Why is plymouth-log-viewer starting up?

Question: I've been using Fedora 14 for about a month on my primary system (converted from Win2K). My secondary system was converted to Fedora 12 from Win2K, and was updated sequentially to Fedora 14 (using package-update both times).
Recently, my primary system started showing an alert icon in the notification area immediately after login - a yellow triangle with an "!" in it. When I click on the triangle, I get a window titled "Boot Messages" with the following content:
        Welcome to Fedora
Starting udev:                                             [  OK  ]
Setting hostname gravastar.oakenhammer.org:                [  OK  ]
Setting up Logical Volume Management:   3 logical volume(s) in volume group "vg_gravastar" now active
                                                           [  OK  ]
Checking filesystems
_Fedora-14-i686-: clean, 161569/1638400 files, 1511990/6553600 blocks
/dev/sda1: clean, 47/128016 files, 81952/512000 blocks
/dev/mapper/vg_gravastar-lv_home: clean, 55815/1646592 files, 1597690/6578176 blocks
                                                           [  OK  ]
Remounting root filesystem in read-write mode:             [  OK  ]
Mounting local filesystems:                                [  OK  ]
Enabling /etc/fstab swaps:                                 [  OK  ]
Entering non-interactive startup
Starting monitoring for VG vg_gravastar:   3 logical volume(s) in volume group "vg_gravastar" monitored
                                                           [  OK  ]
ip6tables: Applying firewall rules:                        [  OK  ]
iptables: Applying firewall rules:                         [  OK  ]
Starting portreserve:                                      [  OK  ]
Starting system logger:                                    [  OK  ]
Enabling p4-clockmod driver (passive cooling only):        [  OK  ]
Starting irqbalance:                                       [  OK  ]
Starting mdmonitor:                                        [  OK  ]
Starting system message bus:                               [  OK  ]
Setting network parameters...                              [  OK  ]
Starting NetworkManager daemon:                            [  OK  ]
Starting Avahi daemon...                                   [  OK  ]
Starting cups:                                             [  OK  ]
Starting HAL daemon:                                       [  OK  ]
Retrigger failed udev events                               [  OK  ]
Starting sshd:                                             [  OK  ]
Starting ntpd:                                             [  OK  ]
Starting sendmail:                                         [  OK  ]
Starting sm-client:                                        [  OK  ]
Starting abrt daemon:                                      [  OK  ]
Starting httpd:                                            [  OK  ]
Starting crond:                                            [  OK  ]
Starting atd:                                              [  OK  ]
Starting jexec services

This content corresponds exactly to the full content of /var/log/boot.log. Some poking around determined that this was the process plymouth-log-viewer, and that it is a graphical boot log viewer.
I can understand this occurring if there's a boot problem. However, reviewing the content of the log does not seem to reveal any problems. Also, it's somewhat disconcerting that my only option once the viewer appears is to right-click the "!" and select "Quit".
Can anyone provide any information on why this is happening, and how to stop it? This does not happen on my secondary system at all, and I cannot identify any significant discrepancies between the two systems.
The only information that appears to indicate a potential cause is the following fragments from /var/log/messages:
UPDATE The message content below also appears in the same log file on my secondary system, where plymouth-log-viewer is not triggered on login.
Repeats several times:
Dec 18 19:18:51 gravastar NetworkManager[1069]: <error> [1292717931.616234] [nm-manager.c:1332] user_proxy_init(): could not init user settings proxy: (3) Could not get owner of name 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManagerUserSettings': no such name

Occurs once:
Dec 18 19:18:59 gravastar gdm-simple-greeter[1564]: Gtk-WARNING: gtkwidget.c:5691: widget not within a GtkWindow
Dec 18 19:19:00 gravastar gdm-simple-greeter[1564]: WARNING: Unable to load CK history: no seat-id found
Dec 18 19:19:09 gravastar gdm-simple-greeter[1564]: WARNING: Failed to send buffer

Occurs once:
Dec 18 19:19:44 gravastar dbus: [system] Rejected send message, 2 matched rules; type="method_call", sender=":1.60" (uid=500 pid=1815 comm="nautilus) interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties" member="GetAll" error name="(unset)" requested_reply=0 destination=":1.18" (uid=0 pid=1461 comm="/usr/sbin/console-kit-daemon))

Thanks in advance!
Answer: Is a bug in plymouth included in Fedora 14. Was fixed in Fedora 16 as said in this bug report http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=586098. There was something wrong in the bootup, but plymouth won't show you, since it's input is truncated. The solution, upgrade to Fedora 16.

Why is plymouth-log-viewer starting up?


Headlight recommendation

Question: What is a good headlight for my bike?
Requirements:

Swappable between bikes
Good for bumpy roads/situations such as gravel or dirt
Long lasting battery
Far reaching range of light
LED of course! :-)
Comment: This question is one of those historical ones that would be considered off-topic if asked today (2017).  We don't do product recommendations because they're obsolete quickly.  The brand mentioned in the accepted answer still exists, but the model will be long since replaced, and who knows if its kept up the same features and build levels that engendered the original recommendation.
Answer: The Dinotte series of lights is great, and I love mine. I can get almost 2 hours out of my 200L on high mode. It meets all of your requirements, except for the one about bumpy/gravel roads -- if you mean by that something durable, then it meets all your requirements.

Dinotte 200L headlight and battery mounted on my helmet.
Comment: no idea about quality but a review mentioned this as a competing product in DX: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ha-iii-ssc-p7-c-sxo-3-mode-900-lumen-led-bike-light-set-25149
Comment: @hhh - It looks like it's fairly similar, at least in the base tech. It's certainly cheaper, the Dinotte headlights start at US $229.
Comment: +1 Dinotte lights. The majority of lights in this price class are comparable (I don't have first hand experience with all of them so I can't say which is best), but almost all of them are an order of magnitude better than the "high quality" $30-$50 lights.
Comment: I will say that I've had problems, not with the lights or batteries themselves, but with the cabling. The connectors do tend to wear, and the company itself could be friendlier. But I would buy Dinotte again despite that.
Answer: I would go with a helmet mounted light, as this meets your swapable requirement, and if you're riding at night, you should always be wearing a helmet anyway.
As for the light itself, a name brand light from a bike or specialty manufacturer (Bontrager, Light & Motion, etc, etc) LED lamp should give you the best bang for your buck. Also don't forget a red tail light, which are often required by law. You can get some small elastic strap on ones for a few dollars.
Comment: Well, for a variety of reasons, I think that accidents are more likely at night. The inconvenience of wearing a helmet isn't worth suffering a concussion or worse.
Comment: If you mean helmet-mounted, +1. Having light where your head is turned makes it easier to spot stuff at the sides of the road as well as in front of you.
Comment: What does riding at night have to do with wearing a helmet or not?
Comment: Arg yes, helmet mount.
Answer: If you're just riding city streets, with street lights, you aren't going to need much in terms of illumination. More likely you will need a light that is bright enough so that The other drivers can see you. I picked up a 7-LED head lamp light from my local dollar store for $2, and mounted it to my handle bars.  You can get a second one and mount it to your helmet if you like. It is plenty bright for streets that already have street lights.  If you're looking for mountain biking, or for going on streets without street lights, you can save a lot of money by going to a site like deal extreme and checking out their selection. They have some lights that are so bright they are almost scary. Brighter than a car headlamp.  Something like this cree light will give you a lot light. And for a really good price.  Be careful about the big names. Some of their lights aren't any different (same assembly line) than the cheap stuff you find at the dollar store, but they charge 10 times more, simply because they put a name on it.   For instance, this is the exact same headlamp I picked up for $2 Canadian at the dollar store, and they are charging $13 US for it.
Answer: I'm extremely happy with my Knog Gator.  It was a bit pricy, but definitely worth the money.  The battery lasts about 5 hours if you have the light on full power, but it has 4 different settings to make the battery last even longer.  And it takes a few seconds to swop between bikes, handle-bar mounted
Comment: +1 I use this too. one small snag I've found is that it can cut out if the connecting plug/socket between the battery and the light gets a little twisted
Answer: I recommend the Romisen "RC-2R4 II R5" LED flashlight (available from ShiningBeam.com). Its $26 + shipping and you can get two 18650 Lithium Ion batteries and a charger for another $30 + shipping from BatteryJunction.com. All told you are looking at less than $70 for 300 lumens of spot-light in a very small (think AA Mag-light size) flashlight. Each 18650 battery will last over two hours in this flashlight.
I made a little block of foam and used a small velcro strap to mount the flashlight on my helmet (seen below with a similar-sized Jet III M flashlight):

I used the Romisen light on my helmet two weeks ago combined with a 350 lumen flood light on my handle bars (Cygolite MityCross -- $175) for the 24 Hours of Great Glen mountain bike race. The combination of a spot-light on the helmet and a flood on the handlebars allowed my to ride single-track downhill at the same race-speed that I did during the day. The flood-light on the bars serves to cast shadows behind rocks and drops, giving good terrain definition for single-track racing that would be lost with just a helmet light. For dirt roads though, the Romisen spot-light on the helmet is way more than enough, throwing a large pool of light 50 yards or more ahead.
I have used the MityCross flood light alone for commuting, but it only casts a defined beam about 15 yards ahead which isn't quite enough for me to feel comfortable at road speeds.
These new LED flashlights from China (like the Romisen) are giving fabulous amounts of light and are mostly are standardized on the 18650 LiIon batteries. They provide a great value and can also be used around the house and anywhere you might want a flashlight. The big thing that bike-specific lights provide is sturdy handlebar mounts (which are harder to find for flashlights) though at a large price premium.
For your specified dirt-road use I'd suggest that a 300 lumen LED flashlight on your helmet would be more than sufficient.
Answer: I use the Light & Motion 900 as my commuter bike headlight and couldn't be happier. As mentioned in many reviews, this light comes with good side visibility which is important especially if you're riding in built up and urban areas, crossing junctions.

Headlight recommendation


What does the phrase "except possibly" mean?

Question: This term was used by my math professor when he was teaching us limits. This term also appears online like this "Let f be a function which is defined on some open interval containing $a$ except possibly at $x = a$". Does this mean that $x$ can be equal to $a$ and not be equal to $a$? This term has really been bugging me.
Comment: You're reading Spivak, right?
Answer: In the case you quote, it means that $f$ might not be defined at $a$.  It could be defined at $a$, but it doesn't have to be.  More generally, you're indicating an exceptional case where a hypothesis or a result need not hold.  Again, it might hold in the case designated by "except possibly", but it doesn't have to.
Comment: Thank you for giving such a simple yet clear explanation :).
Answer: Saying that something A happens except possibly for B means that whenever B is not true A happens. In this case B is $x=a$ and $A$ is $f$ being defined.
Usually we say that to acknowledge that a problem may occur, but the situation B is one that we can ignore and does not matter for the actual proof or definition.
For example, we can say that if $a_n$ is a sequence converging to $0$ then $|a_n|<1$ for all but finitely many $n$'s. In this case A is $|a_n|<1$ and B is "finitely many cases". This fact will not change anything substantial about the sequence $a_n$, because we care (in some contexts anyway) about what happens at the limit, rather than the start of the sequence.
Comment: (+1): I was about to say that you had it backward, that it should be that whenever A is not true B happens. Then I remembered how conditionals work. ^_^ Still, it might be worth pointing out that it means the same thing.
Answer: It means that your function $f(x)$ can be defined for some $x=a$, i.e. $a$ is in its domain and $f(a)$ has a clearly defined value.
But it doesn't have to, because as you are only approaching that value and never actually evaluating the function at it, it doesn't have to be defined there at all in order for you to take a limit.
Although I tried to give you an intuitive picture, it also makes sense when you look at the formal epsilon-delta definitions.


When blogging/emailing/etc., do I use "God" or "G-d"?

Question: Is there a religious problem with typing out the name: "G-o-d"?
Comment: Your question title seems to presuppose an answer! :)
Answer: I recall having learned in the beginning of the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch that one may not recite God's name in any language when not needed.  I suppose the spelling of G-d is an extension of the same idea to writing.
In general. I have a problem with this approach.   It seems to me that the term "god" is no different than "Hashem".  In fact spelled with a capital or without - it's a generic reference to the idea of a higher power and not reserved for the Jewish god, whereas Hashem is only used for the Jewish god.  Therefore, it would seem to me that the use of Hashem should be more guarded.
To me we have two logical choices:

Yud-kay-vav-kay and related Hebrew spellings are the true names of God and all others are abstracted references and may be used casually.
An abstracted reference such as those used by non-Jews in foreign languages are still akin to the name of God and therefore their usage should be guarded.   By the same logic, any reference to God's name will become eventually become synonymous with God's name like Hashem and we have to stop using that too.   I suppose every generation could come up with their own reference until it becomes overused and then it's time to change it again.

I don't have a resolution to this dilemma but I personally find approach #1 more consistent with our overall practice.
With regard to its use on blogs etc. I think we have more leeway.   I asked a rabbi many years ago regarding a recording to VHS of a program on TV where they recited God's name.   I was told I could erase the video tape and that such recordings be it video or audio did not have take on any special status.   Basically, that K'tiva (writing) involves ink on paper and not magnetic particles that can only be read by special machines and then interpreted into God's name.   In fact, at the time, dot matrix printers were the most popular choice for home use, and I learned that they didn't count either, that since you could see the individual dots (early models) that they didn't count as whole letters.   I have re-asked that question more recently, and been told that even though a laser printer is a collection of particles, that goes on dry, and is not ink, it is the equivalent and makes whole letter representations.
In short, if we were to extend the kedusha of representations of God's name to the digital medium then we could not enjoy the benefits of something like the Bar Ilan CD/DVD.   Any representation on the CD/DVD gets transferred to your computer's RAM and then you couldn't shutdown the program or turn off your computer.  Therefore, logically, we can't bestow any special status to the disc itself either.   In the same way, it would seem that however we represent God's name on this blog... unless you're printing it, you don't have to worry.
Comment: Sorry, but 'God' is different to 'Hashem'.
'God' is a translation of Hashem's name and therefore a kiuni (nickname). 'Hashem' isn't.
See http://doseofhalacha.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/god-or-g-d.html
Comment: I agree. Some people seem to get confused that Hashem is G-d's Name. It is not. It was made up to substitute the Divine Four-Letter Name, and does not need to be shown any particular respect.
Answer: The Shach (Yoreh De'ah 179:11) ruled that "God" spelled in a foreign language does NOT have the status of a "shem" and thus may be erased, lehatkhila.  For more information, you can read this article: Writing: Why do some people write "G-d" with a hyphen instead of an "o"?.
Comment: "In the bathhouse as well it is forbidden to speak or think about any sacred matters. It is [further] forbidden to say any of the Names designated for the Holy One, Blessed is He, even in a mundane tongue [i.e, languages other than Hebrew] (such as Gott in German or Boga in Polish and Russian), when in the bathhouse or in filthy streets." - Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 5:14, ArtScroll
Answer: I heard from a student of R. Yosef Dov Soloveitchik z"l that whether a translation of God's name into English or another language,  has the status of a shem or not, replacing a letter with another symbol e.g. "G-d" accomplishes nothing, because there are no formal laws about the lettering of English as there are with Hebrew (e.g. regarding the laws of writing a Torah and the like).  Rather, the legal significance of letters in English is the ideas that they represent.  G-d obviously represents the exact same thing as "God", so nothing has been accomplished.
Answer: For k'tiva, I thought there were two basic categories:
1) H's primary names, in Hebrew
2) Kinnuim, i.e. nicknames, like "Shalom" in Hebrew, or "God" in English. Since G-d would seem to have the same level of nicknamedness as God, there shouldn't be a halakhic difference in actual writing. Perhaps G-d would be more appropriate in typing, where it sounds like all is permitted anyways, but still serves as an allusion to the halakhot of writing, a practice that may be forgotten to the future generations, like grafting and treating skins on Shabbat.
Answer: The prohibition of erasing divine names is derived from the juxtaposition of "...we'avadtem eth shemam..." ("and destroy their names...") and "Lo ta'asun kein la'hashem..." ("Do not do likewise to the L-rd..."). In general, it's forbidden to erase even one letter of any of the 7 divine names : שם הויה, אדנות, א-ל, א-לוה, אל-הים, ש-די, צב-אות (the Tetragrammaton, Adonai, Elohah, El, Elohim, Shaddai, Tzva'oth; S"A Y"D 276:9; see Halachipedia).
However, since we do not generally treat electronic representations of G-d's names or of torah to have the same halachik status as written/printed*, the issue would primarily be if there is a concern that the text could eventually be printed out by a reader. The Talmud equates writers (and, presumably, publishers) of blessings to those who burn torah scrolls because of the possibility that the writing will eventually be burnt.
Nonetheless, with regard to divine names in languages other than Hebrew, it is controversial if divine names in English, such as G-d, may be erased. (see Shach Y.D. 276:11, Pith'hei Teshuva 11, 19, Mishnah Berurah O.C. 85:10, Aruch Ha'shulchan Y.D. 276:24, C.M. 27:3, Ginzei Hakodesh 7:footnote 24), the Mishna Brurah 85:10 rules leniently that the name itself does not require geniza (burial) and can be thrown away (though divrei torah (words of torah), whether or not G-d's name is mentioned, do regardless require geniza [S"A 154:5]).
*See, however, Shu"t Y'chava Da'ath 4:50 and Shu"t Igroth Moshe 1:173 who, according to halachipedia, are lenient because the electronic encryption is illegible, but nonetheless say that it's preferable to be strict.
Comment: "Nonetheless, with regard to divine names in languages other than Hebrew..." raises a question.  When I word in one language (other than Hebrew) refers to G-d, but in English does NOT refer to G-d.  For example, the ad campaign of several years ago, "Got Milk?" to an English speaker has nothing to do with G-d, but to a person fluent in German, "Got" is German for G-d?
Comment: @Dennis Even Hebrew words that are often a divine name have no sanctity when used in other contexts, such as *tzvaos* when meaning "legions", *elohim* when meaning alternatively "judges", "angels", or "false gods", or, depending on vowelization, *adonai* when meaning "my masters".


Are there any good tabletop RPGs for young beginning players?

Question: I'm looking for a fun, easy to get into RPG for my kids. It could be simple and card-based, or more "normal" tabletop style. I'm looking for something less bloody and dark, and more fun and easy to get into.  What games have you played with pre-teen children that they could easily uptake and enjoyed playing?
Comment: Please make sure and follow the RPG.SE guidance on answering game recommendation questions found here: http://meta.rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/1070/are-game-recommendation-questions-on-topic which means you should only be submitting answers that you have personally played or seen played successfully with young players. "I haven't done it but am sure it would be good" answers will be deleted.
Comment: Voting to close as too broad. A roughly equivalent question nowadays would be asked to specify further details on the kind of experience the asker is seeking, so that we could provide a child-friendly RPG to suit that experience.
Comment: [A relevant blog post.](http://thedelvers.com/2011/you-know-for-kids) In sum: adults frequently underestimate or completely invert what kids can handle/are interested in/have trouble with. Everything evidence-based I've read about kids and how they manage pretend and real-life issues supports that thesis. So, to clarify the question: is the "less bloody and dark" for the kids' comfort, or your own comfort playing it with them?
Comment: While not a system recommendation, GM techniques are discussed here: http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/12094/are-there-any-adventures-specifically-for-younger-children . There are some system recommendations, but the argument is put forth the the GM style is likely more important that the actual game system employed.
Comment: For browsing purposes, here's a useful weblink: http://www.tlucretius.net/RPGs/kids.html
Comment: Related: http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/12094/are-there-any-adventures-designed-specifically-for-younger-children
Comment: I have to agree with @doppelgreener and so have historical locked - it's of interest, but it's way too vague per [How to deal with questions that just don't understand the scope of the RPG landscape?](http://meta.rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/1475/how-to-deal-with-questions-that-just-dont-understand-the-scope-of-the-rpg-lands)
Answer: Make it up yourself.  The basic idea of a game master who presents a situation and can tell players what their characters are doing, and that they can have lots of fun exploring their options, is really intuitive for small children.  The assumptions most RPGs about numeracy, literacy and genre savviness are deadly to most of this audience, on the other hand.
I had fun with my two daughters some time back, when they were five and three, with a farmyard game with:

A dice I got from some kiddies book whose faces were six farmyard animals, which I used for conflict resolution - distractions basically, such as what is the chicken going to do now? or there's a kerfuffle in the pig sty, do you want to go there and find out what's going on?
A book with farmyard scenes in it, the open page says where in the farmyard we all are
A big pile of plush toys, the girls hold one, which is who they are, the others are NPCs, and the girls kept wanting to switch who they were, which is good because it increases Game Fun Options;
A smaller pile of things that were things that they could use to do things or because they decided their animals liked to have them.

Fancier rule systems are good if you want (i) documentation, (ii) aids to understanding a game environment, or (iii) tricky conflict resolution.  I dare say your 5 y.o. is better off without.
Look at very lightweight rule systems; my perennial recommendation is Maximum Game Fun.  You might be able to measure a child's ability to master game rules by the kind of board games they enjoy.
Answer: The Princes' Kingdom is a game designed for young children up to adults. There are actual play reports with players as young as six (at end of that review; search for "The Princes' Kingdom in Play" to jump right to the actual play section, though the review is quite informative).
Character generation is quick and consists only of decisions that are interesting to make, and the play mechanics don't constrain how you can approach a problem, allowing kids' natural creativity to be quickly translated into a resolution mechanic.
Answer: We chose D&D4e for a bunch of reasons for our family (10 and 6 year old kids).

My son (10) was interested in it.
Both kids have friends who play it.
They can easily play it themselves and with their friends when they choose to.

Frankly, I'm not concerned about their ability to "roleplay", they have that down.
While I'm more on the rules lite end of things myself the ease of 4e has really impressed me, and it allows them to play with mechanics and figure out how mechancis work. the game has, so far, been very enjoyable for the whole family.
Answer: I'd recommend Faery's Tale Deluxe, a RPG that was produced by Firefly Games and printed by Green Ronin Publishing.  There's definitely still fantasy elements in it, but as far as the darker side of things and violence, it's a much lighter game.  It definitely gives more of a G-rated fairly tale vibe than anything.
It's also under 100 pages, appropriately illustrated, and system-light, though not systemless.  It also includes a few pre-made adventures, and some nice sidebar advice for gaming with children.  Rather than being incidentally good for playing with children, it's designed specifically for that purpose.
EDIT: I should add I answered you in the vein of fantasy.  That seems to be where most of the "intro" RPGs are--which makes sense, as fantasy is far and away the largest RPG genre.
Comment: This was my daughter's first RPG at age 7. It's actually fun for adults, too. I had fun anyway. :)
Comment: I felt picking abilities was a tricky thing since I would have to read them to the kids and have them make choices.
Answer: It depends on the age. As my children have aged I've gone through a number of simple systems.
The first thing we ever played was Shadows a free RPG by Zak Arntson. It has a very simple mechanic and is based very much around telling a story, at the same time as introducing the concept of thinking about how your character would respond. It's an important RPG concept for a young player to grasp that they aren't playing themselves.
From there we moved on to Faery's Tale, from Firefly games. This has a little more RPG standard structures, such as character sheets, as well as stats and health to track.
Next I'll be trying Mouse Guard out. My eldest has been enjoying the graphic novels and the whole mouse vs animals premise has caught their imagination.
Answer: There are already some excellent answers, but let me make a suggestion based on actual experience:  Star Wars Saga Edition.  WOTC no longer holds the license, but both the books and miniatures remain quite availabe.  Many have written about the game system in other places, but I find it to truly be an "elegant [system] for a more civilized age."  Heh.
Personal experience:  I have run this game on and off for three years or more for my children.  While their ages currently span age 3 to 11, it has been quite enjoyable.  The children always enjoy playing and do not seem to be constrained by the rules; invariably the come up with ideas and actions that would be very at home in the movies.
Why do I think it works?

Children are familiar Star Wars, they have seen the movies or the cartoons, played with the legos or dolls (oops sorry action figures), so there is a basic understanding that the action is "over-the-top" and the galaxy is in the balance.  But even more so, the lines between good and bad are pretty simple.  We don't need to get into philosophical discussions, a seven year old KNOWS Darth Vader is bad news and anyone working for/with him is trouble.  And it is "safe"--good does eventually win, but not without some trouble along the way.
The game mechanics for this version of the rules can be quite simple.  The basic math of d20 and away you go.  Of course beyond the core rulebook the options blossum, but not in an uncontrolled way.  Plus the community is excellent with quite a few resources that make getting up to speed easy and enjoyable.

In short, this has worked really well for us in a way that other systems have not.  YMMV.
Answer: You didn't mention how young your kids are. My son is three, and we had a blast playing Argyle and Crew.
You start by making a sock puppet (soppet) for each player (you included). Each soppet has only two eyes and a mouth by default, but gets to have two extras upon creation.
My son, enraptured by "How to train your dragon", wanted a dragon soppet, so I drew him nostrils (which allow the soppet to smell) and drew wings on a paper, which my son coloured and we cut and glued to his soppet (now it can fly). He beamed through the creation process.
After we finished our first adventure each of us got to add an extra to their soppet.
The rules take up about eight pages (including some variants) of the 34-page PDF, and the whole of it is a delight to read with scenario examples, advanced rules for not-so-young children, insights on how to use the game as a teaching device, etc. If you have young kids (4 to 104, according to the book), you can't go wrong here.
Answer: If your young ones are into Super Heroes, I'd suggest the Prose Descriptive Qualities variant Truth & Justice. For fairy-tales there is also The Zorceror of Zo.
PDQ is really light on the rules, allowing for swift and fast play and character creation, with a lot of room for bonuses for creativity and the like. Plus, the books contain good discussion of the tone of the different genres.
Answer: I'm partial to The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men by Annie Rush, a game that's really easy to teach to young'uns while being open-ended enough to intrigue old'uns. Plus you get to eat your character when you're done.
Other games that my wife and I have successfully used with kids from ages 5-12 include Toon, the Star Wars RPG from West End Games, and the old TSR version of Marvel Super Heroes. And while it's not an RPG, I think that Once Upon A Time is a great storytelling game that most kids - and most roleplayers - would enjoy.
Answer: InSpectres is a simple, easy to run game that I've never failed to have fun playing. The premise is that you are part of a start-up company of supernatural investigators. The game gives you a lot of leeway for setting a particular tone in the fiction. There is a free, bare bones pdf of the game as well as a free supplement centered around playing young children called In-Speckers.
Answer: It is out-of-print now, but one game I'd recommend is the Pokémon Jr. Adventure Game: Pokémon Emergency! It gives you a very linear, guided adventure, but does a lot to encourages the kids to use their imagination. I played it with my kids last year, and we had a lot of fun with it. (They would've been 7 and 9.)
You might not consider this a role-playing game, but I think it is. Even if I didn't, however, I would still consider it a good pre-RPG game for the youngest players.
Another unfortunately out-of-print title I would recommend is Prince Valiant: The Story Telling Game by Greg Stafford. Neither you nor your kids need to know Prince Valiant to enjoy this game. Simple "pop-knowledge" of knights should suffice. Any Arthuriana can serve for additional inspiration. I think this is simply one of the best introductory RPGs ever published, and I think it could work well for campaign play as well.
I played a few sessions of this with my son when he was younger. I think when he was about 5 or 6. I thought it went very well, and we enjoyed it a lot. I used a few of the sample adventure/encounters from the book as well as improvising a "rescue the princess from the dragon's castle" adventure.
I should also add that I think this game would be very good for the inexperienced GM, whether a parent or kid.
Another out-of-print suggestion: The c. 1981 D&D Basic Set edited by Tom Moldvay. This was good enough for myself and my friends when I was 10. (And it is a game I still play today.)
I played a few session with my son when he was 5 or 6. It was fun, but I think this game is more suited to kids closer to 10. Also, I think it doesn't really shine in a one-on-one (one DM + one player) setting as it was with just my son and I.
I think this game works well for kids 10+ even with the lack of an experienced DM or interested adult. As that's how I and my friends started.
System-wise, the c. 1983 Basic Set edited by (our own) Frank Mentzer is identical as far as I can tell. (The differences between 1981 and 1983 D&D don't show up until the Expert Set.) The presentation is different, and many people find it even more accessible than the 1981 set.
Labyrinth Lord is a retro-clone of the 1981 Basic/Expert D&D, so I would assume that it would be a suitable in-print alternative. Though I haven't actually had experience playing it with kids yet.
Comment: These were originally separate answers as, at the time, that was recommended so that they could be voted on separately. Has that policy changed?
Comment: Note that PDFs of the 1981 D&D Basic Set and its companion Expert Set are now available through http://www.dndclassics.com/. At this point, I've used that system to introduce six people to the hobby in recent years. One of those is my 10yo daughter's first campaign that we started last year.
Answer: I'd highly recommend Kids Dungeon Adventure
One of my friends has two young boys (around 6 yoa) and they have loved this game, he's constantly blogging about their adventures and they are always badgering him to play some more!
It's initially aged at 3-6 year olds and there's only one stat (HP) they play using their own toys as heroes and their blocks/lego/etc make the dungeon. For older kids there's more choice which involve cardboard cutouts and some more stats.
Take a look, it's only $6 which is a steal really.
Answer: I would highly recommend introducing pre-teen kids to Broomstix (the free pdf and character sheets for which can be found under "free stuff", a Harry Potter role playing game.  The great thing about this game is that it

is a world familiar to almost all school age children
is easily age adaptable - younger kids can go searching for the missing sorting hat while older children can compete in the triwizard cup or fight deatheaters
has a wealth of supporting online (though not directly related) resources, including wikis with compendiums of spells and magic creatures.

I played a homebrew adaptation of this game with my nephews (6, 8, and 10) and they never wanted to stop playing!
Answer: Not sure how old your kids are, but my 11 and 9 year old play D&D4E. The 11 year old is at the point where he joins games at the weekly meetup that I'm not DMing or playing at, he's able to handle the game on his own. For my 9 year old, I still keep him at the same table where I am either DMing or playing another character. They both like making characters on the character builder.
Answer: Wizards put out "Heroes of Hesiod" in April 2010. It is a free download of a modded version of DnD designed for young kids (think elementary school). The game is fun and comes complete with badges that you print and cut out for each player at the end. It's very cute and easy to run.
Answer: I'm currently playtesting a game called Story Realms which is a part board game part role-playing game geared toward younger gamers. You can find their forum here: http://www.escapadegames.com/storyrealms/forum/
I also agree with making up the game yourself. I remember learning to play that way. I had a great GM that geared the game to be simpler for us younger gamers and it was awesome!
There's also my own RPG, Challenger, which is free to download in all formats across the internet. I tried to keep away from dark themes and make it playable by players of all ages. I have a new version coming out soon which I hope will be even better. I tried to focus the game on storytelling and role-playing first and foremost. The combat system is also highly simplified to make it easier to run and quicker to understand and play out so you can get back to the good stuff in the game. I'd love any opinions on the game system if anyone's willing. My contact information is in the copyright page of the book.
Answer: How about Mice and Mystics?  It is an excellent game for kids.
Another my kids enjoy are the DND series games Wrath of Ashardalon, Legend of Drzzt and the name of the first one is eluding me but it is a vampire mansion game.  All three are perfect for kids.
Comment: *Mice and Mystics* is more of a board/card game than an RPG. It does look like a good bridge game though.
Answer: Obviously you'll benefit from using flexible games with minimal mechanics, but there are a lot of those.  Here are some specifically oriented to be child-friendly:

The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men
Baking and adventure in one neat package.  And when you're done you can always eat the character sheets.

Inspectres
Ghostbusters against the world, with a simple d6-based mechanic, player-imagination-controlled results, and only five stats/skills to worry about.

Flatpack
A recent Kickstarter and not out yet, but looks promising - post-apocalyptic without being grim or dark, and with a bizarre yet wonderful premise.  And any game that refers to its GM as "The Troublemaker" is doing something right.
Answer: Depending upon one's own tastes, I can recommend three different game engines I've used with children.
Tunnels and Trolls - any edition. If the kids can handle rolling and adding piles of dice (a typical starting character is rolling between 3 and 10 dice for attacking). Requires additions well into the double digits, but otherwise, it's simple, and encourages narrative. Deluxe Edition should be releasing shortly; 4E, 7E, and 7.5E are all available in PDF from DriveThroughRPG. If they want to play monsters, the companion game, Monsters Monsters, is also available in PDF. My now 14 YO played this at age 9, and was relatively math challenged, but was able to play since it's all addition.
Star Wars: Edge of the Empire. The problem here is that many actions are taking upwards of 8 dice to roll, so a dice cup is essential. My 9yo plays this with us. The cancelation of results is handled well by kids. The Beginner box is a straightforward adventure that I've run kids from 9 up through, and it teaches the game well. If you like it, it's not hard to transition kids from the beginner game to the full game. Biggest issue, expense - corebook plus two sets of dice, you're looking at $60-$90. Beginner box lists at $30, includes one set of dice, and has only a couple rolls that need more dice. Your standard polys can be used, but really are suboptimal. Further, because it supports opposed rolls for other than combat actions, it weakly encourages non-"Kill 'em all" play.
Mouse Guard I've also run for a pair of 10 year olds, and my then 9 yo played with the adults prior to getting a friend in on a session. d6's, count successes, and generally, only 4-6 per roll. Plus, it's playing anthropomorphic mice. Character generation is a bit involved, but can be done in 15 minutes with a character sheet. Note that it also uses the same basic mechanics for combat, debates, and a variety of other extended conflicts, so it encourages non-combat solutions. Problem: Hard to get a copy other than in PDF. And the box set lists for $80.
A fourth, weaker recommend, borders on board game (and can be played as either board game, RPG, or both): Gorilla Games' Battlestations!. If the kids want to just be doing "kill 'em all" type games, this is fine. There is one Roleplaying adventure for the game: The Planet of Dr. Moreau. The authors when asked if it is RPG or Boardgame generally don't answer, or if they do, answer "yes." My then 10yo was able to play effectively; math is limited, but planning ahead can be trying. Thematically, it's related to Star Trek, but with more shooting. (Link is to Boardgamegeek, because the mods refused to give it a second entry when RPGGeek opened.)
Answer: Advanced Fighting Fantasy, reprint from, Arion Games. Only three core Stats - Skill, Stamina and Luck, with just 2 more for magic-users - Mana and Magic.
Answer: I'm finding Pathfinder very easy to pick up for kids since it's actually the first RPG I've presented to my kids. My youngest is 9 and she loves it, my second youngest is 16 and she is so enamored with it she's getting some of her friends to come over this next week and wants them to play.
Let me add a caveat to this though: We've been playing with the Beginner Box which has a simplified set of rules and gives you a very basic scenario to start out with. The cool thing about this though is that as your children (and mine) age, there are hundreds of campaigns that can be added to the system and made to make it more complicated and interesting for thinkers who become more critical as they age.
Another option, albeit an expensive one as the game is out of print now, is Amber Diceless. If you can still find a copy of it the rules are very easy to learn. One page character sheet, combat is basically comparing the sum of different character values. Other than that it's all story telling. Looks like a new version of the Amber diceless book goes for 127 bucks on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Amber-Diceless-Role-Playing-System/dp/1880494000 Amber diceless is based on the world of Amber and the Courts of Chaos by the late, great, Roger Zelazny. If you want more info that isn't in the amazon quote or if the wiki info is too obscure in reading feel free to pm me and I'll give you a rundown on the world, I lived it for a good ten years in my youth.
All kids are different in their likes/dislikes and what clicks with them though so a lot of times you just have to pay attention to what kind of things your kids like. I have some nieces and nephews that never could grasp the whole idea of Magic but when I tried Pokemon (not a fan myself, but to each their own) they just ate it up. So it's a matter of reading your audience.
Comment: Well, it could also be that Pathfinder is an extremely complex rules system that even mature adults can have trouble comprehending, though apparently the beginner box simplifies it somehow.
Answer: I've heard good things from fellow gamers with kids about rpgKids. It could best be described as a simplified and streamlined 4th ed Dnd.
Comment: Can you relate some of their stories to us? Why is it good?
Comment: Had to downvote because this answer doesn't provide info on a game you have any real experience with.
Answer: DriveThruRPG has a product called FirstFable which is aimed at younger children.
Characters have three attributes and three or more 'Shines' (skills) and one or more weaknesses.  They combine attributes and shines to make a dice pool (which won't go over 5-6 unless they're really focusing on one thing) of D6s.  They roll those, and on 5 or 6 they get a 'star' (success).  'Special Things' (magical items, animal companions, etc) can add stars, but only a few times.
The system is really easy to understand, extremely customizable, and can be tailored to children of any age (so long as they know the numbers 1-10 and can do minimal addition).
Best part is, the whole system is free.  This includes the books specific to each character type (pirate, knight, fairy prince(ess), and animal keeper).
I like this system because it is flexible, it can involve adventures that are as simple or complex as you like, it introduces the dice pool mechanic, and it really exercises the imagination.  Really, it feels to me like Exalted (or another White Wolf game) with all the angst and complexity drained away.


In what phase or stage of the project should QA testing start?

Question: Is it more efficient to start testing during project development or before deployment?
Answer: Starting testing during development is too late, and starting testing before deployment is usually a recipe for disaster, missed deadlines, and high unexpected costs.
Testing should start as early as possible. If you have a prototyping stage, then testers should be involved in the prototyping before any requirements / stories are solidified.
Early involvement not only empowers people to be a voice in the project, but also enables testers to start designing tests, modeling, reviewing, etc. that may prevent bugs and help promote quality throughout the project.
Answer: I noticed you did not ask whether it was better to start testing during project development or before deployment; you asked which was more efficient.  You also did not specify whose efficiency you wanted to maximize.  You did not say who would be doing the testing, but since you mentioned testing before deployment, I assume your refer to testing by someone other than the developer, regardless of whether the developer does their own unit testing.  Finally, you asked about when to start testing, not about when the tester should get involved.
If the tester is overworked and forced to share their time between too many projects, it may be a more efficient use of their time to test after development is finished; that way, the tester does not need to redo work to compensate for changing decisions during development.
If the tester is not overworked, it may be more efficient as part of the overall team for the tester to get involved as early as possible.  That way, for example, the tester may be able to influence decisions that eliminate problems before they are manifested in code.  Moreover, assuming the tester has the time, testing should begin as soon as the interfaces they want to test are mostly stable.
I am not sure what you mean by "before deployment" -- in your organization, are there other phases between development and deployment?  If you can clarify that point, I can try to address that aspect of your question, too.
Comment: Thanks for the reply. I don't have so much background in testing yet and been doing some self study to prepare myself. To clarify, I will be involved as a non-developer QA tester so I will not be working on the code done. From my background, testers are involved from the start of the project during planning. I am just curious cause I've read about different methodologies in the software cycle and was thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of testing during development and testing after development is done. Sorry if it's confusing cause I am not yet familiar with all technical terms.
Answer: You should clarify your question to define what is meant with "start testing".
Take a look on this diagram (taken from here):

There are various aspects of tests.
They are defined and run at all phases across Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC):

Acceptance Tests are defined just at the same time with Business Requirements - e.g. they are defined at the very beginning of an SDLC and run at the very end;
System Tests are defined along with SRS and are usually run for each alpha/local release;
Integration Tests are "mid-range" tests for components; They are defined and run pretty often, e.g. on weekly scrums;
and so on, till the very low-level Unit Tests that are defined and run on practically the same time;

So the answer to your question:
You should define and run different types of your tests at all phases of entire SDLC.
P.S. A common mistake is not allocating QA engineers from the very beginning of the SDLC. If it happens, they often don't have time for tests definition. I always ask myself, if I have nothing defined, how do I run it?
Answer: Testing team should be involved in the project from the very beginning. Especially important are gathering system requirements and design phases. Basically speaking you have to design your system for testability. It's quite difficult to implement test automation if your system hasn't been designed to support test automation.
It also depends on your organization what kind of tests do you use (unit tests, functional test, E2E tests, etc.) and what is your supporting infrastructure e.g continuous integration, nightly builds, etc.
You may also consider using of Test-Driven Development process.
Comment: Thank you. I am new to Software Testing and not yet that technical. I'll have to research more about Test-Driven Development.
Answer: Katrina, there are some great answers here already but I would like throw a monkey wrench into the mix. Requirements have been mentioned a few times. Requirements are nice but in the development team where I work, they are nonexistent. I test when the code is delivered to me, sometimes 2-4 weeks prior to deployment, and with zero requirements. Is this ideal? No, but it is a system that works for our development team. What I am trying to say is there are "ideal" testing environments and timelines, and then there are "real world" testing environments and timelines. It is more 'efficient' for your employer, dev team and customer for the tester to start testing in the timeline that works best for their own environment. While it is immensely helpful and valuable to know the latest QA paradigm and "best practices," if you try to conform to them and the rest of your team is not, you might go crazy. Always keep the big picture in mind.
Comment: No, Phil, it's all over the phone between managers and devs (or meetings I am not invited to). I am given a high-level idea of what the expectations are. With about 10% of new features, my Manager types up a 1-3 page document that will be given to customers for me to use as a very loose requirement; I end up QA'ing that too & returning it to him with corrections.
Comment: There must be some sort of requirement or the devs would not know what to code ?
Comment: This sounds SO familiar, Laura. I've spent so much time testing what I'm given as requirements docs.
Comment: Using the real world as a data point is very important, but...
Answer: From my point of view testing should be started from the start of the project.  Meaning from analysis phase through to documentation, design, code and deliver to stakeholder .
QA team is the Busy in all the Project from A to Z.
Answer: Many of the testers at my place of work are experts in the product domain, and have seen over-and-over what can go wrong.  Including them up front is almost always worth the effort. They will:

Identify potential problems, before implementation
Help guide the development team during implementation
Be more effective with testing after implementation


What does a free fighting teacher teach

Question: ... since any technique is free to be used ?
Logically each teacher could teach any martial art he wants ! but there couldn't be a federation, instructors and diplomas this way.
There are very few martial arts that are complete, in the sense that they are suited for all situations.
So which is it going to be ?
Answer: 'Free Fighting' is an old term meaning MMA basically. Before the UFC had come to dominate all that was mixed martial arts, people called it by all kinds of names. Shootfighting, Mixfighting, Free fighting, etc.
I would expect MMA techniques, and other self-defense techniques. e.g. you will likely (hopefully) get a mixture of boxing, wrestling, submissions and conditioning.
Comment: Does it have a name ?
Comment: Free Fighting? I think it is called MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) mostly around the world. Every MMA teacher will teach things differently; some will focus on clinching, others on boxing, others on ground fighting, it will depend where their skills lay.
Comment: No, what they are teaching.
Comment: Whichever name the instructor uses to call it? There is no 'official' single style called 'free fighting' that has an umbrella organization or something like that like for example Karate or Brazillian Jiu Jitsu or Boxing. It's kind of a generic catch-all name that basically stands for Mixed Martial Arts (e.g. techniques from all kinds of fighting arts).
Answer: As far as I can tell, there is no generally accepted definition of what "free fighting" means. It's definitely not a style in and of itself.
In some cases, the "free" in "free fighting" can refer to the part of the fight where you and your opponent are free to move around each other and are not holding onto one another at all. So you're free. That would imply that whatever is taught there is everything excluding grappling of any kind. Lots of kicking, punching, knees, elbows, foot movement, head movement, etc.
In other cases, "free fighting" means "free style". This means it's kind of like MMA, where you can pick and choose what you want to use from any style or no style. There's no guarantee what you'll get from this. Someone may be combining Taekwondo with Sumo wrestling! Who knows.
In still other cases, "free fighting" refers to the real world, as opposed to sport fighting. They may still be seen as doing "MMA", but they just want to make people know that their form of MMA is not optimized for sport rules.
And actually, there can be federations which accredit teachers of free fighting. That just means this is an organization of people who teach free fighting tactics and authorize teachers to teach it. Whether that means each instructor is obligated to teach the same stuff the same way, it depends on the heads of those federations. But even that is acceptable, and they still get to call what they do "free fighting" or "freestyle".
As for completeness in martial arts, you're not going to find any school that prepares you for every possible scenario on earth. But there are systems that focus on the things they believe will give you the biggest chance of success in most real world situations. And it's up to you whether you agree with them or not.
Keep in mind, however, that each school generally believes they're the best. So it's very confusing. It's hard to know who to go with. I would just say go out and look at lots of different schools. See what they do. Ask questions. Talk with students and teachers. Go onto the internet and see what pops up when you look for their school or style. Ask questions on internet forums, etc.
Especially check out BJJ and MMA schools, so you have something to compare against.
Answer: At my gym, we have multiple specialist take coaches in specific areas that they excel at such as striking, kicking, wrestling , ground submission and etc etc. We usually focus on specific each day.
We have 2 scheduled free fights, one halfway through the training and one at the end. During this, our free fight couch will usually be an experience / veteran maa/freefight fighter. He basically does not teach us how to strike or kick but instead coaches us what to do in the ring.
I'll hear things like 'hands up', 'move move move', or 'don't stop don't stop'. At the end of the session he would give a summary of my performance and what area to focus on.
For me my freefight coach is basically the person who teaches me how to put everything together and make use of it.

What does a free fighting teacher teach


Load DTED data files into ArcGlobe

Question: When I add DTED data files (*.dt1 and *.dt2) to my ArcGlobe application, they are displayed as solid gray boxes.  Do I need to do something special to the files and/or the ArcGlobe control to see these properly?
Answer: Merge the DTED dt1 rasters into a File Geodatabase Raster Catalog, then use the Raster Catalog to Raster Dataset tool (in Data Management Tools -> Raster -> Raster Catalog To Raster Dataset) to create one big mosaic. So far so good and it performs well and maintains its sense of elevation... repeat for dt2.
Raster Catalog To Raster Dataset
http://resources.esri.com/help/9.3/arcgisdesktop/com/gp_toolref/data_management_tools/raster_catalog_to_raster_dataset_data_management_.htm
Comment: What if you didn't have access to the Raster Catolog and were trying to do this all progromatically?
Comment: not a programmer - maybe someone on this forum can help there.
Answer: You really shouldn't be managing individual DTED tiles yourself if you plan on having any substantial amount of DTED data in your application.  At ArcGIS 10.0 you can use Mosaic Datasets to store many different types of imagery data including DTED 0-2.  Pre-10.0 if you have access to Military Analyst you can use a MA DTED Catalog to store DTED data.
ArcEngine provides you the ability to call any geoprocessing tool (assuming you are licensed for it) programmatically.  I don't know which API you are but they are generally the same across the different languanges.  There are two methods on the geoprocessor to execute a gp tool.  The first takes an array of arguments which you have to figure out via the GP tool documentations.  The second provides a bit more safety in that it will give you the variable names of a particular GP tool and let you set them individually.
Some Links:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/sdk/10.0/arcobjects_net/componenthelp/index.html#//002n000000tp000000
If you are using Mosaic Datasets then you can add DTED data to it by using the AddRastersToMosaicDataset GP tool:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/sdk/10.0/arcobjects_net/componenthelp/index.html#/Overview/004700002n82000000/

Load DTED data files into ArcGlobe


I dont know my password and wont let me change it via GRUB

Question: I recently turned off the login password so i would not have to enter my password every time I turn the system on. But now when I try to update or download anything it asks me for my password so I enter my old password and it keeps telling me its wrong when I have only ever had the 1 password and its a simple 1 so I would not forget and considering I have only had UBUNTU installed for two days it is really frustrating. I have also tried resetting it via the GRUB but it wont let me type the new password.
Please help ASAP.
Answer: When using recovery mode from grub, you need to drop to a root shell, then remount the drive with write permissions using this command
mount -o rw,remount /

Then you can change the password for your account using the following command (replace username with your username).
passwd username

Then enter the new password twice, you will not see what you are typing.
Then reboot and login using the new password.
Have a look at this page on my website for a more detailed guide if needed.
Answer: You can boot from a live cd and then reset the password from there. Here's a guide on how to do just that:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/linux/reset-your-ubuntu-password-easily-from-the-live-cd/


Can someone clarify how Spot Pass on the 3DS works?

Question: I'm a little confused by how Spotpass works- this is in specific reference to how the Puzzle Swap pieces are now available through Spotpass, not just Streetpass.
So they will show up if you touch other folks playing a game together online like Mario Kart? I notice those people normally show up in your Mii Plaza even though you can't use them for Find Mii or anything (at least not before).
I think MK is the only game I currently have that I can connect with other people online with (I don't have that many 3DS games).
Comment: spotpass is an internet controlled thing on your 3ds. it updates your 3ds, sends you videos and allows you to send messages to your friends.
Answer: SpotPass is the generic name for any passive Internet feature on the 3DS, just like StreetPass is the generic name for any passive local wireless feature. SpotPass features are indicated via a blue LED and blue dot on icons, like StreetPass features are indicated via a green LED and green dot on icons.
SpotPass works via scanning for accessible wireless routers when the 3DS is closed. If it finds one, it synchronizes data for any games you have SpotPass-enabled. For some games like Kid Icarus: Uprising this is basically just an "Internet StreetPass" but other games like Samurai Warriors Chronicles have used SpotPass to distribute free DLC to early purchasers. Non-games like Nintendo Video also use SpotPass to get updates.
Mario Kart 7 does add people to your StreetPass Mii Plaza population if you've played online with them, although as you noted you can't use them in Find Mii, nor Find Mii 2 unless you pay their hiring cost. I wouldn't actually call this SpotPass, but since it's a term Nintendo made up who knows if they want to call it that or not.
Nintendo has distributed other items for StreetPass Mii Plaza over SpotPass. A new Kid Icarus: Uprising puzzle panel, and a single piece of it, was sent to everyone on February 27th. And on the one-year anniversary of the 3DS's release, Satoru Iwata (in Europe and Japan) and Reggie Fils-Amie (in North America) will visit your plaza after arriving via SpotPass. They do have puzzle pieces and can be immediately used in Find Mii, and will give you the achievement for meeting a Special Mii.
Answer: Spot Pass is basically content received through internet connection. For example, receiving new Nintendo videos, getting people to join on Mario Kart via Internet connection (as you said), and more.
Answer: It's much like the Wii Connect24. It allows your handheld device to be connected via the internet while it is on standby so your friends can connect, interact, and leave messages with out you having to be there.
SpotPass will allow your handheld device to connect to the Nintendo's servers (via your home Wifi network or an open network) and download game trailers, patches, new levels, add ons, demos, and updates (Nintendo has been using SpotPass to push updates since May). It also allows you to sync/transfer your old DSiWare games (if you have them) to your 3DS.
Comment: Hey, Alex, welcome to Arqade!  Your answer here is very short, and honestly, doesn't help much.  Can you expand on it and provide a bit more detail, please?
Comment: Since @Krazer's additions to this answer, it's much more useful.


analogue of a set with n binary operations

Question: So a group is a type of structure with one binary operations that satisfies some list of axioms. A ring is a structure that has two binary operations that satisfy some list of axioms. Do there exist structures with n, independent (meaning it isn't possible to decompose the structure into collections of structures with two or less binary operations), binary operations that satisfy some list of axioms? Is it possible to define a consistent structure of this sort? If someone could point me in the direction of an article or something, or offer your own point of view, I would appreciate it.
Comment:  It is unclear what you mean by independent.  Indeed, I suspect from your parenthetical remark that you actually mean some form of dependence.
(It is possible that you may mean that the operations are algebraically independent (for me this means each f stays out of the clone generated by all the other operations)l.  Gerhard "Ask Me About System Design" Paseman, 2012.10.22
Comment: Consider a $cat^n$ group, which is a model for a pointed, connected homotopy $n$-type...
Answer: The study of sets with an arbitrary number of operations is called universal algebra.
Also universal algebra isn't limited to binary operations but studies operations of any arity: nullary, unary, binary, ternary, ... , n-ary.
(Universal algebra does however typically restrict itself to axioms that are defined by equations which means fields are excluded from this way of studying algebra.)
Beware however that operations that are ostensibly independent might not be. See for example the earlier mathoverflow question: Can we unify addition and multiplication into one binary operation? To what extent can we find universal binary operations?
In a ring the distributive law connects the addition and multiplication operations, so that they cannot in a sense be independent, but there is nothing to stop a structure of n operations from being consistent if none of the axioms connect any of the operations to each other. Like Gerhard Paseman comments about, it depends what you mean by independent.
Questions along similar lines to the linked question about universal operations could be asked about any given universal-algebraic variety - given a variety in which every operation is connected to the other operations by axioms, then to what extent can the number of operations be reduced and still define the same class of structures. For questions about reducing the number of operations or axioms see https://www.cs.unm.edu/~mccune/projects/gtsax/
P.S. I'll mention here as a curiosity the topic of n,m-operations. That is operations that not only have a domain-arity but also a co-domain arity. e.g. $*:G \times G \times G \rightarrow G \times G$. Concepts such as associativity can be generalized to n,m-operations but n,m-operations haven't been studied much in universal algebra.
Comment: An $n,m$ operation, `$G^{n}\to G^m$` can be viewed as $m$ separate components, each of which is an ordinary $n$-ary operation.  Nevertheless, $n,m$ operations serve as the morphisms in Lawvere's category-theoretic approach to universal algebra.  The key idea is that substitution, which plays an essential role in clones, can be subsumed under the simpler concept of composition if one uses $n,m$ operations.
Answer: I don't know that there is anything as nice as the way that the two main operations in a ring fit together. However there are ways to introduce many linked operations which, while mainly done for the purpose of doing so, are perhaps not too overly frivolous. Here is one:
Given a finite set $S$ with $k$ elements, there are $k^{k^2}$ binary operations and each operation $\diamond$ can be represented by its Cayley Table the $k \times k$ square with $i,j$ entry $i \diamond j$ (assuming a known order). This single operation defines a quasi-group if the table is a Latin Square, each symbol appears once in each row and column. Equivalently (and without an agreed order), for every $a,b$ there are unique $x,y$ with $x \diamond a=b$ and $a \diamond y=b.$ This defines two operations $y=a \backslash b$ and $x=b / a$ with $$b=a \diamond (a \backslash b)=a \backslash (a \diamond b)=(b /a) \diamond a=(b \diamond a) / a.$$  This equational definition of a quasi-group via 3 operations is available for infinite quasi-groups as well. If we introduce the projections $a\pi_1b=a$ and $a\pi_2b=b$ then we can write the previous equations as $$a\pi_2b=(a\pi_1b)\diamond(a\backslash b)=\cdots$$
Two Latin Squares (given by quasigroups $(S,\cdot)$ and $(S,\diamond)$) are orthogonal if   the map $(x,y) \to (x\cdot y,x\diamond y)$ is a bijection from $S \times S$ to itself. It is not known how many pairwise orthogonal quasi-groups (aka Mutually Orthogonal Latin Squares MOLS) are possible on a set of size $k.$ Certainly no more than $k-1$ and this is possible when (and perhaps only when) $k$ is a prime power.
So I suppose that a set of $t$ MOLS on the same set could be described as $t$ operations $\diamond_i$ whose individual quasi-group nature is asserted (as before) using another $2t$ operations $a \backslash_i b$ and $a/\_i  b$ (along with $\pi_1$ and $\pi_2$) and whose pairwise orthogonality is specifieded using a further $t(t-1)$ operations $\leftarrow_{ij}$ and $\rightarrow_{ij}$ so that $x=a \leftarrow_{ij}b$ and $y=a \rightarrow_{ij} b$ satisfy $(x\diamond_iy,x\diamond_jy)=(a,b).$ Or, if we have no shame, $$((a \leftarrow_{ij}b)\diamond_i(a \rightarrow_{ij} b),(a \leftarrow_{ij}b)\diamond_j(a \rightarrow_{ij} b))=(a\pi_1b,a\pi_2b).$$
On one hand $\leftarrow_{ij}=\rightarrow_{ji}$ so maybe a total count of $t^2+2t+2$ is too greedy. On the other hand, maybe more operations such as $a\diamond^i b=b\diamond_ia$ could be shoehorned in. But I will stop there.
Answer: For every symmetric monoidal category $C$ the category of commutative monoids $\mathrm{CMon}(C)$ is again symmetric monoidal, the forgetful functor to $C$ being a monoidal functor. Thus we may iterate this construction and define $\mathrm{CMon}^{(n)}(C)$ for all $n \in \mathbb{N}$. Intuitively, objects of this category have $n$ commutative operations which are compatible with each other. However, this sequences already terminates at $n \geq 1$. Every commutative monoid in $C$ has a unique structure as an object in $\mathrm{CMon}(C)$.
For example, for $C=\mathrm{Ab}$, starting with abelian groups ($n=0$), next we get commutative rings ($n=1$). But for a commutative ring $R$ there is exactly one unit $u : \mathbb{Z} \to R$ and exactly one ring homomrphism $\mu : R \otimes R \to R$ making it into a commutative monoid of commutative rings, namely $u(z)=z \cdot 1_R$ and $\mu(a \otimes b)=a \cdot b$.
This explains a little bit why there are so few structures with three or more binary operations.
Answer: I've decided to expand my comment since I like my interpretation of your idea of independence.
Let's use the language of universal algebra, where we take a well understood case of an underlying set A
and some system F of total functions f of finite arity n (so $f:A^n\longrightarrow A)$.  For increased graspibility,
I will assume A is a finite set and F is a finite nonempty tuple, where in the question all the functions in F have
$n=2$, but I will allow $n$ the freedom to vary.
One reading of the poster's notion of independence is related to indecomposability of F: given A,F (I am
omitting the brackets of the traditional notation), it should not be able to represent it in a nontrivial
fashion as some amalgam of A,G and A,H, where G and H are smaller tuples.  (I will pretend that the
mechanism of tuple concatenation is not allowed, e.g. F = G concat H is illegal.)  In particular,  each f in F
is not derivable from the other operations in F.  Using 1 in A as a symbol for a constant function, which
I will also call a function of arity 0, the algebras A,+,%,1 and A,+,%,1,g are different, but if g is essentially
the function derived from the term (x%(x+1)), then the second algebra does not meet the notion of
independence.
A fuller exposition of this notion can be seen in looking at certain closed collections of functions on
A, called clones.  At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post's_lattice one can see containment relations as
well as lists of generators for each clone.  Most of the generators are binary functions, but some
functions of higher arity are needed since there are infinitely many classes of such functions.  By itself,
each generating tuple F is a tuple for such an independent algebra {0,1},F .
Now for larger sets, there are larger examples, including the n-quasigroup examples suggested by
Aaron Meyerowitz.  It is not clear to me that such examples are independent in the above sense, however.
There are also n-semilattices as well as lattices enriched with n extra binary operations; I will let you search the general algebra literature for those.
There are also primal algebras, which have F as a one-tuple on a finite set A, such that the single (usually
binary) function f in F can generate all other functions on A.  Also there are quasiprimal algebras which are like primal algebras, except their clones are maximal but incomplete: adding any other function outside their clone to the signature F would generate the clone of all functions.
This may read more like an advertisement for clone theory than an answer, but the post did ask
for other points of view.
Gerhard "Ask Me About System Design" Paseman, 2012.10.23


How to use the private and public keys?

Question: I am new to ssl certificates, i wanted to learn about ssl certificates, and I generated private and public keys myself while logged into cpanel, I wonder how to use those and generate a secured connection to my site, i have my public keys and private keys but how to use those? Can any one recommend a nice page or can any one teach me that? thanks in advance
Answer: You might find The First Few Milliseconds of an HTTPS Connection by Jeff Moser useful reading. It provides a detailed explanation of what happens on the wire when a browser sets up an HTTPS connection with a server.
This interesting video illustrates public key cryptography by mixing paint colours!
You should also look at the OpenSSL command line tool. You can use it to: generate key pairs, generate certificates, setup a mini CA, run a server that uses one of the certs you generated, connect to any SSL server and get detailed information about its SSL configuration and certificates used. See the OpenSSL Command-Line HOWTO for lots of examples of what you can do with OpenSSL.
Also you can use online tools like these to get detailed information about an internet facing website's certificate and its SSL configuration:

SSL Checker - SSL certificate checks and detailed certificate information
Website's SSL Configuration - looks deeply at the SSL setup of a website

As far as setting up SSL in your environment, it will depend on what web server you
are using and/or your hosting provider. For example, you could try googling for "setting up SSL on" + the name of you web server or host - e.g., "Setting up SSL on Apache". Also, most  certification authorities (e.g., Verisign) typically provide good information
on setting up various web servers and applications to use SSL.
Answer: The certificates used for HTTPS are X.509 certificates (they're the only ones mentioned in the HTTP over TLS, i.e. HTTPS, specification).
A (server) certificate is a piece of information used to prove the server's identity to the client. It's the combination between a public key and various pieces of information (mostly regarding the identity of the owner of the key pair, whoever controls the private key), this combination being signed using the private key of the issuer of the certificate.
Trusting a certificate means that you trust its content, in particular, that you trust that the public key belongs to the identity represented in the certificate. From a server point of view, the identity will be the server name (see RFC 2818 Section 3.1 or RFC 6125). Certificates are in principle public pieces of information.
Where the server's private key (not necessarily the issuer's private key) is used is for the authenticated SSL/TLS key-exchange to take place. During this key exchange, depending on whether you're using RSA or Diffie-Helman key exchange (depending on the cipher suite, DH is quite common nowadays), the private key will either be used to decrypt the a piece of information that the client has encrypted with the certificate's public key (RSA) or be used to sign a piece of information generated by the server (DH). Either way, it's what proves to the client that the remote party has the private key for that certificate. At the end of the key exchange mechanisms, both the client and the server use a shared key. (This question might be of interest regarding the key exchange, although it's probably better to read the TLS specification itself, possibly a number of times...)
Once you have both, i.e. trusting the binding between public key and identity (by verifying the certificate) and knowing that the remote party has the private key for the public key in that certificate, you know that the remote party is indeed the server whose identity is described in the certificate (in the Subject Alternative Name or, if absent, in the Common Name of the Subject DN).
You may also be interested in this answer to "What makes SSL secure?".
If you want to try this yourself for a website, you'll need more than a public key, you'll need to make a certificate, possibly a self-signed certificate or via your own CA. Make sure the host name you use is at least in the Common Name of your Subject DN or better, in a Subject Alternative Name DNS entry. There are a number of tutorials to create self-signed certificates with OpenSSL, for example. OpenSSL's CA.pl (see man-page) may be useful too if you want to create your mini-CA.

How to use the private and public keys?


H.264, 1 FPS, 640x480 Resolution - What bit rate should I be using?

Question: I need to transmit this video stream over satellite. So far, I have been able to send 1 fps, 320x240 with no problem. However, when I raise it to 640x480, the picture comes in once every few minutes and that's about it. Bandwidth is not an issue - we are using ~192 kbps and up. Any ideas?
Answer: That's something thats going to differ a fair bit based on picture complexity, implementation quality, profile used, etc. But going to low shouldn't cause the picture to stop, just fill with compression artifacts.
Often, video completely stopping means you've had transfer issues. If you remove the satellite link, does the video freeze still occur? Cheap satellite links (i.e., those costing less than $1000/mbit/mo) are notorious for dropping, reordering, and delaying packets. If the freezes occur without the satellite link, I'd guess your cameras have a deficient H.264 implementation, or at least one not designed for 1FPS.
Your camera's H.264 implementation may be taking 192kbps as 192kbps average, with a buffer of X bytes. So on the first frame it may generate a lot more than 192kbit, expecting to make it up later (buffer size may be assumed to be 1 megabyte or even larger). And then, the satellite link is pegged for a few seconds as it transmits that "buffered" amount.
Lowering framerate on H.264 doesn't save nearly as much bandwidth as you'd expect, due to there being large differences between each frame. But it degrades visual quality at least as much as you expect. So its often a bad trade-off. Also, various H.264 options can increase compression, but result in multi-frame decode delays. At 1FPS, that is really noticeable.
At 1FPS, who knows how often your camera is generating keyframes.
I'd suggest sending some data encoded with X264 (or ffmpeg, which uses it). See if that works. Its probably a better implementation than your cameras feature. It also lets you tweak buffer sizes (you probably want a low one, unless you're buffering on the receiving end).
Answer: The correct answer unfortunately is that there is no correct answer.
The need for bitrate really depends on the actual implementation. For example there can be anything from 20% to 40% difference in bit rate requirement between best and worst H.264 encoders.
Also, it grossly depends on what acceptable quality - do you really want broadcast quality or you don't mind blockiness than bit rate requirement can be drastic.
As a rough estimate - Very good hardware encoders can do good D1 resolution @ 25 FPS at 1 to 1.2 Mbps. Now if you reduce frame rate to 1 FPS the bit rate won't go down by 25 time low though. Since must of the resultant compression is due to temporal redundancy. So best bet is to have something around 1/4th of bit rate from above. So good encoder should be able to do your job below 200 to 300 kbps.  Though, this all depends on actual encoder.
Comment: We are using H.264 cameras. What do you mean by hardware encoder? Will I need an encoder if the cameras encode themselves? Also, 200 to 300 kbps seems extremely high. Are you sure I can't get by on 64 kbps?


Debugging: understanding details on why certain fixes worked?

Question: When debugging, I sometimes find that I make some changes and I am not 100% sure why those changes correct some bug in the program. Is it essential to understand every single detail about why some bugs were occurring and why certain changes eliminated those bugs? Or is it common among developers to sometimes get the program working without really knowing the details about why the fix worked?
Comment: How would you convince anybody that you were done fixing the bug, otherwise?
Comment: related: [Bug fixing appproach](http://programmers.stackexchange.com/q/150624/31260) "Usually, you try to find out the actual cause for the bug to occur and then fix it. But sometimes what I do when I'm fed up of doing some research (and can't find suitable information on the internet) is just change the logic, which takes me much less time compared to the other option..."
Answer: I would say that it is essential to understand every single detail about why some bugs were occurring and why certain changes eliminated those bugs, and it is also common among developers to sometimes get the program working without really knowing the details about why the fix worked!
The art of changing things until a bug disappears, without understanding what caused it or why the change fixed it, is often called "voodoo programming," and it's not a compliment. There is really no way you can possibly be confident that you have genuinely fixed a bug, as opposed to partially fixing it for the particular case you were investigating, if you don't understand what caused it.
In the worst case, you haven't done anything at all except move the bug: I remember from first year computing at uni, when many students were learning C and pointers for the first time, pointer bugs would often stop manifesting when they changed things randomly, because the changes would rearrange data structures in memory enough to make the pointer bug stomp over a different bit of memory. Obviously that hasn't helped at all.
But having said that, the commercial realities of programming are often such that satisfying the client that a bug is fixed is more important than satisfying yourself. I'd never recommend you declare something fixed if you had no idea what caused it, but if you can see that some code was problematic, and you reworked it, even if you're "not 100% sure" how that caused the specific bug to manifest, sometimes you just have to move on to the next bug before the client screams too loudly about your slow progress.
Answer: If you think a client is mad about it taking too long to fix a bug, imagine how mad they will be about a bug recurring that you claimed was fixed, or a fix for one thing making something else worse.  If your fix is only a workaround or mitigation, customers will usually still welcome it, but you must be honest about what it is, and you put as much logging as you need in order to fix it for real.
If you're pretty sure you fixed it, but don't know why the fix works, ask someone.  Most engineers I know love to get questions like that because of the mystery behind it.
Comment: I agree you should definitely not claim it as "fixed" if you aren't certain it hasn't just been moved or concealed. Still, it won't be too terrible to acknowledge that you "fixed a problem area in related code" and are now "unable to reproduce the bug" -- in the past my teams have logged these as "CNR in v"
Answer: Changing stuff until the bug is no longer there is generally bad practice, but unfortunately a reality for some people.
I'm of the strong opinion that you should never write code that you don't understand what it does or why it does it. How can you be sure that even though you've fixed the bug you've set out to fix - you haven't broken anything else?
Generally, before you fix a problem/bug - you should be doing an underlying cause assessment/analysis to determine why the issue is occurring and if it can be replicated. Then you should be reading the code and understanding why the code is causing the bug to happen. Once you have that understanding: then you can start to look at how the resolve the issue and determining other areas that your change(s) will impact. Unit tests can really help here!
I've seen a number of code changes that people have made to fix an issue (which is great), but it unfortunately introduced other issues because the developer was unaware of the full impact of what they changed. Many of these "fixes" just obscure the underlying cause of the original issue as well as introducing complexity and more bugs.
Having said that, I've fixed a number of issues in code purely by association. Where I've changed/reworked/refactored something and it fixed other outstanding bugs. So although I don't know what caused them originally, I found dodgy code and "fixed" it - which happened to fix those bugs too. I cover changes like this with unit and integration tests to ensure the integrity of the business and technical requirements of the function.
Answer:
Or is it common among developers to sometimes get the program working
  without really knowing the details about why the fix worked?

There are at least three big problems with that:

It leads to a black magic mindset where you give up on the idea that you can understand the code and instead just start moving parts around hoping that problems will go away. This is the programming equivalent of pushing food around on your plate, hoping to make your dinner look sufficiently eaten that your parents won't make you eat more of your vegetables.
You can't know that the bug is actually fixed or just masked by your change unless you understand a) what the problem was, and b) how your change solves the problem.
The bug is probably not fixed, and it's going to bite you again in the near future.
Answer: I see two scenarios: you worked on something else and the bug stopped happening, as long as the something else hasn't broken anything else, you pretty much have to let that go in--you did what was needed/wanted and it had an unforeseen and inexplicable positive side effect.
The other is that you are working on this bug and a random change made things work, that's unacceptable.  If you have no idea what the old code was doing wrong, you probably have no idea what the new code is doing wrong.
I can't really think of a good reason to checkin the second case -- if it's a critical bug, then it's critical to get it right.  If it's a non-critical bug, at least you can be sure that you are not introducing a critical bug with your "fix".
Answer:
Or is it common among developers to sometimes get the program working
  without really knowing the details about why the fix worked?

I for one think it is very very common these days. That's because of Google and Stackoverflow. You have a problem with your code, just google it, find solution, fixed, move on to the next problem.


feliz vs. alegre vs. dichoso

Question: I recently heard dichoso used to mean feliz. Looking up dichoso in a dictionary shows it means "happy" (or "blessed"). What is the difference between dichoso, feliz, and alegre to mean "happy"? Are they synonyms, or do they have slightly different connotations?
Answer: In Spain, "dichoso" is archaic or jocose. "Alegre" or "contento" usually refer to a temporary mood, while "feliz" denotes a more permanent state. In fact, "alegre" corresponds more to cheerful than to happy.
Examples:

Ya terminé el trabajo por hoy.
¡Dichoso tú!
-> (- I finished my work for today, - You lucky bastard!)

Estoy contento de que vengas -> I'm glad you came.
Es un niño muy alegre -> He's a cheerful child.
Parece alegre, pero en realidad no es feliz -> He seems cheerful, but he is not really happy
Answer: I really don't see a major difference between the 3 words when they are used to indicate happiness; however, alegre is used in contexts in which feliz and dichoso cannot be used or it would have a different meaning. For example:

Ese camisa es de colores muy alegres
Ella es una mujer de la vida alegre
Answer: "Dichoso" and "feliz" are basically the same, although "feliz" is used more often.
They represent mostly an inner state.
"Alegre" is often used to express an exterior behavior more temporal than the others.
For example:
"Soy alegre" could mean that I am always smiling, with positive energy, and so on (exterior signs of happiness).
But "Soy feliz" means that I am happy, or have peace, not only right now, but in general in my life and it does not necessarily imply that I am showing exterior signs of my happiness to the world.
In the other hand: "estoy alegre", "estoy feliz" or "estoy dichoso", have more or less the same meaning: "I am happy" (now).

feliz vs. alegre vs. dichoso


Using commercial (breakfast) cereals in a mash

Question: This question looks similar to Using flakes in a mash, but is not actually the same. I was thinking, if someone runs out of maize flakes, and definitely wants to use some for his mash, what happens if he uses corn flakes? Anyone can see that they are not just maize flakes, but also contain other nutrients, some of them actually being sugars, but are the flakes themselves fermentable? In the same spirit, around my place they sell some rice crackers that are not actually baked, but are more like rice popcorn pressed into cracker form. What happens if someone uses these?
Answer: If you use corn meal, you'll need to do a cereal mash to gelatinize the starches before adding it to the mash.  I tend to use instant grits or polenta so you can skip the cereal mash.  At one of our club's Iron Brewer contests, I made breakfast cereal the secret ingredient.  The contestants got cocoa puffs, Fruit Loops, a cinnamon wheat cereal, and Lucky Charms to use in their beers.  Post fermentation you couldn't really detect any of the character of the cereals used.
Answer: In one of the Basic Brewing Radio podcasts I listened to recently, John Palmer mentioned making an American lager with "corn meal right off the shelf" as an adjunct.
If I were in a pinch, I'd rather use corn meal than a breakfast cereal, which has dozens of ingredients, including butylated hydroxytoluene.
On the other hand, actually making applejack with Apple Jacks® could be fun. And what better way to get that characteristic fruity, estery aroma into your ESB than Froot Loops®?
(In case it sounds like I'm being sarcastic, I'm not. An ESB "dry-hopped" with Froot Loops® sounds like just the thing to stick it to people who take their beer too seriously.)
Comment: What is the difference between "corn meal right of the shelf" and ground cornmeal?
Comment: There is none..
Comment: I've 'dry looped' a basic wheat ale, turned out fantastic.
Comment: I find that fruit loops taste a lot like corander seeds.  Or, rather, when I smell coriander seeds, I think of fruit loops.  Both are estery, with a slight sweet citrus smell to them.  It would be interesting to compare a dry-looped beer to one that was dry-coriandered...
Answer: I did a Grape Nuts triple last year at 9.42% which was awesome. The cereal was in the mash and the characteristics were evident when poured. Awesome aroma. I used two boxes. I'm making an IPA today with two boxes of Golden Crisp. Very excited about that.
Comment: Did the cereal give you extra fermentable sugars? You used 2 boxes of cereal for a batch of what size?


How to check parameters on a shape?

Question: Sometimes shapes would have parameters like a stoke or rounded corners, but once the shape is drawn, I can't find how to see or change these parameters. Ideas?
Answer: I only have CS 5.1, but this is how I would do it:
To change the stroke of the shape and open up Layer > Layer Styles > Stroke.
As for the corner radius, it's probably easier to just redraw the shape. But you can adjust the handles/anchors using the Direct Selection Tool if you really want to.
Comment: ermm... you have an Appearance Panel in Photoshop? ;)
Comment: Guess I should read the tags closer :( Edited.
Answer: You can view and/or change stroke attributes of the shape on the upper Options panel when you select your shape with Path Selection Tool (A).
You may also copy and paste fill and stroke of the shape by right-clicking on the shape layer name and selecting Copy Shape Attributes/Paste Shape Attributes
However there is now way to view or change the radius of the rounded corners after the shape has been created which I also find quite inconvenient...
Answer: @Const right - there is now way oficially...
One working trick for rectangles with same color of fill and stroke - you can use layer style and control border radius with size of stroke.
For advanced vector editing use illustrator
Answer: if you are applied stroke in layer style you can see and modify the style.
Using script plugin we can edit and see the rounded corners radius parameters in photoshop.
Here you can find the plugins.
http://photoshopscripts.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/corner-editor-photoshop-script/
http://photoshopscripts.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/rounded-rectangle-radius-resizer/
Installation
Copy and paste plugins here "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4\Presets\Scripts".
Open Photoshop file , you can run the script from File->Scripts->Corner Editor and Rounded_Rectangle_Radius_Resizer open any one plugin see the parameters and modify.

How to check parameters on a shape?


Semi-Algebraic Set of Dimension Zero is Finite

Question: Could someone lend me assistance by explaining why

a semi-algebraic set has dimension zero $\Leftrightarrow$ it is finite or empty

is true or by giving a reference?
Answer: You can find it all in   Bochnak,Coste,Roy: Real Algebraic Geometry:
(1) up to semi-algebraic homeomorphism, every semi-algebraic subset
is a disjoint union of finitely many (open) hypercubes
(i.e. sets of the form $]0,1[^d$ for some $d\in\mathbf{N}$).
This is Theorem 2.3.6
(2) a nonempty open semi-algebraic subset of $R^n$ has dimension $n$.
This is Proposition 2.8.4
(3) the dimension of a finite union of semialgebraic sets $A_1,\ldots,A_p$
is $\max(\dim(A_1),\ldots,\dim(A_p))$.
This is Proposition 2.8.5(i)
(4) dimension is invariant under semialgebraic homeomorphism.
This is included in Theorem 2.8.8
Therefore, if a semi-algebraic set is zero-dimensional, its decompositon
as in (1) can only be made up from hypercubes of the form $]0,1[^0$,
i.e. points.
Answer: Wikipedia says that "it is not hard to see that a semialgebraic set lies inside an algebraic subvariety of the same dimension". That should suffice.


Are chainring bolts interchangeable?

Question: I have an 11 speed Athena chainset, and I've stripped one of the chainring bolts.
It's £40 for a replacement Campag set! Can I just buy Race Face at £4.70 and expect them to fit?
Comment: You own a Campy gruppo. Get used to spending lots of money on it ;)
Comment: I'm in the same situation! Did you find a solution?
Comment: https://clee-cycles.co.uk/P1018/product did the job for me
Answer: No, you will need a set that is Campag compatible.
Some Campagnolo cranksets use special chain ring bolt that bolt through the ring and into the crank, at least behind the arm. The Athena 11 speed appears to be one of these.
One of the 5 bolts is longer than the rest. And unlike other brands, these bolt into cranks, not into a receiving nut.
This is a picture of a compatible set.
Comment: Ah good point, but my long bolt is fine. Are the others interchangeable?
Comment: I don't know what chain ring bolts you're looking at. But it's unlikely.
Answer: It may also depend on the material and year of manufacture.  The Campagnolo spare parts list uses different codes for the carbon and alloy replacements.  For the carbon crankset, there seems to be a different code for the power torque (2011+) and ultra-torque (2010) versions too.
The image shown in the previous post looks like the 2011 and later Chorus/Record bolts (which all go into special threaded chainrings).  I would expect something like this product from BBB to be more likely to fit the Athena 11 speed carbon crank (there is a good picture here):
http://bbbcycling.com/bike-parts/chainrings/BCR-54C/
I recently bought a set of FC-AT300 bolts for my Centaur Carbon chainset, this part is listed in the 2012 catalogue as being suitable for Athena Carbon 11-speed and all other 10-speed cranksets (with black bolts).

Are chainring bolts interchangeable?