WordPress or Drupal for data-heavy content site

Question: Looking to build a very data-heavy content site and not sure if what I'm looking to do can be accomplished in WordPress (my preference) or even in Drupal for that matter.  The problem isn't the content, which I assume Custom Post Types (or maybe Pods??) could do.  It's the relationships between the content.  Basically want to build pages for individual baseball players, with a some stats (not totally crazy, just basics), RSS headlines from various sites, photos, etc. but with relationships to teams, individual games played in, etc.  That's where I'm unsure.  Even in Drupal it looks like I would have to use the Entity reference module to accomplish this.  So, player is on a team, a team plays in a game, etc. being able to sort and browse by these relationships.  Thoughts on if WordPress (or Drupal, or other) is up to this or I would have to go complete custom app/framework?  Thanks!
Answer: I would go with WordPress for the simple reason that it takes less time to create custom websites (your in a WordPress Support site did you think you would get a different answer?). It sounds like you need to read up on custom post types and taxonomies. I don't see why the requirements you've mentioned couldn't be handled by CPT's if you set it up right. Here are a few resources to some info that may help:
Justin Tadlock's CPT Tutorial (an older article, but still useful).
New2Wp.com's CPT and Taxonomies The Right Way Tutorial
WPTutts Tutorial
That should give you a good start on how to use CPT's and Taxonomies to catagorize your content into the needed fields.
Answer: tl;dr version: YES, both Wordpress and Drupal can do the job.
I've been in a similar situation. You can use both, in the end it's a matter of workflow and taste.
You can do it in Drupal almost out of the box. Version 7 integrates Content Construction Kit (CCK) in which you can create custom content types - with custom field types, among which one is the node reference type. Just add the Views module for displaying and filtering content by these relationships.
Few years ago Drupal would've been the definite answer, but nowadays, since the introduction of Custom Fields, Custom Taxonomies and finally Custom Post Types you can achieve a similar structure in WordPress too, but it can take a bit more work (read: additional coding).
Now it depends also which you're more familiar with. People tend to agree that Drupal takes a steeper learning curve. Drupal is a powerhouse, this also means it's more complicated. WordPress has a smoother user experience - in terms of admin interface. Core and module updates are a breeze in WP, not the same goes for Drupal. Thus, as a personal taste I always try to solve my problems with WP.
Answer: And also check the post2post plugin to make relationships between posts.


Replacing the Trek Lime

Question: I purchased a Trek Lime for my mother a few years ago.  Unfortunately, it has now been stolen and I need to replace it.  She has terrible arthritis so any bike that would require her hands to do more than hold on would be out of the question.  I've considered buying a cruiser and having an automatic transmission such as the nexus hub installed, but I'm just not familiar enough with automatic transmissions to be sure this is even possible. To complicate matters, I'm working out of the country for the next year and a half so I have to rely on others.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  BTW--I'm not willing to spend thousands of dollars on it.
Comment: So, essentially you're looking for a "cruiser" type bike with an automatic transmission?
Answer: If she liked the Lime, why not look at the second hand market. Get one and have it serviced by a good bike shop and off she goes...
Edit : Quick 1 minute search and I found This - why go second hand.....
Comment: This was my first thought as well - just get another Lime.
Answer: One option that I really recommend you, at least to consider, is a recumbent bike, specially one with a low crank and a relatively upright position.
With such a bike, not only the hands get much more relaxed, but also the butt benefit from a wide padded area for support, which is shared a bit with the lower back.
I have ridden a clone of the Easy Rider similar to this, and although I was very skeptical about the cumbersome looks of the bike, the comfort and ease are unbelieavable (to the point of asking myself why have I been torturing myself with regular bikes for so long).
For a senior lady I doubt there could be anything much better than this on two wheels (there are trike versions) BUT there are some caveats:

They are heavy;
They are cumbersome to manoeuver in tight spaces;
They require generous space for storage and to get in and out of house. A garage would be ideal;
Comment: They're also expensive, and probably out of the OP's budget.
Answer: SRAM make an auto internally geared hub these days.
I'm sure you can find a bike that comes with one, with some deft Googling, or buy a cheepy cruiser and add the new hub to it.

Replacing the Trek Lime


What is the best time to see the Lavender in France?

Question: The fields of lavender in France are meant to be gorgeous. What is the best time of year to see them in their full glory? How much does it vary from year to year based on the weather?
Answer: Not my region (lavender is mostly found in Provence, but there are occasional fields in other regions), so I need to rely on Wikipedia. Lavender flowers from late June to late August. It is typically harvested well before the flower wilts, because the heat makes the essence rise towards the flower's glands, so the plant's aroma becomes less strong as the summer goes by. The exact harvest time varies from region to region (and of course with the year's weather); looking around on the Internet, I see dates ranging from mid-July to mid-August; for example there are lavender festivals in Provence from the third Sunday in July to the 15th of August; the harvest tends to be earlier in the Drôme region.
Answer: Dutch wikipedia about Lavender says they have flowers from August till October. And because the best chances for nice weather are during the summer (which would improve the experience), I would suggest to go somewhere around the middle of August.
Comment: It actually says that the plant should be pruned "after the flowering (August to October)". The sentence is somewhat ambiguous but it is apparently the time you can prune it. There will perhaps still be flowers visible in gardens in the Netherlands but it's definitely too late for the fields in the south of France. Besides, weather is really not a problem in this region, there is plenty of sun in June-July. If anything, August can be less comfortable (too hot, with some thunderstorms).
Answer: This will be too late for the original poster but here is a map. Apparently, in many places the flowers are already gone by the end of July.
I would say that the best period is the beginning of July. It's also the time when lavender honey is collected. I never attended one of the late August festivals but my understanding is that they take place around the time when the harvest finishes so there would probably be less to see in the fields.


Why is "recently added" playlist under iCloud control empty on iPhone?

Question: The playlist "recently added" is a smart playlist (created by iTunes) and lists quite some songs in iTunes on the Mac. The library is kept in the iCloud by iTunes match, so the songs and the playlists are synced automatically to the iPhone. But "recently added" always is empty on the iPhone (unlike most other playlists).
Answer: You're not the only one suffering from this issue. A lot of people are complaining on the internet about this.
A solution would be to turn off iTunes Match on your iPhone, delete all your music on your iPhone (it's all in the iCloud, right? So you won't lose any) and then activate iTunes Match on your iPhone. You'll be able to download all your play-lists, including the recently added.
This should do the trick.
Answer: Try to unsync then re-sync. This happens to me with my bookmarks from time to time with  each of my devices
Comment: Alas, that did not change anything.


Location of new items in list

Question: I have a medium-sized list (about a few dozen items, the container is very likely to have internal vertical scrolling). There is no sorting, so items are displayed in the order of their addition to the list. They are added through a series of controls located above the list with a "submit" button at the end. A colleague and I disagree as to where the new items should appear – at the bottom of the list, or at the top.
Comment: Here's a similar question you might fund helpful. It's about adding an item to a list that's sorted and paginated.  http://ux.stackexchange.com/q/2997/61
Answer: No ordering is a missed opportunity
If you have 'no order' it is a missed opportunity to make the list easier to navigate.  Chronological order of addition, or alphabetic order can only improve on 'no definite order' as far as navigation goes.  Once you have an order, you have an answer as to where to add.
I'm assuming a time-of-adding order is more useful to your application than alphabetic, or you'd be already using alphabetic and not have a question - so you're left with a choice between chronological or reverse chronological.
Chronological or Reverse Chronological?
Are users more likely to be interested in older entries or newly added entries?  That can decide whether chronological or reverse chronological order of addition is the right order.  Put the most interesting at the top.  If the preference might vary, then add the sort up/down arrow, so the user can choose.  Again you now have a definite order and know where to add entries.  If there is almost never a difference of interest in older or newer, so that it's not worth adding the sort arrow, then make the new entries appear at the end of the table that is nearest the submit button.  That way, with their focus of attention on the button, they see the change as it happens.
Something near to the submit button needs to change when its clicked, e.g. a count of records, if not actual appearance of the new entry, so there is some visual feedback near to the button that something happened.  It's where they are looking.
Answer: Personally I would add them to the top of the list. If I saw such a control in the wild and the new item was added to the bottom of the list and focus was set to the new item as each one is added I would not have a problem with it. The challenge of having the new item added to the bottom of the list is keeping the new item visible "above the fold" and in front of the user. Highlighting the new item as it is added, maybe a highlight that slowly dissolves, may help.
Adding the new item to the top should allow for more items to be visible in a list at any given time.
Answer: In my mind if you have no ordering in your list. You should add it on the top with a highlightning effect.
If the user can add more then one item without reloading the site.
it could be good to seperate the existing items from the new items e.g. with a line.
I think one problem her is, that there is no ordering in your list.
If there are so many items, that users have to scroll through the list, they will lost the overview.
Answer: I was thinking it could depend on the ordering of your list, and the position of the list.
If your list starts at the first item, and has not moved, i would add at the top, as the end of the list is possibly out of sight. So the users gets immediate positive feedback that the item is added to the list.
But in that case, since the items are ordered as they were added, i would reverse the order and show the newest items first (so that the list keeps the same appearance if you would refresh or return to the application later).
Now i am not sure what would happen if the user has scrolled through the list, and the list is positioned for instance at the end (and the first items are out of sight). I guess I would still add at the front, and position the list accordingly to make the new item visible.
If the order of the items is important, and you want to keep the same order, i would add them at the end, where they would be located anyway (e.g. after refresh); and then jump to the position of the newly added item, to give the visual feedback.
Since jumping to a position is a big change, the addition of the new item might not be immediately clear, so maybe using a fading highlight.
Using a fading highlight to indicate the new item clearly might in any case be a good idea.

Location of new items in list


Do resistor-based fan regulators save no power at all?

Question: I have heard that the traditional resistor-based fan speed regulators are inefficient. In fact, I have noticed that such regulators tend to get hot when the fan is set to low speed. However, does that mean that they save no power at all at low speeds, or is it just that power is saved but the amount of power saved is far less than ideal? I was expecting that since power P = V / R^2, the overall power consumption of the fan plus regulator system would be comparatively lower at lower speeds.
Answer: With no resistance, the full voltage is applied to the fan, and you get mechanical work done, at whatever efficiency the fan itself is capable of. Never minding the fan itself, so far as the electrical aspect goes, you could say it's 100% efficient.
With resistance in the system, for example about equal to the resistance of the fan, you have less current flowing through the system.  Half as much. Same voltage.  So the system is using half the power.  The fan, now one part of a voltage divider circuit, is getting half the voltage, and getting half the current.  It runs slower, doing less, doing about 1/4 the work.  1/4 of the fan action divided by 1/2 power going into the system means that the system is 50% efficient.
Imagine a lot of resistance in the system, megohms.  You'll have only a trickle of current, say a microamp.  The fan barely moves.  The system will be using very little power, but most of that little power is just making the resistor hot.  Or rather, a small fraction of a degree warmer than ambient temperature.  The system efficiency is close to zero.
Answer: There are two types of energy source. 1. Voltage source 2. Current source
In voltage source, source voltage remains constant  in spite of varying load resistance connected to it.
In current source, current remains constant through the load in spite of its resistance.
The main line is a voltage source.
so the power consumption (electric energy) used bye the system (regulator + fan) is inversely proportional to resistance of the system (because $P= V^2/R$ and $V$ is constant)
NOTE: Here we if we think the formula $P= I^2 R$, it also gives the power consumption.
But here $P$ is NOT proportional to $R$ , because we are using voltage source and $I$ is not constant (instead $I$ depends on $R$)
So, if fan/motor speed is slow, total power consumption (electric energy) will be slower than its full speed, but efficiency of the system will be less because we do not want heat from regulator.
Thus, the smaller the final fan speed, the smaller the electric bill.
Comment: You can use normal LaTeX notation inside single and double dollar signs.
Answer: You answer your own question! P = V/r^2. Add r, you reduce P (total power consumed). There is no addition of r that could -increase- P.
So, you save -a little- power at low speed, even though the resistor gets hot.
Answer: Looking at this analytically, let's model the fan, for simplicity's sake, as a resistance, $R_F$.  We'll model the source as an ideal source and place a series resistance, $R_S$ between the source and fan.
The power delivered by the source is:
$p_S = \dfrac{V^2}{R_S + R_F}$
So, yes, as the series resistance is increased the total power delivered by the source decreases, i.e., power is "saved".
But, the power delivered to the fan is:
$p_F = \dfrac{V^2}{(R_S + R_F)^2}R_F$
Taking the ratio of fan power to source power gives an efficiency measure:
$\eta = \dfrac{R_F}{R_S + R_F}$
Clearly, for $R_F < R_S$, more power is delivered to the series resistance than to the fan.
So, while you're reducing total power delivered by the source with a resistor divider, you're also wasting more power (unless you actually use the considerable heat from the series resistance in some way...).


How to calculate exact area of a loaded jpg map in to arcmap?

Question: I calculated the polygon area through arcmap.but i'm not sure that the area is not actual,may be scale is not right.
so how to calculate the exact area of a jpg image?
Answer: You can always use the draw tool (found in the draw toolbar).  Draw a polygon around the image then double click it.  It will show the area based on the units and coordinate system of the data frame.
You can also use the measure tool on the main toolbar that looks like a ruler -- it allows you to calculate area as well.
Answer: Unless the .jpg is a .jp2 or has a coordinate system tagged to it, you cannot accurately measure the area.  My recommendation is to check the coordinate system of your jpg.  If there is no coordinate system and you cannot find the source info for the coordinate system (if applicable), then you should look toward Georeferencing.  A fairly good source of information from ESRI can be found here:
Intro to Georeferencing
Georeferencing toolbar
Answer: Do you know the resolution of the grid (=size of one pixel)? Then you are able to calculate the area:
pixelsize x pixelsize x imageheight x imagewidth
e.g. 2 meter x 2 meter x 3500 pixel x 4000 pixel = 56,000,000 squaremeter
(This only works if the image is stored in an equal area projection.)


What are N7 Missions?

Question: I've seen a few achievements ("Tourist" and "Explorer") that required playing a couple of "N7 Missions". What are these?
Answer: The N7 missions are special sidequests that you'll get from reading your email or speaking to Specialist Traynor, who is standing to the right of the galaxy map.  These missions are:

N7: Cerberus Labs
N7: Cerberus Attack
N7: Cerberus Abductions
N7: Cerberus Fighter Base
N7: Fuel Reactors
N7: Communication Hub

The first of these unlocks early - shortly after you take control of the Normandy.  The rest unlock slowly throughout the plot, with the next one after you've completed Priority: Sur'Kesh.  Traynor will tell you about it as you approach the map after this mission has completed.  I don't believe you have to speak to her - it will be an ambient conversation that updates your Journal.
You'll have to play 2, 5, and all 6 to get the three achievements "Tourist," "Explorer," and "Tour of Duty" respectively.  Note that you can also get the "Tourist" achievement (along with "Explorer" and "Tour of Duty") by playing multiplayer, if that's more your speed.
Answer: N7 Missions are a collection of side-missions that you'll be notified of via messages at your private terminal as they unlock over the course of the single player campaign.
The primary notable feature is that they all take place on maps that are used in Mass Effect 3's Multiplayer mode, so they make for a nice way to familiarize yourself with them in a single player environment.

What are N7 Missions?


Bolza curve admits no anticonformal fixedpointfree involution

Question: The Bolza curve B double covers the Riemann sphere with branching at the vertices of a regular octahedron.  An affine model is given by the locus of $y^2=x^5-x$.  How does one show that B does not admit an anticonformal fixedpointfree involution?
Comment: Peter and katz, you are right, I deleted my answer.
Answer: Here is a reasoning which uses (as Peter's one) the fact that on every hyperelliptic curve the hyper-elliptic involution $\sigma$ commutes with every conformal self-map (since hyper-elliptic involution is unique).
Suppose $\sigma_1$ is an orientation reversing fixed point free involution of $B$. Then since $\sigma\sigma_1=\sigma_1\sigma$ the action of $\sigma_1$ on $B$ descends to an orientation reversing involution (call it $\sigma_2$) on $\mathbb CP^1=B/\sigma_1$. Clearly $\sigma_2$ permutes $6$ vertices of the octahedron and it does not fix any of them. So $\sigma_2$ is the central symmetry of (octahedral)  $\mathbb CP^1$. Now, take on $\mathbb CP^1$ any big circle $S^1$ (invariant under $\sigma_2$) that does not pass through the vertices. Let $S'^1$ be its preimage on $B$. $S'^1$ is a circle the double covers $S^1$ (because $S^1$ splits $6$ vertices on $\mathbb CP^1$ into two groups of $3$ verities). Since $\sigma_2$ makes the half-turn of $S^1$ it follows that $\sigma_1$ makes a quoter turn of $S'^1$. So it is not an involution of $B$. Contradiction.
Answer: Let $\mathbb C(x,y)$ be the function field of the curve $B$. From $y^2=x^5-x$ we obtain that each element in $\mathbb C(x,y)$ has the form $A(x)+yB(x)$ with rational functions $A$ and $B$. Identify the conformal automorphisms of $B$ with the $\mathbb C$-automorphisms of $\mathbb C(x,y)$.
Thus any conformal automorphism of $B$ has the form $(x,y)\mapsto (R(x)+yU(x),V(x)+yS(x))$ with rational functions $R,S,U,V$. Now it is well known that the hyperelliptic involution $(x,y)\mapsto (x,-y)$ of a hyperelliptic curve commutes with all conformal automorphisms. (The reason for that is that $\mathbb C(x)$ is the unique degree $2$ rational subfield of $\mathbb C(x,y)$.) Writing out what it means that the hyperelliptic involution commutes with conformal automorphisms yields $U=V=0$.
An anti-conformal automorphism is the composition of a map as above and complex conjugation, so it has the form $$\sigma: (x,y)\mapsto (R(\bar x),\bar yS(\bar x))$$ Assuming that $\sigma$ is an involution yields the necessary condition $$R(\bar R(x))=x,$$ where $\bar R$ arises from $R$ by complex conjugation of the coefficients.
In particular, $R$ has degree $1$, so it is a linear fractional map.
As $(R(x),yS(x))$ is on the curve when $(x,y)$ is on the curve, we get
$$(x^5-x)S(x)^2=R(x)^5-R(x).$$
Looking at degrees and poles shows that either $R(x)=\gamma(x-\alpha)$ or $R(x)=\gamma/(x-\alpha)$ for some $\alpha$ with $\alpha^5=\alpha$ and $\gamma\in\mathbb C$.
In the first case, degrees tell us that $S(x)$ is a constant $\delta$. Upon replacing $x$ by $x+\alpha$ we get $$((x+\alpha)^5-(x+\alpha))\delta^2=\gamma^5 x^5-\gamma x.$$ Comparing at $x^4$ yields $\alpha=0$. So $R(x)=\gamma x$. But then $R(0)=S(0)=0$, and $(0,0)$ is a fixed point of $\sigma$.
In the second case we have $R(x)=\gamma/(x-\alpha)$. This forces $S(x)=\delta/(x-\alpha)^3$ for some $\delta$. Again, replacing $x$ with $x+\alpha$ and clearing denominators yields $\alpha=0$. We obtain $R(x)=\gamma/x$. From $R(\bar R(x))=x$ we get $\gamma/\bar\gamma=1$, so $\gamma$ is real.
Easy calculations yield $\gamma^4=1$, so $\gamma=\pm1$, and $S(x)=\delta/x^3$ with $\delta^2=-\gamma$. So
$$ \sigma: (x,y)\mapsto (-\delta^2/\bar x,\delta\bar y/\bar x^3)$$
with $\delta^2=\pm1$.
We compute $$\sigma^2:(x,y)\mapsto (x,-\frac{\delta}{\bar\delta}y).$$
As $\sigma^2=1$, we get $\delta^2=-1$. But then $(1,0)$ is a fixed point of $\sigma$.
Comment: Thanks, Peter, this is tremendous.  I wonder if one could write down something simpler.  We have an argument at http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.0188 (see section 8), but it is a bit involved.  Will keep thinking.


What could be causing the grinding noise in my washing machine?

Question: Recently my Kenmore Series 80 washing machine has developed a grinding noise, which occurs just as the washing machine starts doing a spin out to remove the water. It last maybe 3 seconds, and then after that normal sounds of the water being emptied is all I hear. Last year I replaced the motor coupling, but am wondering if that might be what it is? Or what else might cause that problem?
Answer: You don't have a lot of info there.  But it sounds like your bolt that is holding your main bearing for the main drum is coming loose.  If it is a front load this is really easy to get to.  Take off the back and you should see a large bearing.  I had to replace mine for the same reason.  It is held by one screw and has teeth that make the main drum spin.  If the teeth are still in ok condition - which it just depends on how much you used it with that noise - then you just need to put the bolt all the way back in with blue loctite.  If it isn't glued in it will works its way out quickly.
Comment: And the grinding was from the drum jiggling because of the loose bolt and also because the teeth making it spin were slipping causing the drum to bounce.


What advantages does an MPC-style device have that are not offered by a DAW?

Question: It seems that the MPC-2000 had a long stranglehold on drum programmers and sample editors, but with the rise of DAWs (most notably I think was FL Studio around version 4), are they now obsolete? What advantages does one have to using an MPC versus something like Kontakt or any built-in sampling device?
Answer: When you look at any piece of vintage gear, I think you are looking not only at a time capsule for music technology, but also at how that technology influenced the sound of music of that age.
For example, the Yamaha DX-7 had a profound influence on the sound of popular music in the 80's.  It was a key component in the arsenal of a huge number of bands, albums and soundtracks of the day.  I used to own a DX-7, and the sounds it makes are very distinctive; I can always recognize one when I hear it being used in a song.
Or, take the Yamaha CP-70 electric grand piano.  You might well ask, what's so special about this piano?  Well, it was the piano used in Peter Gabriel's song, "In Your Eyes."  The sound is unmistakable; no other piano sounds like it, and there is no piece of gear or software plugin that will fully substitute for that sound.
So it is with the MPC-2000, or any other piece of vintage gear.  There will always be those who choose that piece of gear because it has the sound they want, or the workflow that they need.  And make no mistake, the workflow of the device (how the controls are arranged, the device's features, capabilities and operations) has a profound effect on the creative process.
Comment: I think people really love how the pads feel, too.
Answer: I agree with Robert, first off hardware has its own character, and the MPC is well known for it. As far as I recall the groove templates in the MPC are particularly good.
Another advantage is the restrictions placed on you by the hardware, you're forced to learn how to operate it, unlike software, after using Logic Studio for a number of years I'm pretty sure I could open almost any DAW and get a track up and running in an hour or two, something like the MPC is a totally different story. Restrictions force you to find alternative solutions you might not normally consider, and generally makes you more creative as far as I'm concerned. It's easier to develop your own style like this. It doesn't need to be vintage gear either. I'm a fan of both hardware and software, but certain things are better done on hardware than software IMO. While I do most of my composition on software, I do as much of my sound design as possible on hardware. I've never use a MPC to compose myself, but I've used a Yamaha RM1-x and it definitely made me think differently about how I composed.
Comment: I even find I make sample loops differently on something like a Yamaha A3000 sampler than I do on a software sampler, not that one is better than the other, they're just different. I do believe hardware has much more character.
Answer: The interface is very different: for some, working with buttons, a jog wheel and an LCD is preferable to a mouse and a monitor. I think the main advantage of MPC-like devices is that having a set of physical controls, that are mapped to a limited number of functions, is conducive to building up muscle memory--something which mouse-plus-monitor interaction is very badly suited to.
Speculation: So paradoxically, although some operations are more fiddly to achieve on an MPC than they might be in a DAW, it may be possible to execute them with less of a disturbance to your creative flow on an MPC. My hunch is that with MPC's, after you've used one for a while, muscle memory is doing a lot of the 'heavy lifting', while a mouse-plus-DAW combination can rely much more heavily on visual processing, which I can imagine might cost more 'brain cycles' (heavy use of keyboard shortcuts can mitigate this i expect).


Learning WordPress for designers does a framework help?

Question: I ask this question because it is in relation to Scott's thread here.  I understand we have a WordPress stack exchange but I wanted to know before I dive into WordPress how designers have approached learning.  Did you find it easier or beneficial to just dive into traditional themeing or did a pre-existing framework help?  I've debated frameworks and I have spent months researching possible issues because I would like to implement Woo and BuddyPress in my CMS but I'd hate to dive into a framework and realize that it isn't compatible with what I need to do.  What experiences have you had and is gantry a possible solid solution?
Answer: I have built a WordPress theme from scratch only once, it wasn't fun. There weren't a whole lot of resources out there for themeing from the ground up; most guides I came across were for an older version of WordPress and already obsolete. Unless you are already familiar with the WP architecture, diving right in and trying to build your own template from absolutely nothing can be overwhelming.
I really did not want to just modify a pre-existing template to hack together the design I was aiming for. I eventually found a useful resource, the BlankSlate template:

The bare essentials of a WordPress theme (an HTML5 boilerplate), no
  visual CSS styles added. Perfect for those who would like to build
  their own theme from scratch or for clients if you're a developer or
  designer. This theme is clean, valid code, semi-minified, no
  programmer comments, SEO-friendly and 100% open source. One custom
  menu and one widgetized sidebar to get you started.

I wouldn't really consider this a framework, but if I had to create a WP theme again this is where I would start.
Answer: When I learned how to theme, I didn't really know PHP at all, so I modified Kubrick - the default of the day - to get what I wanted. That's obsolete now, but it might do you well to find a theme that's similarly simple and well-supported and modify it in order to get a feel for how WordPress theming works.
These days, I'm working with _s (pronounced 'underscores'). It's made, if I'm not mistaken, by people who work for Automattic (the people who make WordPress), so I trust that it's made by really competent people and it'll work well with the WordPress core. It's free, too! They wrote an article to explain the theme - they bill it as a "1000-hour head start."
The way I look at it, if it really is a 1000-hour head start, then there's really no reason for me to not work with it (or a similar bare-bones framework). I don't know WP's code inside and out and therefore if I build something from scratch I'll probably not account for every use case or just miss out on the full power of what WP does.
Answer: Using WordPess is not so much about front-end development as it is about back-end function.
To me WordPress, or any CMS - Drupal, Joomla -  isn't about design, it's about structure. Building a secure, functional, database user system is not as easy a task as designing a front-end appearance and layout. Wordpress is very easy to "skin" but the back-end PHP can be challenging to structure from scratch. Especially if you don't fully understand PHP.
While I don't really use Wordpress in favor of my own CMS, I do see a great deal of value in the plug in architecture of the PHP. This allows for easy deployment of back-end features. This is something which can't be accomplished by most designers. After all, knowing HTML and CSS doesn't often mean you know PHP.
In terms of "theming"
All CMS systems can be themed or skinned. Some easier than others. There's nothing overly complicated about skinning Wordpress. It's really a simple matter of familiarizing yourself with the CSS primarily, then knowing enough about CSS to alter it accordingly. The same holds true for Drupal, or Joomla, or almost any CMS system I've seen.
I would not jump into a CMS system simply for design. But if you need actual content management, well.. that's what they are there for. Knowing how to skin the various CMS product can be beneficial to any designer. I've skinned many a site I didn't originally set up.
As for using lesser, more proprietary CMS products, I'd avoid them for client work. Primarily because they are not as tested as the big boys. I know that if I have to alter a Wordpress/Drupal/Joomla front end I can and it'll remain solid. Some smaller packages integrate code in such a manner as to make edits more difficult and in many cases dependent upon each other.
If you must use a CMS, I strongly suggest sticking to one of the more popular systems and learning how to use that system even if it appears more complex.


Backup of my Droid X

Question: How (What App) do I use in order to do backup? What is good backup apps out there? I primarily want to save calling logs & SMSs, as all of Applications I can just re-download from Market.
I use Droid X!
Comment: You should probably tag this question as `motorola-droid-x` since that's what it's referring to.  I'd update it myself if I had the rep.
Answer: Titanium Backup is probably the best.  It can back up and restore data like SMSs and call logs.  It can back up the apps themselves too, which is much easier than making a list (or trying to remember) and manually restoring them.  There are others but I don't think any can compare to TB.
Answer: I've used BackItUp Pro successfully -- it's one of very few apps I've found that can backup/restore MMS across ROMs.  MyBackup Pro is another popular app.  I've no experience with it personally though.
Titanium Backup is very nice for a lot of things, but for call logs & SMS, I'm not sure it's portable across ROMs.  It looks like it's simply backing up the sqlite DBs directly.  There's a "Data Migration" option that's been added recently, but it looks like it's a Pro-only feature.  Perhaps someone who's tried it can chime in with their experience.
There's also Call Log Backup & Restore and SMS Backup & Restore, which are free apps.  They back up to XML files, so should be highly portable across ROMs.
Edit: I had a chance to test the "restore" features last night with my wife's Droid.  I switched her from Ruby 1.1.1 to CyanogenMod 6.1.0, and took the opportunity to wipe her phone and start it fresh.  The Call Log Backup & Restore and SMS Backup & Restore apps worked perfectly.
Finally, there's SMS Backup+, which copies SMS/MMS & Calls Logs to your Gmail Account.
Answer: As afrazier also said I use SMS Backup+ to automatically backup my SMS/MMS and Call Log to GMail. This has the side benefit that it's very easy to access all your messages, etc and search through them when you're sitting at a PC. Great for finding those directions that you know a friend sent you a few months ago!
I also use LifeSaver every now and then, which does a one-click backup of your messages and calls to your SD card. It's very handy to get your history back if you change phones, or need to factory reset yours, or wipe it for any other reason (like putting custom ROMs on).

Backup of my Droid X


Looking for a free and reliable alternative to Norton Ghost

Question: I am looking for ways to restore my system to a previous state easily.
I am using Windows Vista and ubuntu.
Comment: Since sys admin's are typically responsible for the setup and maintenence of desktops and workstations I think the question is appropriate for ServerFault.
Comment: considering these are workstation OSes... this might be a better question for superuser?
Comment: Shopping Questions are Off-Topic on any of the [se] sites. See [Q&A is hard, lets go Shopping](http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/11/qa-is-hard-lets-go-shopping) and the [FAQ] for more details.
Answer: If you're looking for a Free/Open-Source Software tool, I can recommend http://www.clonezilla.org/
Comment: I have used Clonezilla and it has worked well for me.
Comment: I use Clonezilla off of the Live CD and a USB HDD for the images. Works very well.
Comment: +1 Yep, I've used it on my latest system and it was great.
Answer: You could look at some of the following:

Ghost for Unix
Partition Image
Clonezilla, as mentioned above by mystikphish
Device Image
Answer: Try looking on this Lifehacker article: Five Best Free System Restore Tools. I think Macrium Reflect Free is probably the best of the bunch.
Answer: I think you'll like partimage available on either the Parted Magic or SysRescCD live CDs (among others). And yes EricJLN, it's also what the first two letters in PING stand for.
Answer: I have been using PING very successfully.
Answer: GNU Parted has a broad set of features and is similar to Ghost.
It can detect, read, create, grow, shrink, move, copy, check and label partitions.
It comes with almost every linux boot CD and the website offers a GParted Live system which can boot from CD, USB, HD or via PXE. You can even order ready-made CDs.
It supports a large list of filesystems. Especially NTFS is very well supported.
When you copy a partition the image file can be anywhere the underlying linux system can
read it.
Additionally there is a parted server application. If you have to deal with many image files
you can set up a parted server an fetch the images from there.
There is command line version (parted) and several GUIs like GParted
For addtional information see the GParted FAQ.
Answer: FOG - http://www.fogproject.org/
Comment: It took me a while to get a FOG server up and running, but now that it is, my life has changed! It's still a little rough around the edges but solid software none-the-less.
Answer: We use G4L for imaging all operating systems. It not only does a good clone, but it provides a backup image for bare metal restores in case of complete storage failure.
If the target disk is smaller or larger than the source disk, boot SysRescueCD and use GPartEd to fixup the partition size.
Answer: I know this question is somewhat older, but I thought I offer another solution.
I'd like to encourage you to consider partimage. I've always loved partimage. It's incredibly capable at making partition backups for quite a few different partition types. It now supports Ext2, Ext3, FAT-16, FAT-32, HFS, JFS, NTFS, Reiserfs3, Reiserfs4, UFS and XFS.
The trouble has always been partimage's command line is a bit dense. Not to mention, if you wanted to backup to a network destination, Partimage requires you mount the remote share before you fire up the GUI.
We decided to create a GUI wrapper around Partimage to handle these details. We called our tool 'Kleo' (named after the Greek Muse of History & Archives). It's a simple wizard style interface that walks a user through the process of creating a complete partition backup. It handles finding, suggesting & even mounting network targets, and it handles the details of invoking partimage correctly.
The resulting backup files are standard partimage files, so recovery could be done either using Kleo in Recovery mode, or just firing up a copy of partimage from any Linux distro.
We decided to bundle it with an Ubuntu 9.10 remix we created that we call the Carroll-Net Server Recovery Kit.  We dropped a bunch of great apps on it we always like to have at hand when dealing with server backup & recovery tasks; GParted, NTpasswd, Memtest86, Install-mbr, Gpart, Dd_rescue and many more.
Both the Carroll-Net Server Recovery Kit & Kleo are completely free for any use. The Server Recovery Kit is GPLv2 and Kleo is released as Freeware.
You can read more details and down a copy from http://www.kleobackup.net.
Answer: (Ignoring the ubuntu:)
What about Disk2VHD from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx ?
That looks good, uses volume snapshot, works on xp, images can be mounted with Virtual PC (up to 127gb) or Win7.


What should I feed my kids for breakfast?

Question: I have a 6-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl. They currently eat sugary cereal for breakfast, but I'm looking for alternatives, particularly from experience.
What are healthier alternatives they will actually eat?
Comment: I think this is quite appropriate for parenting.stackexchange.
Comment: This would still probably be better asked at http://fitness.stackexchange.com/.
Comment: This seems like the other one Ross posted about eating Bacon everyday...these could be combined...
Answer: My boys (four-year-old twins) eat mostly fresh fruit and berries, which they actually even prefer to candy at times.  Our Easter baskets are still half full because the boys lost interest in the overly-sweet candy and would ask for fruit instead.
In addition to the fruit, they usually also have vegetarian sausage patties and either whole grain toast with a non-hydrogenated vegetable spread or all-fruit spread, or else some whole grain cereal, usually dry or with a small amount of milk.
We've also been giving them drinkable yogurt mixed with milk since they were infants, once in the morning and once in the evening.
We also have less healthful meals from time to time, usually lots of bacon (the more expensive nitrate-free kind) and eggs on weekends, muffins that they help to bake at least once a week or so, and very rarely they'll have juice when we're out someplace.  My wife and I are recovering juice addicts so we try to keep it out of the house as much as possible, and the boys mostly just drink their yogurt and water.
The key thing for trying to get our kids to eat well has been to eat the same things ourselves as much as possible.  I grew up on sugary cereal and cheap, plentiful bacon and it wasn't until I was much older that I started to feel the difference in my own health when I ate better foods.  My kids already eat much, much better than I ever did, and are (I hope) acquiring tastes for the kinds of foods that will keep them healthy, growing up.
Comment: Thanks Bill. Lots of options here. I'll start experimenting :)
Comment: "Muffins that the kids helped to bake" - awesome. There is a great Blueberry Bran muffin recipe that goes down well.
Answer: Kids should eat almost exactly what the adults do for any meal from a very young age, even if you don't eat at the same time.  If sugary cereal isn't good for you, it isn't good for them.  Parents lead by example and help children develop a broader palette.  The difference should be portion size and ratio of each food; A weight lifter dad needs a higher percentage of protein, and kids in general can use a bit more fat than adults.
Oatmeal and yogurt are great because they can be tuned to each person's taste while having a common experience and can be a way to experiment with new flavors.  "Today we are trying almonds.  Thats one of the flavors in honey nut cheerios."  "I liked the crunch.  What did you think of it?"  If they hesitate, let them help you make granola in the oven to see what goes into it.
If you don't think a 5 year old can develop interest in adult flavors, I have new anecdotes handy practically any week:  last night my 5 year old said "This tuna steak tastes like wood."  "Do you like it?" "Yes. Why does it taste like wood?"  "It was grilled on a ceder plank." [smile]
Answer: My 5 year old really enjoys vanilla yogurt and whole wheat O's
Answer: When not eating sugary cereal, they'll tend to eat sugary waffles or sugary pop-tarts. On occasion, a sugary donut or sugary muffin.
I kid. A bit. They do enjoy plain Cheerios and milk, and yogurt is always a favorite.


How can I stop legionaires attacking me during a mission?

Question: I have to report to Legate Rikke on Compelling Tribute and I jumped on the horse I arrived on only to realise that it said steal horse. So I jumped straight off and carried on the mission and when I arrived back Legate Rikke just wants to kill me. I've tried waiting for two days but it's not working, what should I do?
Comment: Trying sheathing your weapons to yield to him.
Answer: Check to see if you have a bounty, if you do you could try going to the hold capital which if i recall this one is in riften.   if you pay off your bounty it may reset their attitude towards you.    If that does not work however you could always reload a previous save if you have one.
Legate Rikke may also be tied to solitude so check to see if you can pay a bounty there.
Answer: Yield and pay your bounty, or, if you are Thane of the hold where you are wanted, you should be able to tell the guard to look the other way by pulling rank.
NOTE: This only works once.
Comment: Note that this only works one time.
Answer: Take her far from the camp and fight her until she falls (but doesn't die). Then just talk to her again, back at the camp site.


How to show that the modulus of $\frac{z-w}{1-\bar{z}w}$ is always $1$?

Question: Let's suppose that $|z|<1$ and $|w|=1$. Show that the modulus of $\displaystyle \frac{z-w}{1-\bar{z}w}$ is always $1$. Some hint.
Comment: $|1-\bar{z}w| = |1-z\bar{w}|$
Answer: Since $|w|=1$, $\bar w=\frac 1w$ hence $$\frac{z-w}{1-\bar z w}=\frac{z-w}{1-\bar z\frac 1{\bar w}}=\bar w\frac{z-w}{\bar w-\bar z},$$
which gives the result.
Answer: You can do a no thinking calculation. Let $\displaystyle u=\frac{z-w}{1-\bar{z}w}$. We calculate $u\bar{u}$. Note that $\displaystyle \bar{u}=\frac{\bar{z}-\bar{w}}{1-z\bar{w}}$.
Thus
$$u\bar{u}=\frac{z-w}{1-\bar{z}w}\cdot\frac{\bar{z}-\bar{w}}{1-z\bar{w}}=\frac{(z-w)(\bar{z}-\bar{w})}{(1-\bar{z}w)(1-z\bar{w})}.$$
Expand the denominator. We get
$$(1-\bar{z}w)(1-z\bar{w})=1-\bar{z}w-z\bar{w}+z\bar{z}w\bar{w}=1-\bar{z}w-z\bar{w}+z\bar{z}.$$
Expand the numerator. We get the same thing.
Another way (or hindsight is $20$-$20$): In  $\displaystyle \frac{z-w}{1-\bar{z}w}$, replace the $1$ by $w\bar{w}$. We get $\displaystyle \frac{1}{w}\cdot\frac{z-w}{\bar{w}-\bar{z}}$. But $\displaystyle \frac{1}{w}$ has norm $1$, as does  $\displaystyle \frac{z-w}{\bar{w}-\bar{z}}$.
Answer: Hint #1: If $|w|=1$ and $f$ is a complex-valued function, then $|f(z)|=|\overline{w}\cdot f(z)|$.
Hint #2: If $\alpha$ is a non-$0$ complex number, then $\left|\cfrac{\overline{\alpha}}{\alpha}\right|=1$.
Hint #3: $w\overline{w}=|w|^2$.
Comment: for hint #1: I guess $|w|=1$?
Comment: /facepalm/ Yes, I meant "If $|w|=1$...," and it is now corrected.
Answer: Hint $\ $ It is the special case $\rm\ a = 1-z\bar w,\,\ w\bar w = 1\: $ of the following
$$\rm b = -w \frac{a}{\bar a}\ \Rightarrow\ b\bar b\, =\, w\bar w \frac{a}{\bar a} \frac{\bar a}a\,  =\, w\bar w$$
Remark $\ $ Thus it boils down to the the simple fact that $\rm\:a/\bar a\:$ has modulus $1,\:$ which holds more generally for norms of quadratic integers. A famous result of Hilbert (Theorem 90) asserts that the converse of this result is true in quadratic / cyclic extensions. This easily yields the parametrization of Pythagorean triples as a special case - see Olga Taussky's award-winning 1971 AMM paper Sums of Squares.


Can followers do magic?

Question: How do I make my followers do magic? Do I have to manipulate their inventory in order for them to do that?
Answer: Yes followers will cast magic spells, assuming they know them.
However, you can't teach them new spells without using the console.
Answer: Yes. See which followers specialize in casting spells in the UESP wiki's "Followers" article.

Do I have to manipulate their inventory in order for them to do that?

There is no need to do this for followers that can cast spells. These followers will automatically cast spells in combat. However, when given staffs, followers (even non-spell casting ones) can cast the spells of those staffs*, provided those staffs are charged with souls. In a way, you can manipulate a follower's inventory to have them cast spells.
*Related question: Which staffs will be used by followers, when given to them?
Answer: They usually have sone sort of ranged spell and one for melee, similiar to bow and sword. Even Vicero from the Brotherhood has a variety of abilities including stealth. You are not able to command them to cast a specific spell though.

Can followers do magic?


Is "Ubuntu Tweak" considered to be a "safe" program?

Question: Is "Ubuntu Tweak" considered to be a safe program for us on my 10.10 OS. Also I was concerned whether or not it was safe to delete all the programs that show up in the "Package Cleanup" option?
Answer: I don't trust this tool because it delves from tweaking and goes into package management outside of the trusted repositories and recommending PPAs so I never recommend it to people.
However the author has recently began making it modular so people can just use it as a config tool without the other stuff -- once this gets finished and Ubuntu Tweak is in the Ubuntu Archive then I would consider it good to go!
Comment: @ Manish : No - ubuntu tweak has never added any PPA without asking the user. All PPAs are added manually by the user , with the only exception being ubuntu-tweak's own stable ppa that is added IF you agree to add it. You can avoid adding any PPA easily - i didn't add any of them since i last installed it, for example.
Comment: Thats a good point, so you don't recommend it for stability and security reasons!?
Comment: I heard it adds PPAs too without asking the user? Is it true?
Answer: Yes, it is a very nice and safe program. The package cleanup option only cleans the cache of downloaded program files, not the programs. I have been using Ubuntu Tweak and haven't been harmed by it yet.
Answer: I would listen to Jorge Castro :) But since I dont and like to tinker around... Ive only ever had one problem with Ubuntu Tweak and that was early on when the program first came out. It deleted something in the OS that wasnt supposed to be deleted and I was having all sorts of errors.
A year or two later now, its one of the first programs I install on my own system. I also do all the cleanup stuff and have not had a problem (minus that one time). For tinkering Ubuntu users, Id install it... for regular users or if you installed Ubuntu for a friend, they will never really need it.
Answer: I really like Ubuntu Tweak. I think it is a good example of the line drawn between the "Linux" user and your average former-windows GUI based user. If you are a regular user, you might find it useful for the simplicity of it, but more than likely your going to make the tweaks yourself and not trust the program to do it for you. As many have stated on here. They would rather tweak themselves.
If you come from that GUI based background and as the average user does and most definitely want that ease of use and access, Ubuntu Tweak fits that purpose. One quick walk-through of the features to one of my friends that I recently converted from windows allows them to make some minor changes, one's that would require some command line, which my friend and most "Joe Plumber" users would shy away from. Minor changes like startup settings and default folder locations.
Another reason I say it's a good example of the "in-between" is if you are a say, slightly newbie or medium Linux user, with just enough knowledge to do damage. Tweaking the settings yourself and then playing with Ubuntu Tweak can cause issue's. So just stick to one or the other.
Answer: IDK how 'safe' I'd consider Ubuntu Tweak, because things it alters you'd be better off doing manually, either with, e.g., ccsm's settings window, or in an actual command line. If you know what you did, you can undo it. If you know which file you edited, you can revise it. If you press a button in Ubuntu Tweak, you may not know what it did or where.
Likewise, ask yourself: is it faster to open UT, navigate to the package cleanup section, then press the button? Would it be faster if you just hotkey your terminal open and sudo apt-get autoremove?
Answer: I'm using it (in KDE) and more than once when I've purged a PPA (thinking that only that PPA would be removed) it deleted each and every one! That wasn't what I expected. I have decided to use command line for cleanup, maybe Bleachbit occasionally (but mostly I use Bleachbit only for browser cache, cookies), and manage ppas by editing the /etc/apt/sources.list manually.
Answer: I've been using Ubuntu Tweak through many releases of it and Ubuntu. It's the first thing I install with new releases of Ubuntu. My systems and those of my clients have never been harmed by it. It isn't necessary, as with all things Linux there are many ways to perform any task. It does however simplify the things it does do.
Answer: is pretty safe, been using it for years and displays all the warnings to the user, etc. just make sure to read any if they appear.
Answer: I've been using it for more than a year, through 3 or 4 diferent ubuntu version upgrades and never had a problem. If you make a mistake adding a ppa which program/s doesn't work (usually because those packages are alphas or betas) there's an option to purge that ppa and restore de debs from the official repos.
In the desktop side of the application, it has a "backup/restore" option so you can mess all you want with your configuration and restore if there's a problem.
It's the first thing i install in a new ubuntu install, I wish it was a debian version of it.
Salut
Answer: Ubuntu tweak is good for, well, tweaking but under no circumstances should you use the janitor tool! It just rendered my 12.04 unbootable after cleaning the files, packages, etc. it suggests. Fortunately I dual boot for this reason and things like this come with the territory when you tread brazenly in Ubuntu. I have yet to find a solution and I'll probably just reinstall 12.04 tomorrow.
source: just happened to me an hour ago.


Linux distributions for ARM processors

Question: Are there any Linux distributions (Other than Backtrack and Android) available for ARM processors?
specifically ARM 11 (SE Xperia X8)
Answer: The ARM website has a page on Linux Support for the ARM Architecture. It includes this list:

Additionally, ARM works with the open source community and Linux distributions as well as commercial Linux partners including:

Canonical (Ubuntu on ARM)
Debian
Fedora
Linaro
Maemo
MeeGo
Movial
Thundersoft
ArchLinuxArm
Answer: You can find a list of systems that run on ARM processors on Wikipedia. There are 23 Linux distributions and a few other Unix-like systems.
But many of them are not intended to run on mobiles, so after installation (if you manage to install it) you may encounter many problems like lack of drivers for almost everything (touchscreen, modem, wifi, etc).
Answer: Gentoo, which can give you significant speed and customization benefits, highly desired for an embedded/thin
platform.
Answer: ALTLinux community has been working on an ARM port of ALTLinux (and the Sisyphus package repository) (description in Russian): ARMv5 variant, and ARMv7 (hard-float).
ALTLinux infrastructure for building packages is convenient for such a task, because ALTLinux Team has taken care of constantly checking that the Sisyphus package repository can be correctly rebuilt automatically.

Linux distributions for ARM processors


Algorithm for bipartite graph

Question: I need an algorithm for finding in a bipartite graph a matching saturating all vertices of maximum degree. How do I come up with such an algorithm?
Answer: The non-trivial part of this question is to prove the existence of such a matching.  Let $G$ be a bipartite graph $G$ with max-degree $\Delta$, and let $S$ be the set of vertices of degree $\Delta$. Create a bipartite $\Delta$-regular graph $G'$ from $G$ by adding "dummy" edges (and also dummy vertices, if necessary, to make the graph balanced). The key claim is that all edges in $G'$ that are incident on $S$ are non-dummy edges, and it isn't hard to see why (Exercise!).
By Hall's theorem for regular bipartite graphs, $H$ has a perfect matching, say $M'$. Now, simply delete the dummy edges from $M'$ to get the matching $M$. From the key claim above, it follows that $M$ is indeed a matching in $G$ and it saturates all of $S$.
As for the algorithm, the only non-trivial step in the above proof is to find a perfect matching in a regular graph. This is a standard optimization problem, with a number of beautiful algorithms; see the wikipedia page for details.
Answer: As far as I understand, what you have described is the problem of finding perfect b-matching. You may want to google that. There is no existing wikipedia page for this problem, bu some research literature.
Check out this personal homepage: www.cs.umd.edu/~bert. This guy was doing this a bit.

Algorithm for bipartite graph


Do commercial breweries stir in their fermenters to expose more yeast to the wort?

Question: I noticed that ale yeasts, so called top-fermenting yeast, floats to the top.  Does this mean that the yeast only works on the wort near the top of the fermenter?  Assuming that no oxygen or bacteria is introduced, does it make sense to stir the wort while it's fermenting to distribute the yeast and speed up the fermentation process?
Answer: You do not need to stir or agitate the wort during fermentation.  The process of diffusion does a fine job of keeping the sugars distributed.  Moreover, if you have ever fermented in a glass vessel you'll see that the yeast seem to do an excellent job of stirring things up themselves.
Bottom and top fermenting is simply a concept as to where you may find the bulk of the yeast "cake" during the ferment, but there is plenty of yeast distributed throughout the entire wort.  Lastly top and bottom can also be looked at from a historical concept of fermenting best at the top and bottom of the temperature range.  Even though lager yeasts will ferment fine at 60>F, just not as clean.
Comment: Excellent answer, brewchez. +1
Comment: Thanks for the answer! I did see the mini-eruptions in the primary, so this makes a lot of sense. I was just curious if the big breweries did it in a way where they wouldn't need to have that "cake" on top
Answer: For commercial brewers, the two reasons for stirring during fermentation are: 1) a reduction in the time it takes to complete fermentation, and 2) breaking up foam.  Both are (were) done for economic reasons.  Reducing the time it takes to make beer reduces the amount of fermenters a brewer needs, which not only saves money on tanks, but also on real estate, heating, cooling, etc.  Foam reduction means requiring less headspace for the foam and/or reducing the amount of product lost to blowoff.  Note, that since blowoff decreases hop utilization (see my article, "When fermentation rears its dirty head", Brewing Techniques; 1996; 4(3), 50-54) so savings in hops is another reason a commercial brewer would care about not having blowoff.
Most commercial brewers have abandoned stirred fermentations, however, according to my reading of professional brewing texts, due to cost, flavor differences, excessive yeast growth, and difficulty in getting the continuous stirred fermentation systems primed and in equilibrium.  There's even a story about how Schlitz lost its spot at the #1 brewer in the world (to A-B) because they adopted stirred fermentaters.  The story goes that switching to stirred fermenters changed the flavor of the beer enough that devoted Schlitz drinkers switched brands.
The one commercial brewer that I know of that still uses a sort of "stirring" during fermentation is Samuel Smith's The Old Brewery in Tadcaster.  There, they use a yeast that is so flocculant, that they use pumps to draw beer from the bottom and spray it on top, to get the yeast back into suspension.  Otherwise the beer would not fully ferment.  I have pictures of the fermenters and the "fishtails" as they call them, on my website: http://www.brewinfo.org/samsmiths/samsmth5.html.
As for whether a homebrewer should swirl the fermenter to resuspend the yeast, that depends.  If you have a stuck fermentation, resuspending the yeast (as you correctly point out, taking care to not introduce oxygen or bacteria) could help "unstick" the batch.
Answer: From what I've read it's less common in beer than in wine where thick caps of fruit need to be pushed down and re-submerged.


What's the difference between "lingo" and "jargon"?

Question: To what extent, if any, do lingo and jargon differ?
Answer: Lingo is another word for jargon, but also a slang term for human language as well (at least in BE).

We visited Spain but didn't speak the lingo.

This example uses "lingo" to mean "language".

Working in J2EE is simple once you understand the lingo.

This example uses "lingo" to mean "jargon".
Comment: I would say foreign language is the most common use in BE, it has slight racist tones = "no-speak-a-de-lingo" from older comedy acts.
Comment: The usage of _lingo_ to mean (often humorously) a foreign language is reported also from the NOAD.
Answer: I'd use lingo to characterize a style of speaking, characterized by words both newly-minted and appropriated for a specific meaning. For example, using drag to mean boring or tedious, bread to mean money, or man as a form of address all contribute to the lingo of counterculture in the 60s.
Jargon refers to a technical vocabulary that is shorthand for complex or elaborate concepts and practices. In technology, for example, it's often characterized by acronyms and other terms coined by inventors and innovators. In law, medical practice, and academic research, it's a combination of terms and concepts owed to history that are often anchored to their language of origin.
Comment:  and  is lingo?
Answer: Lingo is simply a language or dialect used by a specific group of people.
Jargon implies that the language is limited to a specific profession or other group and that others find it difficult to undersand.
Comment: @Karl @kiamlaluno Lingo can be used in place of Jargon, but not always the other way around. "We visited Spain but we didn't understand the Jargon," would not be acceptable (unless you attended a Spanish conference on a technical matter and their terminology (Jargon) was different.)
Comment: _Lingo_ is also another term for _jargon_, both in American and British English.
Comment: @Kiamlaluno, while you are right to say that *Lingo* can mean the same as *Jargon*, I agree with @Snumpy on the more common usage of the two terms.
Comment: @trideceth12 That is well understood. I was referring to the fact _lingo_ is defined in terms of _jargo_, not vice versa. The second definition you should find in a dictionary is "the vocabulary or jargon of a particular subject or group of people."
Answer: For starters, lingo has racist and colonialist overtones, unlike jargon. Lingo is informal, unlike jargon. Basically, never use it unless you want to convey that you care nothing for the socially appropriate use of language, and possibly offend any speakers of the mode of speech you are labelling as "lingo".


Logging and performing mathmatical calc. during run?

Question: Is it possible using the new EV3 to log data, and peform mathmatical calculation on the data while it's being logged, and peform some and thereby trigger some event if some value has been reached??
As far i can see, it is possible doing seperatly..
Answer: Instead of using the datalog block from education version, you can create a custom version using the file access block. It's a bit more difficult, but more flexible...
You won't be able to directly use EV3 datalog management, but you can structure the file to be directly compatible with csv format, readable by spreadsheet programs.
Answer: As @Philo mentioned, the EV3's native datalog block is very limited. Instead, you can use the File Access block and then export it to your computer.
CSV Format is as follows:
<code>Year,Make,Model,Length
1997,Ford,E350,2.34
2000,Mercury,Cougar,2.38
</code>


How can I set up an Microsoft Exchange email on my Nexus One?

Question: I often check my mail at my office using the VPN connection which bridged my PC with the Microsoft Exchange Server and so that I can check mail using Outlook.
I want to do the same thing when I'm out of my office and on my Nexus One mobile phone. I have succeeded in setting up the VPN connection (see details here). But I cannot succeed in setting up my email on the phone.
Steps I have made:

Open my phoen (Nexus One)
Connect to VPN
Open Email application
Enter the email & password
Select Miscrosoft Exchange ActiveSync
Enter domain\username, password, and server
Any other options are left as-is ('User SSL' checked, 'Accept all cert' unchecked)
Failed :)

The information I entered are exactly all the same as what I use in Outlook, i.e. the email/password, then the domain\user, pass and server for Ms Exchange. But the connection to the server failed on my N1 - it says "Setup not finish. Unable to open connection to server due to security error".
Have you ever succeeded? If so, please share. Your help are very much helpful & appreciated to me!
Answer: After a while trying, I try to check the 'Accept all certification in step 7, and it works.


Tracking friends on Facebook chat

Question: Can someone please recommend me a tool to alert me when a specific person (or a group) comes online?
Comment: That would be a good question for http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com
Answer: There is no way to do this with Facebook's online interface, however since Facebook now allows you to log in via any XMPP client, you could use any of a number of XMPP clients which have alert functionality.
One of the clients Facebook recommends is Pidgin; I use it regularly and it has "buddy pounces" which will alert you in various ways (window flashing, noise, message dialog) when a specific person or people come online. You can configure it to alert you any time they log on, or only the next time. You can also configure it to alert you when they return from being idle, etc. This would probably be the easiest approach. Pidgin is available for free on Windows or Linux, and Adium is built on the same libraries and is available for Mac OS X.

If you want to log when people sign on and off without being at your computer to notice, you can enable the setting to log all status changes to the system log. This will log all status changes, which includes changes from "offline" to "online", which allows you to see when people came online/offline. Obviously the computer does need to be online to do this.
Comment: @PavelRadzivilovsky did this end up solving your problem?
Answer: I know if you use Meebo (online webapp) for instant messaging, you can log into Facebook chat and get alerts however you want, I think.  Apparently Facebook released the chat's API, so you might find that you can log into Facebook chat from other IM clients, such as Pidgin or Trillian, and then simply configure it to alert you when a contact comes online.
Answer: Well, It's been a while since this question was made, but anyway, I've recently developed a Chrome extension that shows desktop notifications when a user comes online, you may want to check it out:
Answer: If you are using an Android Phone, you can use this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flashbang.apps.fbtrack
You can track your friends, and it will notify you when any of them come online.

Tracking friends on Facebook chat


How to make my 20-month-old son stop biting other children in the kindergarden?

Question: My 20-month-old son bites other children in the kindergarden. He does it in the course of play, and sometimes he bites me, too. The kindergarden teacher says, this is normal, it's just an episode.
How can I make him stop?
Comment: How often does this happen and when did he start? Does he also bite you?
Comment: Is he pretending to be something when he does it, and doing it in the course of play and fantasizing, or is this more of an aggressive action on his part?
Comment: Yes, he does it in the course of play, and yes sometimes he bites me.
Answer: We used the exaggeration of consequences treatment with our son when he went through this.  A huge and loud "OW! That hurts!" followed by an immediate time-out addressed the situation at home in just a few iterations.  He has never bitten anyone other than me or his father, though; he started with us when he was just over 15 months, and I'm guessing he didn't like the consequences enough to try it with anyone else.
At 20 months they aren't exactly SWARMING with empathy but they do have the rudiments, so maybe you could try something similar?  If he bites, make a big deal about how much it hurts (don't roar in an angry way; roar in a pained way); if you can manufacture a few tears or at least a very wounded, sad expression, that might help him with grasping the 'oh wow, I guess not everyone enjoys this as much as I do' part of biting.
It sounds like his teachers aren't making a big deal out of this; can you speak with them and come up with a disciplinary structure that works for all of you?  For example, when the children in my son's class act up (he's now 27 mths), they get to spend a timeout in the Cozy Corner (I swear that doesn't sound like a punishment to me at all (nap!) but I can see how being isolated from the rest of your peers while they play would be a punishment).
Answer: This is completely normal at 20 months. Your daycare should have a strategy to remind him that he doesn't bite and distract him and to also look out for situations in which he is likely to bite in order to avoid them.
At home, if he bites you, I'd say "ow that hurt. teeth are for eating." If you are holding your child when they bite, I'd put them down for a minute. I'd also be careful to avoid any 'play' biting which can be confusing to toddlers. Just always be consistent in your response, and try not to be overly emotional.
Answer: Mine did the same and I didn't let him bite me or anyone else, and he was sent to the naughty corner immediately, even if it was "just for the fun".
I have a friend who had really big issues with this and nearly got a legal issue for his girl biting to the blood the cheek of another girl at school. It stopped eventually.


How can I do a cheap but safe and good tuning which will improve the cars performance?

Question: I have a Skoda Octavia 5 1.6 MPI and I want to make a good cheap safe tuning that will increase the cars performance above 100 hp it already has. How can I do that?
Answer: The Octavia has the same 1.6 MPI engine as in the Volkswagens so, technically, pretty much all the tuning options available to them are available to you.  Given the 10.5:1 compression ratio, however, I would recommend that you keep your expectations low.  There isn't a lot of room for the casual tuner.
The vendors that I've found generally cite an increase of 10% to power and torque, resulting in a drop from 12 to 11 seconds for 0-100 kph.  Those are marketing numbers, though, so caveat emptor.
You might have more luck with the standard replacement of intake, header and exhaust.  If you pick the right gear, you should see a performance bump combined with a weight decrease.  Also, once your engine has better air flow it might be able to combine those changes, high quality fuel and a more aggressive tune to give you a more impressive power improvement.
Comment: Stripping all the extra weight would help too (who needs rear seats anyway?)
Comment: @KromStern, you're correct on the benefits of dropping other non-exhaust weight.  I thought about putting that in the original answer but it starts getting a little off topic in a tuning question.
Comment: f=ma or a = f/m so increase force or reduce mass.
Comment: Can I do any tuning with obd2?
Comment: @GregLeo, yes, it's possible.  The vendors that I found usually reprogram the ECU via the OBD port.  I'm not making a specific suggestion because I don't think you'll be satisfied with any of the products that come up in a casual search: they appear to involve spending 100s of $USD for single digit improvements in BHP or torque.
Answer: there a lot you can do, first I would advise you to do brake upgrade,
Brembo has some slotted discs PN 09.7011.75 for front PN 08.7165.75 for rear + pads PN P 85 041 front and PN P 85 020 rear, then you could instal K&N sport filter in OEM filter box PN 33-2128, or you could chose one from two K&N filter kits, cone PN 57-0620/sport box+filter PN 57S-9500, depends how much you want to invest, this could add 2-5% of HP,
adding 100 octane fuel would also help,
there´s a great work done at Skoda with OEM air intake,I would do as was said in Bob Cross´s answer, polish the intake, intake and exhaust ports in the cylinder head, this could be also done by instaling custom intake but this could cost more than you desire to invest.
Then it would be best to de-cat the exhaust pipes, found someone who could make you custom stainless steel exhaust pipes + buy some aftermarket REMUS rear exhaust, example here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd9ELjJdGos.
Chipmoding could add up to 10% HP but, find some profesional to do that, pick quality moder rather than some bargain sh*t. You can also instal NGK iridiums to improve combustion.
Streetsport suspension/coils/springs could improve handling/stability. Hope it helps.
Boris
Answer: The best value for money on non-turbo cars is to get a more aggressive camshaft installed. a 276 degree cam will give you the best blend of power and driveability. After that, you can have your head ported and gasflowed. Round it off with a slightly larger exhaust and a software update. But you'll only gain about 20hp in total if you're lucky.


Looking for the BB/M math to build good NLHE Tourney Blind Structures

Question: I'm running a home game and I want to better design NLHE Tourney Blind Structures.
So far the auto generators I've found either bias slow build up or long tourney times.
Answer: The rule of thumb I've always heard is that tournaments tend to end when there are around 10 big blinds left on the table.
You will need to know the number of players you will have, your starting blind level and stack size, and your desired tournament length.  Generally, you will not want to start with deep stacks for a short tournament.  The final blind level can be calculated by dividing the total chips in play by 10.  Finally, you will need to determine how long you want levels to last - longer levels will require bigger increases in blinds at each level.
SS = Starting stack
P = Number of players
BBf = Final Big Blind level

BBf = SS * P / 10

If you are hosting a 9 person tournament, and you want it to run 3 hours, starting with 1000 chip stacks, the big blind 3 hours is in should be (1000 * 9 / 10) = 900.  We can approximate this to 500/1000 for ease.
So blinds need to increase to 500/1000 in 180 minutes.  With 20 minute levels (with typical 9 handed play, that should be at least an orbit per level), you can either go linearly or exponentially to 500/1000.
The linear method is terrible - starting around 5/10 blinds, the structure would end up looking something like:
5/10
60/120
115/230
170/340
225/450
285/560
335/670
390/780
445/890
500/1000

The exponential method is better... it looks something like this:
A= some factor that needs to be derived
L = the level
BBL = the big blind at the given level.
x^y represents x to the y'th power, e.g. x^3 = x*x*x = cubed.

BBL = A*(l.5^L)

To solve for A, we plug in our number of levels for L, and our final big blind for BBL
1000 = A*(1.5^9)
26 = A

Next, we run the formula for each level, rounding to the nearest decent chip amount, to find the big blind at that level
BB1 = 40
BB2 = 60
BB3 = 90
BB4 = 130
BB5 = 200
BB6 = 300
BB7 = 450
BB8 = 675
BB9 = 1000

As you can see, this is a pretty solid progression.  The 1.5 that is used in the equation is basically a multiplier for each successive level of blinds - the blinds for level X will about about 1.5x the blinds of level X-1.  For smaller earlier blinds and faster leveling, adjust the 1.5 number up.  I would suggest keeping it below 2 - changing it by .1 can greatly affect the structure.  You can also lower it a bit to get a more linear structure.
Comment: This is very nicely put together. Thanks for the answer.
Answer: I've devised this format for some fairly low stakes rebuy tournaments I've been running.
The general principal is that each level of blinds should be between 1/3 and 1/2 higher than the previous level. I.e. the blinds should never double even from level 1 to 2, and no little steps in the blinds either. So for level 1 the big blind should be 4 times the smallest chip value in use.
Players start with stacks of 2000 chips. Rebuys of 2000 chips are available at any time between hands during the first two levels for players that have 1000 or less chips. There is also an optional topup of 2000 chips for all players at end of level 2. Rebuys and topups cost the same as the original buyin.
The first two levels run for twice as long remaining levels - usually 40/20 minutes, with a break after level 2.
I often run tournaments for relative novice players so don't bother with antes as they tend to slow play too much. If you want antes just insert another level repeating 150/300 with antes around 10% of the big blind.
With usually 20-25 players, tournaments last around 5 hours and the total prize pool almost always averages about 3 to 3 1/2 total buyins per person - i.e. the average stack at start of level 3 is about 6000 - 7000 (30-35 big blinds) so a reasonable amount of play without taking forever to finish the game.
Payouts to the top 4 / 5 players.
Level    Blinds
1        50 / 100
2        75 / 150

3        100 / 200
4        150 / 300
5        250 / 500
6        350 / 700
7        500 / 1000
8        700 / 1500
9        1000 / 2000
10       1500 / 3000
...


Stone-Weierstrass theorem applied to Fourier series

Question: This is a question on Fourier series convergence. The problem is, in the applications of the Stone Weierstrass approximation theorem on wikipedia, there's stated that as a consequence of the theorem the space of trigonometrical polynomials is dense (with the sup norm) in the space of continous functions in [0,1] - i.e. for every continous function its fourier series converges. This boggles me: isn't continuity not enough for the convergence (let alone uniform) of a Fourier series? What about du-Bois Reymond [and many others] example of continous function with non convergent Fourier series in a point?
Comment: Nothing tells you that the sequence of trigonometrical polynomials you can choose for approximating your function uniformly is in any way related to the Fourier series, and indeed it can't be in general, as you argue.
Comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fej%C3%A9r%27s_theorem
Comment: The Stone-Weierstrass theorem also tells us that the space of ordinary polynomials is dense in $C[0,1]$.  "But wait - aren't there smooth functions whose Taylor series doesn't converge pointwise?"
Comment: A natural analogue is the classical Weierstrass theorem. Do the Taylor polynomials necessarily approximate even a fairly smooth function? No, but the Bernstein polynomials do! (But not terribly well, admittedly.)
Comment: @Paul: Yes.  A great advantage of the Fejer kernel is that it is nonnegative, making estimates easy.  That bad old Dirichlet kernel is much worse to work with.
Comment: I believe it is true that every continuous function is the pointwise (uniform?) limit of its Fourier series in the Cesaro sense. I don't remember for sure, though.
Comment: wow, my memory span is really short! I had actually stated as a theorem in my thesis 2.5 months ago that as a consequence of the Fejer theorem the space of trigonometric functions is dense in the one of the continous. thanks for bringing me back to reason
Answer: The density of trigonometric polynomials in $C[0,1]$ with respect to the sup norm does not imply that the Fourier Series of some $f\in{}C[0,1]$ must converge pointwise.
Let $e_k:=e^{2\pi{}ikx}$ for $k\in{}\mathbb{Z}$.  Then it can be shown that

$\{e_k|k\in\mathbb{Z}\}$ is an orthonormal basis for $L^2[0,1]$ with respect to the $L^2$ norm.  That is, <$e_j,e_k$>$=\delta_{jk}$ and the span of the $e_k$ is dense in $L^2[0,1]$.
If $f\in{}L^2[0,1]$ and $V_n:=span\{e_k|k=-n,...,n\}$, then the nth partial sum of the Fourier Series of $f$, $P_{n}f:=\sum_{k=-n}^{n}$<$f,e_k$>$e_k$ is the $L^2$ projection of $f$ onto $V_n$, i.e. for any $g\in{}V_n$ we have $||P_{n}f-f||$$_{2}$ $\leq$ $||g-f||$$_{2}$

So the partial sums of a Fourier Series are a good approximation of a general $L^2$ function, and hence of $C[0,1]$ function, but only in the $L^2$ sense.  To get pointwise convergence, one needs a stronger condition than continuity (e.g. differentiability), as you pointed out.
What goes wrong in an attempted proof?  One would like to argue that

if for some trigonometric polynomial $p\in{}V_n$ and $f\in{}C[0,1]$ we have $||p-f||<\varepsilon$ (sup norm), then for the nth partial sum $P_{n}f$, $||P_{n}f-f||<\varepsilon$.
$||P_{n+1}f-f||\leq{}||P_{n}f-f||$ for all $n$

The fact (2) above facilitates these arguments in the case of the $L^2$ norm, but not for the sup norm.
I hope this was helpful.
Answer: The key point is that you're confusing uniform convergence and $L^2$ convergence ; indeed as $\mathcal{C}([0;1])$ is both a subspace of $\mathcal{B}([0;1])$ with $|.|_\infty$ and of $L^2([0;1])$ with $|.|_2$, you get two norms on the same vector space.
But as it isn't a finite-dimensional space, it can have non-equivalent norms - and indeed, those two norms definitely aren't equivalent, which in particular means that a sequence which has a good behaviour for the $L^2$ norm (the partial sums of the Fourier series) doesn't necessarily have a good $|.|_\infty$ behaviour.
EDIT: I should have said a little more ; there's an obvious inequality between the two norms (the mean inequality) so they are not that unrelated. But there is no reverse inequality, as can be shown by considering a sequence of piecewise linear functions : for $n\in\mathbb N$, consider $f_n$ as $t\mapsto n^\alpha-n^{\alpha+\beta}t$ on $[0;n^{-\beta}]$ and zero elsewhere ; if you choose $\alpha,\beta>0$ carefully, then you'll get a sequence which converges to zero for the $L^2$ norm, and won't converge uniformly.


What is Sandbox play?

Question: How would you describe the concept of sandbox play?
How about to someone who is used to adventure modules or adventure paths?
Answer: As with anything, usage varies, but usually when people say "sandbox" today they mean a campaign that does not have a specific prescribed storyline, but one where the GM sets up a world (or at least a small section of one) and the PCs are free to wander where they will and find adventure where they will. It's about freedom of player choice.
Pure sandbox play is purely simulation driven.  A super hardcore sandboxer places a dungeon (or whatever) in the game world and that's where it is, for the PCs to come across or not (and for NPCs to come across before them or not).  If a thief is sneaking into a mansion, in a sandbox game he is able to avoid guards and traps, and not have predetermined plot points presented to him regardless of his actions.
Sandbox is not an antonym for adventure module.  Some of the early modules, most notably Keep on the Borderlands, were extremely sandboxy, as were many of the early dungeons (Castle Greyhawk, etc.).  Here's a place, there's fell monsters and treasure there, go do what you want.  More recently, Paizo did a sandbox-style adventure path called Kingmaker for Pathfinder.  Sandbox is a different approach from story-driven - a "story of what happened" may emerge from a sandbox session but a preconception of story, or what "the GM wants to happen," is never applied to the game. Adventure paths, being a series of adventures, can try to be sandboxy but generally try to provide enough story to get PCs from one chapter to another, but event timelines and things like that can serve that purpose without being railroads (though people often complain and call things like that railroading, just because they feel pressured to do something).
Railroading, the antonym of sandbox, is simply extreme constraint of choice. Some perceived constraint of choice is always there in any simulated world in that there are always choices that are impossible to physically perform or clearly undesirable, but where you cross the line to railroad is when these things are obviously being imposed by the GM/metagame (usually in the name of "The Story" or "The Plot").
You can be apparently providing a sandbox but using the game world to provide so many restrictions that you are effectively railroaded into a single course of action. A dungeon full of one-way doors that inhibits all teleportation and divination, for example.
Most games are somewhere on the continuum between pure sandbox and railroad, or even move between the two based on need and GM inclination. Many campaigns switch back and forth between railroad and sandbox. Railroading to move the story on when the players lose momentum and sandbox otherwise it a frequent GM tactic that lets the players be free when they want to be but gives them structure when they're feeling lost.
Sandbox gaming can be desirable because it produces a sense of game world reality that enables the player to focus less on the metagame and immerse in their character and the game world.  It can be problematic because players can feel like they are spinning their wheels and wasting limited leisure time without more guidance, and because sometimes a preplanned story cam have more "big, interesting" things happen in it plot-wise than a sandbox.
I tend towards sandboxy play, but in my most recent campaign I had players get frustrated and ask for more direct guidance from me on "what they should do" - I am normally reluctant to do that but did so to make them happier.  Often players want the illusion of sandbox and unlimited choice, but with the GM pulling strings behind the scenes to keep them headed towards interesting things.
Comment: +1 for including railroading as the opposite in your explanation, making it more comprehensive.
Comment: Great answer.  Sandbox can also be problematic because given true freedom of choice in their goals, different players may have different goals, so that getting them all on the same page for cooperative play (if that is desired) is more complicated.  Many modern adventure paths have an into section describing how to select different backstories so that the characters have a common purpose that is fulfilled by the path itself.
Answer: The term originated in computer games and it's meant to describe a game where its playing field is wide open for the player to do what they want. Around 2005 with the release of Necromancer Game's Wilderlands of High Fantasy Boxed Set, its authors—I am one of them—used it to describe to people what made the Wilderlands different from other settings. It was designed to make it easy for the referee to adjudicate his players roaming freely across the map.
Later still, the term got attached to a specific playstyle as mentioned by mxyzplk. However this is beyond what myself and other Wilderland authors intended. The problem is that people take the hard-core simulation of wandering the map too literally. This often results in frustration as many PC groups feel rudderless and the game feels without direction. In fact, if you read through various forums posts, such as on ENWorld, you see these campaigns fail more than succeed.
The trick to overcome this is "World in Motion." You work with the characters to give them a background they like in the setting. This provides a framework in which the players can make their initial choices. This background can incorporate what some consider railroad elements, like being members of a noble household, a guild, a temple, etc. But the key difference is that the players are free to leave or ignore those elements, as long as they are willing to suffer the consequences.
Along with this you develop a timeline revolving around NPCs and events. This timeline is created with the idea that this is what happens if the players didn't exist in the campaign. This timeline becomes your plan. It gets altered as a result of the consequences of the players' actions. At some point the campaign will become self-driving as the consequences of the consequences start propelling the players forward.
Again the Sandbox was meant to describe a type of setting, not a playstyle. But you can't control how these things go on the internet, so hence the confusion.
People often get confused due to the prior use of Sandbox in campaign. The term "Sandbox" was used for RPGs prior to the development of the Wilderlands Boxed but for other aspect of gaming than a type of campaign and setting. Some examples include:
Dragon #25, Tim Kask

He still clings to the shibboleth that wargamers are classic cases of
  arrested development, never having gotten out of the sandbox and toy
  soldiers syndrome of childhood.

Dragon #247, Page 123

Grubb has a phrase for working with existing games, settings, and
  characters: playing in other people's sandboxes.

Later in the issue

Having gone freelance three years ago, Grubb has explored new
  sandboxes. I worked on Mag Force 7's Wing Commander and Star Trek
  (original series) trading card games, ...

In this issue "sandbox" was used interchangeably with how most roleplaying gamers use campaign.
Comment: The term well predates computer games. It's a minis gaming term, which crossed over. And it's been in use for RPG play since the mid 80's or earlier - I first memorably encountered the term in RPG use around 1986...
Comment: Sandbox in realtion to wargaming and computer games also derives from sand table, a term used since ancient times: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_table
Comment: That may be so but the term Sandbox in the way myself and the Wilderlands crew used it did not see widespread use until the advent of computer games. To date I haven't found a single print or internet reference to a sandbox campaign prior to the early 2000s. I combed Dragon magazine, Usenet and the Fidonet archives among other sources. Usenet and Fidonet dates back to the early and middle 80s.
Answer: The key to a sandbox is to give the players the choice in what challenges they tackle. "Adventure module" isn't the opposite of "sandbox", either. It's completely possible to use purchased adventure modules in sandbox play.
In fact, purchased modules make things a lot easier, since they provide a lot of focused material to populate a sandbox quickly and you don't always know which way the players are going to jump.  To use some classic examples, if the players decide to hire up as mercenaries to defend the free lands against the scourge of the Slave Lords, then you can run them through the four-part Slave Lord adventures.  If, instead, they decide they want to tackle (literally) bigger challenges, they can head north to fight Against the Giants.  Either could lead to Descent into the Depths of the Earth, or, if the players don't want to follow up on those clues, to something else entirely.
That freedom to go where they want and choose the challenges they tackle is what makes a game into a sandbox.
Comment: I use published modules all the time. I value generic modules like the feudal manor released on http://www.lythia.com and packages of short adventure like Traveller's 76 patrons.
Answer: Great question - as I have a long history of running plot driven games, and I've decided to freshen things up by stressing a simulationist/sandbox style in a Pathfinder campaign I started last year. Most of my players are used to plot driven games, so it took some getting used to.
I explained it as follows:

You are part of the world, and while naturally there are constraints based on your character background as you've designed him, and while there will be adventure hooks littering the landscape, you are not obliged to bite any one of them - EXCEPT how you want to direct your character. Keep in mind that means some areas may be below your "level" or some may be above your level, so good perception skills are even more useful.
From a simulationist perspective, all NPCs will be presented according to their background and their intelligence - even modestly intelligent creatures with some emotional control can be willing to talk it out. They are not pre-programmed based on an overriding plot line.

A few important things with simulationist play:

Inexperienced players may need more prodding to keep the party together
If players are not very experienced with the rules set, simulationist play can become more deadly if you take advantage of tactical (or house) rules
A lack of a "main character" doesn't mean that role needs to be filled by an NPC; let players organically make those decisions
Simulationist/sandbox isn't another way of saying "I've dumped alignments" or "you no longer need to role play" - in fact, quite the opposite - the players' actions should have a direct impact on the ongoing world around them
Answer: Here is an article I enjoyed reading by Gabe from Penny Arcade.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/1/6/dnd-sandbox/
It covers his experience as a GM trying out sandbox play after being used to more linear adventures, including how he approached developing the world and encounters the players might find.
Also: pretty pictures!
Comment: Honestly, this read to me as a hex crawl, not a sandbox.  Gabe still had an overarching storyline here that the players were going to move through.
Answer: An excellent article that I read once (source long forgotten) holds up the video game Red Dead Redemption as an archetypal example of a sandbox setting. In the game you can go off and explore to your heart's content; hunt, ride, interact with random NPCs. However, to move the plot forward, you have to talk to one or more important NPCs who are available to hand out quests.
In my sandbox campaign, there are about half a dozen NPCs who are quest givers, some more reliable than others. I basically prepare three adventures for a given session and link them to one or more of the NPCs in a way that is logical, meaning that the setting and encounters will remain the same but the goal may vary based on who gave the quest. Over time this three-adventure approach means that I have a reserve of adventures ready should the party talk to the right NPC at the right time.
To keep things moving, there are some events that simply are going to happen in the world, whether the party participates in them (to help or hinder) or ignores them. These events will have consequences for the setting, the NPCs, and the party themselves. Basically the world doesn't wait for them to act.
One important skill that you must have if you're running a sandbox is the ability to improvise-- an interaction, a skirmish, or an entirely new plot line. Try as you might to predict what the party will do, they will always find a way to throw you for a loop.

What is Sandbox play?


Design term for a callout box with lines to source?

Question: What is the industry term for this effect?
Comment: Tooltip. Citation. Notation. Zoom. Annotation. Inline help.
Answer: Callout is the most common term I know of. You used it in your question. Regardless of whether it indicates a source or not, it's still referred to as a callout.
Answer: It's a pointer
The Callout, if it is used within other text, has a "pointer" as illustrated above. It is shaded in your illustration and has a rule to give it a 3D appearance. (The red arrow is also a pointer.) If it is just a design element, boxed as you show, used for some impact; I'd call it a design element.
Usually, a callout brings the reader's attention to text that is used in the article (copy) by setting it with some sort of emphasis. There can be many different ways to emphasize a callout. Your example uses a pointer. Bearers can also be used.
If it does not repeat text within the article, it is not a callout. It is text set within an attention-getting border. As you show it without the rest of the article, it is not a callout.