What do Southern Baptists believe about Predestination?

Question: It seems that some doctrines and beliefs are not taught openly.  I was curious, what is the Southern Baptist doctrine regarding predestination?
Do they believe in unconditional election or complete lack of free will?
Comment: "The will of God is so the cause of all things , as to be itself without cause , for nothing can be the cause of that which is the cause of everything ." (Jerome Zanchius 1516-1590)
Answer: Historically, Baptists drew from both the Calvinist (Predestination) and Arminian (Free Will) soteriologies.  Early Baptists were first and foremost dissenters - people who disliked the establishment churches of England and Virginia.
What drew them together was not soteriology but rather a disdain for establishment church.
The Puritans in particular (one set of proto-Baptists) were basically Calvinist. Many of the more famous English baptists - John Bunyan (1600s), William Carey (early 1800s), Charles Spurgeon (late 1800s), were all Particular Baptists. Many of their kin settled in Virginia and Massachusetts (or like Roger Williams in 1636 were kicked out and stuck in Rhode Island), and helped to form the basis of Baptists in the United States.
When the Baptist movement spread during the two Great Awakenings of the 1700s, much of it was fueled by charismatic Arminians, such as the Wesley brothers. In the 1700s in particular, Baptists and Methodists both were very closely related - the primary distinction between the two was the autonomy of the local congregation. Methodists had bishops, Baptists had "associations."
By the time Baptists were allowed to practice freely (1786 is a good year) both stances were evident.
Eventually, there were two main camps of Baptists - "General" Baptists who believed in General atonement, i.e. anyone who chose (i.e. free will) to believe in Christ.  In contrast, "Particular" Baptists were Calvinists, who believed in Limited Atonement.  These are the Baptists who wrote the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, one of the closest things to a "founding Baptist creed" you'll get from a Baptist.  As you would expect from a Calvinist, they believed in predestination - i.e. that God has foreknown whom he would save from before the beginning of time.
When the Southern Baptist Convention was formed in 1845, the issues that divided Baptists had far more to do with whether or not Sunday schools and missionary work were important, than the means of salvation.  (Actually, the argument against was predicated on the belief that if God had already chosen who was saved, then it was just a waste of resources to invest in those things.  That didn't stop a a guy like William Carey, though, because he realized that even the elect should work to help the elect who didn't know they were saved to be saved!)
More to the point for Southerners was whether or not missionaries could own slaves.  The SBC has acknowledged this was their genesis, and apologized for it in the 1990s.
Throughout all of this, both strains of salvation continued through all the denominations, although many of the more prominent current Baptists (Paige Patterson, Al Mohler) are definately of the Calvinst persuasion.
That said, the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message is clearly ambivelent on the matter.
Section 4. Salvation says:

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

implying free will
Section 5. Grace says:

Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility. All true believers endure to the end.

which could come out of the Tu-lips of Calvin himself.
Incidently, there is a Free Will Baptists denomination who are most definately Arminian in their soteriology.
tl;dr
In short, Baptists have always been both.
Comment: @bruisedreed in re: George Whitefield updated!
Comment: In re: the free agency of man - the ambivelance is the point. Election is the Calvinst side, the free agency shows the tempering.
Answer: As a denomination, Southern Baptists haven't taken a stand on this issue.  Therefore, it's pretty much up to the individual churches and individuals to decide for themselves what to believe regarding these topics.
The argument comes down to Calvinism versus Arminianism.  A rough breakdown of the differences can be found at the Wikipedia site on Arminianism.  But what is important is how this relates to the Southern Baptist convention:
From the Southern Baptist Convention FAQ

The Southern Baptist Convention has not taken an official stance on either Calvinism or Arminianism. If you surveyed Southern Baptists across the nation you would likely find adherents at both ends of the spectrum with plenty at each point in between.

Essentially, Southern Baptists, as a denomination, does not take a stance on free will, predestination, or unconditional election.

There is an interesting, deep and fascinating article about the subject from someone attending a Southern Baptist seminary that claims a Southern Baptist stance on the subject, if you're interested.
Comment: After these two Baptist questions I'm beginning to think that a better question would be, "Do Southern Baptists agree on _anything_?"
Comment: @JustinY - Actually, it's a Baptist distinctive that we reject the idea of a central authority, and instead we place our trust in Scripture.  In general, all forms of Baptists distrust central authority and instead hold to the idea of a local Church, answerable to Christ.  Several good reasons stand behind this stance, and it might make a good question as to why we reject a central authority.
Comment: @DavidStratton I'm on it.
Answer: There is no official SBC position on predestination, and the issue is up for debate. The two major camps within the SBC are Founders Ministries on the Calvinist side and a new group led by Dr. Eric Hankins that have put forward this statement in May 2012 to get churches on board with an opposition movement.
Answer: Predestination has to do with the destination of a group of people called believers, not the destination of individuals. This is the only way you can have predestination and free will both exist (i.e. they are both taught in the Scriptures).
To illustrate: A bus has been selected to take all riders to a destination (predestination) but it has not selected who will be on the bus (free will). A human has the free will to believe or not; the ones who by free will choose to believe (place their trust in Christ as Savior) become members of the group that is predestined to go to heaven. Those who by the exercise of free will who do not trust Christ are predestined to go to hell.
Note Ephesians 1:13 NIV "...you also were included...when you heard...having believed".
Included in what? the group of believers (predestined); when? when you heard and believed (free will). The verses prior to 13 explain what one who believes will be included in.
BillA
Comment: Welcome to the site, Bill. We are glad you're here. This answer is not too bad, but it would be better if you linked a source that was Baptist and said the same things. Click [edit] below your post to add something in. Here's a +1 in advance.
Answer: 90% of southern baptists do not believe in predestination as interpreted by the "reformed" churches.
in fact any baptist that calls themselves "reformed" in their theology is not a true baptist, because reformed theology involves a lot more than the 5 points of calvinism, and it directly opposes some baptist distinctives.
"reformed" churches beleive that they were meant to reform the catholic church, and retained many catholic ideas and still use the nicene creed (true baptists reject the use of creeds--the BIBLE alone is our creed),
most refromed churches believe that the LORD'S supper and baptism are sacraments rather that ordinances,
most reformed churches practice infant baptism, and believe in a central church authority controlling all churches, rather than each local church being independent.
that is not to say that some baptists dont believe in predestination--some do, but even the "primitive baptists" who hold very strongly to predestination, are insulted if you call them a "calvinist" because of the reasons ive previously stated.
ALL southern baptists believe in predestination, but they dont all agree on exactly what predestination is---most but not all, believe that we are predestined according to the FOREKNOWLEDGE of GOD--in other words we believe that GOD knows everything in advance, so HE already knows who will come to repentance, and thus he pre-determined that these people will reap the reward of heaven.

heres my parable of what i believe---theres a train that will only hold a certain number of people. this is because GOD knows how many people will decide to pick up their ticket and board the train. CHRIST has purchased a ticket for EVERYONE, but not everyone will claim their ticket, because they think that if they work hard enough, they can save enough money to purchase their own ticket. BUT NOBODY can afford the price of the ticket, because the price of the ticket is PERFECTION, so their works are in vain. only CHRIST is perfect, and only HE can take away our sin and imperfection, so only HE can pay the price for our ticket.
so there are enough tickets for EVERYONE, but since GOD in HIS foreknowledge knows how many will repent (change their minds about trying to purchase their own ticket and surrendering to the fact that CHRIST has already paid the price), then the number of seats on the train is fixed at that number. the train represents the church--the elect--so the CHURCH is predestined, NOT individuals --GOD IS NOT WILLING THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH BUT THAT ALL (all means ALL) should come to repentance. the train WILL reach the destination that GOD has predestined it to reach--the destination is this---that all who are on the train (the church) will be conformed to the image if HIS SON, and ultimately be received into glory as the bride of CHRIST. if you want to be in the elect, then run for the office and GOD will elect you! his vote is the only one that counts in this election!

thanks so much for your compliment! its nice that we can have a discussion and see the other view point without anger--the key to any disagreement is the ability to see the valid points of the other side--i have to disagree about the "90%"--my statement is based on a survey done by various sources including lifeway and a non-baptist source (christian exchange) which did surveys among churches in the sbc which states that 90% do not beleive in predestination as interpreted by the reformed churches--i have been in a southern baptist church my whole life, being a member of several different churches in different cities, and none of them beleived in the reformed doctrine of predestination. all the churches i have attended have been linked to pastors and leaders such as jerry vines, adrian rogers, bill stafford and others, and i am very active in the stome mountain association, and none of our churches currently endorse that doctrine, altho some have staff members who do, so i stand by my statement. but again the difference is the INTERPRETATION of predestination. if you asked "do you beleive in predestination" my answer would be yes--but i would have to qualify what i mean by that. having said that here is the reason i oppose the use of the word "reformed" in baptist discussion--1) to a non beleiver, it sounds as tho you are a recovering baptist lol--like saying i am a reformed alcoholic--they dont understand the term. also it can be taken to mean that you are not part of the larger baptist body. for example, there is a church called the "reformed catholic church" which means (at least to roman catholics) they are NOT in communion with rome and thus are NOT catholic at all. the other reason, is that reformed theology implies a LOT more than just predestination---reformed churches for the most part accept infant baptism, believe in sacraments versus ordinances, and are completely protestant in nature. even the primitive baptists who believe very strongly in predestination, are offened if you call them calvinists or reformed. reformed churches also usually believe in some form of centralized church govt. read the statement made by charles spurgeon---" We believe that the Baptists are the original Christians. We did not begin our existence at the reformation, we were reformers before Luther or Calvin were born; we never came from the Church of Rome, for we were never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves. We have always existed from the very days of Christ, and our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel underground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents. Persecuted alike by Romanists and Protestants of almost every sect, yet there has never existed a Government holding Baptist principles which persecuted others; nor I believe any body of Baptists ever held it to be right to put the consciences of others under the control of man. We have ever been ready to suffer, as our martyrologies will prove, but we are not ready to accept any help from the State, to prostitute the purity of the Bride of Christ to any alliance with the government, and we will never make the Church, although the Queen, the despot over the consciences of men. — Charles Spurgeon (From The New Park Street Pulpit, Vol.VII, Page 225). so i beleive when you use that term people assume you mean reformed in the same sense as presbyterians or dutch reformed church--if you stick to the scriptures, there is no need to ever reform your theology--i do not for a MINUTE doubt your sincerity, but i am also a student of baptist history, and can trace my family back to the church where the sbc was fouded near crawfordville ga--it still stands. i will agree that at that time a lot more baptists beleived in your predestination than do today, but it was never a majority. the church that has a sunday school wing named after my great aunt still has as theor official name RUHAMA MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH, even tho they have assoicated with the sbc since its inception in 1868--it is being said by some baptists that those who use the term "reformed baptist" are really just presbyterians in disguise--again this statement isnt meant to imply that i dont believe youre a baptist if you hold to classic predestination--i just view with suspicion anyone who uses the term, because everyone i know that uses that term spends more time attending presbyterian school and church than they do baptist ones, and to SOME it appears that those who label themsleves that way spend way more time trying to convert others to that theology than they do Christ--not saying i believe that, just saying how it is perceived. grace to you brother!
Comment: Sorry, as a former SBC pastor, an M.Div grad, and a student of Baptist history I have to cry foul on the "90% of Southern Baptists are" ... what is properly termed a "General Baptist."  If anything, its about 10% General and 90% Particular.
Comment: Great leaping Wall of Text! That said, extended discussions are discouraged on any StackExchange site. That's one reason you can only put 600 characters in a comment. So, I moved what you said in the other answer and put it at the bottom of this one. In the future, please do edit your answer or take discussions to [chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/1167/christianity). :)
Comment: Also, "reformed baptists" didn't want to reform the Catholic church - we wanted a reformed theology (i.e. Calvinism)
Comment: Your analogy of predestination reveals your thoughts on the matter well, though. I look forward to future contributions!
Comment: just to thank you for the compliment, but disagree over the 90% thing--see new post--sorry im not internet savvy!


Best approach to go through tv series, annote key scenes?

Question: There's this great TV series that I am a fan of. I would like to go through each episode, available on DVD, and make note of interesting scenes, i.e. funnt stuff, reoccurring events, etc. Is there a good way to go about this? I know that shows such as The Daily show do something like this in order to find relevant clips for their show.
Answer: If you have a Mac, iPhone or iPad I would suggest Bento. It's a program based on FileMaker that allows you to organize all sorts of projects and data.  You could try this Film Library template from their template exchange or search for a different template.  Or maybe just download the program and start entering data.


Is the zoom (18-55mm) of my Nikon D3000 broken?

Question: I've been having troubles with the zoom of the camera. I can only set the level from 18 to 24 when I used to be able to choose what ever value I wanted (between 18 and 55mm of course!!). The 'zoom wheel' just stops when it reaches 24mm. I don't know if I unintentionally set the camera for this strange function or the zoom is broken. Thank you all!!!
Comment: from what i understand, the zoom ring is 100% mechanical. this means it is physically stuck at 24mm. Perhaps some grit/sand like mattdm suggested. It is usually not worth fixing a kit lens. Maybe upgrading is a good idea if you can afford it. Nevertheless, if they don't charge you inspection fee, send it in to see what the problem is.
Comment: Okay, I'll take the camera to the store and see what they can do!! Thanks a lot!
Answer: The zoom on this lens (as with most DSLR lenses) is manual, so there's no settings to control. Sounds like it's broken -- possibly a small bit of grit in the mechanism.
You could probably get it repaired cheaply (and it'd probably be done under warranty for free, as long as you haven't been rolling around in the sand dunes with it, and of course if your warranty still applies), but you might want to take it as an excuse to upgrade beyond the kit lens.
Comment: I hope you're right, I bought the camera recently so the warranty should be still fine. I'll see what the store has to say about it! Thank you!


Is collecting IP address and user agents on form submission illegal in the U.S.?

Question: I'm creating a website where I collect the name, email, state, and an optional photo of a user. Before the user submits the form, they have to agree to the terms of the site. For testing and statistics, i'd like to collect IP address and user agents. Do I have to let the user know i'm gathering this on the terms page?
Comment: As an aside - the big two web servers - Apache and IIS - collect this information for every request to your site - pages, images etc.
Comment: What country are you in? Different countries have different privacy laws.
Comment: I'm in the United States
Answer: As paulmorriss mentioned in the comments, most major web servers do this automatically anyways, with their server logs. These logs contain UA strings, IP addresses, and much more.
I don't know of any law on the books that would explicitly forbid this, but I would say that you should probably include in the Terms of Service the fact that you collect this information for statistical purposes.
Answer: Major search engines do this too.
After a period (between 6 and 18 months), logs have all the IPs replaced by another unique identifier generated randomly for each IP. That way you can measure user behavior without identifying the user.
You can do this immediately instead by converting IPs into something else using a hash and tagging with Geo-Location information (for example). That way you do not keep user's actual IP but you have enough information to do the certain types of analysis.


Alpha acids vs. beta acids in aging?

Question: Can someone explain the difference in hop bitterness between alpha acids in my wort vs. beta acids bittering during aging?  And is it predictable enough to plan for in recipe formulation?
Answer: This is a nice technical question involving some organic chemistry I do not comprehend.  I'll begin with what I do know about bittering contributions from alpha acid and beta acids.
These acids are components of the hop cone and contribute to bitterness in slightly different ways.  The more familiar one is probably alpha acid since most hop bags are labeled with the percent of AA.  This number represents the percentage of the hop, by weight, that is composed of alpha acids.
Alpha acids do not actually contribute to bitterness until boiled in wort (or water even).  At this time the acids change form, lining up to become isomerized alpha acid.  The process takes time, which is why bittering hops are boiled for at least 60 minutes.  iso-alpha acid is the main component of the bitter flavor in beer.
Beta acid, like alpha, almost immediately dissolves into solution when added to boiling wort.  However, unlike alpha acid, it does not isomerize and passes into the finished product unchanged.  In this form they do not contribute to beer's bitterness, but do lend aroma.
During storage and aging (and in fermentation) the beer is exposed, to some degree, to oxygen.  Under these circumstances iso-alpha acid degrades and loses bitterness.  When beta acid oxidizes it transforms into a bitter-tasting compound.  On-balance the beer looses bitterness.
There is little research into how this transformation affects the flavor stability of beer. What I have read is that hop varieties with at least twice as much alpha as beta acids generally keep their bitterness over time.  I know of no software or formula that takes the ratio and stability into account when calculating IBUs.
Further listening and reading:

March 20th, 2008 Interview with John Palmer
Hop Chemistry on the Homebrewing Wiki
Hops on Wikipedia
Answer: Yes, hops contain two major organic acids generally refereed to as alpha acids and beta acids. When hops are added to boiling wort about 40% of the alpha acids undergo a thermal isomerization to form isoalpha acids.  Iso-alpha acids are the actual bitter compound found in beer. When people talk about IBU they are talking about the concentration of isoalpha acids in beer - at the ppm level. Note: Alpha acids are only slightly bitter, perhaps 1/6 that of isoalpha acids. Beta acids are not bitter.  During fermentation virtually all the beta acids and most of the alpha acids and some of the isoalpha acids absorb onto the yeast. As a results most beers (that have not been dried hopped) contain no beta acids, and less than 1 ppm alpha acids. Most home brewers use 30% to estimate the alpha acids to isoalpha acids utilizations when boiling hops for 60 minutes. This is correct since about 20% of the isoalpha acids formed during boiling absorb onto the yeast. Don't waste your time trying to factor in any bitterness from beta acids or alpha they are most likely no present in your beer and even if they are they're at such low levels they're insignificant. Prost !
Answer: I'll get you more details on this later (when I have my Designing Great Beers in hand). But, I'm pretty sure the levels of beta acids are negligible on a homebrew system. More to follow.
Comment: ever get to this?
Comment: Nope, totally forgot.
Comment: it's been nearly 2 years, time to delete/update your answer? I also believe beta acids are negligible regarding bitterness, but a reference adds credibility.
Answer: Processed hop pellets sold in vacuumed packages will last up to one years time, hop cones are much more unstable and typically do not keep longer than 9 months.   As hops age the level of α-acids decreases and level of β-acids increases, if you are strictly concerned with bittering capacity you want to focus on the α-acid amounts.  30-50% of the α-acid in the hop will isomerise during the boil and this will contribute to your beers bittering units.   β-acids will be destroyed during the wort boil and will not contribute to the bitterness of your beer unless you are cask conditioning.  Hops added after boil are traditionally used solely for their aromatic properties unless they are pre-isomerised and being used to produce a light stable product intended to be sold in a clear or green bottle.
Comment: What's your source for β-acid destruction in wort boil?
Comment: Any reason for the down vote on this one, whoever did that?
Comment: I realize this answer is nearly two years old, but wow there is a lot of information here. It would helpful to many to make this credible with sources to back up what you say.

Alpha acids vs. beta acids in aging?


Alerts for social notes

Question: I am to develop an alert system for the social notes functionality in SharePoint 2010. I could write a timer job looping through all pages and look for new notes since last run, or loop through all users. But this would be a rather time consuming timer job. Is there some way to get all notes in one operation for all urls and users. Even better would be if I could hook on to note events when they are created, thus not requiring a timerjob, is there a way to do this? Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.
Answer: The out of the box activity feed displays all the latest social notes. I would suggest looking at the timerjob code for an example of how it gathers the information to publish the activity events.
Comment: If I am correct the activity feed only displays social notes relevant to me,based on social distance etc. Unfortunatly most of the code relevant to Social is marked as internal.
Answer: Created a timer job which loops through all pages and checks for new notes.

Alerts for social notes


How do you light the background for chroma key work?

Question: How do you use flashes to achieve an even, well-lit background when photographing a subject against a green or blue chromakey background?  One flash, two? What position? What about light modifiers, like an umbrella or soft box?
Answer: I'm no expert on this, but my basic understanding is that you generally want two lights, on either side of the background (not at 90 degrees to it), aimed towards the center, far enough back to illuminate evenly, and angled downwards to reduce spill. Continuous lighting is probably better for this, or at least makes it easier to ensure that you're correctly lit.
In terms of lighting modifiers, it will depend. If you can control the strengths of the strobes sufficiently, you might not require them. That'll probably require some experimentation. In generally, your background light should be about a stop less than your foreground.
Anyways, that's a nutshell summary of various articles I've read and hardly an exhaustive tutorial on the subject. For further info, unless we have a real lighting wizard pop in here to fill in better details, you might want to look at what videographers do, it's the same principle just at more frames per second.
Also, as a final tip, make sure your subject isn't wearing something matching the key. Unless, of course, you're looking to partially remove them. :)
Comment: On subject clothing, the Chromakey Suits come to mind (e.g. http://www.chromakeysuit.com/).
Comment: it's always fun wearing a green shirt to an event they are doing chroma key pics at...
Answer: Joanne C's answer is definitely more thorough, but I'll answer from a tiny bit of experience.  I took my kids recently to a Discovery Science museum here in Souther California, and they had a cheap green screen setup with a video camera aimed at it.  The point was to let the kids try on different costumes and dance in front of the camera and see themselves then on the lcd monitor in the "Under Sea" world.  The lighting in there was abysmal, yet things worked just fine on the video screen.
All of that to say that your best bet is to do some testing and figure out how much light you'll need.
Answer: Lighting the background   for the same exposure as the foreground is the most important factor. If you have a green screen and you underexpose the background, you will see the spill very clearly, and it's tough to post process!
Answer: I have only done this twice - so I am no expert either. But both times I have done it, the lighting on the background itself did not really matter - since they will be replaced anyway.
Joanne C's answer is excellent in getting equal lighting on your background - but what I am trying to say is that that effort in doing that might be unnecessary for green screen/chromakey.
Comment: It probably doesn't matter a whole lot, but I wondered if the lighting is uneven, if it will be a bit more work to select the background.
Answer: Chroma key backgrounds are mostly used in video.
In photography, often a white background is better - it can just as easily be cut in Photoshop, or not at all - since most backgrounds are white (computer screens, plain old paper).
In video, you often do not need to light it evenly, just have some amount of light fall on it. Sometimes the spill from the main light is enough.
If you define the problem as 'How do I evenly light a background' the solution is still simple:
You can achieve it with a single light, given that you have enough space. In practice you usually use 2 or 4 lights with no modifiers places as far as possible.


Is it possible to change the font and button size of the format bar in numbers '09

Question: I need to increase the size of buttons and front on the format bar in numbers '9
Answer: Depending on your hardware, you can change the Display preference to alter the resolution which indirectly controls how large the graphical elements on screen are drawn. This doesn't target just the numbers format bar, but affects all text and elements on the screen.
With a retina Mac, you have more control over this with the text and items being drawn with retina precision, yet the overall scaling of the graphical elements can be made larger or smaller to your liking. This is basically an implementation of resolution independence for those hardware displays.
If you need to target just the format bar, you can only choose to display or not display text and choose the default or the smaller icons using this control in the preferences for the toolbar.


Convert spatial Geographic data from sql server 2008 to Json

Question: Is there any example to convert spatial data (point,line,polygon) stored as geographic in sql server 2008 into Json and display data using Arcgis Javascript Api 3.0.I have tried converting geographic data into Json given Geometry to Json  but as my data stored in  geographic data  format it failed.Thank you in advance.
Answer: In theory just replace all SQL commands having geometry:: cast to geography casts (assuming that you 2008 R2 MSSQL server)
Edit: looked that example code . Change Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.SqlGeometry to Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.SqlGeography OR
Find SQL command which select code and  force it to cast your geography objects to geometry
Answer: Just off the top of my head in SQLServer,
You can query the geography data type using:
.ToString ()
See  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb933803.aspx for the reference info.
Then you'll just have a long and lat floats which you can send to json.
Comment: Thank you! That does give me `POINT (150.00 -33.00)` but the `.ToString()` makes it slow. Perhaps I should convert it in my C#, though thanks for `.ToString()`


ArcGIS API JavaScript, Flex, and Silverlight updated comparision

Question: Does anyone know of a site, blog, etc. that constantly updates a comparison between the various ArcGIS APIs for each new release of the API?
Answer: I think that was the intention of the ArcGIS Web APIs: What are the differences? entry in the community wiki. It's probably time to update it.
Comment: Ah, yes on both accounts -- seems that was the point of it and yet it doesn't seem to be updated for quite some time.
Answer: I had the same question today and came to realize that there is a bit of information dating back to 2011 but not a lot recently, as of March 2013. This is a sort of question that will get readdressed as the technology progresses.
Here is what I have found today:
Someone else actually measured the visits to his blog regarding use of Silverlight and JavaScript ArcGIS APIs (See here). Based on his statistics he concludes:

... the future lays in JavaScript development and that less applications in Silverlight and Flex will be developed. The fact that Silverlight is end of life and the scaled down development of flex is not strange to this direction of development

Although the sample size and the methods to calculate the statistics can be arguable.
There is also this discussion in this group:
What is the future of ArcGIS web development ? Is it JavaScript and HTML5?
which was closed as was not constructive by the moderator. I am very much interested in seeing any statistics (something like a matrix of number of sites developed versus number of visits to them) regarding the use of each API. I imagine that would be like waiting for it to snow on a summer day...


Are there any public audits of the disk level encryption in Mac OS X Lion?

Question: As a rule, one should never trust closed source cryptography software, but encrypting external drives and Time Machine backups has become quite convenient in Mac OS X Lion.  Is that specific code available anyplace?  Or has anyone audited it seriously?
Answer: According to a public talk by Rich Trouton, FileVault 2 is not FIPS 140-2 validated, but "Apple's new Common Crypto implementation is just starting to undergo FIPS evaluation"
The code itself for Common Crypto is available at http://www.opensource.apple.com/ and has been all the way back to 10.4 (where I got tired of checking revisions - it probably goes back even further, but what matters is the code shipped in Lion which is available for all three lion releases 10.7, 10.7.1 and 10.7.2)
Answer: It looks like the FIPS validation is proceeding, with iOS 5's CommonCrypto being validated first and then Lion's.
http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cavp/documents/aes/aesval.html
Entries 1672 - 1677 at the NIST link above are for CommonCrypto in iOS 5 for the various iDevices. It also appears that Apple is revalidating the now-deprecated Common Data Security Architecture (CDSA) cryptographic framework for Lion as of 11/17/2011 (entry 1872 in the link above.)


iOS: Is there a limit in the number of applications I can leave "running background" in the bar?

Question: I know applications don't actually run in background but I was wondering how many applications I can leave open. Has anybody tried? Is there a limit? What is it? If you reach a limit, it starts closing applications by itself to make room for new ones?
Answer: Fraser Spiers recently did an excellent article and follow-up video on this question on his blog.
In short, to paraphrase: you don't "leave apps open". By pressing the Home button, you signal them to enter the Background state, from where, depending on how they're written, they are either immediately moved to the Suspended (not-running) state, or are Suspended after completing a certain amount of background processing (such as completing a download).
As Fraser explains, there is no need to manage the number of apps in the 'multitasking tray' except in the case where a specific app stops working and needs to be forcibly restarted.
Indeed, that tray is merely a "recently running" list; there's no way to know at a glance which of those apps have been Suspended and which have not.
Answer: I work in IT and have seen over 40 opened at a time on multiple devices - most people don't even know you can close Apps. I haven't seen or read of any finite amount anywhere. I've read the article mentioned and watched the video; but, from my experience, there is unquestionably an impact on having too many open. Now, perhaps it just depends on the Apps that are open, but I think for most people, the easiest solution to lagging or performance issues is to restart the device; and if that doesn't work, manually close each App.
Comment: I don't think restarting the device would close the apps. How is this a solution to lagging?
Answer: Well, as of iOS 14.6, it allows at least 198 apps to be listed at a time.
Comment: And where and how did you learn that?


Star property in read/write access

Question: The * star property requirement for append access [SC(S) <= SC(O)] is looser than for write access [SC(S) = SC(O)]. Can someone explain the reason for this?
Comment: As I explain in my answer, I think the question's premise is faulty: that's not the correct statement of the requirement for write access.
Answer: Append should not allow you to delete the original content, so where this works is in environments where the original is the core, and any additions are read with the original in mind.
Write access may let you delete the original, so you could replace data with something new. This may not be the behaviour you want.
Answer: Please provide a citation for your claim about write access the star property.  I think you may have misinterpreted the condition for write access, or else you mean something different by write than I do.
The star property says the condition for reads is SC(S) >= SC(O), and the standard condition for writes is SC(S) <= SC(O).  Neither one involves equality.  In short: "read down, write up".  The star property is normally discussed in situations where we care about confidentiality (it does nothing to protect integrity).
It is possible you may be thinking of the strong star property.  It says that the condition for reads is SC(S) = SC(O) and the condition for writes is SC(S) = SC(O).  (Warning: Wikipedia's description of the strong star property is currently incomplete and a bit misleading.) The strong star property could in theory be used when we want to enforce both confidentiality and integrity.
In neither model is append normally treated differently from write, to my knowledge (though it's certainly possible I'm missing something).
Neither rule is typically used in practice, because they are too restrictive.  This is especially true for the strong star property, which forbids all interaction between subjects at different clearance levels -- completely unrealistic in practice.

Star property in read/write access


Applications of Fourier analysis for math students

Question: Does anyone have recommendations for a good book which explains how Fourier analysis is applied in engineering and physics that does not assume any knowledge of the above topics? I'd like to see the basics of how Fourier analysis is applied to signals, image processing, etc. but I don't know the first thing about the required physics.
Comment: How about PDEs? Separation of variables.
Comment: See also https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/579453
Answer: Dym & McKean's book Fourier Series and Integrals gives lots of examples of applications to various fields.
Answer: This book: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~mth192/html/music.pdf is free and explains the relationship between mathematics in music. To properly do that you need Fourier series, and so he covers them and then proceeds to show how they apply to music.
Answer: In addition to the wonderful book by Dym and McKean recommended by Michael Hardy above, no such list would be complete without recommending the terrific books of Tom Korner: Fourier Analysis and Exercises In Fourier Analysis.  Assuming only a rigorous course in calculus a la Spivak or Ross, Korner covers the basic theory including a host of applications such as a very complete coverage of the harmonic occillator and its many variations in potential theory, the heat equation, Brownian motion and stochastic analysis. These are must-have books for anyone interested in harmonic analysis, in either mathematics or the physical sciences.


Garrisoned units disappear

Question: Whenever I garrison a unit in a city, they seem to disappear. I had some longswordmen and catapults garrisoned in my cities for a very long time. They did not appear or have their symbol above them. I could click on the cities and nothing would happen sometimes. Is this a bug, or am I just missing something?
Answer: To the left and above the name of the city should be a circular logo with a silver border and an icon depicting a specific type of unit. if you click on that, the unit will appear and be selected. In the case of air units, you need to click on the black, numbered bar below the name of the city to get a list of all available air units.
Answer: Near the city's name, there is a small indicator( zoom in a bit to see it clearer) that says what units are garissoned (this works especially well with several airplanes on that city, that's where i noticed it) and you can select through them.

Garrisoned units disappear


Does style matter in a good UI?

Question: Let's say you have the perfect UI (hypothetical of course) in terms of position of buttons, etc. Now would it be a better UI if you styled everything nicely, or would it not matter at all? Does a UI get better if you give it nice colors, even if everything else stays the same? I don't mean like "it's nicer to use". Would it actually be easier to use?
Answer: Of course it DOES matter. It's all about user experience. There are lots of things that can influence experience and visual style is among them. The UI would not only be nicer but really easier to use because of emotional factors.
What do you think about the restaurant with a perfect cuisine but with ugly interior? The interior design has no relationship with taste of meals but it is a very important part of your experience. And sometimes you may even prefer a restaurant with not-so-perfect menu because it has incredible interior.
You may read Donald Norman's Emotional Design for more on this.
Comment: The book started out as an article, which is freely available online. http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/emotion_design.html
Comment: @Patrick McElhaney jnd site has exactly the emotional design :)
Answer: Kostya's answer hits a lot of my initial thoughts, but there's another point: the color scheme and UI style affect usability. You want to use colors that are easy to read. You also want to use colors to present information to the user - make errors and warnings that occur during use stand out from informational messages, clearly identify required elements, and so on. None of this affects the layout, but has a clear impact on usability.
Comment: +1 for shedding light on the "practical" use of colors (i.e., the low-level physical dimension).
Answer: Yes!
Things like

Colors. Wrong colours can be hard to distinguish for colourblind people.
Standard elements. If standard elements like fx links, submit buttons on a website looks very different than anticipated, it will be hard for the user to understand they he/she can click in these elements.
Structure. An organized structure that's intuitive will help users find what they are looking for.

There are many more examples, but these are just some, that show how a design can ruin a UI.
Answer: It does matter and it most certainly does affect the experience of the user. This is just to add to other excellent answers here, but I highly recommend reading a book by Malcolm Gladwell called Blink. It goes into great detail about the process of our first impressions. Perception is affected by a large number of factors, one of them being color. One of the many studies that Gladwell cited was this [paraphrased, I don't have it in front of me]:

7-Up performed a study with their
  packaging. Without changing the recipe
  of their drink, they increased the
  amount of yellow on their label by
  11%. When test subjects were poured
  7-Up from one of the newly labeled
  bottles, they began complaining about
  it being too lemony and claimed that
  the flavor had changed.

I can give an unintentional personal example to this phenomena. I purchased some juice similar to this. It was supposed to be strawberry banana, but it didn't taste very much like it because of the other ingredients mixed in: carrots, apples, etc. I poured a glass for my wife, who said that she liked it. When I told her that it was strawberry banana, it suddenly didn't taste as good to her.
These are just two small examples, but the fields of rapid cognition and contextual priming are large and very interesting. The implications of how we make our decisions and judgments  go far beyond just how something tastes; they reach every area of our lives. I read Blink almost a month ago now and I'm still processing it and trying to come to terms with it, not only for what it means for my designs, but also for the what it means for how I process the world.
Answer: Depends what you mean by style. If you're referring to the graphic design and treatment of UI elements, then yes!
Googletorp, I disagree with you that design can ruin a UI. A UI is made through design, I think what you mean is improper graphic treatments can ruin a good UI. :)
Answer: I'll throw another angle in here too: any one UI is not the best UI for everyone - the perfect UI is different for me than it is for you. The UI should be flexible to the point of enabling scenarios for people with disabilities. Like googletorp indicated, color blindness and other vision impairments are a perfect example: you should support high contrast UI elements for some customers. Another consideration often overlooked is support for online screen readers - every element needs alt text and needs to be discoverable through screen readers for your application to be usable for the blind.  MSDN has a great accessibility developer center covering various issues such as these and sharing tools for testing your UI in disability scenarios (the tools ship in the Windows SDK).
In my opinion, giving people choices on a particular UI and letting them  while upholding to the standards for the platform you are building to is really the "perfect UI". And to go back to your question, enabling flexible UI's through themes and other customization methods, you can give your application a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Style does matter, so make sure to pay attention to details or consult a designer if you can when creating your applications and developing programs.
Comment: I know that of course, but i just said the perfect UI because then we could talk about just the graphics.
Answer: In my experience, if an interface doesn't look nice (be it an ugly website or poorly skinned desktop application) I normally have a bad experience while using it. Even if everything is easy to find, and works just like I expect it too -- if it's ugly, I find myself actively seeking out a product that looks better, even if it sacrifices some of the functionality of the first product.
And example of this is IDEs. I'm constantly frustrated in that every editor or IDE I find is either ugly or doesn't work well. Not that it doesn't work well for everybody, but I find myself unable to work effectively in it. I'll find one that works just how I want it but is ugly and I hate looking at it. I find one that looks really nice but I can't figure out how to do everything the first editor did. You need both.
Answer: An interface that provides good ux can be (and I think tends to be) perceived as being easier to use even though it really isn't (in terms of the time it takes to complete an task, etc), in comparison to an interface that does not provide good ux but has the same level of usability. So yes, style does matter.
Answer: Its the same thing, when you go to a fancy restaurant and don't mind paying that extra money just for good ambiance(includes visuals, presentation, etc) even if the food was not that great... Presentation matters...

Does style matter in a good UI?


Will learning about EV3 transfer to Lego RCX software/hardware?

Question: If I attend a workshop on EV3 will that knowledge help me get up and running with RCX software and Lego Mindstorm kits we already have at our school? I know EV3 is backwards compatible with NXT but they said nothing about RCX. Guess it's a bit obsolete?
Answer: As far as the standard software is concerned, it's probably way too different so that your knowledge of one won't translate easily to the other. If the workshop uses third-party software, though, the gap might be smaller.
As for the construction of a robot and the principles of how to automate it, this should be closer, but there are still noticeable differences, for example using studless beams in newer kits versus studded construction in the RCX.
There is some backward compatibility, mind you, but it's more on the hardware level (meaning with the aid of converter cables you can use RCX motors and sensors with an NXT and that should hold true for EV3 as well).


What is a session beer?

Question: What is the accepted OG and ABV of a session beer?
What other qualities does a session beer possess?
Answer: The definition varies, depending on who you ask (and usually upon their tolerance to alcohol and frequency with which they drink).  But it means you should be able to have a couple and go back to work functioning perfectly well, or several over the course of a day without getting more than a little buzzed.
In my opinion, it should be less than 5%, but my weight is probably a little above average, so for others the 3%-4% range would probably be more appropriate.
Beer Advocate has a good article on the subject, including a little history:  http://beeradvocate.com/articles/653
Answer: I don't know if there's an accepted standard or not, like "Must be under 4% ABV" or something. Personally, I define a session beer as something that is not too heavy in flavor or in my belly, that doesn't have too much alcohol. "Too much", for me, is defined as "I can drink this for many hours in the sun and still communicate with my parents."
Answer: I think it's subjective.  But basically, it's a beer that you can drink, say, six or eight of over the course of three or four hours and still be able to function normally.  For some people, PBR might be all they can handle in a session.  For others, maybe it's a wee heavy.  I deinitely want the guy who calls Samichlaus a session beer on my side!

What is a session beer?


Plastic Wall Anchors Without a Collar

Question: I have installed some new toilet paper holders in my house.  They came with cheap plastic wall anchors without a collar on them.  I threw them away and used different anchors, because every time I try to use the ones without a collar I push them into the wall.  Is there a trick I am missing for these anchors without the collar?  A lot of stuff comes with them now, and apparently I am not smart enough to use them.
Answer: I really hate the anchors that come with most wall accessories.  I always throw them away and opt for my own anchors.  I love the self tapping screw in type. They look like an over sized masonry or self tapping screw. So easy to use, simply insert the sharp point on your mark, no drilling required and use a #2 phillips screwdriver to screw them into your drywall. They come in different weight ratings. I use the 40 pound rated ones for most everything. They tighten snug to the wall and accept a #6 or 8 screw of your choice.(the kit comes with three different color screws) I buy them at Lowes, but unfortunately I don't have any original packaging with the brand name on them, but I will find out and post it in a comment later. They also work great when you have an existing hole from a previous anchor failure, as long as the hole is not much more than 3/8 inch in diameter.
Comment: Shopping link for above product: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=Hillman+Fasteners+9414+%236+Plastic+Self+Drilling+Hollow+Wall+Anchor#q=Hillman+Fasteners+9414+%236+Plastic+Self+Drilling+Hollow+Wall+Anchor&hl=en&prmd=ivns&source=univ&tbs=shop:1&tbo=u&ei=IkcbTdLqDYKC8gbP9MykAw&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CDsQrQQwAg&biw=1481&bih=764&fp=ca05a7bb65e82229
Comment: Hillman Fasteners 9414 #6 Plastic Self Drilling Hollow Wall Anchor
Comment: there are a couple of other brand names that are very similar and work great as well.
Answer: You're probably just drilling too big a hole. Use a slightly smaller drill bit, and only push them in flush with the wall.
When you're screwing into them, you should also probably watch how much pressure you use to push on the screw (you don't need much), as if you push hard enough, the screw will just pop the anchor through the wall.
I've used them a few times when I was too lazy to go downstairs to get something else, and they seem to work just fine.
Answer: Plastic anchors come in different quality flavors and having the collar or not doesn't correlate with that.
I use a locally manufactured (I'm outside of US) series of anchors without a collar - their diameter is slightly smaller than that of the hole and they have small relief dots extending from the surface so that the outer diameter is slightly bigger that that of the hole. They require some force to be driven into the hole - either pushing them with a hard tool or gently hammering with a hammer. My experience with these anchors is very good - they almost never slip given the material is hard and doesn't crumble while drilling.
At the same time I saw a lot of anchors both with or without collar that slip in the hole. So I'm pretty sure it's not the collar itself that matters.
That said another very important factor is how precise the hole is drilled. It has to be of exactly the required diameter. Drilling must be performed in such manner that the drill bit doesn't exert side load onto the hole walls - otherwise the hole is milled and the anchor won't hold there.
Also usual plastic anchors can only be used in strong solid materials that don't crumble while drilling. There're special "hollows anchors" (not sure of the exact term) that can be used for slightly bigger holes and for hollow materials - they tight into a knot when inside a hollow.
Finally the anchor diameter must be properly selected depending on the screw diameter. Otherwise you're screwed.
Answer: I love the collarless wall anchors I've accumulated from all the do-it-yourself furniture my wife has bought. Most of them are nominal 1/4" diameter. So here's how to successfully install them:

Drill the hole with a SHARP 15/16 drill.
Push the anchor in enough to start it.
Tap gently with a SMALL hammer to set the anchor flush to the wall.
Start screwing in the fastener gently using the fastener that came with the anchor, it will bite easily so you don't need to risk pushing the anchor through the wall.

The nice thing about these anchors is that if you no longer need one you previously installed, just poke it through the hole with a 1/4" flat punch and you have a minimally small hole that is super easy to patch.
Comment: Should that be 5/16, not 15/16?

Plastic Wall Anchors Without a Collar


Making "acceleration" effect

Question: my question is how to make song to feel like it is getting faster, without changing tempo? Example of what I actualy mean is:

 (watch from 1:45) I know we can change from 4th notes to 8th notes but that's not what I'm looking for, I would like to know how to make rythmicaly correct, step by step fastening.
Comment: What happens in this video is that the beat is getting faster - the tempo ramps up - so your example doesn't meet your requirements.
Comment: I know how to change the tempo within a song with automation in Ableton live but I am not sure that what you asked is possible to do without adjusting the tempo.
Comment: @esmitex Is that what Aphex Twin used for Bucephalus Bouncing Ball?
Answer: The musical terms for what happens at 1:45 is half time followed by an accelerando back up to the original tempo.
If, prior to 1:45, you start feeling every other beat, you will notice that the new tempo at 1:45 matches exactly. In other words, there is an instantaneous tempo change to half speed.
What occurs next is a gradual change in tempo that occurs over time. It is NOT notated as an adjustment to the rhythm. By the end of the song, the tempo has accelerated back to the original speed.
It is important to note that doubling the rhythmic length of each note while keeping the tempo static will sound the same as keeping the rhythmic length constant while halving the tempo. The reason I would not suggest doing that in this example is because the music accelerates back up to the original tempo, so if you simply double the rhythmic length and then accelerate, you will end up with a tempo twice the speed of what you started with even though the music is the same.
Answer: You may have heard of Shepard Tones, which sound as if they increase (or decrease) in pitch forever. What actually happens is that the tone is made up of a number of frequencies, reducing in loudness the further they are from the 'main' pitch range.
You could do it at a piano with five people (each using just one finger!). All stand at the piano, and each play a different C. The person in the middle plays loudest. The people at either end play very quietly. The 2nd and 4th people play at medium volume.
Now everybody goes up to C#, D, D#, E, F... when the person on the right runs out of keyboard, he runs around and plays a bass note. Keep doing that forever.
A Risset Rhythm does something very similar with rhythm. Imagine your drum loop fades in at (say) 1/16 speed, gradually increases in tempo and volume, until it's at full tempo and full volume. Then it continues to increase in tempo as it fades out again, until eventually it's silent. Now, layer that track with a copy of itself, delayed so that track 2 is half the tempo of track 1. And keep doing that forever.
It might help to think about what would happen if you tried to dance to it. If you hear a beat at 120bpm, you can choose to tap your foot twice a second (every beat), once a second (downbeats), once every two seconds (each bar), etc.  With the Risset Rhythm, you might start tapping your feet twice a second. Then as the tempo increases, you find you're tapping your feet three times, then four times, then six times a second. Soon it'll be faster than you can tap, so you'll drop some taps and go back to twice a second. Repeat.
The link above takes you to some code for the SuperCollider sound programming language, and a sample of the effect.
As NReilingh has pointed out, however, that's not what happens in the Die Antwoord track. All that happens there is that they suddenly halve the tempo, then increase the tempo until they're back to the initial tempo.
Answer: There's yet another way to make an acceleration effect. A series of figures with increasing subdivisions. Like 2 eighth notes, then 4 sixteenths, then 2 eighth-valued figures of 16-th triplets, then 4 figures of 32-nd triplets. Usually you want to increase the division by a factor of 2 or 3 each time. So the actual tempo remains constant, by the time-interval between successive notes decreases dramatically.

Making "acceleration" effect


Editing the Summary View in List Viewer

Question: It appears that only certain columns can be displayed in the Summary View for list viewers. I am wondering if there is a way to get around this. I have one additional column from the list I'd like to display in the same format as summary view. I have edited the summary view to include my column but it doesn't show in the viewer.
How can I accomplish this in MOSS 2007?
Thanks.
Answer: If you edited the summary view on the list itself, after you created the list view, you need to go back into the listview web part, re-select the summary view, and then apply it.  Views on lists and listview webparts are not synced, they can be changed and edited nonindependent of each other.  The column you added, should display under the body column (if announcement list).
If you don't like the placement of the column, you will need to break out SharePoint designer.

Editing the Summary View in List Viewer


Compton scattering angle

Question: Say a photon hits a free electron at rest. I understand that there is a formula for the Compton scattering when the photon is scattered with an angle $\theta$, but I don't understand what determines that angle $\theta$. If one photon hits such an electron, won't it be scattered through a unique angle? It seems it is not so, since there is the angle $\theta$ as a parameter.
Comment: Hi Bruno - the answer to this is equivalent to my answer to your other question - http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/31581/compton-scattering-vs-photoelectric-effect
Answer: As all scattering process in quantum mechanics, finding the scattered particle at a particular direction is random, because the scattered wavefunction is not a plane wave.
The usual derivation of Compton scattering overlooks the wave nature of electron and light, and hence gives you false perception that the scattered electrons and photons have a definite four-momentum in any individual event. In fact, they are in superposition of momentum eigenstates after scattering.
Answer: At low photon energies, the scattering process is sometimes called Thompson scattering. You can ignore relativistic effects, and simply say that the electric field of the photon causes the electron to oscillate in the plane of the electric field. That causes the electron to emit dipole radiation. The probability to scatter in a particular direction is then $\propto \sin^2\theta$, where $\theta$ is the same angle that you're using, and is the angle away from the plane of the electric field of the photon. Jackson derives the angular dependence in chapter 9, section 9.2. The final equation is (9.23).
At high photon energies, the angular dependence is given by the Klein-Nishina equation, which comes from a full QED treatment. I've never had to use QED, so I don't know the derivation. It looks like it also only depends on the photon's initial energy and the scattering energy.

Compton scattering angle


Mac shuts down when trying to download software update

Question: I want to download the 10.6.8 combo update but every time I try it, my computer just shuts down. Does anybody know how to fix this problem? I am currently using 10.6. I had been using 10.6.8 but i tried to update it thinking that I was using 10.5.8. after installing the 10.6 I realized my mistake. I am using the combo update from Apple but just before that I tried updating my computer to Core Lion from Softonic because Core Lion doesn't exist in the apple store any more and my computer wont support Mountain lion. Now it wont even start up.
Comment: Can you be more specific about the problem you're having? What version are you using right now? Are you using Apple menu > Software Update, or are you trying to download the file from Apple's website? What happens before it shuts down?
Answer: Since your Mac doesn't start up anymore, try if you can do an upgrade install from an installation disk. See http://support.apple.com/kb/PH6606. It should keep user files and settings in place, but it often resolves issues like this. If you don't have backups, you can use Disk Utility to save a disk image of the drive to an external drive. See http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1553.
10.6 doesn't have a recovery partition, so you will need to use the older tools for booting and fixing your startup problem.
Answer: I tried starting it again later and it started. After I got it started I went to the Apple icon in the top left corner and instead of clicking on software updates I clicked on "about this mac" then I clicked on he software update under the information on which software I was running. It then updated without a problem..


Rock power chords that sound good together

Question: Can anyone recommend some 'rock' power chords that sound good together?
So I can up the gain on the amp and rock out!
Answer: Here are some classic combinations for you to play around with. I've supplied each progression with an example of chords in one key and an explanation of the positional formulas that will allow it to be transposed to all other keys - simply choose a position for the first chord and follow the instructions. I've also added some brief comments about the theory and usage of each progression.
Progression 1: I-IV-V
Example (A): A5 - D5 - E5
Positional formula:
Play the I chord (A5 in the example) on the low E (6th) string (5th fret/position) in this case. Play the IV (D5) on the same fret (5th position) on the A (5th) string and then move two frets up the string for the V chord (E5 - 7th position, A string).
You can use the exact same formula for the next highest pair of strings (A and D): play I on the A string, move up to the D string (same position) for the IV chord and then two frets up the D string for the V chord.
Comments:
These are the quintessential blues chords (as well as the primary chords for both major and minor keys). Tons of rock and blues songs have been based around them.
Progression 2: I-IV-bVII
Example (A): A5 - D5 - G5
Positional formula:
Play the I chord on the low E string, move up a string in the same position for the IV chord (as in the previous example) and then go back up to the low E, moving the position two frets down (5th to 3rd position) for the bVII chord.
Again, the same formula can also be used for chord progressions on the A and D strings.
Comments:
Another classic combination, with a slightly "heavier" feel. The bVII (G5) chord is a minor inflection on an otherwise "major sounding" progression and resolves nicely to the I (A5).
Progression 3: i-III-bVII
Example (Gm): G5 - Bb5 - F5
Positional formula 1:
Play the i chord on the low E string (3rd position), shift three frets down (to 6th position) for the III chord and then play the bVII two frets below the position of the i chord (1st position). Since you don't change the root string, this formula can be used pretty much on every string (with the exception of the high E naturally, since you don't have any higher strings to form power chords on).
Positional formula 2:
Play the i chord on the low E string again (3rd position), then shift up a string and two frets down (1st position, A string) for the III chord and finally shift up a string, retaining position (1st position, low E string) for the bVII chord.
The second formula requires less positional shifts. Like the previous progressions, it can also be used on the A and D strings.
Comments:
This is a quintessential minor progression that is often used in hard rock and heavy metal. Notice the similarity in resolution with Progression 2.
Progression 4: i-bVI-bVII
Example (Am): A5 - F5 - G5
Positional formula:
Play the i chord on the low E string  (5th position). Move four frets down on the same string (to 1st positon) for the bVI chord and then two frets up, still on the same string, (to 3rd position) for the bVII chord. Again, this formula can be used on all strings, save the high E.
Comments:
This is another classic minor progression, which complements Progression 3 nicely. When playing with power chords only (which have neither a major nor minor sound), you can view this as the minor counterpart to the major-sounding Progression 1 (I-IV-V).
Afterword:
These progressions are best viewed as a starting point for your own explorations. Play the chords in each progression in a different order, mix the progressions up, try different keys. If you play all four progressions in the same key, all of the chords you played will sound good together and can be recombined into further progressions of your own.
Have fun with it.
Answer: You cannot have a really clean answer here.
And this is because you play power chords instead of playing either major or minor chords.
So I guess you can play anything except for the VII chord.
Probably, you would get more satisfied if you use I, IV and V, but seriously you can use everything.
Try for example A5, E5 and D5 (I, V, IV)
Answer: Try with E, G, A, C, D. That model is from a heavy metal song, hope you know which song it is!


What is the difference between a framing hammer and a claw hammer?

Question: What is the difference between a framing hammer and a claw hammer? Can they be used interchangeably?
Comment: According to [Dexter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_(TV_series)), a framing hammer is a very good method of being caught if you're a serial killer.
Comment: I've always heart them referred to as Framing Hammer and Finish Hammer. Both have claws for drawing nails. Major difference: Framing has waffle face on head and heavy weight vs Finish with lighter weight and smooth face so you don't scar your work. Finish may have more curve on the claw.
Answer: As others have said, a framing hammer is a specialty claw hammer.
So what makes it different?  First, weight.  A framing hammer is typically 20-32 oz, compared with 10-16 oz for a "normal" household claw hammer.  That helps it pound large nails in only a few blows.  Related to that is the much longer handle on a framing hammer.
Second is the face of the head: it's waffled to prevent slipping off the nail head, helping prevent bent nails.  A regular claw hammer will sometimes have a textured face but not nearly as pronounced, and the face may also be smooth.  A regular claw hammer often also has a domed face to allow a skilled hand to sink a nail below the surface with minimal surface damage: that's a feature you won't see on a framing hammer.
Third, the claw is straight since it is optimized for prying boards apart.  A regular claw hammer is optimized for pulling nails.
If you're only building a garage, I'd recommend using your regular hammer rather than buying a framing hammer. (Or best of all, just go rent a nail gun!).  For inexperienced carpenters, the time spent hammering will probably not be what slows you down.  Also, the framing hammer is tiring enough that after a couple hours you may actually be faster with a smaller, regular claw hammer.
If you do get a framing hammer I recommend a lighter one.  You'll work faster when you use it, you won't lose much power over a heavier hammer, and you'll feel much better on the second day.  In 2010 if you hammer enough that a 32oz hammer makes a difference versus a 24oz hammer, you have a nail gun anyhow.
Comment: personally, I like a 28oz framing hammer for anything except finish work .. but I've also used one for a long time and hate the toy-ishness that lighter hammers have (when compared to what I'm used to)
Comment: You can buy regular hammers with a straight claw.
Comment: Also be aware that a cut in the forehead is very common when getting used to the straight claw and longer handle!
Answer: In my experience, framing hammers are generally larger and heavier, have a straighter "claw" and are more suited to the demands of framing. They provide less accuracy but more force, which is nice. And the straighter claw is good for prying boards apart. If you only have one hammer, you want a claw, but if you are doing a lot of framing, a framing hammer is a nice addition.
Answer: Framing hammers are heavy duty rip hammers with a straight claw:

Standard hammers have a curved claw:

Weight and means of manufacture have nothing to do with the differences in versatility of these two hammers. Notice the juxtaposition of both of those, in both these examples, compared to the other answer's requirements; these are just a crappy rip hammer and a (very nice) standard one.
Length, weight and tang are key factors but I prefer rip hammers that can double as a crowbar, over every other consideration. It's not the size...
Answer: Framing hammers typically have heavier heads and longer handles, and the face is usually not flat (I think the claw is less curved as well).
Answer: Framing hammers are a specific type of claw hammer.
They often have a textured head, which will reduce the liklihood of skipping off the nail, but will almost guarantee that you mar the wood that you're nailing into.  It can also result in the nail being driven a little bit below the wood.  As such, it's really not useful for finish work.
They also tend to be larger, to help reduce the amount of swings needed to get the nail in (they're really not intended for delicate work), and have a straigher claw to get between two laminated timbers to pull them apart.
If you're only going to buy one -- get a general claw hammer, but I'd recommend using some sandpaper to rough up the face if it's polished smooth.


Why do we need more power to do a job fast?

Question: Let's assume we have two identical electric trains.  One has a big electric motor (high power) and the other has small motor (low power). Let us assume the electric motors are of the same brand and the power of the motor is directly proportional to the size. Now, the two trains used their max power to travel between to stations and the powerful train arrives quicker.  So can we relate time (the saved time) to the size (mass) of the motor or if we neglect the mass variance of the motors, to the mass of additional coal used at the power station? If this so, we can now measure time in kg's or lb's of coal?
Comment: I'm not sure what the question is. The *definition* of power is "work per time".
Comment: @ACuriousMind Which is a reason, why do we need more power to do the job fast. Btw, even the required energy is much bigger in most cases.
Answer: In physics, the average power $P$ is defined as the amount of work done per unit time interval, i.e., $P = \frac{\Delta W}{\Delta t}$. So, a greater $P$ implies a smaller $\Delta t$ for the same amount of work. This answers the first part of your question. As regards whether you can measure time in terms of kg of coal, you could. Assume that the power output of the train engine scales linearly with the mass of the coal. You could define 3 minutes as the time it takes for the train to burn up, say, 100 kg of coal. Then, any other time interval can be measured in terms of the mass of coal. So, 6 minutes is the time required to burn up 200 kg of coal. Whereas this may be useful to the driver of the train, it is not a very useful definition to the rest of us because it is not at all clear what the efficiency of the engine is, the mass of the train is, how he accelerates and decelerates, etc.
Answer: The question you seem to be asking, relating time to mass of coal, is: "Why do we need more energy to do a job fast?"
Power is the energy input per unit time.  If two jobs require the same amount of energy, the job that has a higher power input will finish the job in less time.  However, ideally, both jobs use the same amount of energy or, said another way, burn the same amount of coal.  The more powerful train burns coal faster, but for less time, while the less powerful train burns coal more slowly, but over a longer duration.
The reason that real trains behave this way (i.e., getting there faster takes more energy/coal) is because energy losses tend to increase with increasing rapidity.  For the trains, air resistance is a primary source of this loss, since drag increases roughly as the fourth power of velocity.  Therefore, if the more powerful train can go twice as fast as the less powerful train, it takes half as long, but requires 16 times more power to move at that speed.  Over the whole trip, it will use 8 times as much energy (assuming air resistance is the only loss).
The phenomenon of increased energy cost with decreased time applies to other areas as well.  Transferring energy from place to place rapidly has greater energy loss than transferring that energy slowly.  Pressurizing a gas rapidly increases entropy more than pressurizing that gas very slowly (adiabatically).
The basic reason for this is that the faster something changes, the farther from equilibrium its components are perturbed.  Changes which occur close to equilibrium incur smaller entropic loses than those which strongly perturb equilibrium.  How strongly the system is perturbed from equilibrium depends on how rapidly the system can return to equilibrium, which depends on the system's temperature.  (Warmer systems can more rapidly return to equilibrium than cooler ones.)  The temperature dictates the timescales on which equilibrium is restored.  If less time is allowed for a given change to take place, then the system is more strongly perturbed from equilibrium, and irreversible, entropic losses increase.  The energy that goes into these entropic losses has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is burning more coal.


Saving a Gmail attachment to Google Docs

Question: Is there a way to save an email attachment in Gmail to Google Docs?
Answer: If you get an email with a Word (.doc), Powerpoint or PDF attachment then there are two links next to it, 'View' and 'Download'. When you click on 'View' the document is opened by Google Docs and there is a link at the top to allow you to 'Save in Google Docs'
Excel attachments give you three options, 'View at HTML' ,'Open as a Google spreadsheet' and 'Download'.
Answer: For files that you can't open directly in Docs, but want to save there, you can save it to your local machine, and then use the "Upload ..." button on the front page of Docs.  There is a 1 GB limit for documents saved, but not converted to GD format.
Answer: New features are introduced. From Attachment in GMail with Google Drive
Answer: Not directly.
But some file formats (most notably PDFs), you can view online by clicking the "View" link next to the attachment.
When you are then viewing the file, there is a link to save it to Google Docs.


How do I prevent condensation in my kegerator?

Question: I have converted a chest freezer into a kegerator by building a wooden collar around the top and re-mounting the freezer lid on that. I installed four faucets in the front and have a hole in the back for the temperature probe. Everything works great, except I get a lot of condensation on the walls and pools of water on the floor of the kegerator. What is the best thing I could do to minimize or prevent all of this condensation?
Answer: The best thing to use is a product called Damprid.  I think it's a silica based product that absorbs moisture in the air.  You can usually find it a places like home depot or lowes.  It comes in a tub like container and you just take the lid off and leave it in the freezer.  You can reuse the product by drying it out in the oven.
Comment: You can also find the same substance (Calcium Chloride http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_chloride) in bulk for cheap, I understand.
Comment: Great suggestion. I'll pick some up, but this doesn't seem like a full solution to the problem.
Answer: If condensation occurs and you don't open the door very often, then you have a problem with the seal or insulation.  Make sure that the door seals properly and the hole that your lines run though is not so large that lots of air can pass through.  Also, if you have a draft tower connected directly to the kegerator... insulate it.  Air leakage is more than likely the issue here; I would not simply purchase a moisture absorber, as this is a band-aid and does not fix the problem.  As stated in the post above mine, sealing the kegerator properly will prevent condensation and lower the energy consumption of the unit... not to mention increase the longevity of your kegerator.
Comment: What is the best way to seal the kegerator?
Comment: I suppose that is a question for another thread. Posted here if you care to contribute an answer: http://homebrew.stackexchange.com/questions/2989/what-is-the-best-way-to-seal-a-kegerator
Answer: Damprid no-doubt is an effective solution to the excess moisture condensing in the fridge HOWEVER this is simply a band-aid solution to temporarily correct the symptoms of the problem and not a cure.
If you have an excess of humidity in your climate, AND frequently open the door, it's possible the moisture is naturally collecting in your kegerator however this is unlikely.
The more likely cause is an incomplete seal around your door allowing outside (humid) air to enter the kegerator freely and continuously deposit the moisture on the cold surfaces inside. This is evident by the massive amounts of water condensing inside the fridge (enough to form pools).
The solution and cure to the root cause of the problem is to ensure a proper seal around all sides of the door (and insulate/seal any holes such as those drilled for the tap lines).
Make sure to check all sides of the seal, most likely there is a gap somewhere along the vinyl/magnetic strip. Often 2 or 3 of the 4 sides seal correctly but there will be a gap on the fourth side (usually the one hardest to inspect). Good luck!
Answer: Condensation is probably due to humidity in the air whenever you open up the kegerator.  I'd recommend Damp-rid (or similar products as NBChris has already said).
If moisture is also getting in because the holes in the wood collar are too big for the hoses/cables, you may want to get some sort of gasket or sealing foam to keep outside air out (and inside air in).  That should cut down on both the condensation, and maybe even how much energy it consumes (since it's no longer leaking cooled air outside of the freezer).


Is there a tool to split a book saved as a single PDF into one PDF per chapter?

Question: I have a few books as PDFs, and I'd like to split them by chapter for easier consumption on a mobile phone.  Is there any tool (or sequence of tools) I can use to easily split the book into different PDF files by chapter?
Answer: This would be hard to do automatically, as there is no standard chapter label in a PDF file. However, if you do not mind some manual work, write down the pages for each chapter, and use pdftk to select the pages and save them into a new pdf file. For example, if chapter 2 is pages 23-45, do
pdftk A=input.pdf cat A23-45 output chapter_2.pdf

You need to install pdftk first:
sudo apt-get install pdftk

You can also use ghostscript (which comes preinstalled) directly:
gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dSAFER -dFirstPage=23 -dLastPage=45 -sOutputFile=chapter_2.pdf input.pdf

This is quite easy to convert a script that runs things semi-automatically. First, create an input file; on each line, put the desired output pdf file title, the starting page, the ending page -- like that:
chapter1 1 23
chapter2 24 56

Save this, using a text editor, to file pdfchaps.in.
Now, create a script -- save the following to a file called pdfchaps.sh:
#!/bin/bash

function pdfextr() {
  echo "Chapter $2"
  pdftk A=$1 cat A$3-$4 output $2.pdf
}

chapters=$1
pdffile=$2

echo "Splitting pdf file $pdffile by chapters from $chapters"
cat $chapters | while read line ; do  pdfextr $pdffile $line ; done

Make the script executable:
chmod a+x pdfchaps.sh

And run it:
pdfchaps chaps.in mybook.pdf

Answer: You have many choices for that:
1. flpsed
 sudo apt-get install flpsed

2. Pdftk
sudo apt-get install pdftk

3. Pdfedit
sudo apt-get install pdfedit

4. Using GIMP
Install krita using the following command
sudo apt-get install krita

Open the Gimp, and open the PDF document you wish to edit. For multiple page documents, it is easier on your computer to edit them one page at a time. If you choose more than one page, they will open in individual windows.
Make the necessary changes to the document.Save the document as a Gimp XCF file (you'll have to save several different pages if it is a multi-page document). Close the document, then open the resulting image in Krita.
Printing to PDF with Krita Go to File>Print, then choose Print to PDF. In the same dialogue box, choose the destination folder and name of the output document (such as file1.pdf).
5. PdfMod
6. Inkscape
An Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.
Inkscape supports many advanced SVG features (markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.) and great care is taken in designing a streamlined interface. It is very easy to edit nodes, perform complex path operations, trace bitmaps and much more. We also aim to maintain a thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented development.
Install inkscape in Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install inkscape

7. PDF-Shuffler
PDF-Shuffler is a small python-gtk application, which helps the user to merge or split pdf documents and rotate, crop and rearrange their pages using an interactive and intuitive graphical interface. It is a frontend for python-pyPdf.
Comment: `apt-cache search pdfedit` comes up empty for me (Lubuntu 13.04).
Answer: I  was looking now for hours for the perfect tool for the same reason and indeed pdfsam  is the way to go.
The split by chapter worked for me, it was not necessary to select the pages manually, there is a function provided and you can even select the "depth" -- like e.g. on section, or subsection level.
What took me some time to find out: How to give the output files the name of the chapters instead of the regular naming (user defineable prefix + number of starting page + original document name). After hours of searching I found the solution: One can use "complex prefix(es)" as described here. This solved all of my problems and should help you as well.
Answer: You could try pdfsam (pdf-split-and-merge) but you have to manually select the beginning of each chapter.