Can you get your own house?

Question: I was wondering if you can get your own house in Fallout: New Vegas like you did in Fallout 3?
Comment: Maybe you should add if you want a spoiler-free answer or not. I assumed you don't want any spoilers.
Answer: You can get your own place if you follow the main quest. For this one you can also buy upgrades.
There is an earlier opportunity to rent a motel room (forever).
Comment: @Joe: There's a campfire not far away, I think at the Goodsprings Source?
Comment: Additionally, and this is very useful early-game when you might not want to spend caps on a room, you can store items pretty much indefinitely at [The Goodsprings Schoolhouse](http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/9578/can-i-store-stuff-at-the-goodsprings-schoolhouse)
Comment: @John : other safe places in Goodsprings are the boxes between the store and the saloon, or inside the Doc's place.  (wih the boxes being convenient to stash stuff right near the workbench and reloading bench ... if only there were a campfire nearby, too)
Comment: @John : yeah, it's just a little bit of a hike, so not good when you want to finally go and process the 300lb of dirty water and 500 lbs of meat you've slowly collected.  (I need to get that ability to fast travel while overloaded perk)
Comment: @Joe: I got that one. Ironically, I haven't used it yet ...
Answer: There are two 'homes'. When you reach Novac, there is a Motel room you can rent, which is safe to store stuff and rest in, and if you complete the quest One for My Baby by accusing the actual perpetrator, you'll receive it permanently at no charge.
Further along the main quest, once you reach The Strip, you'll be given access to the Presidential Suite at the Lucky 38 Hotel and Casino. This functions more like the house you gained in FO3, in that when you dismiss companions, you can have them wait for you in the Suite, and you can purchase various 'upgrades' to add more style and functionality to the apartment. There are also several mods that add additional crafting resources or other customizations, if you're playing on the PC.
Comment: Also, snowglobes you collect are in your room in the Lucky 38, making it much like the homes in Fallout 3 (bobbleheads)
Comment: The Tops Presidential Suite (*not* the high roller suite) is also safe to store items in, once you have Benny's key.
Answer: You also get a room for free at the Wrangler once you have collected every debt and taken care of the previous debt collector (which is the last task of that quest).
Answer: You can use Victor's shack in Good Springs: that's the first house you can get. You've got a bed to sleep in, a sink which is purified, a oven to store your aids, a couple of ammo boxes to store weapons and ammo, and also a desk to store your miscellaneous stuff. It's also free of charge; there's no need to rent a motel room.
Answer: Get in a house, kill whoever is in there, and just stash your stuff there.
For example:

 Kill Victor (you are gonna do it anyway in the storyline, unless you are the kind of guy that does anything you're told and be House's dog) and take his shack.

Also, there are several abandoned places which would do just fine.
Comment: That's great advice if you want to lose all of your stuff to cell resets.
Answer: All you need to do is find Harper's Shack. It's just north and east of hidden springs. It has a campfire outside for crafting, a reloading bench, a workbench, lockers, storage boxes and a bed. The only downside is it's near a deathclaw cave. Easily avoidable and/or assaulted
Answer: The Jean Sky Diving shack, down the road from Goodsprings, is also a good storage house with only two Powder Gangers and some Bloatflies out back.
Answer: There is also an unoccupied shack right next to a burial ground near Good Springs. The only downside is there are a small portion of Radscorpians.
Answer: There is a general store in Nipton, inside there is a harmless powder ganger. Kill him. The store contains a bed and a safe you can put your stuff in.
Answer: There's 2 places that i know of,

the Penthouse Suit inside the Lucky 38 Hotel and Casino provided by Mr House when you meet him, you can customize by buying stuff
The Brotherhood of Steel Safehouse which you get from doing quests for them, since i always opt to not blow them up i have no idea if you still keep it after you get rid of them.

if your on PC there's ofcause Mods, 2 that i use is
Underground Hideout - puts a manhole in Bonnie Springs, you can do a quest to get the key or opt to skip it, inside it has a garden for growing food, water purifier, clean water sources mannequins, weapon and ammo sorter/storage, a teleporter and the terminal inside allow you to get delivery from the Crimson Caravan. you all get this sledge hammer which allows you to move the manhole so it's mobile somewhat.
there is also a setting to use the Reactor which powers the place, having the setting on means every light consumes power and the reactor needs to be refueled with some Isotope which you can buy for a couple thousand caps or you can make it using the ammo press and power cells, having every light on means the reactor uses fuel quicker but if you just have light on for the main area and the armory one isotope last a month and a few snow globes you can have the reactor fueled for quite a long time.
Vault-Tech Mobile Home this adds a man holes near a couple of Powder Ganger camps just a bit west of Good Springs, inside is a Vault-Tech Facility which after searching, hacking, and blowing up robots gets you a trailer, inside it has all you need plus the computer allows you to change the internal design and move the trailer to any key place which means from the beginning you can zoom right off to places like Nellis Air force Base and in doesn't take time so in hardcore you Sleep, Food and Water needs wont increase.
the facility also have truck loads of rations which if you play hardcore means you don't have to worry about food
both mods have the basics, beds, containers where you can store your stuff, toilets to drink from, and both mods put the home in the map for fast travel. i use the Underground Hideout as my main base only in Good psrings and use the Mobile Home to jump only to places i can fast travel to cut down on travel time to others nearby

Can you get your own house?


Dimensionless Constants in Physics

Question: Forgive me if this topic is too much in the realm of philosophy. John Baez has an interesting perspective on the relative importance of dimensionless constants, which he calls fundamental like alpha, versus dimensioned constants like $G$ or $c$ [ http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/constants.html ]. What is the relative importance or significance of one class versus the other and is this an area that physicists have real concerns or expend significant research?
Answer: first of all, the question you are asking is very important and you may master it completely.
Dimensionful constants are those that have units - like $c, \hbar, G$, or even $k_{\rm Boltzmann}$ or $\epsilon_0$ in SI. The units - such as meter; kilogram; second; Ampere; kelvin - have been chosen partially arbitrarily. They're results of random cultural accidents in the history of mankind. A second was original chosen as 1/86,400 of a solar day, one meter as 1/40,000,000 of the average meridian, one kilogram as the mass of 1/1,000 cubic meters (liter) of water or later the mass of a randomly chosen prototype, one Ampere so that $4\pi \epsilon_0 c^2$ is a simple power of 10 in SI units, one Kelvin as 1/100 of the difference between the melting and boiling points of water.
Clearly, the circumference of the Earth, the solar day, a platinum prototype brick in a French castle, or phase transitions of water are not among the most "fundamental" features of the Universe. There are lots of other ways how the units could be chosen. Someone could choose 1.75 meters - an average man's height - to be his unit of length (some weird people in the history have even used their feet to measure distances) and he could still call it "one meter". It would be his meter. In those units, the numerical values of the speed of light would be different.
Exactly the products or ratios of powers of fundamental constants that are dimensionless are those that don't have any units, by definition, which means that they are independent of all the random cultural choices of the units. So all civilizations in the Universe - despite the absence of any interactions between them in the past - will agree about the numerical value of the proton-electron mass ratio - which is about $6\pi^5=1836.15$ (the formula is just a teaser I noticed when I was 10!) - and about the fine-structure constant, $\alpha\sim 1/137.036$, and so on.
In the Standard Model of particle physics, there are about 19 such dimensionless parameters that "really" determine the character of physics; all other constants such as $\hbar,c,G,k_{\rm Boltzmann}, \epsilon_0$ depend on the choice of units, and the number of independent units (meter, kilogram, second, Ampere, Kelvin) is actually exactly large enough that all those constants, $\hbar,c,G,k_{\rm Boltzmann},\epsilon_0$, may be set equal to one which simplifies all fundamental equations in physics where these fundamental constants appear frequently. By changing the value of $c$, one only changes social conventions (what the units mean), not the laws of physics.
The units where all these constants are numerically equal to 1 are called the Planck units or natural units, and Max Planck understood that this was the most natural choice already 100 years ago. $c=1$ is being set in any "mature" analysis that involves special relativity; $\hbar=1$ is used everywhere in "adult" quantum mechanics; $G=1$ or $8\pi G=1$ is sometimes used in the research of gravity; $k_{\rm Boltzmann}=1$ is used whenever thermal phenomena are studied microscopically, at a professional level; $4\pi\epsilon_0$ is just an annoying factor that may be set to one (and in Gaussian 19th century units, such things are actually set to one, with a different treatment of the $4\pi$ factor); instead of one mole in chemistry, physicists (researchers in a more fundamental discipline) simply count the molecules or atoms and they know that a mole is just a package of $6.022\times 10^{23}$ atoms or molecules.
The 19 (or 20?) actual dimensionless parameters of the Standard Model may be classified as the three fine-structure constants $g_1,g_2,g_3$ of the $U(1)\times SU(2)\times SU(3)$ gauge group; Higgs vacuum expectation value divided by the Planck mass (the only thing that brings a mass scale, and this mass scale only distinguishes different theories once we also take gravity into account); the Yukawa couplings with the Higgs that determine the quarks and fermion masses and their mixing. One should also consider the strong CP-angle of QCD and a few others.
Once you choose a modified Standard Model that appreciates that the neutrinos are massive and oscillate, 19 is lifted to about 30. New physics of course inflates the number. SUSY described by soft SUSY breaking has about 105 parameters in the minimal model.
The original 19 parameters of the Standard Model may be expressed in terms of more "fundamental" parameters. For example, $\alpha$ of electromagnetism is not terribly fundamental in high-energy physics because electromagnetism and weak interactions get unified at higher energies, so it's more natural to calculate $\alpha$ from $g_1,g_2$ of the $U(1)\times SU(2)$ gauge group. Also, these couplings $g_1,g_2$ and $g_3$ run - depend on the energy scale approximately logarithmically. The values such as $1/137$ for the fine-structure constant are the low-energy values, but the high-energy values are actually more fundamental because the fundamental laws of physics are those that describe very short-distance physics while long-distance (low-energy) physics is derived from that.
I mentioned that the number of dimensionless parameters increases if you add new physics such as SUSY with soft breaking. However, more complete, unifying theories - such as grand unified theories and especially string theory - also imply various relations between the previously independent constants, so they reduce the number of independent dimensionless parameters of the Universe. Grand unified theories basically set $g_1=g_2=g_3$ (with the right factor of $\sqrt{3/5}$ added to $g_1$) at their characteristic "GUT" energy scale; they may also relate certain Yukawa couplings.
String theory is perfectionist in this job. In principle, all dimensionless continuous constants may be calculated from any stabilized string vacuum - so all continuous uncertainty may be removed by string theory; one may actually prove that it is the case. There is nothing to continuously adjust in string theory. However, string theory comes with a large discrete class of stabilized vacua - which is at most countable and possibly finite but large. Still, if there are $10^{500}$ stabilized semi-realistic stringy vacua, there are only 500 digits to adjust (and then you may predict everything with any accuracy, in principle) - while the Standard Model with its 19 continuous parameters has 19 times infinity of digits to adjust according to experiments.
Comment: It might be interesting to note here that before Luboš was 10 years old, The coincidental similarity between the proton-to-electron mass ratio and the number $6\pi^5$ was noted and published in possibly the shortest PRL ever (one single sentence!) by Friedrich Lenz [PRL 82, 554 (1951)].
Comment: This is very interesting.I am sure that I would reject the paper if I were the referee.
Comment: I concede; this was physics question not a philosophy one. Many thanks.
Answer: Only dimensionless quantities are important. They are just pure numbers and there can't be any ambiguity about their value. This is not so with dimensionful quantities. E.g. if I tell you my speed $v$ relative to you is $0.5\, \rm speedons$ that doesn't give you much information as I have a freedom to define my $\rm speedon$ units any way I want. Only way I can give you some information is if I give you dimensionless quantity like $v/c = 0.5$.
Now what we need to make dimensionful quantities dimensionless is some reference scale (in previous example it was $c$). We can in principle choose any scale we want but usually it will be something from day to day experience. E.g. you choose meter to be what it is so that stuff you usually encounter (other people, houses, trees, etc.) is of the order $\sim 1$ with respect to meter. These is how all our units originated. Naturally, there's nothing particularly special about humans and the scales they usually work with. We know there are lots of important scales as we go down to atomic and nuclear sizes. We also know there is more important speed scale (namely, ultra-relavistic $v/c \to 1$). And so on.
Still, we need to choose some units to work with to be able to compute anything and it would be nice to choose some units that wouldn't suffer from the above-mentioned arbitrariness. It turns out we are in luck because Nature has given us few special constants. Each of them is related to some fundamental theory ($c$ in special relativity, $G$ in gravity, $\hbar$ in quantum mechanics, etc.). It would be silly not to exploit this generous gift. So we can talk about speeds being 0.9 (meaning actually $v/c$), action of 20 ($=S/\hbar$) and so on. This system of units is called Planck's and while it's not used in day to day life for obvious reasons, it's very useful anytime we deal with fundamental physics.
Answer:
(...) is this an area that physicists have real concerns or expend
  significant research?

Interestingly, Paul Dirac did some research on Cosmology, based on the consideration of dimensionless combinations of numbers approaching the unity, that are built from fundamental physical quantities. The combinations mixed micro-physical quantities like the electron charge with cosmological parameters like the Hubble constant. This is an example, extracted from Coles/Lucchin Cosmology book (Wiley, 2nd ed 2002):
$ \frac{e^{4}H_{0}}{Gm_{p}m_{e}^{2}c^{3}} \simeq 1$
Assuming the validity of this relation has interesting implications: since $H_{0}$ evolves with time, one or more of the so-called fundamental constants that appear in the equation must vary in time too. This lead to some attempts to build theories with different past values of the gravitational constant.
The theory is almost forgotten. It is still not fully clear if he opened a Pandora's box of numerology speculation, of if something with deep physical, still unveiled meaning is hidden there. The current explanations for these numerical coincidences(?) is the Weak Anthropic Principle, which seems to me at least as speculative and philosophical as the original idea of Dirac.
Here is a link to the full text of a Dirac paper about the question, in 1974:
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/78591?uid=3737952&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21101428637013
Answer: The universe can be described within a formal mathematical framework, all physical quantities can therefore be described using equation that contain only dimensionless numbers. Now, given any set of equations, you are always free to introduce scaling variables allowing you to study certain scaling limits of the theory. The universe as we experience it can be accurately described as a degenerate scaling limit that requires introducing 3 scaling variables and then taking a scaling limit in the right order. That degenerate limit is what we call "classical physics".
Since we are not exactly at the scaling limit, the scaling variables are not actually at their limiting values (infinite or zero). But to obtain classical physics exactly, you do need to send these variables to their appropriate limits. Since we started out with almost zero knowledge of the laws of physics several centuries ago, we needed to find out how the universe works by doing experiments. But since we live in almost the scaling limit, what happens is that certain relations between observables are very difficult to observe (exactly at the scaling limit, you can end up with singular equations, you then lose  relations between physical variables). It then looks like a complete description of the Universe requires a few independent physical variables that cannot be related to each other.
We then developed a mathematical formalism that imposes this incompatibility via the introduction of "dimensions". When we later learned about how these supposedly incompatible quantities are actually related, we found these relations with the scaling variables appearing as dimensionfull constants in the equations that when expressed in the old units, have a very large or small magnitude.
Answer: Speaking of the electron-proton mass ratio (which is about 1/1836), Lubosh found it might be connected with $\pi$, and I think it is kind of a coupling constant in the Hydrogen atom.
The atom has the center of inertia variables and internal motion variables. When an external force is applied to the atomic nucleus, the atom is accelerated as a whole and its internal motion can also be excited. The ratio $m_e/m_p$ determines efficiency of "pumping" the internal degrees of freedom of an atom with an external force acting on the nucleus.
EDIT: Seeing so many downvotes, I changed my mind. I agree with Lubosh: $m_p/m_e = 6\pi^5$ and has nothing to do with physics :-(.
Comment: It was a complement, not a comment.
Comment: Notwithstanding the truth value of that proposition, this isn't an answer. It's just a comment. Please post comments as such. By doing that, you'll save time of lots of people who have to click down-vote button ;)

Dimensionless Constants in Physics


How do vampires work exactly?

Question: Do they have to be feeding to use their abilities?  Or do they only feed to recover from Hunger stress after using their abilities and failing the stress attack at the end of the scene?
Answer: They only usually need to feed if their powers are shut down due to feeding failure
Okay, so on a creature that has a Feeding Dependency you generally only need to feed in order to gain back powers or stress lost to Feeding Failure. In which case, you would follow the rules outlined under the Feeding Dependency (namely you can recover all stress and powers if you kill someone while feeding, otherwise you regain 1 refresh worth of powers when you spend a scene "feeding" usually off camera).
However, you can always compel the high concept of a vampire in order to try and make them feed.

I'll give you this shiny fate point if you lose control and try to feed on that human who's bleeding from the leg...

Note that the more powers a vampire uses in a scene increases the odds that they're going to take hunger stress at the end of it. For more information about how the Hunger Stress track works, see here: What happens when a character's feeding stress track is maxed out?
Answer: On page 188-189 of Your World, under Blood Drinker and Emotional Vampire, it effectively says that you get an extra +1 against someone when you're feeding on them, and a free 'recovery period' when you kill someone from feeding.  There are no other explicit constraints that I see.
Now, if you have a Feeding Dependency (YW190), then that will limit your power usage based upon how often you get to feed, and is very clearly stated in the RAW.  Perhaps you could broaden your question?

How do vampires work exactly?


All Around Workhorse Studio Mics

Question: I'm starting a small project studio & I need a couple of relatively inexpensive versatile workhorse mics that can do it all (at least to start). I've looked at the AKG C2000B & C1000S to start with. Any experience with these? Any other suggestions?
Answer: I have no experience with those mics that you mentioned, but a common response to this question on other forums is a Shure SM-57.  It is a simple dynamic cardioid mic that is very durable and seems to be useful in a wide variety of recording situations, but is particularly useful for recording snare drums and guitar cabinets due to its high tolerance for very loud noises.
I use one myself in a small bedroom studio and have found it to be a nice all-around mic to start with.  They're not terribly expensive either, generally being found at around $100 US new.
I often hear "every studio should have at least one of these" and I tend to agree.
Comment: I agree, I also use the SM58, fantastic little "workhorse" mic.
Comment: Bonus points for being able to be used as a hammer if you find some protruding nails in your recording space.
Comment: It's the professional standard. Can't go wrong on a SM-57 (or a couple) when starting out.
Answer: It is a good idea to have a few dynamic mikes, (Shure SM-57 or SM-58, "Beta" models are a lot prettier in my opinion, but also a bit more expensive) My advice: don't save on these mics by buying cheaper alternatives.
In addition, a few SDC (Small Diaphragm Condensor) mikes should also always come in handy. The DPA 4006 and 4011 are very hard to beat, but also very expensive ($1900 a piece). Alternatively, you could work with Neumann mics (KM183/184, KM130), they are a bit cheaper. If Neumann is still to expensive, AudioTechnica makes quite OK SDCs as well. I have a pair of very affordable custom built mics from America called 'Little Blondies', they perform fabulous on guitars and drums. See here: http://j.mp/g5mC2A (Credits to the guy who makes these!)
Then, I wouldn't record anything if I didn't have large diaphragm mics. If you can afford a AKG C414, get one. You will never regret it. Other of my favorites (more expensive) are the Neumann U87 and U89, and the TLM193. If these are all too expensive, try the cheap Studio Projects B1 (or B3 if you need multiple directionality patterns.) I heard quite some people get decent results with these.
Answer: I'm new here, but for completeness' sake, I'd like to add my two cents. A C1000 is an excellent mic in terms of versatility, and a matched pair of them have been in my mic cabinet since the beginning of time. However, it is not technically a true all around workhorse like a 57 (although apart from snare, male vox, and guitar cabinets, I don't really like 57s). C1000s are great for acoustic guitar, drum overheads, piano overheads (along with a close mic), and anywhere you need clear definition on the top end, but they seem really colored for other close-mic techniques. You may actually like that type of sound, but for me, I'd go for a large diaphragm condensor in those situations.
Answer: I have been very impressed with the Audio-Technica Pro 37.
I have several of these and use them for live reinforcement and recording. They have been very versatile and have a great sound.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Pro37/
Answer: I'm super happy with the AT2041 package, which is a very versatile combination for under $150

All Around Workhorse Studio Mics


Good resources for BMW repair, diagrams? Besides Mechanics.stackexchange.com

Question: I have a 2003 BMW 325i and I wanted to know where I could find good technical documentation on it. I presume there is a maintenance manual or a Climber guide. Being that this is the age of the internet are there any resources on online that you trust to be maintenance worthy?
Answer: The best BMW e46 manual that you will likely be able to purchase is the Bentley e46 technical guide. It's big, heavy, and expensive ($75 to $100) but it's well worth it. While you might be able to find information online about a particular repair procedure, but this manual covers everything in detail, with lots of diagrams and pictures. It's so much better than a Clymer or Haynes manual that I would not even consider those as alternative reference books. Maybe the factory BMW manual is better, but I have never actually seen one in person.
Comment: $75 to $100 for a *good* manual is not expensive at all!  My Toyota MR2 set was $350 and I have somewhere around $500 invested to get all the Mitsubishi Eclipse manuals!
Comment: As a Bentley owner myself the manual is irreplaceable.
Answer: It's not a service manual, but you can get technical drawings and parts lists from realoem.  But if you're planning on doing anything beyond changing your wiper blades, get the Bentley manual.  Sure, it's expensive for a book, but if it saves even one hour of a BMW mechanic's labor costs, you'll still come out ahead.
Answer: The AllDataDIY site is generally considered to be an authoritative source for both manuals and additional repair information such as recalls and service bulletins, part numbers, and repair time estimates.  AllData is used by many repair shops
It does require a subscription.  It looks like the minimum price-point is now $26 for a year of access for one vehicle.  They used to have a short-term option, I believe it was $5 for 3 days, but even at $26 I'd say it's easily worth it.
Although, now that I've written this, it looks like they don't have information on BMW (though they do have Audi, VW, Mercedes, Porsche, and many others).
Answer: You can also try several forums. A lot of the times on the dedicated sites, users create their own DIY guides ranging from basic repairs to more complicated builds.
http://www.e46fanatics.com/
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=15
Check out the stickied threads first, they usually have short cuts to the guides in there :)
Answer: Also try RealOEM.com, it's a great resource for parts diagrams and part numbers.
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/select.do
Answer: Here is a Q&A Site specifically targeted at BMW owners.
Answer: A good general discussion forum is BimmerForums


Compatible Iwasawa decomposition for embedding of the orthogonal Lie group

Question: I am looking for an embedding of the orthogonal Lie group
O(n,C) into GL(m,C) such that the standard Iwasawa
decomposition (also known as the QR-decomposition) for the
group GL(m,C) induces an Iwasawa decomposition for the group
O(n,C). Recall that the standard Iwasawa decomposition for
the general linear group GL(m,C)=U(m)R, with R being the
subgroup of upper-diagonal matrices with positive real
diagonal entries, and U(m) - the unitary subgroup.
Answer: There are general theorems for an arbitrary semi-simple subgroup of $GL_n({\mathbb C})$ which do this. I will work this out for $O(n,{\mathbb C})$ when $n=2m$ is even.
Fix the standard inner product with respect to which the unitary group $U(n)$ is defined. View $O(n)=O(2m)$ as the subgroup which fixes the quadratic form
$$Q=x_1x_{2m}+x_2x_{2m-1}+\cdots+ x_mx_{m+1}.$$
All this is explained in Professor Jim Humphrey's book on Lie algebras.
Then the Iwasawa decomposition of $GL_n({\mathbb C})$ restriced to $O(n)$ gives an Iwasawa decomposition on $O(n)$.


Sharepoint Design of the site and sub site Structure for maintaining data flow and maintaining permissions?

Question: My requirement is : I want to develop a site where there will be a site collection,and the root site will be for site admin who can add the data to the site and around 20 subsites which will use around 90% of data from the top level site .
My question is regarding the Design : above mentioned design is it correct ? or in the above scenario how should i go and plan the site structure and the permissions ?
Answer: As you're reusing lot of the data from the root, I would consider just using the root for everyone - and even move the 10% to the root, if possible.
If you would have subsites, but the data on root lists, you would anyway need to define permissions in two places: lists and the subsites. Assuming of course that you would like to hide the subsites from people just to keep the UI clean.
So, if you would have all data on the lists at the root site, then you would use permissions to prevent access to specific lists/items. Then use Audience targeting to display only the required web parts on the root site for correct groups of people. You can target Web Part for a Group also, not just actual audiences.
Points to notice:
- try not to make the permissions too fine-grained. More fine-grain = more administrative work to keep the permissions correct + more risk in making a mistake. So, try to avoid item level permissions and raise the permission definition level to folders or lists/libraries  at least.
- is this at all possible, considering the rest 10% of the data? Can you move it to root?
Answer: This is a broad question and there is no easy answer. But at first sight your architecture makes sense. You'll need to create site columns at the top level (most probably lookups), and consume them in your sub-sites.
Everybody will need to have read access to the top level. Then you can customize access to each sub-site.


Does Sharepoint 2013 Support SAML 2.0?

Question: As SP2010 does not support SAML 2.0, I want to know if SP2013 supports SAML 2.0 tokens?
Answer: I believe that SP2010 and SP2013 both support/utilize WIF (Windows Identity Foundation) for claims-based authentication.  (semi) Recently, there was a WIF extension released to support the SAML 2.0 protocol.
Link
With some tinkering you may be able to get something working.  I should note that I looked into this for SAML 1.1 but only found this support for SAML 2.0, so this is where my limited knowledge on the subject unfortunately ends.  Also, you should note the difference between the SAML protocols and the tokens (protocol utilizes the tokens but sometimes you only need support for the tokens themselves).  It was my finding that the tokens were better supported than the protocol.  You may be able to work with the tokens even without the above extension.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11342186/windows-identity-foundation-does-not-officially-support-saml-2-0-use-wif-ctp-or
Answer: I think SharePoint doesn't support SAML v2.0 even we are talking about WIF. I tried to handle SAML 2.0 token in SharePoint but unfortunately it seems that doesn't work so far, like SharePoint engine can't do that ;/
Answer: SharePoint 2013 only supports SAML 1.1. source
Answer: SP 2013 also does not support SAML 2.0 protocol and assertions. Because as explained in earlier reply, it is not released by MS in WIF.
Answer: SharePoint Online now supports SAML 2.0 . Check this blog for same. Also this post shows the different identity providers which are supported.

Does Sharepoint 2013 Support SAML 2.0?


How can angels "give permission" to each other?

Question: As I understood it, angels have no free will and strictly do those things G-d instructs them to do.  But in the brachas preceding krias Shema, we say that the angels "all accept upon themselves the yoke of heavenly sovereignty from one another, and grant permission to one another to sanctify the One Who formed them . . . ."  If an angel has no free will, what power does it have to grant permission to another angel to do anything?  Isn't it G-d that gives them whatever authority they have?
Comment: I wonder if "give permission" is too literal an English translation. The term r'shut in Hebrew has a wider range of meanings than simply "permission." For example, we speak of r'shut as a defined space in hilchot shabbat. Thus, in this context, I have always thought of it as expressing the concept to "make space" for each angle to perform its praise. Obviously, it wouldn't mean physical space but an attitude of non-interference. I think the meaning is simply that the angels are acknowledging each other's praises of Hashem.
Comment: I vaguely remember hearing an answer to this.  Google....
Comment: I really like this response; it would make a good answer with some citations.  What makes sense is that there are many angels that were appointed to protect each of the 70 nations.  Midrash B'reishis Rabbah 37.  As a result, some are territorial and in conflict with other angels. But G-d must have programmed them to give way to other angels for the purpose of praising the Holy One.
Answer: Tosfos to Chagiga 13b explains as follows (translation my own):

מזיעתן של חיות. ויוצאים ממנו מלאכים ואומרים שירה ומיד נטרדים והכי
  מצינו במדרש (איכה ג) חדשים לבקרים שבורא מלאכים בכל יום ואומרים שירה
  ונטרדין להן כדאמר בסמוך משום שיש אות במלאכים הקבועים שממתינים זה לזה
  לומר שירה ואלו החדשים שאינם יודעים הדת ממהרין לשורר ונתחייבו כליה
  והיינו אשר תקנו ויסדו אנשי כנסת הגדולה ביוצר ונותנין רשות זה לזה קדושה
  כולם כאחד עונין ואומרים
Angels come out of [the sweat of the Chayos] that sing praise to Hashem and immediately cease to exist. We thus find in the Midrash "They are new every morning" - Hashem creates new angles each day, and they sing praise to Him and then cease to exist. This is because there is a sign by the permanent angels who wait for each other to sing praise, and these new ones are unaware of this protocol and sing before their turn and are liable to be destroyed. This is the meaning of the prayer established by the Anshei Knesses Hagedola "And with love grant permission to each other etc."

Tosfos quotes a Midrash which explains that there are two different types of angels. Some angels are permanent, while others exist for a split second and then cease to exist. Their essence then drops into the river Dinar, which flows into Gehinom and stokes the fires over the heads of the evil "residents" there. The permanent angels wait to offer praise to HaShem until they are given permission to do so; whereas the temporal ones achieve reality and immediately give praise to HaShem without waiting for permission, and this causes their early demise into the river Dinar.
Comment: where does it speak of the 'river Dinar'?
Comment: @DoubleAA The Gemora there: ר' ירמיה בר אבא אמר אלף אלפין ישמשוניה __לנהר דינור__ שנאמר נהר דינור נגד ונפק מן קדמוהי אלף אלפין ישמשוניה ורבו רבבן קדמוהי יקומון מהיכן נפיק מזיעתן של חיות
Answer: After searching around, I found something that somewhat contradicts what I said in my earlier comment where I suggested that r'shut simply means "making space," that is, non-interference. It seems that there is an understanding that r'shut actually does mean giving permission, but the permission seems to have been ordained from a source higher than regular angels -- either a very top tier angel or actually from Hashem.
I found a discussion of this on the website Beurei Ha-Tefila compiled by Abe Katz:  http://beureihatefila.com/files/Reconciling_the_Multiple_Themes_of_Yotzer_Ohr.pdf
There, he mentions a source in Mesechet Chullin 92b. The relevent text begins with these words: "And the angel said: (Breishit 35) Let me go, for the day breaks. Jacob said to him, 'Are you a thief or a rogue that you are afraid of the morning?' He replied: 'I am an angel, and from the day that I was created my time to sing praises to the Lord had not come until now'. This supports the statement of R. Hananel in the name of Rab. For R. Hananel said in the name of Rab: Three divisions of ministering angels sing praises to the Lord daily; one proclaims: Holy, the other proclaims: Holy, and the third
proclaims: Holy is the Lord of hosts."
The discussion in Chullin goes on for some time and talks about how angels cannot perform their praises until they have permission to do so. The angels are organised into legions and types, and each type of angel must wait its turn before it can begin to sing. (There is also an issue of all angels having to wait until B'nei Yisrael sing their praises, but that's another matter.)
On the same Beurei Ha-Tefilah link mentioned above, the compiler provides two extended quotes from collections of Merkavah literature (P'sikta Rabati and Otzer Ha-Midrashim, the Einshtein edition). These quotes give detailed accounts of the divisions of angels singing praises in turn. There, it uses the language of r'shut, permission. As one division of angels finishes their praises, they "give r'shut" to the next division of angels to begin.
As to the question of free will among angels which the original question raised, I still think their "permission giving" is more of a formalized "making space" for the next division to begin at a preordained time rather than a free will decision to now allow others to have a chance to sing. If you read the Merkavah quotes, it sounds much more like a ritualized military change of guards than an open mic night where performers can decide and control when they will step aside for another performer.
Answer: The commentaries on Kedusha of shemoneh esrei (Avudarham among others) say that the angels are requesting permission from each other in order to start together.  It therefore seems that they do not need the permission because they can't praise Hashem were it not for another angel allowing them to, rather the permission is a way of expressing that they make sure everyone is ready to begin at the same time.


Is it possible to use the Google App Engine as a backend database for Android applications?

Question: I would like to write a client application for Android that uses the Google App Engine as a database backend.  My Android client would connect to the App Engine to save information, then it would connect later for reports.  Is it possible to use the App Engine as a backend like this?
Answer: If you're looking for something like the remote api that the App Engine has in python, then you'll be disappointed to find it missing in Java.
That said, absolutely nothing stops your from hitting your app and posting data either through POST / JSON / XML / any other format you can think of. The same thing goes for getting your reports back.
If security is a concern, the OAuth protocol allows you to authenticate to app engine from your android device.
This is an aside, but as far as reporting is concerned, you might not find the app engine a very suitable platform for reporting type apps. Just make sure you understand its limitations - the lack of joins, 1000 object limit, no sum / average, necessary indexes, etc. It's certainly not impossible, but do think carefully about how you're going to model your data.
Answer: Yes, it is possible.
Without more details in your question, any more details in the answer would be speculation.
Comment: There's no API - you'll have to HTTP POST and GET to pass data back and forth by hand. I'm doing that with one app and it's working fine, but it's a bit more work than just connecting to an API.
Comment: How?  I've been looking all over the documentation but can't seem to find APIs for Java that would allow a client application to directly connect to the GAE database.  Can you point me to a link that explains the API?
Answer: Yes, its very much possible. It's something I am also currently working on.
My code uses HTTP GET and HTTP POST and I am using a RESTful service on the GAE.
I'm sorry I can't provide any code because I am still learning however the library I'm using is called RESTLET. They have libraries for both GAE and Android however I'm only using RESTLET on the GAE and I'm just using the HTTP library in the Android SDK for the client.
http://www.restlet.org/
The version you require is 2.0 M6 and not the stable release.
Answer: No.
In your response to Laurence, you said you want a direct DB connetion. A client cannot connect directly to the GAE datastore. You must write web handlers to interface between the client and your data. It doesn't have to be much, but it must be something.
Answer: Yes, it is very possible.  You would not connect directly to the GAE database though.  A better architecture would be to make your app hit a URL that writes to the DB.  For example, you could set up a Struts 2 action that takes the values of your query parameters and then mutates and validates them as necessary before persisting them.


Can someone help me understand this quote about love?

Question:
Ah! a blessing beyond all fate;
  My sole mate 'tis my soul mate.

I didn't get this quote. Let me know its meaning please.
Answer: Let's break it down.

Ah!

This is an interjection that the poet uses to show us that he's very happy with what is to follow.

a blessing beyond all fate.

Here the poet calls his beloved a blessing, and not just an ordinary one — he feels so blessed by the love of his beloved, that it's like he's been granted extra-special favor by God, as if he'd escaped mortality; that is the "beyond all fate." The allusion here comes by Greek mythology, and the Fates, the goddesses who were supposed to spin the story of mortals' lives on their looms; in the arms of his beloved, the author feels as if he's escaped their control.

My sole mate 'tis my soul mate.

The oomph of this line comes from the poet's managing to pun on the homophones sole and soul, and at the same time saying something profound and sweet. Sole means "only, singly", while soul is defined as the universal "essence" of a person; these are both combined with mate, so that sole mate means here "my only mate (or girl)" and soul mate means "the mate with which I share an essential emotional bond."  It usually has the connotation in English of "the boy or girl I was destined to fall in love with and marry."
So, if we recapitulate everything, in my crudely paraphrased form, it is like this:

Ah, I'm happy! In this love, I've been granted an extra special blessing by God. [Why am I so happy?] Because my only mate, the only girl I'm pursuing right now, is one I share the deepest possible emotional bond with; she's the one I was "destined" for.
Comment: ah *that* "sole", so he's not in love with his shoe ;)
Comment: @Jose: not in love with a fish, either.
Answer: It makes use of the homophones 'sole' and 'soul' for poetic effect.
'Sole mate' meaning one's only friend or companion, 'soul mate' being someone with whom one has a close personal bond.
I suppose it's commenting on the good fortune of having your only companion also be someone with whom you are intimately connected at a deep emotional level.
Answer: Beyond (or maybe below :-) other answers is the pun 'sole mate' and 'soul mate,' which the poem poet perhaps intends aaaaagh! intentional fallacy alert! perhaps includes as a kind of marketing technique.


How Do I make My Casserole (with Noodles) Less Dry?

Question: Okay, I know why pasta absorbs the sauce and it can be dry if left in the sauce, but what about making it not so dry in a casserole you cook in the oven?  Did a great casesrolle last night and it was REALLY dry!  Do I need to begin with more sauce?
Comment: Was it densely packed? If you have decent-sized noodles that don't pack well (e.g. penne) maybe you just had a lot of air in it, so it was able to dry out quickly?
Comment: Can you list the recipe you used?
Answer: First, you might want to try parboiling (cooking about halfway) the pasta to remove some of the starch and help the pasta absorb some water before combining it with the liquid in your casserole.
Second, if you didn't already, I would rinse the pasta before cooking it in a casserole. Because it is mostly flour, pasta obviously contains a lot of starch, a lot of which gets transferred to its cooking liquid. If that cooking liquid is your casserole, then the starch will combine with the liquid and thicken everything as if you were adding flour to it.
Third, I would cover the casserole to prevent liquid from evaporating during cooking. If your casserole depends on a browned top, just crank up the temperature for the first few minutes and place your casserole on the top rack close to the burner, then after 5-10 minutes, reduce the temperature to the recipe temp and cover with foil.
And of course, you can always add more liquid! This may not be ideal, so I would try the first three techniques above, and only add liquid as a last resort.
Answer: What are you making?  I make a casserole which consists of rotini, ground beef, onions, tomatoes, and a few other things. I also don't like a dry casserole. What do I do to combat this? I add beef stock. It's a beef based casserole, I add beef stock. Water will 'dilute' the overall flavor of the dish. But if you use stock - well, that just enhances the flavor. Give it a try.
However, in a nutshell, if you want a casserole to be less dry, you need to add more liquid.


What about corking beer?

Question: I'd like to start corking some of my more delicate brews. Is there a reason to switch to corking? Certain styles?
And, is it difficult/recommended for a small setup?
Thanks.
Answer: Actually, its more than aesthetics.
Most of the Belgian styles of beers require higher than typical carbonation levels.  This requires stronger bottles.  It just so happens the majority of the easiest bottles to get your hands on for bottling very spritzy belgian styles are only corkable versions.
Thats the reason to get into corking.
Answer: I don't have first hand experience. but since the site is new and some content is better than none I'd pontificate a bit.  You will need or at least want a floor corker to be able to put in champagne corks they take a lot of pressure.  Other than the presentation of a cool ass corked bottle there is little reason to cork beers.
It would be worth looking into oxygen infiltration between crown caps and corks. I'm not sure which is better.  I didn't find any info after a couple of searches.
Answer: BYO magazine had an article about corking a couple issues ago. Like unknown said, there's no real reason, other than presentation of a great beer. A tripel clone I made over the summer would have been a perfect candidate, if I felt like putting in the time/expense.
I have the corker (I also make wine), but I would have had to buy bottles, and that's too expensive for a whim.
Answer: It is primarily aesthetics thing... I've seen many meads that are sealed with a cork.  Also waxing the cork/crown can help with oxygen ingress.
Answer: I just bought a Portugese Floor Corker, and find corking to be a lot easier than bottling. Initially, I was soaking my corks in Star San but that was causing infections-- I recommend you do not soak your corks in anything before corking your bottles.
Answer: I saved and cleaned my Belgian style bottles and corked a Belgian Strong Ale last year.  I steamed the corks for 10 minutes to sanitize and because it made them much easier to insert in the bottles. I learned this technique from an experienced wine maker.

What about corking beer?


Is pouring down on a lager yeast cake any different from pouring down on an ale yeast cake?

Question: I've made pouring down on the yeast cake of a prior batch my standard way of making big beers.  Now I'm moving into lagers and I want to know if there's any difference. Lagers have a much higher recommended pitching rate, so I'd assume that pouring down is a good idea as long as trub doesn't become an issue.
Answer: The pitch rate for lagers is generally twice that of an ale.  However, pitching onto a used yeast cake generally results in overpitching by a factor of around 100.  Overpitching by this amount is never recommended.
In any case, it does make beer, and works for both ales and lagers with the same effects.
Comment: I was going to say: "No there is no difference. Both cases are bad ideas."
Answer: Some people make a 2 gallon batch of lager and ferment it warm, then just pour the beer off the yeast/trub directly down the sink and pitch the "real" lager wort on that cake. I'd say if the original batch was 5 gallons, then split the cake into thirds. Pitch on one and store the other two (after washing) in the fridge for your next lager starter.


Does ranking depend on the number of pages in a website?

Question: Assuming a website offers a great service on one unique page, will it be negatively impacted regarding ranking because this website URL only has one page? In other words, is there a ranking benefit in having many pages in a given website? Or does it not matter, ranking is always per page, not per website?
Answer: Ranking is per page. Indeed, when you search something on Google, it shows different pages (different URLs): one page = one URL.
However, you can rank well with service with only one page but in that case, you can't optimize SEO with internal links...
Big websites are good chances to rank better because keywords are displayed on many pages that are linked each other.
Moreover, Google like crawling often updated websites. With only one page, it's hard to say to Google you often update your website (or webpage).
In your case, you can read this to create a perfect page for SEO.
Answer: A website that has more pages on a single subject generally is much easier to rank since Google will treat that site with more authority. So yes the more content you have the better but this doesn't mean you can't rank a 1 page site.
How To Rank a 1 Page Site
Authority is Key
Ensure that the one page site your making contains information on as few subjects as possible. The more you try to cover more on one page will only dilute the authority. So for example if your site is about Cats, try not to speak about Dogs too much and never talk about your Ford Car for etc.
Unique Content
Ensure that you have unique text and lots of images on the page, since your site is only one page you really want a lot of information on that page, however don't bloat it just for the sake of the rankings. SOMETIMES! LESS IS MORE! You may need to check your site more regularly for content copiers.
Making Your Content Super Easy to Read
With making big sites its often a daunting task to make sure your pages are easy to read, lucky enough you want to create a one page site so this is rather easy. Ensure that you check your pages for Readability before going live as this can help rankings.
Don't Forget the Key Elements
You should ensure your page contains the key elements such as:

Good Title Tag
Good Meta Description
Good use of H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6
Good use of alt image descriptions
Avoid unnecessary bloating of keywords, focus on experience.

HTML5 Can help!!
While HTML5 does not majorly help SEO at present it does help and may help more in the future. Since your site won't have many pages you can easily use good HTML5 and Rich Snippets. A typical example of how you should proceed with HTML5 would look something like...

        <hgroup>

Company Name

Company Slogan

Menu 1

Menu 2

Menu 3

        <hgroup>

Some text about your company

Service 1

Information about Service 1

Service 2

Information about Service 2

Service 2

Information about Service 2

Copyright Information

External Link 1

External Link 2

External Link 3

Internal Anchors
You can opt to use a menu at the top which uses a smooth scroll to elements of the page, this is considered good for internal anchors which may help your SEO.
Google Loves Fresh Content
Normally Google loves sites that regularly build content, since you are using one page you should try and revisit your pages and spice them up regularly this can be from one week or up to a month depending how much time you want to spend on it. It's worth mentioning that this isn't essential but it may help.
Social Media Signals
Social media can be a great way of getting direct traffic and back links to your site, it may also help your Trust-ability with Google.
Backlinks - Less Requires More
It is possible to rank sites with THIN content but it just takes more, so it is possible but you will need more quality back links. Since your site is small you should focus primary on providing a rich experience with content that people want to link too. If you can't get this right then your site will fail.
Comment: I can't understand why this answer is downvoted


If the position of objects change will the same script work?

Question: I am testing a Java applet with QTP.I am adding the objects in the applet to my object repository.I am able to create an action that works with the objects in Objects Repository.My doubt is if an object is moved from the current location to some other.Will my script work?If not how to overcome this issue?
Answer: Anytime ordinal position values for x,y coordinates or indexes are used in a test script there is a high probability of failure. Not only will the test throw a false positive if the object is moved, but also consider different screen resolutons, and different devices. In general ordinal values for objects is generallly not a good practice in robust test automation. A better solution would be to use object properties as suggested by Kanishka.
Answer: depend on what you have in mandatory and assistive properties. also if you are not using any of these and you are using Ordinal identifier such as Index there are chances that the script will fail.


Distribution of each element and molecule as a function of distance from the Sun and as a function of time

Question: Are there any graphs that show the distribution of each element and molecule as a function of distance from the Sun?
And maybe even the time-evolution of each distribution over the solar system's lifetime?
Comment: There are two questions here, one in the title and one in the body; I suggest that you combine your queries into the body of your question so that it can be read in its entirety. Right now, this is as risk of people answering either / or.
Comment: [Yes, absolutely](http://www.librarising.com/astrology/fwa/planetelement.html).
Answer: What you're likely looking for is referred to by the heliophysics community as 'solar wind composition'.
You might be able to model it over longer periods, or greater regions, but for the most point, the data's collected by various spacecraft, so it's a point-in-space-and-time for the most part.  (well, it's a path in space-time, but it's not like we've got 4-dimensional data with good coverage).  You might get some measurements of variations over the solar cycle from spacecraft at L1, like from SOHO or ACE, or even some of the near-earth spacecraft, but all of these are going to be affected by the earth's magnetosphere.
Probably the best place to look for what instruments various heliophysics spacecraft have on them is the Virtual Space Physics Observatory.  The data classification they're using breaks composition down into a few different categories, so using the restriction:

Measurement type contains ('Dust' OR 'Energetic Particles' OR 'Ion Composition' OR 'Neutral Gas' OR 'Thermal Plasma')

returns 393 datasets ... as you want graphs, add:

Resource type equals 'Display(Plot)'

Which returns 30 datasets ... stuff from Cluster, DMSP, GOES, IMP 8, SAMPEX, Ulysses, Voyager 1&2, IMAGE, Geotail, ACE, Doublestar, Wind, MPA, FAST and Genesis.
There may be more composition information that's inferred from spectrometry, but neither that nor the solar wind data is really stuff I know a lot about.
...
Now, given that you're specifically looking for images related to heliophysics data, another place you can try looking is if they've got it in iSWA (Integrated Space Weather Analysis) ... I took a quick look through, and I didn't see anything obvious, but they're adding new data pretty regularly, if it's of interest for space weather purposes.
Answer: I haven't found any, so apart from warning about absence of evidence being construed as evidence of absence, I might suggest that you are actually looking for a table, rather than a graph? I don't think you'll find much besides chemical compositions of the Sun, planets, solar wind, and outer icy bodies. I don't think the overall chemical composition of any of those have changed much since formation besides fusion in the Sun, either.
Answer: The current element distribution basically goes back to the origin of the solar system, and hasn't really changed since except for the losses of parts or all of the atmosphere of the inner planets, and migration of the outer planets early in the history of the solar system. The concentration of iron and similar elements is highest on Mercury, lower on Earth, and lower again on Mars. Venus is in between Mercury and the Earth. The lower concentrations of the lightest elements, hydrogen and helium, on the inner planets is presumably due to the heat of the sun, the solar wind, and radiation pressure all driving these atoms out to the outer solar system. The mean density of the asteroids, located beyond Mars, is significantly lower than that of Mars, continuing the trend of a lower proportion of iron and similar elements as we recede from the sun.
Jupiter and Saturn were originally located further from the Sun than Neptune and Uranus and so retained most of their hydrogen and helium, as well as accumulating hydrogen and helium driven off from the inner solar system. Uranus and Neptune lost a lot of hydrogen and helium, but also retained a lot.
Except for these modifications which depend basically on the atomic weights of the elements, the detailed tables of element abundances, which depends primarily on how they are built up in the cores of giant and supergiant stars, are expected to be the same on all the planets as well as on the sun.


What is domain "masking" or "cloaking"? Why should it be avoided for a new web site?

Question: What exactly is the domain name "masking" or "cloaking" offered by some hosting companies, (as opposed to redirection), and what are the various reasons it should be avoided when setting up a new web site "on the cheap"?
Answer: Domain masking
It's bad for SEO because search engines don't like frames if that option is used. Also, the URL never changes in the user's address bar so it can be very confusing to users trying bookmark or reference inner pages in your site.
If you use two different domains for the same website, which is another way to do it, then you run into duplicate content issues and penalties with the search engines and, once again, potentially confuse your users.
Answer: When you are Domain masking you are hiding the actual URL/domain from the user. This is not good either for your users or search engines because you are putting on a mask not showing the 'real face'. Also as john said bots will treat your site like a duplicate content farm.
Which is no good.
Cloaking on the other hand is a balck hat SEO tactic. It can get you in a lot of trouble if you get caught. Either way don't do it. think longterm. Cloaking is providing different content to your users and different content to search spiders. Which you can simply use the ip adresses of the search engines to manipulate. But both of them are a poison for a website. good luck
more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloaking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Masking
my 2 cents


Guitar Phrasing instruction

Question: Are there any good resources on the web for learning guitar phrasing , especially as it pertains to blues guitar. i have been listening to the blues for a really long time, but have just recently realized that most phrases that have an emotional impact boil down to the last few notes (and usually the last one). I know theory, but putting it together to create interesting phrases isnt taught in theory books.
I'm not looking some "Buy my book and you'll be a great guitar player".  I'm looking for sound advice.
Also any tips would be greatly appreciated
Answer: Your best option here is to listen to, and learn to play, a large number of blues songs - not just the ones you know have a deep emotional impact, but as wide a range as possible to get the feel for blues inside you.
The whole point about emotionally charged blues music is that it to be convincing, you have to feel the music. There are a range of people on YouTube playing almost note-perfect copies of famous blues numbers, but not providing any emotional impact at all.
Get blues licks and phrases into your head and muscle memory, and feel the music - you will find yourself starting to come up with phrases you feel, rather than calculate.
-
In saying that, you can give yourself a great head start by learning how to play in alternate modes, and feel how moving from one to another changes tension and feeling. If you can move between modes at will, you will be able to choose changes in tension as appropriate. The combination of this technical learning and the playing by feel will help you become a much more emotional player.
Answer: I would probably help a great deal to learn a wind instrument, like clarinet, saxophone, or harmonica. The essential part of phrasing is breathing. When does a melodic line wrap up for a moment so the next one can begin? With a wind instrument, this becomes intuitive because you must pick your pauses to fit with the music or else, well, it sucks.
Musical phrasing on the guitar works the same way, but there's no direct feedback as with the wind. So you have only your ears to guide you.
Short of actually learning a wind instrument, it would be helpful to listen to great saxophone and harmonica solos and try to replicate the phrasing on the guitar.

Also good is singing your melodies as you play; and trying to play vocal melodies with appropriate phrasing and articulation (slurs and breaths and vibrato).

Guitar Phrasing instruction


What does leveling your equipment get you?

Question: After every mission in Spiral Knights, you earn "Heat" which upgrades your weapons and armor. What does leveling your equipment do? Does it make it more damaging / more protective? Do certain activities require items of a certain level?
Answer: At Heat Lvl 5 and 10 your weapons get a small but meaningful bonus, and yes if you took the time to look at a Lvl 1 item you see the blue bar and some dark blueish bar after that. Each level fills that up a bit. For crafting the higher tier items eg.Tempered Calibur it need the standard stuff plus a Calibur. An Acended Calibur requires a lvl 5+ Tempered Calibur. A rule of thumb is if you're not at the highest tier of gear and your stuff is lvl 10 get new stuff.
Answer: Yes, That is true.
ALSO!! At 4 star the gear is required to become lvl 10 before being able to be transmuted into 5 star gear. Many players see this as a pain. (It is!!) But.if you take the time to do good missions it will be simple. ( A little hint) If you find trouble doing this do 1 of 2 things.  Either, Equip all lvl 10 gear so your other weapon gets all the heat. Or do a mission with ONLY 2 PEOPLE, and let that person die many many times, because whenever you die you lose 30% of your heat and the player reviving (you) gets that 30%.


How does the curvature of spacetime induce gravitational attraction?

Question: I don't know how to ask this more clearly than in the title.
Comment: Consider posting where you heard about this, what your current understanding is, and what, specifically, you find confusing about it.  Right now we have no idea if we need to write answers assuming you understand basic space time concepts, or whether this is some phrase you read somewhere and you're starting from elementary physics.
Comment: I have a minor in physics and have taken 4 semesters of Physics at the University level (all As and Bs).
Answer: I'm a bit worried about getting a reputation for citing myself too much, but I'll go for it anyway. (In my defense, I always admit it when I'm doing it!)
John Baez's and my pedagogical paper The Meaning of Einstein's Equation aims to address exactly this question. We describe the meaning of spacetime curvature and the way that Einstein's equation connects spacetime curvature to the matter content of a region of space. As one example, we use this description to heuristically "derive" Newtonian gravity.
I think the most important point is that, in "ordinary" situations involving particles moving at speeds much less than $c$, the "time" part of spacetime curvature is by far the most important part. Intuition about curved space (as opposed to spacetime) only gets you so far.
Comment: Hey man, if it *is* possible to cite yourself, then by all means do so. Not many people can claim such a privilege.
Comment: This is actually a very nice paper.
Comment: I love that paper - never put two and two together that you were an author on it.  Thanks.
Comment: Thanks! (I only mentioned the self-citing issue because I noticed there was a discussion about it on Meta. I'm not really worried about it, at least in this case, because the paper really is relevant.)
Comment: As [David's answer](http://meta.physics.stackexchange.com/questions/582/how-do-you-cite-yourself/583#583) there suggests, it is absolutely acceptable to self-cite _if_ that is disclaimed (you did so) and is really helpful to answer the question (it does). I wouldn't see the point of you having to repeat what is stated there (especially since you mention the main point here) or searching another citation that you are probably not as acquainted with as with your own (and John Baez's of course) work
Answer: The simple answer is that the curvature of spacetime does not induce gravitational attraction. It describes it.
In all of classical physics (not only general relativity), the motion of bodies can be described as motion along the geodesics of a suitable differential geometry. Body A acts on body B by influencing the curvature of the geodesic along which body B moves. See the illustrations on this page of my personal website for both classical electrodynamics and general relativity.
Comment: http://meta.physics.stackexchange.com/questions/582/how-do-you-cite-yourself
Comment: why is the link about "citeing yourself" here?
Comment: @user2843 Because Koantum's answer links to his own web page without identifying it as such.
Comment: Apologies, @Mark. I now made it clear that the link is to my personal website.
Answer: The best way to see this, I think, is using Einstein's 1907 approximation. Einstein noted that gravity slows down clocks, so that where the potential is more negative, clocks run slow, and where the potential is small, clocks run fast, so that the rate at which a clock ticks at position $x$ is $\sqrt{(1-2\phi(x))}$.
Assume that space is completely flat, and only the clock rate changes from point to point. This is a curved space-time, but the space-part is flat. Then you ask: "what is the curve in space-time which is extremal for the relativistic distance from point A to point B?". This is the analog of the question "what is the shortest path from A to B" in geometry.
The integral for this is:
$\int \sqrt{(1-2\phi(x)) - |v|^2)} dt = \int -\phi(x(t)) + {v^2\over 2} $
Which, if you multiply by the mass m, gives you the action for a Newtonian particle in a gravitational potential. So Einstein's law reduces to Newton's. The remaining work is to see that the equation for the time-time component of the metric reduces to Laplace's equation for static masses, and this is not too hard to do, but annoying to do twice or to write up. That this reduction works was one of Einstein's criteria for a good field equation.
Answer: If You are in flat spacetime and move from A to B, the easiest way is to travel by fragment of an straight line between points A and B. When there is gravitation, spacetime is bending. So the easiest way is to follow the line which is the shortest, but it is not straight line, because of the curvature. So another choice is the line which is shortest but remain within spacetime, and is "minimal". And this is exactly physical trajectory of small particle in such curved space.
As gravitation mass of a body and inertial mass of a body are exactly equal, there is equivalence between such geometrical description (when curvature is dependent of gravitational mass) with dynamical one which uses forces to describe particle movement ( because inertial mass is equal to gravitational one - so the two pictures are perfectly equivalent).
So when You go from point A towards point B you follow no stright line but more complicated curve such as parabola or ellipse -  because it is has "minimal feature" among accessible trajectories. Of course You may run some kind of engine, and run on different - non minimal trajectory - for example straight line. This cost You some bill for fuel, and is not minimal at all...
As planets, meteorites, comets, thrown rocks etc. do not have its own engines, they have to move along "minimal" trajectories.. As "minimal" lines in curved spacetime are exactly trajectories of body within gravitational fields, this two pictures describes the same move with different language. Of course attraction has its causes in curvature when You use geometrical language - many trajectories goes close and close each other. So You may say - gravitation is represented by curvature.
Answer: It is a geometrical theory, so best explained with graphics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdC0QN6f3G4
http://www.physics.ucla.edu/demoweb/demomanual/modern_physics/principal_of_equivalence_and_general_relativity/curved_spacetime.html
Comment: Hi answerman, we generally expect answers to stand on their own and not require a user to click links to get any value from your answer.  Can you please update your answer to include some of the basics so the links aren't strictly needed?


What vegetables hold up well for making vegetarian pot pie?

Question: I am trying to make a vegetarian pot pie, but so far I was not successful. I tried with carrots, peas, and cauliflower, but the pot pie was not that good.
Answer: What do you mean by hold up well? Structurally? Carrots and peas are rather common in a traditional chicken pot pie. Cauliflower is probably way too delicate to hold up well, also it's too mildly flavored to serve as a primary flavor.
I would suggest trying some heartier root vegetables or starches. Potatoes, squash, zucchini are some good possibilities. I'd also add some onion and celery for a better flavor punch.
Answer: The flavor balance in a traditional pot pie going to be hard to replicate using just vegtables but the inclusion of mushrooms to add some meatiness and adding some tofu to the base along with enough starches to thicken up the base should do it.  Corn, rutabagas, carrots and garlic should be added to hobodave's list of vegtables that will remain reconizable after cooking.
Comment: Big +1 for mushrooms.
Answer: If you'd like to make something with cauliflower and/or broccoli, try this: trim and wash the florets (keep the stems for something else if you like). Blanch them in boiling salted water for 3 or 4 minutes (a little longer maybe for cauliflower). Drain them and dump them into some cold water, then drain them.
Now (or before now): get a heavy roasting pan (like a big earthenware or cast iron lasagna pan, or something like that - the heavier the better) hot in a 375 degree (F) oven. That should take about 15 or 20 minutes - we want it hot.  Pull it out of the oven carefully, and then add some oil.  Spread the oil around with a silicone brush or by tilting the pan (carefully please; don't burn yourself and sue me) and then add the drained broccoli/cauliflower. Sort-of toss those around (if you've got some spray olive oil, you can squirt them with that) and then add kosher/sea salt and black pepper.
Roast those in the oven for about 20 minutes, possibly tossing them around halfway through.
Now what you've got is the best tasting cauliflower/broccoli in the world. You can add those roasted florettes to a quiche or to a pot pie or to anything like that. I add thusly roasted cauliflower to Indian "dal" preparations and it's awesome.
Here's another tip: if you want to add cubed potatoes but you don't want them to turn to mush, try this.  Cube the raw potatoes. Get some water warming on the stove, but when it's still just warm (less than 130 degrees F) add the potatoes. Keep the fire on, but monitor the temperature very carefully. When the water gets up to 138 degrees F, drop the fire a lot and try to keep it at that temperature for about 10 minutes. After that, raise the fire and let the potatoes boil as you normally would.
That trick will allow a natural enzyme in the potatoes to "firm up" the starch, and they'll end up cooked but not mushy. You can then add them to your pot pie with the confidence that they'll more-or-less hold together. (Beets do this kind-of automatically; it's really hard to cook a beet until it's mush.)
Comment: That sounds like one yummy cauliflower preparation. :)
Comment: Roasted cauliflower is seriously a revelation. I have 3 kids and they love it, and their friends tell stories about it. And the best part is that (aside from the mess) it's not hard at all.
Comment: "best tasting cauliflower/broccoli in the world" - rather like the taller than Mickey Rooney award?
Comment: I have to say: I do the same thing but with butter instead of oil. And **that** is the *bestest tasting* couliflower in the world. :D
Answer: I'm assuming you're talking about flavour here - in which case I'd fry up some leeks/onions, garlic and mushrooms in butter and put them in a white sauce, which should give a nice savoury base for whatever other vegies you fancy putting in.
Answer: A traditional answer: Carrots & peas are a good start. Consider pot pie filling a thick veggie soup. You can also include other things you'd find in frozen "soup veggie" mix. I've had one with diced sweet potatoes too.
Personally, I'd do carrots, peas, corn, lima beans, tiny diced potatoes, green beans, onion. Think color, texture, flavor. Don't go for green leafies, brocolli or cauliflower (too many sulfur compounds when slow cooked).
What's as important as veggie selection though is cooking & sauce. Dice onion & mince garlic, brown in butter.  Add veggie stock and bring to simmer. Add (optionally pre-steamed) diced carrots, potatoes & other longer cooking veg. Once more tender, add quicker cooking veg. I would add Campbell's cream of celery as a base, it will thin with veggie stock. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper - maybe bay leaf or other soup spices.
Don't bother putting it in a pie shell until you are happy with the flavor & texture. Do not rely on pie baking to cook filling.
Answer: I made a pie which contained shallots, button mushrooms, chestnut mushrooms and whole chestnuts. I sauteed the shallots whole along with the mushrooms. Then I added a goodly amount of red wine, some bay leaves plus some rosemary. I simmered it for a while to reduce, then added the chestnuts, then seasoned further. Into a casserole dish, then covered with pastry. After cooking, all the filling ingredients had held their shape.
Answer: My wife and I have been making the vegetable pot pie with dill-Havarti sauce from the Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates cookbook for years. The only modifications that we make are to leave out the celery and green beans and add in some peas and asparagus.
We've even successfully made a vegan version by making our own dill Havarti cashew cheese.


How do you do your test development from home?

Question: Assuming you don't have a Windows Server machine available from home what do you do to test your deployments? Do you just compile once you're back in the office and have a test box available or do you do all of your work in a virtual machine with Windows Server installed on it? Surely there's something that I'm missing here?
Answer: At my work and so should most if not all have a VM(virtual Machine) with sharepoint, k2(optional), SQL server, VS2008 -vs2010 and anything else that you would need.
From the VPC you can do what you like as its your dev place and if you break it then its your fault ;) otherwise you can develop anything you like and test it on the VPC, You can hav this on a laptop or anywhere and develop on it as its all local on the VPC.
When all goes well on the VPC you would then have to send it to the DEV server for testing. It mimmics the Int or live server. Here you would test the app to make sure no bugs or anything else is going wrong and if it is, its not the end of the world as its a dev box just for developers. The DEV server also has the SQL database and most thing on it aswell.
The next stage is Int server, where maybe its a mirror copy of Live server and where your company would use internally. Here is the final releas just befor live. This part you give it to an independant tester or have it used by the company as a trial before it goes out live, or both. On the Int server this is where front end (hive files) and SQL server are seperate from each other.. we also have a K2 server.
From there your support team should semd it out to the live servers for your clients
The VPC I use is Oracle VM VirtualBox. I would recommend you set it up and then save a copy of the VHD (virtual hard disk) just incase anything goes wrong
Hope this helps :)
Answer: I used local virtual machines (running in VirtualBox) for years but now I use CloudShare (http://cloudshare.com/) for most of my SharePoint development and testing (no, I do not work for CloudShare). CloudShare provides you with different virtual machine "templates" which you can use for SharePoint development/testing purposes and they also give you several different methods for sharing and copying files from these virtual machines to your workstation and back. You can sign up for their free trial (14 days) first to see if it will help with your needs of working between your home and office.
Answer: Use Remote Desktop Connection to connect to your work environment.
Comment: I work in large scale finance and given the databases I work with they're not going to open this up :(
Comment: That way you should not program from home cause you can break NDA - if your source code is stolen from your home pc :)


Do I need a stand mixer to make good pizza dough? If so what should I get?

Question: A lot of recipes I read for pizza dough call for a mixer. Is that the best way? If so, which mixer should I get? I've seen the kitchen aid and a electrolux. What else should I consider?
Answer: You don't need a stand mixer, but it's a shortcut for those of us who don't like kneading the dough.  You could also use a bread machine (most have an option to mix and kneed, but not bake), or a food processor (use a dough blade), or just knead by hand.
If you look, you can find some no-knead, or at least less-knead pizza dough recipes, and there's some styles of pizza crust that are more biscuit like than what most people think of as pizza.  (It's popular in Maryland, and it has the advantage that you don't have to wait or things to rise, etc, so there's no advance planning necessary other than pre-heating an oven).
...
As for brands of mixer ... I won't get into that discussion, as I haven't owned enough of them to be able to give a good comparison.  Just make sure it has a warranty or a return policy, as my neighbor had some problems with the first model she bought ... she ended up going with a different brand because of all of the problems.
Comment: The bread-machine method is *wonderful* for this.
Answer: All the "made from scratch" pizza dough I've seen made was mixed by hand, and it was always delicious, so I would say no, you don't need a mixer to make good pizza dough. In fact, I'm sure even modern style pizza predates the common use of electricity and mixers.
Answer: You don't NEED a mixer, but if you're making a lot of dough it certainly can speed things up. Also if you don't have a nice stand mixer and do a lot of baking they are well worth the investment.
As for picking I would stick with one of the well known brands.  I've my Kitchen Aid for nearly 10 years and love it.  My mother's lasted 30 years before she burned out the motors and replaced it with a new one of the same.
I've heard positive things about both the Electronolux and Cuisinart, but I've never used either personally.
Answer: Nope!  Check out Jim Lahey's no-knead pizza dough.  Really easy, simple, requires little of your time, and no special equipment needed (you can use a cookie sheet for the pizza stone. Won't be quite as as good, but i still love it).  The dough still has to rise for a while (Jim Lahey lets the yeast do the kneading, instead of having to do it yourself), so you gotta plan ahead.  I've only made the pizza dough recipe from his book, which hasn't been released online, but this one is fairly similar: http://tastingtable.com/entry_detail/99/Jim_Lahey_reveals_his_recipe_for_no-knead_pizza_dough_.htm
BTW, I'd really recommend his book.  It's awesome for beginning bakers.  Made my first bread out of it 6 months ago, and I still make bread from the same recipe weekly for some bonified foodies who love it.
Answer: Fanzoo,
I've made several hundred batches of pizza dough over the last 7 years.  The short answer is no, you don't need a mixer to make great pizza dough.  There two main reasons you should consider using one though:

Consistency - If you mix your dough for a specific period of time (say 8 minutes), you'll be able to do that more consistently.  Mixing by hand is a little more subjective.
Ease - If you're making large batches of dough, it'll make your life easier.

KitchenAids are the most common.  But I've found they can be a little bit of a pain because the hook doesn't always cut through the ball of dough.  Instead, the ball just bounces around in the bowl.  The Electrolux DLX line, although more expensive, is a better mixer for making pizza dough.
There are also fork mixers (I believe Santos makes a great one).  You'll be able to make great pizza dough with any of the three.
Comment: The few mixers I use have different kneading motions and work well with different dough consistencies. If your dough is bouncing around in the kitchenaid that means your dough is far too dry.
Answer: You can also use a food processor to knead dough if you have one. Just pull a fist size peice off and throw it in, the blade will kneed it. When done put in in a bowl and do the next fist size piece until all of your dough is done. It kneads a lot faster than a mixer so be careful.
Answer: You don't need a mixer to make a proper pizza dough, but it does come in handy. I like my Kitchen-Aid a lot, I hear Kenwoods are nice as well (and a lot more affordable).
Answer: Much as I love my KitchenAid, you don't need it for pizza dough. I typically use this recipe (with half whole wheat flour): http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/main-courses/basic-pizza-crust/ -- and don't bother hauling out the mixer, even though she uses it. Easy as pie and really fast.
Answer: As the others have said, you definitely don't need a mixer for pizza dough.  I don't have a fancy mixer at all, but I did start off trying to use a regular hand mixer with the dough hook attachment.  I thought it was a pain, so I tried kneading by hand the second time.  It was much easier and worked just as well. On a side note, do you have a baking stone for your pizza?  I noticed that made a huge difference in the texture of the dough.


How do I paint a basement ceiling and heating pipes?

Question: What is the best way to paint a basement ceiling?
Can I paint the copper baseboard heating pipes?   Do I have to use special paint?
Answer: Painting a ceiling is not that much different from painting any other surface.  Take a look at the other questions in the painting tag here for lots of good tips.  Definitely invest in an extension pole for your roller handle so that you're not holding your arm over your head for the entire time, and enough drop cloths to cover the ground in the area you're painting.
If you have bare copper heating pipes, you might want to think about wrapping them in insulation and painting that.  I've got some of the regular pipe-wrap insulation in my house that the previous owner got paint on and it doesn't look any the worse for wear; I think it was regular latex paint, either gloss or semi-gloss.  You can also get wraps that are specifically marked as paintable.
Answer: We've got steam heat, so the pipes get up north of 190F.  In my basement, I ended up painting them with Rustoleum high-heat spray paint.  Took a couple of coats, but they look good and made it through a cold northeast winter without any issues -- most notably, zero paint fumes when the heat is on.
I agree with @Niall that insulation is a much better option than paint.  I just wanted them bare to add some warmth to the finished basement.
Answer: Painting the heat pipes with regular latex paint is not a problem or a fire hazard.  I'd be sure the pipes were cool when you paint them just so the paint goes on smoothly and doesn't dry so fast it looks "clumpy".
Answer: I'm planning on doing the same thing for my basement and based on my research it looks like using a spray gun of some sort will save tons of time and aggravation.
Take a look at this too http://www.oneprojectcloser.com/painted-basement-ceiling-how-to-tips-and-lessons-learned/
Answer: If it's a flat finished ceiling, your typical roller will work.
If you're actually wanting to paint the underside of the floor above, the joists, and all exposed ductwork and plumbing, then Vitaliy has your answer...you want to use a spray gun to make quick work of it.


Do all event horizons emit radiation?

Question: So, the event horizon around a black hole emits radiation, and Rindler space is full of thermal energy. I guess I have two questions- does the Unruh effect have anything to do with radiation from the apparent horizon in Rindler space? And what about the cosmological horizon- any radiation there?
Answer: Yes, in all of those cases you will get radiation.
The case of the cosmological horizon is discussed here: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/end.html
I wouldn't refer to "Rindler space" -- don't you just mean flat spacetime described in Rindler coordinates? But anyway, an observer with constant proper acceleration in a flat spacetime does see radiation from the event horizon; this is the canonical example of the Unruh effect.
Answer: The short answer is yes for horizons that look like Rindler space (Minkowski space) locally. You can read the Wikipedia article on Hawking radiation--- the equivalence principle allows you to equate the near-horizon Hawking temperature with the near horizon Rindler temperature of an observer which is accelerated to keep from falling into the black hole.
For extremal horizons, when the charge is equal to the mass, or if the Black hole is rotating as fast as possible, the horizon recedes to an infinite distance and space-time is not flat near the horizon. These receded horizons are not thermal, and do not radiate anything, they are cold.
deSitter cosmological horizons have a temperature, as do all static horizons. The local temperature can be calculated just as for the black hole horizon, as the periodicity in imaginary time of the solution. There are unusual vacua for deSitter space (first discovered by Burges http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0550321384905625) and later analyzed by Gross and collaborators. I don't know how physical these vacua are, if they are reasonable, or whether they go away in a more horizon-centric point of view, like the eternal inflation ambiguities.
Our cosmological horizon is in motion, it is receding away at nearly the speed of light. In the far future, if it becomes a deSitter horizon, then it will radiate thermally. For a FRW horizon, I don't know the answer either.
Answer: See
[1] H. Chung, Dynamics of diffeomorphism degrees of freedom at a horizon,
arXiv:1011.0623.
[2] H. Chung, Hawking radiation and entropy from horizon degrees of freedom,
arXiv:1011.0624.
The metric used in these papers is a general metric with a horizon, which applies to a large class of horizons including cosmological horizons.
Ref [2] derives entropy and temperature for these horizons.

Do all event horizons emit radiation?


Conditional Probability

Question: Consider a multiple choice exam with four options per question. Suppose that the probability is 0.6 that you know (with certainty) the answer to a randomly selected question. The probability is 0.3 that you eliminate (with certainty) 2 options and guess randomly between 2 options. The probability is 0.1 that you guess randomly among all 4 options.
(a) Find the probability that you answer a randomly selected question correctly.
(b) Find the probability that you just randomly guessed among the 4 options given that you
answered a question correctly.
This is what I have so far :
$$P(A)=0.6$$  $$P(B)=0.3$$  $$P(C)=0.1$$
$$P(A)+P(B)+P(C) = 0.6+0.3*0.5+0.1*0.25=0.775$$
Using Bayes Rule : $$P(C|Correct)=\frac{P(Correct|C)P(C)}{P(Correct|C)P(C)+P(Correct|B^c)P(B^c)}$$
Comment: If "B^c" means the complement of B, I think you actually meant to use the complement of C; and anyway you probably should split whatever it is into two cases.
Answer: If you use Bayes's Rule, you have
$$
P(C \mid \mbox{correct})
    = \frac{P(\mbox{correct} \mid C) P(C)}{P(\mbox{correct})}
    = \frac{(1/4)(1/10)}{31/40} = 1/31
$$
Answer: (a) Law of Total Probability:
$$P(Right) = P(R) = P(R\cap A) + P(R\cap B) + P(R \cap C).$$
Then $P(R \cap B) = P(B)P(R|B) = (.3)(1/2),$ and similarly for
the other two terms.
(b) Bayes' Theorem: $P(C|R) = P(C \cap R)/P(R),$ where the
denominator is the answer to (a) and the numerator is one
of the terms in (a).
With this much help, you should be able to get the answer, or
to understand formulas in your book to get the answer.

Conditional Probability


How can I secure a plastic toolbox to the wall?

Question: I have a plastic toolbox that I want to mount on the wall. I need it to be extremely stable once mounted, and I was therefore considering simply screwing it directly to the wall. However, I'm concerned that I might crack the plastic. What would the best way be to do something like this? The toolbox is made from a softish plastic, so that's why I was even considering drilling through it.
Answer: If the tool box is not actually designed to be mounted to the wall then there is a strong possibility that doing so may deform the box so that it does not function in the way intended. This could be especially true if the box has a hinged lid. I think that your best bet would be to build a small shelf for under the tool box and secure that into the wall studs. You could then secure the box to the shelf possibly by even gluing it in place. Gluing the base of the box to the shelf would have far less chance of deforming the shape of the thing. Using a shelf idea also allows easier adjustment of where to place the box so that a possible lid does not interfere with the wall.
Comment: I definitely agree with the shelf thing because it will definitely hold the toolbox. With the anchors, there is always the possibility of it falling due to the weight in the long run. Besides, the toolbox will be well-organized if placed on a shelf instead.
Answer: If you do decide to attach with screws you should use what are called fender washers between the head of the screw and the plastic. The fender washer has a larger diameter than a normal washer and is meant for situations where you need to spread the force of the screw over a larger area. This will make it less likely that your screw will crack the plastic or pull through. Additionally. When tightening the screws slow down as you get close to full depth and gently bring the screw to full tightness against the washer and plastic. This will minimize the chance that you will create cracks in the plastic with shock. if your box is made from a brittle plastic it might not hold its own weight with out cracking. In this case a small piece of wood that would span between two holes that you could screw through to hold it to the wall. This would create a larger clamping surface and spread the forces over an even larger area than the washers. If none of this makes sense it would help if you could describe the box a little bit or even supply a picture.
Comment: Thx. I suppose @MichaelKaras provides the more cautious response, but a simpler, rougher solution like this is fine for me.
Answer: while i agree with the shelf solution, i would approach a little differently,  use both the bolts into the wall and a simple L shaped flat iron bracket..
So basically get two L shaped Brackets, and let the one side of each bracket support the bottom of the toolbox. then put a hole in the top half of the other side and let this run along the wall. the toolbox can then sit on the brackets and you can drill and put rawl bolts through the toolbox side, then through the hold of the bracket then in the wall...
I would also use the fender washer or a base plate on the toolbox side to ensure that you dont break the toolbox. .
The brackets (and essentially the holes in the toolbox) should be as close to the edges of the toolbox as possible for rigidity.. or alternatively... get a piece of wood to span from one end to the other inside the toolbox and then use that as your "fender washer"


Can I say "due call"?

Question: If there is a phone call I forget to make, can I say this call is a "due call"? Or is there a better word which can describe it?
Answer: If the phone call has not been made by the expected time, I would recommend using "overdue" instead.  For example:  "I need to make an overdue call." or "The phone call is overdue."
"The phone call is due tomorrow" can be used to indicate an expected time in the future or "The phone call was due yesterday" for a missed call.  I cannot think of a situation where I would use the phrase "due call" to refer to a call that was not made at the expected time.
Answer: If you mean a call that was planned, then you can say "a due call", in the same way you say "talks are due to adjourn tomorrow".
Answer: If you forgot, then I assume there was a predetermined time you were supposed to call. In that case, "past due call" would be more applicable, and I think perfectly acceptable.
Answer: Due could take on different meanings depending on whether it is placed before or after the noun it modifies. Ordinarily, due would mean necessary; appropriate; required (not with respect to time) when placed before a noun, as in due attention, due diligence, due regard, etc. In this case, however, due should follow the noun if it is to acquire it's more popular meaning of required at a certain time; owed; etc.
Options in this case are:

A call I forgot to make
A call I am yet to make
A call I [still] have to make
A call I need to make
An overdue call
A long overdue call
A call [long] overdue
A call due [when e.g. yesterday]
A call past due

I should also add that due call would usually be taken to mean a required call (not of the telephone variety, more often than not), as in the following example:

First speaker: 'I wish Joe hadn't called the superintendent out on that issue.'
Second speaker: 'I disagree! The superintendent was clearly in the wrong.'
Third speaker: 'Yeah, that was definitely a due call.'

Can I say "due call"?


Custom Search Page

Question: I'm currently assigned with creating a custom search page from scratch. Thus, I need a query that will go through all of our site and find me pages that contain key words on these pages. Does sharepoint have a method I can call to retrieve such result?
Comment: How is that different than what the out-of-the-box search does?
Answer: Are they publishing pages and when you say keywords are they going to be fields on pages from layout pages?  You need to explain your architecture and requirements a bit more.
There are two ways to get your pages.
1 - you may write a webpart to directly get all the pages using the object model with a caml query.
2 - you can use the enterprise or fast search to crawl your pages and use the search service to return results which will require some settings on the search service like scopes and metadata properties.  In this case you can either use the search object model or search web service to get results.
if you give some more details whether you have made any decisions on these or you have requiremeents to use one of these approaaches I can provide more detail on objects and methods with examples.
Comment: All the pages on the site are customly made using "web.RootFolder.Files.Add()". And by keyword I mean any where on the page.
Comment: Do you simply have pages with content and you want to type a word and search for all pages that have that word in the content.

Custom Search Page