What's the most efficient way to make money?

Question: What's the most efficient way to make money?  Is there a good place to farm with a relatively high $$$ drop, or even one-time loots that are especially well rewarding?
Comment: I don't know about the one-time loots. I think a lot of chest items are entirely random.
Comment: Not as good as the [Nethack] question titles, but good enough for a +1
Answer: What is working for me is a combination of the following:

Smash everything

All the chests and destructible items add up ... a box killing rampage earns a slow but steady income.  If you use a chakram or some area affecting magic, it's not even that slow.  Don't miss the sunken treasure, look for ripples on the water to indicate their presence.

Change your shards to gems

A shard sells for around 150, a gem for around 1000.  It's pretty basic math to see that combining 2 shards before selling them more than triples your income from them.  Suddenly Sagecraft + Mercantilism start paying off.

Detect hidden your way to fame and fortune, well fortune anyway

Don't pass up the chance to hit a small hidden area with even more treasure.  Hidden treasure, doors and such will add enough to a regular walk through of an area to make it well worth it.

Loot everything in sight

This game isn't cheap on the pops, and it's your personal mission to supply the Kingdoms of Amalur shopkeepers with every kind of crap imaginable.
Answer: The fastest way I've found to make money is quests.  There are so many quests in this game - it's impossible to throw a chakram without hitting a questgiver in most of the towns.
In addition to the (usually small) cash bonus for finishing a quest, quests will take you around the map and pit you against a variety of enemies, both of which are certain to help you turn up loot.  Most of the loot in this game is shop fodder.
I'd also suggest taking a couple of ranks in the "Detect Hidden" skill as early as possible - this skill will show you caches of hidden items that practically litter each area.  Each one tends to have at least one or two magical items that you can pilfer at your leisure.  Additionally, having ranks of Detect Hidden sometimes causes you to get bonus gold from chests and destructible items, which is also useful.
Comment: It'll also occasionally increase the gold you get from enemies!
Answer: Combination of a lot of different ideas like selling the gems, bumping sagecraft, detect hidden and mercantile skills being a few along with participating in as many side quests as possible all I would echo as recommendations.
But one that I haven't seen anywhere is Rose Barden and dice roll Gamble at the Star Camp in the Sidhe.
She will bump into if you hang around the camp long enough unless she's asleep on a blanket somewhere in the camp. When she offers you a roll of the dice, save then take the bet.
Obviously if you win save your game and repeat, and if you lose exit and re-load from the save point.
Save after each win and if you are patient enough 10-12 rolls you can make about 4,000.00.
Yes it takes time but it is a sure win as long you remember not to save when you lose and only save the positive results :).
There are other trainers in the area as well as a buy sell merchart and that 4,000 bucks could pay off for training in stealth and mercantile I believe or getting health potions and recipes which you always need to survive and progress in the game.
Answer: As soon as you escape the well of souls, you can run (like crazy) to the moon camp.  I got there at level 2.  There is a lady named MINN THE GRINNER, who loves to roll dice.  Ok, ask her to play high roll and if you win let her say what she says, ("A loss...") and collect your money. Do not stop her from saying what she says if you win, or you will not get your money! However if you loose ask her again to play before she tells you, you lost.  doing this keeps her from winning.  You can keep playing without stopping, as long as you never let her respond to your loss. You can get about 10,000 gold every 3-4 minutes if you get fast.  GL, Hf.   Oh, one important thing, you need at least 1,236 gold to play with her.  That should not be much of a problem at all.  Also when you get to Galafor go around the bottom to get to the Moon camp because there are some BAD NASTY dudes if you go above Galafor. Sorry, one other thing, ask to see the dice and let her respond.  Minn the Grinner loves to cheat!
Oh, one important thing, you need at least 1,236 gold to play with her. That should not be much of a problem at all.
Answer: Sell everything you don't need in the beginning except if you get good items and your blacksmthing is up enough then make items to sell.  Find the following tasks and you will be paid over and over for completing the tasks:  Dangerous games, Sartorial Splendor, Tinker's Task, Dinner Time, Rogue Harvest, Gathering Flames.  Complete as many side quests as you can as you will be paid and you will find many things to sell.  Later in the game items you find will sell for more.  When I ended the game I had over $3,000,000, and had made all of my own armour (mastercrafted) and weapons which were better than any I found or could buy in the game.  My sagecrafting was also up so I was making epic gems for my armour.
Answer: When I was a low level, I tried to do a Warsworn quest, took about 10 minutes ish. Get this weird yellow item (part of set,) hell I thought, might as well sell it. Turns out it was like 20k. When your a low level that's a lot.
You don't usually need money for anything but training, and gambling :D
Dont spend money on shitty store items if you do, the next time you go to a dungeon you'll probably get a better item. Buy very expensive shit equaling 200k on xbox for achievement.
SMASH EVERYTHING ( 15G ACHIEVEMENT (XBOX) FOR 1K CRATE SMASH ) I got like a few thousand gold for a shitty long ass achievement and/or for money.
SHARD CRAFITNG, ( LEVEL 16, NOT 8 ) In gorhat find the apothecary, do the quest, come back when done, ( AWESOME BONUS FOR SELLING AND BUYING IN THE APOTHECARY ) get crappy non epic gems, make em epic, and sell. for 30% ( GUESS ) extra cash
LOOT, SELL, LOOT, SELL,
STEAL, JOIN TRAVELERS, SELL.


How to authenticate in a Facebook Flash application?

Question: I do not understand how I can authenticate a user in a Facebook Flash application. I have read from the documentation that Facebook platform gives arguments, such as user id and session secret, to the Flash application, but how can I inside the Flash application make sure that these arguments are correct and not fake? Should I make some call to some Facebook platform method and check that no error occurs to be sure?
Another question related to Facebook: Can I only store Facebook users' user id's in my own database and not for example users' names? I guess I am not allowed to show users' real names when they are visiting my website directly and not through Facebook?
Answer: Use this API for flash/flex communication to Facebook services:
http://code.google.com/p/facebook-actionscript-api/


Aren't questions about "best" going to end up having answers reflecting only popularity?

Question: Which is not the same thing at all.
E.g. "what's the best book?" - people will vote up the books they've read. This might be useful but won't answer the (possibly unanswerable) question "what's the best book".
Does this even matter?
Answer: As has been noted, "Best" is entirely too subjective to even be a good question. A better way would be to ask people to post their "Favorite" [whatever] and ask other posters to up vote rather than duplicate post. You can infer "best" based on what gets the most votes.
Answer: Yes. And yes.
Answer: I guess it doesn't really answer the question. Just the word "best" brings out the competition.
If the question was worded "list an OK book you like reading" for example, I would imagine it would die like a limp fish.
The "best" is ultimately a subjective question, and its befitting that SO leaves it formatted to form a subjective answer.  ( the little votes don't mean a lot, and the question poster choosing an answer is by no means unbiased )
Answer: Stack OVerflow IS ONLY about popularity. The please don't discuss format discourages the consensus building that'd be needed to arrive at a reasonably good "best" answer to a non trivial question.
And this also happens for questions that aren't asking the "best" something...
That is why it'll probably never answer really hard questions, but that's not its aim, so it's all good.
Answer: Reputation should be at least based on the size of a community.
Say you were a c# and f# (or java and scala) developer. Your brilliant f# answers will not count as much as your lousy c# answers because there are not too many people interested in f#.
I would like to see reputation based on a tag. "This guy's reputation is x from f# and y from c#." The answer could be a normalized value per tag: reputation from tag / max reputation for tag for all users (the best f# guy). This can answer the question if someone is the f# specialist or not independently of the size of community. There will be some obscure results for new or marginal tags so there should be some threshold.
The harder question is to normalize reputation globally. It could be sum(normalized reputation per tag). I'm not sure if this would bring enough extra value. The world is not fair why should stackoverflow be fair? (Chances are that you know Britney Spears but never heart of  Maria Callas.)
Comment: Go to your user profile (or anyone else's) and then click on any of the tags down the bottom. The results page of that will show you the questions tagged and the votes they received. Excludes non-repful wiki answers/questions.
Comment: That's nice I did not know that. I thought this is just a list of tags and would lead me to all tag related answers. (But then the view is not consistent. Question, answer, tag are with user context. Badges links are without. Votes lead nowhere.) But how do I find out the reputation of a user for this tag with this view?
Comment: If you want to see what the top users score in various tags do this: Click on a tag, Click the stats tab. Like this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged?tagnames=sql&sort=stats But right now, you can't view an easy breakdown of which tags got the user the rep.
Comment: That would be nice in the user view (reputation source) and in the question view (reputation for the tags of the question). You could then show the percentile the user is in for a tag. A whole bunch of new badges could be added then: Star (top 1% of tag), Tiger (top 10% of tag), Master (top 50%), Journeyman (top 80%) (the two last could be stolen http://www.pragprog.com/the-pragmatic-programmer).
Answer: Poll questions aren't even officially supported. They are always a popularity contest and should be regarded as such.
I wouldn't worry about it.
Answer: Well, whenever you have a question that is subjective that will happen. You will then find the most popular x based on what people individually think the best x is.
Answer: Those questions are not encouraged... let's hope the site will stabilize in the future... it's brand new
Answer: There is definitely a correlation between "best" and "most popular", even if it's not as strong as we would like.
As with Google, sometimes you need to look beyond the topmost answer.
Answer: I think that's why subjective posts keep getting voted down, but they make for a fun read and you get to spout off every now and then... who does it hurt?
Answer: Code Complete is very popular answer to "what's the best book" question. That does not mean that people didn't read other books. They did, and they choose CC. In some degree, such opinion can be valuable. If someone who didn't read CC sees that so many people chosen it as a best book, he could take interest in this book.
Answer: I agree that it should be "favorite" instead of "best". I'm also one of those who believes that developers want to know what other developers are thinking, what their likes and dislikes are, what their opinions are, etc.
This site was designed to provide definitive answers to definitive questions. Questions about "favorites" are too subjective to have a definitive answer. Some people on SO think that such questions should be disallowed. They go about and close such questions, often commenting that they are "subjective and argumentative". I call these people grannies, and I think they're missing the boat.
I think the immense popularity of subjective questions shows that it would be a terrible mistake to disallow them. Instead, StackOverflow must adapt to subjective questions by allowing them to be formally marked as such, and altering the reputation system to reflect that. (I think subjective questions should provide rep, particularly if they engender a lot of discussion, but I think the system should be a bit different for them. Exactly how I don't know.)
Answer: Well yes, but generally people have a reason for picking one over an other option. And if 90% of people prefer x to y, then generally x is better for y, at least for 90% of users.
Sometimes people cry "popularity contest" when really there are actually good reasons (speed, amount of features, learning curve) for the choices made
Comment: What I'm criticizing is that comments would be needed to clarify that, just up/down voting will not make it clear why an option is better than an alternative, which is most certainly needed in any complex question


Inertial Mass of a scalar field

Question: Does it make sense to talk of the inertial mass of a scalar field? By the equivalence principle, it must be equal to its gravitational mass. We know that the scalar field contributes towards the stress-energy tensor, so, shouldn't it have an inertial mass too?
Answer: Yes, of course, if you produce a localized concentration of energy carried by a scalar field, it exhibits all the properties that this total energy $E=mc^2$ should exhibit.
It will enter the right hand side of Einstein's equations so it will curve the surrounding spacetime and create a gravitational field. It will be able to convert to other forms of energy so that the total energy conservation law, including the energy of the scalar field, holds.
And finally, it will also act as inertia. For example, a packet of energy carried by a field behaves as a particle. For example, a magnetic monopole may be imagined as a nontrivial localized solution to some field equations including scalar and gauge fields. A magnetic force $F=q_m B$ may act upon the magnetic monopole and the acceleration will indeed be given by $F=ma$ where $m=E/c^2$ is the inertial mass of the magnetic monopole, stored in the energy density of the fields.
Answer: Yes, indeed
This is exactly why it is assumed in the Standard Model that mass is the result of an interaction with a scalar "world potential" (The Higgs field) while for instance the changes in energy/momentum of a charge are due to the electromagnetic vector potential $A^\mu$
Regards, Hans

Inertial Mass of a scalar field


Can I top off my batch at bottling time with water?

Question: I noticed my batch in the secondary looks short of 5 gallons, can I top it off with water when I bottle?
Answer: I wouldn't bother, unless you have a specific reason. If you think the beer is too strong and needs to be watered down, go for it. If you are worried because you are a half gallon off, but the beer tastes fine, don't worry about it! I've often been off by a quart or two, and the beer still came out great.
If you do decide to add water, be very careful. Make sure the water is free of microorganisms (bottled water is your best bet) and be careful not to introduce oxygen to the beer (siphon the water in, don't pour it).
Comment: I would add that pre-boiling (and subsequently chilling) the water would help to reduce oxygen.
Comment: Ya, boiling will sanitize the water, and reduce oxygen. I'm not really sure about the O2 content of bottled water. I assume it is low, but does anyone know definitively?
Answer: I wouldn't bother at this point.  Just bottle it and drink it when its ready.
What's more important is to figure out why you are off and fix your process for next time.
Answer: I had contimplated that myself once before but realized that if you are drastically short there may have been a problem larger with your recipe. If it is only a little short there is more jeopardy of introducing oxygen and other goodies into the brew. Hope that helps...
Answer: My first batch was supposed to be 5gal. I primed it as such and realized that I only had 4gal collected in my bottling bucket. I lost the other gallon to poor technique I guess. Anyway, since 4gal carbed as if it was 5gal is significantly different than a normal 5gal carbination, I added a gallon of bottled water at bottling. The beer turned out fine, sort of like a low-alcohol Pale Ale. It was thinner than I wanted, I suppose, but was still tasty.
Comment: In this case, I would think that you would better off reducing the priming sugar instead of adding more water (unless you had already added it)
Comment: True, reducing the sugar would have made the final beer closer to the recipe. As it was my first batch, and since I didn't have a scale to measure out 4oz of sugar from the 5oz bag, I just added more water and crossed my fingers.


Will an entangled idler electron induce a current in a conductor if the signal elctron's spin is measured?

Question: I'm assuming a hypothetical setup as follows: Two labs (Alice and Bob) exist. Each has one electron of an entangled pair. At Alice, the electron travels through free space towards a magnetic field of fixed orientation. When it is sufficiently close to the field, it's dipole moment will align itself to match the magnetic filed, thus being measured.  This will cause the electron at Bob to anticorrelate and assume the orthogonal dipole moment.  If the electron at Bob was traveling through space sandwiched between two conductors of no net charge, will the electron induce a current (even a very tiny one) in the conductor(s) as it realizes its new spin?  Please correct me as to any false assumptions in the setup I have described.  Thanks
Answer: No; good question though.
One way to make analysis of such problems easier is to think of quantum wave functions as envelopes of uncertainty. Classical physics in contrast beats these envelopes down into near-submission by forcing them to cough up information, so that you can say specific things about where and when something happened. Once that happens, it becomes almost impossible to reverse the event, since classical information can be replicated indefinitely and so becomes very difficult to "unwind." That near-impossibility of reversal is what we call causality, and on the scale we live, it really is a one-way street.
In the case of your problem, the envelope of uncertainty is the orientation of the Bob electron. It must remain unknown to remain quantum, so the problem must be such that the high magnetic field gradient (you are really talking about a Stern-Gerlach I think) cannot already know the orientation of the electron. Without already knowing that orientation, it also cannot "see" a change in that orientation.
Feynman has a great discussion on trying to "trick" QM into violating this historical/quantum boundary, one that tries to "see" which slit an electron goes through in a self-interference experiment. I think that was in QED, but it may have been in his Lectures; I'll look up the reference an add it here shortly.


What is a sound manifest?

Question: This may be a very basic question, but in regards to game sound, I understand there's a "sound manifest" file that is to be delivered for different sequences. To me it sounds like simply a list of all the assets that are used for a particular level or stage. New bad guys, new weapons, new world = new sounds. Am I correct in this? If so, is the manifest simply a .txt file that lists these sound files and their file path location, or is it something that's written in code in order to load these files into the sound engine?
Answer: I've never been asked for a sound manifest before. I've certainly created asset lists that encompass what you're thinking the manifest is. Have you been asked for this by name from a specific company? It could just be the term they use.
In the big picture game audio is still very young and there's areas where terms differ greatly between companies.
Comment: Turns out an asset list is exactly what they're asking for, they simply call it something different. Crazy Canadians...
Answer: I've never come across this before - and have never had to deliver a list of sound effects for a scene. I do have assets list and list of potential assets to be used in a scene, but this is more for a internal audio communication than anything that needs delivering anywhere.
One thing that does spring to mind it could be something a publisher would request as part of the console certification process. It is not required for the cert. process itself, but i seem to remember having to do something like this at some stage years ago.
Answer: I have no idea <- Best answer
Comment: Haha. Sorry, I really had no idea but took my time to Google it. Came up empty or only vague explanations.

What is a sound manifest?


Which programming language is used to develop an app  in corona?

Question:
What is Corona & Which programming language is used to develop an application in corona?
What physics Engine is corona using?

and any other information that is absent in their site?
Answer: You write code in Lua when developing in CoronaSDK. That information is definitely on their site, although it's not as prominent as it used to be (I haven't looked at the front page in a while).
For example, here's the page under the "Games" heading: http://www.anscamobile.com/corona/games/
First sentence: "Built on top of OpenGL, OpenAL, Box2D, and Lua"


What is the best thing to eat before a long bike ride?

Question: I am doing a 75 mile bike ride in a few days.  I wanted to get some advice on:

what to eat the day / night before?
What to eat the morning of the ride (the ride starts at 8 AM)

anything else to focus on the night before or the morning of a ride
Comment: What pace is it? (To you.) If it is going to be fast then you'll want to have a relatively empty stomach, but if it is a bit more comfortable then you can afford to 'stock up' a bit more.
Answer: Stocking up a couple of days before hand on complex carbs (pasta etc) is a good idea.  Do not eat loads and loads more, but do get extra carbs into the muscles, (storage).  Not working hard (exercise wise) for 3-4 days at least before hand will give you the energy and rest needed to do your best.
If you are not sure at this point then in all honesty things are a bit late.  Ideally you would have done various long rides before hand where you can see how your body response to eating different foods / energy products while exercising and what works best for you.  Some people cant deal with solids while exercising while others need it, (rather than just energy drinks or gels).
It is all very personal to the person involved.  I found flapjacks to be great while out riding, they are an awesome source of simple and complex carbs.
GL
Answer: I would suggest eating stuff that is not too fillig so you can move with ease, yet the food also has to be very rich in complex carbohydrates. Comlex carbohydrates have the property that they release their energy (the body can utilize it to be precise) slowly and therefore gradualy. A great example of a light food rich in complex carbs would be puffed wheat cakes. It a bit dry to eat on its own, but if you eat a bunch of them you will have tons of energy for quite a while and you wont be full at all. I would also suggest taking something like a sweet musli bar as a snack with you. The musli also is rich in complex carbs and the sugar will give you a quick boost, so you can think of it as a small range extender.
If you dont like wheat cakes or you want to find out other foods of this kind, i would suggest visting http://nutritiondata.self.com/. You can search foods by nutrients and you will get tons of alternatives and you can compare the nutritional data.
Answer: This may be a bit late, as you said it was "in a few days", however it is good general advice.
I am presuming that you have been training and working up to the 75 mile ride, and during those rides is when you should be trying out different nutrition and hydration strategies to see what works best with your body and tastes.
The meal the night before does not have much impact on the ride the next day. By that I mean that one meal will not atone for poor nutrition in the weeks leading up to the ride, and if you are eating and fueling properly during training, it will not add much to the mix.
What you want to be doing is replacing calories according to your exertion level, and realizing that most people at a higher effort cannot really process more than 2-400 calories per hour under exertion. The "exact" amount is really person dependent, and also related to effort and environmental conditions. There are many different strategies for doing so.
Some like to use energy gels or energy chews, which are approximately 100 calories per serving, and water to wash them down with. Others prefer to have water bottles mixed with things like Gatorade or Carbpro to provide both electrolytes and calories. Some riders are able to tolerate solid foods, and will have things like crustless PB&J sandwiches. I am partial to rice cakes (Allen Lim has a great recipe using actual ingredients. It's all about what you can tolerate, and the way you find that out is by practicing it while you are training.
Answer: You get energy through a process in your body that's called metabolism. You have two kinds of metabolism: carbohydrate/sugar metabolism and fat metabolism. You can train your body (and you have genetical tendency towards one or the other) how well both those processes are functioning.
Carbohydrate/sugar metabolism tends to give you fast and a lot of energy, but it also creates a sugar crash* after a period (about 2 to 3 hours).
Fat metabolism takes a longer time to transform fat into energy but it is very consistent. This makes it ideal for activities that take longer than 2 hours. If you read journals from some people that did amazing performances such as running 1000 miles in 11 days (Stu Mittleman), you read that they only eat fats.
Creating a well functioning fat metabolism might take a while, it will take your body some time to develop that part of the metabolism. It is worth the effort.
I do not recommend you to only rely on fat metabolism because you do need carbs for a healthy functioning body.
I advice you to eat fats (biological meat, fish and coconut/olive oil) until 18 hours for the race and carbs after. As a snack during the race: raisins and almonds are a good combination as well as banana's. I won't advise you to take energy bars to soon in the race but pack one just in case you feel very hungry in those last 10 miles.
*Sugar crash means a sudden absence of sugar in your blood. This results in a tired feeling, mentally and physically.
Comment: The people riding 1000 miles in 11 days (Which is only 90 miles a day, many cyclists do that regularly in training), or doing long distance RAAM type events have a higher proportion of fats because it carries 9 calories per gram rather than 4 (Carbs/protein cal/gram). As far as the rest of your suggestions, they are somewhat to wildly off base, and very rider specific.
Comment: I meant running 1000 miles in 11 days, corrected it in the answer. Thanks for pointing that out.
Answer: A good nights sleep is important so don't eat a 2 am and try and get back to sleep. I have rode lots of long rides and I believe the key is a good pace and lots of water with honey and sugar mixed in. Meals during training should be healthy, veg salad and complex carbs, save the simple carbs for racing and quick power release they only last 20 mins and you bonk afterwards if your riding the 100 + distances.
Ultimately you know your body. I've known people to have a night on the town and a cigarette in the morning and be fine? Not for me chef.
Good luck and enjoy it.


What are the pros and cons of various hardwood floor finishes?

Question: Trying to decide how to stain/finish some new oak hardwood floors. What are the pros and cons of various options like stain+poly, tung oil, etc. I'm wondering about lifetime cost, durability, ability to make small repairs, and work involved.
Answer: I have done both a refinish and a new install, and did a bunch of research before choosing.  These are my generalized conclusions about the different choices:

Linseed / Tung Oil

Pros:

Easy to apply
Relatively durable
Quick curing and drying times

Cons:

Will darken with age
Provides very little protection against wood damage

Oil based polyurethane

Pros:

Durable
Low maintenance

Cons:

Long dry times in between coats (~8 hours)
Long time to fully cure (~30 days).
Yellows over time
Strong odor during application and cure
Requires some skill to apply correctly

Water based polyurethane

Pros:

Durable
Low maintenance
Easy to apply
Short dry time (~3 hours)
Short cure time (~7-10 days)

Cons:

Short dry time requires a "wet edge" when applying.
Provides less protection than Oil polyurethane

I don't have personal experience with the Tung/Linseed oil approach.  Both of the areas which I was working are relatively high traffic, and I did not want to have to worry about damage to the wood surface.
I have seen the Oil-based poly done, and it is a production.  It usually results in evacuation from the house because of the VOCs in the finish.  The long cure times made it a deal breaker for me, because the areas in question were main walkways in my house.
So, in my case, I chose to go with the water based poly.  It is durable, comes in several finishes (satin to high gloss), and is maintenance free for many years.  It is easy to apply, and dries very quickly in between coats.  It can be applied without specialized brushes or equipment.  You can sand, stain, and seal your floors over a weekend, and they will be ready for walking 24 hours later, and will be fully cured a week later.  This is a really good choice for a DIYer, and I would not hesitate to use it again in the future.
Answer: I had polyurethane on my hardwood (tasmanian oak) and baltic pine floorboards for ten odd years. It wore very well but we don't allow shoes inside. The floors did yellow quite a bit over time which didn't matter for the pine, but the oak lost its lovely pinky hue.
We recently did extensions and re-polished our floors. We chose to use hard-wax this time since (allegedly)  you can make repairs to small sections without having to re-polish the whole lot and (allegedly) it does not go yellow. It was more expensive that polyurethane (+30%). This has proven less than successful - the guy who polished our floors had to redo some sections and you can see where the repairs were done even though they were done less than a month apart. Furthermore, after just a few months you can see a change in colour.
BTW: This answer is probably way old for the question, but hopefully it will help someone else.
Answer: Stain+poly probably wins on durability, but I've never liked the look; and things like Waterlox come close in durability, and are much easier to repair or touch up. Personally I would go with tung oil just for the looks, maintenance costs or minimal in either case, unless you're dealing with extraordinary traffic or abuse.
Answer: Waterlox all the way. Best feel, can continue to tone it if you would like with stain (1qt to a gallon of original). I think the satin is nice but a bit finnicky when it comes to application. Touch up at will, do a light scuff and recoat every 5-8 years depending on traffic. In my opinion it is more functional than Poly (water or oil). It penetrates and home owner can touch up whenever they feel the need.


Is this material asbestos?

Question: It looks like some form of insulation with a cardboard backing. The previous tenant in the apartment said he found a stack of this material in the basement and used it to insulate around a window ac unit. Its a two-story building in brooklyn. I'm living in the lower level which I'm told used to be the servant's quarters, so I believe the building is quite old. It looks like it has a had at least a couple renovations. Photo of the material:
Answer: No. That looks like polyisocyanurate:

Asbestos looks like any of these, depending on which form was used in what kind of location:
Comment: Agreed, it doesn't look like asbestos to me, but it never hurts to wear a respirator as you tear it out.
Answer: I think linatics is correct in that it's probably not asbestos, however you really can't tell just by looking at it.  There are some materials (vermiculate insulation being the most well known) that were known to be contaminated in some cases - so even though it was not asbestos, depending on where it came from, it might actually contain it.
If you are unsure, the safest thing to do is have it tested and treat it as contaminated until you find out otherwise. This means not disturbing it other than to take a sample, and make sure you wear a respirator when you do.

Is this material asbestos?


How can I graft Wilderness of Mirrors onto Gumshoe?

Question: Or specifically, how can I adapt Wilderness of Mirrors Mission Planning/Obtaining Information/complication/Trust system onto the resource management/clue finding Gumshoe system.
Answer: You may have a bit of bear of time because the WOM resources are rather rationed on time (adversity chips, etc, etc) whereas the Gumshoe resources are rationed by use.
I think you could certainly graft complications and trust into gumshoe. Trust would recharge investigative abilities whenever the players did something to screw each other over.
Complications could either be immediate like in Wom, where they are only announced once the ops has actually introduced them, giving a bene or a investigative abilities point or as Gumshoe is not so Dirty, per say as WOM, the game master could start throwing out false facts and freebie investigative pts (this doesn't mesh so well with Gumshoes, you find all the clues business, but hey such is the nature of hybrids).
Answer: You need Night's Black Agents! One way to model it is to have a group Intel pool, that any player can use for spends - but as they do so, it gets smaller and smaller, so players have an incentive to use it before their rivals do.


Anyway to retrieve a feed of posts that have BOTH tags?

Question: If I use the URL "/tag/tag1,tag2/feed", it will retrieve posts that have both tags. Is there anyway to do this and just get posts that have BOTH tag1 and tag2?
Answer: You could make a custom rss feed.....
Here's a link for that
http://yoast.com/custom-rss-feeds-wordpress/
Simply use that info to make a page template
Make a new page through the WP interface and assign that template
The url for that page is your new feed.
You just need to adjust the query line to call to both tags
For instance, I have a hockey feed, my custom post type is col_avs, I've adjusted my query like:
<code>$posts = query_posts('post_type=col_avs&showposts='.$numposts);
</code>
You can see it in action at http://www.rvoodoo.com/hockey-feed
It goes to a feedburner feed, but that feed is generated using this method
Answer: Im not to sure if you can or can not do this. I usually just merge the two with Yahoo pipes since i use feedburner for most of my feeds check it out http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/


Right hand position for electric guitar

Question: I used to practice on my acoustic guitar and had a habit of resting my right hand on the bridge while playing individual notes. Now I have switched over to electric guitar in I find it difficult to play without resting my right palm on the bridge. Is it okay to rest the palm on the bridge for electric guitar as I have never seen any one resting their palms on the bridge while playing electric guitars.
Answer: When playing single-note lines on electric guitar, especially when using distortion or higher gain, resting the pick hand on the strings lower than the one you are playing can help to eliminate sympathetic tones. These are often caused by the vibration from one string being picked up by another or by small movements such as simply lifting a finger off of a string. Not muting these tones will make your line sound muddy.
Getting used to a position where you are picking 1-2 strings higher than you are muting and learning to shift your hand up and down to move strings can give you a good reference point, which is likely what resting your hand on the bridge is giving you.
Answer: As far as I know, it's okay to rest your right palm on the bridge, as long as you don't have a floating bridge (the one with the tremolo where you can push it in both directions). If you have a floating bridge then you shouldn't rest your right palm on the bridge (although palm muting is fine, just don't apply too much pressure) so that the pitch of the note(s) you're playing don't change.
But if you have a 'normal' bridge, then I don't think it's really that bad.
Answer: It is true that some methods discourage any type of "anchoring" of the right hand, but in Rock/Blues/Folk/Country and even Jazz styles there aren't a lot of hard and fast rules about hand position (for either hand).  What might be a "bad habit" for one style of music could be okay in another.
The main thing is not to develop habits that hurt you physically over time, or affect your sound, or prevent you from executing the techniques you need for your chosen style of music.  If you're really laying on the strings heavily, or have the wrist in an unnatural position (bent backward, for example) then it's probably not a good thing.
In acoustic blues playing, it is not unusual have the side of the palm (on the pinky side) resting lightly over the strings where it can be used to get a thumping bass sound.
In electric playing, having the hand in the same position can help with muting, which is a necessity once you get over a certain volume.  I think most electric guitar players do some combination of left and right hand muting, so having your hand in that area could turn out to be advantageous.

Right hand position for electric guitar


Can my companions equip Alignment Restricted items that I can't equip?

Question: Seeing as I'm playing an Imperial, there's a lot of Red Color Crystals floating around. But I'm a pretty tolerant dude, and have hit a rank of Light IV.
All well and good, but I've recently started giving my companions customizable gear, since, as a Cybertech, that's easier for me to keep upgraded, but I'm stymied by color crystals. Will my companions be able to equip and benefit from gear with alignment restrictions? We know they don't have alignments of their own in spite of a display bug, but can they equip restricted items in spite of that? If so, do they inherit the alignment and restrictions of the PC, or can they just use anything?
Comment: Try a low level (cheap) crystal and let us know.
Answer: Starting with late beta, companions share your alignment. I remember I switched from neutral to full light, and suddenly a bunch of items my companions were using couldn't be used anymore since they said 'forbidden for light I and above', even though it was my companions who were using them


Rackspace cloud vs Softlayer cloud

Question: has anyone ever hosted a high traffic website with these two companies? I would like to know who has the best service and servers. Thanks
Answer: I haven't tried Softlayer, the service offered by Rackspace is pretty awesome though, I've only had a couple of issues over the last two years and they resolved both within minutes.
One issue in particular was caused by multiple disk failures which resulted in one of my instances going down, they recovered from this with no data loss within about 15 minutes, which is fairly impressive.
Answer: I've had a server at rackspace, they did what i expected them to do. They have an awesome support though. I don't think any one could beat that.
I had a site which got around 60k uv daily and it worked nicely. I do not remember any serious issue on their part, unless it was a bug in my code.
As for softlayer, I've never had them.
good luck
Answer: I just had a downtime of 4 hours with SoftLayer's CloudLayer service and then 6 hours the next day because of host failure. The first time they just rebooted the host, without migrating our instance. The second time, they were really slow to move the instance to a new host, poor at communicating and favored investigating their physical host rather than making sure my virtual machine was up and serving 1000 clients.
Carl
Answer: This means nothing ...
"High Traffic Web Site"
Not trying to be harsh but want to re-focus you attention from traffic numbers such as page views or visitors per month to more operationally relevant metrics, e.g.

HTTP Request/sec
Memory/request
SQL queries/sec

The above metrics are they keys to picking underlying hosting infrastructure.  A couple of cases:
Case 1: 80 Million page views/mo, Entry Level Hardware
I have one client with that does nearly 50TB and bandwidth and over 80 Million page views/mo the last time I checked.  He uses a mid level dedicated server and two cloud instances for static content delivery.  The cloud instances are tiny, single CPU low ram instances specifically tuned for their task.
Case 2: 10 Million page views/mo, 6 Server Cluster
For this client, we have 2 high end dedicated servers and 4 mid-tier cloud units.  The high end units are $1000/mo systems.  Dual Quad CPUS, tons of RAM, and Solid State RAID 10.  They still have capacity problems.
The difference?
The first client's operations are super clean and efficient. Minimal database queries, aggressive caching, and other tricks to keep the need for resources low.
The second client has a legacy application with know SQL query and other issues.  Due to lack of developers, they have to over buy on the hardware side.
What's the point?
Unless you have profiled your application AND benchmarked the hosting provider's solution for your load, any advice is often just guesswork.
This being said, the biggest issue I've seen with all cloud offerings: AWS, SoftLayer, Rackspace, etc. is that Disk IO is very poor or unstable.  You will see disk IO spikes unrelated to your own resource utilization.  Somebody else is hammering the storage layer and you get hit.
This is why I still favor dedicated hardware if Disk IO is important to your application.  Keep in mind that database write activity is can create higher disk IO.  So if your app writes a lot of data, then be careful of cloud solutions.

Rackspace cloud vs Softlayer cloud


Install Ubuntu splitted in two devices i.e. HDD and SD card

Question: Can I install Ubuntu so that most accessed files reside on SSD 2GB (old Ausus eee 2Gb) and remainder of files reside on large SD card in card slot?
Answer: Well, the Ubuntu Desktop System requirements say that you need 5GB of disk space. But they also mention that hard drive memory issues can be resolved by using a Live System. If you want to do that you might want to try a Persistent Live USB installation. But here's the catch: Such a system uses a lot of RAM. So, checking your RAM capacities is probably a good idea.
Comment: @Wilzer, does that help?


Bacterial cell lysis - what solution to use?

Question: I am trying to determine how quickly detergents act on bacterial cells (cell lysis). I would like to compare some detergents at difference concentrations for bacteriolytic activity. I don't care about all metabolites inside the cells (proteins, DNA, etc…). Many publications suggest that often more complicated solutions are used. My first thought was to use a simple prepared detergent in PBS or saline for lysing the cells. Do I need a complex solution to lyse the cells?
Could someone please give me a suggestion? Thanks in advance.
Answer: What exactly is the purpose of lysing the cells? The "complicated" solutions, as you say, include a bunch of ingredients. The detergent is largely present to dissolve cell membranes (which are lipid-based) and allow for extraction of proteins or other biochemicals from within the cell (and organelles in eukaryotes). There are also two types of detergents: ionic and anionic. Both detergent types will dissolve membranes, but ionic detergents tend to be harsher of the two by strongly disrupting protein structures.
If protein biochemistry is important, then the next most important ingredients will be specific inhibitors of proteases: enzymes which degrade proteins. There are many of these, but some examples include PMSF, EDTA, aprotinin, etc.
Sometimes it is necessary to buffer the pH of lysis solution to monitor protein complexes, or keep a protein natured, or keep DNA in an optimal pH range. General solutions for lysis buffers include Tris-EDTA (TE), PBS, etc. This choice comes down to whether you want a buffer, and in which pH range you wish to keep your lysis solution. Common buffers like TE and PBS are made up for a pH range of between 7-8. There are other buffers that are used for low pH ranges (pH 4-6), but are usually less common.
Lastly, there are ways to lyse cells without using any kind of lysis buffer. One method is to use sonication, which uses directed pulses of high-frequency sound to lyse cells by mechanically shearing them. Another method is to repeatedly freeze-thaw cells from -80°C to 4°C (usually 3 times is sufficient). Lysis in this manner is accomplished by repeated formation of ice crystals which cut open cells, releasing their contents.
If you have a more specific question, one of us can guide you further, but this provides a general overview of what is involved with cell lysis buffers.
Answer: I wonder how you plan to measure lysis? You will find that many lysis methods for E. coli incorporate a treatment with lysozyme and EDTA. This is so that lipopolysaccharide (outer membrane) and peptidoglycan layers of the cell envelope can be breached before detergent (usually SDS or Triton X-100) is added to dissolve the inner or cytoplasmic membrane. I suspect that if you added detergent to intact cells it wouldn't be particularly effective, and any cells that were affected would remain as denatured cells which would, for example, still contribute to optical density.
Since they are usually able to withstand bile salts in the small intestine, Gram-negative bacteria can be quite resistant to detergents. For example many Enterobacteriaciae can grow in 5% SDS - see:

Rajagopal, S et al. (2003) Eight Gram-negative bacteria are 10 000 times more sensitive to cationic detergents than to anionic detergents. Canad. J. Mic. 49:775-779


What is the best milk fat content for a toddler?

Question: What is the best type of milk fat content for a normal 18-month old?  Regular whole milk, 2%, 1% or fat-free (skim)?
Answer: It is recommended for children under 2 to NOT have reduced fat milk. The risk being that the calories lost by giving them reduced fat milk may not allow for adequate growth [1]. Although "Overweight toddlers can switch to low-fat milk even earlier though, after their first birthday" [2].
From that evidence definately do not go to reduced fat until 12 months. After 12 months, only do it if they are overweight, otherwise you may affect their growth.
After 24 months, I would do it at your discretion. If your family drinks reduced fat milk, it is easier for them to drink it as well.
Answer: Our Doctor suggested using toddler milk up to 24 months and then regular milk.
If you skip toddler milk, regular milk should be used at least up to 24 months (see this reference), unless they are at risk of being overweight.
Also, we were warned to always add sugar when using cow's milk. (Unfortunately I cannot find an online reference for this.)
Answer: My baby is dairy-allergic, so we give her coconut milk that is certified dairy-free.  I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention the brand, but you can google it and it's pretty easy to find the brand; it comes in shelf-stable boxes as well as refrigerated cartons.
There are significant benefits to coconut milk because the fats are medium-chain fats (as opposed to long-chain fats) and contain fats that are present in human breastmilk. This study (PDF) details some of the health benefits and how the blanket recommendations to avoid coconut milk because it was dangerous for the heart were unfounded.
The silver lining to my daughter's dairy allergy is that we discovered something far healthier for her than whole milk that we never would have even thought of otherwise.
Comment: You're welcome to mention the brand and the specific product. You're only required to disclose if it's your own company, and even that is allowed except if the primary goal  is self-marketing.
Comment: Thanks!  In that case, we use So Delicious coconut milk.  I don't work for them.  Their website is http://www.turtlemountain.com/ .


Are Demon Hunter pets valid targets?

Question: My spider I have from being a Demon Hunter does not have a life bar. Can they be targeted, killed, status effected etc.? Or are they just a dot on wheels?
Answer: The Demon Hunters pet is, as you put it, 'a dot on wheels'. They cannot be attacked or interacted with in any way, but are instead simply a fire and forget source of extra damage (and buffs!)
Answer: Your pet will only die if you are killed. Enemies cannot target them at all. Once activated, they will simply serve as a distraction while dishing out extra damage.

Are Demon Hunter pets valid targets?


Hydrometer Temperature Limit

Question: I am about to do my first all-grain batch. After (batch) sparging is it safe to drop the hydrometer right in or do I need to let the wort cool to a specific temperature first? I realize I will have to do a temperature correction to get the proper pre-boil reading, I am just wondering how hot is to hot for a hydrometer to withstand.
Answer: There's definitely a thermal shock issue, and you shouldn't place a hydrometer into any hot liquid … but I don't think that's what you're getting at.
I, too, imagine the hydrometer temperature correction factors will break down after some point, but I can't respond to where that point is; I'd not go past 90°F.
Before I got a refractometer, I would have a collection of ceramic mugs into which I would take pre-boil samples, letting them cool throughout the brewing process, and then taking the hydrometer measurements later in the day at the end of cleaning up, when the mash runnings/wort had had enough time to cool down.
Comment: For anything pre ferment I definitely go with the refractometer.  Only because of the temp issue.  I pull a small 0.5-1 oz sample in a glass tasting cup from a brew-fest.  Swirl it and cool it some, then the couple drops on the refractometer cool the rest of the way almost immediately. (with or without ATC)
Comment: I was asking about the thermal shock but you bring up a a good point I hadn't thought of. Would you suggest a refractometer over a hydrometer?
Answer: The issue with the hydrometer is the weights inside of it.  The weights will heat at a different rate than the glass and result in pressure against the glass.  I lost my first hydrometer by rinsing it with water that was too cold.  The suddenly cold glass shrank just enough to press against the warmer weight inside and the glass cracked.  Even if I were to slowly raise the temperature, I still would not want to risk the physics of a mass of metal glued inside of a tight glass enclosure.  If I knew my thermodynamics, I could give a more scientific explanation.
jsled also raises a good point about temperature correction.  The hydrometer is calibrated at room temperature.  The further you deviate from that mark, the less accurate your reading.
Answer: I have broken a Hydrometer by placing it in a too hot wort. The end cracked right around the weighted end - see @Bad Neighbor's answer. Once bitten, twice shy. Now, I always cool the wort in my hydrometer vessel by running under the cold tap, or submerging in a bowl of cool water, for a few minutes.
I try to get the temp down to around 25-30 °C (77-86 °F) and then do a small adjustment to the reading.

Hydrometer Temperature Limit


What should I do for iTunes before reinstall win7?

Question: I have backuped my apps, books and songs in iTunes, but how about the data in apps, such as the saved angry birds' progress, the pdf files in adobe reader and so on?
Answer: You can save the whole iTunes folder(it should be at ../Music/iTunes directory) and just put it back after you reinstall iTunes on your new Windows system (new iTunes installation will put it's new "blank" folder in /Music, just replace with your backup copy).
By doing so iDevices will recognise your library as the one they had synced with before and will continue to sync with it like nothing happened, hence keeping all the saves on the devices.
Answer: In addition to nkukushkin's answer, if you have any purchased iTunes content (videos, songs, etc.), you should deauthorize that computer from your iTunes account. You only get 5 authorizations per account, and one you do a reinstall, the only way to get it back is reauthorizing all your computers, which can only be done once per year. To deauthorize, click Deauthorize This Computer from the Store menu.


Can I use a Dexron III automatic transmission/power steering fluid where a Dexron II is required ?

Question: more generally speaking are 'higher Dexron numbers' also fulfilling the specifications of the lower number fluids ?
Comment: What is your specific application?
Comment: going to the spare parts supplier and they only had a Dexron III fluid where I need a Dexron II fluid for power steering (and automatic transmission)
Comment: By specific application I meant what make model car and if you would be using it for the Trans or Power Steering
Answer: Short answer for Transmissions, Yes.

DEXRON®-VI licensed fluids are fully
  backward compatible and can be used in
  all applications covered by earlier GM
  ATF specifications."
"DEXRON®-VI replaces DEXRON®-III and
  DEXRON®-III-H in all applications
  except power steering and manual
  transmissions
All DEXRON-III licenses expired at the
  end of 2006, and will not be renewed.
  Beyond that date, General Motors will
  only support the use of DEXRON-VI
  fluids for use in Hydra-Matic
  transmissions.1 Fluids claiming
  DEXRON-III type performance continue
  to be sold under abbreviated names
  such as Dex/Merc and D/M, however,
  since the DEXRON-III licensing system
  no longer exists, these fluids are not
  regulated by GM in any way.

Source
Comment: thanks, I looked at this source before posting. One can buy Dexron III fluids, e.g. [this one](http://www.mobil.co.uk/UK-English-LCW/heavydutyoils_products_power-steering_mobi-atf-320.aspx#), so I was confused when reading that the Dexron-III licenses expired four years ago...
Answer: Do not use DEXRON VI as a power steering fluid. It is marked on the bottle not to be used as power steering fluid. DEXRON III/MECRON would be a better choice for cars where the manual specified DEXRON II, which is no longer on sale.
For my Mitsubishi Eclipse 2002 with only 17000 miles, I decided to buy from the dealer DIAMOND, power steering fluid for about $20 a quart. To get rid from old fluid without aerating the power steering pump is a challenge, the rocedure is long. In short lift up and secure the front of the vehicle. Empty the power steering bottle, by siphoning or other means. Disconnect the return hose and connect with a hose to any container or bottle. Plug the hole. Put the transmission in neutral and turn ignition key off. While a helper is turning the steering wheel all the way left then right, add new fluid in the PS bottle. You have to repeat this procedure many times.
Answer: Although this may not apply to all cheap fluids, this is a quote from the Mobil website for their premium synthetic ATF. Sure, it's $10 / quart, but isn't your power steering system and transmission worth it. How many quarts do you need per lifetime of the car anyway?
Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF is a multi-vehicle formula recommended for use in modern high performance automobiles, SUV's, SUT's, vans and other light trucks.
It is recommended by ExxonMobil for use in applications requiring DEXRON® III, Ford MERCON® and MERCON® V performance levels.
Meets or exceeds the off-highway power transmission requirements of Allison C-4.
Recommended by ExxonMobil for use in any power steering unit where a DEXRON® or MERCON® fluid is recommended.
http://www.mobiloil.com/usa-english/motoroil/other_products/mobil_1_synthetic_atf.aspx#
Answer: The original DEXRON was made from whale oil, which was banned. The initial replacement fluids were not ideal, and the subsequent formulations were addressing flaws in the earlier ones. So it's fine to put DEXRON VI or DEXRON III in most cars.
The thing to be careful of is mixing formulations. Some Chrysler transmissions in particular call for Chrysler-specific fluid, which must be used.


Why does it take a long time to upload photos to Flickr using iPhoto '11?

Question: I take a lot of photos and use iPhoto to manage everything.  I also have a Premium Flickr account where everything gets sent to in order to have an online presence.
Whenever I use the 'Share' option in iPhoto to send them to Flickr, no matter how many photos I try and upload it takes a very long time.  After a while it doesn't seem to be actually uploading anymore, but something is causing the process to hang, but I can't tell what.  It has currently been about 90 mins and with the absence of any progress bar or indicator I can't be sure when this will end, or why it's taking so long.
UPDATE: After checking my Flickr sets online, two of the sets and several photos (about 50) are not yet uploaded
Does anything have any advice to figure this out?
Answer: Maybe try an export plugin and see if it's any faster? Otherwise, it might be a limitation of your connection.

FlickrExport
FFXporter


Are there solutions for watching television on a computer?

Question: I'd like to be able to watch TV in a window while working on other projects... Is the current state of tuner hardware to the point where this would be possible? What are the most popular cards out there?
Answer: Yes, it's possible to watch TV in a window. All modern tuners and their associated software should be capable of this, whether it's a PCI card or a USB device. Needless to say, you will need a reasonably modern PC to avoid any performance issues or jerkiness. If you have Windows Media Centre, e.g. on Vista Home Premium then you can use that as your viewing software.
I've got on well with Hauppauge devices in the past.
Comment: +1 for the Hauppauge link. Been INCREDIBLY happy with my WinTV-HVR-1800 MC board - http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hvr1800mc.html
Comment: +1 also for Hauppauge. Been using their stuff for years.
Comment: +1 got the wintv-pvr usb 2 external hardware tv/tuner and this baby has some cons but any computer even a prehistoric one can run it easy ... works on every windows 2k+ (7 also) and linux ... not bad for an old baby !!!
Comment: The only thing to watch out for is to make sure the tuner cards are compatible with your OS.
Answer: I use a "dedicated" home theater PC running Vista Media Center with a Hauppagge WinTV HVR-1800, and an over-the-air antenna to watch HDTV. Sometimes I'll watch in Windowed mode while browsing on a second monitor.
AV Science Forum is a great resource on home theater PCs and AV hobby in general.
Answer: Maybe hulu fits your needs, you don't need any fancy tuner hardware.
If you really do want to build your own computer-TV/DVR then you'll need an ATSC/ClearQAM/NTSC tuner device. Hauppauge makes some of the best under their "WinTV" line, though there are plenty of other options. Generally speaking most tuner cards come bundled with software that will let you watch TV on your computer. If you want something different or desire additional functionality there are lots of other options such as Windows Media Center, MythTV, etc.
Comment: Hulu: not in Canada, unfortunately! Thanks for the reply!
Comment: +1 - Over The Air TV is so 1960 and cable is only a couple of decades better. If you do not have access to Hulu, TV.com or Netflix($) check out the individual network websites (i.e. abc.com, nbc.com, bbc.co.uk) as they will often have their own shows available for viewing.
Comment: @RobAllen, watching shows on Hulu or DVD is **not** the same as watching live TV. Those have no commercials or anything (which of course has its pros), but it also feels very isolating and lonely, while live TV with network promos and such feels more connected to the world (especially for those of us with Social Anxiety Disorder who avoid real people). More importantly, those only allow you to watch one particular program, while channel surfing allows you to see all kinds of stuff that may not even be available on Hulu/DVD. Even re-runs are nice.
Answer: Except for the resolution differences (the quality goes down fast when ran at full screen), TV tuners are great for watching TV on PC.
Here's two links about someone who got his gaming consoles working on his PC (where he uses to take screenshots of the games) and the quality of the TV tuner he brought:

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=184011
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=2131&cpage=1
Answer: I have had an ATI Theater 550 PRO for a while now (2-4 years or something) and together with Windows Media Center it worked very well.
Right now I don't have an antenna or anything to plug into it though, but I still use it for Radio as it has an FM tuner as well. Anyways, Yes it is possible =)
Answer: You might also want to consider getting a Dreambox
My previous roommate had one of these babies.
Once you get it up and running they are very nice!
Answer: Elgato has some products that can do this. HDHomeRun is a network tuner.


How to teach the importance of being considerate?

Question: I am having difficulty showing and explaining how to be considerate and thoughtful of other's feelings.
How can I teach a child to be consciously thoughtful and observant of other people?
Or
What are the problems of being inconsiderate to others?
Comment: What is the age of the child?  Because to be more specific than the great general answer already given by Morah Hochman below.  Age matters tremendously in terms of both expectations and methodology.
Comment: The answers below are a tremendous resource, and I am very thankful. But to answer your question, 12yo
Answer: Be a living example and do it with naration.  In other words be considerate in front of your child and do it witnural narration.  Don't say (to your child), do you see how I was considerate, rather say (to yourself), I am so glad I noticed that so and so was feeling down and I tried to make him/her feel better or I am so glad I was able to be polite and say excuse me to that nice lady.  Your child will learn from your example.  As well, when your child is inconsiderate do a similar thing, saying (to your child), I wish you had been able to ... it would have made you feel so good.
Comment: I find that narration (describing what you do in words as you do it) is tremendously helpful, and over time, the repetition seems to be sinking in with our toddler.
Answer: Humans learn by three methods: imitation, gain, and loss. Let's discuss each one.

Imitation:
First, parents must be considerate in their dealings in front of the children but certainly with the children. Second, parents should encourage relationships with considerate people and discourage others. This includes parents' friends. Third, parents may appraise considerate people and criticize those who are inconsiderate.
Gain:
Show children by example that considerate people are successful. Show them how social relations are improved by being considerate. Make them aware of their own feelings when someone is considerate with them. Draw their attention to their own reaction to considerate friends.
Loss:
Loss can be demonstrated in the same manner as gain but with negative consequences. In addition, by reacting negatively to child's inconsiderate act, the child will learn to control these acts. It is sufficient that the negative reaction is by turning your face away, loosing facial expressions, or any other subtle expressions. Remember to react immediately so the child relates his action to your reaction. Also your reaction must be lack of attention rather than more attention. Children do anything to get attention.
Comment: Your second example __Gain__ sounds contrived. ("Show children by example that considerate people are successful.")  There are plenty of counterexamples where a selfish person comes out on top, precisely because he was _not_ considerate.
Comment: Yes, I think it is much easier: Praise the child when it is being considerate. That's a tangible, direct gain.
Answer: First of all, there's a definite age before which this point simply cannot be made. How old a child are we talking about?
Assuming that we're talking about a growing child, say 4, there's a very simple phrase that I used to great success: Treat other people the way you want to be treated.*
Keep your eyes peeled, and you'll have ample opportunity to support both the giver and receiver sides of this statement. All things being equal, it should only take a small handful of interactions before seeing results.
Example: Marceline snatches a toy from Finn, Finn throws a brick (megablock) at your kid. "You wouldn't like it if Finn took your toy would you? He didn't like it either."
or the flipside "Hey look how happy Finn is that you gave him some of your goldfish! He likes that! You'd like it too, wouldn't you?"
Truly tho, being considerate in the way you describe (to be consciously thoughtful and observant of other people) is a later concept. 7 yrs old, maybe even older depending on the kid.
A younger child (4yo) understands Mean and Nice, and they get how to play well with others. They will get that sharing their goldfish with the other kid is nice, but will have no idea how to be observant that the other kid didn't get goldfish and then be thoughtful enough to share them.
Unfortunately, unless that Mean and Nice groundwork has been laid as a toddler, you're probably going to have a hard time promoting them from Nice to Considerate when they're school age.

*otherwise known as "The Golden Rule"
Answer: First, remembering that a child who is twelve is entering puberty and a very selfish stage of development my help you to maintain patience when you otherwise might not.
Even kids who were previously incredibly considerate, can change and shift dramatically and quickly during adolescence.  There is a lot going on in their brains and making connections that use to happen quickly and easily becomes temporarily slowed while they start focusing EVEN more on fitting in with friends and being a part of the accepted and "cool" crowd.
Not surprisingly, hormones play a part in this, but only one part.  Brain development is occurring now at a rate similar to what occurred during toddler-hood.  Part of the forgetfulness, disorganization, sleepiness and moodiness we see in teens and preteens is also due to changes in the brain as an incredible growth spurt in synapses and development of a myelin sheath on the frontal lobes occurs (for more detail and information on pre-teen and adolescent brain development).
The fact that there are reasons and explanations for a lack of consideration does NOT excuse the lack of consideration though.  It just tells us parents (and teachers) that we are in it for the long hall.  As others have said, remind your child of things like "The Golden Rule" and the same rules regarding consideration you have always used while you continue to be a good example of considerate interactions and living.
Specifically for a pre-teen, you can take on the role of guide.  Tell her that as her parent, it is your job to teach her how to maintain good friendships even into adulthood (teenage friendships are GREAT, but they are a little different from adult friendships) and that being considerate of others is a part of that.  Friends are the ultimate motivating force for most kids at this age.  What she does at home with you and with her siblings is practice even for what she does with friends - she may not believe you, but point it out to her anyway.
It is also important for you to know that because of where she is at developmentally, it is very likely she will only hear and take your advice if she knows you have heard and understood her first.  When she finishes speaking, paraphrase her and say, "did I understand correctly?"  When you get a yes, you can insist she do the same for you and expect that her listening to you will be genuine.  Besides, listening well is a part of modeling consideration anyway.
If she says or does something to hurt your feelings, state how your feelings are affected (or how you guess the feelings of the peer or sibling may have been affected) and ask a lot of questions.
For example, "Why would you say that when you know it will hurt my feelings?"  When she answers "because I'm  angry (although she'll probably use a different word for angry)"  You can respond with, "Oh, well, wouldn't it work better just to tell me that you are angry and why?"  Ask her what made her angry and even if you don't give in, you can let her know you understand by hearing her out, paraphrasing her statements and feelings.  THEN discuss your concern, "Calling names is a good way to push friends and family away instead of figuring out a solution. If she does something inconsiderate (like walks into the room where you were sleeping loudly talking and laughing and switching on the light) you just have to figure it is a teachable moment and talk to her about it.  Try to keep your voice fairly calm and nearly emotion free but state how you feel and what you wish would be done differently as you would expect her to do toward you.  "Wow!  That was an awful way to wake up from my little nap.  I'm feeling pretty frustrated about it.  I hope in the future when you know I wasn't feeling well and trying to get a little rest you will be quieter.  Can you please go be in another room while I try to get a little more sleep?"
At this stage of the game, expect to do more listening than you do talking; more questioning than answering.  It will help her trust that you really are on her side.  Model considerate behavior by you toward her even when you are frustrated and make you her ultimate guide instead of the typical parent-enemy.  Besides, by listening, you also often get insights that help you guide her more precisely anyway.


How can I clear out unneeded files - like cache, tmp et al?

Question: Are there any Bleachbit like software for Android?
Software that cleanes all the tmp, cache, unneded files..
Comment: I wouldn't assume that this community is familiar with Bleachbit. I'm not. Rather than asking for an app, you'll probably have better luck here if you ask for help solving a particular problem. It sounds like you're trying to clean out files. To what end? On what schedule? If you edit your question to make it clear what you're trying to do, I'm sure the community can help.
Answer: As far as I can tell, Android doesn't keep around a lot of cached files for the OS.  Your phone's recovery mode should also have a "Clear cache" option that would do the trick, and you can clear individual app caches from Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications.
Answer: This app cleaners a lot of the cache http://www.appbrain.com/app/android-assistant(14-features)/com.advancedprocessmanager# although doesn't automatically detected unneeded files it will let you delete them manually.
Answer: Titanium Backup has an option to look for dalvik-cache that is not needed, but only the paid version cleans it up. Instead, you can use Ghost-commander, in root mode go to /data/dalvik-cache, select remount command, and select and delete all you want in that directory, restart device and it will rebuild the cache, and use up less memory.
For application cache and data, you can go to settings, applications, and sort by size to see what is taking the most space, clear its cache, uninstall, etc.


Are wireless speakers reliable?

Question: I need to come up with an audio solution for our new meeting room and I thought of the idea that we can put 4 speakers up in each corner of the ceiling for sound. I have been trying to find speakers on ncix.com or at Bestbuy, Futureshop, The Source, and I cannot find what I am looking for. These 4 speakers will communicate with a dedicated PC in the room. Am I better off going with a wired solution?
Answer: I don't have direct experience with wireless speakers, but I can offer the following reasoning on why you should prefer wired speakers:
Most of the frequency spectrum is allocated to licensed users. Products like wireless speakers, bluetooth headsets and WiFi run in the unlicensed ISM bands of 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz and 5.7 GHz. There isn't a lot of bandwidth to begin with. The situation is made worse with lots of WiFi networks, bluetooth mice and various other gadgets. In a meeting room situation, all these devices are likely to be present and competing for limited bandwidth.
Wiring up your speakers will cost more, possibly a lot more, but it is an expense that you can amortize over the entire lifetime of the conference room. Wireless may be cheap, but the frustration of having the speakers go out during a critical presentation might overrule the initial cost savings.
Answer: Wiring speakers around a room is very cheap and simple to do, and will help prevent EM interference issues, which could easily happen with wireless speakers, as the frequency ranges typically used are filled with comms from all manner of personal electronic devices.
I would suggest running speaker cable to those corners - if you have a floating ceiling it will be very easy, but even running cable along the skirting then up each corner can be inconspicuous.

Are wireless speakers reliable?


How do I know if there are any other player in my city?

Question: I applied for an invite as soon as Ingress was released and got an invite soon enough. However the past few days I am roaming in my city and I do not see any activity from any other player. (I'm in Dhaka, Bangladesh.)
Answer: If there aren't any portals in your area, then no-one will have been able to play, so you might need to create some. See this article on how to do this.
Check Google+ for communities of fellow players in your area, this is how many people team up to collaborate on portals.
At this early stage in the game it may well be that there simply aren't any players - so talk to your friends, see if any of them are interested, and get them to sign up :)
Answer: In the intel map if you check the "Restrict to map" at the bottom of the site in the "COMM" box and move the map over to an area (ie Dhaka, Bangladesh in your case) you will see in the "COMM" box all the nearby activity


Is there any data on most common way to get to 10 VP in Settlers of Catan?

Question:
Possible Duplicate:
Settlers of Catan Data

I sometimes track this for myself when I play online, and almost half the time when I win, I have Longest Road and either 3 Cities/2 Settlements or 2 Cities/4 Settlements.
I rarely win with Largest Army, but I have noticed from reading online that one of the more common winning combos is 3 cities, Largest Army, and either 2 VP or 1 VP and 1 settlement.
Is there any data on this sort of thing? Have you noticed and 1 or 2 combos coming up most frequently in games you play.
(Of course I realize there are many possibilities, strategy often changes mid-game, etc.)
Answer: I've not seen any collected data released, but the online play sites may have done so.


How to condition the audience for crying?

Question: Good day, I'm fairly new to the sound design world and to this website so much help will be greatly appreciated. I was recently given the opportunity to score the music and design the soundscape for a theatrical play. The play would be depicting highly emotional material and I wanted to know what kind of devices I can employ to fully accent these emotional moments by making the audience (at least some of them) cry or at least have to try hard not to for times of 'extreme sadness' and 'extreme happiness'. I have roughly 6 months to work with. Thanks in advance.
Answer: Context is important but so is the directors style & approach, and this will surely inform how you support the narrative & dramatic moments because it is those (the writing, acting & narrative) that will make people cry, not the music or sound necessarily... Compare it with film: some directors spoon feed their audiences by sign posting every emotional moment with score before it happens, others leave the actors & writing to do their work & gently support the audience as they react. I'd suggest some of the most important considerations would be the shape of cues (& whether they should be there at all) - the entry point of a cue is crucial, its timing & how obvious or subtle it is. Of course there are a multitude of techniques available to a composer to express emotions - that is one of the most important tasks of a composer surely?
Answer: Depends on context.
But, the basics:
Strings can add a lot of emotion to a piece or score.
Recurring melodies for the protagonist which either degenerate or become less pronounced works well.
But, it helps to see the play or at least read the play first and take notes on what emotions the characters are exhibiting throughout it and augment this with your music.
I think it all comes down to story-telling. Figure out what you want to communicate and do that through the score.
Please let me know if I understood your question correctly - otherwise I'll try to think of more things to help you out.
Comment: Thank you for your response..you indeed understood the question correctly. I'll still appreciate anymore help your willing to give..like what devices you use for storytelling, I have some concepts I use but I'm a novice and don't want to spend time reinventing the wheel or making 'functional mistakes' as ill-fitted music may do far worse than having no music at all. thanks again
Answer: I don't think there is like a rule to make an audience cry, or it would be sold at a very high price and kept secretly. :) Anyway, so this is very subjective, but I'd start with silence. A well affirmed long silence, then build up from there, very quietly, very slowly and subtle. Then go up, more and more, until maybe to a huge cresendo just before an explosion of the theme : but you don't bring this explosion, but just a few last notes, letting them hang there in the void.
You don't want to overrun the audience with loud and expressive music from the start, while they are not yet in the mood, so my suggestion is to start from nothing a build up. Good luck with it!
Answer: Well when I think about it, the saddest songs make me feel sad.  Context context context is important with sound design I think.
Answer: One sound that always will be uncomforting is a baby's cry... But I mean you can't put that in a play if it isn't motivated by the plot. But it's interesting when you think about it, that sound will always evoke an intense emotional reaction to any human, because everyone can relate to it... Everyone won't cry but everyone will have some kind of emotional respone...
Answer: For a novice, this is quite the undertaking -- making people laugh, or be afraid, is easy -- crying is something that is incredibly subjective and even the greatest composers, I would bet, would say they cannot make someone in an audience cry 100% of the time.
Context is everything.  This will largely be in the hands of the actors, and how they play it; as a composer and / or sound designer, your job is simply to support it.  It's like Inception (the concept in the movie, not the movie themselves)... you can't make someone feel something, you have to convince them that the emotion you want them to feel is the emotion they should be feeling without pushing too hard so that they know you're actively manipulating them.
Research the crap out of this, and not just in an internet forum; find movies and music that make you cry, that make your friends and family cry, and LISTEN to them. Analyze them.  Try to emulate them to the best of your ability.
And, before anything else -- and like Markus said -- start with silence.
Answer: Silence.
This isn't a one size fits all solution, but whenever a character is near breaking or has broken, I find silence to be very powerful and unnerving. For me, silence increases the feeling of helplessness, as if even the soundtrack is too disturbed and upset to know what to do. Like shocked onlookers, the sound can only stare silently, mouth gaping.
Answer: I will second Miles B. on this one. Trying to use sound/music to 'guide' the audience into emotion often undermines the true emotion and smothers the moment.
In addition to silence though, very soft sounds or diagetic music (music that exists in the world on stage/screen) can have an equally powerful, suck-the-air-out-of-the-room effect  in an emotional scene. It has the subconscious effect of reminding the audience that the world outside the character in focus continues as normal, even while/after the character suffers an emotional blow. It's a deceptively powerful technique to alienate the character from the rest of the "happy world".
If you want good examples of this, try watching the films Lost in Translation (use of background music) or The Hurt Locker (use of background sound effects and music). Or both ;).