Is it wrong or unethical to ask questions using English produced by a machine translation tool?

Question: Is it wrong or unethical to ask questions in English using Google Translate? What is the correct procedure to ask questions in the English language when you do not know the English language?
Comment: Statistically, most of the languages are poorly supported. If the matter is simple enough, the translation is, however, moderate. Again, this is a Google translation.  <-- "fair" also suggested as an alternate translation for "moderate", but you'd have to know to look for it.
Answer: As long as the question can be understood, is not overly broad or open ended and otherwise fits within our guidelines, we'll take it. That being said, using a translator is going to put you at a distinct disadvantage for many reasons:
Clarification
If your question needs further clarification, or requires you to interact with other members in comments, you're at the mercy of Google Translate. As your original post contained the word 'pregunta', I'm guessing that your native language is Spanish, which Google does a pretty good job of translating. Just keep in mind, Google will in essence be speaking for you
Understanding answers
Like comments, you'll (hopefully) receive answers that may clearly explain the problem and solution. Things can get lost in translation. Again, Spanish is a language that Google speaks rather well. It does not, however speak Tagalog (Filipino) well at all, or Malaysian and many other Asian languages - at least at the time of this writing. My point being, you may not walk away with as much knowledge and understanding as you would have otherwise.
Additional scrutiny
There are some in our community that are put off by questions that are not asked in at least close to proper English. I hate to say it, but it is a fact. You may ask a perfectly valid question but receive down votes, negative comments and possibly close votes simply due to the quality of writing presented. In a perfect world, you wouldn't .. however we have to come to grips with the fact that we don't live in a perfect world. Put on flame retardant clothing.
Conclusion
With that being said, this is what I recommend:
If Google does not do a reasonably good job of translating your language, don't try it. The only thing on this planet that speaks more broken Tagalog than me is Google. I would not try using it to post on a Filipino forum.
You can test this by copying chunks of English text and ask it to translate those chunks into your language. Is the translation readily comprehended without many glaring mistakes? Remember, the English Google is going to give you is going to be the reverse of what you're seeing. Try to find someone that speaks at least a little English to verify the quality of the translation, at least to the best of their ability.
If, ultimately you do use Google Translate to help you ask a question, involve a moderator at the first sign of things going badly. We may be able to help you edit for additional clarity, or intervene if you find yourself facing hostility solely due to your lack of English comprehension. Keep in mind, we're not going to intervene on a question where you did not do your research or include all of the relevant details. If you go this route, poor English needs to be the only problem with your question.
It would be better to find someone that can speak English to help you, but I understand that's not always possible. If you try it, make sure your question is otherwise solid. Work as hard as you can to improve your question based on feedback you receive, and don't take negative feedback too personally.
Answer: Stack Overflow is about providing answers to programming questions. It is not about teaching English.
Use whatever means you can to formulate a reasonably intelligible question (one that is clear enough that others will understand what you are asking). If Google Translate helps you do that, by all means use it.
If others can understand the intent of your question but the wording is not good, you may find that someone edits your question to make it clearer or to improve spelling and grammar.
Poor English is not a reason to downvote a question, as long as the English is clear enough to be reasonably understood.
Comment: That said, using a translator puts the OP at a sharp disadvantage, as there's no way to be sure what he is writing is being correctly translated in an idiomatic way.  The same is true for translating the answers back to the OP's native language.  It's already difficult enough to write a good question when your first language is English.
Comment: Yes, I know stackoverflow is for programming questions, I do not end here to learn English.
I want to ask questions about programming but do not know how well the English language, wanted to know the best way to ask questions in English, when not fully mastered the English language.
Thank you.
Comment: @RobertHarvey: Sure, but if he's using a dictionary as an alternative, the same caveat applies.
Answer: Unethical? Hardly. Impractical? - very much so. Unless you only use automated translation as aid or dictionary, it is very easy to formulate question that after being auto-translated would mean something very different or even completely opposite, rendering other people unable to meaningfully help you until you clarify it.
Actually some of auto-translating patterns are very recognizable and even if people won't downvote you, many will simply choose to skip over your question.
Answer: Extremely poor translation or construction of the question will get it down voted.
If you have limited English then I would advise you state that early on in your question, readers will then accommodate that where possible and they should also be nice enough to edit your question into shape.
However if you just bang your question into Google and then use the result it will be a lottery. Do you know anyone who could help formulate your question before you post it?
Comment: Google actually does a fair enough job with certain languages, at least fair enough to get something that can be understood and answered formulated. Spanish, French .. it may fly. SE Asian dialect? No chance at all. It really depends on how smart Google has become with the given language.
Comment: And/or state that you are using Google Translate, so responders can make appropriate allowance.


Trivial tangent bundle of sphere with handles

Question: I am wondering if there is a simple proof of this statement:

A sphere with $g$ handles has trivial tangent bundle iff $g=1$

I know that it is a corollary of Poincaré-Hopf theorem, but it seems to be too hard for this problem.
Answer: Let us suppose that the tangent bundle to a compact, orientable surface $M$ with genus $g\geq2$ is trivial. In particular, there is a vector field $X$ on $M$ which is nowhere zero.
We can pick a Riemannian metric on $M$ such that $X$ is everywhere of norm $1$, so that its integral curves are all parametrized by arc length. Let $\phi:\mathbb R\times M\to M$ be the flow of $X$, and for each $t\in\mathbb R$ let $\phi_t=\phi(t,\mathord-):M\to M$. It is clear that all the maps $\phi_t$ are homotopic to the identity, so that their Lefschetz number $\Lambda(\phi_t)$ is equal to $\Lambda(\mathrm{id}_M)=\chi_M$, the Euler characteristic of $M$. Since $g\geq2$,we have $\chi_M\neq0$ and therefore Lefschetz's fixed point theorem tells us that for all $t>0$ the map $\phi_t$ has a fixed point.
Now pick $\epsilon>0$ so small that each ball of radius $\epsilon$ (with respect to the metric derived from the Riemannian metric me picked above) is contained in a coordinate chart, and let $t=\epsilon/2$ and $x\in M$ be a fixed point of $\phi_t$. The integral curve of $X$ through $x$ is a circle of diameter at most $\epsilon$, so it is contained in a coordinate patch. It therefore bounds a (closed,smooth) disc $D$. The restriction of the vector field $X$ to this disc is nowhere zero and it is tangent to the boundary of $D$.
This is impossible. One way to see it is to use thw following easy result:

Lemma. Let $D$ be the unit disc in the plane. There is no nowhere zero vector field on $D$ which is tangent to the boundary of $D$.

Proof. Such a vector field can be normalized to give a map $X:D\to S^1$. The restriction $X|_{S^1}:S^1\to S^1$ of $X$ to $S^1=\partial D$ has no fixed points, so that the Lefchetz number $\Lambda(X|_{S^1})$ is zero. It follows at once from this that $X|_{S^1}$ has to act like the identity on $H_1(S^1)$. This is impossible, since $X|_{S^1}$ is homotopic to a constant map.
Comment: This argument depends only on Lefschetz's fixed point theorem (and the Jordan curve theorem, I guess). I am pretty sure any argument will depend on some somewhat big theorem.
Answer: The only proof I have every seen is the Poincare-Hopf theorem, or a very slightly weaker version which says that the existence of a non-vanishing vector field is equivalent to the vanishing of the euler characteristic. Any other proof you might see will just be a disguised version of this statement.
Comment: Can I ask an example of such a proof?
Answer: This is of course not a proof, but it is just intended to give an intuitive picture (sorry for the very bad drawings).
First, draw a picture of the torus $T^2$, with $g=1$. It's easy to see that you can draw on it a constant tangent bundle, putting the same vector on every point.

$$$$
Next, consider $S^2$, the usual sphere with $g=0$. Here things are different... try to start from the equator and draw tangent vectors which are perpendicular to the equator, say pointing up, and then try to extend the bundle on the upper emisphere. You'll see that at the north poles the vectors need to converge, thus producing a singularity. Not allowed! (This is the hairy ball theorem)

$$$$
Finally, consider a $2$-torus with $g=2$. You can produce it by glueing two $1$-tori, and you'll easily see that there's no way to make the constant bundles on those to fit together.
Answer: The Poincare-Hopf theorem is not needed to prove the theorem.
The sum of the indices of a vector field with isolated zeros is the same for all vector fields. This follows because such a vector field is just a smooth map of the surface into its tangent bundle which is transverse to the zero section. Given this one needs a vector field whose indices are easy to compute. One example is the vector field that flows from the barycenters of the triangles in a triangulation of the surface towards the vertices. This vector field will have zeros of index 1 at the vertices and at the barycenter of each triangle  and zeros of index -1 at the barycenter of each edge.
Here is another way to avoid the Poincare-Hopf Theorem
The tangent bundle of an oriented surface has a natural complex structure. Given a Levi-Civita connection, the first Chern class of the tangent bundle is represented by the curvature 2 form (or Gauss-Bonnet 2 form) divided by 2pi. Therefore the integral of the curvature 2 form over the surface is the same for all connections since they all give the evaluation of the first Chern class on the fundamental cycle of the surface.
For the sphere with the standard connection, the integral is 2, For the torus it is zero since the torus can be given a flat connection. For surfaces of higher genus the integral is a negative integer since they all can be given connections with constant negative curvature.
But the tangent bundle can not be trivial if the first Chern class is not zero so the torus is the only one.
Answer: I found a school-level solution in booklet Skopenkov A.B. Characteristic classes for beginners (in Russian), there is a reduced version of this proof.
Choose a triangulation, a point inside each of triangles, equiped with non-zero vector, and paths beetween centers of adjacent triangles. Let us call the union of these paths as skeleton.

Deform our supposed vector field to coincide with vectors in the vertices of skeleton. As this field has no zeroes, rotation of vector along any of the curves of triangulation, surrounding a vertex of triangulation, is zero.
But for any vector field on skeleton the sum of this numbers is the same (in fact, it equals to Euler characteristic, as it is special case of Euler class of a tangent bundle), because a change of vector field along one of paths will add $k$ to one of adjacent triangles and $-k$ to another.
It is easy to calculate it explicitly for spheres with $g$ handles from polygonal model, get Euler characteristic, and prove that there does not exist non-vanishing vector field on sphere with $g$ handles for $g \ne 1$.
Comment: Precisely what I meant by a disguised Poincare-Hopf argument.
Comment: Yes, though it is a disguised version of independence of the sum of indices.


Breaking a larger cube into a smaller one

Question: I would appreciate ideas on solving the following problem:

A solid cube of side 6 is first painted pink and then cut into smaller cubes of side 2.How many of smaller cubes have paint on exactly 2 side ?
Comment: There is no "trick" to it. It is just visualization.
Answer: Here's my hint: Stare at that for a sufficiently long time, and the solution will come up.

and if that doesn't help, try this:
Answer: Take a unit line segment and paint the two endpoints. Then cut it into three parts. This produces a piece on the left end with a painted endpoint and an unpainted endpoint ($Pu$), a piece in the middle with two unpainted endpoints ($uu$), and a piece on the right end  with an unpainted and a painted endpoint ($uP$).  We can write this as $Pu+uu+uP$, where $P$ means a boundary that has paint and $u$ means a a boundary that is unpainted.
We want to know how many parts of $(Pu+uu+uP)^3$ have exactly two painted boundaries.  We can rewrite $Pu+uu+uP$ as $2Pu+u^2$ and expand $(2Pu+u^2)^3$ using the binomial theorem:
$$\begin{eqnarray}
 (2Pu+u^2)^3 & = & (2Pu)^3 + 3(2Pu)^2(u^2) + 3(2Pu)(u^2)^2 + (u^2)^3\\
&=&8P^3u^3 + 12P^2u^4 + 6Pu^5 + u^6
\end{eqnarray}$$
Thus there are 8 parts with three sides painted and three unpainted ($P^3u^3$), 12 parts with two sides painted and four unpainted ($P^2u^4$), and so on; the answer is 12.
Comment: This seems to be the best way for generalization. Very creative too!
Answer: The two-faced cubes are all "edge-cubes".  There is one on each edge of the cube. The corner cubes have 3 painted faces, the middle of face cubes have one, and the interior cube is unpainted.
Answer: A couple of hints:
The only ones which have three painted faces must be at the corners (vertices). How many vertices does a cube have?
The only ones which get one painted face must be at the centre of a face of the big cube. How many faces does a cube have?
Incidentally, when you have solved that one, I would recommend having a go at some bigger cubes, and then see if you can spot any patterns. Generalise - and then see if you can prove your answers must be correct.
Answer: Now that you have solved the problem, you can generalize. The outside of an  $n\times n \times n$ cube is painted green, a sustainable colour. Then the cube is divided into $n^3$ $1\times 1\times 1$ cubelets.
How many cubelets have two coloured sides? A sketch shows that these are the cubelets that have exactly one edge along an edge of the big cube.
The big cube has $12$ edges. For any given such edge, there are $n-2$ cubelets that have exactly one edge along an edge of the original cube. Thus we get a total of $12(n-2)$ cubelets with two green faces.
Note that only the $8$ corner cubelets have $3$ green faces.
For $1$ green face, each of the $6$ faces of the big cube gives us $(n-2)^2$ cubelets with $1$ green face, for a total of $6(n-2)^2$.
Finally, how many totally uncoloured cubelets? The $(n-2)^3$ "inside" ones.
Let's check. There are $n^3$ cubelets. Of these, $(n-2)^3$ are uncoloured, $6(n-2)^2$ have one green face, $12(n-2)$ have $2$ green faces, and $8$ have $3$ green faces. So we should have
$$n^3=(n-2)^3+6(n-2)^2+ 12(n-2)+8.$$
Expanding shows this is true. There is an easier way, by using the formula for $(x+y)^3$, with $x=n-2$ and $y=2$.
Answer: I would start by counting how many of the small cubes there are all together. Then try to find which ones have 2 sides painted.
Comment: Total of 27 smaller cubes
Answer: Imagine a Rubik's cube. There are 6 corners, each 3 colored, then 8 edges that have only 2 colors, and finally there are 6 centre faces that have only one color. So if its all painted the same color then obviously you'll have 8 such cubies...
Answer: 12, the answer is 12. Simple visualization will yield you this...


Hibernate and security considerations

Question: How do Linux and OSX handle sensitive memory pages (e.g. cryptographic keys) when running OS is suspended to disk? If the memory image written is encrypted, how are its keys handled?
Answer: When you hibernate a computer all the memory (including all cryptographic keys) is written to the swap. I can't speak for all the Linux distributions and I am not familiar with OSX but Ubuntu uses cryptsetup and LVM by default (on the alternate install CD). The swap is a logical volume backed by the same encrypted physical volume that holds all the data. When you boot, the initramfs ask for the password, opens the encrypted volume and restores the content from swap. So in this case your keys are safe.
I recommend that you try it with your system before you put any sensitive data on it. Check if the swap is encrypted and you can really resume from it. If it's not encrypted or you can't resume don't use it. Power down the computer instead. Suspend to ram prevents the keys from hitting the disk but there are ways one can get past the screensaver password.
Comment: The way Ubuntu encrypts the swap prevents a restoration after the system hibernates. Because the encryption key is generated differently at each boot, the swap content cannot be recovered. So it is better to disable hibernation when the swap is encrypted.
Answer: Wikipedia entry  that explains what gets preserved and what gets turned off in different power states.

Hibernate and security considerations


The trajectory of a projectile launched from a hilltop

Question: Here is the problem:
A boy stands at the peak of a hill which slopes downward uniformly at angle $\phi$. At what angle $\theta$ from the horizontal should he throw a rock so that it has the greatest range?
I realize that the same question is posted here: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/24235/trajectory-of-projectile-thrown-downhill, but I have some questions that were not answered in that thread:

Can the problem be solved without a rotation of the coordinate system? If so, how?
I tried to solve the problem using a rotated coordinate system, but cannot figure out how to finish it (see the work given below).

Here is what I have so far:

We set up the coordinate system so that the positive $x$ axis coincides with the downward slope of the hill. This simplifies the problem by allowing us to easily relate $\phi$ and $\theta$, through the relation $\alpha = \phi + \theta$.
$v_{0x} = v_0 \cos\alpha$
$v_{0y} = v_0 \sin\alpha$
$a_x=-g \cos(\phi-\frac{\pi}{2})=-g \cos (-(\frac{\pi}{2}-\phi))= g\cos(\frac{\pi}{2}-\phi)=g\sin\phi$
$a_y=-g \sin(\phi-\frac{\pi}{2})=-g \sin (-(\frac{\pi}{2}-\phi))= -g\sin(\frac{\pi}{2}-\phi)=-g\cos\phi$
$v_x=v_{0x}+\int_{0}^{t}{a_x(t \prime)dt \prime}=v_0 \cos \alpha+\int_{0}^{t}{(g\sin\phi) dt \prime} =v_0 \cos \alpha + t(g\sin\phi)$
$x=x_0 + \int_0^t{v_x(t\prime) dt\prime} = \int_0^t{(v_0 \cos \alpha + t\prime(g\sin\phi)) dt\prime}=t(v_0 \cos \alpha) + \frac{1}{2}t^2(g \sin \phi)$
$v_y=v_{0y}+\int_{0}^{t}{a_y(t \prime)dt \prime}=v_0 \sin \alpha+\int_{0}^{t}{(-g\cos\phi) dt \prime} =v_0 \sin \alpha - t(g\cos\phi)$
$y=y_0 + \int_0^t{v_y(t\prime) dt\prime} = \int_0^t{(v_0 \sin \alpha - t\prime(g\cos\phi)) dt\prime}=t(v_0 \sin \alpha) - \frac{1}{2}t^2(g \cos \phi)$
To find the flight time of the projectile, we find the time at which its trajectory intersects the ground (in this case, the $x$ axis), by setting $y=0$ and solving for $t$. $$y=t(v_0 \sin \alpha) - \frac{1}{2}t^2(g \cos \phi)=0$$ $$v_0 \sin \alpha = \frac{1}{2}t(g \cos \phi)$$ $$t=\frac{2v_0 \sin\alpha}{g \cos \phi}$$
Substituting $t$ into the equation for $x$ gives us the distance traveled by the projectile as a function of the angles $\alpha$ and $\phi$.$$x=t(v_0 \cos \alpha) + \frac{1}{2}t^2(g \sin \phi)$$ $$x=(\frac{2v_0 \sin\alpha}{g \cos \phi})(v_0 \cos \alpha) + \frac{1}{2}(\frac{2v_0 \sin\alpha}{g \cos \phi})^2(g \sin \phi)$$ $$x=\frac{2v_0^2}{g \cos \phi}(\sin \alpha \cos \alpha)+\frac{2v_0^2}{g \cos \phi}(\sin^2\alpha \frac{\sin\phi}{\cos\phi})$$ $$x=\frac{2v_0^2}{g \cos \phi}(\sin\alpha\cos\alpha+\sin^2\alpha\tan\phi)$$
I noticed that the solution in the other thread proceeds from here by differentiating $x$ with respect to $\alpha$, holding $\phi$ constant, which gives $$\frac{dx}{d\alpha}=\frac{2v_0^2}{g \cos \phi}(\frac{d}{d\alpha}(\frac{1}{2}(\sin(2\alpha)+\sin^2\alpha\tan\phi))$$ $$\frac{dx}{d\alpha}=\frac{2v_0^2}{g \cos \phi}(\cos(2\alpha)+2\sin\alpha\cos\alpha\tan\phi)$$ $$\frac{dx}{d\alpha}=\frac{2v_0^2}{g \cos \phi}(\cos(2\alpha)+\sin(2\alpha)\tan\phi)$$ This equation allows us to examine how $x$ changes with respect to $\alpha$. We see that $x$ increases as $\alpha$ increases, up to a certain point, and then decreases as $\alpha$ increases past this value. This means that the graph of $x$ has a relative maximum at the value of $\alpha$ which produces the maximum range.
We want to find the value of $\alpha$ that results in the maximum range of the projectile. In other words, we must determine the value of $\alpha$ for which the graph of $x$ has a relative maximum. We achieve this by setting $$\frac{dx}{d\alpha}=0=\frac{2v_0^2}{g \cos \phi}(\cos(2\alpha)+\sin(2\alpha)\tan\phi)$$ Dividing each side by $\frac{2v_0^2}{g \cos \phi}$ produces $$\cos(2\alpha)+\sin(2\alpha)\tan\phi=0$$ Here is where I get lost. It seems like this should be the easy part, because the only thing left to do is solve the above equation for $\alpha$, but I don't know how to do it. Could someone please explain this part to me?

Additionally, I would like to know whether the problem can be solved without rotating the coordinate system. I originally set out to solve it using the standard rectangular coordinate system, but got bogged down in some equations that seemed to lead nowhere. Thanks for your help.
Comment: Rectangular coordinates: $y$, as positive height, and $x$, as positive distance, are given as functions of time. You can equate these two through the line $y=-x\tan(\phi)$. Then the horizontal range becomes $\frac{v^2}{g}(\sin(2\theta) + \tan(\phi)\cos(2\theta) + \tan(\phi))$ which, after maximizing, leads you somewhere close to where you were.
Answer: I didn't go through all of your work but to answer the question about how to solve that equation, change $\tan(\phi)$ to $\frac{\sin(\phi)}{\cos(\phi)}$ and take $\cos(\phi)$ as a common denominator. You get $$\frac{\cos(2\alpha)\cos(\phi) + \sin(2\alpha)\sin(\phi)}{\cos(\phi)} = 0$$
Now apply the trig identity $\cos(a-b) = \cos(a)\cos(b) + \sin(a)\sin(b)$ and your equation reduces to $$\cos(\phi - 2\alpha) = 0$$.


Why does harsh light give darker shadows?

Question: Why does harsh light give darker shadows? I thought a shadow area is where the light is unable to reach, so shouldn't the shadow areas have the same darkness regardless of the strength of the light?
Comment: Shadow does not always mean darkness, it can be partial darkness.
Answer: There are two factors here.  One is the relative brightness the other is how directional the light is.  Normally, light comes from multiple sources or is highly reflected.  In this case, shadows are soft or non-existent because light hits where the shadow is from other directions than the one that is blocked.
Harsh light is generally very bright and very directional.  The intensity of the light means that the dynamic range (the difference between the brightest and darkest part of the image) of the camera is going to require more light to be present in the shadow area to get a good exposure (since it can't overexpose the bright part).  Compounding that, since the harsh light is very directional, it casts a harder shadow with less light being reflected or diffused to fill the shadow from other angles.
This is why you often see professional photographers using diffusers and reflective umbrellas with their flashes and using multiple flashes that are off camera in order to spread the light out and make sure light reaches the areas that would otherwise be dark shadows from a point light source (an intense light emitted from one point in space).
Answer: When we say "darker shadows," we're really commenting on the contrast between the bright parts and the shadows. Under harsh light, you are correct, the shadows may be just as well lit (or even brighter) than they would be under soft light. But the bright parts are so much brighter that the shadows are darker relative to the bright parts. Instead of being 3 EV darker than the bright parts, they may be 7 EV darker.
Generally in photography, we think about exposure in relative terms... "highlights, midtones, and shadows." Photometrically, the "shadows" of one image might be brighter than the "highlights" of another image. But because we adjust the exposure depending on the light, the absolute brightness isn't usually relevant.
Answer: A shadow is where less light is reaching a given area, in comparison to another area. Few spots have zero light, as there is usually a reflection off of the surroundings that is contributing light. It is likely less light, but there is light.
Harsh light gives darker shadows because of the contrast (the in comparison thing). There is a much larger contrast between light and dark areas.
It can be difficult to properly expose such situations, as you wish to avoid blowing out the brightly lit areas, but still provide detail in the poorly lit areas.
Answer: One thing is the contrast between light and "no light", the other is how sharp is the edge of the light. The first light in the image is of "spot" type with very sharp edge, so the shadow is very deep. The other lights (for example flash using a light modifier like umbrella), the light does not have sharp edges and light falls off slowly with shadows gradually deeper. Also as mentioned in other answers, also reflected light makes the edges more smooth.
You can check also this article http://www.ashlar.com/articles/lighting-techniques-for-photo-realistic-rendering.html


Is it dangerous for a child to sleep with the head hanging?

Question: I have never been worried about our 2yo sleeping half sitting with the head hanging. However today I met a person with really strong beliefs that it may cause neck injuries later in life.
Is there any danger with this? If so, for what age?
Answer: Later in life, probably not as long as it's not an everyday habit.
Some young babies will have early neck problems if they sleep with the head on one side everyday. I don't know the medical term for this condition, but they cannot turn the head on the other side until physiotherapy is performed. It happened to a friend's son and she warned us about it when she saw our daughter's tendency to look only on the left.
Anyway, have you ever slept with the head on one side all night long? I did and it's really painful when I wake up.
If you're travelling, in a car, train, plane, bus, anywhere a sleeping position is not available, then you don't have much choice. At worst he might wake up with a sore neck. But if you're at home, in front of tv or anything, put him to bed. Give him good sleeping habits from the start.
Comment: True - what happens if you sleep with the head on one side everyday is that the muscles and tendons on one side become shorter than those on the other side. Luckily the therapy is quite simple and painless - just bothersome.
Comment: FYI: the medical name for this condition is torticollis.
Answer: I just asked my physiotherapist wife about this. She said she's not aware of any studies. At any rate, it's likely not lethal in itself but should be avoided anyway, if nothing else then for reasons of comfort.
Answer: My main issue here, is when we're driving and one of them fall asleep with their heads hanging.  I know there's no probable scietific research about it, but I worry it would interfere with their breathing, so we always, always, reach over and right their heads.  We've now even bought seats which have cushions on the side, so they can safely, and comfortably rest their heads.  I don't know if there's an 'osteopathic' reasoning here, that they'll damage their necks, but it would worry me.


What tools do I need to intercept and change an incoming packet on a WP2-Personal wifi hub

Question: Which tools should I research into to intercept a plain text packet, edit it and then continue it on it's way. I am using Ubuntu 11.04 and Backtrack 5; my wifi is WPA2-person encrypted. I need to edit an item database of an ipod game :)
Answer: You don't want to intercept this in the air. It's very hard to do well. I suggest you change your network around a bit. You'll need a PC with two network interfaces and two routers to pull this off. Here's how I would do it:
Internet --> Router --> Ubuntu machine --(network port)--> Wifi router --> iPod

Ubuntu needs to "share" the Internet connection with the second router. This is actually dead simple with Network Manager: just create a new connection and in the IPv4 tab, set "Method" to "Shared to other computers". The second router should then get traffic from your PC and you should connect your iPod to the second router.
Now you just need to intercept and mangle the traffic. Let's deal the the mangle first. You want something like Hatkit. It's simple and for purpose. It won't handle tons of traffic but it'll get you going. Set it to run on 127.0.0.1:8080 (the default). There are other similar proxies out there including scripts you can hack into and customise.
And to intercept, you just need a simple iptables rule to redirect incoming traffic from the second router through your proxy (you need to replace the IP 10.42.43.2 with the one that Ubuntu has assigned your second router - most easily found out by looking at the admin pages on the second router):
sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -s 10.42.43.2 \
  --destination-port 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 8080

Now when you request things on port 80 from the second router, all the requests should fly through Hatkit where you can alter them and the responses to your delight. Enjoy hacking your game :P

You can do this with a laptop: network cable in from the first router and use the onboard wireless as an access point. I didn't suggest this because ad-hoc networking in my experience is extremely flaky in Ubuntu.
I have two nics and more routers than I can shake a stick at, so the other way is just easier for me.
Answer: Im going to assume your both connected to the Same network either by wifi or Cable, I'd suggest ettercap, use the ARP poisoning man in the middle attack that will basically send all network traffic to you including wireless and then on to the intended recipient, in ettercap you can see actuall tcp stream on screen, it has many plugins and you can create your own, I reckon it's not to difficult to then right a rule to change a packets payload, however the stream it self may be encrypted and at that point you may be stuck as it will just look like nonsense, you say it's in plain text so I'm guessing you must of already sniffed the packets,
I used to use backtrack quite heavily a couple years ago to crack wifi and I know that ettercap is on there, I done some videos on YouTube showing how to use it for man in the middle attacks, the account is called bit-jacked or bitjacked I'd check but I'm on my phone they may help you with the first part.


What are some songs/music piece that I can use to practice Violin?

Question: I just started to learn violin. So far, I only know how to play "Ode to Joy" and also learning to play "Canon" in C.
Can you please suggest me some songs that are easy for beginner like me to practice on? thanks
Answer: If you want music chosen and edited very carefully for learning, the Suzuki Method has a lot of pieces that are fun to play, nice to listen to, and will improve your ear and violin technique quite effectively.
Word of caution though, if Suzuki is your first exposure to music performance, you absolutely must balance it with something of a theoretical nature. Suzuki encourages you to learn by ear, which is great and all, but it leaves your sight reading and knowledge of harmony really shoddy.
Trust me -- not only is this conventional wisdom (Suzuki himself agrees), I made the mistake of neglecting non-Suzuki stuff, and I'm still in the process of trying to fill in the gaps.
I'd recommend learning a chordal instrument as well when you have time, such as piano or guitar.
Answer: There are several good practice books out there that contain popular tunes. I recommend music targeted at beginner violinists because it will have written fingerings and focus on the positions and shifts that beginners need to learn first. Get some advice from a teacher or any musicians you know in your preferred genre of music. If you don't know anyone, I'd start with classical, because I suspect it has the largest selection for beginners.
Answer: There's quite a few books such as the stepping stones and waggon wheel's series that contain lots of simple tunes to learn and play - I'd recommend investing in one or two of these. They also usually come in progressions, so as you work your way through the series they'll get increasingly challenging.
Answer: As a violin and fiddle teacher (since 1986), my best answer is to ask your teacher.  If you do not have a teacher, why don't you?  Seriously with this day and age you can find most teachers online if you don't have one nearby.
Having said that, I suggest you find a copy of the Fiddler's Fakebook.  If you're looking specifically for dance music (jigs, reels, hornpipes and the like), then you'll love the Portland Collection (there are 2.  start with the blue one), and the Waltz Books (there are 4, start with the pink one).  This is assuming you can read music.
If you can't read music, refer to my first paragraph on finding a teacher!  Of course you can learn to read music on your own also, but it is harder than having someone help you and give you goals.
Answer: I would suggest taking any song you like and play a vocal line from it. Just play the same notes that vocalist sings with his/her voice. This is:

Very simple in most cases
Very fun, since vocal melodies are easy recognizable.

You can transcribe vocal melodies by ear, which would be the best option, or find some guitar pro tabs on the net - many of them have the vocal lines layed out note by note.


What is the best way to transport a large quantity of LEGO bricks?

Question: I have a decently sized collection (thousands of bricks/hundreds of sets/a bunch of bins) from my childhood, but they're all at my parents' house. I live in the US and a couple states away from my parents (more than 1000 miles). What is the best way to package all of the bricks? What is the best way to move all of those packages? I ask because I'm thinking the weight of them all might make it tricky to transport. Hopefully someone out there has been in a similar situation.
Comment: You may want to contact experienced BrickLink or eBay sellers, since they routinely do that kind of thing.
Comment: Are there any of those on this site?
Comment: I have no idea, but I suppose if there are, they will answer...
Answer: When I moved house, I just sealed the gaps in a bunch of packing boxes with duct/packing tape, and put the storage bins in there - that way if anything did escape from the bins it wasn't going to get lost from the box.
I would say though that in general my collection wasn't organised in anyway, although there were a few built sets that survived fairly well.
Answer: No personal experience, but one vendor I've seen a couple years now at Brick Fiesta just ships boxes full, roughly U-Haul medium sized. He has some cardboard 'trays', but I'm pretty sure they are not structurally useful. He also had stuff bagged up into various types and some level of sorting, but that's not really important to shipping either.
Of course, if you have some relatively delicate bits (like [part:2337:46]), take care to pack them with as little stress on them as possible.
(ok, clearly I'm not getting how to do part linking)
Answer: Pack them in a box and surround them with things that are soft.


How should I set the Canon T2i for low-light?

Question: I've got three lenses with my T2i - the kit lens, the Canon EF 50mm II and Canon EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 III.  I'm going to a high school play and would like to take some stills along with some short videos.  It will be a no flash environment, with the stage brightly lit. Any suggestions on lens and/or settings?  I've tried all three lens in the past and just put the camera on no-flash mode.  Some of the pictures aren't too bad so i can probably do that again.
Answer: Your best bet is probably the 50mm.  Since the maximum aperture is f/1.8 instead of f/3.5 or f/4, it will work in significantly lower light.  This is because it is at least 2 stops faster (meaning 4 times as much light passes through the aperture when wide open).
Also, you will want to use a pretty high ISO, because a little noise is less of a problem than blur from a slow shutter speed.
Answer: "Brightly lit" is an interestingly relative term. I take a lot of pictures in high school auditoriums/gymnasiums (as a yearbook adviser/photographer), and sometimes the lighting can be amazing and sometimes it can be horrible.
First, ignore the advice to get a tripod. Camera shake is less a concern than motion blur from the actors moving, and a tripod/monopod will make no difference when it comes to motion blur.
The 50mm lens is great because it has a large aperture. Open the aperture to f/2.8 (for a lot of light and a little depth of field) or all the way to f/1.8 (lots of light, less depth of field) and you'll be able to take photos in low light. However, a 50mm lens doesn't magnify much. You'll basically need to be in the front row of the auditorium. If you can walk around in the front row, try this; if you'll be back even 5-6 rows, you probably want the zoom lens. Also, don't expect to zoom in and get a close-up on anyone's face. 50mm will do an ok job of getting a shot of part of the stage, but you won't be close enough to get an actor all by themself.
The 75-300mm lens has the disadvantage of having a relatively small aperture. This means less light and (if the lighting of the stage is off) poor lighting in your photos. However, the zoom is great. You can sit anywhere in the front half the auditorium and get pictures of the play - some close ups, some wide outs. Zoom in and out from your seat. When I take pictures in a high school auditorium, I almost always use a 70-200mm lens so that I can have this range.
But here's the tricky part. You want to learn how to use the manual mode on your camera. Why? The lighting is consistent - the stage lights aren't changing. However, your camera will get confused in auto mode when you focus on the back or the front of the stage, and you're pictures might come out poorly because of that.
You want a shutter speed that's fairly quick (1/60 - 1/125 for the 50mm lens, 1/250mm or higher for the 70-300mm lens). You'll have to choose an aperture that's wide enough to let in enough light. You'll probably also have to turn the ISO of your camera up to amplify the light. I use a Canon t1i, and ISO 1600 works ok if I'm in a low light situation. If the lighting crew is any good, ISO 1600 - 3200 should give you enough light to work with.
Answer: I've never taken pictures of a play, but these general suggestions may be helpful:
To "set the camera for low-light," shoot in Av (aperture-priority mode) and set the aperture to its lowest value (1.8 for the 50mm lens, and from 4-5.6 for the 70-300mm lens, depending on how far you zoomed in).  Then increase the ISO if your shutter speed isn't fast enough.
I would highly recommend practicing shooting in Av mode before going to the play if you haven't used Av mode before.  Then at the play, take some of your shots in this mode and some in your normal shooting mode (intermission might be a good time to switch modes).  This ensures that you will end up with some photos at the quality level you're used to getting, even if you completely blow every picture you take in Av mode.
Choose the lens you bring based on how far you will be from the stage.  If very close, the 50mm will be fine.  If far away, the 70-300 (but the 50 is pretty light, so maybe stick it in your pocket for pictures of the cast party).
Remember that shooting with wide apertures (i.e. low Av values) you'll be at the narrowest Depth of Field for each lens, so it may be more difficult to maintain focus or keep the entire scene in focus.  Usually this is an (artistic) advantage, but it could cause problems for you (again, shoot half your pictures the way you're used to shooting, and you'll end up with at least half of your pictures at your known, expected quality).
Comment: And don't be afraid to crop either. The T2i already has a crop factor of 1.6, making the 50mm lens the equivalent of an 80mm lens on a full-frame sensor camera. A 50% crop would be like having a 160mm f/1.8 lens on a full-frame 4.5Mp camera. 4.5 megapixels was an extreme pro resolution not so very long ago -- it's certainly adequate for an 8x12" print viewed at arm's length, and with a decent upscaling algorithm to connect the dots, can be blown up to a reasonable poster.
Comment: Do NOT forget to set your white balance when you get to the theatre. Find something on the stage that is white and take a picture of it, then use it for manual white balance. If this won't work, then you should be okay with Tungsten white balance. This will save you a lot of time in post, believe me, haha.
Answer: Bring a tripod or a monopod. It will help reduce camera shake blur.
Comment: Not helpful, as motion blur from people will outweigh.
Answer: I've tried shooting in similar situations (at a boxing match, and at a concert) - in both cases without a tripod. My preferred setting for these types of shot is to place the camera in shutter priority mode, and then set the ISO to auto.
The advantage of this setting is that the camera will be able to select 'odd' ISO settings, that you wouldn't be able to select manually, thus optimizing the exposure in a way you couldn't do in fully manual.
Due to the low light, the camera will automatically set the largest aperture for your lens.
I suggest that you use the 50mm, if you can get your self in a range that is suitable for that focal length.
I would set a shutter speed on the slow side, and then set the camera in burst mode, always taking 3-4 images at a time. You will get a lot of shaky images, but some of them will be decent.
Note when shooting without a tripod, you can wrap the strap around your elbow to stabilize the camera. It is difficult to explain, but I learned the technique from this book http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Photography-Book-Scott-Kelby/dp/032147404X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316503906&sr=8-1
Note, you can just download the kindle sample to check this out, it is displayed in the beginning of the book.
Edit: For shooting video though, I think that you should use a lens with image stabilizer.
Answer: The 75-300 without Image Stabilization is a big no. However if you cannot get in front seats, its the only option you have. Bump up the ISO and shoot at around 1/100 at the very least. Pan the subjects.


Display county for random points

Question: I have a county level shapefile for South Carolina. I generated random points using Vector->Research Tools-> Random Points. The attribute tables for the random points layer has only the ID included.
I would like to export the latitude, longitude and corresponding county for all the generated points (there is a COUNTYFP10 variable in the attributes table of the original state layer).
I managed to export the latitude and longitude using "Save as", choosing "Comma Separated Value".  Then, in the "Layers" part of the "OGR creation options" I typed "GEOMETRY=AS_XY".
I am not sure how to add the corresponding county to the saved CSV file.
Answer: Could you take the generated points and go to Vector -> Data management Tools -> Join Attributes by Location? That would add the county name to each point. Then export the points out to a CSV. I tested this with QGIS 1.8.

Display county for random points


Can we get a simple process for a "discount usability test?"

Question: I would like to do a discount usability test. What are the steps I should take to come to an insightful conclusion?

How do I recruit the people?
How do I setup the test?
How do I define the tasks to be tested?
How long should the test be?
Comment: What is a "discount usability test"? Do you mean you want to know how to do a usability test as cheaply as possible?
Comment: I mean those without a lab. The cheap ones.
How do I recruit people?
How do I set up the test?
Answer: I suggest you read Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug.
In it he outline how to do simple low to no cost usability testing and interpret your findings.
http://www.sensible.com/rsme.html
Comment: See also Krug's recent [article in .net magazine](http://www.netmagazine.com/interviews/in-depth/steve-krug-diy-usability-testing)
Answer:
How do I recruit the people?

You need to determine what kind of tests you'd like to perform. Just because you don't have a lab doesn't mean your ability to test is gone. There are very simple tests that include just observing a random sample while they are using your product. There are more intermediate tests involving a moderator/observer that take a little longer. It depends what you're trying to achieve as far as getting people recruited. For shorter tests, ask people in your organization (if possible) that aren't involved with the project to test it out. Assume they are going to say no, and keep asking until you get 3-7 test subjects. For longer or more formal tests, you may need to advertise that you're testing, and incentivize them with compensation.

How do I setup the test?

On a budget? Setup a somewhat secluded area that is comfortable for your subjects with the device/platform you'll be testing. Make sure you have a timer available and some sort of matrix for tracking the user experience. We have an internal checklist with plenty of room for notes, and some examples of how to "frame" the task question without ruining the test.

How do I define the tasks to be testet?

If it is something like a website, you'll determine the business goals and test the user on their experience while accomplishing that task. For example, it might be getting a user to register or go through a shopping cart. If it is an app, you'll need to determine what the key functions are of that application and determine tasks accordingly.

How long should the test be?

Again, this depends on the tasks. My tasks, which are almost always web-based, take about 1-5 minutes each depending on the subject. I usually run batches of three tasks for informal testing (I say informal as anything that isn't in a lab) - this helps recruit people as it only takes 5-15 minutes of their time. When they're done, I always ask if they would be willing to participate in extended testing in the future.
Hope this helps!
Answer: I am reading this as being a basic test of a specific function within a site ( e-commerce or similar ). Which may make it problematic to test separately from other parts of the site. There is also a need to achieve the testing with relatively limited resources, which puts another set of restrictions.
How do I recruit the people?

Turn this around - who can you get to test this? Can you devise a simple online test that you could email to everyone you know ( probably not in this case ). Can you find a respresentative sample from the people you are working with/for? If you have to actually recruit random people from the public, it will cost you a lot. If you can use friends and family, or a local university students, or some group of free people, it will make a significant cost difference. But most of the marketing companies will help you recruit, if you pay enough.
How do I setup the test?

This actually should be your first question. What I think you are after is answering the question "how easy or natural will it be for the users of this site to achieve this task?" I have had people come to me with printouts of possibilities, asking "how would I do xxx", which works in some cases. I have produced task sets for people and asked them to complete them, which can also work ( but can also be complex ). You might want to consider mocking up the specific task as best you can, and allowing the subjects to try this out. However, if you are looking at various options, this needs a large number of people to utilise each one. The setup is extremely dependent on the usability question and what you want to put into producing a setup.
How do I define the tasks to be tested?

Assuming you have a question like "how easy is it for people to do this", then set them the specific task, in a constrained situation. If you are asking a wider question like "which of these works best" then you need a number of different tasks. Identifying your question is the core to identifying the tasks ( and pretty much all of the answers you are seeking ).
How long should the test be?

As long as necessary. You can either time the test, which will put pressure and constraints on the volunteers, or you can set then the task, and record how long it takes to complete. You should have some idea how long it should take, and if it is a commercial site, the task should be only a few minutes. If you are doing multiple tests in one go, you should realy limit your total time to 10 minutes, unless you are paying people, in which case you can keep them for longer.
You also need to consider what type of testing will work well. Again, if you have a number of different choices and options, you might find that a focus group would work well. Or you might want to mock up some of the options, allow a number of people to do them, and then run a focus group.
None of this requires a lab. I have done a number of these, as part of my study work, and have never needed a lab ( although I have used one when one is available ). Also, if you have an academic institution nearby, they might have a lab that you can borrow, for a reasonable agreement.
Answer: I'd try to avoid testing software you've been involved in developing.  (ie if you are in a larger organisation try to test other people's software - and get them to do yours)
To do this properly there's a 'Point 6:  How to moderate Usability Tests'
This gives some useful tips:
http://web.archive.org/web/19991001190539/http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/HIGuidelines/HIGuidelines-73.html#HEADING73-3
The key thing is that there's a subtle balancing act on knowing when to break the flow so that you can ask 'why did you do that' kind of questions.  Moderating tests properly is hard work.
Answer: Regarding the data analysis part of discount usability testing, the method of Instant Data Analysis might be of interest to you. Or perhaps rather: How to reduce the cost of formal usability testing.
The method is described in this research paper (not free). In short it argues that instead of using several days or even weeks on analyzing usability test video data, test facilitators instead get together right after the last test to compare notes. This way a joint list of usability issues can be assembled rather effectively.
According to the paper:

... the experiment revealed that in only 10% of the time required to do the video data analysis, Instant Data Analysis identified 85% of the critical usability problems in the system being evaluated. At the same time, the noise of unique usability problems usually characterizing video data analysis was significantly reduced.


6 day trek in Nepal Himalaya

Question: What are some easy/moderate hikes in the Nepal Himalayas that do not span more than 6 days of walking? I looked at Jomsom trek but it is 8 days. I am looking for a trek that offers nice scenic beauty and good views of some 8000+ peaks. I also looked at everest base camp but that is a 21 day ordeal.
What options do I have here? I am not a climber, so difficulty level is w.r.t walking and fitness, not climbing :)
Answer: One possibility is the trek to Gosaikund - also known as the "Frozen Lakes". It can be done in six days walking. However, I'm not sure I would call it easy- the first day, especially, will be very strenuous. However, it's a very pretty trek, and the first two days are very rewarding. Another advantage is that it's relatively close to Kathmandu, which means less traveling to get to the trail head.
Like the other popular treks in Nepal, it's a "tea house" trek - you don't need to cook or take a tent, which means you can travel light. When I was there (late 2006) many of the guesthouses were already equipped with solar showers, too.
The description I linked to above combines the trip to Gosaikund with a journey through Helambu - I didn't walk that part myself, so I can't vouch for it. I did do the walk through the Langtang valley, which is also relatively short (though longer than six days, as far as I can remember) and then crossed over to Gosaikund, and then walked down to Dunche (the walk down being done in a single, terrible, endless day).
I'm not sure there are any 8000 meter peaks nearby in this area, but Lantang Lirung is 7246 meters, which isn't too shabby. Perhaps because of this it's the least popular of the three most frequented trekking routes in Nepal (the other two being the Everest Base Camp trek and around Anapurna).
Answer: Here are peaks on a route:

Mera Peak (6654 m)
Island Peak (6160 m)
Pisang Peak (6091 m)
Yala Peak (5500 m)
Chulu East (6584 m)

Monsoon trek to Ghorepani poon hill 3210 mt is a five day trekking route from Kathmandu to Pokhara, Tikhedhunga, Ghorepani Poon Hill and then next morning climbing to Poon Hill where see the best panaromic views. It is the best view in the Himalayas. We see Dhaulagiri 8167 m, Mt Annapurna 8091 m, Mt Fish-tail alled holidy motion in Nepal. After 1987 it is not allowed to climb this peak, this holy mountain in Nepal. If any one tries to climb this mountain we will have many bad seasons in Nepal that means no rain.
It is a very popular trekking trail in the Himalayas. If you have time please visit one time. You never will forget a Poon Hill trek I am 100% sure.

6 day trek in Nepal Himalaya


Find the poisoned pie

Question: You are a pie maker and you are holding a fair to display your pies. You have 1000 pies. You have 10 workers to help you. The fair is in two hours. Unfortunately you discover that a rival pie maker has poisoned one of your pies with a form of norovirus that makes people violently ill one and a half hours after even consuming a tiny bit of it. You know if any single person who visits your fair gets ill, your business will collapse but you need all the non poisoned pies for the fair. You can take small samples from the pies without spoiling them and your workers are prepared to do anything to help you. How do you find the poisoned pie?
Comment: Not a duplicate, but the generalization where two pies are poisoned is here: http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/639/logic-problem-identifying-poisoned-wines-out-of-a-sample-minimizing-test-subje
Comment: @Alan Here's a hint: $1000 < 1024 = 2^{10}$.
Comment: Well, poise is one part of beauty contests.
Comment: Tell people there's a $1$ in $1000$ chance they get sick. What's life without danger?
Answer: Given the time available, simultaneous testing is required.
Assign each pie a number from $1$ to $1000$, written in binary.
Assign each of your $10$ guinea pi... employees a column number from $1$ to $10$
Each employee is to go down the row of pies, taking and eating a small sample, if and only if the pie number has a $1$ in that employee's column.  Each pie will lose $10$ samples.
Take the column of each sick employee, write a $1$ in that column of a $10$-digit binary number, and you have the pie number of the bad pie.
Answer: Take the hint above that $1000 < 1024 = 2^{10}$ and decrease the numbers.
The first case (1 servant, $2^1 = 2$ pies) is trivial.
2 servants and $2^2=4$ pies is slightly more problematic - 2 servants allow for 4 outcomes (both dead, both alive, A alive + B dead, B alive + A dead). How do you arrange the outcomes to tell you exactly which bottle is poisoned?
Once you can do 2, try 10 servants and $2^{10}$ pies.
Answer: As many as three loyal workers are about to be violently ill, but the pie can be found through a process of elimination.
Have each of the 10 workers stand in front of 10 long tables. On each table, place 10 stacks of 10 pies each. Have each worker taste each pie on his corresponding table.  Rotate the room 90 degrees (or just move the servants). If the stacks of pies were evenly spaced and far enough apart, each worker should be standing in front of another 100 pies.
Once the workers have (again) tasted 100 pies each, now have k worker taste k pie in each stack; i.e. the first worker tastes the first pie in each stack, the 2nd tastes the 2nd, etc.
Hopefully you can complete this grueling task in under 30 minutes. Wait 90 minutes more, and the numbers of the sick workers will act as coordinates on a 3D grid.

Find the poisoned pie


How to encourage a 4 month old to swim

Question: For the last 2 months, we have been taking our daughter, now 4 months old, to the baby swimming twice a week. She enjoys it however she doesn't really swim. She just sits, floats and lounges: allowing the currents to take her up and down the pool. Is there anything we can do to encourage her to kick more when swimming.
Answer: Hold her knees and kick for her. But...
She is swimming. She is 4 months old, enjoying the water is the most important thing at this age!
Answer: Show her how much fun splashing is - that's what we did, and made a game of it. They cottoned on pretty quickly.
Now aiming the kicks to propel them - that's a whole different game :-)
Answer: You can put her toys near her or give he toys to her. Toys that usually make her screaming or seems happy to play with. I think it would be an alternative solution.
Answer: Your daughter will be looking to you to provide cues, so the more you seem to be enjoying it and encouraging her, the more likely she will be to have fun, and having fun is the only way at that age that you're likely to get much in the way of results.
As Morah mentioned, the most important thing for her right now is enjoying her time in the water.  This will set the stage for a better transition to swimming, as floating in a big pool of water won't be fundamentally a scary, strange thing.
However, there are things you can do to encourage your daughter.
First and foremost, be supportive.  I mean both literally and figuratively.  If your daughter feels like she might sink, she'll lose focus on enjoying being in the water.
Float her on her back, with your arm under her body, and your hand cradling her head.  Gently turn in place, moving her through the water at a relatively slow pace, head first.  As you do this, keep eye contact with her, smile(!), and be verbally encouraging.  When we did this with my son, we were constantly saying "Wheee!!!" and "Kick! Kick! Kick!" to get him excited.  The more he kicked, the more enthusiastic our cheering became (along with quite a few "Yay!"'s added in).
Our instructor also had us try a few other techniques, including blowing bubbles in the water, and quickly submerging the baby.  However, these were classes for children 6 months of age or older, so 4 months is probably too young, and I would absolutely make sure that you have an experienced (and certified!) instructor on hand to help walk you through the proper techniques.

How to encourage a 4 month old to swim


Making Time Machine Backups while Mac is in Sleep Mode

Question: I'd like my Mac to be able to save a Time Machine backup even when I have it in sleep mode. Is there a way I can have my Mac wake up at a certain time automatically in order for Time Machine to run?
Answer: You can schedule your Mac to wake from sleep or boot at a specific time. Go to System Preferences, then the Energy Saver pane. In there, at the bottom-right, is a "Schedule…" button. Pressing it brings up a sheet where you can set a day and time to wake up and another to go to sleep. If you leave a half-hour or so between the wake up and sleep times, it should have enough time to back up.
I must say, there's not much point in running a Time Machine backup when you haven't been using the computer: if you're not using it, nothing has changed, so there's nothing new to back up. I should also note that if the computer is shut down (like if you're on vacation) it'll boot and then go to sleep if you don't turn the schedule off before you leave.
Comment: Thanks for the quick answer!  I regularly put my Mac to sleep when I am done working for the day, but I would like backups to run overnight.
Answer: According to Apple Support:

If your computer is in sleep or your backup disk isn't available when it's time for a scheduled backup, the backup is not performed.
  Backups resume after the computer and backup disk are available again.

If your Mac is scheduled to wake from sleep (as noted in @CajunLuke's answer), you'd need to create an Automator script to immediately trigger the Time Machine backup upon waking, or wait an hour or so to catch the hourly TM backup.
Answer: Try Time Machine Editor in conjunction with System Preferences > Energy Saver > Schedule Wakeup.


Which is a better measure of uncertainty: standard deviation or resolution uncertainty?

Question: Let's say I take a ton of measurements of the diameter of a marble with a 0.001" resolution micrometer, and I calculate the standard deviation of the sample set. Would the standard deviation be a better measure of uncertainty than the resolution of the instrument?
Comment: Better for what purpose?
Answer: The standard deviation tells you how precise the measurement is. It tells you what the energy of the measurement error is.

If you have actual bounds on the magnitude of the measurement error, you can use interval arithmetic. I love interval arithmetic, but it can produce over-pessimistic bounds.
Answer: The resolution on the meter only tells you that you can't clearly resolve measurements observed between tick marks.  It does not tell you how consistently the results are recorded.  Repeated measurement of an object of a known length will directly measure the recording error variability through the estimated standard deviation.  This will not be exact.  It is subject to sampling variability (i.e. it is a sample estimate of a population parameter).
The standard deviation is a measure of the accuracy which includes meaasurement precision and bias in recording whereas instrument resolution only measures precision.  So it can understate accuracy.  The sample variance will be statistically an unbiased estimate of variance which does measure accuracy.


Why aren't stiff legged deadlifts bad for your back?

Question: It seems to me they go against everything safe about lifting! Lifting with your lower back and not your legs.

Image source
Anyone have any thoughts on the safety and science behind them?
Answer: Another key point is this is largely a hamstring exercise as much as it is a lower back exercise. With proper form your lower back is not the only muscle group working to help you stand up. Another thing to think about: your lower back is just another muscle group, that through strength training will become stronger and greatly reduce the likelihood of injury overall.
The biggest mistake people make when attempting this exercise is locking their knees. Despite its name, proper form in this exercise requires a slight bend of the knees and when you bend down you need to be letting the middle of your body lean backwards over your center of gravity. This takes pressure off your vertebrae.
A combination of the following two images for best results(slightly bent knees, leaning back):
Comment: great response! and good pics to back it up
Answer: It all depends on the weight your lifting and the form you use. If I drop a napkin on the floor, I can safely bend down and pick it up without bending my back and using my legs. It's not bad for my back for obvious reasons. Even if I don't have proper form, the weight is so light, and I am still young enough, that no damage will occur.
Stiff leg deadlifts, also know as Romanian deadlifts, may seem unsafe to the casual observer, but they can be just as safe as regular deadlifts assuming you use the proper form and the correct weight. The reason there are posters on the wall at my work telling me to always bend my legs when I pick something up is because corporations assume (and rightly so) that almost nobody will know the proper technique to lift something any other way. Using the proper technique, an experienced weight lifter can lift several hundred pounds off the floor without any long term effects other than increased strength. In my case, I usually lift less weight with stiff legs than I would with bent legs.
I encourage you to get proper instruction before engaging in any heavy lifting techniques for the first time, especially if you're doing deadlifts.
Comment: Perhaps summarize those proper instructions here? Or would @Moz have to ask a separate question for that?
Comment: I assumed the proper technique was outside the scope of the question as asked.
Comment: +1 I was on the Ergonomics Team at work so I can totally relate to the corporate scenario you painted. ha
Answer: People get injured lifting with their back because their backs are weak. Not using one's back is one solution. Strengthening one's back is a better solution.
The point of stiff-legged deadlifts is to start light and slowly progress to weights that are challenging--that is, heavy for you--but still solidly doable. This is a safe way of loading the back in exactly the position where, if it is left weak, it would fail and cause injury.
I've used stiff-legged deadlifts as rehab from a slight lower back injury caused by poor deadlifting form. I did high reps (25 to 50), done with extremely low weights (5# to 45#). This worked the pulled muscles enough to keep blood flowing and perhaps stimulate healing, but not enough to cause unsafe stress. It worked well for me.
Deadlifts are another good way to strengthen the back, which focus on locking the spine into a safe and neutral position, then subjecting that structure to stress. The deadlift can be loaded much more heavily than a stiff-legged deadlift, which is good. In contrast, the stiff-legged deadlift is useful because it works the muscles as they've moving through their intended range of motion, but must be loaded much lighter.
Answer: No one directly said this, so I thought I'd contribute (the other posters talked around this):
When you do a stiff legged deadlift, you maintain your spine in a fixed curvature, and pivot at the hips.  If you curled and uncurled your back, yes, you'd probably injure it.  But by holding it in position, you perform a powerful isometric exercise for the lower back muscles.
Answer: I heart deadlifts and good morning's. Deadlifts are a pretty natural body movement we do probably more than we think about it (sans weights to start usually of course) - lifting kids off the floor, picking up something you dropped, opening lower cabinet doors, putting/removing items from the trunk of your car...
The exercise is just a way of strengthening those every day muscles with proper form.
Answer: As somebody mentioned, it is not the exercise that causes the lower back pain; however it can cause more stress on it further especially if you have had a lower back and weak hamstrings to begin with. When the stiff-legged deadlift is used correctly, it can help benefit your lower back and hamstrings by effectively targeting them and growing them stronger in attempts to minimize such pain.
Answer: The Stiff legged deadlift and Romanian deadlift are actually two different exercises. In a Romanian deadlift, the legs are locked out and the barbell does not go all the way to the floor, as it's impossible to do so without breaking form/arching the back. I have heard a powerlifter say that this type of deadlift can be pretty dangerous due to the fact that the barbell does not touch the ground, breaking the tension on the back. So it's kind of like partial range of motion which is known to put stress on the joints. I'm in agreement that Romanian DLs are not the safest exercise and stay clear of them.
As for stiff legged DL, I love them and have pretty much replaced the conventional DL for it. I usually do them on a different day to my squat, as I can DL much heavier than squat. I have a pretty shifty lower back and have found foam rolling and stiff legged DL has saved me A LOT of pain. The feeling of a fatigued lower back due to DLs is also a GREAT feeling.
Comment: Is there any reference site to support the danger aspect of the deadlift?
Comment: The entire point of an RDL is to avoid breaking tension in the back. It's also, by definition, a full range of motion: you bend at the hips until you can't maintain good back position.


How do you search for images or albums in Google+

Question: I believe that my images from Google+ and from Picasa web album can both be found in either application. I can search for an album name or an image caption or a file name in Picasa web album. Can I do the same from Google+?
Comment: It doesn't look like you can.
Answer: The search in Google+ currently doesn't allow you to search through photo information. However, Google's Search Plus your World can provide the results you're looking for directly in Google's regular search. Here's some documentation on personalized search results
From the regular Google search box photos will surface in the results (in the Images section) if you are signed into Google. Caption information is also searchable.
Edit: Another help center article on personal search results


Linux Mint 12 on HP Pavillion DV7 - Wireless is not working

Question: I just installed Linux Mint 12 using mint4win just to test it out. I have a problem with my wireless connection.
When I start Mint, it sees the network I wish to join, I select it, enter the correct password, and 1 minute later I am being prompted for a password again. During that waiting time, I was not connected at all.
It appears if I turn off my Wireless (by tapping on the Wireless LED on the laptop), it wont turn on again either.
My Ethernet port is broken as well, so I cannot connect with a cable either. In Windows I can connect fine using Wireless.
Is there any drivers required for this to work? I cant seem to find any, and they have to be downloadable from Windows so I can put them on an USB and run them in Mint.
Thank you in advance
EDIT: My Wireless chip is an Atheros AR9285
Answer: Found the driver - http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Download/stable/


Production of electricity from atmosphere

Question: I read the electric field intesity at the surface of earth is 100v/m. Then why can't we keep two metallic sheets at different heights and produce a continuous current by connecting these two sheets via a electric cable?
Answer: You can, and the current would be about a micro-amp, because the atmosphere has very high resistance.
So the useful power you get that way is very small.
Check this link.
Answer: In the 1970s Dr. O. Jefimenko experimented with balloon-lofted antennas and foil-plastic motors.   Rather than employing flat plates, he reduced the high resistance of the air by using arrays of needles which spew plumes of positive ions upwards.  Air which contains mobile ions is a conductor.
If we could fire a KMs-long lightning bolt from ground to ionosphere, and then stick a stepdown transformer in series with it, then perhaps we could extract significant energy from the Earth-ionosphere field.   Since this vertical e-field is thought to be created by the worldwide population of thunderstorms, it's actually a way of tapping the energy of lightning.  But it's tapping the energy of the lightning occurring thousands of miles away on another continent.
Suggestion:  look up the capacitance of the Earth-ionosphere capacitor, the voltage and recharge-rate, and calculate the total amps.  What's the wattage?  It's about the same as a single large power plant.   If we extracted all of it, we could only run a single small city.


software update available -- how to find out the details?

Question: My UK HTC Chacha phone running 2.3.5 since the last few months shows a notification since the last couple of days that there is a software update available. But the menu only says that it's a bit over 7MB to downloads, it doesn't specify what software update this is which version  -- how to find out the details?
Answer: Your carrier is responsible for sending OTA updates.  Check their website, call them and ask, or try searching for your carrier's name and "Android update".
Answer: The ChaCha does the actual updates check by contacting some webservers (*.htc.com) which are listed in build.prop. All released ROM updates are listed at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2094100 but with a 7MB download it must be something else.
Answer: The over 7MB to download part could be that the phone is set in a way that downloading files >7Mb would require a Wi-Fi connection.
To avoid data wastage many phones have this feature to enable warning/limit downloads over the mobile data usage. This settings can be managed under the settings options of your Mobile Data option.
Just by un-checking the option you can easily download the update OTA


Can I have more than one operating system?

Question: I have a new laptop with windows xp. I want to install ubuntu but I want to have both operating systems: Ubuntu and windows xp. What can I do?
Comment: yes its possible , https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
Answer: Many if not most people choose to do just that, installing Linux (Ubuntu) for daily usage and keeping their default Windows install for certain programs not supported on Linux (such as Netflix, iTunes, several games, etc.).
To install Ubuntu alongside Windows on a separate (aka a separate segment of your hard drive from your default C: drive), burn or purchase an Ubuntu live CD, pop it in your DVD drive and reboot. You can create one by downloading the proper .iso (64 or 32-bit) from Ubuntu's website and burning it onto a completely new, blank DVD.
Once you boot with the DVD in the tray, you should be prompted to install Ubuntu. Follow the directions and make sure you select the option to install alongside Windows, not to replace/remove Windows. If all goes well, after you install Ubuntu you'll be prompted with a screen after boot to select Windows XP or Ubuntu to load.
There's another, much easier option to simulate an Ubuntu dual-boot, however. Download the Windows installer for Ubuntu off of Ubuntu's website and run it. You'll create a virtual hard drive within your Windows partition and be able to run Ubuntu almost like you would a dual-boot. However, this will cost a slight performance decrease and you won't be able to hibernate (which is notable for laptops). It is easier to install and easier to remove, though, as you can uninstall it just like a program in Windows.
Answer: Have you ever used ubuntu before?  If not, I highly recommend installing wubi here:
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/help/install-ubuntu-with-windows
This installs ubuntu within windows and allows you to pick windows or ubuntu on boot up.
It's not a traditional install but it is much easier.
Now if you are really hard set on installing it to it's own partition, I would recommend using the steps provided in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LokDqte3sA4
Honestly the traditional install is not too difficult but if you're not comfortable with messing with partitions than I wouldn't recommend it just yet.
Answer: You can definitely have them both.
In the installation of Ubuntu you will be asked if you'd like to install Ubuntu alongside with Windows or if you'd like to totally replace windows. Just pick the alongside option and you're good. :)


How can I find the derivative of a function that takes in two variables?

Question: We won't learn derivations in school for next 3 or 4 years, but I got interested in math and started learning about derivations on Khan Academy. I do understand what would a derivative of $f(x) = x^2$ be, but what if $f(x, y) = (x + y)(x + y)$ ? I guess i would need a three dimensional graph for that, and thus I wouldn't be looking for a tangent line, but more like a tangent surface of some sort? How can I express the "slope" of a surface? I guess that I need at least two numbers... I did some calculations, I'm pretty sure that they're wrong but I got that $f'(x, y) = 2x + 2y$, if given that $f(x, y) = (x + y)(x + y)$... This doesn't really make any sense to me, at all, so how do you do it?
Comment: Yes, nice intuition.  Think of planes for your "tangent surface".
Comment: this is a great question, and I am not sure you are ready for the answer yet. A great resource is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multivariable_calculus. It is taught in the 2nd year in college.
Comment: Thanks for that link! Although, I usually found it hard to learn from Wikipedia (but that can vary, depending on who wrote the article)...
Comment: @bane, you may like this more then. http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/CalcIII/PartialDerivatives.aspx
Answer: The usual thing one does (but this can vary according to what you're trying to achieve) is to compute a vector called the gradient of the function, notated $\nabla f$. The gradient has one component for each input to $f$; for each component you treat all other variables temporarily as constants and differentiate with respect to the chosen one:
$$(\nabla f)(x,y) = \left(\frac{d}{dx}f(x,y), \frac{d}{dy}f(x,y)\right)
= ( 2(x+y), 2(x+y) ) $$
In this example it may be a bit hard to see what's going on, because both components end up being the same, so let's try another one: $g(x,y)=x^2y+y$ gives
$$\nabla g(x,y) = (2xy, x^2+1)$$
The intuitive property of the gradient is that if we have some small offset $(h,k)$ from $(x,y)$, then the difference $f(x+h,y+k)-f(x,y)$ is closely approximated by the dot product between $(h,k)$ and $\nabla f(x,y)$.
The components of the gradient are called partial derivatives and are often notated with a special sign as $\frac{\partial f}{\partial x}$ and $\frac{\partial f}{\partial y}$. The $\partial$ sign looks a bit like a $d$, but is different as a reminder that a single partial derivative is not usually enough to estimate $\Delta f$; you need both of them.
Answer: A geometric way of thinking about the $n$-th derivative in one variable is that is the best possible $n$-th degree approximation to the function, after the lower derivatives have been subtracted away.
For example, the "0-th derivative" of $f(x)$ at $x_0$ is just the point $f(x_0)$.
Subtract $f(x_0)$ from $f$ and you get a function $f(x) - f(x_0)$ that crosses the $x$-axis at $x_0$. If you zoom in far enough at the point $x_0$, it looks like a line $y = a(x-x_0)$. This line is completely determined by its slope, which we call the first derivative.
Subtract off this line, and now your function $f(x) - f(x_0) - a(x-x_0)$ kisses the $x$-axis at $x_0$ without crossing it. Zoom in far enough and it looks like a quadratic, $\frac{1}{2}b(x-x_0)^2$. Again, the single number $b$ is enough to determine the shape of this quadratic, and we call this number the second derivative.
Now let's look at a two-dimensional function $f(x,y)$. Again, the degree 0 approximation at $(x_0,y_0)$ is just $f(x_0,y_0)$. Subtracting we get $f(x,y) - f(x_0,y_0)$, and if we zoom in this function looks like a plane that passes through the $x-y$ plane at $(x_0,y_0)$. This plane has equation $z = a(x-x_0) + b(y-y_0)$ for some coefficients $a$ and $b$ -- notice that now we need two numbers to completely specify this plane. This pair of numbers is the first derivative of $f$.
Subtracting again we will get a function that is tangent to the $x-y$ plane at $(x_0,y_0)$; zooming in, the surface looks like a degree 2 quadratic surface $z = \frac{1}{2} b(x-x_0)^2 + c(x-x_0)(y-y_0) + \frac{1}{2}(y-y_0)^2.$ The three numbers $b,c,d$ that determine this quadratic are the second derivative, often written as a matrix $\left[\begin{array}{cc} b & c\\ c & d\end{array}\right]$. This surface looks like either a bowl, an extruded parabola, or a saddle.
We can continue this process, approximating what's left of the function with cubic, quartic, etc. surface. But these require more and more numbers to determine, and are harder to visualize geometrically.


Spanish Guitar lessons online

Question: Where can I find reliable, good instructional material about the Spanish guitar online? I'm just not able to find reliable instructors, and I think I'll be a better and faster learner through online instruction. There are bits and pieces on YouTube and on many sites, but as a formal step by step lesson plan - none that I have seen so far. I'm also new to any musical instrument.
Answer: The Carcassi Classical Guitar Method is a long-time bible for classical guitar instruction. It talks about playing technique and fingering. The exercises are quite musical for only being beginning playing, so it should keep you inspired until you are ready for more difficulty. There are sites that have this in pdf format for free but you can also buy from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Mel-Bay-Presents-Complete-Carcassi/dp/0871663783/
This book requires that you to learn to sight-read music. It might be a pain at first, but don't under-estimate how powerful this ability will be for you in the future. When your friends who have been playing for a decade can play a couple dozen songs and you can play thousands because you can sight-read you will appreciate the little extra effort it took to get there.
As for video lessons online, I haven't had any luck. All I see is the instructor playing songs, but no really usable instruction. I can figure out how to play the songs myself, but I want to know the intricacies of how I should make a chord transition or pluck a series of notes so it sounds more smooth and melodic. I haven't seen any of that online.

Spanish Guitar lessons online


How do I use a pattern like in 一年有春夏秋冬四季?

Question: I understand the meaning of the sentence, but I have difficulties grasping the pattern and how I could extend it to other phrases. Could you please come up with other example sentences with similar patterns?
Comment: This is a sentence with a simple structure. I don't know what special pattern it would have. Subject(一年) + verb(有) + object(春夏秋冬四季). 四季 is an appositive word.
Answer: I suppose this is a pattern that is to describe a subject, which can be interpreted by different terms, but you can combine them together as a whole, so as to explain it more dramatically.
For the sentence you give, you can say a year has 4 seasons, and a year has spring/summer/autumn/winter. Then you can combine them together a year has spring/summer/autumn/winter 4 seasons.
Another example is
"空间有上下左右前后六个方位" - The space has up/down/let/right/front/back 6 directions.
Answer: In it's most basic form the pattern should be:
subject + verb + (quantity) object
e.g. 一只猫 + 有 + (四条)腿 <-- (brackets not necessary, just trying to make the distinction clear)
or
一年 + 有 + 四季
In your example the sentence is expanded to list out what each of those items in the object are:
The 四季 includes 春、夏、秋、冬.
So the sentence pattern then becomes something like:
subject + verb + list of objects + (quantity) object
一年 + 有 + 春、夏、秋、冬 + 四季
Here is another example of the same pattern:
我的家 + 有 + 爸爸 妈妈 和 我 + 三个人 (我的家有爸爸妈妈和我三个人)

Additionally, one of the first sentences I learnt from a text book was:
我家有四口人爸爸、妈妈、妹妹和我
Which is similar to the pattern above, but you can see the place of the number of objects (四口人) is switched with the list of objects. Both ways are acceptable.
Answer: You can also say 一年有四季:春夏秋冬 which has the same meaning. As @stan has said, one of 四季 or 春夏秋冬 is an appositive word. In general, the word as 四季 is put later since it has a function to summerize or explain the words before it. BTW, sometimes, 有 will be canceled, i.e. 一年四季,春夏秋冬. There is a poetry Chinese children will learn:一去二三里,烟村四五家,亭台六七座,八九十枝花, 一去 and 烟村 and 亭台 has the same function as 春夏秋冬 in your example while 二三里 and 四五家 and 六七座 has the same function as 四季.


Using champagne yeast

Question: I would like to make an IPA that is very bubbly and dry like a champagne. I'm assuming to get it really bubbly I would just bottle with champagne yeast, but to achieve the dryness would I also ferment with it? When you bottle with champagne yeast, do they need to be corked or can I still just cap them? Are there any special tricks when using champagne yeast, or special considerations to be made?
Answer: WLP007 - English Dry Ale - is a pretty clean tasting dry yeast that can handle big batches.
Comment: Also, it's 007. Which is fun.
Answer: Champagne yeast produces neutral flavors, so it can be useful in bottle conditioning barleywines and other strong ales that have spent months in the fermenter (generally added a few days before bottling), but not good for creating an entire batch in terms of flavor.
If you prefer dry ale yeast, I'd recommend Danstar's Nottingham ale yeast.  Very high attenuation, should help you get down to your desired gravity.  Flavor can be a little tart, but if the grain bill and hopping rates are high enough I think you can get the results you're looking for. (and I recommend using at least 2 packets per 5 gallon batch)
Controlling carbonation can very hard using priming sugar.  I've had batches where I used too much sugar and ended up with bottles that gushed until completely empty--and there was no cure for it once they were bottled.
If you REALLY want to have tight control over your carbonation levels, you could move on to kegging and force carbing.  Force carbing allows you total control over the carbonation levels.
Answer: Keep in mind that part of your IPAs flavor depends on the fermentation character you get from the yeast.  Even if your using a clean american ale yeast.  Its still has a character different that champagne yeast.
Secondly, champagne yeast will have a hard time actually with some of the maltose type sugars I think.  So while you'll get fermentation, champagne yeast has really been bred/selected to work on simple grape sugars.
Lastly, getting something really bubbly in the bottle is somewhat tough.  If you want it to be as bubbly as champagne you'll need champagne or at least Belgian style bottles.  Normal beer bottles can't handle that much pressure safely.
Comment: Thanks for the info on the bottles. I would want it to be really bubbly. I was hoping to get away with capped bottles, but corked makes sense.
Comment: Another option would be to keg the beer if you are set up for that. Then you can carb up to any level of bubbly you want.  I suspect you aren't set up for that though otherwise...why ask?  Cheers
Answer: I wouldn't recommend using champagne yeast in beer.  It will dry it out completely and will not taste very good.  I'm talking a finally gravity of 0.99.  Yuck.  It will also scrub a lot of the flavor from the beer.
If you did want to do it you would need champagne bottles, corks, a corker, and wire cages.
you could add a tiny bit more sugar to your bottles, but I would reccomend against it.  Bottle bombs aren't just messy, they could seriously injure you.
Answer: I've used champagne yeast as a bottling yeast for bigger beers, but would not recommend it, as it moves the character of the beer away from the style you are brewing, and sometimes imparts a weird off taste (had that result with an Alt and a Pilsener).
To get a very dry IPA, you can bump-up the O.G. with just plain table sugar, or just bump up the temperature 10F after you've fermented for 10 days to tease out that last little bit.  Do not under any circumstances bump the temperature up this far during the first 7 days of fermentation, or you will get a really bad fusel-alcohol tasting beer.
If you want a big bubbly head, just use more priming sugar.  Based upon experience, you can use as much as 8 ozs. instead of the standard 5 ozs. without getting bottle bombs.  You will get lots of fine bubbles!  No corks needed!

Using champagne yeast


Height of socks and sports

Question:
I was wondering what is the purpose
for some socks to be low-cut?
How high are socks suitable for
which sports? Football/soccer
players wear long socks, while some
people in gym wear low-cut ones.

Thanks and regards!
Comment: It's a great question, I've always wondered this.  Is there a reason?
Comment: Outstanding question!  Also, would high socks also help in keeping the calf muscle warm/loose for activities where rest is frequent?  (asked as a comment since it is relevant but I don't want to edit the original).
Answer: It depends on the sport.  Soccer and Football (I'm speaking as an American here) both use long socks to hold the shin guards in place.  The shin guards provide extra padding to prevent injuries from errant kicks and tackles.  The long socks are also in the team colors so the referees can easily identify which team the players are on even when the jersey isn't visible (such as in a pileup).
Other sports like basketball don't have shin guards and the sock height is more of a personal style as they have changed over the years.  Usually the team will be consistent so the players look uniform.
Answer: I would think that the long socks in sports would be for some protection.  I wear short socks when I go to the gym because I don't like/need the long socks.  But do wear medium length socks when rollerblading to pad my chins.
Answer: I don't like short socks. My ex was a dancer and she hated long socks (she'd wear ankle length ones). Most of my socks don't quite go halfway up my shins, but I have some that make it to my knees, and those are hiking socks (and are for a small amount of padding in case things go up one's pants, or you're banging into things with your legs).
For sports like footy/soccer/rugby, the length of socks is more like part of the uniform of the sport, like basketball shorts are for basketball.

Height of socks and sports


Are road-bike suspension forks still manufactured, if so, where?

Question: For a few years, road bike suspension forks were used at Paris-Roubaix, but now they seem to have disappeared. Are they still being manufactured? If not, why (aside from UCI regulation) did they not persist, e.g. for cyclocross or city riding?
Comment: Ask to ride frames that use different fork material.  Start with cromoly, then aluminum before carbon fiber.  The difference was very noticable to me when riding over bumps & potholes - even if the fork is not entirely carbon fiber.
Comment: This isn't an answer, but maybe carbon forks (and frames for that matter) have reduced the need for suspension on a road bike. I don't have one, but I hear they have quite a bit of shock absorption built in.
Answer: The Rockshox at Paris Roubaix were a Greg LeMond thing. Whatever Greg competed in a few 'out there' cycling innovations came along with him. Remember those tri-bars that gave him the aero tuck position to beat Laurent Fignon in the Tour de France? On that event he also had his own road bars that had an extra position, where the drop handlebar end plugs would be, his bars turned in 90 degrees to give an extra lower position. Anyway, it was his Team-Z that introduced the Rockshox on Roubaix. Seems that your well chosen pic duly notes his special handlebars, the Rockshox and 'Team Z'.
Greg's bars and forks were not widely adopted although his time-trial bars most certainly were. In any evolutionary process some mutations just don't work. As for the forks, the problems with them were that they were heavy, the brake touched the rim and they introduced 'sloppiness' in the front end. Imaginably these problems would be overcome but they were not. I don't think UCI regulations had anything to do with it, the product at that time was just not that good. MTB forks were a bit dubious too back then, only when the disk brake came along did the 'brake rub' problem get properly solved.
There are plenty of 700c forks on hybrid bikes from mainstream manufacturers, generally of the low-end 'Suntour' variety with a spring that does the work instead of any sophisticated oil/air arrangement.
You might want to go to a bike shop and do your own compare and contrast of the bikes with 700c suspension forks. The travel is around 50mm or so and there generally is no adjustment on them. I think Trek do a few models with them, Giant did too on the more expensive 'Expression' models. Although experiences are subjective, I found that along gravel trails the hybrid with no suspension felt better than the efforts with suspension. I wondered if the suspension was doing anything at all, it did not float over the bumps like a full-suspension mountain bike does and there was no real cut in handlebar vibration.
Here is a Suntour offering with coil spring, preload adjuster and lockout. This model is typically found on things like deluxe Trek hybrid bikes:

The brakes are V-brake, the hole in the top of the brace is for mounting a reflector and you cannot put a nice set of road brakes on there. Other versions of this low end fork exist for roller cam brakes, which you obviously do not want!!!
There are some more desirable models made by Suntour for cyclo-cross and the hybrid market with 'proper' air adjustment and rebound, maybe even remote lockout. I am not sure if these models are OEM only or if you will be able to get hold of them locally:

As for Cyclo Cross, checkout the Suntour NRX models, with disk and all the sophistication you could wish for in 700c:

http://www.srsuntour-cycling.com/dstore/products/Forks/2845/NRX/SF11-NRX+S+ELD+700C+LTD.html
That fork should give you the ultimate in comfort for the front end of your road bike. Although for cyclo-cross it has the makings of a very tidy commuting machine...
Answer: Suntour makes a significantly different designed road suspension fork I found on Wired Magazine while Googling.  Here is the Suntour product page
Answer: I have ridden road bikes of all sorts over many years in road races, time trials and over many miles of general riding and club runs. For most of those years the bikes had forks made of Reynolds or Colombus steels but with a reasonable rake. In later years the rake decreased and in some cases disappeared altogether with the result that the front of the bikes became almost rigid. Straight or almost straight forks may be more fashionable but they transfer all the shock directly into the rider's arms. A high quality lightweight Reynolds Tubing (or similar) front fork with a slightly raked bottom section is surprisingly good at absorbing shock.
Answer: Alex Moulton (http://www.moultonbicycles.co.uk) has made full-suspension steel frame road bikes continuously since the 1960s.
These are not slow low-end folding bikes:  the Moulton marries 120psi tires with full suspension, overcoming the handicap of small wheels to produce a fast but rather heavy bike.  Since 1987, the Moulton AM7, with 17-inch wheels, has held the world speed record for non-recumbent bikes over level ground, at well over 50mph.
I've done tours of 400+ miles on both a Moulton and a Trek 520 (traditional steel touring bike).  Much prefer the Moulton, because the reduced shock means less wrist and neck pain after hundreds of miles.
Answer: Having had low end aluminum, mid grade steel, and now a Specialized roubaix SL3 full carbon, can say the full carbon is the reason they dont need suspension.
The Specialized Roubaix wins on the cobbles more often then not.
Carbon is smooth and really takes most small bumps to a manageable level. All at 16lbs. Where any suspension fork is going to be 2 pounds and have trouble being as stiff enough to mee a racers demands.


Where can I find the full text for Bastion levels?

Question: Specifically, I'd like to read the story of the Who Knows Where levels. I'm sure the full text is out there somewhere, but my Google-fu is not working.
Answer: My google-fu has likewise failed me, so this might not exist already.  However, I have a couple of ideas.
One would be to watch videos of the "Who Knows Where" levels on YouTube.  First level, second level, third level.
They're only about 10-15 minutes each, so transcribing them wouldn't take long.
My second thought is that if you own the PC version of the game, you may be able to read the subtitle text out of the game's data files, although I don't know what the format of these files is.  Additionally, getting the script out in sequential order might be a challenge.
Perhaps someone else will come along with a better link, but this is about the best I could come up with.
Comment: The Kid tried to hide his disappointment, but it was plain as the black on a squirt.  He slinked off with his half-answer, but we knew he'd be back.  He'd never give up hope.
Comment: The game is still young. +1 for your efforts.
Comment: The subtitles are stored in simple text files (at least for the Humble Bundle version).
Answer: Here are links to transcripts of the "Who Knows Where" narration that I found on the Bastion Wiki:

First level (Zulf's Pipe)
Second level (Zia's Stockpot)
Third level (The Kid's Bedroll)

According to the edit dates on the wiki, these were added on Dec. 15th and Dec. 29th 2011, so your Google-fu would likely have succeeded if it had taken place a couple of weeks later :-).