participate in DDoS attacks, redirect search results, send spam emails, shows popup ads, etc., the more profitable it is for the creator. To reach this goal, it has to be undetected.
If a piece of malware infects a machine twice, it may leave the machine in an undefined state, or cause conflicts. It may also eat up more resources than normal. This can lead to detection through a variety of operations:

Attempting to lock the same file twice, causing a crash.
Injecting into running processes twice, causing memory corruption and crashes.
Infecting the same file twice, causing it to be corrupted.
Attempting to install multiple hooks on the same APIs / objects / system messages, causing erratic or undefined behaviour.
Increased CPU, network and disk usage from the burden of having multiple copies installed.

The less resources used and the less disturbance caused, the less likely the user is to notice something is wrong. Once a user notices something isn't working properly, they'll try to fix it, which might result in the malware being removed. As such, it's better for the malware creator to prevent these problems and remain covert.
Comment: Anyone writing software that installs should really look to good viruses as paradigms of usability.
Answer: The first Internet worm, back in 1988, killed off the Internet (for a little while only, of course) because it did not check properly for its presence before installing itself again. It included a heuristic method which did not work as the author believed it would. All the copies clogged the networks and choked the machines, which was hardly inconspicuous.
A virus will want to check for its presence before infecting for the same reasons: to avoid drowning its host under multiple copies of itself. To spread efficiently, the virus must not kill its host too fast (and the same applies to biological viruses, by the way).
There is nonetheless a subtlety. There are a few simplistic viruses who damage the files they infect, by writing themselves over whatever instructions were at that emplacement. Such a virus could write and rewrite itself over the same file with no additional ill effect. However, since the original file is damaged, it does not work properly anymore, which makes the virus less invisible, and may prompt the user to do some cleaning. Therefore, efficient viruses copy the instructions around in the infected files, so that they get executed anyway. The infected file is necessarily enlarged in the process. If the virus infects a file repeatedly, then the file might grow without any limit, finally filling up the hard disk, in true 1988 fashion.
Answer: It's partially a business reason rather than a technical reason. I was once reading a blog post that was detailing a sales pitch, and it was heavily stressed by the person selling access to infected machines (for the purposes of spam relaying, stealing credit card info, DDoS, etc) that he wouldn't load multiple binaries onto each bot.
The more individual infections a machine has, the more likely it is to be noticed by the user, and the more likely it'll be cleaned. It pays to fly under the radar.
Comment: I don't suppose you bookmarked/saved a copy of the page.  For those of us without the time needed to troll the darknets something like that could be interesting reading.
Comment: @dan-neely Regrettably not, sorry. If I find it, I'll post it here, but it was a fair while ago.
Comment: For the first part of your post, it makes more sense to me that he was advertising this as a business reason to demonstrate that the infection count was accurate. As in, 10 infections means 10 computers, where it could be interpreted that there could instead be 10 infections but only 5 bots.
Answer: I would add as well, in addition to other answers, that there can be more than just checking to see if I am infecting the machine twice.
I would, if in that field, check to make sure the machine isn't infected with OTHER stuff as well as MY stuff.
The more stuff that's installed, the more likely the machine will crash, run slow or something will cause notice to the owner.
Preemptive removal of competitors products, as well as verification of no prior version of my product, would help keep the system mine. As mentioned, the goal would be to keep the CPU "mine". That means lay low and don't attract notice.
Answer: The machine may become slow, to the point where it's unusable. For example if a virus continually sends out e-mails other programs would run slower and the network would become saturated and the internet would slow down.
If the virus is a file infector it would corrupt a file by infecting it too many times.
Comment: The user might also get a physical notice from his ISP about unreasonable email activity, which would be a suicide move for the virus.


Measuring Gravity

Question: What is the usual procedure for measuring gravity?  Is it typical to just take an original and final gravity measurement or should measurements be taken throughout?  I've heard people talk about taking readings throughout the process to dictate where the beer is at; do they just drop their hydrometer into their carboy and leave it there throughout the brew or do they risk contamination by taking samples out?  Also, do I need to record/account for exact temperature when I take readings?
Answer: I don't take readings throughout fermentation but some people do. There is an increased risk in collecting samples, but if your sanitation practices are good, the risk is low.  I don't recommend dropping the hydrometer in. It will hard to find among the krausen, will be very difficult to read accurately, and the reading will be slightly off due to co2 that is dissolved in the beer during fermentation. For an accurate reading you should know the temp within a few degrees. My procedure:

Sanitize a turkey baster
Fill a Glass or mug with wort/beer using the baster.
Pour wort/beer between 2 glasses to remove dissolved co2 (I don't always do this but it will make readings slightly more accurate)
Pour into hydrometer test jar.
Take temperature reading.
Take gravity reading
Take 2nd temp reading for an average temp.
Correct gravity reading for temperature.
Sample beer, do not add back to Carboy/bucket
Answer: You can take measurements throughout fermentation to find out how fermentation is going.  I would recommend a wine thief.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/fermtech-wine-thief.html
Just sanitize it before you stick it in your fermenter.
I generally just check gravity readings when I'm racking from primary to secondary and from secondary to keg so that I can just siphon into my hydrometer tube - whatever you call those things.
If you obsessively check, you risk contamination, and I'm not sure that the extra information is really telling me anything aside from, "Yep.  Not done fermenting, yet." and you can usually tell that by eye.
I also suggest getting a hydrometer with a thermometer built into it so that you can just check gravity and temperature readings at the same time.  They're not the most accurate things, but they're close enough for the inexact science of calculating gravity.
Finally, if you spin your hydrometer in the tube while you're measuring gravity, it'll shed any CO2 that may be lifting it for a few moments so that you can get a fairly accurate reading.  No need to totally de-gas the liquid.
Comment: Thanks for the tips.  I usually go the same route as you, just checking whenever I move the beer.  I was just wondering because I've  read a few recipes that said to use readings to determine when to move the beer.
Answer: My friend @ruinationpress recently asked me about another solution. Austin Homebrew has a "specialized" Wine Thief that has been altered (so they say) to allow a hydrometer to sit inside. This allows you to put a sanitized thief in the carboy (assuming you're using a carboy), check the gravity, and pull it out, without removing wort / beer at all.
I don't know if this is actually a good idea or not, but I didn't think asking a question about this product itself would be worth it. So, here's another answer for measuring gravity.

Measuring Gravity