What is Belgravia in 'a Scandal in Belgravia'?

Question: The title of the 1st episode on Season 2 of Sherlock, the TV-series is A scandal in Belgravia. What is Belgravia?
Answer: It is a very exclusive part of London, part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is named after Belgrave Square, which today includes many international embassies to the UK.
It was used as an alternative UK based location for the original Arthur Conan Doyle story which was A Scandal in Bohemia.  Belgravia was probably chosen because of the alliteration with the word 'Bohemia' and the reputation of the area as being a location of rich and powerful people, who Irene Adler (as a professional and very expensive dominatrix) might find clients.
Answer: Well, I presume it's the district in London but I have not seen the episode, so I may not be correct.


VST Plugins similar to Dblue Glitch?

Question: I've had a lot of fun with dblue glitch vst. I was wondering if there are similar vst plugins that achieve the same clean cutting and manipulating that it does?
Comment: Added Community Wiki since this is a list-of-useful-tools question. As usual in CW, one tool per answer please, so they can be up- and down-voted individually.
Answer: While I agree that iZotope Stutter Edit is a great plugin, and I haven't used Artillery from Sugar Bytes, I think the following is more similar to dBlue Glitch than the previous mentioned:
Effectrix by Sugar Bytes.
Answer: iZotope Stutter Edit is a similar glitch-effect plugin. It focuses on pre-defined tempo-synced sampling and effect movements that are triggered by MIDI notes, called 'gestures.' It is somewhat more focused on live performance than studio work, although it is useful for both.
Notably, gesture length is not an absolute amount of time - after triggering a gesture, the gesture goes until the next specified time interval. So if the "length" of the gesture is one bar, the gesture will go from the time it's triggered until the end of the next bar.
Answer: there is Artillery from Sugar Bytes. The difference is that effects are triggered with MIDI notes while in Glitch they are sequenced in the Plug itself.
Comment: Second this....You can trigger from Artillery UI by right clicking on a key...That latches it.

VST Plugins similar to Dblue Glitch?


Mass Market Data Source

Question: My current project requires large amounts of historical and real-time market data (1m or 5m bars for various products, mostly US futures for as far back as available). This data will be analyzed by software, so accessing the data through the internet for each price is not going to cut it, we need local data for speed.
There are many online data sources, but do any offer downloading of consolidated data rather than requiring a separate request for each price? Also, are there any recommendations for one to use in conjunction with Interactive Brokers?
Answer: Heres a related link that has some links to different sites with api's What broker/feed/APIsetup allows for recording the most accurate data (cheaply)?
Answer: IQfeed together with QCollector gives you 1-min historical bars back to mid-2007 for the entire US market (equities, indexes, futures, forex).

Mass Market Data Source


How to learn Muy Thai or to fight really well by myself?

Question: How to learn Muy Thai or to fight really well by myself? Somewhere online like YouTube preferably? so i can be good fighter
Answer: It's not possible to learn a martial art at home with no partners. Even if you had partners and the necessary equipment, you don't have a knowledgeable instructor to point out your errors. You need someone experienced in the art to notice and show you when you're doing things wrong, to schedule your training, to push you, to arrange sparring matches and appropriate competitive match-ups, and to hold pads for you effectively. You can't do it yourself.
You need to find a quality muay Thai gym and train there at least several times a week if you want to learn muay Thai for fighting.
Answer: I've seen people at the gym hurt themselves badly by kicking a heavy bag without any technique. People often come up to me after one of my heavy bag sessions to ask for tips. I tell them to go and get 27 years of training under their belts and then they'll begin to appreciate what they are actually doing.
You can invest in all the right gear but you'll never get anywhere. It's like trying to play golf without having had any lessons. You could be a natural and get around a course on par (unlikely), but you'll never be playing with Tiger Woods!
I've seen many bad instructors too, so do your research in advance. Look at their videos online beforehand to see if they kick well or ask someone who can spot a good kick to evaluate for you.
Answer: You can't! There are lots of stupid videos out there that are run by money grabbing organisations. Can you play the guitar without picking up a guitar? No! So you need to get down to a gym and learn.
Answer: As the consensus has already stated, you can't learn on your own, at least not in the beginning. There are just too many things that you need someone to actually show you.
Once you have several years under your belt, typically about 5 solid years of learning, depending on the art 2 of 3 can suffice, then you can begin to learn from instructional videos, books and even good martial arts movies, because you'll already have a solid foundation and be able to simply incorporate new techniques into your fighting.
But without that solid foundation that only comes from being taught in person by a good teacher that can you show you your errors, put you in the right positions for blocks, stances, kicks, strikes, grappling, escape techniques and to help you to get the FEEL of a technique, something that can never be learned from a book or video, you will simply not get much of anywhere and you will waste years of time, years of effort and probably a lot of money trying to do things on your own as you won't even know what videos or books to get that are or are not good, even if you could learn from those alone.
Answer: There's some things you can learn by yourself, and some things you can't.  Being a good fighter is definitely something you can't learn alone.
With that said, here's some things to keep in mind:
You don't necessarily need a full fledged instructor
You do need someone to show you how to move, who is skilled enough to know the correct movement, timing and can give you tips on how to get that and the power you need.  That doesn't necessarily have to be a teacher - that might be someone who's done it for a while.   I've seen instructors teach poorly or in dangerous manners, and "students" who have taught really well and have the knowledge for safe training.  It really varies.
Things you can't see
Not in some magical sense, but some things like feeling if the impact is right, balance, or shifting of weight are often things you have to feel, and have someone who can tell you what you need to do to get there.  This is the main reason you want someone more experienced to show you the way - you might be training something you think looks right, but doesn't get the power or the force you need.
Fighting
Whether you're talking sport fighting or self defense fighting, there's going to have to be actual drills and sparring with a live person.  You have to know how to hit a person, how to take a hit, how to read the body language, feel positioning, timing and adapt.  You can't do that by yourself.  If you're looking to train self defense, you're also going to have to train to deal with weapons, multiple attackers, and extreme stress situations - things which you can't really do alone.
The bits that you can train alone
After you know how a move should feel, you certainly can practice it over and over on your own time and make sure your delivery is good.  You can practice conditioning: strength, endurance, flexibility.  All of this is stuff you can do on your own time, but part of it is that it alone, won't make you a good fighter.
If you can't train with anyone else at this time, you can always focus on doing lots of strength and cardio conditioning.  It will put you in a good position for when you do finally get to work with someone who can show you in person stuff to work with.


Why is the number $e$ so important in mathematics?

Question: I've heard a lot about this number $e$. Why is it so important? How does it fit into the 'bigger picture' of mathematics? How is it calculated and used?
Comment: (Very) related: http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/3006
Comment: Read this very, very good and accessible book!
http://books.google.com/books?id=eIsyLD_bDKkC&printsec=frontcover
Answer: The number $e$ is not very important in mathematics!
On the contrary it's the exponential function
$$\exp(x)=\sum_{n=0}^\infty\frac{x^n}{n!}$$
that's important. The number $e$ is just $\exp(1)$ - just one
value of the exponential function. Compare how often one
sees the exponential function as opposed to $e$ by itself.
In the four previous answers to this question, three focus on the
exponential function, and only one on $e$ itself.
Comment: This is indeed emphasized by Don Zagier in this lecture (around 38th minute): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E4iHOk6uWw&t=2320s
Answer: One could easily write entire textbooks about this subject, and I think the only way to properly appreciate the answer is just to learn a lot of mathematics.  But I will mention one perspective which suggests that $e$ ought to be fundamental to mathematics.
This is the perspective of groupoid cardinality.  The definition of a groupoid is slightly technical, but for the purposes of this discussion a groupoid is a collection of groups.  In many counting problems involving groups it turns out to be natural not to count all of the objects involved, but to divide each object by the number of symmetries it has.  For example, if you draw five dots in a line on a paper and then fold the paper in half through the middle dot, two pairs of the dots have been identified and one dot has one half identified with the other half; in other words, the folding symmetry has cut the middle dot in half, so one might say that we now have $\frac{5}{2} = 2 + \frac{1}{2}$ dots.
This is the basic idea behind groupoid cardinality: the cardinality of a groupoid is the sum $\sum_x \frac{1}{|\text{Aut}(x)|}$, where the sum runs over all the isomorphism classes of objects of the groupoid (here, over all the groups in the collection, where $|\text{Aut}(x)|$ is the size of the corresponding group).  All groups here are finite.
Now here is the fundamental statement.
The groupoid cardinality of the groupoid of finite sets (e.g. the collection of symmetric groups $S_1, S_2, ...$) is $e = \sum_{n \ge 0} \frac{1}{n!}$.
In other words, $e$ somehow embodies a fundamental property of finite sets.  It is possible to think about the whole theory of exponential generating functions in this way, in particular to think about $e^x$ and its derivative property this way.  Part of this story is described, I believe, in John Baez's the Tale of Groupoidification.
One of the more concrete ways to think about the relationship between the symmetric groups and $e$ is via this generating function.  The identity described in that blog post, which sometimes goes by the name of the "exponential formula," explains, among many many other things, why the probability that a permutation of a large set has no fixed points is about $\frac{1}{e}$.
Comment: Well, I think it's important to keep in mind that other users besides the original questioner will be reading the answers. I wasn't familiar with groupoids but I found this answer pretty interesting. If anything it has provided me with some "further reading" documents to pursue in the near future.
Comment: How useful to you think this answer actually is? The questioner clearly is not familiar with advanced mathematics. I don't doubt this is *a* answer to a question, but is it really helping the guy who asked it? I doubt it. I don't mean to be rude here, but I do feel the need to point out that appropriateness and level of response are of great importance.
Comment: That's ok. It's actually a good answer in certain respects; just may not help the questioner overly much. Still, I'm sure other readers will gain something from this.
Comment: @Noldorin: fair point.  I just wanted to give the OP an indication that there is something fundamental going on here; in other words, that $e$ is not just some random number.
Comment: Is it possible for someone to improve/edit this question such that it would be simpler to understand for someone who has simply used $e$?  in basic math? This is far beyond what I could comprehend. I graduated understanding basic mathematics with an engineering degree.
Answer: One of the first exposures students have to $e$ is in the formula for simple interest compounded continuously: $$A = Pe^{rt}$$
This formula can be easily derived from the formula for simple interest compounded discretely: $$A = P(1 + \frac{r}{n})^{nt}$$
The derivation depends on the identity $$e = \lim_{x \to \infty} (1 + \frac{1}{x})^x$$
So although this may not be the most important application, it is one way in which $e$ is used and calculated.
Answer: Quite simply, because of the identity
$$\frac{d}{dx} (e^x) = e^x$$
This is in fact the primary way of defining the constant e.
The consequences of this simple fact within mathematics are myriad, and can only really be properly appreciated by studying enough calculus and other related fields.
Answer: There's a very good lecture The Exponential Function by Gilbert Strang in MIT open Courseware and a related article Introducing $e^x$. And the whole lecture series Highlights of Calculus is really good!
Answer: The ubiquity of $e$ stems from the ubiquity of $e^x$. And $e^x$ is ubiquitous due to the fact that it permits one to solve any higher-order LDE with constant coefficients - either by factoring its differential operator over $\mathbb C$ into linear factors, or by converting it into linear system form and using matrix exponentials. See the exposition by Arnold below, from his beautiful textbook "Ordinary differential equations". As Arnold says "the exponential ... gives the solution of all differential equations quite generally"
Answer: The first thing to note is that ex is defined by the well known infinite series.  But that's not actually the crucially important thing from my point of view.
The real significance comes from the exponential mapping in the the theory of continuous symmetries (Lie Groups).  The exponential mapping is a function from the "infinitesimal" elements of the group (Lie Algebra) to the elements of the group itself.  This is not so easy to explain unfortunately, but you may be interested to wiki the principle axis theorem for some analogies from physics that are easy to visualize intuitively (the principle axis are the lie algebra).  Clearly, the theory of continuous symmetries is of fundamental significance, and the appearance of the infinite series for e at the heart of this theory is for me quite profound.
Furthermore, for very general Lie Groups, we have the amazing identity
A = et1L1et2L2...etNLN
For an element of the Lie Group A with a lie algebra Li of size N, and some real numbers ti
We see the connection to the real number defined by e by representing a continuous group as a group of matrices (under matrix multiplication), and noticing that the exponential mapping is the infinite series for eX, where X is now a matrix.
Comment: The power series is absolutely the crucial thing.  It is more or less equivalent to the derivative condition, and it is this condition which is responsible for the fact that the exponential mapping solves systems of differential equations, which in turn is a basic way to think about the exponential mapping.
Answer: Recall that the number $e$ is defined such that $D e^x = e^x$. This was taught me in upper secondary school. An explicit calculation formula for $e$ was derived from the definition much later in university. It was a corollary of the general theory of Taylor series applied to the exponential function $e^x$ at $x=1$. It is $e = \sum_{k=0}^\infty \frac{1}{k!}$. Taylors theorem was shown rigorously to $e^x$.
There is also an intuitive way to calculate $e$. It is $e = \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} \big(1+\frac{1}{n}\big)^n$. This comes from the application of Euler's method to the equation system $y' = y$, $y(0) = 1$. The equality of the limit result above follows from global convergence estimate of Euler's method to the system. Note that numerical methods assume the existence of a solution. The limit result can be shown using two separate theories. The existence of the left hand side can be shown by convergence of Picard-Lidelöf iteration of the equation system to a solution called $e^x$ at $x=1$ and equality by convergence of Euler's method to the solution $e^x$ at $x=1$ found using Picard-Lindelöf iteration.
Fix $z \in \mathbb{C}$, define $x=\Re{z}$ and $y=\Im{z}$. Define $e^z = e^x(\cos(y)+i\sin(y))$. Real and imaginary parts of the right hand side are continuous and satisfy Cauchy-Riemann equations. Hence $e^z$ is analytic. Complex numbers is a field and differentiation rules shown using field axioms are generalized to complex functions in a straightforward way. Hence $D e^z = e^z$. In addition
\begin{equation}
e^{i\varphi} = \cos(\varphi)+i\sin(\varphi) \ ,
\end{equation}
where $\varphi$ denotes angle, that is a real number. The equation follows directly from the definition. It is Euler's formula.
The number $e$ is important because it appears in many identities in equation tables and definitions involving it have further applications and physical importance. Laplace and Fourier transforms are examples.


What is the maximum number of skill points you can obtain?

Question: I've noticed myself getting skill points from completing certain quests and selling runes back to Ostegoth. Does anyone know the maximum amount of skill points you can get, and how you get them?
Answer: Leveling to 30 gives you 29 points.
Selling a rare artifact to Ostegoth gives 1 skill point as you said and there's 5 of those relics per playthrough. Since there are max. 2 playthroughs you can gain a total of 10 points this way.
Per playthrough there are 5 quests (I do not know which ones specifically) that grant you 1 skill point, which again gives a total of 10 points.
There are no other ways to get skill points which results in a total of 49 skill points.
Note: there are 33 skills each with 2 upgrades resulting in 99 total skill points needed, so it's impossible to max both the trees!
Answer: On your first playthrough max level is 22, so with some quests giving skill points and Khagoth relics giving 5 skill points (I also think you get skill point for finishing quest but I forgot tbh) all in all this all can net you 31 skill point max ^^ just finish all quests and you will have this ^^
On your next playthrough with same character you can go up to lvl 30 and probably collect relics again tho I'm not sure, I just finished game today and I done all quests so I'm starting new game+ now ^^


Software for practicing the reading of jazz chord changes?

Question: There are now a lot of good programs out for sight-reading, simple chord progression recognition, and for jazz, even some backing track creators.  But is there a program that generates chord changes for drilling to improve your accuracy in reading lead sheets?  It would be a plus if it is midi-enabled to evaluate your accuracy.
Answer: Interpreting jazz changes is far too subjective to allow for the possibility of software evaluating what you play on a MIDI keyboard, in my opinion. If you want to work on this, it would be better to just practice changes in actual tunes and use your ears to decide if you're getting it or not.
There are patterns that you can use to drill yourself, for example, the ii7-V7-IM7 pattern in the circle of 5ths so you play it in every key -- this is a common fragment in jazz, so drilling it is useful. You can do other versions of this as well, by taking a fragment and then repeating it in a circle of 5th so you play it in every key.
If you need help learning how to voice different chords, I would recommend Mark Levine's The Jazz Piano Book, and transcribing voicings from the masters.
For practice of all of this, playing along with rhythm tracks is really it. You can either get Jamey Aebersold recordings (there are a few volumes specifically for piano), input changes (from a fake book or whatnot) into Band-in-a-Box, or my favorite, check out iReal b -- it's a backing track player that will display chord changes on your screen (iOS, OS X, or Android) while playing back piano, bass, and drums in whatever style, key, tempo, and instrument balance you choose (that is, you can mute the piano track). The best part about it is that there are some >1,000 sets of changes for existing tunes that can be downloaded for free immediately when you get the app, in addition to 50 different drill exercises like the ii7-V7-IM7 that I mentioned above.
Answer: All I got is a link to Impro-Visor...  It might fit your needs...
You make little chord change "grammars" and such.
http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~keller/jazz/improvisor


desktop disappears ubuntu 10 after sitting idle

Question: I recently built 2 identical intel i7 Ubuntu 10.04 32 machines and have a problem with my desktop or gnome session disappearing.
For example, if I leave the machine sitting at the desktop (actually I am pretty sure even if I leave it at the login screen the same issue happens), at some point (1-3 days maybe) when I come back to it, it will have only the color pattern of the desktop.  No icons, no menu bars, nothing else.   Clicking, moving the mouse, pressing keys on the keyboard all do nothing.
Accessing the machine through vnc or team viewer I see the same thing!
A couple times now I have also experienced the machine seems very slow or mostly unresponsive.   A couple times I was still able to ssh in to the machine and reboot it.  Once I could not even ssh in and I had to power cycle it.
Beyond the base OS install which was a fresh install, I have backuppc, crashplan, teamviewer, tightvncserver, open ssh server and I set up a mdadm software raid 5 with 3 drives.  I did also enable the pae (?) so ubuntu 32 would see the full 4 gigs of ram.
Note that I have a basically identical 3rd older machine with no problems.   The only real difference I believe is the hardware - it's an intel i5 machine.
Any thoughts on what I should try or look at the next time it freezes up?    I looked through my dmesg log and nothing in there I could see.
Update:
 I updated all the machines to ubuntu 11 last week to see if that helps.   Unfortunately this morning I turned on the monitor and I have an almost blank desktop.  No menu bars or clock - only thing I have are the two icons that are normally on my desktop.   Alt-F2 does not seem to do anything.  The machine is responsive in other ways though - I can access the samba server and ssh, but the gnome desktop is no good.
This time I do see lots of strage info when I type 'dmesg' - it's just a small sample - how do I look at all of it?:
[425794.900377] CPU    7: hi:  186, btch:  31 usd:   0
[425794.900382] active_anon:747275 inactive_anon:207413 isolated_anon:0
[425794.900383]  active_file:349 inactive_file:618 isolated_file:0
[425794.900384]  unevictable:0 dirty:0 writeback:1 unstable:0
[425794.900385]  free:28156 slab_reclaimable:4790 slab_unreclaimable:15168
[425794.900387]  mapped:194 shmem:311 pagetables:2724 bounce:0
[425794.900393] DMA free:7292kB min:64kB low:80kB high:96kB active_anon:0kB inactive_anon:0kB active_file:0kB inactive_file:0kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:15800kB mlocked:0kB dirty:0kB writeback:0kB mapped:0kB shmem:0kB slab_reclaimable:28kB slab_unreclaimable:44kB kernel_stack:0kB pagetables:0kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? yes
[425794.900399] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 869 4031 4031
[425794.900407] Normal free:104852kB min:3736kB low:4668kB high:5604kB active_anon:289524kB inactive_anon:289684kB active_file:1316kB inactive_file:1780kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:890008kB mlocked:0kB dirty:0kB writeback:4kB mapped:468kB shmem:400kB slab_reclaimable:19132kB slab_unreclaimable:60628kB kernel_stack:3848kB pagetables:1472kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:4964 all_unreclaimable? yes
[425794.900413] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 25299 25299
[425794.900422] HighMem free:480kB min:512kB low:3908kB high:7308kB active_anon:2699576kB inactive_anon:539968kB active_file:80kB inactive_file:692kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:3238372kB mlocked:0kB dirty:0kB writeback:0kB mapped:308kB shmem:844kB slab_reclaimable:0kB slab_unreclaimable:0kB kernel_stack:0kB pagetables:9424kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:1216 all_unreclaimable? yes
[425794.900427] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0 0
[425794.900431] DMA: 13*4kB 13*8kB 14*16kB 14*32kB 11*64kB 11*128kB 9*256kB 4*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 7292kB
[425794.900441] Normal: 545*4kB 3738*8kB 1954*16kB 421*32kB 130*64kB 42*128kB 34*256kB 7*512kB 2*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 104852kB
[425794.900451] HighMem: 146*4kB 2*8kB 0*16kB 0*32kB 0*64kB 0*128kB 0*256kB 0*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 600kB
[425794.900461] 7359 total pagecache pages
[425794.900463] 6028 pages in swap cache
[425794.900465] Swap cache stats: add 76118, delete 70090, find 8162246/8166421
[425794.900467] Free swap  = 0kB
[425794.900469] Total swap = 93180kB
[425794.910862] 1310704 pages RAM
[425794.910865] 1082370 pages HighMem
[425794.910866] 283533 pages reserved
[425794.910868] 1832 pages shared
[425794.910869] 996924 pages non-shared
[425794.910873] Out of memory: kill process 13783 (lshw) score 31039 or a child
[425794.910877] Killed process 13783 (lshw) vsz:124156kB, anon-rss:105456kB, file-rss:0kB
[433508.955028] CE: hpet increased min_delta_ns to 56952 nsec

Update:
I have discovered there may be several issues going on.   So far I have solved:

When the machine reboots, it was getting stuck during the shutdown process at/around a line saying automatic updates.   I had that turned on, so I turned it off and I think that's better - no longer getting stuck.
On two of the machines I was not using the proprietary nvidia driver.   Installing that seems to have made a difference in terms of video looking better, but also I am not getting errors with widgets like I was when it booted up.  Hopefully it will also contribute to stability.
I am running CrashPlan for backup.  I had the OpenJDK version of Java installed.   I noticed yesterday the machine was VERY slow and I killed CrashPlan.   It got much faster.   So it's either crashplan or java at fault.   Based on past bad experiences I have uninstalled OpenJDK and installed the Sun (Oracle?) Java and will see what happens with that.
One of the machines I had run the Ubuntu 11 update.  However I guess it never completed, because I checked for updates and noticed it said I could update to ubuntu 11!  In trying to update software I was getting all kinds of errors.   I have a feeling the system may have been in some strange in-between state of software versions.   I am finishing up updates and upgrade to unbntu 11 to see if that cleans up a lot.   This is the machine that threw all those strange errors above.
Answer: This line is alarming:

Out of memory: kill process 13783 (lshw) score 31039 or a child

Either you're having too many programs open (crons that do not finish, VNC clients that do not shutdown) or you're experiencing a serious memory leak.
If you install the htop program (sudo apt-get install htop), you can get a quick overview of programs that consume most of the memory. Start htop and press F6 to set the column on which the list should be sorted. Use your arrow keys to select MEM% and press Enter.
You might see a lot of duplicate processes (which are actually threads sharing memory), to hide those, press F2. Navigate to the Display options menu by using Arrow Down and jump to the next field by using Arrow Right. Check *Hide userland threads" and press F10 to save this preference.


Is there an explicit standard for protected health info security similar to the one for the Payment Card Industry (PCI)?

Question: See the following for dealing with credit information:
https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards/
Does a similar standard exist for PHI? Is one being developed?
Answer: HIPAA describes (at a high level) some policies to follow, and the HITECH legislation further defines some of those provisions. You can look at the Wikipedia HIPAA article for more details on those provisions.
These provisions are required in the USA, I'm not sure about other countries. There is not a global standard, like PCI, as healthcare tends to be dealt with differently based on country.
Answer: There is a HIPAA Security Rule that establishes the overall objectives.
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/administrative/securityrule/index.html
In addition to this, there is a forthcoming ONC NwHIN Governance Rule that should establish additional conditions of interoperability and trust, and I, for one, have pointed to PCI as a good model for security standards. (That governance rule would apply to NwHIN certified entities, whereas the HHS Office of Civil Rights establishes rules that apply to all organizations that fall under HIPAA).
I've been through generic "HIPAA" audits by health plans and hospitals (the scare quotes are because outside of an OCR action, there's nothing that could be called an official HIPAA certification or audit) and PCI Compliance auditing, and PCI Compliance is a far more stringent process.
In general, if you conform to PCI (with sensible adjustments due to the differing risks -- disclosure of cardholder data vs disclosure of PHI), you will be far above usual practice for HIPAA Covered Entities and BAs.
Answer: PCI has overarching requirements (objectives) and detail about how to accomplish them (controls). HIPAA is limited to the overarching requirements and does not specify audit concrete details for being certified as security compliant.
In the world of HIPAA security compliance, implementing best practices to prevent improper disclosure of information is what's out there.


Decryption on AES when the same key and IV are used

Question: Let's say that I have three messages being encrypted by AES-128 with the same key and IV every time. Is it possible to decrypt the key being used? And more importantly, is it possible to decrypt the plaint text of those messages?
Comment: I read questions like this as, "Let's say that I have a solidly-built house, and have replaced all the doors and windows with cellophane. I am concerned about burglars. Is it possible for someone to tunnel their way into the house from underneath?"
Comment: What mode of operation are you using? CBC, counter mode, OFB etc?
Answer: What happens here depends on the mode of operation. As a basic rule, knowledge of the messages will not allow you to recompute the key itself, but it may give you enough information to (instantly) crack any other message encrypted with the same key and IV.
With CTR mode, a key-dependent stream is produced by encrypting the successive values of a counter, and the counter starts at the value given in the IV. The actual data encryption is performed by XORing this stream with the data to encrypt. If the same key and IV are used, then you get the same stream, so you have the conditions of the (in)famous two-times pad. Without knowing the key, you can still compute the XOR of any two messages, which is often enough to crack them, by exploiting their internal structure. Once one of the messages is known, this reveals the key-dependent stream (up to the message length) and this allows for immediate decryption of any other message (up to that length) encrypted with the same key+IV.
OFB mode is in a similar situation: It produces a key-dependent pseudo-random stream. So it can be broken with the same level of ease as CTR.
With CBC mode, things are a bit harder for the attacker. If the messages start with the same bytes, then you will be able to see it. After the first distinct bytes, decryption becomes much harder. This is because, in effect, each block in CBC encryption is used as an IV for the remainder of the message, and encryption of data with a block cipher tends to produce properly distributed IVs for CBC. Generically, CBC requires a uniformly random IV which is unpredictable by the attacker, but in your situation you envision a passive-only attacker, and against such an adversary, an IV selected by encrypting a known data block is good enough for CBC, as long as the IV source is not reused; this is what you obtain with your messages, beginning with the first block at which the messages differ.
CFB mode is somewhere in between. If two messages begin with the same n bytes, then the encrypted messages will begin with the same n bytes too; then, for the remainder of the block containing the n+1-th byte, this is two-times pad. For the subsequent bytes, the streams have forked and the attacker's power stops.
Important: though the paragraphs above seem to indicate that CBC or CFB would be safe for key+IV reuse as long as you include a counter in the header of each message, remember that this is for a passive attacker only. In many (most) scenarios, the attacker can be also embed a bit of data of his own in the messages which are to be encrypted, and/or alter the encrypted bytes and see what happens when they are decrypted. For these scenarios, which are realistic (many recent attacks against SSL are all about that), IV reuse, and even predictable IV selection (with CBC), are hopelessly weak. Do not reuse IVs.
The only situation where a fixed IV is fine is when keys are never reused, i.e. each key is used for a single message only. This is, in practice, harder to obtain than a new per-message IV, because keys must be kept confidential: It is already challenging to have a key which is known by both the sender and the receiver, but by nobody else. At least, IVs do not have this confidentiality requirement, and thus can be transmitted along with the message itself.
Answer: Using the same IV and key for more than one message doesn't jeopardize the key but it does make it easier for an attacker to obtain the plain-text.  How it does so depends on the mode of operation used.
If the mode of operation is a stream cipher (such as Counter mode or OFB) then using the same IV and key for two message is like using the same "one time pad" for two messages - the attacker can obtain a XOR of the messages by simply XORing the encrypted messages. This is should be enough information for a competent attacker to obtain the clear messages. For more details see Taking advantage of one-time pad key reuse?.
But even if the mode of operation is not a stream cipher (e.g. CBC) reusing the same IV and key will leak information about the messages - for example, if they start with the same data.
So the rule is - don't reuse IVs.


Best place to farm money in Borderlands 2

Question: There are several "badass rank" challenges that involve hoarding money or using money to buy weapons.
Where are the most effective places to farm or make money in Pandora?
Answer: Go to the fridge and farm the crystalisk, it's pretty good for money.
Answer: Really good way to farm money is during the Mission to save Roland. Just complete that mission over several times and you can build up a fortune of around 100,000+.
Another good way to farm is to use the Slot Machines in Sanctuary, but the trick to it is, make sure you have a full party. For each time you win money on the slot machine, everyone else in your party does as well. Just cycle out between 2 people and keep gambling and selling any weapon that you aren't interested in.
My party made around 50,000 in about 2 hours, not too mention, we got some pretty fantastic weapons.
Comment: Might be useful to note that the slot machines get more expensive as you level up so unless you're winning or getting decent weapons you might lose money in the long run. Haven't checked the numbers but this may be offset by generally having more money at higher levels anyway...
Comment: @Alex It scales with levels but the rewards you receive back also scale with level. Solo you can basically make back the money you spend. In groups of 4 you easily make far more than you spend, as well as you end up with 100s (yes, 100s) of eridium and very good guns.
Answer: Run through thousand cuts, ignoring all mobs en route, to bunker.  Bunker is an unpopulated zone home only to the boss BUNK3R, who is easy to beat using a corrosive sniper.  On normal he and his loot-splosion are lvl 26 and he yields 10k xp,  erridium, $$, and all rarity of items including a legendary shield.  There is a save point and a vending machine in Bunker before encountering BUNK3R so merely sell all the stuff you don't want to use for around 20-30k per run and continuously save/exit/resume games to farm the boss to your heart's content.   If you're good (or a sniper specced assassin) you can down him in 3-4 minutes per run from the coveted area up top..  I spent more time looting him than fighting him since I look over each item and he drops around 30 things on average.
Answer: The easiest way to get the final challenge level of For the Horde! is to farm bosses (kill them, get lots of guns, sell guns, repeat) at a high level. Unless you farm it earlier, you probably won't have the challenge by the end of playthrough 2 (I sure didn't, but never farmed). I recommend waiting and doing this during playthrough 2.5 unless you think you'll quit before then. You'll easily get a few hundred thousand per run this way and can max the challenge in under an hour.
The easiest way to farm bosses is to get yourself a The Bee shield; Hunter Hellquist drops them; he respawns after the mission This Just In is completed after the end of the game. Kill him, quit, restart, kill him again until he drops it. The shield gives overpowered amp damage. Use The Bee and pretty much any Shotgun and you can easily slaughter Terramourphous, Warrior or BNK3R repeatedly (or any other boss). Alternately Assassins can one-shot kill BNK3R due to the Bore skill being bugged; it hits him repeatedly and does insane damage with a single shot.
Just pick up as much loot as you can carry and sell it, then save & quit, rinse repeat. At level 50 you'll be finding blue weapons worth $100k+, tons of greens worth at least $20k and maybe even some purple equipment you want to keep.
Answer: Just go to the fridge and do this route, kill snow white parody boss, loot 2 chests in the tunnels behind her, kill the boss raider thingy from the goliath quest. pickup everything, save repeat. you can skip all the normal creature if you like and just kill the bosses. This way you get to do more of them. 7k Each trip and each trip is about 3 minutes long. Managed to farm sledges shotgun too. Happy Hunting!
Answer: Preface: It is not necessary to farm money, one will never run out.
It's all about selling guns! Max out backpack asap. Sell expensive loot. After finishing the final playthrough just farm some bosses. I have been killing the Warrior for 6 hours now, trying to get the conference call. In that time I have amassed 24 million by collecting purple, blue and green guns dropped.
Tip: Farm the bosses that also drop legionaries you are interested in, two birds with one stone.
Have fun!
Comment: I did this after play-through #2. Just quit and save before leaving the vault and when you continue it is just before the warrior battle. Very fast, and he drops tons of valuable stuff. I think I got about 2 million in 45 mins, but really, there is no need for money in the game, so its all about looking for good upgrades. The best part about this is that the warrior dies faster every time you find an upgraded weapon, and second wind kills are trivial because the Rakks have very low health.
Answer: Once you beat the game, farm on The Warrior. Be sure to have powerful guns (Repeaters, Sniper, Rifles and SMGs are recommended). Once you make him spawn, head toward the exit but don't leave the area. He can't hurt you there (much) and you can easily target his weak spots from there.
Comment: Please put a spoiler warning in there..
Answer: When farming money, equip the Pot O' Gold shield. Its description:

When damaged the shield has a small chance to drop money as well as shield boosters.
Answer: Eh just cheat, dupe money with a friend its easy. Trade him all the money you have then dash board you have to be in his game though, you can do that as many times as you want until you have 99,999,999
it goes a lot faster if you give him all your money, go to dash board so it doesn't save, load up your game so he can give you all of his money plus the money you gave him then he dash boards so it doesn't save then join his and keep repeating its the fastest way.
Hold b to trade for xbox lol
also i know this was more for legit farming but i just wanted anyone that was interested to know its there. I hope people don't mind too much as it isn't really a game breaking glitch.


If I upgrade to OS X 10.7 (Lion), will Intuit Quicken still work?

Question: I heard that my Intuit Quicken 2007 which I use for balancing my checkbook and other business accounts won't work on Lion. Is that true?  I am so dependant on it that I have postponed my Mac's OS upgrade to Lion.  What can i do to work around this issue?
Answer: Unfortunately, no.  Quicken 2007 requires Rosetta which Apple has decided to leave behind in their OS.  MacWorld.com has a great article here with some great alternatives, but right now, you need to either give up Quicken 2007, or wait on Lion until you are ready to do so.
Dual booting is also possible, but it's not a convenient solution to just run banking software.
Answer: No, Quicken will not run or work at all under Lion, since Quicken was designed as a PowerPC app, which relies on "Rosetta" emulation (built in to OSX, but no longer present in OSX Lion) to work.
For more info, go here.
At the moment, you should wait until Quicken is updated to Work under Lion, or if you can get by with "Quicken Essentials" (which does work under Lion), you could use this instead.
Answer: fwiw, I moved to iBank, and love it. It handles transfers between accounts much better than Quicken ever did. It's really mac like, and helps me at tax time. There are a number of others as well, and many have great Quicken import capabilities.
I've never looked back, and converted accounts from 1991 to iBank with ease.
Hope this helps.
Comment: iBank looks quite good and they have a tutorial on moving a quicken file over: http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank/tutorials.php
Comment: their support - through their forums at least - is brilliant.. I haven't had to use other methods (calls, email, etc).
Comment: Intuit have announced a version of Quicken 2007 for Lion. I wont use it, but I feel it answers your question more fully. You can find it here: http://quicken.intuit.com/support/help/lion-compatible-quicken-mac-2007/GEN83769.html
Answer: If you need the features of Quicken and want to move to Lion, your best alternative is to install a Windows virtual machine (Parallels, VMware, Virtual Box) and covert to Quicken for Windows.  That's a lot of complexity and at least a couple of hundred dollars to do so you need to be really sure that Quicken is worth it compared to the alternatives.
There's no indication that Rosetta will ever come back nor that Quicken will update Quicken for Mac so waiting for one of those to happen is just wasting time.
Answer: Quicken did just announce that they plan to update Quicken 2007 to work with Lion. Sounds like there will be no new features, but they plan to ship in the 1st half of 2012.
Answer: I solved this one temporarily by setting up an old Mac Mini as a monitor-less server with Snow Leopard and Quicken installed. It sits on a shelf out of the way. When I need to use Quicken, I use screen sharing to log in from my main computer. It is somewhat less awkward and a little quicker than rebooting from a separate partition.
It would be nice to have a real update, but there appears to be faint hope of that.


Creating a good looking interface for a Java CCG?

Question: I would like to create a Java collectible card game. I have the logic down pat, but I am having some trouble with the interface. I would like to make it look nice. Rather than using the standard java SWING components, I would like to create something like this. What is necessary to create something like that?
Answer: Time and artistic skills. No way around that. You can however, make it a little easier. You can use a library specifically designed for implementing GUIs.
Without knowing what you're using to render your game, I can only assume you haven't done any graphics yet. Nifty GUI is one that comes to mind that is almost library agnostic. It uses OpenGL and Java but it works with more OpenGL libraries than most other GUI libraries, including: jme, jogl2, lwjgl and it's own custom renderer.


Register Car in Illinois and Get Plates

Question: I have a car which it's title and plates are registered in Wisconsin.  The title is in the name of name of Family member but is signed over to me.  I would like to register the car[ in my name] in Illinois.
I have found the Illinois Cyber Drive Vehicle Services page, and would normally think I'd need to go through the Apply for Registration and Title content, but the plates and title are from out of state and I am unsure of how to proceed.
The Title and Registration page briefly mentions "out-of-state" but none of the mentions seem to pertain to acquiring a car from out of state through a private transaction.
Could someone point me to information on how to transfer an out of state title to Illinois, registering the car, and acquiring Illinois Plates (all of which I would think should be able to be accomplished in a single step) for a vehicle?
Answer: Prepare all of the paperwork listed on this page http://www.dmv.org/il-illinois/car-registration.php and travel to an SOS office where they'll issue you your plates.

Register Car in Illinois and Get Plates


Why is there so much emphasis on the text of a logo and not the catchyness of the logo itself?

Question: Ok, so I have been looking at a lot of logos recently, all done by graphic designers. And in the majority of them, the only thing they have is a name or some "basic" text. I thought the idea behind a logo was to catch the eye of passers by and the attention of prospective clients. So again, here's my question: Why are the majority of logos just plain text or a spin off of plain text (stylised writing), with little or no imagery or picture base to catch the eye of people?
They all seam to be the same and very "simple". I am just wondering why this is the case in almost all the logos I see.
Comment: Interesting question, can you drop in some examples of these logos?
Answer: You're making some very broad generalizations.
I'll make one too: There aren't any codified rules when it comes to logo design.
That said, I always like to quote the godfather of logo design, Paul Rand:

Here's what a logo is and does:
A logo is a flag, a signature, an escutcheon.
A logo doesn't sell (directly), it identifies.
A logo is rarely a description of a business.
A logo derives its meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around.
A logo is less important than the product it signifies; what it means is more important than what it looks like.

From: http://www.paul-rand.com/foundation/thoughts_logosflags/#.UCsrI6MxOuI
Ask most any Graphic Designer that's been around for a while and they'll tend to agree (at least mostly) with Rand's statements on what a logo is meant to be.
In response to your question, I think item #2 is key. A logo, itself, isn't meant to sell the product or service.
It should look good, and be aesthetically pleasing, but the task of selling is a team effort...it can't fall solely in the hands of the logo. There's the overall brand identity, the copywriting, the visual design of all other assets and materials, the marketing, the ads, the product itself, the user experience of the product, the service quality of the company, etc.
As for 'plain text (stylised writing)' lots of logotypes are that way, though the better ones wouldn't necessarily be considered 'plain'. They may be simple in form, or conservative in their stature, but typically they'll have unique elements to make them memorable--even if said elements are subtle.
Comment: I agree with what you said, I just don't think it answers the question very well except the brief mention of "A logo identifies".
Comment: I would argue that it answers it perfectly. The OP is implying that a logo is meant to sell. Rand is stating that is not the case. The logo simply identifies whatever it is identifying (the product, the company, the service, etc.).
Comment: ...meaning that a logo doesn't have to be flashy nor compete for attention. Sometimes it makes sense that it is, but often the flash is accomplished by a larger team of elements.
Comment: Where do you get the OP is implying anything about selling?
Comment: "catch the eye of passers bye and the attention of prospective clients"
Answer: To answer your question straight, generally the name of the product appears in the logo so people know what it represents. Given the logo may appear reproduced at small size, it makes sense to make the text large in comparison with the overall logo size, so the name is still readable. The maximisation of this approach is stylised or decorated text rather than text + separate elements.
Are there counter-examples? Yes, Apple, Nike etc. But generally they started with the name of the product as a major element and dropped it when it became extremely well known.
Comment: The last sentence of this answer is the best IMO. Start with it saying the brand's name and after it gains recognition you can drop the name. Imagine seeing a Swoosh by itself on someone's shoes - how would you know what company its for so you could go buy a pair? You wouldn't unless the swoosh became so recognizable that the world just knows it. Put a logo you're working on onto a product and show it to someone and ask if they know who's product it is. If the answer is no you need to redesign the logo.
Answer: I think two big keys of logo design are versatility and durability.
Apple is a great example. Do you know what their original logo looked like? Check it out here if you don't. It's certainly artistic, but it's useless to build a brand around. Would that have look good on the back of an iPod? If you want to scale that down for a letterhead, how well would you be able to do so? If you want to use paint splatters on your billboards for your Nanos or bright colors for your iMacs, how well would that fit in?
The current logo for Apple is just an apple. It's well-drawn but pretty basic. However, they've built a powerful brand around it, and they can fit it into pretty much any scheme and it make it work.
If you're not a fan of Apple, The American networks ABC and CBS are good examples too. Though they doesn't evoke as much as Apple does, their logos have been in effect for about as long as television, and even though throughout their history they've been animated, gradient-ed, beveled, and colored differently, the core mark remains the same. That's great for brand recognition.
What's also great for brand recognition is including the name of the brand. Apple is really an exception, as is Nike. If you want people to get to know your brand, make the logo include the name. A classic example of this is Mobil - the logo is just the name, but it was clear, well-drawn, modern, and the different-colored 'o' taught people how to pronounce it.
There is plenty of room for pictures and imagery and symbols in the overall branding effort. And a lot of the best logos will often have a component that makes it unique and memorable (The arrow in the FedEx logo comes to mind here). But having a logo that doesn't do too much means that it can fit in a lot of different sizes, colors, and media, which gives your mark greater versatility and durability.
Comment: Trivia to tie it back to Paul Rand: Paul Rand designed the ABC logo. And while he didn't design the Apple logo, Jobs was a huge fan and hired him to design the NeXT logo.
Answer: The beauty of a corporate identity is in it's application and the guidelines therein, not necessarily the mark.
The mark itself can be anything from a complex illustration to just plain ol' type. That is dictated by the concept underlying the branding. The larger identity system will include the mark, supporting typography, color palettes, and voice and photographic guidelines, among other things.
The complexity of the brand is usually manifested in campaigns over time, not in the logo itself. Thus, the logo should be adaptable to the climate at hand while retaining it's essential function as a memory trigger.
Answer: Maybe through a historical mindset:
Logos originate from the military world.
In a battle, you have dozens/hundreds/thousands/hundreds of thousands of men fighting (based on the time of observation). Alexander might have conquered the word with a few hundreds of soldiers, but the British Empire's army sprawled over the world. If you know most of your comrades by name, recognizing them in a battle is easier. If you don't, you'll need identifiers: uniforms, flags...
Chivalric times saw the nobility paint their shields and raise flags. The British Empire saw red uniforms and flags risen. The First World War saw colorful uniforms drop out of fashion due to them serving for target practice by the enemy... but flags stayed.
Commerce is a battle, with as much confusion as a military battle. Just as a soldier might only have a split second to recognize friend from foe, a customer often is exposed to a brand for a split second. Humans being language-oriented, text logos will tend to stick a little bit more in their heads. However, they also tend to be slightly longer to decypher, and once your brand is established you probably want to have a more pictural logo that's instantly recognized, and let people's mind make the association to the text behind the logo. if you see a silvery Apple, you immediately think of the name, and maybe even of "Think Different". The same way as a small unknown regiment makes a name for itself and its insignia becomes well known, a pictural logo needs to become well known through the company's products.
Using a textual name can help people focus on this, but also exposes you to some risks such as unexpected association: imagine a hotel chain called "red lighthouse" that for example would start existing in Canada. Sounds innocent enough. Of course, a red light house might mean something entirely different in New Orleans or Amsterdam... A logo of a red lighthouse doesn't carry this risk, but then again you could still use a combination of pictures that turn out to be perceived as offensive in some country...
Hence there are multiple ways: either go for a pictural logo first, and build awareness through success, or change along the way as many companies have. Or if you're Michael Dell and have a short name, use your name in bold black letters :p
Carrefour, second largest retail group in the world, uses a three color (blue, red, white) losange logo. It's instantly recognisable, carries the colors of France where the company is based, and the white part of it is a C... as in "C"arrefour. That makes it a middle-ground between text and picture, as well as a pretty abstract image-logo. It also prints perfectly in black and white.


What is publishing Site or Page and why do we need it?

Question: Article found on this but not in plain English. Anyone else wants to give it a shot with plain (non-lawyer version) English.
Answer: So it really boils down to a few things.  First, when you create a Publishing site you will have complete control over the master page and page layout experience.  Another words, if your requirement is to build a public facing web site you would want to create a Site Collection based off the Publishing Portal template that is available.  You can control page development with the layouts that you choose to build.  With Publishing you also get web parts that aren't available with a collaboration portal.  These web parts include the TAble of Contents Web PArt, Content Query Web Part and the Summary Links Web Part.   Out of these the CQWP becomes useful so you can roll up site collection data.
Whats nice is if you choose a collaboration portal and/or site you could always enable publishing as a feature after.
I think it comes down to your requirements.  If you are going to do custom branding and master pages go Publishing.  You will also get a approval workflow for content approval.  If you are going to do just collaboration and worry more about this than go with the collaboration protal and/or site.
Answer: Publishing sites, in short, lets a delegated group of authors, editors and approvers (or just anyone in the business who wants control of content that will be visible to everyone) create content that must go through an approval system before it can become visible to all of it's visitors.
You can also use layout templates (called Page Layouts) to control the layout of contents on your Publishing Pages.
Content is created within the layout as it will appear on the published version, so there is no need for the authors to worry about where elements will appear on the page when it's published, as authors are entering content in pre-defined sections on the page.
Answer: Normal "team sites" in SharePoint are mostly about collaboration - lists, libraries, discussions, etc.. Normally each site has 1 page (it's home page) and a lot of different views on lists and libraries.
"Publishing sites" focus more on allowing you to create lots of pages in a site. They give an easier authoring experience, and allow you to control that page lifecycle (i.e. page approval). However, they add a lot of complexity that isn't always necessary for collaboration.
I don't know if this helps: http://www.novolocus.com/2008/08/12/pages-in-sharepoint-introduction/
Answer: I have also found that Managed Metadata navigation won't work unless publishing is enabled. If I'm wrong please correct me.


Wire morphing shape?

Question: Can one morph a wire by electrical current into a shape different than static shape at beginning? As in the beginning shape being in a spiral, then when electrical energy is passed through the wire it becomes straight. When the current is shut off it would return to a spiral shape as in the beginning form. OR vise versa?
Answer: Shape memory materials change shape when heated, regardless of the source of heat, and don't have much directly to do with electricity.
More direct control of shape is possible, but in a very limited form. An open coil will contract when current is passed through it, the magnetic field squeezing the turns together. The magnetic field produced by a very high current will "inflate" a loop of wire into a circle, at high enough currents the generated fields can even stretch or break the coil. These are extreme conditions typically only produced in machines like coin shrinkers, which are themselves another example.
A similar technology is used in some electromagnetic dent pullers and electromagnetic forming. A pulsed magnetic field induces eddy currents in a sheet of metal and then uses those currents to pull the sheet metal into shape. This is of rather limited use in making "shape morphing" objects, however.
Answer: There exist materials very similar to what you are describing called shape-memory alloys. Nitinol, an alloy of nickel and titanium, is one common example. They are deformable, but when they are heated (e.g. with an electric current), they return to a preset shape. They've got industrial applications, but I've also used them in science demonstrations for children and they're usually a big hit. You can see an example of such a material in action here.
Comment: I have just read Mr. Hiroshi Sato, "Development of multifunctional wire that combines shape-memory alloy to piezo electric material" http://184.108.40.206/ft/CONF/16413644/16413679.pdf  In it his remarks about the material used in piezo movement. My question is aimed at a bent wire becoming straight upon being charged with millivolts.

Wire morphing shape?


Fasts for pregnant women and new mothers

Question: What fasts are pregnant women and women right after childbirth obligated to keep?
Thanks.
Answer: As always, CYLOR, but I'll copy what the Shulchan Aruch says (as far as I see in 554:5): "Pregnant and nursing women fast on the ninth of Av as they complete the fast on Yom Kipur. On the three other fasts [the seventeenth of Tamuz, the fast of G'dalya, and the tenth of Teves —msh210], they are exempt from fasting. Nonetheless, it is appropriate that they do not eat to enjoy themselves with food: rather, for the upkeep of the child (see also 550:1, above)." Mishna B'rura is silent here.
In 550:1, Shulchan Aruch says "All must fast these four fasts [the ones listed above —msh210] and it is forbidden to 'break the fence'." Rama adds: "However, pregnant and nursing women who are in much pain should not fast. Even if they are not in much pain, they are not required to fast, but their practice is to be stringent. That's specifically for the three fasts, but on the ninth of Av they must complete the fast." Mishna B'rura changes the "should not" (for the much-pain case) to a "must not", and comments: "It seems logical that she's called pregnant from when the baby is noticeable... but perhaps even forty days from conception she's also in the class of 'pregnant' for this if she feels pain. But less than [forty —msh210], it seems she's like any other woman for all rules, unless she's in much pain. And if she feels weak, one should not be stringent on her at all." And on but their practice is to be stringent he comments: "But if they're weak, it seems they should not be stringent. However, even one who needs food should not indulge in meat and wine: just according to his need." (Cf. Marx <code> :-) </code>.)
In 686:2, Rama says about taanis Ester: "This fast is not a requirement [chova]; therefore, one should be lenient with it at a time of need, like pregnant or nursing women or for a sick person not in danger and even merely those whose eyes hurt that if they are in much pain they should not fast, and repay [the fast on another day —msh210] afterward." Michna B'rura notes the ambiguity: "Pain: this goes on those whose eyes hurt, but a pregnant woman even not in pain does not fast: so writes the Y'shuos Yaakov. The Elya Raba is stringent on this, but for a woman who's given birth in the past thirty days, he, too, is lenient."
I do recommend you don't rely on my translations (or readings) of these sources.
Answer: Rav Shternbuch address this question in his tshuvos (http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=19963&st=&pgnum=130) and explains the position of the Brisker Rav that a pregnant woman is essentially a choleh sh'ein bo sakanah, in which case she can eat in amounts less than a shiur if she feels she cannot fast. This holding is also consistent with the Brisker Rav's view that a choleh sh'yesh bo sakanah can eat normally, even on Yom Kippur and is not constrained by eating less than a shiur. R. Shternbuch does caution that he is merely explaining the position of the Brisker Rav but he leaves the psak up to the person's regular rabbi.
Comment: Why can a ChShEB"S eat less than a Shiur? Chatzi Shiur is Assur Mideoraita!


Should I refocus if I change the aperture in a DSLR?

Question: The title pretty much says what I want to ask.
Answer: Theoretically, camera always autofocuses at the largest possible aperture, and then right before shutter being released, it closes it down. Therefore, no need to do it, since DOF can only increase.
Comment: I really liked your answer but accepted @aj-henderson 's for pointing out that "While aperture will impact the depth of field ... it will not impact the actual focus plane". Thank you very much for your answer though!
Comment: @yannisf - Please see the links in Michael Nielsen's answer. There are lenses that suffer from focus-shift when aperture changes.
Answer: Focus shift happened with some of the well known vintage manual lenses (read about them on pentax forums). This was always noted in reviews because then you could avoid focusing wide open and then stopping down if it was a known issue. Nowadays with auto focus, you dont get that option. But you can check the focus using the aperture test button. Modern lenses are designed for the "wide open focus, then stop down" mechanism, so the engineers minimize the drift. Howver, it seems sometimes it goes wrong for them:
Even on pro versions
and renowned Zeiss
Answer: It really depends...
With higher F-stop value you will get a deeper depth of field. So, if you foucsed with say F/16, and then you change aperture to a lower value, let's say F/2, the diaphragm opens and your depth of field gets shallower, so you might need to refocus to be sure your subject ist still focused.
However, if you change from a low F-Stop to a higher value, your depth of field gets deeper and you shouldn't need refocusing.
You could check into this as a reference:
http://www.exposureguide.com/focusing-basics.htm
Comment: Unless you are focusing while pushing the DOF preview or have a lens with a manual aperture, you are always focusing at max aperture.
Answer: Maybe.
There is something called "focus shift" where what's in focus at one aperture might not be 100% in focus at another aperture.
But it's most likely to occur when you're dealing with fast apertures where very little is in focus to begin with.
This article explains it in detail:
http://photographylife.com/what-is-focus-shift
Answer: Auto-focus always focuses at the aperture wide open to ensure maximum light reaches the sensor.  While aperture will impact the depth of field (and thus how far outside the focal plain is acceptably in focus) it will not impact the actual focus plane on most lenses.
Therefore, it should not be necessary to refocus when changing aperture unless you are trying to backfocus or front focus something intentionally. (ie, you want to control what is just barely in focus rather than the central point that is in focus).  This is not generally a normal practice though.


How do I know what sound system is being used?

Question: I've noticed there is ALSA, OSS, and PULSEAUDIO. How do I know what I'm using?
(I'm running MythBuntu 10.04 and I want to figure out how to make all apps - VLC, Basero etc output via the SPDIF).
Answer: Different applications can make use of different "sound systems".  For some applications, you can choose the sound backend at run time (e.g., via a preference setting); for other, this has to be a compile-time choice (therefore, it's up to the package maintainer to select one).
Applications that come in the main Ubuntu repository have been compiled with PulseAudio support, so you can control the sound inputs and outputs via System -> Preferences -> Sound or padevchooser.
Still, some applications do not support PulseAudio and only offer a choice of ALSA/OSS: older versions of Skype and Adobe Flash are the primary example, but also the free music player Aqualung.
So, in the end, the answer is: it's application-specific, and you might need to dig into the application preferences or upgrade/recompile to get them working the way you want.
Answer: If your sound is working, right click on the Volume icon in the taskbar, and click preferences. The System you are using will be mentioned at the top.
PS: Thats how it happens in Ubuntu 9.04, which I am using now.


Is dying a bad thing?

Question: I've died quite a few times, does it have any impact on the game as a whole, or is it just a question of restarting that particular scenario?
Answer: In general, the only time dying has permanent consequence on the game (other than the obvious fact you just died) is during events that have been scripted to have an effect.
Examples include Shepard dying at the end of Mass Effect 2 if things went horribly, horribly wrong, during the "survive 5 waves" event of the Arrival DLC, the non-standard game over if you don't escape the Reapers during scanning in ME3, etc.
Otherwise, the game does not keep track of your deaths in a way that would have a meaningful impact on the game. In general, avoiding death is in your best interest for obvious reasons (quicksave often!), and if your death is going to have a meaningful impact on the story, like during a scripted event, you will notice it.
Answer: Unless you are supposed to die like in ME2 or when the 'arrival' dlc had the 5 survival rounds, no they are considered like a 'not good enough, do it again' sort of thing.
Then again its been like this in A LOT of games, e.g. COD (especially on veteran).

Is dying a bad thing?


What grout to use on this glass mosaic tile

Question: I am curious as to what grout should I use for this [glass mosaic tile][1]?  Do I use a sanded or unsanded grout?  Has anyone used the Bostik Dimension grout from My Tile Backsplash?
Comment: The link for the tiles you're using  is missing.
Answer: Sanded vs unsanded has more to do with grout line width. Grout lines < 1/8" are usually unsanded.  Grout lines >= 1/8" must be sanded. That said, 1/8" is a cliff hanger and could use either.  The problem with wider grout joints is that the grout (cement based, Dimension, being urethane, has a wider range (joints can be between 1/16" - 1/2" in width and at least 1/8" in depth)) can crack as it hardens if it doesn't have sand.
Be sure you go see an installation with Dimension grout.  Its reflective proprieties are unique but not for everyone.  It would work in a modern or ultra modern style kitchen.
Answer: This is really purely design taste.  It is a backsplash so water isn't a big deal.  If your grout is a much different color than the tile I would go with sanded - if contrasting color go with contrasting textures.  If it is similar I would probably go unsanded.  Actually last two backsplashes I did with laticrete epoxy.  I have to say the epoxy gives a very clean, almost caulk like finish - although harder to put in.


Making Localhost as worldwide server

Question: I am using Ubuntu 12.04 with KDE desktop.
I have installed apache2 on my pc. I want set my localhost as remote accessible server. What I must to do? What is the NAT or Ubuntu servers settings?
Answer: You will need to access your routers administration page and forward whatever port Apache is running on to your PC's IP( usually 80 ). To access your router its usually 192.168.1.254 unless you have edited the IP or have another form of setup, if you do your probably wont need this advice.
You will also need to use ufw to allow port 80 inbound and outbound from your PC.
<code>sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
</code>
Those will allow access to you web server if you have your firewall up as you should.
Also suggest if your opening it up to the net to do some hardening of the web server before hand. Have a look at HERE
Answer: You need to do the following things for Making Localhost as worldwide server
1.Check if you router support DDNS ( most router do )

2.Make an account on supported DDNS site ( for example you have made abcz.np-ip.org )
3.Sign in with the user name and password ( as you can see in above in i have supported http://no-ip.com
4.Then simply DMZ to you computer if address ( ifconfig i have 192.168.1.2 )

When some one paste abcz.np-ip.org in web browser it will pointing to you Localhost worldwide server
Answer: I asume your server is behind a (home/NAT)router? If this is the case all you need to this is forward port 80 to your PC on the router. You can find how to do this here on portforward.com
In default Apache is remotely accessible if there is no active firewall present.

Making Localhost as worldwide server


What methods improve creativity at an early age?

Question: I have a 10 months old daughter and I have no experience regarding parenting at all. She seems to be very curious about the details of objects. For example when given a toy she always finds the small texts on the back or side of it and tries to touch them. She is also particularly interested in my all text books or any picture that has kind of a pattern. Is this normal for this age? This makes me feel she has the potential to become a smart person. I was wondering if this is true? And if yes are there methods to help her use this potential and improve her creativity?
Answer: Creativity and curiosity occurr naturally in children. All you need is to do two simple things:
First, stay out of the way. A lot of modern education is actually beating the creativity and imagination out of children. 10 months is too young for this to be a problem, obviously. You just need to make sure you're not discouraging any of this, by forcing activities that don't need to be forced or by taking away the interesting things.
Second, keep on supplying her with interesting stuff to investigate. Different colours, textures, smells, flavours, sounds or anything. It doesn't need to be anything specifically for children. Sometimes, the car keys and the box the DVD Player came in are the best toys. Just let her play, and keep the new experiences coming.
Basically, what I'm saying is that you don't need to worry about it too  much. You don't need to do anything, as such. Just let it happen naturally.
Comment: I wish I hade more than one vote. :)
Comment: +1 for interesting stuff. Anything safe will do. Cardboard boxes are always a winner. Clothes pegs are another firm favourite.
Answer: Yes, as the brain develops and becomes more capable of new things, there are different activities that you can do with your child to stimulate creativity and learning.
A good book to read on the topic is called What's Going on in There? : How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life. The author goes through different stages of child development then tells you different things that you can do to encourage and stimulate your child based on the brain-development milestones they've met.
Answer: My daughter is the same way. My approach is to spend more time with her, playing, doing things together. At that age it is simple things like opening and closing a box, putting a small object into a bigger bucket, turning pages of a book (those soft, cloth ones are great), pointing at things and naming them.
Eventually they'll start doing things like turning a radio on and bringing a remote to switch a radio to a music channel they like.


How to counter olaf top?

Question: How do you counter olaf top? It is so hard he always kills be at lvl 2 or 3. I have tried vlad but no good he still can get in range super easily.
Answer: A common type of top laner is sustain-based. They tipically have some healing form or life steal or shield (think udyr, warwick, nasus, irelia,..), which they abuse by buying a lot of armor (or magic resist) depending of which type of damage their enemy deals the most. This amplifies the effect of healing (if my armor blocks half your damage then you can think of my heals as being double as strong, since you need twice as many hits to compensate my healing) and make them win their lanes by sheer attrition (hit the enemy some, heal up, hit him some, heal up, and repeat).
Olaf counters this by having a true damage skill on a low cooldown, which makes it difficult to outsustain him.
So apart from ganking him early on, the type of champions that beat olaf are those that are more duel based, like riven or rumble, where they have so much damage up close that if olaf tries to harass you, you fight him back and don't let him heal back up.
If you want to play vlad against him, buy boots as first item and try movement speed quints; avoid his axes and you should be able to do free damage to him all the time.
Also you might not want to have a CC based team since his ultimate negates all that.
Good luck
TL;DR: Olaf beats sustain top laners. Pick duelist or someone that can outrange/kite him.
Answer: To make it short and simple: Warwick can out sustain Olaf, and Yorick can use his range to punish Olaf.
Answer: Olaf is pretty weak against champions that can poke from range like kennen, kennen can farm well and poke at the same time, combined with a WOTA he can shrug off harass that olaf gives him.
Yorick can out sustain olaf by a long shot, he has a nice chase, sustain and a nice ult which can prevent ganks and even come out on top.
Hope that helps!
Answer: I prefer to use sites like http://www.picklol.net/olaf to find the best counter-pick to certain heroes.
I tried Yorick, as suggested by the link, and I simply won my lane.

How to counter olaf top?


Identical default gateway with different metric (0 and 100) Ubuntu 12.04 Desktop

Question: I have recently started to configure my network using /etc/network/interfaces for a static IP address. For this I have added the following lines into the file:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
    address 192.168.0.232
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    gateway 192.168.0.1
    dns-nameservers 184.108.40.206 22.214.171.124

I have also changed managed=true in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf.
Everything works fine so far.
Today I realized that I have two identical default gateways (via a bash default gateway failover bash script that wouldn't work because of that reason).
Route shows the following:
Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
default         192.168.0.1     0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth0
default         192.168.0.1     0.0.0.0         UG    100    0        0 eth0
link-local      *               255.255.0.0     U     1000   0        0 eth0
192.168.0.0     *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth0

The default gateway 192.168.0.1 shows up twice, once with metric 0 and once with 100. Is this the way it is supposed to be?
There are no files in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections so I have no idea where that gateway is coming from. I don't have any scripts running that would add the gateway.
How do I remove one of them so it's gone permanently?
Answer: I could solve this problem by changing managed=false in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf


Creating a bounding box to pull from cache

Question: I have a simple python script that is pulling in lat,longs from company's db and we are trying to create several bounding boxes around these points to simulate zoom-levels. The script will pull tiles from the geoserver, but will not pull from cache. In the geoserver url, I have tiling enabled, but I have been told that the BB's I created do not line up with the "grid" for tiling, so it won't pull from geoservers cach? The documentation makes it seem like i should be able to pull from cache anyway.....any ideas?
Answer: It's hard to understand exactly what your question is, but if you are trying to create WMS requests for areas of interest (AOI) around your data points then using a WMS request with the boundingbox generated by the python sounds like the way to go.
If you want to make use of your tile cache (GWC) then you need a more sophisticated client which can take your generated bounding box and split it up into the required number of tile requests. Maybe something like http://nullege.com/codes/search/mapproxy.core.client.TMSClient would work for you.
Comment: If a database is involved, you could also create a [view](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_%28database%29) that concatenates an appropriate `BBox` for each point---then the messy-looking stuff can be kept out of the code.


Does longterm storage in a connected state harm the studs/tubes?

Question: Does storing bricks in a connected state lessen their longevity?
Answer: After researching the question further via some local AFOL, the answer appears to be "No". The tube/stud system remains robust if stored in a connected state. Connectivity issues arise after the studs/tubes begin to wear down due to excessive usage or the elements become cracked. Simply storing a model intact does not lessen the life of the bricks. However, storing LEGO elements out of direct sunlight is recommended.
Answer: I have some standard Red 2 x 4 Bricks that have been stuck together in the same configuration since the early '90s, I just separated one and tested it compared to another Red 2 x 4 Brick from the same era, (and probably the same basic building set), but stored loose, and I could not discern any real difference in clutch power.
This is of course highly subjective and a very small sample size, but for at least this one brick 20+ years of being stuck to another brick has not had any noticeable effect on its clutch power.
I would think that other factors such as temperature, exposure to UV light and frequency of use will have a much larger effect on the clutch power of LEGO than being stored stuck to other LEGO elements.
An interesting and related point is discussed in another LEGO Answers question, 'Are transparent neon Lego bricks made from a different plastic than usual?', in which it is stated that elements made of polycarbonate should not be stock together as polycarbonate in contact with polycarbonate creates a very tight bond. (Transparent elements are usually made of polycarbonate, wheres other elements are usually made of ABS plastic post circa 1963*).
Further reading:

LEGO Answers question: 'How can I store LEGO bricks as long as
possible?'
Brickset forum question on maintaining clutch power:
How do you maintain Clutch on Built Sets?
Answer to another LEGO Answers question mentioning 'optimal clutch power': 'Why are old LEGO bricks more brittle than new ones?'

*Link shamelessly plagiarised from @Joubarc's answer.
Answer: I can tell you for a fact that removing the tire from some of the older wheel design has a pretty sizable chance of breaking them.
Comment: This doesn't answer the question. Tires don't have studs/tubes, and those are breaking because the rubber degrades naturally, whether or not it's left on the wheel.
Comment: the wheel breaks when removed from the tire. It is especially true when removing them from the smaller tire. Keeping them assembled is the only way to not break these.

Do you feel it is useful on a longevity question enough or do you want me to delete this. I do not mind.
Answer: I had my childhood lego in a bucket for about 20 years. After opening it up again, I didn't notice any real damage. The older part molds for some pieces are more prone to breaking as they have thinner connections etc, but just because they were in storage does not seem to have affected anything.
Answer: Yes, but not very noticeably or quickly.
Keeping bricks assembled will always create stress on the bricks, and will gradually warp the plastic. However, the rate at which clutch power is affected, and to what degree is unclear, and depends on other conditions.
My most pronounced experience with this was a set (6085) that I purchased which had likely been assembled for 15-20 years. Although the elements were shipped disassembled, I had been informed that the model had stayed together, placed on a shelf, and had been dusted before shipping to me.
Although most elements assembled fine, without any discernible clutch loss, a few connections were slightly loose. Upon closer inspection, the loose connections were those where the "dust marks" lined up perfectly-- IE, those particular elements were assembled in that particular configuration for a long time.  Rotating those same elements' connection points resulted in normal clutch power, but using the same orientation was looser.
Granted, there are other concerns which may have affected this particular example, such as humidity, UV exposure, ambient temperature, etc. I expect that fluctuations in these other conditions will likely expedite the degradation of clutch in assembled elements.
Answer: Having them connected may actually increase longevity, at least for parts of the brick. This shields out light and air pollution. I have several LEGO bricks that were connected for 30+ years, and the sides exposed to air (and Los Angeles air pollution) were significantly more yellowed than the sides that were connected.


Synonymity of "is that so" and "really"

Question: Do these have the same meaning?

Oh is that so?
Oh really?
Answer: I see "Is that so" as confrontational, typically expressing disbelief or challenge rather than merely doubt. "Oh, really?" sometimes expresses doubt, and sometimes indifference.  The specific meaning of either phrase strongly depends on context and manner.
Comment: or mood or tone.
Comment: "Oh, really?" can also indicate surprise. I completely agree that it's much more dependent on tone than anything else.
Answer: In informal use, they're pretty much equivalent. As a native speaker, I'd say they can both express skepticism or doubt:

"I caught a ten-foot trout yesterday."
"Oh, is that so?"

They can also both act as placeholders in conversation, phrases used to acknowledge that one party is listening to the other or to move the conversation along without making any substantive remark:

"I ran into your aunt Karen at the park yesterday.
"Oh really?"

The particular purpose depends in large part on the speaker's phrasing and intonation.
For what it's worth, "Is that so?" has enjoyed much greater prevalence, according to this ngram.
Answer: Emphasis on the 'that' gives a negative tone, emphasis on the 'so' gives a curious tone.
Same for oh really: emphasis on the 'really' is confronting, emphasis on the 'oh' is curious. This is only my experience with the terms in my culture, body language or general melody of the cultural language can change the desired effect of anything you say.
Answer: I see them as equal, with either having the potential of confrontation if delivered in such a manner. They could also demonstrate great interest and/or fascination. I see is that so as being used more by middle-aged to somewhat older folks, and really used by a middle-aged to younger people. The 'oh' is optional.

Synonymity of "is that so" and "really"


How often can a creature be damaged in one turn with Wall of Fire?

Question: Question 1:  During a creature's movement, he moves into more than one fire space.  Does he take the damage for each square?
Question 2: Using Forced movement (push/pull/slide) does the creature take the damage for each square entered?
Answer: Currently update to wall of fire notes that:

Creatures can take damage from the wall only once per turn.

In the past, this was ruled differently, see the edit history of this answer for previous interpretations.
At least now it's a lot simpler. Now it doesn't matter how large the creature is nor how many squares it moves, it takes damage once per turn. Still, if multiple PCs are playing ping-pong with a mob, they will indeed take damage every PC's turn that they enter the wall.
Answer: As written:
"Effect: You conjure a wall that consists of contiguous squares filled with arcane fire. It can be up to 8 squares long and up to 4 squares high. The wall lasts until the end of your next turn. Any creature that starts its turn adjacent to the wall takes 1d6 + Intelligence modifier fire damage. If a creature moves into the wall's space or starts its turn there, the creature takes 3d6 + Intelligence modifier fire damage. Entering a square occupied by the wall costs 3 extra squares of movement. The wall blocks line of sight."
I think the intent was for a creature to take damage once (though I can certainly see how it may be interpreted as take damage for each space, the phrase "the wall's space" doesn't explicitly say each space).
It does say that each space takes 3 extra squares of movement (4 squares total for each square -- painful to get out of/cross).


Do 29 inch wheels make a difference?

Question:
Possible Duplicate:
29" wheels - what advantage do they provide over smaller wheels?

Do 29 inch wheels make a difference off road? They certainly cost more.
Comment: Perhaps edit your question, like "What difference do 29 inch wheels make?". Question as it is makes difficult to give an useful answer.
Comment: In comparison to what alternate size?
Comment: "yes" answers your current question, but I would imagine you'd like something more specific than that.  You should edit your question so that it is more specific and so that it can be answered objectively. As it's phrased now, it's going to get closed.
Comment: Hasn't this been asked before (and more clearly)? http://bicycles.stackexchange.com/q/2681/2148
Answer: Since I switched to my 29-er in september, I can keep up with the fastest bikers in my "team". Before that I just could not. It could be due to the new material, but I think there's a speed difference of about 2 km/h.
I bike on the flat tracks of nothern Belgium and the south of the Netherlands. So no climbing or descending.
The 29-er is definitly faster on (loose) sand, and mud. And a lot more comfortable on tree-roots and the "Belgian Blocks".
For really, really small turns, I notice the wheelbase is larger, but otherwise I do not notice any difference in handling.
Answer: If you think about rolling over a tree root, or rock, or really anything on a mountain bike, the bigger the tire, the easier it is to roll over these obstacles.
The angle created by the 29 inch tire is less than the angle of a 26 inch tire, so it rolls up and over with less effort.
You also gain more ground clearance, the larger tire elevates your bottom bracket, chainrings and pedals allowing you to roll over larger obstacles as well.
Answer: Where you are going to notice the difference is in clearance of "obstacles" because of the bigger diameter of the wheel objects you go over seem smaller, therefore, making it easier to roll over them
Answer: Compared to 26":
They are heavier and/or weaker.  They force frame designers to lengthen chainstays making bikes handle less well, as well having knock-on effects for rear suspension travel path.
Personally I think they are another gimick standard, their lower rolling resistance may outweigh the negatives for mild off-road XC, but for anything else stick to 26".  Your wallet will thank you.
Answer: Comparing with 26"
Pros:
- goes more softer
- more suitable for tall biker
Cons:
- more expensive (in general)
- weight
- acceleration is lower
Answer: Well, I think the wikipedia page currently offers a pretty concise view of the differences between a 26" and a 29" wheel without being overly biased.
One item from that list, though I would also list in advantages (not just disadvantages): "More force needed to change steering angle due to greater mass and longer contact patch". This can also be translated the other way: more force is needed by obstacles, trail conditions, etc. to change the steering angle. 29er's are often less "flickable" or "agile" but depending on your type of riding/needs this can be advantage!
Does changing the wheel size make a difference? Yes. Does it make a difference that means that it is better/worse? Not really. To further confuse things, there are two other bikes that mix things up: the 96er (front wheel is a 29er, back is a 26er) and the 650b (a size in between the two).
In the end, you'll learn to ride with the advantages/disadvantages of your wheel choice. I personally also feel the terrain you ride the most also dictates what works the "best". And your own opinion as well.

Do 29 inch wheels make a difference?


Will my readers feel like they are reading a children's storybook if there are illustrations in my novel?

Question: I'm writing a novel. I also have good drawing skills. I would like to add illustrations of the setting, locations, and characters. I may include 8 or 10 illustrations (the novel is approximately 200 pages long). I have never seen a novel with illustrations. I wonder if readers will feel like they are reading a children's storybook if I include them?
Comment: With graphic novels becoming more of a mainstream, "adult" thing, I suspect many of today's readers will be open to something like this. However, it may depend heavily on your audience.
Comment: Adding the examples of warren below -- what about Sidney Paget illustrations of Sherlock Holmes. The illustrations pretty much defined the character in my opinion. If you manage to include them in a way that it feels "classy" (suits the overall theme), why not?
Comment: Can you give some more details about what kind of a novel it is going to be? It's really going to depend on its subject, field and tone to determine whether it's fitting or not.
Comment: I would expect the style of the art to make a big difference (cartoony vs representational, amount of detail, etc).
Comment: @ekka a creepy but informative night in an art museum.
Comment: @sjohnston "With graphic novels becoming more of a mainstream," are you talking about comics?
Comment: Yes, specifically comic books (as opposed to newspaper-style shorts). "Graphic novel" is basically equivalent to "comic book," but the term is more often applied to comic books of a serious, literary tone, aimed at an adult audience, as "comic book" has a strong superhero/childish connotation. See [good ol' wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_novel).
Answer: I don't think you need to worry about "seeming like a kid's book," I think you need to worry about making a professional submission. On two points:

Why do you think your novel should have illustrations, when most don't? Do they add anything more to your story than similar illustrations would to other books in your genre? If not, then whatever considerations apply to illustrations in most books, probably apply to yours as well.
While "good drawing skills" are great to have, even if a publisher is persuaded he does want to include illustrations, that by no means implies that he wants yours specifically. Illustrations will be a huge element of book design and presentation, and it's generally very important to the publisher that he keep complete control over that.

If you're self-publishing, then neither of the above apply, and I see no reason why illustrations shouldn't be a colorful addition to your work. But the same considerations the publisher might have should still be considered: you want to make sure your illustrations are really appealing and look professional enough to include in your book, and that they're inserted well into the overall design and layout. If not-so-great artwork is inserted in a careless manner, that might make the whole book seem very shoddy.
Comment: A further point would be that if the illustrations are important it can make ebook publication more difficult. Kindle images are generally poor in my experience.
Answer: Jurassic Park, Flatland, Cryptonomicon, Dead or Alive, and The Last Oracle (at least) all have illustrations in them that do not detract from the story - and in many ways may enhance it.
Comment: @Lukas Stejskal - there are representations of the fractal / chaos stuff (labeled ominously with things similar to "iteration 7 - errors are impossible to recover from").. there were other illustrations / diagrams as I recall, though, too ... but it's a been a long time since I last opened a copy of that particular book :)
Comment: I read it long time ago, but weren't illustrations in Jurrasic Park in fact graphical representations of  chaos-theory mathematical model?
Answer: No, people won't feel like its a children's book. As other people said, it is relatively common in adult literature. But know that it is unlikely to actually happen unless you are well-established. It increases the cost of printing tremendously, since images have a much higher printing quality necessary to "look good" than words do. Typically only with "guaranteed successes" like Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings do publishers take the risk of including decent illustrations.
If it is not possible, an alternative is posting them in full glory on your web page as an extra, and referencing the page in the book. Invested fans will seek out that material.
Comment: To reduce costs, one could choose to print black and white images so that the novel does not come out at such a high price and give it the special touch of the author.
Answer: They do exist, although they are a rarity. You need to ask yourself if the illustrations serve a purpose beyond that of letting you use your artistic skills. Will they distract or add?
Answer: I've seen novels with illustrations. But I wouldn't care too much about it, because I'm sure your publisher will tell you, if he thinks it is a good idea.
If you want to self-publish, I would include them. I see no harm and you can use it as unique selling proposition. ;)
Answer: I love it when a book I'm reading has illustrations, but I'd trust my publisher on this.
Answer: Have you read The Little Prince?
The book is in the public domain in Canada and you can read it here -- it lots of hand drawn pictures and is considered to be among the top 100 books of the 20th century.
Comment: Note, though, that while *The Little Prince* has depth that appeals to adults, it is often treated primarily as a children's book.
Answer: I can see that, in the context of a night in an art museam, pictures of items or interest would be useful and informative. If they help and enhance the story, then use them. If not, then don't - use your artistic skills in other books.
The biggest danger is using illustrations because you can, rather than because they help. If they are a positive part of the novel, then use them - it makes it slightly unusual, but in apositive way, and not a childish way.
Answer: No. Case in point: K. Vonnegut - Breakfast of champions.