What if my child has asthma?

Question: I wanted to know what exactly asthma is? What are some of the triggers that could bring on the symptoms for my child?
Answer: For your question about asthma and what triggers asthma attacks I was able to do some initial research and discovered some reliable sources that might help you learn more about this particular disease.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa.gov/asthma/about.html
"Asthma is a serious, sometimes life-threatening chronic respiratory disease that affects the quality of life for almost 25 million Americans, including an estimated 7 million children. Although there is no cure for asthma yet, asthma can be controlled through medical treatment and management of environmental triggers. "
The Lung Association http://www.lung.ca/diseases-maladies/asthma-asthme/what-quoi/index_e.php describes asthma as
"a chronic (long-term) disease that makes it hard to breathe. Asthma can't be cured, but it can be managed. With proper treatment, people with asthma can lead normal, active lives."
Triggers are also described on the Environmental Protection Agencies website as "things that can cause asthma symptoms, an episode or attack or make asthma worse. If you have asthma, you or your child could react to just one trigger or you may find that several things act as triggers."
As described by the website http://www.noattacks.org/triggers-in-your-home
Triggers can include:
Mold, dust mites, smoke, cats, dogs, chemical irritants, air pollution, and exercise.
I found these websites by typing the phrase "internet public library" into Google. Known as Ipl2 it is one of the best free reference web sites.  Once on their homepage http://www.ipl.org/ I typed in "asthma and triggers" and reviewed the various credible websites.
I hope that these articles can help you. If you need more help, in finding other sources on asthma or irritants that can trigger asthma please feel free to respond again so that I can assist you in finding more materials. Your local doctor can also provide you with information on asthma and help discover what specifically triggers your child's asthma.
Answer: I had childhood asthma.  For me physical activity - lots or running etc. - triggered attacks.  But I was able to use an inhaler and be able to breath again quickly.  I just had to be careful how much running around I did in school at recess.
The upside of childhood asthma is many kids outgrow it.  By the time I was in grade 5 or 6 I had no more problems and could run all I wanted.
Asthma causes difficulty breathing.  It can feel like having a panic attack.  Modern medicine works wonders however.  I had two inhalers.  One is fast acting for when I was having an attack.  The other is used a few times a day to help prevent them.
Other things that can cause problems are alergens like dust or pets, and cold and flu (the asthma makes the repratory problems worse)
Answer: I had childhood asthma until I was about 15 - any major exertion could bring on an attack, but with inhalers I managed to control it very well, to the point that the only times I ever had an attack were when cross-country running in sub-zero temperatures (cold air makes it a lot harder to breathe)
Mine was linked to childhood hayfever - and I just grew out of them. Still get very mild hayfever in a bad year, but no more asthma, and I ended up running marathons and doing martial arts and various extreme sports, so I wouldn't worry about asthma longer term - just be sure to get the right medicine/inhalers and see if you need to alter conditions at home (look at pets, smokers, airflow, humidity etc in the house)

What if my child has asthma?


What's the point of placing self links on a webpage?

Question: I often see links on webpages that link to the page itself.
For example on forums, blogs and even here the topic title is a link and points to the page itself.
What's the point of doing this?
Comment: On StackOverflow I use the topic title to refresh the page, because it's easier than clicking the reload button, so there is one use-case :)
Comment: Using Cmd-R, I don't even need to reach for the mouse. :-)
Comment: Or just F5.
Comment: Nielsen seems to condemn this practice. See #10 here: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/most-violated-homepage-guidelines/
Answer: Usability, and consistency.
Usability:
In order for your users to use your site the most efficiently, you must think of every situation possible that they might think of. Predicting what the user will want and delivering it to them before they are even there is good usability. Providing multiple locations for a perma-link allows for Stack Exchange to be easier to use, if you can get the perma-link from the address bar, the title, etc.
When looking at routes that users can take, you want to provide as many routes as possible to get there and / or get something accomplished, mainly because not everyone thinks the same and the idea to go straight to address bar to get the perma-link might come after going to the title of the page. The title of the page is bigger and easier to hit with the mouse.
Consistency:
If you click on the Questions link, it will still be there on the Questions page. The reason is because you want to form the best mental map in the users mind that you can. So, having links change creates uncertainty and confusion for the user. So, when you have the home button on the homepage, and the user goes to about and sees that the about link is still there, they know that the navigation will always be there to anchor on to.
That goes into the psychological analysis of web design... which can get kind of confusing all on it's own.
Comment: Cristopher is quite right. I would like to add that on complex pages, I often prefer to click a self-link to clear forms and refresh AJAX data.
Answer: Maybe to let people go to the most recent version in case they are looking at a mirror?
Also, I click on question titles here as a "safe refresh". Not necessary on Stack Overflow, but on some other sites an F5 will give you nasty "Do you want to POST again" alerts (or double submit).
Answer: I always use the post title here on StackOverflow to reload the page - to check for new answers or edits.
I actually suspect, that this is the most common thing it's used for.
Answer: As a counterpoint to the other answers, this was actually discouraged at one point as potentially confusing to search engine bots if I recall correctly. It may still be, but I'm having some trouble digging up a citation at the moment(which may itself be an indicator this is no longer the case).
Answer: It often gets recommended by SEO consultants.
The idea is that Google and other web spiders use the words in the link text to get a better idea of what the target page is all about. This includes "self" links. Having a link with words actually related to the target pages contents would be better (from an SEO point of view) than using the word "permalink" (not much point in optimising for the search query "permalink").
It is sometimes hard to know how much emphasis to put on such advice given the difficulty in verifying the importance in actual relevance ranking on a site like Google. Such ideas can therefore persist for a long time since they can be neither proved nor disproved.


What should I as a beginning surfer consider when buying my first longboard?

Question: I'm a beginning surfer, and I want a longboard.

How do I select one? How much should I pay?
What is good width and length, etc.?
Answer: If you have never surfed before, avoid going for a really long one - they are very unweildy, can be difficult to get up to speed, and are a pain to carry back to the car when you are tired out :-)
As far as width goes - can you sit up comfortably on it? And can you fit it under your arm?
Islesurfboards in California have this chart, which is a pretty good starting point:

Their website also gives a lot of info on all aspects of surfing.
Comment: I bought a 9'2 surf tech k-star rapoza board. Really happy with it!
Answer: Additionally to longboards, you could investigate a mini-Malibu ("mini-mal") / mini-longboard shape, with lengths in the region of 7'x" - 8'x".
As a beginner you'll find such a board easier to control than a longboard, and thus less frustrating to use, although longboarders will out-pace you when paddling onto a wave.


What is the best method of purchasing a ticket with an open return date?

Question: I've been doing some research on traveling to South America and staying for an extended period of time (working vacation). The usual sources for flight info (Kayak, Expedia, Hipmunk) don't have any info on flights with open return dates.  The other option would be to just buy a one-way ticket, then buy a return flight when I want to leave, but I've heard that international flights from South America are quite expensive.  What would be the most cost-effective solution?
Comment: I would just go through a travel agent they have the ability to do it and it will save you the hassle
Answer: What you want is an "open return" ticket. The outgoing flight is confirmed and the return is "open". Depending on the type of ticket, the return can be up to a year after departure. You can book the return ticket after departure--subject to availability of course. Sometimes you can even change a confirmed return without penalty. You'll probably have to buy an open return ticket from a real travel agent--I've never seen them for sale through the online sites like Expedia etc.
Travel agents that specialize in a certain destination for immigrants are a good place to find these kinds of tickets. For example, if you want to go to Brazil look for a travel agent that sells tickets to Brazilians immigrants living in the USA. You can often find listings in "ethnic" newspapers that will be distributed at restaurants and shops. Student travel agencies are also a good place to check as they sell tickets to students who will be studying abroad for an indeterminate amount of time.
Open return tickets can be more expensive than simply buying a cheap fare, guessing a return date and then paying a penalty to change the date if you need to. If you choose this option, be very careful you understand the change rules to avoid paying too much.
Finally, I would be careful about only buying a one-way ticket. Most countries have an "onward travel" rule which means that you must show proof that you are planning to leave the country. Usually, this means having a return flight ticket. A bus a train ticket out of the country might be accepted, but I wouldn't count on it. This rule is not regularly enforced, but I've seen cases where travelers without a ticket out of the country have been denied boarding.
Comment: Always wondered if travel agents were still useful in this day and age :P, besides those rich people use because they are too lazy to do their own research.
Comment: *You'll probably have to buy an open return ticket from a real travel agent--I've never seen them for sale through the online sites like Expedia etc.* -- actually similar sites I've used in Australia do have the same tickets but they don't use any special label like "open" or "open return". Just choose dates far apart and many of the quotes will in fact be open return tickets. Jot down or print out the details and call the site or the airline to get the details. But as I say in my answer I still prefer to get them from agents so far. Also this could possibly be different in other countries.
Answer: I solved this problem recently by using miles to get an award ticket.  Several airlines (among them: United/Continental, and American Airlines) now allow you to book a one-way ticket for half the cost (in "miles") of a round-trip ticket.   If you have the miles, this can be a great deal.  I just booked a one-way ticket from California to Germany for 30,000 miles and $40.
Comment: Is this relevant? Sure, it gets you a cheap one-way ticket, but that doesn't seem to answer the OP's question, which is about obtaining an open return.
Answer: Open tickets
Be aware that there is no such thing as a completely open ticket.
In my experience buying tickets from Australia there are open tickets for three months, six months, or twelve months.
There are no tickets sold with validity beyond twelve months. If you find tickets where this does not hold I would love to hear about it!
The longer the ticket is open for the more expensive it will be. You do have to put an initial date on the return portion of the ticket but it will be changeable.
Now the price to change the open/return portion of the ticket will vary considerably based on the airline and the price of the ticket. Actually it depends on the "codes" on your ticket which you probably can't read but travel agents and airlines can. Sometimes it depends on who you bought your ticket from. I changed my 6-month open ticket a couple of times last year direct with the airline and they had to check with my travel agent whether I would have to pay for the changes.
The good news is that some airlines offer free date changes for the open portion of your ticket, including stopovers. Some other airlines tell you there will be a charge but may in fact not charge for the changes. Korean air changed my dates for free last year so I'm flying with them again this year. JAL used to do it for free but last time I flew with them they told me each change would be $100 USD (this is a typical price) but when I made changes they in fact didn't charge me.
If you're going to buy your tickets online it may be difficult to ascertain for sure whether the date changes will be free or what they will cost. If the ticket site has a phone number you may be able to find out by calling them. But this is one reason why I still buy my plane tickets from travel agents so I can know all these details before they get my money.
One-way tickets
Unless you're flying to a country you have residency all countries I know of have a policy that you must have a return or onward ticket. In practice whether this is checked depends on political things. If you are from a poor country and are visiting a rich country you are much more likely to be checked. Also if there is some "situation" between the countries. I don't think I've ever been asked for this on arrival but a friend was asked when visiting Malaysia from Australia last year. I have however been asked to show it many times when extending a visa or doing a "visa run" in Mexico. Still, I've met many travellers braver than me who only ever use one-way tickets for their long-term travel.
Comment: LOL nicely put man  :)
Comment: "all countries I know of have a policy that you must have a return or onward ticket." dude wouldn't it be more accurate to say, policy that you have to "show you're going to leave..." ..?  It's completely normal to fly to ("normal") places on a one-way ticket.  I rarely use return tickets (as I usually don't know where I'm going next or when), and I've never once had a problem or even been asked.  Sure, with "problem" pairs it's an issue.
Comment: I switched to one-way tickets some years back and I have been asked two times to show my onward ticket now. Once boarding in Australia bound for Malaysia I showed my train ticket printout from KL to Singapore and a few months ago boarding from my connection in Singapore bound for my main destination in Taiwan where I showed my ticket printout for mainland China. Other times I have not been asked, even with the same destinations. So you have always been lucky, I have been mostly lucky and twice unlucky, but both times I was unlucky I was prepared. Being both unlucky and unprepared would be bad.
Comment: "all countries I know of *have a policy*..."  note though that, quite simply, the US explicitly does not have that policy; same for most other countries I can think of.  perhaps you meant to say more like this .......... *"In all countries I know of, although you don't explicitly have to literally have a return ticket, it does make it far easier to prove the requirement that you intend to leave..."*
Comment: You know, this issue comes up a lot.  For example [here](http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/78602/with-japan-do-you-literally-need-an-onward-ticket-to-prove-youll-be-leaving) I was asking if, *explicitly*, you need an onward ticket re Japan.  So, the sense of my question was, "ok, I know, know, know that of course it's better to have an onward ticket, since proof of your intention to leave is at the discretion of the officer, but do they have an actual rule that you need one?"  (Indeed the amazing "Timotic" thingy seems to be the answer to such questions.)
Answer: Very few airlines offer "Open Return" tickets like they used to, and those that do are normally far more expensive than a normal return ticket.
Normally the best option is to book a normal return ticket, but with the return date as far away as is possible (which is normally either 11 or 12 months, depending on the airline).  When you are ready to use the return you will have to pay a change fee (often ~$250, but it depends on the airline) to move the return date to the date you want to fly. You may also have to pay a fare difference - especially if you're traveling at a busy time of year.
If you're looking at staying more than 12 months, you've generally got no options but to buy a one-way ticket.


What determines the color of a pure substance and is it possible to predict it?

Question: I have always wondered why salt is white, water is clear and gold is, well, gold. What determines the color of a substance? Does it have something to do with the electrons? And is it possible to predict the color of a substance by looking at the formula?
Comment: This might be interesting https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/126566/some-substances-appear-white-when-crushed-while-others-do-not-why?noredirect=1#comment242790_126566
Answer: Yes, it is possible to predict the color of a substance, but it is, in some cases, very complex.
The color of a substance is decided at various levels. The most "trivial" level is the molecule in gas phase. You have a molecule, all by itself, and when you send some white light on it you provide all the colors of the spectrum. The electronic configuration of the molecule is such that it "prefers" specific light frequencies (hence, specific light colors). This preference is due to the electronic transitions between a ground state and an excited state, which is then "quenched" as heat. As a consequence, the molecule absorb some colors, thus subtracting them from the white light. What you see is the complementary color. If the molecule absorb blue, you get red. If it absorb yellow, you get violet.
Electronic transitions, however, are not the only responsible for absorbing light. A molecule can absorb by excitation of rotation and vibration (meaning that the molecule spins faster, or vibrates more). One case is water. Water appears as transparent, but in reality it's slightly blue. The reason is that you are exciting it vibrationally (to be exact, there's an absorption in the red which is an "overtone" of a vibration which actually absorb in the infrared). As a result, a minimal amount of red is subtracted from white light and water ends up being slightly blue.
Molecules however are not alone in the universe. They can come close, and eventually have other molecules around, either of the same species, or of other species, such as those of a solvent. No reactions are involved, just the proximity of other molecules, with their protons and electrons. The presence of nearby partners alters the electronic setup of the molecule, and as a consequence, a slight variation of the absorption is produced, leading to a change of color, either as a shift towards blue or red.
Then you have anything that can change the structure of the molecule through chemical reaction. Take tea, put some lemon into it. Its color becomes lighter, because you are increasing the acidity of the water, and the colored substances in the tea receive the H+ protons, creating a change in the molecular electronic distribution. The result is a different color. This effect can be dramatic: from blue to red, from transparent to purple. These are the so-called pH indicators.
Then you have the crystals. When you have ordered atoms, they can absorb light by virtue of their ordered crystalline structure. Note that the starting atom or molecule, by itself, may absorb nothing in the visible, so it would appear "transparent", or white. Nevertheless, it's by virtue of the highly ordered crystalline structure that, in the end, what you handle with your hands absorbs light, and thus has a color. This, at the quantum level, has to do with band structure and Bloch wavefunctions. The same fact explains semiconductors and conductivity of metals. How the atoms (or molecules) are arranged in space, and how many you have makes a difference in the final color. You say gold has gold color, but if you take a small cluster (say, 100) of gold atoms, what you see is red, not gold-colored. As a side note to crystals, you have impurities. Take aluminium oxide, it is transparent. Add some Chromium Iron and Titanium and it becomes Ruby, which is red, or sapphire, which is blue, depending on the crystal structure, and the relative quantities of these impurities.
Then you have how the substance is structured at the macroscopic level. Take a smooth platinum electrode. It's platinum color. Make it sponge-like (by making very tiny bubbles and pits) to increase the surface area and it appears black as coal. This is because the light is scattered and absorbed completely, leading to a black color.
Potentially, you have additional effects perturbing matter-light interaction. What is the color of a CD ? is it silver ? is it "rainbow" ? What about the color of a oil slick on the road in a rainy day ? What about the color of opal, or of a tiger eye ?
As you see, color is a very particular property, and while you can make an educated guess (in particular through quantum mechanics techniques) it's not always easy to know what color a given substance can have. This is just the tip of the iceberg. You have many other phenomena (such as how much light penetrates into the substance, or what imperfections are present) which affects both the color and the reflective properties of a substance. Ice is transparent, but if it's full of bubbles it's white. Plastic looks like plastic, and metal looks like metal, because how the light is scattered and absorbed changes the way light is reflected back to the viewer. This however, does not affect only color, but the general material texture. Pure spectroscopic color for white, non-polarized light is probably what you are referring to.
So to answer directly:

What determines the color of a substance?

many different things.

Does it have something to do with the electrons?

Yes, in some cases, electrons are "excited", leading to absorption of some light frequencies, but it's not the only factor.

And is it possible to predict the color of a substance by looking at the formula?

In general, no. But you can, from personal experience, know if a substance is colored or not, and more or less in which part of the spectrum it will absorb. To have a more accurate answer, you need a course in computational chemistry, because you need a program, a computational method, and a good dose of skills to get it out. In any case, the required input is just the xyz coordinates of the atoms and their atomic numbers.
Answer: It's important to note that color is only defined given knowledge of three things, see especially this section of the wikipedia article which has a nice discussion.
1) Light absorbing / reflecting properties of a material
2) Properties of the light source
3) Properties of the human perception of light
In general, 1 is determined by the interaction of the electrons in the material with varying frequencies of light, see e.g. absorption spectrum for one thing that goes into it, but there are other properties like reflection that I won't go into.
2 is determined by the spectrum of the light that goes in.  For instance, things will have a different perceived color under moonlight or sunlight or under mercury lamps.
Finally, 3 is mainly determined by properties of the human color receptors in the eye, but also there are perceptual issues coming from how the brain processes visual information; you can sometimes see this in various optical illusions.  Note that this too can vary from person to person, indeed some people are color blind or have color receptors for 4 basic colors, not just the usual 3, see e.g. tetrachromat.
Again, the wikipedia page on color goes much more into detail on all this.
Answer: The light is just a kind of electromagnetic radiation. You can see it, but it is the same phenomena as X rays. So, when this electromagnetic radiation, light, arrives at a material, the electrons of this material are driven by light. It depends on how are arranged these electrons, their energy... the way they will be driven.
Thus, electrons, as charged particles, in a movement which is imposed by light, begin to radiate themselves. And this new radiation is the characteristic light reflected by the material, with a well-known frequency (a range of frequencies actually).
In some simple cases it is possible to predict exactly the way the material will reflect (re-radiate) light, and to know the color.


What should I do to this basement closet so I can put clothes in it?

Question: We bought a house that had a closet along part of the basement wall. it has the water meter in it and on outside wall also.  we carpeted the basement along with the closet. the closet has drywall in it. I have stored some clothes in the closet to find that there is some white stuff (most likely mildew) on some of the jackets. What can I do or should I do to make the closet able to put clothes in? We are very handy so if we should have to put new dry wall up we can.
Comment: Are you sure it's mildew? If it's mildew, this might be a moisture-related problem, but if it's something else (dust? efflorescence? bugs?) your solution may be very different.
Answer: Since you don't mention the problem elsewhere in the basement you can probably solve it with increased ventilation in the closet. You can start by leaving the door open to see if it helps. If you see improvement install some louvers to help circulate some air. You can add a small 4 inch fan to help move more air. If the exposed water pipes are not insulated condensation may be forming on the pipes adding moisture to the air. If opening the closet doesn't help you have two options decrease the humidity or raise the temperature. I spent some time in a tropical area. The closets had a socket for a light bulb typically a 60 watt bulb. With the door shut and the light on the temperature  increases.This allows the air to retain more moisture so mildew won't form. Not the greenest solution though. Another option is a dehumidier either a conventional electric unit or the calcium cloride filled pan depending on how seasonal the problem is.
Comment: You could also replace the door with a louvered model.


Determine the flow and amplitude equation for thermal energy (with Del operator)

Question: It is a question vector calculus and Maxwell's laws. I put it this way.  Let's say, we are working in a $3$-Dimensional space ( e.g $x\cdot y\cdot z = 4\cdot3\cdot2$, a certain room/class of that size ) .
Within this room, the heat obey a certain  equation  ( for e.g. $T = 25 + 5z$ ) .We know that heat flows from higher temperature regions to lower temperature regions. With this information in mind

How could I be able to determine the amplitude and the direction of travel of the thermal energy with the Del operator?

I'm not looking for a definitive response, but an equation that could give me potentially the result for the amplitude and the direction. I also want to know if thermal energy follows a loop pattern within my room (and be able to explain it mathematically by using the del operator once again of course)?
You can find the lecture source here.
From those, we are able to get the Amplitude:
For one dimensional heat flow, we have $q= k \dfrac{T_2-T_1}{L}$ , where $T_1$ and $T_2$ are terminal temperatures and $L$ is the length of the material. Switching to $3$-D spaces, we need to look at the fourier system of the heat transfer before proceeding further. $\dfrac{q_x}{A}= - K \dfrac{dT}{dx}$. So integrating we obtain $$\dfrac{q_x}{A}\large \int_{0}^{L}  \ dx= -k \int_{T_1}^{T_2}  \ dT.$$
So given that the heat flow ( rate of conduction ) in the $3$-D space  $(x,y,z)$ is given by the following equation $$ q= - k \nabla T = - k \bigg( \hat{i} \dfrac{\partial T}{\partial x}+\hat{j} \dfrac{\partial T}{\partial y}+\hat{k} \dfrac{\partial T}{\partial y}\bigg).$$The negative sign, there indicates the transfer of heat from one place to another. So we can simply substitute the heat equation in the place of $T$ and compute the partial derivatives to get the rate of flow of heat.
What about the direction?
Answer: Actually you already wrote the answer, $\bf{\nabla} T$ is actually a vector that points in the direction where the temperature rises the steepest. So minus this vector is the direction where the temperature falls the steepest.


Has SO become Cliffs Notes/Do My homework site for CS students

Question:
Possible Duplicate:
How to ask and answer homework questions?

I started to answer a question, then stopped because it looks like a homework assignment.
What is the proper etiquette/response? Downvote the question?
Comment: I've done the same a couple of times...
Comment: Close as duplicate?
Answer: Answered Here
Answer: If they wanna water down their very expensive education, let them.
Personally, I don't feel it's my place to prevent someone from cheating. If it's a good programming question, I'll answer.
Answer: This is going to be closed but:
Usually I just ignore it. Downvoting doesn't seem quite right as this is a place to ask questions, but at the same time, I don't feel like helping people who just post assignements here verbatim and wait for the solution.
I guess the difference is whether they've made an attempt to solve it or not. "Can you help me out here, I've got x far but I can't figure out why this won't work? paste code" is much more acceptable and appropriate than a broad open-ended question that's obviously been posed by a teacher with no effort made by the poster to give their opinion on the matter.
The former option there is quite a fun thing to help with and it's nice to give people pointers that make it 'click' without actually giving them the solution. When I was a student of other topics I'd occasionally post to online forums when I really couldn't grok why my formulas, etc, weren't working and I was always really grateful when someone gave me a nudge in the right direction.
I don't care about 'cheating', I just think it's a matter of manners. Usually the people who post their assignment as-is are just here to use the community and not give anything back. It's the same as if someone who worked as a programmer posted here asking for someone to write something he needs done for work. Can you imagine the response to, "My boss needs me to write a custom CMS, can you post the codes please?"
Answer: I always appreciated help when I was a C.S. student, and feel that I owe the same measure of help to others.
Answer:
Has SO become Cliffs Notes/Do My homework site for CS students

No more so than Google.
Answer: Also answered at this question.
StackOverflow isn't that unique.  There are plenty of programmer help sites out there.  If you're worried about StackOverflow being overrun with "do my homework" questions, go visit a few others that have been around a while.
You will certainly get certain kinds of questions at certain times of year that correspond with semester or midterm projects wrapping up.
Answer: I feel more compelled to help a CS student if the they have put forth effort to solve the problem on their own.  Everyone gets stuck sometimes, I would have loved to have a site like this to refer to when I was in school.
Answer: With homework questions I find answering with how to solve the problem helpful, solving the problem for them isn't.
Answer: It depends how you answer and how they ask, We're here asking for help from others so why shouldn't they? Programming is about learning and not immediately knowing the solution to any given problem at any point. So if they ask legitimate questions regarding a language or structure issue then I think they deserve the help, especially as their asking is setting a good precedent and shows they care.
If however they ask you something like:

I needs make a program to work out latest currency and change it to other currency, Help me do this?

Then that's going to be closed pretty fast as that is not a question, it's a request for you to do their work.


Are questions that begin "Is it ok to ___" of primary theological importance?

Question: Questions that begin "Is it ok to _" are often asked and I believe it is helpful to ask "how now shall we live?".  However, from a theological standpoint are these questions of primary importance when considering the whole of and heart of Christian doctrine?
Answer: We ask "is it okay to _" because many Christians were raised on moral religiosity instead of principles of Christian decision making.  Based on the second greatest commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:39), Jesus calls everyone to love every human being they come into contact with (including themselves).  And to love means to seek what is best for myself and to ask what is best for the other, and to be honest if we are lying to ourselves about what we say is "best", while not being intellectually lazy and not examining from as many angles as is possible what is best in any given situation.
And no, these ethical questions may not be the most important because they may be more founded in "how far can I go in this one act before GOD is angry/disappointed?". But the truth is that GOD is not offended by anything that doesn't first hurt us, and that if we really allow a pure love of GOD, self and neighbor to be our new ethic then we might be closer to actually living how we were supposed to.
For a really good discussion of this read Thomas aquinas' summa theogica or kierkegaard's works of love (where he contrasts doing works of the law with doing works of love) or even augustine's comments on how Christians ought to live by the spirit and not by the letter.
Answer: I think these kind of questions often betray a deeper problem: a lack of understanding of the primary importance questions of doctrine that you mention. They often stem from an understanding of Christianity as a set of cultural norms or a rulebook of right and wrongs instead of hearts that have been remade from stone to flesh.
I do think it is valid that we field them but our emphasis should always be on pointing people to the more foundational truths that enable us to discern the answers to lodes endless trivia.
Comment: could you provide a brief example/s of more foundational truths (i.e. what should be considered "primary")?


Autosiphon not sealing

Question: While racking beer to kegs today, my autosiphon started leaking air.  Bubbles started at the bottom, and went throughout the tube.  I assume that this is due to a poor seal between the pump portion and the housing portion of the stiff plastic pump.  Has anyone else had this experience?  Is this a common failure mode for autosiphons?
Answer: It sounds like your auto-siphon is not making a good seal between the main cylindrical body and the gasket at the bottom of the siphon tube.  This may be due to debris on the rubber gasket, which would mean a cleaning could get you back in order.

Completely remove the inner siphon tube from the main body by pulling the tube up, out of the top.
Examine/clean the seal, which is typically a black rubber 'ring' at the bottom of the siphon tube.  You might put a small bit of keg lube on it, if you have it.

If the seal is beyond repair, you might be able to find a replacement seal, but my quick search a few moments ago didn't turn up a good result.  I'll come back and edit this if someone finds one.
While the unit is taken apart, look for hairline fractures in the siphon tube.  If that's the problem, you can buy a replacement siphon tube with new seal (rather than the entirely new auto-siphon).  I found this example.
There is also the possibility that what you're seeing is not air being pulled-in through a leak in the gasket or a crack, but indeed just CO2 that's coming out of solution due to a disturbance (credit @brewchez for this idea).  I'd look really closely at where those bubbles originate!
Answer: I've gone through 3 of these, and at least one failed because of the leaky gasket.
It often happens when the cane is pulled out of the housing quite far, and the cane is not in the same line as the main body. See if pushing the cane back into the main body helps, since it's then a lot harder to move the cane out of alignment.
Answer: If its a leaky seal its a leaky seal, but I'll offer a different perspective when I thought I had the same problem.
I find that I actually get some "cavitation" in the siphon that I think is from dissolved CO2 coming out of solution.  I used to have the bigger bore autosiphon, and that issue went away with a more normal 3/8th inch autosiphon.  So you might not have a leak it could just be a build of of CO2 coming out of solution.
If you don't want to buy a new siphon you can try and lessen the strength of the "pull" to limit the turbulence that leads to cavitation.  If its pulling to hard you may want to adjust the height differential between the two vessles being transferred.
Comment: Thanks for the perspective.  In my situation, I get either a LOT of bubbles, or none at all.  Also, this just started happening, and I didn't have the issue before.  Still, upvoted for adding additional possibilities.

Autosiphon not sealing


My children want to start playing RPGs; at what age should I allow them to participate unsupervised?

Question: Some games, such as Dungeons and Dragons, come with ratings/recommended ages before they can be played. Are those accurate? Beyond the ratings, are there any general guidelines I should follow when deciding whether to allow my children to participate in an RPG game, unsupervised?
Comment: Not sure if its a dupe, but you can definitely find some answers and guidance here -> [When and how should I introduce my kids to RPGs?](http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/2061/when-and-how-should-i-introduce-my-kids-to-rpgs)
Answer: There's a variety of dimensions to whether an activity is appropriate for children of a given age or not.
Activity Appropriateness
There's no inherent age limit for the activity of roleplaying.  Kids roleplay from a very young age via "cops-and-robbers" (though nowadays it's more likely ninjas vs Transformers or something).  Group imaginative play as kids is RPGs without the pedantry of dice and rules. Frankly, kids roleplay more than all adults put together. My daughter and her friends basically roleplay with Littlest Pet Shops for hours on end, just without dice or formal rules. So I don't believe there's any specific age limit or recommendation for the pure act of roleplaying.
Content Appropriateness
You should check out the content of a given RPG and see what ages you think it's appropriate for.  Something like D&D may not be content appropriate for certain ages in some people's minds (violence, magic).  There's other games with even lighter content (Toon, the cartoon RPG, or other games aimed at children).  So there it depends on the game.
The RPG industry is bizarrely conservative, however, so most RPGs don't go past what I would consider a Y7 show on TV (with some exceptions like oWoD, but even those don't meet TV-MA level).  The cartoon "Adventure Time" is basically D&D, they even use D&D terms in it. So many games are pretty kid friendly, unless you're of the "Harry Potter is evil" contingent, and even then there's other games that probably omit whatever specific content you object to. So content wise most games are OK (unless you have specific requirements around that different from day time cartoons').
Ability Appropriateness
When Hasbro puts an age rating on D&D they're not likely doing it out of content concerns, as all the content in D&D is way less objectionable than an average episode of "Billy and Mandy" - they're probably doing it to indicate what age a kid likely can perform the activities required, like they have on all their board games.  If you try to play Parcheesi with a 5 year old everyone will end up crying. Kids of age X probably can't do the math/read the books/understand the rules.
Of course, there are games much simpler than D&D that even younger kids could play.  I made up a basic minis game I played with my daughter when she was 6, "high roll wins" on a d6 is understandable down young.  If your kid is comfortable reading chapter books, they'll do OK with less complex variants of D&D and other simple games.  If they're still into picture books, you'll need something lighter and maybe customized to kids.  If they're reading board books, don't bother. (If you don't know what chapter, picture, and board books are you're not a parent, why are you reading this?) It's not just about the math - are they going to be disruptive; can they participate in a group doing something for a couple hours in general without flipping out? This varies by kid.
Group Appropriateness
RPGs are a group activity.  What do you mean by "unsupervised?"  You mean gaming with their siblings at home with you around and just not participating in the game per se, which will be fine as long as they are not so young they'll be disruptive and generate a lot of intra-sibling screaming? Or do you mean just dropping them off at the local gaming store to play "D&D or whatever" with the 15 (heck, and 25 and 35) year olds that hang out there while you go to Walmart?  Or something in between? Are they going to play in a generally safe environment, and, if you're not picking them up/dropping them off, are you comfortable with their means of transportation to and from there?
RPGs are little different from any other group activity in this regard; there's a certain level of supervision and mix of kid ages and relationship distance (sibling, relative, friend, schoolmate, stranger) any parent has already decided is appropriate for their kids whether the activity at hand is playing an RPG, playing Pokemon cards, playing soccer, going to the mall, or whatever. Different people are different here and times change - when I was a kid, at seven I and whatever kids were loose on our street would go disappear into the woods nearby and pursue our own shenanigans all day; today most kids are on lockdown and aren't let out of any adult's sight for more than 5 minutes until they're 13.  Whatever your deal is there, you'd apply the same standard of supervision to a group of kids playing an RPG.
Don't think an RPG group is any safer than any other group - I wouldn't send my kid to go hang out with an arbitrary group of older people without myself or an adult I trust around. Use good judgment about any group your children hang out with.
Comment: +1 for *Content Appropriateness*.  RPGs are almost totally ruled by content rather than rules.
Answer: Roughly, an age:
A hardline number is hard to give, but in general, the guideline I'd give is "once they are able to understand clearly the difference between fiction and reality."
For most kids, that's in place by age 12; many 7-8 yo kids can do so.
Generally, tho', most kids under age 10 simply are not ready for the tabletop mode of  game, but some are.
Further, most games' rules are written at a high school reading level. If they can't understand the rules, they'll need some older help.
On the other hand:
Most children begin to roleplay with or without supervision between ages 3 and 5. They just don't have specific rulesets, merely conventions of playing house, cops-n-robbers, cowboys-and-indians, martial-arts-uberheroes-and-villains. Most kids are doing some form of roleplay by the time they hit kindergarden, and often during preschool.
Answer: There are two things you should be looking at when looking at the "appropriateness" of a game, with a third one that might affect their fun, but not their safety.
First, are you okay with the game books?
Second, are you okay with who they are playing with?
Third, are they able to understand the rules?
First, look at the book for the game. Just because someone says a game is appropriate for an age group doesn't make it okay. I would avoid allowing children to play DnD until they are 10-12ish and maybe later depending on many factors. Some things I look for are, does it encourage players to be "bad guys," are you comfortable with the art, is it too sexual, or violent?
Second, This is THE most important thing for you to look at. Who will they be playing this game with. A game that is innocent can be made hyper-(insert objectionable adjective here) by a group of players who are more interested in playing that kind of game. Get to know each person in your child's game group, particularly the Gamemaster, or Storyteller. Do you trust them? How about the other players, would you let your child play with them unsupervised in any other situation?
Third, when you look at the book, think about your child if they might have difficulty with they rules, they might not have much fun. There are some quite simple rules sets out there, and some that require a lot of complicated math to do.
Answer: If you are coming from the point of view of a shop or club and what rules you should run then I would personally recommend you keep to a strict enforcement of age limits for unaccompanied children.  This is less about what the children are capable of and more about protecting yourself.  If you are strict about the restriction you can always relax it for those individuals who have proven themselves to be reliable.
Lastly, as a parent I know my son (who is 10) can cope with playing D&D and 40K in an open environment but I would consider it irresponsible of me to leave him on his own even with other adult supervision.  Unfortunately my experience of the Games Workshop environment suggests that if allowed many parents will happily dump children as young as 7 in such places if they think they can get away with it. :(
Answer: I ran a game shop for 3 years in Salt Lake City.  I can tell you that we did not let anyone under the age of 13 play in our shop unsupervised by an Adult.  With that said, there were exceptions that were made for kids who proved themselves trustworthy (as another poster already mentioned is possible).
For RPGs, I think the biggest portion of it is how mature the child is.  I have seen children as young as 10, or even 8, do an OK job and have a good time.  I know of at least one parent that runs a (simplified) D&D campaign with his 6 and 8 year old, but without all the nitty-gritty rules (very fast, very light).
I had a number of parents come in and ask me similar questions.  Most of them were there for answers, as they had heard "bad things" about RPGs.  I have seen some people go a little overboard with their roleplaying, but not many.  (I can only recall one example, actually).  If the child is over 12 or 13, I think that at that age they have begun to grasp reality vs. fantasy, and have begun to understand what is possible in the world (both through experience and learning).  This varies from child to child however.  At 10, I was playing RPGs with friends, and was able to turn off the "Fantasy world" pretty easily.  My brother did not have so easy of a time until he was 12 or 13.
In short, it depends a lot on the child, and a lot on who they are playing with.  If they are with friends who are of a similar age and maturity level, then they probably won't need "adult supervision" in the same way.
I am also reminded of something my father said to me, and this is something I have mentioned to more than one worried parent.  He always said that he was happy I played roleplaying games, because he knew where I was, what I was doing, and that I wasn't doing drugs or illegal activities for fun.  I would add in that RPGs tend to increase reading skills, they actually can improve communication skills, they improve mathematics, logic, and statistical understanding as well.
Answer: My nine year old does alright, but I found out the hard way that six is too young, unless your idea of a good time is your child running around the room, bumping the table repeatedly while interrupting game flow every 12 seconds and knocking figurines around the map, and spending 71% of your playing time looking for her dice that she dropped or other people's dice that she knocked off the table and sent flying in seven directions under the couch.  I'm sure it depends on the kid, but we won't try this experiment again for a couple of years, lol.
Comment: Welcome to RPG.SE! Take the [tour] if you haven't already, and check out the [help] for more guidance.
Comment: My 5 year old sister did well, but only in diceless games where it was okay that she ran around the room screaming most of the time.  She liked the Pokemon rpg we did, but she had trouble with genre-- in said rpg she wanted to play a charmander that solved its problems by running so fast it went backwards in time.  Kids under 9 can be and have fun, but they are a *lot* of work, and spotlight sharing isn't really a concept that they understand, in my experience.
Answer: It depends on what you mean by "unsupervised."
My son has run a monthly game for years - he's 14. Most of his players are about his age, but some are younger. Mostly, the youngest come attached to older siblings, but that's not always the case.
Those kids are playing unsupervised in that their parents are not at my house - they're out shopping and going to lunch in places you can't bring kids and running errands and generally being giddy at the prospect of 4 hours of free time.
But they're not unsupervised because at least one adult is at the house at all times.
So if by "unsupervised," you mean, "without an adult participating in the game," I think you can let them play as soon as they express the interest and have a GM and gaming environment you are comfortable with.
Answer: It's probably a matter of choice and dependent very much on the kids they're playing with and the game they're using.
For instance, the original D&D games had a 13+ recommendation, but with the proliferation of violent computer games, television programs, and whatnot it's become kind of silly in comparison so the age recommendations were mostly removed.
I'd highly recommend sitting in on a game or two. You'll get a good feel for what's going on and whether it's appropriate or not. I used to run a non-violent game with some Christian friends and when their parents heard about the game they stopped it without ever having seen what we were up to. I'm almost sure if they'd seen what we were actually up to they wouldn't have minded so much.
If I was in that position, I'd check the people they are gaming with. Are they of the same age? Are they from families you trust and approve of? If so, you probably don't need to worry too much. If, on the other hand, they want to game with 19 year old total strangers, I'd think twice (or random people on the internet).
The other thing I'd check is the system. Some games reward a lot of violence and killing. Others are more appropriate to younger ages. For instance, I know of a company which just put out a game geared towards younger children called "Story Realms". I'd say that game is appropriate to pretty much all ages. On the other hand, I probably wouldn't let young kids play Call of Cthulhu or something like that (horror RPG).
As for role-playing itself. I don't think it's inherently harmful. Most little kids play cops and robbers, building cities, house, and what not from a fairly early age.
I hope this helps in some way!


Wild berries in Southern California

Question: Are there any edible wild berries in southern California? Are there any conventional berries (like wild strawberries or blueberries) and how far out of the city do I have to go to find them?
Answer: You can find wild berries growing in vacant lots and along roadsides even in the city— although I wouldn't venture to eat them, as they will have absorbed various toxins from traffic or polluted soil.
You'll find blackberry family bushes (dewberries, thimbleberries) in moist areas along the coast or along stream beds. In the mountains you will find gooseberries and wild currants. They also taught us in the Scouts that wild grapes and wild strawberries were to be found, but I've never come across any; you may have to go literally off the beaten path to find them.
Comment: Wild strawberries are quite common in the mountains of San-Diego county. The deer love them too, so you have to be diligent!
Answer: We have a home on the back side of crestline in cedar pines park. On the downward slope of devil's canyon Towards silverwood Lake,there is a stream that runs past the home and we have found, Wild strawberries, wild currants, gooseberry, Blackberries, Elderflower and a heck of a lot of red raspberries.

Wild berries in Southern California


Degrees Plato vs Specific Gravity

Question: What is the difference between these measurements and is one better than the other for any particular use?
Which measurement scale do you use, why?
Answer: I use both because my refractometer reads Brix (plato), but I "grew up" on SG and I often take my FG with a hydrometer, so I'm used to SG. There is also a good rule of thumb for determining alcohol content with SG. Drop the 1 and move the decimal place to the second to last place and that will approximate ABV. In other words, if you brew a 1.067 beer and get average attenuation, you will have approximately a 6.7% ABV beer. To do the same thing with brix you multiply by .4, but that is less accurate and harder to do in your head.
The technical difference between the two is that Brix and Plato are a measure of the percentage of the solution that is sugar. So 11 degrees brix is a solution of 11% sugar compared to the weight of the water. Specific gravity is a measure of the density of the solution divided by the density of water. See here for a more detailed explanation.
Answer: Specific gravity AND degrees Plato or degrees Brix is a measurement of density; based upon the amount of dissolved solids in a solvent.  In the case of wort we are talking about sugars in water.  Sugar being the main component, but other solids have dissolved in the water too, effectively increasing density, but to a much lesser extent than the sugars contribution.  This is important because it does relate to total attenuation.
Hydrometers often have a multiple scales on them where you can read SG OR Plato on the same hydrometer.
Refractometers tend to be mostly in Brix/Plato scales.
Neither one is really any better than the other.  Its just a convention of preference depending on the equipment you use to measure the density of your wort/beer.
Comment: calcs are calcs
Comment: I know they both measure the density, I was just wondering if ABV calcs or other things were easier with one vs the other.

Degrees Plato vs Specific Gravity


Samsung S23A750D 23" 120Hz get no signal

Question: I have a few days ago received this monitor.
Samsung S23A750D 23" 120Hz
I am using it with a Gainward Nvidia GTX570 Phantom GPU via DisplayPort cabling.
The trouble I am having is that the monitor has great trouble picking up a signal from the GPU when the computer has gone into sleep mode or been switched off (at this point I can get a signal to the monitor). It's only when I turn the computer back on and then the monitor that I get no signal. To get a signal I have to remove the power cable and put back in or sometimes remove the DP cable and put back in.
I have tried not turning the monitor off (the monitor goes into a sleep mode when the computer goes into sleep mode) but on putting the computer on it does not pick up a signal.
It is only by removing the power cable and/or DisplayPort cable will I get a signal. And this is intermittent.
I have tried upgrading the firmware from Samsung but this hasn't helped.
Any ideas?
Answer: Samsung has no firmware update. Go to the Nvidia website, and try the latest WHQL drivers, or try the newest Beta driver, its not the monitor, it the Graph card not waking the monitor.
The latest WHQL is 306.97, the newest Beta is 310.70


Does it make sense getting any of these "extra" lens packages?

Question: I see many packages sold online with a camera body and extra lenses.
Are they any good? Since they're bundled, is the price better then buying the "extra" lens later?
Answer: There's a difference between cameras with a kit lens, and camera kit accessory bundles.
The former are from the manufacturer, and generally give you a good deal on a low-end wide-normal zoom. (Sometimes, it's even cheaper to buy a camera in this form than body only!)
Camera accessory bundles are put together by camera stores, and include things like a cheap memory card, a crappy UV filter, and maybe a serviceable camera case and wobbly tripod.
These are high-margin items which serve to increase the seller's profits and are generally not a good deal at all. These are often also sold with the term "kit", probably in order to confuse people into buying them. You can tell you're shopping at  a skeevy merchant when they insist you need one.
Answer: Those 'extra kits' are indeed cheaper than if you bought the camera + lenses separately, what you have to ask yourself is:
do I actually want that lens or am I just buying it because it comes in a kit?
Saving $200 on a lens you don't actually want isn't a good deal :)  Weather or not said lens is 'worth it' is entirely up to you, they are all 'consumer super zooms' so image quality will be on the lower end of the spectrum (yea get what yea pay for).
Comment: Also, keep in mind that you're not saving as much as they say you are. Best Buy overcharges by $40 for the 55-300 VR.
Comment: @kacalapy - No, the kit lens is not any good. That's why the give it to you for so little. Nikon makes excellent lenses and prices them accordingly.
Comment: is the kit lense any good? or should i get just the body and seperate lens? (what kind?)
Comment: Seems like you're getting some good info over here:http://photo.stackexchange.com/q/5876/1819  More good info would be from Mr Rockwell: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/18-105mm.htm
Answer: Best Buy is generally selling consumer grade lenses because they sell to average consumers. The lenses are okay, because Nikon makes a good lens, but most of them won't be the best lenses because the buyers of those won't be shopping for them at Best Buy.
So, having said that, the question boils down to your skill. Anybody with enough money can buy top of the line gear, but are they able to use it? I'm not saying this to impugn your skill, but given your recent questions, you would appear to be a newcomer to SLR photography so you should take a hard look at that before making major investments in equipment such as pro-grade lenses. For the vast majority of us, it's not an expense that makes any sense, great pictures are still to be had from the "lowly" consumer glass out there. Heck, I consider myself a reasonably advanced amateur and the closest I have to pro-grade glass is a 30 year old Vivitar f/2.8 100mm macro (which is considered to be one of the best macro lenses ever made) that is entirely manual other than the aperture.
So, don't worry too much about the lenses, they'll probably do you fine until your skill increases. However, don't assume that Best Buy has the best price, there are a ton of sources for Nikon lenses and a little shopping around is going to get you a better deal much of the time. What's more important is to figure out the kind of pictures you want to take and to buy lenses that assist in that.


How to remove dry grout

Question: How do you remove dry grout on tile. We have tried everything from vinegar to tile cleaner, but nothing is working. Any suggestions?
Comment: What type of tile is it?  The answer may depend on the material.
Comment: Have you tried acetone (nail polish remover)?
Answer: Your options at this point are scraping it off or dissolving it.  My first suggestion would be contacting the tile manufacturer.  They would have the best idea of what your tile can handle as far as physical abuse or acid.
Scraping
Scraping is attractive as a primary option because you can go slowly and start in a small inconspicuous area to see if it will damage the tile.  There's no perfect tool for this as far as I know.  I'd start with an abrasive sponge (you might get lucky), steel wool (good for streaks) and then lightly attack clumps with a razor, painter's tool or small sharp chisel.  To limit damage to the tile, you want the tool to be as horizontal as you can make it and still work safely with it.  You should quickly determine how much abuse your tile can handle and if a few scrapes ruins your floor.  Most likely it will be a slow and painful process.
Acid
Sulfumic acid will work if the grout is not too thick, the main concern is what it will do to the tile underneath.  Again, find a small spot to test first.  Etching is usually caused because the tile absorbs the acid.  To limit this, I would wet the tile pretty thoroughly with clean water first.  Gloves, mask, and good ventilation are a must when working with the acid.  If the grout is pretty thick, this may loosen it up enough that you can scrub it away with a scraping method.  Follow the instructions and don't let it sit long enough that it eats through the top layer of tile.
Replacement
I wouldn't overlook replacement as a possibility, depending on how many tiles are an issue.  It's entirely possible you will damage the tile trying to remove the grout anyway.  I'm assuming you did the tile work (or you should be calling the contractor to fix this), so you should be able to replace a tile, just break it, scrape up the surrounding grout and install a new one.  If it's old work (and you can find tile that matches), it might be worth a few calls to find what a tile mechanic might charge for a small job.
Answer: Is it on glazed tile, or something like unglazed spanish tiles? If they are glazed, I would try a razor blade scraper or a wallpaper scraper. Try wetting it first. I have heard of people using acid, but I see some forums where people say never to use it because it can etch the tile. If its only been a couple of days it should come off glazed tile. You could also post a picture. Good luck,
Brian
Answer: My wife dropped a full bottle of Balsamic vinegar on our kitchen floor. It immediately attacked the white tile grout and by the time the mess was cleaned up most of the tile grout was gone. The Balsamic vinegar was a blackish colour and the white tiles were not affected at all.
Comment: -1 cool story, bro.... Can you adjust your answer to more specifically address the question?
Comment: Tried the balsamic vinegar, let it soak for about five minutes and used a scrubber brush then wiped clean. Works well but had to do about four times. Much better though than the nylon brush which in all fairness we could not get the right one. The one we got took ages and being such small tiles would have taken forever. Definately the vinegar is the way to go. Don't know the finish yet once polished so will keep you posted.

How to remove dry grout


Why are mammoths so much harder to kill than dragons?

Question: In Skyrim, I noticed that it is much much harder to kill a mammoth than it is to kill a dragon. Why is this? Am I just bad at Skyrim, or is it like this for everyone?
Answer: Enemies in Skyrim are, within certain bounds, adjusted to your own level. So the first dragons you meet will likely be pretty low level, as you're probably still at a very early level yourself.
The giants are one of the enemies that are present very early, but they don't adjust down to your early levels. They always have a certain minimum level, if you meet them early in the game they will be probably tens of levels above you.
The first giant I met killed me with one hit, flinging me high up in the air. Now at around level 40 I can kill a giant with 2-4 hits of my daedric mace.
The dragons are part of the main quest, they are more closely adjusted to your level as the developers also had to expect some people directly starting with the main quest, not earning levels before that with side quests. The giants are passive, you can avoid them pretty easily. So having them far above your level doesn't stop your progress at all.
Comment: While the comic is great, this is an actual answer.
Answer: It's like this for everyone.
Comment: While comics normally make for bad answers, I don't think you have illustrated it any better.
Comment: @Ivo +could somewhere in there
Comment: Awesome. Although this does change eventually, at around level 40, where giants die in a few hits, and ancient dragons take forever.


Can text content in an HTML5  element be indexed by search engines?

Question: I was wondering if content in an HTML5 canvas element has any positive/negative effects on SEO, or if it is indexed at all.
Comment: Well, you could do something like Your text here, and "Your text here" would probably be detected.
Answer: Probably not, try this tool http://robot.dabase.com/ to see what a robot typically sees on your site.
Comment: link is broken.
Answer: If the text is in the HTML, between the <canvas></canvas> tags, then yes. Although I'm unsure of what context the search engine would see that text in.
If the text is drawn to the canvas then no.
Answer: Don't really understand the question, do you mean
 <canvas>Some text</canvas>

? That would be silly for reasons which have nothing to do with search engines. The <canvas> tag is for rendering using JavaScript, so if you are asking about that, your question is sort of equivalent to whether search engines can see text written by JavaScript.
Answer: Canvas renders text as images, surely if you have an image clearly displaying text, theoretically Google can recognize the image and index it as let's say header but it is very unlikely at this point.
I personally would never gamble with important on-page SEO elements such as headers and text. Since bots see canvas elements as images then we could just convert site layouts to jpegs and throw it online hoping all the text would get indexed properly and the links we could handle with image maps. But that's crazy talk, right? That's why flash websites have tough time indexing their content without special bot-friendly scripting.
Until Google gives exact guidelines how to handle canvas in the SEO I would just use @font-face for nice looking headers.
Answer: If it is rendered into the bitmap as pixels then this is the same question as would a GIF or JPEG with text in it (w/o an alt attribute) be recognized.  In other words is Google image search doing OCR on the images...the answer is probably not.
The fallback text as in
<canvas>
  Some alternate text here
</canvas>
would likely get picked up.
Also in many cases when people are using canvas they are using  overlays since putting text in a canvas drawing is a bit dicey particularly if you want fine grain control.  Instead folks end up opting to put it in HTML/CSS and then overlay it.  This is how many charts do their legends/labels actually.


Are you satisfied with answers to questions with bounties?

Question: I've got some questions that I'm thinking about putting bounties on. I was wondering if other users felt that added a bounty improved the quality of the answers they were getting.
Answer: Hell no, I would prefer a big fat stack of waffles.
The feature, for me, has mostly been a FAIL with one exception:

Custom syntax highlighting for VS 2008

This is a FAIL, turns out the selected answer is really unstable. I have had nothing but trouble with DXCore. Will be really easy to do this in VS 2010 or just fork out the money and buy ReSharper. The problem answer is now selected and marked true FOREVER.

Looking for a simple standalone persistent dictionary implementation in C#

Again a FAIL . Got lots of attention, I kind of felt I had to select something as an answer, and now when the magical well supported key value store for .net pops up I will have trouble fixing it. Lots of ideas, all had their issue, none was a perfect fit.

Code demonstrating the importance of a Constrained Execution Region

Success, something about this question made it a really good fit for bounties, it had fantastic constraints, measuring the success of the answer was really easy - no grey areas. If you have questions like this they are good for bounties provided you get an answer.

Proxying Videos locally with a TCP Socket

FAIL Got a useless answer, but felt compelled to mark it as correct cause of the amount of effort that went in. Basically to use it I must comply with GPL AND run my app as Admin something that is not an option. A socket based solution is possible and one day when I have a free weekend I will write it.
Bottom line, if you are looking for someone to spend 2 days and write a custom implementation for a specific problem you are having, do not use bounties. If its simple / clear-cut and just needs a bit more attention ... go for it, a bounty may help. But the correct answer set in stone forever leaves a very bad taste.
Answer: I tried it once and got nowhere.
But then, my goal was to get someone else to delve into an obscure and under-documented Microsoft API, make it do something very specific, and then show me the code (or at least warn me about all the time-consuming dead-ends normally encountered when dealing with such a task)...
In other words, I hoped to bribe someone (with worthless reputation points) to perform a dull, tedious, and probably infuriating task that I was too lazy to do myself. A reader would have to have been pretty desperate to bite.
Presumably if you have a normal question (one that can be answered without many hours of drudgery) then a bounty would help to garner extra attention and perhaps tease more comprehensive answers out of those responding.
Answer: I haven't been around all that long, but my limited experience is that bounties didn't have any effect. From the looks of it, there are many hungry, hungry, hippos anxious to answer any question. There's so much competition for rep out there that people are willing to type their fingers to the bone just for vanilla upvotes and accepts. I'm sure more experienced residents can offer more perspective.
Answer: Not all the time.  If the question is unsolvable (like finding a way to get a broken API to work) then you're likely to still be out of luck.
Answer:
I was wondering if other users felt
  that added a bounty improved the
  quality of the answers they were
  getting.

Yes and no.  The problem for me is that I've added bounty to those questions where there is no good solution - hoping for the mythical student to solve the 'homework' problem that was actually an example of an unsolvable problem.
So I haven't hit the jackpot, so to speak.
However, the questions I've added bounty to have received much greater exposure, more interesting and varied responses, and all things considered were well worth the bounty I paid for them.
Also, notably, most of them were upvoted enough after adding the bounty to pay for a large portion of the bounty, so it wasn't as high a cost as it might otherwise have been.
However, I do not use bounty for those questions where I'm not already prepared to select a suboptimal answer, and in cases where no answer is 'right' I'll choose the one that is closest and where the author has obviously spent some time answering it.
But I have found that when I offer a very large bounty (500 of my own rep, for instance) a lot of people will put significant effort into the problem.  There are lots of 100-200 rep bounties, but one can get 100-200 guaranteed rep in a day of answering other questions, whereas a 100-200 rep bounty is more risky, and the work required is greater than the work required to get the same rep the usual way.  A 550 rep 'lottery' however, is something, for many people, worth working on, especially since it's 25% of editing rep, 13% of closing rep, and even the 5% closer to 10k moderator status is significant for many users.
But the bounty system serves one very, very important purpose - people have stopped asking for a bounty feature!  It was one of the hottest feature requests early on - people really wanted a way to 'spend' their rep to 'enhance' their questions.
Answer: I took the warnings from the other answers, but I tried it anyway. It was a fairly narrow topic and I did get one additional answer, but it wasn't the answer I wound up picking. So the bounty didn't really help.
The only upside is that because the question was on the featured list for a few days, I did get an additional up vote, which offset the cost of the bounty.


What risks does WPA carry?

Question: A family member of mine would like to be able to play old PSP games online. Unfortunately the device does not support WPA2, and my network is strictly WPA2 AES secured. What are the risks involved in operating a mixed WPA/WPA2 infrastructure, assuming that AES is forced rather than TKIP?
Answer: WPA isn't that secure, but then again WPA2 is no great shakes either. The main risk is that WPA's encryption is easier to break, and implementing WPA versus WPA2 would make it easier for an attacker to discover your key, which is the same for all devices presuming you are running personal mode, even if you can run mixed WPA/WPA2. WPA and WPA2 share some of the same structural vulnerabilities, so WPA2 isn't so much better that running WPA/WPA2 mode is an enormous step down in security.
Really though, part of your risk assessment should include likelihood, and what the potential impact could be. This sounds like a home setup, what is the likelihood that someone is going to pick your home's WiFi to crack, especially considering that there's probably some open or WEP-enabled networks that are easier pickings. And what is the damage potential if someone was successful? Is there anything in your home that someone would want to specifically target?
Most likely the actual risk is pretty minimal, but if you're worried you could enable MAC address filtering (although a skilled attacker isn't going to be slowed down much by that), or you could buy a second WiFi access-point (dirt cheap these days) and put it onto a DMZ network with no access to your main network.
Comment: Do you mean DMZ network? I can't make a 1 letter edit.
Comment: @TerryChia, yes, I meant DMZ. I work for a company called DMW Information Security and now whenever I type DMZ I type DMW instead out of habit!
Answer: Another option that you can use is to use a router that allows for more than one SSID (most routers that can run OpenWRD/DD-WRT support this), and set a different encryption to the "gaming" SSID.
Moreover you could use the router firewall to block the gaming network from accessing your network and only allow it to access the internet, so if that passphrase is hacked, the worst that can happen is that someone would be able to use your bandwidth.
An old link you can use as an example of how to do 2-SSID setup on DD-WRT

What risks does WPA carry?


The economic prosperity of former colonies and their demographic make up

Question: Most former colonies are now developing or poor countries, such as many countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Some exceptions are Australia, the United States, Canada. Interestingly they are mostly populated by immigrants from Europe. Historically, was their being countries of European immigrants in some way related to their development to become prosperous, first-world countries?
Comment: Welcome to the site. An upvote to get you started. A pretty good first question, although I would say "immigrants from Europe" instead of "white people."
Comment: Other factors may include the time of colonization, the goal of colonization (resource exploration vs empire expansion), the colonizing country (French & Spanish Colonies function differently than English), proximity to shipping, etc.  Or more simply that English colonies are more successful; clearly tea drinking is the key.
Comment: @MarkC.Wallace - make that last sentence an answer.
Comment: The current theoretical differentiation in historiography is between "settler" societies and "resource extraction" societies. These are the current terms for the differentiation @T.E.D. makes below.
Answer: If you'll allow me to be a little crass here, I think the meat of your question boils down to, "This looks racial. Is it?" I'm gonna say, No.
I think it would be more comprehensive (and perhaps accurate) to say the more successful former colonies are mostly populated by direct descendents of the colonizers, rather than the indigenous population at the time of colonization.
Not only does this remove the racial element, it allows you to explain successful societies like ancient Carthage (founded and peopled by the Semetic Phonecians), and the various successful Greek colonies of the ancient era (the Greeks were "white" Indo-Europeans, but so were most of the natives). These all shared some similiar charactaristics with the British colonization efforts you mentioned: they were efforts to build home-country style societies on the foreign shore, with no input whatsoever from the natives, and they served as a valuable release valve for overpopulation or persecution problems at home.
Contrast this with the less wealthy former colonies in the New World, like most of the former French and Spanish colonies. In their case, the colonial drive was mostly economic, not demographic. So rather than rebuilding their home societies with their own people, the colonizers just sent over the bare minimum amount of their citizens required to exploit the resources of the colony.
Its like the difference between a mine and a home.
Comment: +1"Its like the difference between a mine and a home." At the risk of sounding "racist," it's about "skin in the game."
Answer: Jack Rakove has splendid series of lectures on itunes that expands on @Samuel Russell's distinction between "resource extraction" and "Settler" societies, and compares the approach of French and English settler societies.  The lectures hint at much deeper and broader scholarship, but (a) it is difficult to cite a podcast as precisely as a literary source (b) he is providing context prior to the real meat of the lecture and (c) it has been a few years since I listened to them.  With those caveats in mind, those lectures and the associated course material may be helpful in further researching the answer.
But IMHO the answer is tea.  Colonies succeed if they are endowed by their parent empire with the habit of drinking tea.
Comment: "Colonies succeed if they are endowed by their parent empire with the habit of drinking tea." That appears to be true about British colonies, but not Chinese colonies.
Comment: Personally, I think a podcast from the "W. R. Coe Professor of History and American Studies" at Stanford would make a fine source. Go ahead and link it.
Answer: Singapore can be considered a first world country today and is not politically/culturally influenced by European immigrants. Singapore today is mostly descended by Chinese immigrant labor as well as the local Malays. The main reason for their modern development and security is their alliance with US/Israel, as well as their strategic location.
Malaysia, while slightly less developed than Singapore, had even put in place an indigenous protectionist policy to prevent the country from being politically controlled by immigrants.
T.E.D is quite spot on the reason for this: It's because of the development brought in by colonists. The indigenous population often have less ambition and less technology. British colonies were built to be homes. They brought in infrastructure, cash crops, advanced mining technology. When colonists gave independence, the former colonists had a strong economy and a ready market (their former colonists) to grow into a powerful economy.
Another key factor would be in having ambitious, sincere, highly educated leaders. It's often unlikely for these leaders to be of the indigenous population to strengthen control over the locals. However, examples like Abdul Razak and Lee Kuan Yew (both lawyers educated in Britain), show that race doesn't matter as much as education and motivation.


Sustain Pedal problem

Question: I am using a Roland XP80 keyboard and find that at times, the pedal makes no difference. At other times the notes sustain continually. I have an FS-300 pedal that was recommended for use on the Roland keyboard which has the polarity switch, but even when this is changed the problem continues.
Answer: Here is a troubleshooting guide for your sustain pedal:
Sustains Continually:
Some keyboards will read the "polarity" of the sustain pedal when they are first turned on.  If you have your foot on the pedal when you turn on the keyboard it will sustain all notes until you press the pedal (the pedal works in reverse).  To fix this, simply turn off the keyboard and turn it back on making sure you don't have your foot on the pedal.
Another potential problem is that sometimes a keyboard will behave strangely when changing sounds while you have some keys depressed.  My keyboard will sometimes leave a note or two on when I change sounds like this.  My keyboard has a "panic button" which shuts off all notes.  For yours you may need to turn it off to fix this type of problem.
Doesn't sustain at all
If the sustain pedal works with certain sounds and not with others, it is probable that the sound is not programmed to use the sustain pedal.  In this case you should be able to program the sound to use the sustain pedal.
If the sustain pedal only works intermittently on the same sound, the problem could be either with the sustain pedal itself (most likely in the cable) or with the connector or electronics in the keyboard.  The easiest way to test this is to plug in a known good sustain pedal and see if it fixes the problem.  If not, the problem is probably in the keyboard.
If you find that the problem is with the sustain pedal itself, you can easily replace the cable with an inexpensive instrument cable (some soldering skills may be required).

Sustain Pedal problem


Can having wider margins improve legibility?

Question: I'm talking about the space between the browser window and content. I've found that it's uncomfortable to read when the text is too close to the edges and I was wondering if there is any rule that applies to this.
Comment: Margins between what? Similar elements? Mixed content?
Comment: Please provide more details with your questions. A broad unspecific one-liner means the question is likely to illicit very broad unspecific answers.
Comment: I believe the OP means website margins.
Answer: Narrow margins could mean a reduction in white space (depending on the specific design).
A List Apart links micro-whitespace to legibility. However this is referring to the space between characters and words. Not exactly margins. That would be macro-whitespace.
Macro-whitespace can lend a feeling of elegance and calmness to a design. It can also help lead the eye to important features.
According to The Paradox of Whitespace on I'd Rather Be Writing

Generous margins and clear simple layouts make it easier for the eye to work. Cluttered layouts tire the eye quickly and hinder clarity.

Nielson also supports the findings that whitespace increases comprehension.
With regards to fluid layouts there can be issues with larger resolutions creating too much white space. This can be flipped when viewing on smaller screens where the margins become squashed (they are a percentage of the overall size). Thus it is harder to control and inevitably there will be scenarios where the lack of whitespace might impact legibility.
To mitigate this you could try for a simpler design. A design that fills the space on a big monitor could look messy on a small one. A simpler design often scales better to smaller resolutions. Many responsive designs drop content or features on smaller screens.
There are probably other technical approaches to take; however it depends on how small you are intending to go. Consider the Pros and Cons of Elastic vs Fixed vs Fluid.
For extreme changes you might consider using a different layout. Designs will only be flexible to a point. For the sake of usability, I would set a maximum and minimum size for margins.
Answer: Controlling line length is very important for legibility and there are many methods of doing this, margins being just one of them. You can google "line length for readability" to find suggestions, research and arguments for an optimal line length, I like to limit mine to 60 characters.
Now beyond the issue of line length, margins are important for legibility but should be sacrificed when the screen is very narrow as on a phone.  This becomes a balancing act - you want some margin but you don't want to reduce text line length too much.


How do I determine if a paper has been plagiarized?

Question: Is there a service which allows you to check if a paper/article was plagiarized?
At this moment, I use Google to check if some papers are plagiarized or not, but I think that are other smarter methods
Comment: @Standback I vote for "on topic". A proper answer could provide advice on avoiding "accidental" or otherwise unintentional or misconceived plagiarism (improperly citing a source or using a phrase that appears in another written work. And as a professor (if the OP is indeed a professor), one of his jobs is critiquing the writings of others, and part of that critique is ensuring the proper use of citations and ensuring that all uncited written work is original content.
Comment: Are you a professor? What's the context for this question?
Comment: I'm not sure this is a writing question. Thoughts, people?
Comment: The question is, why didn't he use Google to search for a smarter method? And if he did, what's wrong with the options he found?
Comment: I agree with Jed, this is on-topic - I see it as a tools question.
Comment: @JohnSmithers: He used Google to find this site.  :-)  Or, judging by the reputation, he is an active member of several other SE sites.  6likes*(5rep/like)+100rep+1rep=131rep
Answer: There are many software options available (see Wikipedia's page on plagiarism detection), some free, and some paid.
To my knowledge, one of the most commonly used commercial options available is Turnitin; there is also Turnitin's student version, WriteCheck. Another commercial option is PlagScan. These options can be somewhat expensive though; PlagScan, for example, charges by the word: $13 gets you 50,000 words of plagiarism checking.
There are several free services, but they should be used with caution and their limitations should be understood. Some, for example, simply do what you've been doing: they take the sentences and search in Google. This "direct plagiarism" is much easier for the software to look for. Others, like the Viper plagiarism-scanner, do a pretty good job in my experience (from a long time ago), but still only match direct matches, and won't catch things where a word or two have been changed here or there. I've since stopped using them because they have a somewhat sketchy data retention and policy: whatever you upload, they add your work to their "study site" (or essay mill or whatever you want to call it). (To Viper's credit, they are transparent about how they use your data!)
IMPORTANT NOTE: The bottom line with free is that unfortunately you need to be very careful with them--be sure you closely read their privacy policies and their data retention policies. Commercial services may also retain your data, but generally offer an option to purge your account; nevertheless, it never hurts to read the terms of use and other relevant documents, particularly in cases of sensitive information.
If you are checking against a known local database of documents (which it doesn't sound like you're doing, but I thought I'd mention it), you can check out WCopyfind. It might not be the most intuitive, but it is promising and free. You might use this software, for example, if you have a database of papers students have submitted in the same course offered in different years, to check whether a student in the current batch of students is plagiarizing from an earlier student or from someone else in their class.
Answer: When reading a plagiarized research paper turned in by a student, the signs of plagiarism may not always be obvious. However, there are some things that professors can pay special attention to when suspecting plagiarism.
Observe citations throughout the paper: This will help determine whether or not the required citation style was used. For example, if the citations in the paper conform to Turabian style when the MLA style was required for the paper, you may be looking at a plagiarized paper.
Observe the writing style or styles used in the paper: Sometimes, you may notice that some of the writing used in a paper does not "sound like" something the student would write . The unusual words or wording may include "jargon or advanced vocabulary". Other papers may include a writing style that is below average.
Look for signs that the paper is outdated: Sometimes, professors can find signs that the paper being read may be outdated.  If all of the sources listed in references or works cited are several years old, then the paper may be an example of plagiarism .
Observe the font used in the paper: A paper may contain more than one "font style or size." Different fonts throughout a paper would indicate that a student may have copied and pasted various portions of Web pages together into a word processor.
Answer: PaperRater is very good plagiarize checker.  I am using this from past  2 years. Because I am taking help from the on-line sites to complete my tasks. So  I am verifying the quality of content by this type of techniques. The site is very easy and also free.


How prevent Javascript from obtaining my location

Question: I usually use a proxy server to browse anonymously. Now I realize that it is possible to find the location of a user using the Geolocation API. How to anonymously browse without disabling Javascript?
Answer: If you want to be anonymous and are worried about geolocation, don't grant websites access to your location.  You will be prompted about whether to allow a website to access your location before the website can use HTML5's geolocation feature to locate you; make sure you don't allow it.
More generally, follow all the standard strategies for surfing the web anonymously.  For instance, use Tor, and use it properly.  There's a lot already written on this topic on this site; use search to find it.  See, e.g., Different strategies for online anonymity and their +/-s?, How to be completely anonymous online?, How much can I trust Tor?,
What are the pros and cons of a VPN for privacy,
How can I use a VPN to protect my privacy,
How to browse the Internet safely?, Does Java applets reveal the real IP address, even when using proxy or vpn?, Improving the privacy of a casual Web user,
Is it possible to Identify a VPN user by finding relations in traffic?.
Answer: While D.W. has provided an excellent answer, I'd like to go a step further with the possibility to falsify your true location.
Depending on the specific case it might be be better to provide a fake location rather than just withhold your true one. I can think of one use case:
A web service (might be a game) that is strict about duping (creating duplicate accounts) they utilize both IP and (might also force) Geolocation API checks.
There are add-ons for Firefox (Geolocator)† and Chrome (Manual GeoLocator) which you can use to override the location information provided by the Geolocation API
† Here's a video that demonstrates how Geolocator works with Firefox.
Answer: Turning off geolocation functionality in your browser doesn't mean you browse the internet anonymously. The only thing it does it stops the browser from sending geolocation data to the server. The geodata may consists of your country name, city, street, gps coordinates (approximate). However the server still gets your IP address for example.
Using a single proxy server also doesn't guarantee you full anonymity because for example your IP address and your request datestamp are stored in the proxy server's log file.
Comment: Precisely. Geolocation in the browser is not the same as geoip.


fresh install of ubuntu on new hard drive to replace win 7

Question: I have a 3 core HP laptop running windows 7, and I don't want windows 7 anymore, nor any of the mess of running a dual boot system. Can I just replace my HD and install Ubuntu and expect it to work? Will my wifi work with a different operating system than the one designed for this machine?
Answer: Yes you can replace Win 7 with Ubuntu(I did on the computer I'm using to type this).  Everything is likely to work.  The wireless may be the exception, they have the tendencies to give you the most trouble but many work flawlessly.
The easiest way to see if how your laptop will work is to boot from a LiveUSB/DVD.
Create a USB Stik with Windows
Burn a DVD with Windows
The Live media will run slightly slower than a full install but it will allow you to test your hardware.
The other option is to install inside Windows with Wubi and create a virtual install inside Windows.  Again this will run slower than a full install but will allow you to test your hardware.
Any of the option I listed will require you to download the ISO file from here.
You can also check to see if you laptop is listed as Certified.  Certified hardware has been tested and will run as if Ubuntu was the native OS.  To check the whole laptop here and to check for your wireless or any other specific component go here.
Answer: 99% is that your newly installed Ubuntu will not create any wireless access problem.
But in order to save your time you can just try to find out (google it, or check the compatibility lists as it was recommended in the first answer) - does your laptop WI-FI module supported by Ubuntu.
Some times several type of WI-FI modules are perfectly work under windows but has a problem with linux (for ex., I had a problem with Ubuntu 11 + nc6000 + some broadcom based chipset WI-FI card compatibility)
Also as I remember Ubuntu has an option to start a virtual kind of installation in "test, trail" mode, when you are not going to change or delete your HDD content - but you can basically check the Ubuntu functionality and make some kind of your possible new OS review, maybe it's another chance to check your wifi question.
PS: Finally, if your Laptop's wi-fi module in not currently supported by Ubuntu - you can always replace the card to another one. HW replacement procedure is extremely easy. The cost of new compatible wi-fi card will be not more than 10-15USD. But always remember that you will save hundred's because of no permanent payment to Microsoft for every new windows release.
Answer: You should have no problems at all running Ubuntu on your machine. I have Ubuntu on both my desktop and laptop machines. In both of my machines there was no problem with the wireless. However if you do experience any issues you will most likely find the answer here on askubuntu.
Here is the exact link on the [ubuntu website][1] for the live cd download page.