How far from traffic should you be to get a clean nature recording?

Question: How far away must you go to get a clean recording?  I'm planning on recording some nature ambiences and want to know what people's experiences are.
Comment: air traffic?  :)
Answer: The only real answer is to use your ears - before recording.  If you hear traffic, don't set up because yet you're just going to record it.
In my experience, getting about 2 miles away from the highway on a perpendicular angle is about right.  It also helps if you actually lose sight of the highway, which is more difficult than one would think out on the west Texas plains where I've done most of my ambiances.
the other obstacle you'll run into is air traffic.  Even if you're way off of a normal flight path, some yokel in his prop plane is likely to be cruising overhead no matter how far off the highway you get.  This can be overcome somewhat by waking up insanely early and doing your recording before they get gassed up and on the tarmac.
also, don't bring your dog.  :)
once your in place and rolling, I'd be prepared to roll at least 2x what you intend to keep.  Inevitably some audio annoyance will come along and you'll have to edit around it after the fact.  just keep rolling and you'll be fine.
don't forget to take pictures.  the locations of ambiances can be difficult to discern by ear, so photographs that can be embedded into the files via soundminer (if you use that) are incredibly useful when digging through them later on.
good luck!
Answer: I usually try to look at a map in the general area I want to record in and look for country roads that will take me as far from highways and busier thoroughfares as possible. If I have the opportunity beforehand, I'll usually scout the area out to look for good places to set up.
It's much easier if you're trying to get night ambiances, because you can also plan those for the middle of the night, during the earlier part of the week, to reduce the chances of people driving by on even the more rarely travelled roads. (Which, it becomes frustrating clear once you begin recording, happens more than you'd ever think, even in the middle of nowhere.)
I think @Rene was right about rolling more than you need. Probably end up needing quite a bit more than 2x for daytime stuff, depending on how far out you can get and how much you're willing to fudge in editing.
Comment: Oh yeah, I'm defintely going to capture way more than I need and look for those 'golden moments' after the fact.  I am an avid hiker/biker so I am ready to hike out into the wilderness to make this happen if I have to.
Answer: What microphone are you using? That will be an important factor ie off axis rejection....
Be aware the rear of most shotgun microphones is more sensitive than the sides, so if eg you point the front of the mic at some birdy trees, make sure the rear of the mic is not pointed in the direction of the traffic source....
Answer: Just got back from the mountains myself and contending, as usual, with the same issue.

If you can see traffic, you're too close. No cheating with fog or darkness, now. :-)
If you know where the road(s) are, do a 360° with your mic (as Tim said, more directional is often good, but sometimes not if you're doing stereo) and optimize placement based on rejection of the traffic source.
I've recorded FIVE MILES away from train tracks and still hear the horn and rumble of freight trains clearly.
Air traffic increases on weekends due to recreational flyers; if you're going to a remote area, that increases the likelihood of hearing air traffic since only small informal airstrips that service civilian planes are found in remote areas.
Recording prior to dawn or after dark helps immensely, but complicates logistics and scheduling.
You can replace distance with intervening geography. If it's flat, I don't find 2 miles to be enough. If it's wooded and hilly, 2 miles can be good enough...if you're in a valley. The higher your elevation, the farther you must be.

I just did a hike of 3,000' in elevation to an altitude of 8500' over 4 miles of hiking and 6 miles from the nearest paved road to get things quiet enough that I could record the sound of wind in pine needles without birds or even insects. A rare opportunity, but it took half a day to get to that location. Conversely, I've gone into a forested canyon a 0.5-mile drive from my house and within 4 miles of the US's busiest highway and got clean recordings of frog choruses, using the landscape as a giant sound blanket.
These efforts often pays off, and you must be patient all those times it doesn't.
Comment: Awesome advice, I will keep these things in mind when I go out.  I went and scoped a spot a few days ago and did some listening (since I still don't have my new microphones yet.)  I had the same experience, where it seemed you could be around 2 miles from a road and not hear it by seeking lower elevation and using the mountains and hills as baffles.
Answer: How far is far enough? All the way. As Rene said above, use your ears. Do a test run of some recording, then take it back to the lab and really analyze it. Sometimes Headphones on location just don't give you all the details. It also matters if you are recording production audio, or looking for isolated SFX.
Comment: Using your ears is always key, I was just hoping that someone knows the required distance from a highway to avoid picking it up.
Answer: It is a tough one. I was in western South Africa recently and we wanted some real quiet, authentic ambiences minus the traffic and it proved to be really tough. Out there, the tires on a long stretch of highway just travel forever. I found that choosing your time of day was important- early morning, just when things are waking up and the traffic is at it's absolute minimum. It is great to try and get away from a road and to travel inland for a few miles but sometimes that is not possible. As some of you said, use your ears, record too much so it can be edited down a bit and be patient.
Good luck.
Answer: It seems like in L.A. the answer is far, as far as you can get.  I found a park that looked far away from everything on a map...  Even though I was three miles from any road or highway, I could still hear the highway.  I am waiting for my portable recording rig to arrive in a few more weeks so I wasn't able to record.  I'm not giving up though, I was mostly walking on ridges that had a clearer line to the highway.  I figure if I can get a few mountains between me and the highway (and possibly walk down into the valley of one), I will get much cleaner recordings.


What do the terms "vintage" and "classic" actually mean?

Question: I often see terms like "vintage" and "classic" used to describe LEGO sets (especially on ebay, but I've seen them elsewhere, too). What do these terms mean? How strict is the definition?
Answer: The two biggest themes to be called "classic" are "classic space" and "classic castle" and refer to the period when these themes were first introduced.
Brickset subthemes reflect this: Classic Castle covers the first yellow castle and accessories, from 1978 to 1983. I'd tend to include the new series from 1984 myself, since there wasn't much to speak of before that, but maybe I'm just wrong or maybe that only shows that there is no actual definition of "classic" to speak of.
The brickset subtheme for Classic Space covers the period from 1978 to 1987, with one extra set in 1988. Afterwards, they started naming themes, such as Futuron or Space Police, so you could say that the classic period covered the space sets before that. A lot of fans seem to limit themselves to the "blue with gray wings" livery of the first space sets, though, and do a fantastic job of it.
There's also a castle fan community site called Classic-Castle.com and several Classic space fan community sites, such as Neo Classic Space (notice the blue-and-gray again). I think there was once a classic-space.com but that doesn't seem to be operational any longer.
That's for Castle and Space; for more info you can also consult the Brickipedia pages for Classic Castle and Classic Space.
By extension, I suppose all themes from the same period qualify too. Bear in mind that this period (the eighties, in a nutshell) correspond to the period when most of nowadays AFOLs were kids, so they have fond memories of the sets they had or drooled about. But as far as I know, none have devoted fanbases; and there are no corresponding "Classic City" or "Classic Technic" subthemes on brickset.
Saying "Classic Jack Stone" will probably get you very puzzled and/or angry looks.
Comment: As for the definition of vintage. I tend to think of early sets like the original [town plan](http://i.imgur.com/6phru.jpg) with more realistic trees, vehicles that you couldn't put together or take apart and buildings made out of standard white and red bricks.
Answer: These words are used to lure in collectors who really want the "exclusive" stuff. It probably means that they don't really use that many new complicated pieces, making it classic. The winter specials, such as the house, post office, toy shop, etc...
The word "vintage" means, of, relating to, or denoting wine of high quality: "vintage claret". Another word for this is "wine". Wine is aged. So are these LEGO sets.  this means that the LEGO set will only be sold for a limited time, while also being a classic LEGO set. It really means "old". If you search "vintage LEGO" it will come up with a bunch of really old LEGO sets that are classics and very old.
Comment: I've never heard anyone call the recent winter sets as "classic"
Comment: I would say that vintage has a slightly wider meaning that just relating to wine: "a period in which something was made or was begun" is another definition, and fits better with the use of "Vintage Clothing" "Vintage LEGO", etc.


24' iMac HDMI input solution?

Question: Are there any solutions available which will allow HDMI input on my 24' iMac?
Answer: Your possibilities port-wise for a 24" iMac are Ethernet, USB, and FireWire.
I've seen interesting stuff done with converting DVI video on another computer to send over Ethernet, but not at the quality I imagine you're looking for with HDMI.
USB suffers on video. It wasn't designed to handle consistent, high levels of data that represents video.
Let's skip this.
Now FireWire: FireWire's largest users are those who work with video data, and your 24" iMac has both a FW400 and FW800 port on the back. With this in-mind I went 'google-ing' and found this:
Thomson Grass Valley ADVC-HD50
Hope this ends up being a worthy solution for you, I had difficulty finding any alternatives.
Note: I wouldn't assume this thing will handle HDCP.
Answer: No, there aren't. The 24" iMacs don't take video input of any kind. If you had a 27" iMac, then it would take Mini DisplayPort input, and you might be able to find an HDMI to Mini DisplayPort converter.
Comment: Most video input solutions these days are USB. We are not limited to the display port.
Comment: For video capture, yes. But not for realtime video display to HDMI standards. USB 2 doesn't have the bandwidth to drive an iMac display.

24' iMac HDMI input solution?


Least expensive microphone for hiss-free PC recordng

Question: I'm having difficulty recording hiss-free voice audio using my PC using a USB headset combo, at least I think the problem is my headset because the built-in speaker gives much better quality, but the recordings aren't very loud and have brief, ocassional fuzz sounds. What is the least expensive type of microphone that would give hiss-free recordings.
Comment: You might want to add to the question that the headset you are using is USB.
Answer: The problem is not really going to be the mic in your headset, although obviously a cheap mic is likely to be lower quality than a good one.
The problem is that recording in to a normal PC is at a very low voltage, so the difference between noise (mains hum, interference etc) and the signal you want is not that great, so when you amplify the signal you also amplify the noise, leading to hiss/buzz/hum.
If you want to record at better quality, the single best thing you can do is add a proper soundcard to your PC - and by proper, I mean a powered, external sound card. This gives you a much improved amplifier and lower noise floor, and gets the signal up to a decent voltage (typically line voltage) before it gets to your PC, which means it is much more resistant to interference.
Many external sound cards will also let you use XLR balanced connections to microphones - which are much more resistant to interference.
Comment: So you suggest that I invest in an external sound card and microphone? Or just a sound card. Anyway if the problem is my sound card why does my built-in give much better quality? Could it be that my computer's soundcard/soundchip is not used when recording from a USB device? (as suggested here http://goo.gl/4UrCF ). My headset has a USB connector.
Comment: Ahh - if it is a USB headset, then my answer is less relevant in this case - you aren't recording in through the sound card; instead, your headset has an amplifier and an Analogue to Digital converter. So any analogue hiss will be in the circuit prior to the A/D and any digital interference will be after that. In your case, you should be able to find a better microphone.
Comment: Thanks! So what type of microphones should I be looking to buy, or will any non-USB microphone do?
Answer: It isn't just the signal to noise level, but also generally the isolation of the sound processing hardware.  On cheap, consumer sound cards, the audio processing is generally done on circuitry that is impacted by other things going on in the computer.  This variation results in noise in addition to the normal signal to noise issues inherent with just about any consumer grade mic (particularly that goes through a 1/8th inch jack).
The only way you are likely to get hiss free audio is with a prosumer level capture device that has balanced inputs (XLR) to deal with the signal to noise issues and a power conditioned and isolated analog to digital converter.  You will also need a decent XLR based mic.  (Personally I highly recommend getting a used SM58 for a "cheap" quality option.  They are nearly indestructible so getting a used one should be ok.)
Cheap is relative though, I'd expect the total cost would still be in the neighborhood of  $200 or more for all the pieces you'd need.  Another option, though a little more expensive, is to pick up a dedicated recorder like a Zoom H4N that will let you record stuff without the computer.  They run a few hundred dollars without the mic.
Comment: Thanks. I'll look into buying an XLR microphone and external sound card.
Answer: An external sound card and a good phantom-powered XLR mic is certainly the pro-audio way to solve this problem. However, I've had good experience with USB audio products for casual recording.
I use a Blue Snowball for Skype meetings. The Snowball is a bit quieter than the mic on my macbook pro, but I can move it away from my mac's fan noise, so the overall quality is much better. One of my friends prefers the Logitech G330 headset, and that also produces good results. I've experienced hiss problems with other Logitech products on my Mac, but then Logitech doesn't (or at the time didn't) deliver mac-specific drivers for their gaming devices.
There are plenty of podcaster-oriented USB microphone products that will be more than adequate for recording hiss-free voice. You really only need to take the soundcard route if you plan on recording multiple sources at once, or need more power than the USB bus can provide.
The "fuzz" sounds may be your breath blowing across the mic. You can either speak across, rather than into, the mic or you can look for a better windscreen and/or pop filter.
Answer: Problem solved. I bought me a preamplifier, with good gain control.
I also bought a condenser microphone but I suspect a dynamic microhone would have done just as well.


Why do we have 360 degrees in a circle and why we need radians?

Question: I have two related questions:
1- Why do we have 360 degrees in a circle?
2- I have seen in most of the mathematical concepts, angle is expressed in radians not
in degrees. Why was radian introduced?
Comment: We don't **need** radians. But if we insist on using degrees, many important formulas, particularly in any field that uses calculus, get more complicated, In the same way, we don't need the usual metric system, we could use inches, feet, yards, furlongs, miles. But that is far messier.
Comment: A good place to start is Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degree_(angle), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radian.
Answer: It is presumed that the Babylonians invented the division of the circle into 360 degrees.  It's not clear why they used 360.  One theory is that back in early Sumerian times they divided the day into 12 "time-miles" - the time required to travel a Babylonian mile.  Since a day is one revolution of the sky, that corresponds to dividing a complete revolution into 12 parts.  For convenience, the Babylonian mile was subdivided into 30 parts, and that gives 360 subdivisions of the circle. See e.g.
Eves, "An Introduction to the History of Mathematics", sec. 2-4.
Hipparchus is said to have introduced the degree into Greece (see http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Hipparchus.html).  The term radian dates back
only to about 1869: see http://jeff560.tripod.com/r.html and http://www.jstor.org/stable/3620383
Answer: Possibly the most important reason for using radians instead of degrees to measure angles is that it's the simplest way for computing the straight length subtended by a circular arc: if we have a circle of radius $r$, then we know that the length of the arc subtended by an angle $\theta$ measured in radians is just $r\times\theta$ - a relation that doesn't hold true if we measure $\theta$ in any other units.  This in turn leads to a lot of observations that have important uses in 'higher' mathematics; for instance, the idea that a small piece of circular arc is approximately straight can be formalized as the statement that $\sin\theta\approx \theta$ for angles $\theta$ near $0$ - but only if we measure $\theta$ in radians!  A ton of important formulas can then be derived from versions of this formula: for instance, it yields the formula $\dfrac{d}{d\theta}\sin\theta=\cos\theta$, which doesn't hold true if we measure $\theta$ in degrees (it's off by a constant factor), and the list goes on quite a bit.  Radians are just, in an important sense, the most natural scaling factor for talking about angles.
Answer: A circle is defined to have $360$ degrees. That number is convenient because it has many factors and can be divided easily without getting fractions.
Radians are very useful when working with trigonometric functions. Since the input of a trigonometric function can be thought of as a fraction of the circumference of the unit circle, it would seem natural to have the output be in those same units as well.


Do I have to backup Titanium Backup's keys?

Question: I just bought Titanium Backup and set up a scheduled encrypted backup of user+system apps and data, followed by Dropbox sync. Assuming I remember the passphrase, is all the data required for restoration backed up? Or do I have to manually backup the private key and encrypted symmetric key?
Answer: The FAQ of Titanium Backup about crypthography states that you just need the passphrase to recover any backup. That must mean that the private key file is stored along with all of your backups, because it could never work in any other ways. The big problem with that FAQ is that it should states this explicitly IMHO so to make things clearer for us users.
I took a peek at the first bytes of some backupped file (I am talking about the application data here, because Titanium Backup does not backup apks period), guess what I saw?
I found the very same ASCII sequence in the first lines of the backup files: those files are named something.gz but they are actually not gzip files (because of the key that has been put in front of them. Gzip files begin with hex codes 1F 8B 08. Those files do not).
If you run Linux and want to check it out, download two of your backups on the PC and try this command, that shows the first four lines of the file:
$ head -n 4 cgeo.geocaching-20130919-000250.tar.gz

My output is:
TB_ARMOR_V1
0w5AkcCA9rGtSy3Ecrag19p/FYQ=
BNpyGZq/PQYmpDXkXwji2lQGIQY=
MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA5GNADCBiQKBgQDWLUH3i295TA9XwPgbzwXEk/0eqowW2xcoxbOQo7NYeqGvctC7dNM33CEh+az25Wj2iTo+kzdIpwM7Y6o5vjW+D/yBCv9nDV1+HLNyut3GDQon84yR6BlgbQJT5QoIra5f6FN+wtqF5/ifW88nzuia2fUOv/IqRVQhHxIY7LPkMQIDAQAB

Quite odd for a binary file, isn't it? By the way that must be, yes, my TB private key enciphered with my passphrase. I don't give a thing about sharing it because you would need my backup files and my passphrase as well, to get anything useful out of.
Now, if you run run the same command on a different backup file:
$ head -n 4 com.amazon.kindle-20130919-000004.tar.gz
Guess what? You'll get the same s*it!
TB_ARMOR_V1
0w5AkcCA9rGtSy3Ecrag19p/FYQ=
BNpyGZq/PQYmpDXkXwji2lQGIQY=
MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA5GNADCBiQKBgQDWLUH3i295TA9XwPgbzwXEk/0eqowW2xcoxbOQo7NYeqGvctC7dNM33CEh+az25Wj2iTo+kzdIpwM7Y6o5vjW+D/yBCv9nDV1+HLNyut3GDQon84yR6BlgbQJT5QoIra5f6FN+wtqF5/ifW88nzuia2fUOv/IqRVQhHxIY7LPkMQIDAQAB

This simply could not be a coincidence. :)
From a certain point onward everything in backup files finally becomes binary.
This behavior makes a lot of sense because that would mean that we can only share the backup files and forget about everything - with the passphrase, we can recover our backups, period.
Still, I really think that the developer should document a procedure about how to recover our own legitimate data (we know the passphrase, so it's us!) from any computer with a decent crypto tools set (read: OpenSSL).
Comment: This means that having an encryption key stronger than your passphrase is useless.
Comment: it's not that crazy to store the keys in the header of files, but normally not the same keys. normally you have got a file encryption key (FEK, it's one per file) which is stored in the file header and get encrypted by the master key. normally also the master key gets generated using the passphrase so you pipe the passphrase through some SHA or better bcrypt or scrypt or PBKDEF2 and get the private key from that. so actually you only store the FEK and meta data like key length in files.
Answer: As @Dakatine hints, the master key is pre-pended on the file, which is then concatenated by encrypted content.
I didn't bother researching the TB_ARMOR_V1 file format, because someone already has made a python command line tool https://github.com/phyber/TiBUdecrypter
Answer: You only need to remember the passphrase. I've done this before.
If you're worried, you could always create a nandroid backup of your entire system, then wipe and install a custom rom. Install TB, and try to restore an app with just a passphrase. If it needs something you lack, then you have your answer and can go back to recovery and restore the nandroid. But as I said, I have done this process already and know that the password is all that is needed.


What are the most important features to look for in a low budget hotshoe flash and why?

Question: When trying to get started with flash photography, there are a lot of new options, features and techniques that a photographer gets thrown in to.  When starting on a budget, what features will give a flash the most bang for the buck for people just starting out in flash photography that don't have a lot of money to spend?
Answer: First and foremost, sufficient flash power is necessary.  Flash power is measured in guide numbers.  With guide numbers higher is more powerful.  At a given ISO and focal length, the guide number is the aperture times the distance to the subject.  For example, a guide number of 100 should be able to expose a subject at f/4 that is 25 feet away.  It's also important to make sure that you compare apples to oranges with guide numbers that are using similar ISO and focal length numbers.
You also want to look for a flash that has a tilt (and preferably swivel) head.  It's very important to be able to send the flash where you need it.  Many techniques like bumping flashes off ceilings and walls will give a much more professional look, but also require the ability to send the flash off angle.  This is a very valuable feature for a flash to have.
Another consideration that is probably a little less critical (and can be adjusted for) is flash dispersion.  How well does the flash spread out the light?  If the light is too concentrated, then photos up close will have portions of the image underexposed and other parts overexposed.  You can fix this with flash diffusers, but they will also cost you some flash power (typically anywhere from 1/3 stop to 2 stops of power.
You will also want to consider what kind of metering to use if any.  If you photograph mostly scenes where you can redo shots and carefully setup your lighting, then metering may be something you can skimp on in favor of other features, but you'll have to either meter your flash with an external meter or work it by hand and some trial and error.
On the other hand, if you are going to be shooting things that you only get one chance on or can't be taking the time to experiment with manual adjustment, then at-least some form of metering is a must.  You can get a flash with an integrated meter that you can manually tell it what settings you are shooting on with the camera and do a test flash and it will adjust the flash appropriately for you.  The main draw back is it requires a flash exposure prior to taking the shot since the camera and the flash still aren't talking to each other (other than to say the shutter was pressed).
In most cases, just about any hotshoe flash should recognize the shutter release signal and if external metering or manual settings are used, just about any hotshoe flash should work on just about any camera since the shutter release signal is pretty universal.  The main side effect of using off-brand flashes though is that TTL typically won't work.
TTL stands for Through The Lens metering.  In a TTL setup, the process is actually pretty similar to an externally metering flash, but it happens MUCH faster and uses the actual sensor within the camera for metering (so that filters, optics, etc are taken into account.)  When you take a shot in TTL mode, the camera tells the flash all the settings being used for you, it then fires off a pre-flash, checks the exposure and adjusts accordingly for the actual exposure, the actual exposure then automatically occurs with all the factors taken into consideration.  The entire process happens so fast it normally appears to be a single flash.  It is a very nice feature to have, but also one that can be given up in a pinch in favor of external metering, particularly if you don't make much use of filters that reduce light captured by the camera, but if you can afford it, it is very nice to have.  Also, as mentioned before, in most cases, TTL rules out other brands of flash (some third parties have reverse engineered it) since each camera manufacturer uses their own proprietary signals for TTL.
Moving more into the realm of nice to haves, having a sync cord hookup is useful for being able to reuse a cheap flash down the road once you start getting more into flash photography and want to upgrade.  One of the great things about flash photography is that it is very common to use off camera flashes.  If your current flash today can be your off camera secondary flash tomorrow, it can save your investment from finding it's way on the the trash heap quite so soon.  If you are on a really strict budget though and expect to have more funds available in the future (say a student) then it may not be worth investing in this feature over having a higher guide number or a better level of metering.
One final thought is that you also want to consider the cycle time for the flash.  The electronics in all flashes are not created equal.  If you plan on doing mostly studio work, then a cycle time may be less of an issue, but for events or any kind of higher speed shooting, having to wait 5 or 6 seconds for a full power flash can be a lifetime.  This is another one that is really dependant on how you expect to be using the flash.
Similarly, the life expectancy of a flash is important to consider if you are going to use it alot.  How many flashes can it take before needing new batteries and how many exposures is it rated for before the flash starts losing power, how about before it is dead?  Flashes start to lose power relatively quickly.  Even a high end flash like the Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT will start becoming less powerful after just a few thousand flashes.  Now, that doesn't mean it turns into a pumpkin, but it does mean that the guide number slowly starts slipping down.  Cheaper flashes often equals cheaper flash bulbs and the fade off can start after 1000 flashes or fewer.  For the occasional flash photographer, this isn't really an issue, but if you plan to work with it a lot, keep in mind that rapid thermal shock cycles are the hardest on a flash (so if you can let the flash cool down between shots, it will thank you in the long run.)
Comment: Seriously feet not meters? How to calculate this for different unit systems?
Comment: Now someone will complain about the difference between old-style off-the-film TTL vs. the newer preflash systems. Not me, though. I'm just sayin'. :)
Comment: @mattdm sadly, I have no experience with anything prior to pre-flash.  My first "good" flash was a 320EX.
Answer: With a normal budget, there are all the things you regularly look for in a flash, but with a low-budget (say sub-$80) flash, you're not going to be finding any TTL units, HSS capability, etc. etc.  All the units are likely to be cheap Chinese-manufactured manual-only flashes (say, the YN-460 or YN-560) and the like.
So, these are likely to be best used for off-camera flash in a Strobist set-up, and I'd highly recommend that you don't go down this path for a first or only flash unit. Think of a flash the way you'd think of a lens.  It's as basic and transforming a piece of gear as a new lens, and you should cost-budget in the same neighborhood if you want a good one.
What you give up going cheap

Resale value
Manufacturer warranty/service that's reliable and easy to use
Backwards/forwards compatibility (firmware upgrades don't come at low-price), and the electronic communication protocol between the flash and camera is typically reverse-engineered.
Copy and component consistency. Sure, you can get lucky and get a good unit. Or...

Generally, reliability under hard usage is going to be the key deciding factor on going with a cheapie or, say, something a bit higher-priced. If you're just a hobbyist who's only going to do occasional or light usage of off-camera flash, these can be just the ticket. If you're a pro with clients breathing down your neck at two or three jobs a day, then maybe you want to pay for added reliability.
What you give up going manual-only
It's not just TTL you give up when you dump the non-sync pins on the shoe/foot. All the function where the camera has to talk to the flash is gonna go, too.

TTL
menu commanding
proprietary wireless systems
(if Canon) 2nd curtain sync
high-speed (FP) sync
auto-setting of zoom

The Have-to-Haves
The marks of a worthwhile cheapie:

Manual Power control
Tilt & swivel
Decent power output (at the level of an SB-700 or 430EXII)
At least one other option to sync aside from the hotshoe (built-in optical slave, pc sync port, etc.)
A reliable purchase venue at a set price with a return policy (possibly a warranty).

Features to study extra hard
A lot of how these cheapies will disappoint or delight depends on how you interpret the specs they give out.  They don't lie, but there are a few fudge factors at work, so you may really need to pay attention.
Power
Guide numbers are given for power, but they're often "cheated" by putting the flash on its tightest zoom setting to narrow and focus the beam from the flash to its tightest so that the flash looks more powerful.  Nikon measures all their guide numbers with the flash zoomed to 35mm. Find a review site that measures the actual light output, rather than relying on the manufacturer's stated spec.  For example, the YN-560 has a guide number that makes it look like it's as powerful as a 580EX. It's not. It's about the same as a 430EX.
Zoom
Check if you have zoom. And then check if you have manual zoom control as well as Auto. This is a nice-to-have feature, so sometimes it's dropped from the budget models.
Power Control
Check and see how many manual power settings you get.  And if the flash doesn't do Manual power control don't even go there because that's the only way you can control the flash on a cheap manual-only trigger.  The more settings you get, the more flexibility you'll have.  1/128 power is probably the best you're going to find. Probably one of the worser ones is the Vivitar 285HV, which only does 1, 1/2, 1/4, and 1/16 (yup. 1/8 is missing.  Think of it like having a lens you can't set to f/4, f/8, f/16, or f/22).
Swivel
While a flash head can swivel, most low-budget flashes will only swivel 270°, not the full 360° you really want for bounce flash, or for aligning a sensor with line-of-sight. Some don't swivel at all (e.g., Vivitar 285HV).
Sync Connector
I've seen some really wackadoodle listings here, but you're basically looking to see if a flash has a PC sync connector. The Vivitar 285HV has a proprietary Vivitar connector. Some flashes don't offer a sync connector at all. Consider what triggers you might be hooking up to the flash. Some eBay listings will actually call a PC sync connector a 3.5mm sync port which it's not. And many won't be screw-type connectors (i.e., the connector's held in by simple friction, not a screw thread. Rely on pictures. This is what a PC connector looks like:

We would prefer if 3.5mm (aka 1/8") minijacks/plugs were used (see this Strobist post), so we could buy our sync cables at any audio/electronics store, but few flashes have this (see: LumoPro LP180).
Optical Slaving
Here's where it gets sticky. You may have to google about and do some additional research, aside from reading specs, because you'll see the phrase "optical slave" and a lot of these 3rd party makers don't specify if this means "dumb" optical slave modes (i.e., one that can be set off by any flash burst--even from a P&S camera) or the TTL proprietary wireless communication protocols (e.g., CLS, wireless-eTTL, Olympus RC [which is NOT radio-controlled]).  Particularly since they'll call the mode that ignores a TTL preflash "TTL optical slave" and the like.  Again, with a bargain flash, it's unlikely you'll be getting wireless TTL communication.
Radio Slaving
Newer manual flashes are starting to come with radio receivers built-in.  Understand that this receiver is likely to only work with a specific transmitter model--probably from the same manufacturer. Do not assume that any radio transmitter will work with the built-in slave on the flash--even if it's the same brand (e.g., the YN-560III only works with the RF-602, 603, and 603ii, not the YN-622).
The Foot
A manual-only flash will typically have a foot with a single pin on it.  That's the sync signal.  It won't have the other TTL pins, unless it's doing some form of TTL communication.  If a flash is advertised as doing TTL, but only has a single pin on the foot then the TTL is not being done through the hotshoe/foot, but some other way (optical wireless probably: e.g., Yongnuo 560EX).
Answer: The most important item is whether or not it has TTL (iTTL, CLS, etc) and if you require it.
Manual flashes are much cheaper than TTL capable flashes. They are recommended by David Hobby, the Strobist. See http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101-start-here.html He states that manual control is mandatory for proper flash work, and some branded flashes only work TTL
There are TTL third party flashes. The Strobist discussion group on Flickr has many threads weighing the pros and cons of specific models and brands. http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/
Comment: I think what Hobby means is that you need to be able to control the flash manually, whether or not it has TTL compatibility. There are situations, especially with event photography or live photojournalism, when the opportunity to set up any kind of manually controlled flash isn't much of an option. As events unfold and your subjects move towards and away from you having the camera calculate the power needed is invaluable. An off shoe bracket, hand holding the flash via an off shoe cord, or a TTL compatible wireless option can get excellent results.
Comment: Right, it must be able to be manually controlled. The OP needs to decide if he needs TTL
Answer: Here are my must have features:

Tilt/Swivel head (so you can bounce the flash)
Full manual controls (to do strobist-style off-camera flash)
Slave mode (to fire off-camera), or add a (cheap?) wireless trigger to your budget
TTL - because sometimes you just don't have time to adjust settings and you need to get the shot the first time (if/when you get multiple flashes only one of then needs TTL)
Answer: I am not going to get too extensive here and write a novel on this particular subject. What kind of flash will give you the most bang for the buck kind of depends what kind of photography you will be doing. For event photography I would say you would need a flash with TTL. A reasonably priced flash for that would be the Yongnuo 568 EX which handles TTL and high speed sync. This flash will run you about $180. A Canon 580 EX II would run you $500 or more depending on if it's new or used.
If you are doing outdoor or even indoor portraits you can save a lot of money using manual flashes such as the Yongnuo YN-560 or 560 II. You can get the YN-560 for about $30 used and the YN-560 II for around $70 brand new. Both flashes I use regularly and I have found them to be super reliable. Also I can't for the life of me ever see needing more flash output than they provide.
I hope you found this helpful and here is a link with me using them both in real world conditions.  Using YN-560 and YN-560 II
Comment: Not sure you're really addressing the question, which was what features are important to look for.  The YN flashes are good value, but I'm not sure the question is asking for brand/model recommendations, but rather what features to look out for.
Comment: Not to be mean, but I also wouldn't exactly say the video makes me want to use the YN-560 or YN-560II and actually makes me a lot more comfortable with my Canon 600EX-RT being worth every penny.  The shot without the flash looks better than the shots with them, at least for the half of the video I scanned through.


What affects Axton's Turret's damage?

Question: I'm playing the Commando, Axton, in Borderlands 2, and I'm building my character with heavy emphasis on the turret by using my skill points on upgrading the turret's damage, duration, and cooldown time. However, I'm not exactly sure how to upgrade turret damage outside of that. So what factors (other than level) effect the damage that Axton's Turret deals?
Answer: Beyond skill points and level, I'm aware of no other factors that directly affect Axton's Turret damage (ignoring things like Slag, which are properties of the entity being attacked, not of Axton or his turret).
It's worth noting that the Dahl Engineer class mod provides Sentry skill points, which will increase the turret's DPS (though not the damage per hit).
Answer: I recommend getting the missile volley which definitely increases damage.
Get a slag sniper rifle to make enemies more vulnerable to non slag damage.
A class mod to keep the turret out longer and you're set.
Throw your turret out, take cover safely far away, and shoot enemies that your turret is currently targeting with your slag weapon. Your rifle will coat enemies with purple slag and your turret will destroy them in seconds.
I've taken down those higher level gigantic plant/tentacle like creatures that live in the sand in a 4 player server by myself with this strategy!
Answer: Aside from player level there is nothing that increases the actual turret damage per shot. The best way to increase the firepower that thing's throwing out is to increase Sentry (increases the amount of rounds the turret fires per burst), laser sight (the amount of rounds actually hitting the target), Scorched Earth (which adds an occasional rocket volley for excellent added damage) and Double up (deliver's twice the number of rounds as before and slag effect, which combines with Scorched Earth's explosive damage works wonders).

What affects Axton's Turret's damage?


How do I run Space 1889/Twilight 2000/Mega Traveller in Windows 7

Question: I have windows 7. I have two old Paragon games Space 1889 and Twilight 2000. How do I play them or get them to work in windows 7? I have just obtained the three Mega Traveller games and want to play them also.
Answer: With regards to Mega Traveller, I can say from personal experience that they work just fine with Dosbox. If the other two games are from the same era, they probably will work as well.
Answer: For old DOS games, you use a program called DosBox, which emulates a DOS-driven machine. Install the program, mount a directory where you'll keep your old games as drive C: (never mount your HD directly), mount the game's install disc as D:, install and play.


Intuitive Trip planning websites where you can "pin" interesting activities, hostels etc based on location?

Question: Just had this idea came in mind, where you can find great pictures, activities and stories etc online, collect them together, and group them based on location(eg. neighbourhood, city or country? I'm planning my trip to Europe right now, and that seems the best way to organize everything together. I wonder if such service exists?
Answer: Whether intuitive or not depends on the person using it. I'm not really liking them much because every single one of them is too limiting in some way, not having the scale to be really useful outside of very popular destinations. Still, scores of people use the sites listed below, so perhaps you might like one of these as well:

http://duffelup.com/
http://plnnr.com/
http://www.tripomatic.com/
http://www.traxo.com/
http://www.tripsay.com/

Not really matching what you are asking, but what I find the best resource in this context is http://tripadvisor.com.
Answer: Maybe not quite what you're looking for, but have you tried Google Maps Engine? It's a very slick and featureful map creation service that lets you leverage the existing power of Google Maps and Google Places. Every time I go on a trip, I make a map with all the parks, museums, hostels, restaurants, etc. that I want to visit. Here's a recent (simple) example from Montreal.
Answer: You can try http://www.holidayen.com/. It's intuitive and you can get personalized recommendations on sights and activities, check out location and photos, create a daily itinerary and share your trip with friends as well. [Disclaimer: I work here]
Answer: You can also check out Awespot. This looks a lot like what you describe but mainly for places to visit and photos. You can browse all the places on a map of the world and check out photos at random.
Disclaimer: I do work on this website.


My fingers ache after practice. What can I do about it?

Question: I have played the guitar since 2006 and I had no trouble all that time. Recently I noticed that my fingers ache after practice. What can I do with that?
Comment: Maybe this would help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XsLRQFV7rY
Comment: It could be nutrition problems that would be difficult to detect without the personal attention of a health expert. It could be technique problems that would only be spotted in person by a qualified teacher.  It could be that the material being practiced is beyond the ability of certain muscle groups that are undeveloped or untrained.  I feel that this question, while valid and certainly relevant, is not likely to receive a truly good answer.
Answer: Have you made any changes to your guitar, the strap, how you stand or sit?
Posture can make a big difference in your hands because of the angle of your hand on the neck. Playing with the guitar too low causes an acute angle at your wrist and fingers, and depending on how your hands are shaped, just might not be a good idea for you.
Changes to the guitar's action, either to a heavier string gauge or higher height, can cause your hands to ache.
Over practice can also cause problems because of RSI, "repetitive stress injury". The tendons become inflamed, leading to pain. Pressing too hard or playing too much can cause the problem.
The solutions can be to raise the guitar, use lighter strings, get the action adjusted lower, only press as hard as is necessary to fret the note and no harder, and, very importantly, take some time to let your hands rest.
You can use some ice to help remove inflammation and reduce the pain, but if the problem lasts or keeps getting worse go see a doctor. You'll probably be told to lay off for a while, or at least reduce your practicing.
Also, age, and our bodies, have a lot to do with how we react to the stress of playing. Again, an ice pack can help but don't ignore the problem if it doesn't improve.
Comment: I would add, from personal experience, that if the pain doesn't go away and seeing a doctor is the only way left to go, a physician trained in osteophatic medicine can do wonders to adress posture-related imbalances. Though I suppose this is the point where it becomes a question for physical therapists.
Answer: it depends what kind of ache and where... if you mean your fingertips, that's pretty normal i would say.
if you mean muscle pains, try doing warmup exercises before playing.
if that doesnt help, or if things get worse, perhaps a doctor would be more help?
cheers
Answer: If your fingers hurt before and after playing, ie. when your hands aren't warmed up, you probably have tendonitis. It is common for guitarists to spend many hours playing, which for the fretting hand, causes an over development of the inner forearm muscles. This can lead to tendonitis of the fingers or the back of the hand.
Try massaging the inside of your fretting forearm, up near your elbow. If your muscles are all chronically flexed and basically feeling like a bunch of cables under there then this may very well be the source of the stress that is causing your pain. Buy a massage tool and perform deep massage on those muscles to force out the lactic acid causing them to remain flexed and they will lengthen and your fingers will start to feel better very quickly.
This approach worked for me when I was studying in college, playing anywhere from 8-12 hours a day and suffering from incredible tendonitis in the back of my hand. I'm sure it can help you also.
Answer: You might have the problem of aging fingers. Try taking Glucosamine Chondroitin
which is safe and available everywhere.
Comment: @Bad Horse, high action means the distance between the string and the frets is higher than necessary to prevent fret buzz
Comment: Last I checked, there's no proof that this does anything.
Answer: Kinda depends on the ache.
If they ache at the tips, maybe you should consider different (lighter) strings but surely you should consider not squeezing so hard. Try fretting a note and pulling a little off until the note is dead, the squeezing just the slightest bit harder. That is how hard you need to squeeze, no more. Any harder and you're wasting your energy just to hinder your speed and hurt your fingertips.
If the whole finger aches, I don't know. Muscle ache comes from a buildup of lactic acid, I know, so the kind of thing you do for other exercise, except less so. Keep hydrated, warm-up and stretch, I guess.
Answer: Aching of any sort - if all things are equal (ie. you are healthy, stress-free, haven't changed your setup) is a cause of fatigue.
If it is localised and acute pain as opposed to ache then you could be developing a form of injury such as tendinitis or worse, Repetitive-Strain-Injury (RSI) which I also had when I was younger.
There's nothing that will cure your youthful exuberance.  But the old adage goes that there are no old/bold pilots - that applies to guitar.  If you are playing and practising too much that it hurts - then you are playing and practising too much. STOP! REST!
Now having said the above, my own take on this would be twofold:

Understand why the pain is occurring
Alleviate the pain from occurring
Prevent the pain from occurring

Understanding the pain is crucial.  If you are practising too much, then problem solved.  But if you are not, you will need to be able to self-diagnose if you are going to ask for help.  Try and identify the MOVEMENT and your exact hand position.
Alleviating the pain can take many forms - I prefer to be drug free if I can help it.  Obviously you need to STOP PLAYING! lol.   Massage is perfect for the instant relief as well as gentle stretching.  The general aim is to relax.
When I had RSI years ago, the only preventive way (apart from initial drugs) was to do warm up exercises.  Essentially, you need a non-guitar-playing method of strengthening your hands or warming them up for the task.   On a personal level, this has alot to do with your state of mind (which can also be influenced by the type of music you are playing).  The ultimate goal is to REMAIN RELAXED - hard to do, but if you start on the basis that your hand is warmed up and you don't over stretch or over do that arpeggio trying to nail every 32nd note, then you will be fine!
As Joe Satriani says,

"No pain..... No pain!"


Why is subclassing too much bad (and hence why should we use prototypes to do away with it)?

Question: I was reading up on design patterns, and I read that the prototype design pattern does away with excessive subclassing.
Why is subclassing bad? What advantage would using a prototype bring about over subclassing?
Comment: says who ? do you have a link ?
Comment: I was reading p.118 of this book. http://goo.gl/6JGw1
Comment: [It is easy to misuse inheritance to break encapsulation](http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/137687/why-is-subclassing-too-much-bad-and-hence-why-should-we-use-prototypes-to-do-aw/138226#138226)
Answer: Why is subclassing too much bad
"Too much" is a judgement call; but take it from me it is bad. The code I work with has DEEP inheritance and the code is just damn hard to read, understand, follow, trace, debug, etc. etc. It is effectively impossible to write test code for this stuff.
Prototype pattern does away with subclassing
Or does the question mean "does away with too much subclassing?".  This pattern calls for cloning a "template" object to avoid subclassing, at least at that point. There's no rule that says the "template" can't be a subclass.
Favor composition over inheritance
This idea here also includes delegation and aggregation. Following this heuristic means your software tends to be more flexible, easier to maintain, extend, and reuse.
When a class is composed of parts you can substitute those parts at runtime. This has a profound effect on testability.
Testing is easier. You can use fake parts (i.e. "mocks", "doubles" and other testing-talk).  Our code's deep inheritance means we must instantiate the entire hierarchy to test any bit of it. In our case that is not possible without running the code in it's real environment. For example we need a database in order to instantiate business objects.
Changes come with side effects and uncertainty -  The more "base" the class the more widespread the effects, for good or bad. There may be desired changes you dare not make due to side effects uncertainty. Or a change that is good for some place in our inheritance chain is bad for another. This is certainly my experience.
Comment: I'd be really interested to see some examples of when inheritance makes testing (especially mocking) difficult and how composition helps with that.
Comment: @alison: a Method in a derived class that uses another method from the base class where the implementation in the base class makes it virtually impossible to test error scenarios. Had that been composition it would be easier to inject an object which causes the error to arise
Comment: @allison: Examples? When the code base is very large, when base classes are used by dozens of classes directly and hundreds by inheritance. Because the point of deep inheritance is reuse and so a base class is genericized to the point that the debugger stack trace can't show what methods are actually being called. Finally, When there is no dependency injection already built into such a Frankenstein. A top level class may "be a" half dozen or more other things which collectively "have" dozens of internal objects - each with their own inheritance fun house.
Answer: I think one of the reasons this has been viewed as a bad practice is that over time each subclass can contain attributes and methods that make no sense for that object the further you go down the chain (in a poorly developed hierarchy).  You can end up with a bloated class that contains items that don't make sense for that class.
I'm agnostic about this myself.  It seems dogmatic to just say it's bad.  Anything is bad when misused.
Answer: Inheritance can break encapsulation in some cases, and if that does happen it is bad. Read for more.

In good old days without inheritance, a library would publish an API and application using it makes use of what is publically visible, and library now has it's own way to handle the internal gears which keep changing without breaking the App.
As the needs evolve, library can evolve and can have more customers; or it can provide extended functionality by inheriting from its own class with other flavors. So far so good.
However, fundamental thing is, if an application take's up the class and begins to subclass it, now a subclass is actually a client rather than an internal partner. However, unlike a clear unambiguous way that public API is defined, the subclass is now much deeper inside the library (access to all private variables and so on). It is not bad yet, but a nasty character can bridge an API which is too much inside the APP as well as in the library-
In essence while this may not always be the case but,

It is easy to misuse inheritance to break encapsulation

Allowing subclassing can be wrong if that point.
Answer: Two reasons.

Is runtime performance. Everytime you invoke a subclass from a superclass you are doing a method call so if you have nested five classes and invoke a method in the base class you will be doing five method invocations. Most compilers/runtimes will try to recognose this and optimise the extra calls away but it is only safe to do this for very simple cases.
Is the sanity of your fellow programmers. If you nest five classes I have to examine all four parent classes to establish you are really calling a method in the base class, it gets tedious. I may also have to step through five method invocations when I debug the program.
Comment: -1: You're right about #2; but not about #1. Several layers of inheritance won't *necessarily* impact runtime performance.
Comment: Worried about a couple of extra procedure calls at machine code level and using OP and inheritance, and you worry about the sanity of your fellow programmers.....
Comment: @JimG. It might not, but it can. :) There's also possible memory usage to worry about: if you don't reuse all of the base's variables, they may still get allocated as part of constructing the object.
Answer: "Too much" is a judgement call.
As with most things in programming, sub-classing isn't inherently bad when it makes sense. When the model of your problem solution makes more sense as a hierarchy rather than a composition of parts, subclassing may be the preferred option.
That said, favoring composition over inheritance is a good rule of thumb.
When you subclass, testing can be more difficult (as radarbob noted). In a deep hierarchy, isolating problematic code is more difficult because instantiating a subclass requires bringing in the entire superclass hierarchy and a bunch of additional code. With a compositional approach, you can isolate and test each component of your aggregate object with unit tests, mock objects, etc.
Subclassing can also cause you to expose details of your implementation that you might not want to. This makes it difficult to control access to the underlying representation of your data and it ties you to a particular implementation of your backing model.
One example I can think of is java.util.Properties, which inherits from Hashtable. The Properties class is only intended to store String-String pairs (this is noted in the Javadocs). Because of inheritance, the put and putAll methods from Hashtable have been exposed to users of Properties. While the "right" way to store a property is with setProperty(), there is absolutely nothing preventing a user to call put() and passing in a String and Object.
Basically, the semantics of Properties are poorly defined because of the inheritance. Additionally, should anyone ever want to change the backing object for Properties, the impact will have a much greater impact on code that uses Properties than if Properties had taken a more compositional approach.
Answer: Short Quick Answer:
Its depends on what you are doing.
Extended Boring Answer:
A developer can make an app. using either, subclassing or (prototypal) templates. Sometimes one technique works better. Sometimes the other techinque works better.
Choosing with technique works best, also requires, to consider if a "Multiple Inheritance" scenario its present. Even if the programming language only supports single inheritance, templates or prototypes.
Complementary Note:
Some answers relate to the "multiple inheritance". Altought, not the main question, it's related to the subject. There are several, similar, posts about "multiple inheritance v.s. composition". I had a case where I mix both.


What is the Priority in an Action/Adventure Novel: Dialogues or Conflict?

Question: I am currently working on a novel and I was having some trouble finding the best solution for this question. I understand that both dialogues and conflicts are needed in a good proportion to cook a bestseller. But I would like to experiment on my work. Will be much appreciated if you can throw some light on this. Thank you.
Comment: Well, according to my calculations it's 57.532% action, 38.17% "dialogues" and 4.702% other. No bestseller has ever deviated by more than .003% from this formula.
Comment: @Neil Fein: Imaginary? Feh! Again I say: Feh! A writer may laugh at science, but science always wins in the end. Fear me!
Comment: @Robusto - Please produce a source that you have invented for these imaginary statistics. Back it up! :)
Comment: @Robusto & Fien.. Appreciate it! Thanks! btw, good one there @Fien :)
Comment: Most likely you're looking for more conflict, to much dialog can make a boring story;
Answer: The two are not mutually exclusive in an action adventure novel. If you think that conflict in a purely physical sense eliminates the need for dialogue, you're limiting yourself. Dialogue very often creates conflict. Without it, you'd just be describing a bunch of events that happen.
Consider the film Ronin, for example. While not a novel, the principle is still the same. It's the terse dialogue in the film that helps set up some of the most memorable conflicts between the characters (for example, Robert De Nero and Sean Bean).
Without dialogue, you have no idea of who people are, or why they do what they do. You are essentially ignoring characterisation. Too often, novels and films focus on the action element to the detriment of their characters. (You'll also find that a LOT of action is being used in the hopes of obscuring the fact that the characters are weak).
Don't avoid dialogue in the hopes that it makes it more of an action story. On the other hand, make sure your dialogue is relevant in creating conflict.
Answer: I'm not sure you should be thinking of them as mutually exclusive.
Good dialogue will add to the conflict, not take away from it.  If the characters aren't talking about something important, the conversation probably has no place in your book; if the characters ARE talking about something important, you can use their emotions and their word choices to add to the sense of urgency, and to make us care about the characters so that we care about the outcome of whatever crisis you're putting them through.
Maybe you meant to contrast dialogue with narrative?  I think THAT can be a more difficult balancing act, but dialogue and conflict work together really well.
Answer: An action/adventure novel requires both to be compelling, but they need to flow together in whatever proportion you're currently writing them in.
Your story may need a breather and so you position your characters in a relaxed, personal situation, such as having a drink at a bar. Perhaps your characters have just met and one is a naturally curious person and begins to question the other. This is where your dialog needs to take preference. This doesn't mean you can't cut straight to action, but for a "satisfying" period, you need to allow your characters to open up and talk about things, such as their history, their goals for "the mission" (for example), perhaps even talking about issues they have regarding the events in the story. This not only lets the other character but lets the reader in on things in an implicit way. You want to describe some of the back story to the reader? Use a dialog scene.
Often an easy way to end the dialog scene is to introduce an event that interrupts them, leaving some dialog behind to be able to expand on later. Have the characters "skim the surface" then be pulled away to action, then later on when you need to give your readers a break, bring them back. Perhaps a companion wanted to know more about why the protagonist thinks they shouldn't be going on the mission or soemthing.
A novel with only action or only dialog can get boring. You need a mixture of both, whether it's a dialog scene, an action scene, or an action scene with intermittent dialog to keep the character's "in the scene".
Action needs to be relevant just as much as dialog needs to be when used in your story.
Answer: Your best bet is to examine the novels you like, and analyze their construction. Rather than worrying about what the genre as a whole does, hone in on what resonates with you.


Inverse Transparency of a PNG

Question: I'm writing a little javascript application in which users need to be able to choose an image from an "image library" and then choose the color of said image.  There will be a massive number of images and a massive number of colors, and I would really love if I did not have to make each color of each image.  Instead, I was hoping to be able to take a png and swap the transparent and visible elements, so that I can just put a solid block of color behind it to change the color.  Does anybody know of a good way to quickly do this (I have adobe design premium 5.5)?  Thanks in advance!
Comment: What do your images look like? Are they icons in plain colors? Do you have any or do you have to make them?
Comment: I don't think there is any way to inverse transparency in any app I've ever seen.
Comment: You may be able to do what you want with imagemagick, see [here](http://www.imagemagick.org/discourse-server/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18842).
Answer: I can suggest a destructive method, as I've tried using masks but I couldn't get it to work.

Begin with a large canvas size, i.e. the largest possible display size, and 300 PPI.
Set the background to be consistent with the background you're using in your app.
Create the shape you want to be able to colour variably.
Use the Magic Wand tool with zero Tolerance to capture the shape of the image.
Rasterize the background and press delete.
You should end up with a cut out of the shape.
Resize the image to the sizes you need it at.

You will need to use various thumbnail sizes with this method if you need to display it at largely varying sizes, as it's not vector based it won't scale that beautifully outside of a GD program.
You can then change the background colour of the image container dynamically with your script.
A better, but far more time consuming method would be to create a vector based outline.
Answer: Thinking laterally: What about using SVG and changing the colour dynamically?
Or using an font that contains all the glyphs you want and changing the colour with CSS?
It really depends on the precise result you're after, but there's hopefully a realtime method for doing it, so you don't need to generate an image for each colour variation.
Quite a few good SVG tricks are noted here, including colour change via CSS:
http://css-tricks.com/using-svg/

Inverse Transparency of a PNG


How do you write a fiction or non-fiction query letter to an editor?

Question: What do you put in the letter? What if you have no experience, or only very limited experience. Should you write about yourself in the third or first person when explaining your experience?
Answer: There are multiple parts to a query letter. The first part is you. What kind of writing experience do you have? Have you published four books already? Do you have a dozen short stories in various magazines? Have you won any writing awards? Do you have any experience in the publishing world - editing, lit agent, etc. This is where you want to "sell" yourself. If you're writing non-fiction include what gives you the authority to write a book. Are you an emergency room nurse and you're writing about first aid tips or what live in the emergency room is like? This would be written in first person, unless the publisher specifies otherwise.
The next part is about your book. You're going to want to give them a summary about what the book's about, who the characters are, and how it ends. Yes, they want to know how it ends. Don't leave them with a "Will Bobby survive his detention-from-hell?" That's going to annoy any publishers or agents reading the query. If the book has been published before, you'll want to let them know that, where, how long ago, and if rights have reverted to you. If it's been published before you'll also want to let them know if it's won any awards.
Just like you'd want someone else to look over your novel for errors and mistakes, have someone proof read your query letter too. Nothing will sink your chances of getting published like a query filled with errors.
Answer: Different agents want different things. Some love innovative, chatty query letters. Others want "just the facts." Your best strategy is to find an agent you would like to have represent you and read their query letter guidelines.
If you're having trouble finding agents and agent information on the Internet, buy the most recent copy of Writer's Market you can afford.


Tiled Print dialog design

Question: I need to design printing part of the interface for desktop application. Now the application in question works with drawings of arbitrary size, and has no concept of page or page size. The output printer of course has some maximum page size. I would like to provide user with ability to tile the drawing across arbitrary number of pages. The trouble is there is very little software out there that does something similar like this and thus I'm having trouble figuring out what would be the most standard and intuitive way to do this. Should I have a special print preparation dialog before print preview/print dialogs. Or Should I go with some solution like Adobe Reader which uses a custom print dialog and disregards the standard OS dialog. Any sort of advice will be appreciated. I will be also grateful for any examples of an existing applications with similar functionality.
Answer: You could use a print preview screen.
A print preview page could show the enter image with dashed lines to represent where the page breaks would be when printing. Although not a drawing program Excel does something like this with dashed lines representing printed page sizes shown on the spreadsheet.
Or the print preview screen could show the drawing on separate pages like Safari's print preview. You might want to find out how the drawing is sent to the printer. It could be the program already makes separate images for each page. You could design your preview around what is available.
The print preview screen could have controls available to make adjustments or provide links to dialogs such OS specific dialogs for print setup.
eg: Firefox print preview screen
Answer: Excel (and I think other spreadhseet) preview page cutting by dotted line on the main view.
If informations are well presented, the interaction is improvable : parameters are setted in a layout window (that you have to close to see the result).
IMHO custom print dialog is the worst idea (regarding to consitency). A pre-print dialog should not be a problem, and you should consider a way to by-pass it (such as the print button in toolbar).

Tiled Print dialog design


Do weapons that have lifesteal and hit multiple enemies per attack heal you for each enemy hit?

Question: Can weapons that hit multiple enemies with each hit (like 2H melee weapons,cannons and shotgonnes) which have lifesteal properties heal you for each enemy hit per click or do they only heal you for the primary target you're attacking?
Answer: I am pretty sure it is just for the primary target.
I have tested this by setting Damage text setting to verbose and got myself a cannon on an engineer with +8 Health per Hit. Even though my cannon was hitting many mobs I get only one +8HP sign. I double checked my health globe too. It says the same thing. IT goes up by 8 every time.
So the short answer is you get only 1 +Health per shot/hit.
Otherwise imagine the cannon engineer exploiting a 4 slotted cannon with Blood Embers and blasting away at crowds... virtually invincible!!
Answer: I think so (75% sure)?
It is very hard to tell where the lifesteal I have is coming from. I get it from my pet, my wolf summon, my crits and my weapons. But as a melee char I have to be in the middle of a group of enemies to be dealing any damage and I cannot really see what is going on.
Crits can hit multiple enemies at the same time and I certainly get health from each of them.
Comment: I don't think guessing could be used as an answer.


Some literature on voice

Question: Are there any books or articles on voice per se, the ways of development, improvement, the process of sound creation etc.?
Comment: The answer to your question is yes.  Can you be more specific, so that you can get a *good* answer?  What exactly are you aiming to learn, what level are you at, etc.?  We generally prefer "How can I ..." questions so that rather than limiting yourself to books you can also take advantage of the experience of and tips from other users.
Answer: Geography of the Voice by Jo Estill is a book that gives very detailed information on the physiology behind singing. It also gives examples of simple physical actions (such as raising eyebrows and smiling) that put the muscular and other physical mechanisms behind singing into place. These methods teach you how to sing any style of music in a healthy way that won't damage your vocal mechanism (vocal folds).
www.estillvoice.com has all of their resources for sale online.  There are companion cds that are very helpful to the process.
Answer: I was helped "The Zen of Screaming" is an instructional DVD by Melissa Cross.
You can order this DVD here https://www.melissacross.com/vocal_training_products.php
or find it in any kind of torrent trackers or file hostings.

Some literature on voice


Lotus Notes XPages for design and Oracle (or other RDBMS) for data

Question: I plan to make an web application using XPages for the design (plus the Lotus Notes Elements), but instead of storing the data in Lotus Notes, I will store the data in a RDBMS (specifically an Oracle Database). As you can see, I want to create a clear separation between the design and data. Is there a way I can do this? I mean, is there a way I can use Oracle as the data source and XPages/Lotus Notes for the UI only? Thanks a lot!
Answer: There actually has been native support for RDBMS/JDBC connectivity in Xpages since July 2011. Take a look at the Extension Library on OpenNTF (http://extlib.openntf.org/) and read the blogpost announcing the functionality: http://www.openntf.org/blogs/openntf.nsf/d6plinks/NHEF-8JYMXE.
It's not yet officially supported through IBM (not part of the Upgrade Pack 1 - http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/notesanddomino/nd85-UpgradePack853-1.html), but there will be support for it in the future.
Comment: 8.5.3 do have a formal Extension Library. Thanks for the answer!
Answer: The short answer appears to be "yes but no" .
XPages is JDBC compliant, so you can connect to anything, including Oracle.  The snag is, you'll probably have to write the code yourself.  Apparently there are plans to open source a JDBC-based Relational Database XPages DataSource but there's been no activity as such.  Find out more
Answer: XPages101.net may be a good site for cutting your teeth on Xpages. They have 60 lessons you can subscribe to. They are highly recommended. You may be particularly interested in lesson 55.
DISCLAIMER: I am not affiliated with XPages101.net in any way.
Answer: The XPages environment doesn't have any particular support for relational data sources, but there are two viable options depending on how cautious your organization is about using recent and beta software and how much support code you're willing to write.
For the former case, the XPages Extension Library (http://extlib.openntf.org/) is adding in relational database support for the 8.5.3 release of Domino, which is scheduled to come out at the beginning of next month. I'm not in the 8.5.3 beta, so I haven't seen this in action, but the video on their page looks promising and the Extension Library is high-quality in general. So if you're willing to deploy 8.5.3 when it comes out and use the Extension Library, it'll likely do just what you want.
If you won't be immediately upgrading or don't want to deploy the Library, you can write your own code using JDBC drivers; there's an example of this technique here: http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf/dx/xpage_integration_rdb.htm . While you can't, for example, just pass a RecordSet to a Repeat control on an XPage, if you're willing to write your own ORM, you could make your objects implement the List interface use Java-Bean-style naming, which would let you use them in standard controls and write expression language like "#{someRecord.someField}".


Lower temp Mash-out

Question: While I was making an AG batch this weekend I had a 154 degree mash for 60 min but my mash-out temp only got up to 162 instead of 170. What sort of effect will this low mash-out temp have on the beer? The actual OG was only 0.001 lower than the expected OG.
Answer: A 1 point gravity deviation is well within the limits of measurement.  I really doubt the "mash out" temp had anything to do with it.  For a true "mashout" you not only have to hit 170+, but hold it for 20 min. or so to denature enzymes.  My experience is that it doesn't really matter much.  The main advantage of raising the temp at the end of the mash is to solubulize and hopefully convert any remaining starches in the mash.  That's where any gravity increase comes from.  The temp you hit was certainly hot enough to do that.  There's a persistent myth that raising the temp will also decrease the viscosity of the wort and aid runoff, but experiments with room temp sparging have given lie to that.
Answer: You answered your own question with your observation that the OG was a point lower than expected, which could be completely unrelated to the mashout. I didn't notice any real loss in efficiency in my own system when I stopped mashing out at 1.070 and just got it up to 1.060 or so.

Lower temp Mash-out


Cooker and gas hob both controlled by 13 amp switched sockets under worktop and behind cooker

Question: I have a new Bosche oven and existing gas hob. The original cooker and hob ignition are both connected under the worktop behind the oven with a double gang Sw/Skt and plug heads. They both plug into it. The switch socket is fed from the cooker control switch above the work surface with 6mm cooker cable. The max fuse feeding the cooker is 13amp and has only a flex leading into the cooker... Is this correct?
Answer: I assume your in the U.K as this sounds like a typical set-up for cookers in a kitchen area. The circuit feeds a control switch or cooker unit switch which may incorporate a one socket-outlet. The rating of the circuit depends on the current demand of the cooker. A 32A circuit breaker is normally sufficient for cookers up to 15kW. Wiring a cooker circuit with a rating more than 15A but not exceeding 50A may supply two or more cooking appliances where they are installed in one room. The cooker switch should be installed within 2m of the cooker but not directly above it. One switch may be used to isolate two cooking appliances where they are installed in the same room but neither are more than 2m from the cooker switch. A minimum cable size of 6mm flat twin & earth cable can be used for a typical cooker circuit (from the CU) with a maximum load of 15kW with a maximum cable run lenght of 28m (installed above a plasterboard ceiling covered by thermal insulation not exceeding 100mm thick).
In summary make sure to check the new appliance is the correct power/current rating. However normally to replace like for like is perfectly fine


Market Data For Project

Question: I'm looking to find a service that will allow me to download historical data on stocks, bonds, options, futures, indices, etc and also to pick up new files either on a daily or weekly basis. I've been a software engineer for a couple of years now but I'm new the world of quantitative finance. I've purchased a few books on portfolio theory and I'd like some play data on which to test out some of these ideas and techniques. I've seen a number of different sites that offer data either for free or for a small monthly fee. I'm considering using a company called EOD Data (http://www.eoddata.com/) but there are seemingly countless sites out there that offer market data, how do I go about choosing the best one? For my needs, which is only access to market data, how do I go about evaluating the sites so I can get the best quality for my very limited budget? Does anyone have experience using EOD Data or a similar service?
Comment: Have you tried past questions here? This is a weekly question. http://quant.stackexchange.com/search?q=data+source
Comment: I have no opinion on the accuracy of EOD's Data, but I used them in a number of projects without a problem that I could identify. I think they have a very high bang/buck ratio for data which are not available for free.
Comment: I agree with @richardh. It seems like our most common question here is, "where can I find free data online?" (Our second most common is, "what free software can I use to implement my trading platform?")
Comment: possible duplicate of [Data sources online](http://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/141/data-sources-online)
Answer: @chrisaycock agreed that is the most common question (I'm guilty of it myself) -- I realized that even some of my questions were better answered by looking at other posts where people had thrown in their 2 cents.
@miggety I've been researching the availability of data for some time as I wanted to create a model 'free data' web-service (similar to ones that have existed in the past) I even have been trying to get people to donate date (no luck there). So I'm in the process of saving money to purchase a service I can redistribute...not cheap!!!!
Basically the more accuracy and breadth of data (number of markets, order-depth, etc.) you want the more your going to pay! I recommend that you buy a 1-off historical package from one of the smaller data providers (names of which are widely avaliable on here), and than possibly if you need live market data, subscribing to a 'web-service' based service xgnite has a pretty wide offering of services that are reasonably priced.
Maybe you should list how much your willing to spend, and what amount of data you need (markets, depth, etc.) and people can give you a better idea if it's possible?
Answer: What language or statistical package are you planning on using? There are multiple free options available. If you are thinking R, then you can just use yahoo finance and directly download the data into the R console. There is plenty of sample code available on the internet and also, this forum.
Comment: well you can use yahoo data from any kind of programming language. it's so common.

Market Data For Project


What are the sonic differences between glass and metal slides?

Question: Are there any sonic differences between a glass and metal slide for electric guitar? Is there any particular reason why one would choose a glass slide over a metal slide, or is it simply just a preference over what feels best in the hand?
Answer: Assuming their surface finished quality are comparative indistinguishable, what then contribute to the tonal difference (or sonic differences?) would be the weight and density of the slides material. Weight contributes to the how well the slide is in contact with the string (mellow or sharper tone). Density contributes to sustain.
There are different grades/types of glass and metal. But in general glass sound more mellow and metal (usually brass) sound sharper. And besides glass and metal, there is also ceramic slides which also gives a different tone and feel. It really depends on personal preference.
Answer: See...It tends to be rather subjective....And likely dependent on the guitar as well.
I use a variety. Glass, brass, steel, copper....
To me, glass sounds bright and somewhat sharp.   Brass is slightly mellower.  Copper, being softer, even more so.
I'm playing acoustic instruments...resonator guitars and also cigar-box guitars.


Use lighter or heavier weight in higher or lower reps for building muscle size?

Question: When training to build up muscle size, should I use lighter weight in higher reps and sets or use heavier weight in lower reps and sets?
Answer: Optimal muscular hypertrophy is achieved by using enough weight that makes you hit failure in the 6-10 rep range. To answer your question frankly, neither. This weight range would be considered moderate. Higher weight would mainly increase strength, while lower weight would mainly increase endurance.
Source: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/topicoftheweek8.htm
Answer: There are two types of training; neural adaptation and hypertrophy.  Your pure focus here is hypertrophy training which focuses on the size of the muscle.  This means breaking it down, letting it heal and working it out again to repeat the cycle.  Proper food and nutrients allows the body to use the proteins/fats/carbohydrates to rebuild the tissue which was broken down.  That adds bit by bit size to muscles.  There are always tricks like supplementing with arginine causes your blood vessels to expand giving you a more full look or in the extreme case (ILLEGAL) steroids which allows you to rebuild quickly, allowing you to work out the muscle faster and longer opposed.
To effectively break down the muscle you need to put in some work.  Start week one with 3 sets of 6-10 reps with a good amount of weight.  The following week the exercise will be 4 sets, then 5 then maybe 6.  You have to put the work in to overcome stagnation and force the body to shift in the anabolic phase.  Eat lots of dense foods to complement a program like this.
Let me put this in a very simple thought process.  When you train/workout you put your body under a certain amount of stress.  The body's muscle tissue breaks down and searches for ways to recover (food, rest, etc.).  In the recovery process the body builds a "shield" of muscle to become accustomed to the level of stress you put your body under.  Take a lumberjack for example (very strongly build, powerful individual)...he constantly is moving heavy pieces of lumber.  His body's reaction is to build layers of muscle/mass to cope with the stress.  That's why the more work you put into something the better the result.  That's basically what training really is.  Putting the work in and allowing your body to adapt to the stress.  That is why you constantly need to shock the body to break through plateaus...


Is it possible to reroll multiple stats on an item?

Question: Is it possible to reroll 2 different stats on an item? Or even all stats on an item?
Answer: No.
Once you've used Enchanting to reroll a stat on an item, that property "slot" is the only stat that can be changed on that item. For example, if you rerolled +400 Vitality and replaced it with +5% Chance to Crit, the crit chance property is the only one you'll be allowed to reroll.
Note that while there is (apparently) no limit to how many times you can reroll a given property, the gold cost goes up each time (material costs stay the same).
Note also that enchanting an item binds it to your account. This can be relevant for nice yellows and for legendaries that dropped in multiplayer games and were still tradeable.
Answer: no, you may only re-roll 1 stat.
And don't forget, that Primary stat can only be re-rolled into another Primary stat, and Secondary only into Secondary
Answer: No, its only possible to reroll 1 of the existing affixes on an item.  Once you choose to do that, you can only reroll that one affix and nothing else on that item.
There are also some limitations that I covered in this other answer.


Is it possible to rob Marcus a second time?

Question: After completing a main story quest, you're teleported back to Sanctuary into a room that is full of chests and other lootable boxes. The obvious thing to do is to take it all. Apparently, this room is Marcus's weapons warehouse and a door leads out into his shop. The door locks behind you and you're not able to get back into it from that side. Is it possible to enter this room again and rob Marcus of more delicious loot?
Comment: Just going to state the obvious but getting to that point in new game+ (or whatever its called in borderlands) would allow you to get to the room again. although you would have to redo the entire story line again
Answer: A character can actually be there twice, but sadly only by getting there in the normal playthrough and the "True Vault Hunter" mode playthrough.
Apart from that there is nothing in my personal experience and on the internet suggesting an alternate entrance. The door is locked and there is no quick travel point. Close examination of Marcus entire store yields no success.
It would be amazing considering the amount of gun boxes in there.
So sorry to disappoint, but should anyone discover anything post it immediately!^^
Answer: Possible solution to this is while playing multiplayer mode, one player must be on that current mission that leads you to Marcus' storage room.
Once in the storage room , loot all you can and trade to the player(s) who isn't hosting that mission. The player(s) with the loot walks out the door while the host stays in the room. That player can then save the loot in their backpack/storage whatever and save/quit. The host player quits without saving thus not finishing that mission. Rinse/Repeat.
Note * Probably best for Host to save and quit before you get to ANGEL core. You will have to repeat the mission's boss fight.