Should sunrods be allowed in D&D?

Question: Sunrods, those banishers of darkness, are they a problem or not, I've met a number of DMs that don't want them in their games.
Are they a problem?
Comment: To people answering, remember that Sunrods act very differently in different versions of D&D, explaining which version you're talking about will help.
Answer: The question is: Is darkness an important element of the adventure? If yes, then torches may be a rare resource and it can be important to keep track of them. A sunrod could destroy some of the atmosphere and take some danger from the dungeon.
If the focus lies on slaying monsters and grabbing treasure, bookkeeping of torches and their duration may be a tedious thing, and sunrods are a nice and easy solution to this.
It is a bit like ammunition: Do you keep track of every arrow or bullet fired? An empty quiver or magazine can lead to a lot of drama, but on the other hand, the bookkeeping involved may not justify the few dramatic moments.
Answer: I've recently cut them from my game because we've instituted turn-based dungeon exploration and I found that it just doesn't feel like dungeon exploration when you're walking around with the equivalent of a halogen worklight.  I mention the turn-based exploration, because if you're ticking off ten-minute squares on a grid it's easy to keep track of when the torch burns out.
What I did was just replace all of the sunrods with a lantern and a number of pints of oil equal to their sunrods.  I think it adds a lot not to be able to see all the way across a 100' X 100' room.
Comment: Am I missing something?  I thought a sunrod illuminated a 30' radius, while a bull's eye lantern lit up a 120' cone...
Answer: Sunrods are no more disruptive than the older Continual Light spells (going back to AD&D 1E, even). Many an intrepid group deemed that since Continual Light lasted for years, decades even, it was more than fitting to cast it upon some handy small object, which could then be dropped into the lantern or mounted on a stick, and covered with a sack, to produce a rather impressive light source.
Given that it's low enough level that most major cities should have one or more magi to cast it, it's also the likely preferred method of lighting in cities.
3E's Continual Flame is no worse, either.
If you really want darkness to hinder, put it in an area of magical dampening. Or make light a trigger for some local danger worse than fumbling in the dark. (Explosive moths, anyone?)
If you want them to really be annoyed, make them go through some hall of a zoo after a teleport or slide trap, through where several caged medusae are kept... they're likely to race to bindfold themselves.
Answer: Back in the "good olde days" of AD&D, whenever we played in a "dungeon" and light was an issue, we (like Numenetics above) always counted off rounds.  So taking 2 torches into a dungeon was silly as you'd get an hour in there, and if you are checking for traps in each 10' square, you'd end up going 120 feet before heading back out.
As players we got around this by casting continual light spell on a pebble, and placing that in a bullseye lantern, this could then shut the light off when we wanted to "hide" or slide the shutter down to only light a small amount in front of us.
The thing you have to remember is, if you are in a dark place, and you are holding a light source, anything with vision can see you -- and any element of surprise you may have had, is gone (the exception to this would be if you have to open a door -- if no light can seep under or around it).
You are also very good targets for anything with ranged attack ability which you can't respond to because they are out of range of the Sunrod.
I personally don't like SunRods, and would prefer to use a controllable light source.  Most of the players who I play with carry a "continual light pebble" or two in a pouch as a "deployable" light, you can put them in a sling and propel the light down a tunnel, or drop it down a "deep hole" to see things better.
Just as a reply to Sebastian Dietz (above)
We also count off "ammo" as well, which is very easy to do, have a box with 20 squares for a quiver and tick them off as you use them, DM will tell you how many you recover after combat.  It really means that either everyone carries spare ammo for the archers / slingers / crossbow peeps, etc or they ensure they collect any they fired after the encounter.
But then, we also watch for Encumberence ... but that's a whole other story  :)
Good luck in your adventures,
Answer: As a DM I never had a problem with them. To me they're just like an exaggerated torch. I've never encountered any special rules with them. If I didn't want my players to have them I'd just say that none are available when they go shopping for supplies (even the best merchants run out of stock).
I'm curious as to what some of the issues DM's have with them.
Comment: @Bucc hhmmm I'd say they no more ruin surprise than a torch ... they have a 30 foot (or is it meter) radius ? You can still be surprised even if you have one (I.E. all of a sudden monsters BURST from the door). As for the realism ...hhmmm  maybe ... but to me they're nothing more than a stick with a "Light" spell on it but each DM is different. I'm a little more lax with stuff like that. :)
Comment: If you're walking around carrying a massive glowing light; it's more likely that the monsters are going to get the drop on the players and prep-up with spells and formations if they can see that coming down the corridor...
Comment: Yea, I'm not sure how they would feel it prevents surprise.  It does no more than the lowlight or darkvision held by many character races.
Comment: I had a DM that felt they ruined any chance of suprising us, or that they ruined his dark and moody atmosphere.

I've heard others complain that they are not realistic in a fantasy setting?

I have no problem with them myself :)
Answer: I think it comes down to what you want in your game.
Sunrods were, I believe, introduced as part of a conscious effort to simplify lighting.
Their upside is that they trivialize lighting issues.  For example, you no longer have to worry about who can see what - the entire area is illuminated.
But the downside is that they trivialize lighting issues.  For example, they make racial features like low-light vision irrelevant and they make it harder for characters (and creatures) to sneak around the battlefield or snipe from the darkness.  They make iconic class abilities (such as the light cantrip) meaningless.  Not to mention that they make several other pieces of equipment useless - including some magic items that offer illumination as one of their properties.  Why bother with torches, lanterns, etc. when you can buy a sunrod for a trivial cost?  For that matter, why bother with items such as an everburning torch (which ought to be a desirable item) when a sunrod is a tiny fraction of the price and iluminates four times the radius (20 squares rather than 4 squares).
Personally, I dislike them.  I think that they illuminate far too large a radius for far too long for far too cheap a cost.    If I were to suggest changes, it would be to change two (or more) of the three of those.  Perhaps make them more expensive by treating them as a low level consumeable/ alchemical item (~10 gp).  Perhaps reducing their radius to a radius 5 or 10 so that they illuminate much of, but not all of, the encounter.  Perhaps reducing their duration to 5 minutes so you need one per encounter (which fits better with the 4E duration systems than a 4 hour radius anyway).   One could even create more than one version of the sunrod whose level/ cost is dependant upon its radius and duration.
But if you find all of this too fiddly for you and want the simplified approach to lighting, they are the perfect light source.
Carl
Answer: My personal feelings on this are:
If you wouldn't remove a Drow's darkvision (superior to a sunrod) then why mess with sunrods. If you have a problem with them then DM better and work your way around it.
Answer: As has been pointed out, sunrods are a fairly expensive and regularly depleted resource. As a DM I consider this a plus. It's not a serious money sink of course, but every little bit helps keep the PCs' pockets a little less full.
The big drawback of sunrods for the PCs in my experience is that they don't make fire. You can't burn down a door, fend off a pack of wolves, light a firebomb made from a flask of oil (assuming you have any oil since you're already carrying sunrods) to toss at on onrushing group of gnolls, and so on. I've seen the tide of many a battle turned due to the use (purposefully or accidentally) of fire.
Answer: is the issue that it's a sunrod vs a torch or lantern? I think once you start making sunrods common equipment - even though it's a minor thing-- you've made a creative decision about the "flavor" of the campaign.
Answer: I am of 2 opinions, As a DM, for the vast majority of the time I do not want to be hastled by the "fog of war" effects that smaller light sources require. Roleplaying is supposed to be fun and unless I have a fun plot reason to plunge the party into darkness sunrods are fine. (and if it is a plot based reason to have darkness...)
-however-
Back when GenCon SoCal was around I had a chance to go through True Dungeon and I must say it is an amazingly fun experience to actualy walk through a set of rooms with just enough light to see outlines but no detail. Everyone clusters around a "light" spell (glow stick) trying to read the glyphs on a tomb. Taking a sunrod (Halogen Light) into this setting would spoil the entire adventure.
Answer: I find that in most cases, light sources or lack there of, are an element that players would rather not manage.  So in most games I treat them like I do food, ammo and spell components, which is to say I ignore them unless required for mood or a combat scenario.
That being said, I can think of a number of campaigns where I might not allow them.  They aren't allowed in my Dark Sun campaign for example.  Since the world has no divine magic and arcane is exceeding rare, I plan on making those rare instances were the players are in the dark an important element of each battle.  Which I think fits well with the resource management inherent with the Dark Sun setting.  I can also see them being restricted in a darker themed game like Ravenloft, where gloom and shadow play an important role in creating a certain "feel".  I would never restrict them in an Eberron game or most that have gone into paragon level because at that point I think the game should have moved beyond resource management.
Answer: This question completely depends on which version of the game you're using, and what you're trying to do.
In 4e, Sunrods illuminate a radius of 100 feet. That's absolutely huge. If I wanted to make darkness and exploration part of my game, I would probably houserule them straight into the ground, however this isn't my default playstyle for 4e, honestly I don't even pay attention to light sources when I run 4e, and neither do the 4e adventures I've used. Exploration heavy 4e would be pretty cool, but it would need a bit more time than my group usually has, and isn't what I would consider the default playstyle.
In 3.x, and particularly Pathfinder, Sunrods just aren't a big deal. They illuminate slightly more range than a torch or a light spell (30/60 feat instead of 20/40), and cost more money than either. While not a waste of gold in the right campaign, I can't see them making a huge difference.
I don't know what the rules for sunrods are in the other versions (although I'll try to find them), but from that, I would assume the issue is GMs wanting to run 4e more like BD&D/OD&D, which is cool, but was always going to require house rules.
Comment: Sunrods don't appear in D&D before 3e.
Answer: Sunrods come with a built in expense (they cost gold to get). If players are willing to part with their gold for a sunrod, I say let them.
Most adventures as written do not rely on darkness as a major factor in an encounter, but for those rare times when it is a factor you can always state there is a magical effect that extinguishes the sunrod (or reduces its radius to 1 square) for the duration of the encounter. This way players who want and like the sunrod can still get and use them and you can control their use in certain circumstances.
Answer: They aren't all bad - I recently used a sunrod in a role-playing context to temporarily blind/distract some guards while I hightailed it in the other direction.

Should sunrods be allowed in D&D?


How do jazz players communicate while playing?

Question: When a jazz group is playing and improvising, how do they communicate so as not to produce cacophony? Somehow, one player's choices and intuition need to guide the other players so that they can change keys/tempos/sounds in concert. I've heard whispered commands in a Miles Davis recording (presumably from Mr. Davis), but what if the leader's mouth is occupied producing the music? Do they make eye contact, wave their instruments, nudge each other, or set off a flare? Or do they communicate solely through the music itself?
Answer: Collective improvisation doesn't mean "everyone plays at the same time". Playing jazz is as much about listening as it is being able to play your instrument. In that kind of situation, a player isn't thinking about "what should I play next", but rather "what is the music, at this moment in time, missing that I can provide?"
Cacophony is more likely to happen with less experienced players who haven't fully grasped this concept, and need to be reminded that not playing is equally valid as playing in one of these sections (particularly in big bands with a lot of players!).
The vast majority of communication that does occur is musical, and even when playing notated music, happens in the spaces around the notation. In a traditional big band, the entire rhythm section is usually given a lot of freedom, and is typically very good at this. The piano and bass will be listening to each other for harmonic material, and the drums obviously have immense influence over the rhythmic groove. It is very common for the drums to respond to rhythmic figures improvised by one of the other instruments. When a soloist is improvising, they are included into this feedback loop, and the most exciting soloists you see will have a constant line of communication open to the rhythm section. You should be able to hear them respond to each other when one of them improvises a lick or rhythm that stands out.
There is some nominal visual communication that occurs in this context, usually to direct traffic during solo sections. One thing you will probably start seeing everywhere now that I've mentioned it is when a soloist is playing his last chorus, he'll give a look to the bandleader or next soloist to indicate that he's about to be finished. Sometimes solo lengths are predetermined, and sometimes the music the soloist is playing is so strongly formulated that the ending chorus is completely obvious to everyone based entirely on the content. Again, with less experienced ensembles, a bandleader with a more active role will usually direct traffic more obviously; pointing to the next soloist a few bars before the next chorus where they should come in.
Comment: Soloists can also have a predetermined musical phrase they can play that signals the end of the solo to the rest of the band.
Comment: I've seen a bassist and a drummer improvise together and change the groove (from swinging to non-swinging) instantaneously. And I _was looking_ for clues and I didn't see one! It was amazing!
Comment: But then it also happened to me that when playing together with some people, even quite amateur musicians, we happened to play the same break/fill at the same time. Maybe we successfully "felt" the music the same way in that specific moment.
Answer: Same way a string quartet does,  or for that matter  A Far Cry does:  body motion and eye contact.  Further,  even a free-form jazz ensemble rehearses a lot, and the members have a pretty good idea who's next up for a solo, and how many choruses are going to be taken, etc.
Miles Davis' famous "play it and I'll tell you what it is later" doesn't really count as a command :-) .   OTOH,  if you listen to the famous 1938 Goodman Carnegie Hall recordings, there's a place or two when you can hear him tell a soloist to "take another chorus."
Answer: I recommend going to see a live performance, preferably by renowned musicians, and looking for clues. You will see people tremendously listening to each other. You will see glances exchanged, smiles, frowns, astonished faces (if they are good, mostly good astonishment). Keep in mind that the tunes have been reheased before hand, that some groups have been playing together for many years and musicians know each other very well.
Example: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x121uc2_avishai-cohen-jazz-a-vienne-2013_music for the tune starting round 1:35:00 see 1:36:04 (glances), 1:36:26 (piano drums synchronous break) 1:37:18 (pianist gesturing the sax player to enter) 1:37:27 (bassist glaring smile encouraging the drummer) 1:37:31 (bassist nod to get back to the theme). The whole concert is worth watching, both for the music itself and if you're looking for how the 4tet interacts.
You may also see, especially in a jam session where the structure of tunes has not been rehearsed, some codified signs which are well know to (jazz) musicians (such as pointing to one's head, telling every one to get back to the beginning of the harmonic grid).
Answer: In the vast majority of jazz music, there is far more form and structure than inexperienced ears are likely to hear. In fact, I believe this is why people who don't like jazz typically dislike it in the first place - they don't understand what they are hearing, so it sounds like cacophony to them. The truth is that jazz is (generally) highly organized while allowing for stylistically-appropriate improvisation.
Typically, these things are understood by all of the players ahead of time:

Time signature
Tempo
Style (Bebop, cool jazz, bossa, etc.)
Form (AABA, ABA, etc.)
Harmony
Melody
Solo form (if different than melody form)

The style is very important and typically provides a reference for the types of improvisations that are appropriate. An experienced player would take very different liberties with a bossa nova than he/she would with a bebop tune. Understanding these styles, and being able to improvise appropriately within them is essentially the definition of a good jazz musician, and is what allows complex interactions and improvisations to take place in a tune without leading to what is affectionately known as a "train wreck."
An in-depth knowledge of a style of jazz is similar to an in-depth understanding of a language. When one becomes fluent in a language, holding a conversation with another person who is fluent in that same language becomes effortless. Similarly, when one becomes fluent in a style of jazz, holding conversations with other musicians within the context of that style becomes effortless. Yes, there are (mostly) nonverbal cues that are being exchanged, but far fewer than some might think. Most of what is being communicated between players is done through what they are playing.
All that being said, once you begin to push style boundaries or get into the free jazz arena, nearly all bets are off, and the method of communication is usually established before-hand, either through the establishment a specific cue, e.g., "When you see me do X, it means Y", or just through familiarity between players.
Answer: Simple: listen
Be attentive and mindful of your band-mates in the same way you would be attentive and contribute to a group discussion.  In conversation you become aware of: the content and meaning of their message, their body language, the dynamic with which they speak, the sentence structure, rhythm and rhyme and all other types of literary devices.
These elements are all present in Jazz - you need to know who you're playing with, their background, what type of personalities you're working with. Seek first to understand what your friends are trying to convey, and then respond.  Just like a conversation, sometimes you reiterate what is being said with your own perspective, perhaps verbatim (a "quote"), or even with absolute (and golden) silence, the importance of which can never be understated.
Answer: As far as keys are concerned, a player may use fingers to tell the fellow players which key he's in, or going to play the next tune in. As in 3 fingers held upwards denotes 3#, thus A maj. 2 held down,2 flats, Bb maj, etc. This has always worked, but I brought up this subject a couple of years ago on this site, and was asked "did you make it up by yourself?". I've always thought it was universal, and, if not, why not? It works in a noisy environment (stages!) and is unequivocal.
Otherwise, eye contact for most other communications works well, as in other walks of life.Moral - don't close your eyes for too long when soloing...
Answer: Since I am in a Jazz Band myself, my main way of communicating would be to tap my foot lightly near the bassists. This is a signal for him to either change the tempo or to get on track without taking my hands of the guitar. As a bassist and guitarist I know to follow the pianist. Whereas for the bass I have been telling our bassist is to use the bass drum as inspiration. " The Drum is your Friend." So continue to listen to recordings for ideas but here are the main signals as a guitarist to the rhythm section:
Drums: shake head, Mouth
Piano: Smile, Eyebrows
Bassist: Tap foot, Smile


Design tools in Fedora

Question: I am reasonably experience developer on photoshop and it has spoiled me to no extent. I am searching for a graphic tool on fedora which is simple to generate images that I would like to use on my android apps. I have tried my hand with Gimp and it seems to have huge learning curve. Is there any photoshop like app in Fedora which can help ?
Comment: Maybe this is enough for you http://pixlr.com/editor/
Comment: The GIMP pretty much *is* the 'PhotoShop-like app for Linux'
Answer: The Gimp doesn't have a huge learning curve.
Also, try Inkscape. My girlfriend uses Inkscape and Gimp (on Debian) and this is what she does with them.
Answer: First of all, congratulations on using Fedora, it's amazing.
You can always install plugins for Gimp to imitate certain photoshop behaviours.
Check this article: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/03/8-handy-tweaks-to-make-gimp-replace-photoshop/. You can for example install Layer Styles (Layer Effects GIMP plug-in from Gimp.org), CMYK Color Separation, Liquid Rescale, and brushes, among others.

Design tools in Fedora


What parts do I need to get this outdoor light working?

Question: I'm sure I need a light bulb of some type, but I do not know what kind or what else I need.  I just bought my first house and I am a DIY rookie.
Answer: The holes in the white part look like they might fit a G4-base halogen bulb:

It also looks like there is a label that's curling away from the side of the fixture in the lower photo; if so, it should have information on the maximum wattage that you can use.
Answer: It's hard to tell from the picture if the lens assembly includes a reflector.   If it does, Niall C's answer is probably correct.   If not, an MR16 bulb includes a reflector and a similar bi-pin base.   Both types of bulbs are used in low-voltage landscape lighting.


Why is recognition easier than recall?

Question: The main ways of memory retrieval are recognition and recall.
Why has it been found that recognition is "easier" to perform, meaning it is usually faster or is more likely to yield an accurate retrieval?
Answer: It is not. At least not always: In this famous experiment Tulving and Thomson show that under certain circumstances recall can be better than recognition.
It seems that the reason why recognition is usually more accurate than recall, is the context. Usually, the context in the recognition test is very similar to the conditions in the learning phase - the subject sees a list of words. In the free recall test, the context is different - the subject is not given any external stimulus.
Tulving and Thomson changed that in their experiment: the context of learning was more similar to the recall test, which resulted in higher performance in the recall.
This indicates that the encoding in memory has some context specificity. Items that were encoded using a visual stimulus will be easier to recognize or recall if the same or similar stimulus is presented during the test.
Note: I interpreted the word 'easier' in the question as 'more accurate' because typically accuracy is measured, and not the 'ease' of the recall/recognition, which could be defined in many different ways.

Tulving, E., & Thomson, D. M. (1973). Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory. Psychological review, 80(5), 352-373. PDF
Answer: I'm not familiar with the paper Ofri cites, but will agree with the OP that recognition is generally considered to be an easier task than recollection, and successful recognition considered weaker evidence for any particular memory phenomenon.  One common explanation is that recognition can manifest psychologically simply as a result of the increased cognitive fluency brought about by priming -- see for example Alter & Oppenheimer 2009.  Priming effects are extremely robust -- subjects will show priming on an image they saw once, a year ago, for less than a second.  (See Brady et al. 2011 for review.)
If recognition amounts to the psychological state wherein some stimulus is slightly easier to process than another, and this effect can be achieved with essentially no cognitive work, but rather as a manifestation of a kind of mere exposure, then it seems clear why recollection -- which requires a complex dance of inhibition and excitation in order to activate some target thought or memory from amongst a host of competitors (see for example Anderson et al. 2000) -- should be the more difficult of the two processes to accomplish, as, in fact, it generally seem to be.

Alter, A. L., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2009). Uniting the tribes of fluency to form a metacognitive nation. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 13(3), 219-235.
Brady, T. F., Konkle, T., & Alvarez, G. A. (2011). A review of visual memory capacity: Beyond individual items and toward structured representations. Journal of Vision, 11(5).
Anderson, M. C., Bjork, E. L., & Bjork, R. A. (2000). Retrieval-induced forgetting: Evidence for a recall-specific mechanism. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 7(3), 522-530.
Answer: There is a lot of evidence that our brains work most fundamentally as pattern-matching engines ( simplistic, but sufficient for the purpose ). Which would definately favour recognition, because this involves matching a newly perceived pattern with an already stored one, something that we do well.
Recall, OTOH, involves keyed data access - that is, identifying the links via another piece of information - when you saw something, or a tray that used to have objects on. The cognitive processes are not as good at this because the way the information is retrieved is not based on time or place, which are abstract entities.
So "did the face look like this one" will produce quicker responses than "how big was his nose". This is why photofit and sketches are so important - they trigger recognition. Of course, this form of recognition - of faces - is so strongly wired that it can produce a lot of false positives. But that is identification accuracy, rather than recognition accuracy.
Comment: +1 Pattern matching is much faster than iterative searching, even though in principle they are the same kind of iterative search. The thing about recognition is that you store a piece of data with a fairly precise "tag" (a visual or auditory association, for example) and thus you more rapidly identify the memory because often only that stimulus is linked with that stored information. Recall involves the same search method but without the helpful associative tag narrowing down the options.
Answer: A quick explanation for why recognition may seem easier than recall is due to advantages that come into play for recognition that aren't present for recall. In particular, on a recognition test, subjects are presented with what are called "copy cues" -- in other words, duplicates of studied items. When studied items actually show up on the test, subjects are able to use two types of processing to respond: (1) recollection, which is careful, controlled responding that is based on retrievable episodic and contextual detail (present in both recognition and recall) as well as (2) familiarity, which is quick, heuristic-based deciding (generally more readily available in recognition memory). These processes are not unlike Kahneman and Tversky's famous processing types.
Ofri's answer is a good one, however -- it's very interesting to spot situations where recognition is actually less successful than recall. Recognition failure of recallable words is one such instance.

Why is recognition easier than recall?


What are the advantages of homemade pasta over store-bought?

Question: I am thinking about getting a pasta maker. Of course it takes more time to make your own pasta but it seems like it would be fun and nutritious. What are the real advantages to making your own pasta from scratch with a pasta maker, as opposed to using store-bought pasta?
Comment: By fresh and store-bought are you referring to fresh egg pasta and dried eggless pasta? Because now you can pretty much buy all the types of pasta.
Answer: The best part of making your own food is the ability to experiment!  Sure, you can get spinach or tomato pastas in the store, but is there something else you've always wanted to try?  Try some chili peppers for a Mexican flair, or ginger and leek for Asian foods.  I've heard that even certain fruits work well, and chocolate could form the base for a unique dessert.
Answer: It depends on what store you buy your pasta from, and what sorts of pasta they have to offer (there are at least 2 shops here in Bruges that make better pasta than anybody I know would ever be able to make, but "in the countryside" people don't have that luxury).
Oh, and of course if you like to cook, making it yourself might be more fun of course, especially if you like to experiment.  ;)
Answer: So - fresh pasta vs. dried, boxed pasta: (1) cooks waaay faster, and (2) also absorbs sauces better. Boxed pasta is great too - but fresh pasta is preferable!
Comment: I think the point about cooking faster doesn't really apply if you make it yourself though (since making pasta from scratch takes way longer than boiling store-bought pasta).
Answer: Fresh pasta simply tastes better, and as Aparna said, absorbs sauces more than boxed pasta.
Also, fresh pasta is way cheaper than boxed one.
In a while, getting experience at preparing fresh pasta by yourself will let you do it faster and faster...
And you won't experience the "Oh no, my sauce is ready but I'm out of pasta" anymore!
Answer: Just try both of them and you will feel the difference by yourself. The taste, the texture, the cooking time and more.
Answer: I've been making my own pasta for a few years and I roll by hand which I find very enjoyable. Every time I make it, it gets better flavor and texture that store baught doesnt compare too. Plus its fun and its cheap. In fact I only use store baught pasta in emergencies now. Some of the best home made pasta is for lasagna and stuffed pasta tubes called cannelloni!
Answer: There are uses for both fresh and dried pasta.  One does not replace the other. They can both be delicious, but serve different purposes. You will only realize the advantages of making your own if you make it convenient to use your pasta maker.  Put it in a closet...or somewhere out of reach...and you will not use it frequently enough to learn the process or develop the skill.  There is a learning curve, so expect it to take some before you can produce it properly and quickly. Once you get the process down, you will be able to create far better filled pastas than you can purchase almost anywhere. Leftovers of all sorts can become ravioli and tortellini fillings.  You can make large quantities (if you are patient...or have friends to help) and freeze for later.  Fresh pasta cooks in less time.  Making your own costs less. Having said that, I stock plenty of dried pasta for recipes that require those products.
Answer: I make homemade pasta for the same reason I bake bread. It's a way to have fun in the kitchen, experiment, maybe or maybe not get a tremendous result (the suspense is always fun), all without spending much money.


Using an external boot drive and the app store

Question: I'm trying to setup my MacBook Pro so that I have an internal drive with one OS X installation (Lion) as well as an external installation that boots via an esata card.  Everything is working great except that when I go to install software via the app store on the external installation it finds apps that are installed on the internal hard drive and won't let me re-install them on the external drive.  I'm trying to keep things completely separated, any way to do this?
Answer: Boot from the external drive and then eject the internal drive (use Disk Utility or right-click and eject the drive via Finder).
The Mac App Store will no longer see the internal drive when evaluating what apps have been purchased and are installed on the external drive.
Comment: Excellent point.  Not sure why I didn't think of that.
Answer: As long as you are signed in with the same Apple ID, can't you just copy the application from the internal HD to the external. AFAIK everything needed to run the application is in the app itself.


Does my JavaScript look big in this?

Question: As programmers, you have certain curtains to hide behind with your code. With PHP all of your code is server side preprocessed, so this never see's the light of day as far as the user is concerned. If you have maybe rushed through some code for a deadline, as long as it functions correctly then the user never needs to know how many expletives you've inserted into the comments. However with more and more applications being written for the web, with a desktop feel implemented by AJAX and popular frameworks like jQuery being banded around to every Tom, Dick and Harry, how can a programmer maintain some dignity and hide his/her JavaScript code without it being flaunted like dirty laundry when the users hit Right Click->View Source or Inspect Element. Are there any ways to hide JavaScript application logic/code?
Comment: I love the title of this question :)
Comment: No..............
Comment: Nice hack for the character limit. There is no long way to say "No" is there? :)
Comment: Why do you want to hide it?
Comment: Was just interested in the options...
Answer: I don't think that hiding your javascript for the reason of hiding your mess is a good thing. You should clean up your mess and if other people can help you with that, it is a good thing.
But, currently "Unobtrusive JavaScript" is getting more and more acceptance. And "Unobtrusive JavaScript" will hide a lot of you details but for good reasons:

Separation of functionality (the "behavior layer") from a Web page's structure/content and presentation
Best practices to avoid the problems of traditional JavaScript programming (such as browser inconsistencies and lack of scalability)
Progressive enhancement to support user agents that may not support advanced JavaScript functionality

I find this presentation to be a nice one to get the idea and get you started.
Answer: Minimisation is your friend (I'd recommend Google's Closure Compiler: https://code.google.com/closure/compiler/). This will:

remove white space
remove comments
minimise variable names
even goes so far as to do simple dead code analysis and removal

Of course, your best approach is to make sure you're writing as good quality code as possible in the first place!
Comment: Absolutely, this question was more of a "I'm curious..." rather than "Help me..." :)
Answer: No
JavaScript is presented client side right along with HTML and CSS. It's fully viewable by the client. No matter how much you compress and minimize it it will always be viewable. With tools like Firebug and Firequery inspecting the JavaScript hooks is even easier. I would not recommend investing time in hiding JavaScript.
Answer: I'm going to look at this from another point of view. Instead of trying to hide our dirty laundry, perhaps we should take the time to make sure what we push to our users is as clean as possible.
As you said, JavaScript runs in our customers browsers. This code is not parsed and passed to them from our servers, it's something that is run right on their machine and could potentially cause them some issues. Users have the option to say 'no I don't want to run JS, b/c I don't trust it.'
By trying to hide it away and make sure the user never sees it, how are we showing them that they can trust our code? How can we prove that what we are asking them to run isn't malicious?
As AJAX and jQuery become more and more popular, I feel that we are running out of excuses for having dirty laundry. These libraries make it nice and easy to provide a more advanced user experience. By taking some time, you can write very clean code that does some very powerful things.
At the end of the day if you are embarrassed about some JavaScript functions you are passing along, then clean them up. Taking time to hide it is a waste b/c if people really want to see it, an add-on will be made to allow them to.
Answer: Place your JS in separate files where possible.  While you wont be able to prevent users who really want to see it from seeing it, you will prevent casual users from seeing most of the code when they 'view the page source'.
Of course, most users couldnt tell good JS from ancient Greek.
Answer: Sometimes a lot of client-side code can be moved server-side, depending on what you're doing.  This is often the case when you need to hide something -- you generally don't want database access in your JavaScript, for example.  Of course if your server is already straining then you may want to offload more work to the client, not less, but it can work in some cases.

Does my JavaScript look big in this?


What tools or strategies have you found useful when not all players can be in the same physical space?

Question: Having recently moved most of the way across the US, I am looking for effective ways to continue to game with roleplayers from my previous home.  What tools (Skype, mapping applications, etc.) and strategies (techincal: sound, lighting, etc. or game-oriented: rule changes, etc.) have players found helped to ease the strangeness of playing without everyone being at the same table?
Answer: All too often overlooked is Google Docs.  It's free, instantly accessible without downloading or registration, and it includes multiple platforms for live collaboration between up to 50 people at a time.

Google Documents work essentially like cloud-hosted Word documents, and are perfect for character sheets, campaign logs, handout-type information, and wiki-like implementations (they can, of course, contain links to other Google Documents and off-site resources).
Google Spreadsheets are useful for keeping large amounts of similar information available at a glance (PC statistics in particular), and cover most of the commonly-used calculation features of Excel.  These could certainly be used as collaboration-friendly character generation aids in point-buy systems, or for figuring out combat bonuses and such on the fly.
Google Slides are, naturally, a PowerPoint-like tool, but I haven't given them much of a look, yet.  I can imagine using them for graphical handout-type materials, and possibly campaign pitches.
Google Drawings can be used whiteboard-style to sketch out and move tokens on simple maps, or to share imported images.  Of the various Google Docs features, Drawings are probably the tool with the most potential for long-distance gaming.  There's a tremendous amount of flexibility here, and its ease of use beats any purpose-built virtual tabletop I've tried.
Comment: I also use google's free apps, when GMing, to present information to my players: my villain's business calendar as a Google Calendar, when they get ahold of it; a spreadsheet with an access log showing where murder suspects got on and off a train... Google Maps to plot a delivery route for BTLs... etc.
Answer: If you're going to play D&D or another game that might need a battlemat, I've found MapTool to be superb. It works anywhere you have Java, and lets you script stuff for easier calculations.
Answer: Others have already pointed out exactly how useful MapTools can be to a gaming group who is nonlocal; I myself used it in the course of running a 3:16 game online and had a great time.
The real key to running something online and having it be effective is the use of voice. While you can use chat rooms and that sort of solution to run games, having experienced both modes of play I absolutely have to support the idea that voice makes things much more powerful. If you just want to run things vocally with some of your friends, the best tool available has to be Skype, no question. It's easy, it's fast, the sound quality is fantastic, and installation is trivial. As an alternative, if you think that you might want to record your sessions -- say as part of an Actual Play podcast or promotion -- you might consider the use of TalkShoe, which is a call-in online podcast/broadcasting service, like Skype is absolutely free, and provides free hosting for the resulting recordings. Your group will probably need to install X-lite or SJphone (both of which are free and provide excellent audio quality), but you get the great advantage of the recording being available for anyone that you want to hear it.
Answer: My group has been playing with a mixture of tabletop meeting and online players for more than 3 years. The group at the table uses an omni-directional microphone over Skype. There is grousing every so often about dropped calls, but it gets the job done.
For battles, we use Gametable. There is a newer version on sourceforge, but the one that's linked from this page seems to work best; the latest sourceforge version has some strange issues
Update 2023
We are now using roll20.net, which is a subscription service for GMs (free for players) that lets you set up virtual tabletops. You can upload homebrew content or buy roll20 assets for a published adventure module from the marketplace. It's good for planning ahead since you can manage multiple maps in the background as a GM, and keep hidden notes that you can share with players when needed. You can also set up your maps with dynamic lighting so each player can see only what their character sees (very good for horror, though it's a little buggy). For 5E we use dndbeyond to manage everyone's character sheets - players can get the app on their phones.
Two other pieces of advice:
-Use an informal turn order outside out of combat to balance spotlight time and cut down on players getting distracted. Think AD&D 10-minute exploration turns. This is especially helpful to keep shy players involved and help neurodivergent players stay focused.
-Use a webcam if possible, and encourage your players to do the same. Seeing someone and reading their body language is more engaging than just listening to them talk. Plus, you can easily tell if someone is AFK, so you can skip them or call a short break if needed.
Comment: Gametable is no longer at the linked site, but you can find it at: http://gametableproj.sourceforge.net/ for all future releases and updates.
Answer: Low complexity characters, Google+, and shared/automated bookkeeping
Due to my functional exile while waiting for my thesis results, I've found myself doing quite a lot of remote, live, gaming. The easy answer is technological: any of the remote telecom tools work quite well, though it's important to decide on voice or video.
I use video (google+) when: there's a physical battlemap I have to see as a player or there is a group I'm playing with (we did Apocalypse World over + hangouts over in the back room). I'll use hangouts with extras if we need a shared notes environment.
I use audio when the group is using an online battlemap (RPG-Bones on wave is my preferred application) or when I'll just be referring to a document all the time anyways (Murderous Ghosts playtest).
It's important to understand how the different positions of the remote player inform the different technologies needed. A laptop at the game table, I've found, serves as a fantastic telepresence object such that the physical group really can include the character as one of them. The acoustics of the targeted room are a problem, but that can be solved with buying a new microphone if necessary.
The most important thing I've found, as a player, is the need for low-complexity characters when playing in a telepresence game and, to a degree, when playing in an online game.
I'm in an epic level D&D game via telepresence and performing quite adequately. However, I designed my character with this requirement in mind: he has no fiddly positioning requirements and is mostly agnostic to targeting concerns. For specific questions, I'll message one of the characters who is waiting for their turn and ask them to count ranges for me. What is not possible is easy designation of specific squares on the battlemap, and so the many powers that require descriptors beyond "I hit X enemies" are not appropriate for telepresence. It also helps that the character has 2 things he does well (divine challenge and hand of radiance) to minimize the difficulties in tracking the situation. Telepresence adds an additional cognitive cost because the audio quality is not in person and it's difficult to get alternative views of the battlemap.
I've played Crucible of the gods as an online game, voice only, and it seemed to work quite acceptably well with arbitrary complexity characters. This requires more research, but the shared battlemap of RPG-Bones on wave takes care of most of the fiddly targetting problems expressed in the earlier paragraph. It is not appropriate, however, as a telepresence option save as a backup battlemap that the player keeps updated to reflect their understanding of the combat.
I've played many games of Apocalypse World online, voice and video, and it worked wonderfully well. As a narrative low-complexity game, the online venue fits it quite acceptably well. Video capabilities provide non-verbal cues and there was really little difficulty with the tools.
When I've played the Murderous Ghosts playtest, I've found that the dominant window on my screen is the playbook. In that case, there's no point in having video (as it won't be watched) and it is important to differentiate these cases from where the non-verbal cues of video are more important.
All character sheets for pure-online games should be available on google documents, dropbox, or game specific tools whenever possible. The reduced cognitive tracking load of used powers and hitpoints as provided by iplay4e is incredibly handy when trying to be present in a remote location and track everything that's going on through a pair of headphones. Docs are useful for pure online games, (as is iplay4e for 4e), and allow players to share information without too much trouble.
All in all, the key aspect of all online games is a reduced complexity due to the increase friction of the online environment. I've quite happily use + hangouts, skype, and google talk for gaming, as well as the various game tooles (iplay4e, docs, dropbox) to manage information.
Comment: Sorry for resurrecting such an old answer - but I'm curious :
"RPG-Bones on Wave" <-- are you referring to Google Wave here, and if so - what's going to happen to it now that Google have decided to kill Wave?
Comment: Google wave, yes. But there are open source wave projects out there that are gradually getting its functionality. Waveinabox supports extensions now, but not live updating of them. Soon enough there should be a fully-extension compliant wave service.
Answer: I know a number of people who use G+ Hangouts as a platform for regular long Distance RPG sessions and feedback has been that it works very well, again no additional software downloads required.
That supported by Google Docs and perhaps something like twiddla.com  (which also includes a dice roller) for quick shared sketches/layouts etc. and you've got most of the tools you need.
I'm starting a session myself soon with that setup, I'll update this answer once I've tried it.
Update: (Thanks for the reminder Rob!)
This worked pretty well.. specifically what I ended up using was TableTop forge (now defunct and merged into Roll20.Net)
Its pretty useful, and with a little prep lets you share maps even have player tokens - send messages in character and show props on a shared tabletop.
Everyones got to have a decent connection though.. we struggled to have folks connected consistantly without lag.
Answer: I usually play over IRC. If voice, such as Skype, isn't a practical option for you then IRC can be a nice alternative. I've found it to be simple, reliable, and to be extremely compatible with slower internet connections. You'll need an IRC client, a list of which can be found on the wikipedia page linked above. You'll also need to connect to an IRC Server.
I usually use the Magicstar IRC Network. It has a built in chat application if for some reason you don't wish to use a separate IRC client. If you happen to use Firefox as your web browser of choice, Chatzilla is a fine IRC client add-on. Most IRC servers I've encountered have various commands you can use to "roll dice" and other useful functionality.

Everything goes slower over IRC because of having to type all your communciation. So voice definitely has a speed advantage. Depending on number of players, complexity of mechanics, and so on, I'd say you generally only get 2/3 to 1/2 as much play during an IRC session as opposed to face to face play.
Comment: Do you find that combat is greatly slowed without voice communication?
Comment: Everything goes slower over IRC because of having to type all your communciation. So voice definitely has a speed advantage. Depending on number of players, complexity of mechanics, and so on, I'd say you generally only get 2/3 to 1/2 as much play during an IRC session as opposed to face to face play.
Answer: I've just finished running a campaign that had two players connecting via a Skype connection and we used Google wave, emails and IM to send information.
Maps were normally 'sent' by holding them up to the webcam and the remote players took a screen grab.  We then kept the working map close to the webcam and moved chessmen to show where people were so both sides could keep track of where things were.  It wasn't a very combat heavy campaign and I used more verbal descriptions to keep people aware of what was going on.
The biggest challenge for me as the GM with Skype players was making sure that people weren't talking over each other as, especially with the lag, this means nobody can hear what's going on.
Answer: A lot of people here have mentioned Skype already, so I will point out two similar programs, TeamSpeak and Ventrilo, which also allow you to speak with other players online.
Skrbl is essentially an online whiteboard, which allows you to share maps and such more simply than holding a drawing up to your webcam.
Any wiki software can be used to keep track of character sheets, dialogue, and other campaign notes. pbwiki and wikia provide free solutions.
Comment: In the same sort of vein, Mumble is a great option also: http://mumble.sourceforge.net/
Answer: I am in a similar situation, and have found Skype to be sufficient especially with GoogleWave which apparently is going bye bye soon.  RPTools (http://rptools.net/) has lots of great tools including MapTool that Clinton mentioned ealier.  My friends and I have had some trouble setting it up, but others have had great success.  Hope your long-distance playing goes well.
Answer: I've used skype plus a shared dice roller.
Skype allows up to four line voice chat, plus single shared video (screen or webcam), and simultaneous text chat and/or file transfer.
http://www.catchyourhare.com/diceroller/ is an online dice-rolling solution that allows several players to have distinct colored dice, rolled and then they can be sorted. It allows colored dice, and multiple sets of dice at one time. All logged in using the same code see the same dice. Supports d4/d6/d8/d10/d12/d20/dF. Dice can be manually moved about the screen area.
Answer: I am a Skype and Maptool user and fan.
Skype for Windows will support up to 25 on a conference call but I have only personal experience with up to 7.
One of our friends plays from the other side of the Atlantic and he has no trouble with Skype or MapTool.
Answer: My group is all over the place, so we're entirely virtual. We use Google Docs for all our drawing, Skype or TeamSpeak for our audio, and NetDice (which I made) for our rolling and text chat (usually for whispering to the GM). NetDice is good for keeping everyone honest (all rolls are done server-side), and you can save roll widgets, which I found really helped speed up combat.
Answer: Although my party haven't tried to play from different physical locations, we use a board forum to keep track of events, and for a bit of roleplaying with characters who couldn't come to some sessions.
Don't know about skype and mapping, but tried long ago with someones made in python and didn't like the experience...
Answer: Everybody else has already mentioned Skype, but we find the instant messaging side of it at least as useful as the voice side. We tend to use the IM side for dice roll results etc so we don't have half a dozen people all shouting numbers at the GM. The GM can also open side-chats on the IM side with individual players for when they discover things/things happen to them that the rest of the party isn't aware of.
We also use DropBox for distributing information, this works for us much better than sending files over Skype. We have one shared folder that we all use, the GM can put information, character sheets etc in there before/after the game, and put info/pictures in there during the game as they are discovered.
Answer: One thing I do even for local games is have the players create a free account on myth-weavers.com (a play by post site) I then have them create their characters in their "Sheets" sections. Their characters get stored there and can be made public and then just share the link to the page with the gm or other players that may need to see it.
In remote sessions like the OP is doing, this makes sharing character sheets in a standard format easy. In local sessions forgetting your character sheet becomes a trivial thing as you can just log in and print out a fresh copy. Players just have to remember to update their online copy between sessions with loot, xp and the like. Many of the calculations on the sheet are done for you automatically and supports quite a few different games/editions
Another thing myth weavers can be used for is a place to roll the dice in a manner that will make cheating obvious. You could create a private game there to complement your real game and make rolls in the thread. Any changes to the order of rolls, or removal of rolls imprints a large "DICE HAVE BEEN CHANGED OR REMOVED" warning to the post.
Comment: Have you had a problem with dice fudging?
Comment: Not personally, but some people do.
Comment: Just to note, I dont use the dice feature for live games. just the character sheet storage.


How do I know which derailleur I need?

Question: The derailleur on my sons mountain bike is mangled, how do I know what to replace it with?
I understand they aren't one size fits all.
There are 6 sprockets on the rear cassette and 3 on the front.
Answer: If you have a six-speed rear cogset the bike is either inexpensive or seriously old; such things have long since been replaced by 7-8-9 or 10-speed gearsets.
At any rate, the important thing with a rear DR is "capacity".  It must have sufficient arm length to handle the range of gears on the cassette or freewheel.
Most all DRs have sufficient side-to-side movement, so the factor you're looking for is the length of the "arm" with the two rollers on it.
Longer arm, more capacity.
If you look at high-end road bikes with very "close" gearsets, you'll see the arm is very short.   Look at mountain bikes which have great big low gears, and you'll see longer ones.
Also... Cheaper DRs such as found on many "box-store" import bikes often mount on a steel piece that is bolted into the dropout. (where the axle goes)
Better DRs mount on a "hanger" which is often replaceable; these may have a different mounting screw.
Just take the old one with you to the bike shop and they should be able to find a good replacement.
Answer: There are two kinds of derailers on bicycles, rear and front.
Starting with the front derailer, since it has 3 gears you want to find one that is beefy. What do I mean by that? It must have a lot of groves to move the chain from side to side. If you look at a 2 chain ring and a 3 chain ring derailer you will notice that the former is has a smoother surface to its design. This is because it needs to move the chain less then the 3 chain ring derailer. If you still have the old derailer see if you can find one that matches the size, and if you are fitting it yourself make sure that it has just enough clearance to clear the largest chain ring. As if you have too much clearance the bike will not shift properly.
For the rear derailer it is a little trickier. Using the old one as your model you want to find a derailer that is about the same size and bends the same way. By bends I mean the amount the derailer stretches out should be consistent with your old derailer as your chain is measured to a certain length and if you get a derailer that has too little bend you could have to adjust your chain length.
Basically you want to find parts that model the parts you already have; except not broken of course. If you are not confident in picking out the parts yourself a local bike shop will always be glad to assist you in selecting parts even if you want to do the work yourself.
Answer: Is the gearing indexed? That is, when you turn the shifter, does it click into place? Or does it turn smoothly? If it is indexed, that will further limit your choices. It might help if you post a picture of the shifter and the derailleur.
Read Sheldon Brown's article on gears and derailleurs. It might answer some of your questions.
Answer: A genuine LBS (that does lots of workshop repairs) will hopefully have a spare rear mech for your son's bike although this may be in a plastic bag without a manual in the workshop, probably without a price sticker on it. Reason being that rear mechs on 20"/24" wheel 'youth' bikes get damaged all the time (because of how such bikes get dropped onto the pavement).
Take the advice of the LBS and ask - chances are that the workshop 'OEM part' is better suited to the bike than the fancy-boxed, priced and with manual rear mech that is in the showroom. It should also be significantly cheaper.
To make your task easier you may also want to pickup a fresh inner cable with end-cap so that the end of the cable does not get frayed. Again the LBS may sell you an un-boxed cable from the workshop supplies for less money than the packaged cable in the showroom.
Ground clearance is a big consideration with smaller wheeled 'youth' mountain bikes. Do not buy the long-arm mech if the medium length mech will suffice.

How do I know which derailleur I need?


Getting from Emeryville, CA to Mountain View, CA with significant luggage

Question:
Suppose that I am in Emeryville, CA, USA at 4-5 PM, having just stepped off the Amtrak California Zephyr train. How can I get to western Mountain View, CA with luggage including a large suitcase (28" × 20" × 10")? All of the routes I have learned of (BART or Capitol Corridor, followed by Caltrain in either case) are commuter trains, which are not known for their generous luggage space.
I previously made this exact trip via the Capitol Corridor train without being aware of its characteristics (thanks to Amtrak's route planner), and there did not seem to be any place for my luggage despite their luggage policy specifying that such size is permitted; did I miss a rack somewhere, or was I in the wrong car (as would be the case for Caltrain), or is it permitted but not actually practical?
Answer: BART does not have luggage areas/racks as such, however all cars do have a large open area intended for bicycles and wheelchairs.  Depending on how busy the train it at the time you get on you may be able to get the seat directly next to this area which will allow you to sit down and still control your luggage, or you may need to stand if that seat is taken (or if it's needed by someone elderly/disabled).
Your biggest problem with taking BART is that there's no BART station at Emeryville!  There is a free shuttle to the MacArthur BART, which introduces even more issues with your luggage! Your better option would be to get off the Zepher at Richmond station, which allows for an easy change to BART.
Getting from BART to Mountain View involves changing to Caltrain (and buying a new ticket) at Millbrae.  Caltrain does have luggage racks in the 3rd car from the BACK of the train on southbound trains.
At the time you're talking, both BART and Caltrain will be relatively busy.  For the first part of the BART ride you'll be headed into the city so it shouldn't be too busy, but expect it to full up once you get to the city stops.
The other option would be to use something like SuperShuttle - either for the whole trip (you'd probably go via SFO and change shuttles there) or catch BART to SFO airport and go Supershuttle from there.  It'll cost more, and probably take longer (especially during peak traffic), but will have the advantage of dropping you directly at your destination rather than at the Caltrain station.
Answer: Haven't taken the Capitol Corridor yet, but I know for sure that CalTrain is a valid option. BART doesn't have any designated luggage spaces, but you can take your luggage on it. BART goes to SFO and OAK after all, people do it all the time.
You can take BART, then switch to CalTrain which has a couple of stops in Mountain View, or you can take the Capitol Corridor and then switch to VTA light-rail (that has bike racks, but you can put your luggage there as well, I guess, even though its not as convinient). Switch to light-rail in Santa Clara or to CalTrain (going back to SF direction) in San Jose if you're taking the Capitol Corridor.
Comment: @KevinReid it doesn't have overhead bins, but there's enough space in between the seats for the luggage. It would probably be full during the regular rush hours (morning/evening), and from Emeryvylle towards the city there's always people on. But if its not the morning/evening traffic you should be fine. You can always take a cab of course, I mean you're aware of the options what else do you expect?:)
Comment: Thanks, but you've described the route options I'm already aware of (other than VTA); I'm specifically looking for information about carrying luggage. Does BART have roomy seats and/or overhead racks? What days of the week is it less likely to be full?
Comment: I'm aware of the options Google Maps and whatnot provide; that doesn't tell me what it's actually like to ride them (I've never been on BART). As in the question I would be arriving sometime after 4 PM, so hopefully on the early side of rush hour. Thanks for the information.
Answer: I'm fairly certain that at least some cars on the Capitol Corridor have a luggage area by the stairs (I forget if it is upstairs or downstairs).  You could ask the conductor as you board.  There are also overhead bins for smaller items.  The times I've ridden the Capitol Corridor it has never been crowded, but that's never been at 5pm on a weekday.
BART definitely has no luggage areas of any kind, and it's not very convenient to get to BART from Emeryville (you would need to take a bus or taxi).  Around 5pm the trains are likely to be crowded, especially during the week.  If you do decide to take BART, you should get off the Zephyr in Richmond, where there is an intermodal station and you can transfer directly to BART.


Does anyone know an intuitive proof of the Birkhoff ergodic theorem?

Question: For many standard, well-understood theorems the proofs have been streamlined to the point where you just need to understand the proof once and you remember the general idea forever.  At this point I have learned three different proofs of the Birkhoff ergodic theorem on three separate occasions and yet I still could probably not explain any of them to a friend or even sit down and recover all of the details.  The problem seems to be that they all depend crucially on some frustrating little combinatorial trick, each of which was apparently invented just to service this one result.  Has anyone seen a more natural approach that I might actually be able to remember?  Note that I'm not necessarily looking for a short proof (those are often the worst offenders) - I'm looking for an argument that will make me feel like I could have invented it if I were given enough time.
Comment: How about this one: http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/math/pdf/0608/0608251v1.pdf
Comment: Great question - I wish I'd thought to ask it myself!
Comment: Name of @mathphysicist's [reference](https://mathoverflow.net/questions/28997/does-anyone-know-an-intuitive-proof-of-the-birkhoff-ergodic-theorem#comment63449_28997):  [Keane and Petersen - Easy and nearly simultaneous proofs of the Ergodic Theorem and Maximal Ergodic Theorem](https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0608251).
Answer: I don't know whether this helps or whether you've already seen this before, but this made a lot more intuitive sense to me than the combinatorial approach in Halmos's book.
The key point in the proof is to prove the maximal ergodic theorem.  This states that if $M_T$ is the maximal operator $M_T f= \sup_{n >0} \frac{1}{n+1} (f + Tf + \dots + T^n f)$, then $\int_{M_T f>0} f \geq 0$.  Here $T$ is the associated map on functions coming from the measure-preserving transformation.
This is a weak-type inequality, and the fact that one considers the maximal operator isn't terribly surprising given how they arise in a) the proof of the Lebesgue differentation theorem (namely, via the Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator $Mf(x) = \sup_{t >0} \frac{1}{2t} \int_{x-t}^{x+t} |f(r)| dr$.  b) In the theory of singular integrals, one can define a maximal operator in the same way and prove that it is $L^p$-bounded for $1 < p < \infty$ and weak-$L^1$ bounded in suitably nice homogeneous cases (e.g. the Hilbert transform).  One of the consequences of this is, for instance, that the Hilbert transform can be computed a.e. via the Cauchy principal value of the usual integral.  c) I'm pretty sure the boundedness of the maximal operator of the partial sums of Fourier series is used in the proof of the Carleson-Hunt theorem.  So using maximal operators (and, in particular, weak bounds on them) to establish convergence is fairly standard.  Once the maximal inequality has been established, it isn't usually very hard to get the pointwise convergence result, and the ergodic theorem is no exception.
The maximal ergodic theorem actually generalizes to the case where $T$ is an operator of $L^1$-norm at most 1, and thinking of it in a more general sense might meet the criteria of your question. In particular, let $T$ be as just mentioned, and consider $M_T$ described in the analogous way. Or rather, consider $M_T'f = \sup_{n \geq 0} \sum_{i=0}^n T^if$. Clearly $M_T'f >0$ iff $M_Tf >0$.  Moreover, $M_T'$ has the crucial property that $T M_T' f + f = M_T' f$ whenever $M_Tf>0$.
Therefore,
$\int_{M_T'f>0} f = \int_{M_T'f>0} M_T'f - \int_{M_T'f>0} TM_T'f.$  The first part is in fact $||M_T'f||_1$ because the modified maximal operator is always nonnegative.  The second part is at most $||T M_T'f|| \leq ||M_T'f||$ by the norm condition. Hence the difference is nonnegative.
Perhaps this will be useful: let $M$ be an operator (not necessarily linear) sending functions to nonnegative functions such that $(T-I)Mf  = f$ wherever $Mf>0$, for $T$ an operator of $L^1$-norm at most 1).  Then $\int_{Mf>0} f \geq 0$.  The proof is the same.
Comment: This answer is extremely helpful - I was sort of hoping that one of the proofs that I had already encountered could be made to seem more natural in a broader context, and you accomplished exactly that.  Thanks!
Comment: If $f\equiv 1$ and $T=I$ we have $M_T'\equiv+\infty$, so the recurrence formula is $+\infty + f=+\infty$, which is useless. Am I missing something?
Comment: The blog article https://joelmoreira.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/the-ergodic-theorem/ seems to gives a detailed expansion of the idea described the answer above.
Answer: I know of six proofs of the Birkhoff ergodic theorem.

using a maximal inequality (Birkhoff, Riesz, Wiener, Yosida, Kakutani, Garsia...)

based on martingales and upcrossing inequalities (Bishop 1966)

using non-standard analysis (Kamae 1982)

based on variational inequalities (Bourgain 1988)

using a filling scheme (Chacon)

Katznelson-Weiss proof (1982) and derivatives (Keane, Petersen)

The last one seems the most easy to remember for me. This may look like a combinatorial trick, but with some thought, it appears quite natural, and I know several results that use some similar idea.
So let $\epsilon>0$ and $x$ in $X$. We can find an $n(x)$ depending on $x$ such that
$$ \overline{\lim}\ {1\over n}\ \Sigma_0^{n-1}\ f(T^k(x)) \leq \lim {1\over n(x)} \sum_{k=0}^{n_(x)-1} f(T^k(x))\ +\ \varepsilon$$
Note that $n(x)$ is finite everywhere, hence bounded on a set $R$ with complement of arbitrary small measure. Then cut the Birkhoff sum according to the sequence $n_{i+1}(x)=n_i(x)+n(T^{n_i}(x))$ if $T^{n_i}(x)$ is in R, $n_{i+1}(x)=n_i(x)+1$ otherwise. A picture should make clear what is going on. The rest of the proof is routine check.
Of course if you are in the business of non-standard analysis, Kamae's proof is both short and enlightening but then you need some work to get the standard statement.
Comment: Upvoted enthusiastically - I've had a lot of fun looking into these references.  Thanks!
Answer: I like the following interpretation of (a weaker form of) the maximal inequality.

Lemma: Suppose $\int f \mathrm{d}\mu > 0$ then $\mu(x: f(x) + \cdots + f(T^{n-1}x) > 0\text{ for all }n \ge 1) > 0$.

With this version of the maximal inequality Birkhoff's theorem is obvious in the ergodic case as follows:
We may suppose $\int f \mathrm{d}\mu = 0$.  To simplify notation set $S_n(x) = \sum_{k = 0}^{n-1}f(T^kx)$.
Applying the lemma to $f+\epsilon$ we obtain that there is a positive measure set on which $\liminf_n \frac{S_n}{n} \ge -\epsilon$.
Letting $\epsilon$ go to zero and using ergodicity (i.e. the liminf is constant) you obtain $\liminf_n \frac{S_n}{n} \ge 0$ almost everywhere.
Do the same with $-f$ and obtain $\lim_{n}\frac{S_n}{n} = 0$ almost everywhere.$\Box$
One thing I like about this lemma is that it extends to the subadditive case.  In subadditive ergodic theory the maximal inequality gives upper bounds, but not lower.  But in fact the above lemma can be obtained independently and gives lower bounds.  As far as I can tell it was first introduced in this context by Anders Karlsson and Gregory Margulis in "A multiplicative ergodic theorem and nonpositively curved spaces" (Communications of Mathematical Physics) 1999.  Their proof of the lemma is based on a nice observation about sequences of real numbers, due to Riesz (called the Leader Lemma).
Comment: Very nice answer! A remark: In a 1991 paper (and so before Karlsson-Margulis), Cesar E. Silva and Philippe Thieullen obtained some "subadditive maximal lemmas". Their Lemma 2.4.(a) implies the subadditive version of your lemma.
Comment: Your lemma is also related to "heavyness": see the paper by Ralston https://arxiv.org/abs/0906.4001v1
Answer: I like an answer that was shown to me by Mate Wierdl.
You restate the maximal inequality this way:
Let
$$
Mf(x) = \sup_N (1/N)\sum_{n < N}f(T^nx).
$$
and first prove that $\|Mf\|_{1,\infty}\le\|f\|_1$.
Here by $\|\cdot\|_{1,\infty}$
I mean the "weak $L^1$ norm" (which is not actually a norm at all) defined by
$\|g\|_{1,\infty}=\sup_a a \cdot m( \{ x\colon |g|(x)\le a \}) $
(the area of the biggest rectangle that fits under $|g|$).
This has a beautiful (and simple and intuitive) proof if you are working on the integers and $T$ is the map $T(n)=n+1$. There is then a technique called transference that allows you to take the proof in your favourite system and transfer it to any other system.
You then show that this implies that when you have a maximal inequality, the set of functions for which you get almost everywhere convergence is closed in $L^1$. (Suppose the ergodic theorem works for $f_1,f_2,\ldots$ and $\|f_n-f\|_1\to 0$. Use the maximal inequality to deduce that the ergodic theorem holds for $f$).
At this stage you know that the set of $f$'s for which the ergodic theorem holds is a closed set, so you're done if you can find a dense set of $f$'s for which this works. Since you're looking for a dense set you're OK to work with $L^2$. The result is obvious for coboundaries and the orthogonal complement of the space of coboundaries is the set of invariant functions (for which the result is even more obvious). QED.


Problem on higher order quadratic residuosity

Question: For a prime $p$, we know cardinality of image of $Z_p$ under
the map $f(x)=x^2$ is $\frac{p}{2}$. Is there any result for general polynomial
like $f(x)=x^3+x$, $f(x)=x^3+x^2$ etc. ?
Answer: For an odd prime $p$, and the map $x^2$, the answer is $(p+1)/2$.  For more complicated polynomials, things get more complicated.
The general quadratic is not much harder than $x^2$. For consider the polynomial $ax^2+bx+c$, where $a$ is not congruent to $0$ modulo the odd prime $p$. Solving the quadratic congruence $ax^2+bx+c\equiv w \pmod p$ is equivalent to solving $4a^2x^2+4abx+4ac\equiv 4aw \pmod{p}$, that is, to solving the congruence $(2ax+b)^2\equiv 4aw-4ac+b^2 \pmod {p}$ (we completed the square).
For any $y$, there is a unique $x$ such that $2ax+b\equiv y\pmod{p}$. So our question reduces to finding the number of values of $w$ such that the congruence $y^2\equiv 4aw-4ac+b^2 \pmod{p}$ has a solution. There are $(p+1)/2$ values of $z$ modulo $p$ such that $y^2\equiv z\pmod{p}$ has a solution. This yields $(p+1)/2$ distinct $w$ modulo $p$ such that $ax^2+bx+c\equiv w\pmod{p}$ has a solution.
One can also get a complete answer to your question for the polynomial $x^k$. The number of "perfect $k$-th powers" modulo the odd prime $p$ is equal to
$$1+\frac{p-1}{\gcd(k,p-1)}.$$
So for fixed $k$, there is  wide variation in what fraction of $\mathbb{Z}_p$ is taken up by the range of $x^k$.  For example, every $a$ is a cube modulo $17$, while there are only $6$ distinct cubes modulo $19$.
Unfortunately, the completing the square trick does not extend in a simple way to cubic polynomials. For instance, even though everything is a cube modulo $5$, the polynomial $x^3+x$ takes on only $2$ values modulo $5$.  We can, however, get tight lower bounds on the size of the range of, for example, a cubic polynomial.
For let $P(x)$ be a fixed cubic. Then for any $r$, the congruence $P(x)\equiv r\pmod{p}$ has at most $3$ solutions. It follows that the range of $P(x)$ has cardinality at least $p/3$.
Answer: There's a big difference between maps of the form $x\mapsto x^k$ and more general polynomial maps.
Namely, the maps $f(x)=x^k$ are always homomorphisms of the multiplicative group $\Bbb Z_p^\times$ into itself. Coupling this with the fact that $\Bbb Z_p^\times$ is cyclic (i.e. there always exists a class $\bar a\in\Bbb Z_p$ such that every class in $\Bbb Z_p^\times$ is a power of $\bar a$) one can readily compute the number of elements in the image of $f$.
More general polynomial maps are less structured and these kind of arguments do not apply.
Of course one can use general facts about polynomials since $\Bbb Z_p$ is a field. For instance, it is immediately observed that for any $\bar a\in\Bbb Z_p$ the number of $x$ such that $f(x)=\bar a$ is at most $\deg(f)$, so that the image of $f$ must have at least $\lfloor p/\deg(f)\rfloor$ elements.


How Do Adherent Cells In Culture Attach To A Plastic Dish?

Question: I am particularly interested in MC3T3-E1 cells (mouse fibroblasts), which are adherent cells. Are hemidesmosomes involved in anchoring the cells to the plastic dish? What (if any) other molecules are involved? What happens at the molecular level?
Comment: http://jcb.rupress.org/content/88/3/473.full.pdf
Answer: I doubt that hemidesmosomes are much involved in 3T3 adhesion, just because they are characteristic of epithelial cells and fibroblasts are mesenchymal.
You're on the right track, though. It's going to be the same basic processes as adhesion to the extracellular matrix. The major factors will probably be integrins and focal adhesion assemblies.
You're also raising an important point for in vitro work, which is that adhesion to plastic is a very imperfect substitute for ECM, and this probably has implications for the behavior of the cells. If you're interested in ECM-dependent processes like migration, adhesion, and invasion, consider coating your plates with collagen or Matrigel.


SharePoint output page cache always re-created / Rendered using cache profile debugging info " Time always changes

Question: This issue has been isolated to "old" content that was published prior to activating the output cache profile. New content (post cache activation) is not suffering from this.
I have a SharePoint 2010 publishing site on which I enabled a Public Internet - Purely anonymous cache profile.
On each page, regardless of the content, the output cache is always regenerated (the debugging time is always changing to the current time, while my duration is set to 3600)
I carefully read everything that I was able to gather on the web, including this exhaustive article from Todd Carter : http://todd-carter.com/post/2012/01/31/When-Page-Output-Caching-Does-Not-Output.aspx

I don't have >= 10.000 secured items in my site collection (only ~ 20) which would prevent the cache from working
I don't have a cookie being added to the http response (I used to have but I removed them for debugging this issue)
I'm accessing as an anonymous user so no other cookies (authentication,...) are added

Investigating in the ULS result in this pattern for all requests :

Cache Hit for query Web - /ab/FR, ListName - Pages, Query - /default.aspx.
Creating result set.
Adding super user IDs.
Adding Super Reader IDs.
Content from SuperReaders and SuperUsers.  Merging.
Enabling specified cache profile: XYZ - Public Internet (Anonymous)
EnableCache: True  Duration: 3600  VaryByParam:   CheckForUpdates: False  CheckForRights: False

Which is thus lacking the
VaryByCustom for url https://xyz
Calculating VaryByCustom for CachingEnabled.
Calculating VaryByCustom for HostName.
Calculating VaryByCustom for HasWPCustomization.
Calculating VaryByCustom for AuthenticationVaryByCustom.
Calculating VaryByCustom for ConsoleVaryByCustom.
Calculating VaryByCustom for UserCanEdit.
Calculating VaryByCustom for Browser.
VaryByCustom for url xyz called with custom ...
The cache seems thus be hit but the content is always regenerated... (the varybyCustom seems to be used as the complete aggregated key)
Anyone got recommendation or advice to ensure the cache is used or to debug it even deeper ?
Many thanks.
PS : Single server farm for dev environment, thus no network load balancing. This issue was raised on a functional testing environment with 2 WFE / NLB but the problem was not there.
Comment: As updated above, issue has been isolated to content created prior to the activation of the cache.
Comment: I am experiencing similar issue too. have you resolved your issue?
Answer: Make sure you do not have the ASP.NET patch KB2638420/MS11-100 installed. This ASP.NET patch will render the page output cache useless. Just uninstall it or install SP2010 April 2012 CU (which fixes this scenario).
Comment: Thanks for your valuable feedback Wictor. Unfortunately this is not the issue but it's nevertheless a valid candidate to investigate deeper for others who might encounter the same kind of error. Please be aware (not targeted to Wictor who knows thats) that as of 2012 06 11 the April CU is still removed from MS servers and its refresh edition in the pipe.


What techniques do you use for integrating new players into your campaign?

Question: So, you've found a new player, someone you don't know well or perhaps don't know at all. You have a slot in your ongoing campaign. How do you do it? Do you make sure she's a good fit before inviting her for the long term? Does everyone at the table have a say, or just the GM? Etc.
Answer: I normally follow this process:

Check with the existing group
Get everyone to meet somewhere neutral (coffee shop/pub) for lunch/dinner
Check again with the existing group
Sleep on it

I think it is important for everyone to have a say because the game does not belong to the GM but the whole group.
Comment: I like this, and voted it up, but I wonder if it doesn't become too much like an interview...I guess it depends a lot on the group, and what their hopes and expectations are.
Answer: In my groups, the GM decides who joins and who does not, according to his plan. He is a very skilled person, who used to handle three parallel campaigns a week, each one with up to 13 players simultaneously without any issue. We know each other very well, so the issue of introducing a new person generally does not hold, however, it occurred occasionally that a completely new person joined the group. In any case, if he accepts the person, he asks the players' opinion first in any case.
For inexperienced players, the best strategy is to invite them first for a neutral session, he just watches the game as it develops, and the master keeps him involved by letting him throw dice, check manuals' pics, or discuss with players for optimal strategy. If he likes the idea, he can make his own character during a private session with the DM, and join the following meeting. We introduce players always at 1st level, even if the group is advanced (up to 10th level). The master tries to be kind, and generally a 1st level character gains levels fast when out with a 10th level group. We want characters and players to develop an intimate relationship. A 10th level character developed out of thin air is an impersonal being with an emotionless backstory, and in any case it would be overwhelming for a beginner player.
Comment: Do you know how unusual (good) your DM is?
Comment: @Beska I know, and after him I couldn't appreciate anyone else, in particular myself.
Answer: Everyone should have a say this is a group game. So introduce the person, let them see what it's all about and how you play.
A good fit? everyone has something to add to the game, as long as they are committed to the game I don't know if there is a bad fit. There is a 'role' for everyone. (unless they are a complete jerk or something)
As far as in game meetings meeting in a town, or saving the new character from an overwhelming battle work for me.
Answer: I agree with the notion of getting together in a non-gaming setting to see if you all like each other as people before sitting down to play games together.
If that is not possible though, this is the way our group used to do it.
The GM had the final say on offering an invitation to game with the group.  If the GM chose to do so, the new player would be invited to play for one or two session on a trial basis.  After that, the GM took a poll of the players to see if the new person was working out and said new person would stay or go based on the group opinion.
Answer: First of all, do some chatting via email and get a sense of a person. You don't need to know everything about them. You are meeting to play a game, not start dating.
I don't necessarily think you need to "go have coffee" together first- that can be fairly awkward. If you are meeting just to play the game, I think it's just woerd to have to jump through a lot of non-gaming meetings first.
Play in a public setting- the gameshop, someplace you can leave if it's not a good match-- to see how this person reacts.
Then if you like how it is going, reschedule something more, and if it isn't a good match, well, no big deal.


Trouble getting updates Ubuntu 12.04

Question:
Possible Duplicate:
How can I fix a 404 Error using a PPA?

Could someone help me decipher why I am getting this issue? I've tried updating my packages several times and I always get this same message with the update manager.
Things I've already checked:

I am connected to the internet (as shown by my being able to post this question)
All other internet related things work fine, USC etc.
I am running Ubuntu 12.04 on a HP pavillion dv6000, not dual booting.

Here's a screenshot of my problem, have I missed a crucial update? I'd not have thought so seeing as it's been roughly a week during which I didn't turn on my laptop, but if anyone has any idea/suggestions I'd be grateful for any input.
Answer: The PPA mentioned in the error is the root cause of this error. Remove this PPA annd try to update again. Try the following in terminal:
sudo ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d

Here you should see a file named crebs.list (or something like that). This PPA is included in your source lists. Remove it using the following command:
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/crebs.list

Alternate:
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:crebs/ppa

Source: My article at Make Tech Easier.
It also gives the GUI way to fix this error.
Answer: You seem to have added a PPA whose link has since broken, see "How to remove a repository" on how to get rid of the PPA.

Trouble getting updates Ubuntu 12.04


"ASP.NET web-based applications is my primary focus."

Question: Is this grammatically correct? Should I use is instead of are?

ASP.NET web-based applications is my primary focus.
Answer: If you are talking about plural "applications" like in your example, you should use are.
Also, off-topic: All ASP.NET applications are web-based, so you do not need to point that out specifically
Answer: As others have stated, it would be normal to use are to agree with the plural subject applications. This is kind of a gray area, however, and arguments could made for either side. If you are taking the idea of "ASP.NET web applications" as a singular pursuit, then you could use is. The understanding would be that you are omitting some syntax, such as "Developing in [ASP.NET web app.ications]" ...
That said, in cases where you're unsure how to proceed, it is the simplest thing in the world to simply reverse the order of the sentence:

My primary focus is ASP.Net web-based applications.

Note that in a resume situation, although @masarah has advised you that "web-based" is a redundancy when talking about ASP.Net, it probably doesn't hurt to be a little redundant to drive home the point about them being web-based. You never know what sort of clueless HR person your resume may need to filter through before reaching someone who can make a decision about your skills, in which case the minor pleonasm is likely to go unnoticed.
Answer: In that sentence, it is correct to use are, not is.
I would rephrase the sentence as one of the following sentences.

ASP.NET is my primary focus.
  Developing in ASP.NET is my primary focus.
  Developing applications in ASP.NET is my primary focus.


How often should Apache and MySQL be restarted?

Question: How often should Apache and MySQL be restarted (in particular having 150K hits/week), and what would be the actual benefit in restarting every certain time?
Answer: If your system is properly tuned and your application doesn't have any issues like memory leaks, you should only ever have to restart them to apply patches.
Answer: Apache and MySQL by themselves should be free of memory leaks. Most databases servers run better the longer they have been up. However, modules which are compiled into Apache like PHP often have memory leaks.
The Apache mpm module automatically recycles processes after 10,000 requests. You can change the MaxRequestsPerChild to something different, but 10,000 is a reasonable default.
Comment: What does this mean: *Most databases servers run better the longer they have been up*? What does *better* mean?
Answer: Apache does not need regular restarting; nor should MySQL.
Apache running in prefork mode can recycle its child processes using MaxRequestsPerChild; this is a good thing as it defends against slow memory leaks, etc.
MySQL should not be restarted regularly, as restarting it will cause a service outage. Restarting MySQL needs to wait for the engines to start up and will also clear out the cache causing performance to suck until it warms up. We seem to find that it needs restarting from time to time[1] because of address space fragmentation, but this should not happen so much on a 64-bit system, which new installations should always go on to.
[1] e.g. every 9 months on a busy server with > 100 queries per second average
Answer: You should avoid restarting MySQL whenever possible for performance reasons. MySQL uses lots of memory to cache data pages and indexes. When you restart MySQL, all cached pages are freed and you need some time to warm up caches. On highly loaded sites database restart could cause performance problems.
Your site is not heavily loaded (150k hits/week gives only 1req/4s), so MySQL restart should not cause big problems.
Answer: In order to understand when a system or service needs to be rebooted you first need to understand why. Memory leaks are the most common reason but there may be others, such as poorly written software (all too common!) that doesn't perform proper internal housekeeping, such as closing file handles when they are no longer required. While not being the same as a memory leak the symptoms are the same. Both Apache and MySQL are known to be very stable (unless you're running an alpha or beta version) and can run for years without issue. Normally the operating system will need rebooting to apply patches long before either application will require it.


What's quickest way to tell if my base is saturated?

Question: I'm looking for a quick way to tell if the minaral fields are 100% saturated (no more, no less). I play random and I find it difficult. There are always some workes inside of the vespene geysers, queens near the hatcheries (if I'm Zerg) etc. I always have either too many workers, or too few. What would be the best way to count them?
Answer: The optimal number is 3 harvesters per gas and 3 per mineral patch.
For a standard starting base that's 2 gas and 8 mineral patches for a total of 30 workers.
A quick way to count is to simply box all your workers and temporarily assign them to a hotkey. This will show you the numeric value of how many units you have selected.
An alternative method is to box all your workers and if you have more than one page of workers then you are very close to saturation. The default display shows a maximum of 24 units so if you have 4 on the second page you'll have 30 (assuming there are 2 in the gas building).
Comment: Optimal wouldn't be 3 per mineral... it would be about 2.5 per mineral. There is a slight deficiency when you get to 3 per patch. Making it more profitable to send some drones to expansions, etc.
Comment: I agree, there is a very small deficiency, but it is the generally accepted/communicated number on most forums. And this question was asking about one base and not expansions. Playing for long game you'd build harvesters past the optimal number so you have extras to transfer to the expansion when it's taken.
Comment: If you box all the units, do the ones currently in the geysers get added to the group? If not, adjust your total by 2.
Comment: The harvesters inside the mining building (Refinery/extractor/Assimilator) do not get counted hence the last sentence :)
Answer: I'll go into detail, quick answer at bot though
Simple way if you don't want to mess up hotkeys, box all your mining units, try to avoid gas miners and if you have 2 rows and 4 units (2*8+4 == 20) it means you are almost saturated. You can even leave that many in your main since it feels awkward to need to move all your probes from the main to a new expo.
I for one, after I get my expo I try to have about 34 at expo 28 at main, when I get a third, I want to have 18 main 32 nat, 32 expo.
Why is this ?

as you move out it becomes harder to defend the mineral line at your main.
I want to mine main LONGER since it's still kinda safe (as protoss it's REALLY safe against anything non terran)
I want to mine out expansions faster in case my adversary wants to keep me low on expo. But I guess this depends on how fast you can react and save probes

TL;DR
Box units, one row is 8; 24 is the golden number; there are 8 mineral patches, 3 rows
NOTE: Optimal 3 gas, 2.5 minerals But there are reasons to have more. For example you  expand and send some probes there, ready to mine.
Answer: Control+Click your workers, wait a second or two, then Shift+Control+Click again. This ensures you'll get workers that were inside of Geysers. Then just look at how many you have.
100% saturation varies depending on whether you're mineral syncing properly or not. If you're not, 3 per patch is ideal as workers will be inefficient and moving around. Otherwise, you can't do better than 2 per near patch and 3 per far patch.


Do you HAVE to prestige?

Question: I just hit level 50 in Black Ops.
I now see the experience bar showing my next level is 1.
Does that mean I will have to prestige?  I thought it was optional (because there is a menu option for it on my player card).
Comment: it *is* optional. It's a matter of ePrestige whether you prestige or not. I'd suggest try it once and see if you like your new clothes. If they don't match, there are another 50 levels of excitement ahead of you..
Answer: I believe you don't have to prestige, but level 50 is the maximum in Black Ops.
Answer: You don't have too, but there's a few minor advantages to prestiging: You get access to additional player card backdrops, more custom class slots, a prestige only leader board and prestige specific playlists.
The main downside is you have to earn all of your unlocks over again. The only thing you get to keep is your player card. Not even your CoD bucks carry over.
My advice? If you got to level 50 in less than a month, and intend to play the game for a few more months, prestige only once. There's plenty to do after you hit 50. I still have a bunch of challenges left to complete (although I did prestige once already and I'm at 50 again now).
I don't know this for sure, but if the matchmaking algorithm considers the prestige count and you're a mediocre player that got his level through playing a lot, rather than skill, you may actually end up playing with people who are significantly better than you when you do prestige, if the assumption is true that hardcore players who genuinely are better than you are more likely to prestige. Yeah, there's a few assumptions here.
Comment: You forgot to mention a prestige unlock which is the sole motivation to prestige for a lot of people (including myself): Golden Gun. At level 14th prestige, you unlock golden camo for your weapons. Who doesn't want to use a Golden AK?
Answer: You don't have to, but you get a nifty icon, more custom class slots and access to a few more player cards. At later prestige levels you get alternate face paints and even golden gun camo at Prestige 15.
IMPORTANT TO KNOW: The ONLY things you get to carry over to the next prestige level are the modifications to your player card. If you're going to Prestige I highly recommend spending every bit of your COD bucks on player card alterations, because you lose all of your COD bucks when you Prestige.
Answer: It's your choice. When you get prestige, you can access many things like the golden fun (at 14 prestige), new custom items and also a player card. Don't worry about your level because at your prestige they should see your emblem not don't care about the noobs.
The level doesn't count because even though you are at level 1 or more, and you are versing a level 50 opponent and using a weapon like an mp5k, you could still win. So don't worry!
For me, I think is better to get prestige because you are stronger when you face with people of your level and you could win 1 rank. Then you will gain more respect from them!
Answer: You don't have to. The challenge is there. You may get as many XP/CoD Points you want, though, it will make your decision to move on harder. ;)
Answer: I think he is asking whether or not hanging around level 50 for more than a little while is lame or not. In my opinion, it is, although as soon as I went Prestige, I was missing the perks and Commando like crazy and could not wait to get it back, so it's your own personal preference. You have to ask yourself, do you want to have 5 stars or a good-looking something, or would you rather have an eagle claw?
Answer: There is no real reason to NOT prestige. If you stay at level 50, you may not be properly matched up against people of a similar level, if you manage to complete loads of challenges, it means nothing as XP is just wasted.
I debated prestiging the second time, but decided that there would be no point in playing on if I was staying at level 50.
Also remember that when you prestige, all your challenges are reset, apart from the 'Lifetime' ones. So if you are close to completing one of those, it may be worth prestiging and then completing that to jump you up a few levels.
Comment: Black Ops player matching isn't skill-based. (That said, there *is* the Prestige lobby that becomes available once you prestige.)
Answer: There is no point to prestige. Just get your pro percs and have fun using them. The question is, if you don't prestige, will you still get to face golden gun players in team deathmatch? I have played against golden gun players in demolition and stuff, but i don't think i've encountered a golden gun player in team deathmatch.
Comment: Welcome to Gaming! Please ask follow-up questions by clicking the [Ask Question](http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/ask) button, not by posting them as answers.
Comment: Welcome to Gaming! Your answer here is a bit insubstantial as to *why* there is no requirement for prestige, so I'd recommend adding that kind of information. As noted by mmyers, please also do not post questions as answers - it would be wise to subtract that aspect of your post here. Please review our [FAQ] if you have not yet done so.

Do you HAVE to prestige?