Why do we have to disable stabilization when we use a tripod?

Question: Why do we have to disable IS or VR when we use a tripod?
Comment: How about "when is it recommended to disable VR on a tripod?" or something to that effect?  I don't believe it's 100% true that you always need to disable it, as some systems have a tripod-detect mode.
Comment: IIRC, IS will try to detect shake, and can cause blurry to correct "shakes."
Comment: Complementary to general answers: An analog electronic syste,m is liable to have electronic 'drift" caused by offset (error) voltages in the electronic systems and components. While these can be compensated for in complex systems they generally are too small to matter in typical use. When a perfect tripod is used the drift voltages may accumulate until the apparent position crosses some boundary and is then reset. This may lead to the image position being stepped by a small amount occasionally with a frequency related to the drift rate. When true mechanical movement is present it dominates.
Answer: The common explanation is that the VR circuitry in the camera has a tendency to 'dither' when it doesn't have any vibration error to correct and so introduce its own errors. As D. Lambert says, some cameras have a tripod detect mode and can shut down VR or compensate when it senses that you're using a tripod.
Some high end telephoto lenses have a VR tripod mode that can correct for camera vibration caused by the mirror and shutter.
Of course, if your tripod is on a moving or vibrating platform you may get some benefit to leaving the VR turned on...
See a complete discussion of the ins and outs of (Nikon) VR at http://www.bythom.com/nikon-vr.htm
Answer: When you disable IS/VR on a tripod is probably the more appropriate question. Additionally, it may not necessarily be appropriate to disable it at all, and instead switch it to a different mode. As sensor resolution continues to increase, cameras are becoming more and more sensitive to smaller and smaller vibrations. Even the relative stability of a tripod with a very high resolution camera may still result in softening due to vibrations. The only two ways to combat that are to get a more sturdy tripod (such as the Systematic line from Gitzo), or to continue using IS even with a tripod.
Older IS mechanisms were pretty limited, possibly only offering 2-stop "generic" image stabilization. Modern IS mechanisms are much more advanced, usually modal, offering up to 4-stop improvements or more (prototypical Canon EF 800 f/5.6 L II lenses being tested in the field are purported to have 5-stop modal IS!!) A modern IS system on one of Canon's Mark II Telephoto lenses (300mm/400mm f/2.8 and 500mm/600mm f/4) have a 4-stop IS system with three modes.
Mode 1 is for full hand-held operation, stabilizing the image in both the horizontal and vertical axes. Mode 2 only eliminates vibration in the vertical, and is designed to support panning. Mode 3 is designed to only activate the IS system the moment the shutter button is pressed, and automatically detects the directions in which IS should be applied (horizontal, vertical, or both). It is designed for high action scenarios, and supports use with a tripod (generally with a gimbal type tripod head.) As a bird photographer, IS Mode 3 is pretty much the mode of choice, with or without a tripod.
If you have a lens with an advanced, very modern IS system with something akin to Canon's Mode 3 IS, you should trust the IS system to properly detect the situation and apply the correct type of stabilization automatically. Even when an intelligent IS mode is not available, many of the more recent IS/VR systems are "tripod-sensing", and will automatically detect the use of a tripod and either disable the stabilization system entirely, or change it's behavior to work better when mounted to a tripod.
Comment: If one is using Mode 2 IS with a Canon lens and panning vertically, the IS will work in the horizontal direction. It's not exclusive to horizontal (or vertical, for that matter) panning. If one is panning diagonally the IS will work in a direction orthogonal to the axis of major movement.
Answer: IS systems work by moving a set of floating lenses.
When there is camera shake, the IS system moves the internal elements of the lens per micro-second in the opposite direction to cancel out the shakes.
Assuming you have a perfect tripod, there will never be any camera shake. However the IS system (more so for older lenses) may be too sensitive or poorly calibrated that it thinks there is some vibration it needs to cancel out.
So it moves the floating elements in the lens and creates blur.
However, like others have said, you probably don't have a perfect tripod. Even expensive and sturdy tripods cannot eliminate vibration 100% all the time. Especially when there is strong wind etc.
Modern IS system has also came a long way and the performance and reliability is constantly being improved.
So unless you are putting a lens with first generation IS on an extremely sturdy tripod, I would not worry too much about turning the IS off.


SharePoint 2010 Foundation Top Nav Bar populated from an SP List

Question: I am trying to create a Top Nav Bar for SP Foundation that uses dropdowns/flyouts and is dynamically populated from a SharePoint list. This will allow the site admin to modify the navigation without going into a sitemap or xml file. Has anyone done this before or know where to direct me for this?
Answer: I've done this before but it gets a little complicated.  You have a few options but they all start with a masterpage change.  You need to take the current navigation in your masterpage and put it into a user control and in it's place in the masterpage, put in a delegate control that defaults to the user control you just created.  Doing this allows you to create additional user controls and using features, you can swap in and out which control is rendering the top navigation.
Option 1:  Create a webpart or web control that looks like the top navigation and reads the data from a list (a Links list work's pretty well).  Add this webpart or web control to a user control and create a feature that swaps it out in the masterpage.  The hard part of this is getting your HTML output to match the normal top navigation.
Option 2:  Create a sitemapprovider that reads from a list (again links list work's well).  Then you can just copy the user control you created earlier (and of course write a feature to enable your user control), but where it uses the default sitemapprovider, put in the name of yours.  Also be sure to add your sitemapprovider to the web.config.  The rendering is easy on this one because you are using the same control that SP uses, just changing the data it uses.  The hard part of this is the concurrency issues of a sitemapprovider.  SiteMapProviders are stored in the application cache so any local variables you have will be available between requests (like a static class/variable).  You will need to be able to handle concurrency quickly and effectively (not just using LOCK everywhere) because all of your requests are now using your code and many times you will be serving many requests at the same time.  I would suggest some local caching model instead of reading from the list every time and some way for your cache to invalidate when the list changes.
Answer: I'm wondering what is wrong with regularr navigation, e.g. top-level site publishing but subsequent sub-sites could be regular collaboration sites. Site Admins could use the Settings > Navigation and add Heading plus Links.
In addition to Steve's notes, for the option 1 i've succesfully used and styled (but than you need to consider reusability across pages) and then again it doesn't work for multiple site collections (without updates) is available at https://www.nothingbutsharepoint.com/sites/eusp/pages/a-megamenu-for-sharepoint-2010-using-a-dvwp-and-a-list.aspx or http://cube4.com.au/?p=334


What is the difference between CMYK and RGB? Are there other color spaces I should know?

Question: I'm a photographer, who dabbles in graphic design from time to time as well. What are the differences between the various color spaces?
Comment: In general terms, these are colour models, not colour spaces.
Comment: Possible duplicate of [RGB and CMYK: Why both?](http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/7815/rgb-and-cmyk-why-both)
Answer: RGB is a additive, projected light color system. All colors begin with black "darkness", to which different color "lights" are added to produce visible colors. RGB "maxes" at white, which is the equivalent of having all "lights" on at full brightness (red, green, blue).
CMYK is a subtractive, reflected light color system. All colors start with white "paper", to which different color "inks" are added to absorb (subtract) light that is reflected. In theory, CMY are all you need to create black (applying all 3 colors at 100%). Alas, that usually results in a muddy, brownish black, so the addition of K (black) is added to the printing process. It also makes it easier to print black text (since you don't have to register 3 separate colors).
Most screens (computer, phone, media player, television, ect) are RGB (e-ink screens being an exception), the pixels have little subpixels that just show red, green or blue.
Most printers print in CMYK color (though some photo printers will print with expanded colors beyond those 4).
So if you're ever doing something for a screen, use RGB, if you doing something for print, use CMYK.
Update: Please keep in mind, that you can't display the exact same colors in RGB and CMYK.
Comment: I disagree. With RGB you start with black - the absence of light; with CMYK you start with white paper.
Comment: Not sure about the first two paras, especially "all colors start at white/black".

I'd say something like "RGB is additive: red, green and blue light together produce white light. CMYK is subtractive: cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks filter the reflection of white light from a printed surface"
Comment: Both are 'light based color theories'. RGB is projected light, CMYK is reflected light. RGB is an additive model, CMYK subtractive.
Comment: e100 is correct and this answer by DKuntz2 is a fundamentally flawed way of looking at the physics of light. Seems it should be edited since the OP and answer seems to be content to let this answer sit?
Comment: @e100, by rgb starts with white, I mean that all you start with white for all colors, than modify it by mixing in colors, where cmyk starts with black and subtracts colors to mix to your color. So a printer it told not to use 100% of a color, but only a certain percent.
Answer: LAB (aka CIELAB), space is quite useful.  It's good for exaggerating color differences, relating colors to color opponent theory.  I do a lot of image enhancement and digital art creation from photographs in CIELAB or spaces that resemble it.   Its main advantages are separation of color from brightness and roughly evenly spread out color changes - two points some given distance apart anywhere in that space are about the same subjective color difference, not to great accuracy but certainly better than RGB, CMY or HSV.
Sites to peruse concerning CIELAB and other color spaces:
http://wildinformatics.blogspot.com/2010/12/i-prefer-lab-color-model.html
http://www.normankoren.com/color_management.html
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php/Old_Color_Spaces#CIE_L.2Aa.2Ab.2A
Answer: CMYK and RGB are the two colour spaces, methods of creating colour.
CMYK is subtractive, like paint/pigment. you start with nothing (white paper) and as you add more colours it eventually turns black. CMYK represents the standard coloured inks that printers use to create colours: cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
RGB is additive, the way light creates colours. You start with black (darkness) and as you add lights of more colours you eventually get white (all colours shining together like a regular lightbulb.. a blue lightbulb makes blue light because it filters out the green and red light.)
If you're working on computer monitors like on the internet, you will be using RGB because that is how monitors (and cameras and televisions) display colour. You don't have to worry at all about CMYK on the internet. But once you start printing things out, is when it matters. Most programs these days can convert between RGB and CMYK (although keep in mind whenever you see a cmyk image on your screen it's just an approximation because it is actually being displayed in rgb).
The main thing I've run into regarding rgb and cmyk is black. In cmyk you can make black by mixing cyan, magenta and yellow at their maximum strength, but you can make blacker black by also adding black ink at 100%. So be wary if you need to match two blacks, depending on your program they may appear the same.
Also keep in mind that not all colours can be reproduced in CMYK. This blew my mind when I first discovered it. But certain colours (generally very bright, bold colours like a very bright turquoise colour) can only be approximated in cmyk in a somewhat muted version. That's not to say the colour can never be printed, it's just very complicated, needing either paper treatments or additional colours of ink.
There's a few things you might run into in relation to colours, though, that I'll mentionAnother colour space you may run into is Indexed Colour. This is where each colour in the image is given a specific index to save space.  This is technically separate from RGB/CMYK because it doesn't control how colours are formed, but rather how that information is stored on a computer. It does show up in the same lists sometimes.. And in photoshop you can't edit indexed colour documents without first converting them to rgb or cmyk, so keep that in mind!
You might also see HSB. This is Hue/Saturation/Brightness and is another way of objectively describing colours, and can be used to describe either rgb or cmyk colours. Hue describes the 'colour', around the rainbow from red to green to blue and back again. Saturation describes how colourful the colour is from grey (0 saturation) to as full and rich as possible (100). Brightness describes, well, the brightness; from black to somewhere in the middle to white.
Answer: HSV (also called HSB) is based on the RGB system - it's actually just a transformation of the RGB color space (so it's still additive, and is intended for computer displays). The three components of this color system are:

H: Hue. This is the angle on the color wheel. Starting with red at 0 degrees.
S: Saturation. This is the ammout of 'color' in the color. So if the saturation for an image is at 0%, then the image is greyscale.
V: Value (or B brightness). This is the brightness of the color, If this is at 0% then you have black, no matter what the hue and saturation values are. With V at 100%, every colour is at it's brightest.

So full red would be RGB(255, 0, 0), which is the same as HSV(0, 100, 100).
Another interesting color space which I've only recenlty discovered is the Munsell color system, and it's been helpful when choosing colors. I'm quoting from Why Programmers suck at Picking Colors here:
"While this feels a lot like HSV on paper (where chroma can be used as saturation), this color system is different in many important ways:

the colors are ordered based on perceptual information (aka human subjectivity) and not some physical property of the reflected light
the resulting color space is asymmetric (reds have a lot more chroma than blues, for example)
the color space is discrete (making picking easier)"

This is more for UI designers than photographers, but there's quite a bit of info on this NASA research page.
Answer: Your original question has been adequately answered, but since you're a photographer, it's important to recognize that there are different RGB color spaces.
The three you'll most often come across in photography are "ProPhoto RGB", "Adobe RGB" and "sRGB". They all measure color using the RGB model (amounts of Red, Green and Blue light), but differ in their gamut. I've listed them in descending order of gamut.
You can look up each of them on Wikipedia, but the short version is that gamut is the range of colors that a color space can represent. sRGB is the standard for web graphics, but can't represent as many colors as AdobeRGB can. Likewise, ProPhoto RGB can represent colors that don't exist in AdobeRGB.
As a photographer, you generally try to shoot in the widest gamut color space that's available to you, to preserve as much of the "real" color as possible. Then, you convert to the appropriate color space for on-screen display, web, or printing.
If shooting in JPG, set the Color Mode setting on your camera to the widest gamut color space you can get. If you're shooting in RAW, there's no color space applied until your software starts interpreting the RAW data, so you can put off selecting a color space until that point. One of the many advantages of RAW.
I'd also like to second what DarenW said about Lab space. CIELAB 1931 is the product of an intense study of human vision, and is actually the granddaddy of color spaces. It's against CIELAB that all others are judged. Graphs of the popular RGB spaces gamuts' are often overlaid on the CIELAB gamut to illustrate how well they compare.
That said, using the Lab color mode for color correction can take a while to get used to, since we're so ingrained with RGB, but it is EXTREMELY powerful. Most of this comes from the fact that it separates color from brightness, as our eyes do, and allows you to adjust them independently.
For a quick look at some of the practical things you can use it for, check out this video by photographer Dan Margulis:
http://revision3.com/pixelperfect/labcolor
Comment: Dead link to revisin3
Answer: It is a misnomer, or at least confusing, to say both: "RGB is based on light and it's additive because you start with no light" and "CMYK is based on ink and it's subtractive because you start with no ink".
It is easy to understand how RGB works, as the usual displays create colors by adding the additive primaries, red, green and blue, together in appropriate proportions. But what is being added and in relation to what?
In the context of RGB and CMYK the terms additive and subtractive both describe how the color models relate to perceived light.
Let's start with RGB. Your display is off and it does not produce any light rays on its own. You perceive only black.
You turn the display on and get a (totally) blue screen. Ideally all the blue sub-pixels emit light at the same wavelength with the same intensity. Compared to blackness, you've added some light and now perceive a blue color.
Next up, your display turns all the red sub–pixels on as well. The sub–pixels are close enough to make you to perceive a mix of lightrays at "blue" wavelengths and at "red" wavelengths. The lights don't get mixed up per se, but rather the perceived pink color is a result of how our eyes work.
Adding up third additive primary, green, the viewer ideally perceives white.

What is different in CMYK is that you have a physical object—let's say a piece of paper—that you view under illumination. All the light that hits the paper gets neutrally reflected to the perceiver and all you see is the color of the paper mixed with the color of the illumination; both ideally neutral.
Now you add cyan ink—what happens? You do not add some color that emits "cyan", but rather the cyan ink absorbs, subtracts, other wavelengths and passes "cyan", which is in the end reflected back to the perceiver. You perceive cyan not because you've added cyan, but rather because you've subtracted all the rest.
Understanding this will help you understand why prints look different on different types of paper even if you have specified exactly the same CMYK values. Paper, ink and illumination all affect how the colors are perceived. If you wish to calibrate your display for soft–proofing, you must take all of these into account.

From a digital photographer's viewpoint, in the majority of the cases the camera captures light rays in a RGGB (or similar) matrix, which is then interpolated to a RGB image. If you wish to print a RGB image, the RGB data must be converted to a color model your printer understands, e.g. CMYK or CcMmYK. If your RGB image has a color space included, the printer's raster image processor can do this for you.
What's happening backstage is:

RGB image has a color space, e.g. sRGB
The RGB values are calculated, according to the color space, to LAB values
The printer has its own CMYK color space
The LAB values are calculated, according to the color space, to CMYK values

LAB is always used as a "glue" between different color spaces—even between color spaces under the same color model (sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB, …) . It is designed to approximate human color vision; although some of its colors fall outside the human vision gamut. It is device independent and as such it is better to understand as more or less theoretical color model—not something you could print with.
On some occasions, LAB could be a useful tool for a graphic designer: if you want a color that has the same hue, but half the perceived lightness, you just halve the L-component of the LAB-value.
Note that this is different (and arguably better) than the brightness component in HSB (hue–saturation–brightness) representation. This is because LAB approximates human color vision and HSB just represents RGB with different coordinates. As human vision doesn't perceive changes in brightness in a linear fashion, neither is the L-component in LAB linear in relation to HSB brightness. 50% gray may be RGB(128,128,128) for computers, but for humans it is more RGB(119,119,119).
In practice, that doesn't mean we see only 119×2=238 shades of gray, but rather that if we could make a gradient from LAB(0,0,0) to LAB(100,0,0) and compare it to a gradient from RGB(0,0,0) to RGB(255,255,255), the RGB gradient would be perceived as a bit imbalanced.

Long story short:

RGB is for displays
CMYK is for prints
LAB is used in conversion or a tool
HSB is a great tool—although it is not a color model, just a different representation of RGB.
Answer: RGB is an additive color space. If you mix the three base colors (red, green and blue) you get white. That is the model monitors use, if the red light and the green light and the blue light is mixed, it becomes white.
CMY (cyan, magenta and yellow) are suubtractive. If you mix all, you get black. That model is used by printers. If on a dot are printed all three base colors, it gets darker. But it is somewhat hard to mix a good black, thats why often Black is added to the color mix (thats the K in CMYK).
More information can be found in Wikipedia.
Answer: I feel compelled to expand the discussion to include  * physics  and  * human perception.  Apologies if I have missed something and this is superfluous.  (Some of the links lead in these directions.)
Physics
There is a real-world colour space, which is, foundationally, electromagnetic radiation (think: light) of a particular wave-length.  Only a portion of the range of these wavelengths (called (actual) "light") is visible to human beings.  Other (lower and higher) wavelengths are called radio waves, infra-red, ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays... .  (Anecdote:  with incandescent light bulbs, less than half of the light-type energy they radiate is (or was originally) actually visible to human beings.)
A rainbow shows the colours in visible light.  (It probably also shows more wavelengths, that are not visible.)
(Many animals see (perceive) a different range of "light" -- usually mostly overlapping the human range.  (Anecdote:  Some insects see (from memory) ultra-violet; some flowers look very different to insects.) )
Human perception
Before we get bogged down... .  Human perception averages the light it receives.  If my eye receives some red light and some yellow light, I will perceive orange (being between red and yellow).  If my eye receives many different wavelengths, I will perceive white (or off-white, if the collection is biased); conversely, there is no wavelength for white (light).  If my eye receives blue light and red light (but no green), I will perceive magenta; conversely, there is no wavelength for magenta (light).  (See below.)
Okay... .  In the human eye, there are red receptors, green receptors and blue receptors. These are progressively less sensitive to light that is progressively further from their target wave-length.  If my eye receives cyan light, this will activate the blue and the green receptors, but both not fully; my brain will process this and I will perceive cyan.
(There are also "grey" receptors, that are more sensitive, for low-light conditions.)
It is not coincidence that this (red, green and blue) is what TVs use to represent colours.
In fact, my eye can receive violet (beyond blue) light, and perceive this correctly (less Blue, but no Green), but the TV can not replicate this.  Conversely, there are special TVs that therefore have a wide blue - violet - and a wide red - towards infra-red - instead.  Similarly, it does not matter to have a TV with yellow lights (since it is all arbitrary to physics, and the eye just works it out).
(In the human eye, the (from memory) blue receptor is more sensitive under low-light conditions, which actually changes the perceived colours of some things at twilight.)
(Note that the wave-length we call "green" is not exactly between red and blue; it is closer to "blue".  Somewhat independently... deeper inside, the eye/brain translates RGB into a four-element system with yellow and black, and (from memory/guessing) red and blue.)
Subtractive colour uses the colours that are the opposites ("complementary") of red (cyan), green (magenta) and blue (yellow).  This works fine, like RGB, but is just as arbitrary to the physics.
Note that there are two types of printers.  The A4 consumer models all place (C/M/Y/K) dots next to each other, as opposed to mixing them like mixing paint.  Some specialised printers, including some consumer photo printers, actually mix the inks ("dye sublimation").  Dye sublimation is obviously a far superior (and significantly different) colour technology, but the consumer models counter with massively more dots.
If I understand correctly... what this means is that your A4 colour printer is not actually a subtractive colour space; actually, you see some yellow light and some cyan light, and your eye averages this and you perceive green; you see some magenta light and some yellow light, and your eye averages this (red + blue, + yellow = (non-ideal) red).  If I understand correctly, the ideal would be for consumer printers to use RGB (viz RGBK) instead of CMYK, since they do not actually do the mixing paint part.  (The difference is that, whereas a light ray that hits mixed paint "reflects" with more than one wavelength subtracted (wow! - a muddy brown!!)... one that hits a consumer printer page will reflect from only one colour (C/M/Y/K).)
The colour gamut (total produced colour range) of CMYK is (rather) less than that of an RGB TV, which is (slightly) smaller again than human vision.  The latter (TV) is also somewhat skewed, the former (CMYK) more so.  This is why you get a warning for some colours, if you are working in the RGB colour space; they can not be printed.
Anyway...
Answer: The difference between RGB and CMYK in simpler (and visual) terms :) Useful for beginners in starting to understand the difference without getting lost in the jargon. The infographic is long so i just linked it.
Comment: Please be advised Stack Exchange prefers answers to be direct and links are generally frowned upon.  Your link is nice but this question has been answered and accepted.
Answer: In addition to the systems above, there's the Pantone spot colour system - used to print colours and finishes which would otherwise be impossible with CMYK (bright turquoise, purples). Often, companies will have their heart set on a certain branding colour that just happens to be not approximated well enough by CMYK, this is when you tell them the price for spot colours and they run away with their legs wheeling like in cartoons.
This system works by having each colour printed individually using custom dyes and finishes with no mixing with others.
Comment: Pantone (or any spot color) isn't really a *color space* the same as CMYK or RGB. Even spot colors are piggy-backed on the CMYK color space.
Comment: @Scott Although an arbitrary one, the Pantone™ system is accepted as a bona-fide colour space irrespective of the CMY or RGB. It has its own primaries and whole rendering systems use the Pantone colour system exclusively (the Hallmark™ Co. - Their cards, etc.) Photoshop transfer functions that produce Pantone colour breaks directly have been in use for years 'n years. Source: Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (aka Printing Industries of America)


How to get images' filesizes as low as possible?

Question: I usually use photoshop's save for web and devices, but it has no options for compressing pngs and I also wonder if there are superior compression algorithms available?
Comment: You can choose image quality easily whenever you save in Paint.NET. I think you can do the same in GIMP too, although I'm not sure.
Comment: a lot of programs let you choose image quality; but there's many different ways, some more efficient than others. I'm mostly concerned with getting the size low with as little quality sacrifice as possible
Comment: Related questions: PNG http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/q/3162/10419 JPEG http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/q/3429/10419
Answer: If the target file type is PNG, then you have a few options. First, open the PNG in Fireworks then save optimized. FW compreses .png files better than PS. Then use PNGOUT(freeware) to compress further. Typical result is about 30% less than what Photoshop would produce.
Comment: hi, do you know if you get a smaller file compressing first in fireworks and then again with pngout than if you just use pngout?
Comment: @Damon I believe I tested a few times and found FW then png works better. But this may have to do with individual make up of the pngs too.(alpha/#of colors etc).
Answer: My approach is not very technical so i cannot give any specific algorithms but Adobe Fireworks is one of the best tools to optimize any image format for web. You can use it.
Also ImageOptim  works good on OSX. Same results with fireworks, i compared them.
Answer:
I usually use photoshop's save for web and devices, but it has no options for compressing pngs and I also wonder if there are superior compression algorithms available?

Firstly, should you be using PNG or JPEG?
If you are saving an image for the web, these days the choice is between PNG and JPEG.  PNG is very good for images that will losslessly compress very efficiently.  JPEG is good for the rest.
As a general rule of thumb, if it's a photo or a complex rendering (completely textured) and it's bigger than around 60x60 then a JPEG is likely to be better.
Remember too that JPEG has a sliding quality scale which affects how good it will look while PNG doesn't.
How to optimise PNGs
Unlike GIFs, PNGs support 24-bit images.  This has caused a great deal of confusion, with confused people claiming that PNG images take up a lot more space than the same image saved as GIF.  This is mainly due to people not realising that it's down-coverting to 256 colours when saving to GIF while they are preserving the full 24-bit colour data in the PNG.
In PNG however, you can reduce the colours to a palette just like GIF and this will make the image file size much smaller.
Photoshop's save for web does have options for compressing PNGs
For the majority of scenarios where PNG is suitable, you want to use a colour palette.  You'll get great compression just by selecting 256 colours and using the default algorithms for picking the colour palette.  Photoshop's "Save for Web" makes this easy.  Just select PNG-8 instead of PNG-24 and start with the defaults.
You may not think of this as "compression", but it is reducing the quality of the image in order to get a smaller file size - it's just a different approach.
If you have a very simple image or a very small icon you can then decrease the number of colours further to get better compression.  Every time you get down by a power of two you'll give it a little bump in compression efficiency, so 128 is a bit better than 129-255, 64 is a bit better than 65-127, and so on.  So try 256, 128, 64, 32, and 16.
Answer: Just wanted to add that, in addition to some of the answers already given, Yahoo! has a tool called Smushit that can shave off some bytes. It's very easy to use.


Action in Balak and Reward in Pinchas

Question: Why is it that in Parashas Pinchas we see the reward of Pinchas (Bamidbar 25:7), even though his to-be-rewarded action was in Parashas Balak (Bamidbar 25:12)? Why wait a Parsha to say what reward he received?
Comment: Later duplicate, if you will: http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/468?m=5227531#5227531
Answer: The Beis Yisroel of Ger said this is a lesson. When it comes to קנאות-zealotry,the first thing you do is check things out, what were the motivations what was the intended goals only after it all checks out then comes the reward.The Chasam Sofer adds another point the way to check the legitimacy of the Zealot is to see what happens after he is mocked for his actions.They said about Pinchas בן פוטי his response was not of anger he davened for them to stop the plauge, now you know he is not just the angry type.This is the lesson of the Torah in waiting the Parsha. The Kotzker Rebbe adds another Point why was it after Pinchas proves himself that Yehoshua was chosen as a leader? He answers in a similar vain that while zealotry is good in specific situation as  a leader you must understand peoples shortcomings and be able to work with them. Therefore while it was a good in a specific situation it was not what was needed for a leader of the Jews.
Comment: Mussar-y but great message!
Answer: The Chasam Sofer citing Tosfos in Yevamos, explains that Pinchas was not appointed to the Kehunah immediately after he killed Zimri, because at that stage, he was unpopular with the people for having just killed a Prince. So Hashem waited until he made peace with them before making the appointment.In the meantime, He gave him a covenant of peace, to enable him to achieve that end. The moment he did, he entered the Kehunah.

Action in Balak and Reward in Pinchas


Dusk to dawn light goes out when heat pump starts up

Question: My pole dusk to dawn light goes out when my heat pump starts up.  The lights in the house will flicker and the outside pole light goes out, then about 5 minutes later it come back on.  When the heat pump starts up it goes out again.  Off and on all night long.
Comment: I had the same issue with my security lights, the power company came out and replaced the old security lights with L.E.D lights and no more problems when heat pump comes on.
Answer: I am pretty sure what you have is classic case of voltage drop. Ballasts for vapor lights and some cheap light sensors for incandescent par bulbs will be tricked or drop output, so light goes out and has to restart when voltage is restored.  The reason for the sudden drop is really the concern.  Since the heat pump employs a fairly large motor, it draws a lot of current at start up. This is called inductive kick. It takes a few seconds for the coils of the motor to saturate and start he armature spinning in the magnetic field. Since the coils are a dead short until saturation is achieved, they draw large current.  E = I/R, ohms law explains this. So what is the solution?  You may need to have the heat pump motor checked out or add a motor starting capacitor across the windings. I cannot tell you what size capacitor you will need as it can vary widely depending on motor size. This is a very common problem in residential services that are close to current capacity with an unbalanced motor load. Even though you may have a 100 or 200 amp electrical service, it can be overtaxed temporarily  by an unbalanced motor start up
Comment: BTW, this sudden and often low voltage situation can be harmful to electronic equipment as well, especially power supplies. Make sure you use a decent UPS on your expensive computers and electronics. I simple surge protector will not help in this situation.
Answer: When the heat pump first starts up, it draws a larger current than it does while it's running.  This large current is causing a temporary dip in the mains supply voltage at your house.
The dusk-to-dawn light fixture has a sensor that measures the ambient light level and compares it to reference levels for "dusk" and "dawn"; those references are derived from the mains supply voltage.  When that voltage dips, it changes the reference levels enough that it believes the ambient light level is "dawn", so it turns the light out.
To fix the problem, the light fixture might have a sensitivity setting that you can adjust (or you could replace it with one that does).  Failing that, a much more expensive fix would be to upgrade your electrical service so that the heat pump's start-up current draw doesn't pull down the voltage as much.
Comment: looks like we are on the same page Niall.  lol


Help/docs for using Inkscape for SVG icon font creation

Question: I was deliriously happy to find this blog post about using Inkscape and one or another online converter to create web font kits. My interest is specifically in icon fonts.
While that article was helpful (and extremely so), I still have a lot of questions about the SVG font editor in Inkscape 0.48.2 (I think it was added in 0.47).  For example, it's not at all clear how to orient characters with a baseline (if that's even possible).
The InkScape docs suggest editing the font with FontForge, but I have no FontForge experience and attempts at getting some have consistently ended in a Segmentation Fault within a few mouse clicks :-)  If there are ways of doing this in Inkscape, that'd be ideal.
So are there any useful guides for this process available? (Or other, better tools?)
Note — I am not a trained graphics designer by any means, but I'm OK with Inkscape in general.

Edit
So I've been fooling with this for a while and it's just really mystifying. Because what I'm making is an icon font, what I really want, in the end, is for a display: inline box with 1em height and width and line-height to exactly contain a glyph that fills the nominal font horizontal square size (the "horiz-adv-x" attribute on the SVG  tag).  If I make a test glyph that's got four boxes pushed to the corners of the nominal 1024x1024 font square (the size of the Inkspace artboard that I've got set up), then the resulting TTF font, when I style it like that, extends up out of the box. (edit — that's not actually true; I was using a "line-height" greater than 1em and that threw me off; see below)
I realize that there has to be some allowance made for descenders, but I have not been able to figure out how to account for that when creating a set of glyphs in Inkscape. That is, I can by experimentation try to determine exactly how much to shift my glyph out of the artboard downwards, but it's frustrating and it seems unpredictable. In fact it's not clear at all how the font conversion code even finds out from the SVG font definition what the baseline should be.

Edit again
OK so what I've been able to determine clearly is that a 1em by 1em glyph (where the em size is derived from the SVG  tag and its "units-per-em" attribute), after conversion to a .ttf font file, is drawn a little bit above the baseline as was determined by the author of the blog post I linked above. How far above, and why? I don't know. Adjusting the "horiz-origin-y" attribute in the SVG code has no apparent effect (and I don't have any reason to think it should; I was just fooling with it). Shifting the SVG path down out of the canvas (having the effect of changing the drawing commands such that the coordinates are negative for portions below the canvas) will definitely adjust the glyph; it's the particulars of how exactly that's all measured that I'm trying to determine, I guess. If I knew, then it'd be pretty easy to set up an Inkscape template with guides for the limits of glyphs and where the baseline is (again, like in the blog post, but more than just the baseline).
One cool thing I did learn is that the "horiz-adv-x" attribute on <glyph> tags does have an effect, and specifically that using a value of zero allows a glyph to be placed in a line of text such that the next glyph will exactly overlay.  That's neat, because it means it's possible to use separate icon "parts" to construct multi-colored icons from an icon font! With the assistance of something like Lettering.js that could be very powerful and flexible. (Somebody else blogged about a similar approach using positioning, which would also work fine.)
Answer: Icomoon might be helpful. It's an online tool for converting svg (a normal svg file, not a font file) to icon fonts. I think it automatically scales it to always have the same height.

See their documentation here: http://icomoon.io/docs.html
A video tutorial here: http://css-tricks.com/video-screencasts/113-creating-and-using-a-custom-icon-font/


How can I keep delicate food from sticking to the grill?

Question: When I grill fish or chicken, often much of the meat and/or skin ends up sticking to the grill. What's the best way to avoid this?
Comment: 11 answers? Really? (And not a one of them can claim completeness.) Perhaps this question ought to be protected?
Comment: Generally when grilling start the grill then use a vegetable oil spray on the surface just before putting the food on. I agree with the person that said don't flip too soon espec. Any food needs a good sear on it before you flip,especially with burgers.
Comment: If you plan to put a steak on the grill I suggest that you give it a nice and decent rub in olive oil, and what ever spices you might want...perhaps a bit of rosemary.
Answer: Other people have answered similarly but definitely make sure your cooking surface is VERY HOT before the food hits the surface. Cold food+cold metal=sticking!
In addition to this, you should also make sure you don't start trying to flip too early. Let the food cook and get a good sear on one side before you try to flip. If you do this with a hot surface, you shouldn't have any problems with sticking.
One more thing, it's important that the grill surface is clean, so cleaning your grill religiously after you finish using it each time, and then oiling it lightly before you use it, can be a huge help in this area.
Comment: Being particularly lazy, I clean & oil my grill at the beginning of each usage.  (if I clean it afterwards, you need to re-oil it unless you've got enamel coated or stainless grates .... otherwise, you risk oxidation while it sits).
Answer: I'll start with agreeing with the others -- oil your grill (after first cleaning it), and make sure it's hot.  Think of it like seasoning a cast-iron pan, but you have to redo it, because the heat from the grill can bake it off.
Next, don't keep trying to move it.  Things like chicken and steak will release from the (well oiled) grill once they've gotten a sear on them.
Fish, however, I go with an alternate, possibly controversial method -- aluminum foil.  Use a piece of foil slightly larger than the piece of fish (one for each piece, you want space between each piece for the smoke to come up) and oil it slightly.  When set onto a hot grill, you'll even still get grill marks.
Answer: I've found that if you brush on some cooking oil either on the chicken or directly on the grill it will help. Also, if you move the meat slightly before it cooks too long it will help it from sticking so much.
Answer: In addition to oil, make sure the grill is nice and hot before you start cooking. The same principle applies when pan frying.
Answer: Generally the best way to prevent sticking is with fat. One solution is to apply fat (oil) directly to the meat, or to the grill, right before cooking. The other thing is to avoid cleaning the grill too much. While you should keep too much junk from building up on the grill you do want to let it season, much as you would a cast iron pan. As the fats and everything build up on the grill it'll help future meals from sticking.
Answer: All the books I've read say that oiling your food is the preferred method.
Having said that, I often oil my grill by using a paper towel with oil on it
Answer: You could season the grill. Oil the grill before you start cooking and then heat up the grill. The heated oil will create a 'non-stick' surface on the grill. The more often you do it, the more non-stick the grill will become.
Answer: I'd been using paper towels to oil the grill, and I just discovered that newspapers work a lot better. Paper towels absorb the oil and then don't release it, and they leave fibers behind on the grill. Newspaper transports the oil but then releases it onto the grill.
I tried this yesterday and after several applications of oil, the grill was terrifically seasoned, to the extent that the food was sliding around a bit too much.
Answer: Something I tried for the first time today: I used oiled green onions to create separation between my fish and the wire basket. My fish came out perfect and the charred green onions improved the presentation and maybe even improved its flavor.
Answer: I am really quite surprised no one has mentioned grilling on wood planks yet. It's an extremely useful alternative to keeping the lighter meats/seafood from sticking to the grill surfaces. Typically they aren't too expensive and you get the added bonus of the smoky aroma in your food.
Link to a decent primer on wood plank grilling for those interested: http://backyardprovisions.com/blogs/grilling-101/10784049-wood-plank-grilling
Answer: Yep. As others have said, don't be afraid of fat or heat. Let it sit for a while. When the crust has formed and the food is ready to be flipped, it should release fairly easily with a bit of gentle nudging. Additionally, I find that dredging fish in a bit of flour helps to prevent sticking.


How to get rid of the raw tomato smell from tomato sauce?

Question: I'm making marinara sauce with crushed tomatoes, and no matter how much seasoning I add or however long I cook it down, the smell of raw tomato is still in the sauce. Does anyone know how to get rid of that smell? I don't smell it in the sauces I buy at the store.
Answer: Do you use tomato paste in your sauce as well? Starting your sauce by cooking tomato paste down (by itself) will give the sauce a more "cooked" smell because the sugars in the paste will begin to caramelize.
This guy references the technique. I picked it up from Mario Batali, but I can't find a reference for it. http://forums.egullet.org/topic/140049-frying-tomato-paste/
Answer: Marinara is traditionally the fishermen's meal (the mariners hence the name).  The simplicity and speed of making is part of the tradition.
The main difference in the sauce is parsly instead of basil. It changes from region to region, but here is a typical setup:
Chop the tomatoes and garlic finely. Place it in a hot sauce pan or medium pot over high heat for 5-8 minutes.  You should see the sauce getting glossy. Add the chopped parsly near the end and you can add some extra virgin olive oil after you're finished heating the sauce. At this point you sprinkle some dried pepper and oregano.
You can use a blender in the beginning to blend the tomatoes if you like. Or a food mill at the to catch the skin and seeds.
I suspect the issue you're experiencing is related to the burner not being high enough.  Many of the southern recipes call for fierce heat for short time.
The method above is also present in Maxine Clark's book.
Answer: if you want to be sure there is no trace of "fresh" tomato smell, you could start with tomato paste instead of raw tomato.


Can visual acuity be improved?

Question: Is it possible to completely cure myopia using natural methods (i.e. not with Lasik etc.)?.
I have seen websites claiming that exercising the eyes will help improve eyesight.
Is this true?
Comment: What is perfect vision?
Comment: @Kevin: 20/20 vision I guess (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snellen_chart )
Answer: While there is no such thing as perfect vision, growing evidence from Asia shows that looking often at distant objects (which one does naturally when being outside) can stop myopia progression. Vice versa, progression appears to increase when myopic children mainly live indoors.
D. J. Park, N. G. Congdon: Evidence for an "epidemic" of myopia. In: Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore. 33, 1, Jan 2004, 21–26. PMID 15008557. (Review).
K. A. Rose, I. G. Morgan et al: Outdoor activity reduces the prevalence of myopia in children. In: Ophthalmology. 115, 8, Aug 2008, 1279–1285. DOI:10.1016/j.ophtha.2007.12.019. PMID 18294691.

Can visual acuity be improved?


Can I swap left and right mouse buttons for combat only?

Question: It annoys me no end that the LMB is for the right hand and the RMB is for the left hand. Is there a mod or console command to swap them for combat only (i.e. not for menus, dialog, etc)?
Comment: possible duplicate of [Can I alter just the dual-wielding controls?](http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/35109/can-i-alter-just-the-dual-wielding-controls)
Comment: Does changing the keybindings affect the menus?
Answer: Well, just go in your menu (Esc if on computer), Controls, and switch the buttons for Right Hand and Left Hand, and voilà
Comment: Yeah, I'm an Idiot, I had just assumed that would switch everything without trying. Cheerrs.
Answer: As Mikalichov says, it's easy to change in the menus on PC. I was irritated by this too and made the switch early in the game (around 20 hours, yes that's early).
This is only for combat. It doesn't effect menus, alchemy, enchanting, smithing or trading at all.
But there is not option to change the "preferred hand". For instance a single handed weapon always gravitates* to your right hand and spells/shields gravitate to the left hand. This happens even if you switch the mouse buttons and as far as I can see, there is no way to swap this.
If I'm wrong, PLEASE say, because I may be right-handed, but I'm index-fingered (that sounds bad).
*When I say gravitate I mean when using the favourite buttons 1-8.
Answer: It's not as easy as you guys make it believe. If you switch the mouse buttons, you ARE going to get in trouble with menu's. But by this time there's a mod that exactly addresses this most annoying thing. It's called: On-screen Interface Key Fix, and I use it myself with joy. You can change whatever you want but the keys in menus will not be affected.
It can be downloaded for free and without subscribing at skyrim nexus.
Another key mod at skyrim nexus is called: Interface Hard Coded Key Tweaks
It comes with an optional file called "skyrim key helper", which can also be downloaded from steam, but for that you need to subscribe to steam first [no surprise].


How do you wash a toddler's hands in a public restroom?

Question: I find it quite hard to wash my toddler's hands in a public restroom which may have a very wet counter and otherwise be a bit dirty. It's hard to operate soap dispensers which require two hands to use.  Also, he loves grabbing at the faucet and handles, to the point where I think his hands might be dirtier than when we started.  Tips?
Comment: Toddler is 21 months old, so can stand, but very short!
Answer: The approach I use with my son is to lift my leg up and put my knee against the counter, then set him on my thigh (with a leg on both side). This way he can get to the sink without getting too close to the not so very clean areas and I can keep a hold of him and help. About the only downsides are:

the knee of your pants can get filthy if the sink isn't too clean.
if he swings his legs in excitement at playing in the sink, you get kicked in the crotch.
Comment: This is exactly what I have done, although if you have balance issues I would not recommend it.  *wink*
Answer: Wait with using the sink at such public rest rooms until later on when the child is better able to handle it. Instead, use wet wipes from your baby bag for now.
Answer: Usually ill make my own hands very wet and simply rub his hands clean. Together with wet wipes for the sticky dirt it works great.
Answer: I just stand my toddler on the counter and we wash our hands together. She can bent down and reach the sink comfortably and it keeps her clothes from getting wet from the water on the counter.
When she was younger, I'd just stick my knee up against the sink and sit her on my leg. Worked great!
Answer: As has been said, I prefer using wet wipes and/or a sterile handwash gel.  I will also sometimes, wet their hands, soap them and then wipe them with wet towels, before drying them.  It's a hassle at times, but jeez, some of these toilets...
Answer: I'm not sure how tall your toddler is or even if they can stand yet?
My son is now 4 and quite tall, but I previously used to let him stand on my shoes in front of me which gave him enough height to reach over the top of the counter.
Someone has to touch the faucet / handles so you're not going to escape that. What I used to do was wash his hands inside mine and make sure there was plenty of soap. Then once finished take him over to dry your hands.
I think if the faucet / handles are dirty; if your hand are thoroughly clean, but still a little wet, if you dry them properly after touching the handles you don't really have an issue with germs.
This is a hands on approach and will ensure your child's hands are properly soaped, washed and dried. Then you should be fine.
Also (slight product plug) you can use a hand sanitizer after you have dried off if you are still worried.
Answer: I do something similar to Cabbey.  I hold my one year old straddling my knee against the sink or on my hip.  We lean over and wash my right hand and his left hand, then dry both of those.  Then we switch sides and wash my left hand and his right, and then dry both.  I don't hold him close enough to touch the handles easily.  I like the hand gel afterwards sometimes too.


What is the typical career path to become a professional Astronomer?

Question: Here is a typical question which I have been asked many times while giving public lectures in various places. While I know one of the paths like Diploma, Masters and PhD but sometimes this is not so obvious for that eager young person who thinks to go on that path. So what that would be?
Comment: You might want to add the country you are interested in. Or the answerers might do that.
Comment: True, but some people might be interested in starting their career in one country and move-on to do a Masters or PhD in some other country for broadening their experience,
Answer: You start out getting a Bachelor of Science in a related field. This could be physics, astronomy, mathematics, or possibly chemistry. Depending on which country you are planning to go to grad school in, specializing at this stage may not be as important as in later stages. However, note that in the UK, for example, it is almost unheard of for a student without a Bachelors in physics (almost always with a minor in astrophysics) to gain a place in grad school for astronomy.
After doing the BSc, you would go on to get a Masters degree in astronomy, which would set the stage for a PhD in astronomy. The PhD (and to some extent, the MSc) will have you specialize in a specific area in astronomy, such as star formation, planetary studies, or cosmology.
After doing the PhD, you would get a post-doc at a university or research institute. This is typically a three-year job where you do research in your chosen area. Most astronomers do two or three post-docs.
After this, you could become a professor or research associate at a university or an in-house research astronomer at an observatory. Universities or observatories are typically the only places to be a "professional astronomer", and depending on the position, would give you time to do your own research in conjunction with other duties like teaching.
Comment: It's possible that some universities have tracks that let you get a doctorate without a masters first.
Answer: It really depends on what you consider a "professional Astronomer" but typically you need a Ph.D. so the typical path is a Bachelor's degree (I recommend in Physics) then a Masters and Ph.D in Astronomy.
It is possible (at least it was) to get postions at some Planetaria and as a telescope operator with only a Masters.  This could be considered a "professional Astronomer" postion and doesn't require the full Ph.D.
However, most places that are looking to hire an astronomer are looking for the doctoral degree.
Answer: This can vary widely depending on several factors including country in which you hope to practice as a professional, country in which you study, what you intend to do as a professional (teach vs. research) among other things.  I will answer assuming one intends to study and practice in the US.
Typically, an astronomer begins with a Bachelors of Science in Astronomy or a related field (math, physics, etc.), followed by a PhD in Astronomy (this generally takes about 5-7 years).  After obtaining a PhD in Astronomy, one could be called a professional astronomer, however, this is often not the end of the journey.  Most astronomers will seek appointments after receiving their doctorate (of about 2-3 years in length, referred to as 'post-doc' positions).  Usually after 2 such positions, an Astronomer will seek a permanent position.  These include positions at NASA facilities among others, but many will seek positions at universities.  The most coveted positions are those with tenure.
After getting a PhD, there are many options depending on the destination, but the above is a common track for obtaining a position at a research institution.  Those aiming to teach rather than research may seek fewer post-doc positions.
Comment: +1 Yes this would seem to be a typical path for US but probably you should also add the 7 years in graduate study before getting the PhD.
Answer: The positions posted on the AAS Job Register are typical of those in a "career in astronomy," and indeed an advanced degree is a common theme, but not a universal one.
There is enough background knowledge needed for many of these jobs that picking it up by other means would be challenging, and convincing a potential employer that you've done so without a degree in physics, astronomy, or astrophysics, even more challenging (and probably only possible at all if you have a PhD in a similar discipline and already have a significant publication record in astronomy).
There are, however, many other jobs that need to get done at observatories and as part of astronomy projects, ranging from draftsman to project manager, and the requirements for those jobs do not differ all that much from the requirements for those jobs in other fields. These sorts of positions sometimes show up on the AAS Job register as well, but are usually advertised elsewhere.
Comment: +1 This is very valuable information for early career starters. Definitely needs to be included in the Wiki pages.


How can I get wireless working on an HP-Mini 110-3500, I have only usb ports

Question: How can I get wireless working on an HP-Mini 110-3500, I have only usb ports
Answer: If you have the same 110-3500 that I just got, you do have an ethernet port, but it's hidden. It is located under a cover along the right side of the computer, at the rear - opposite where you plug in the power, and just behind the attachment point for a security lock cable.
I hope that helps. I'm in the process of installing ubuntu myself on one now.
Comment: can you add a picture, that would be great!
Answer: Can you add some hardware information to your question?

I have a hardware detection problem, what logs do I need to look into?

From my googling it looks like it could either be a broadcom card or an atheros card. Once we determine which wireless card it is we'll be able to help you better.
Do you have ethernet available? Usually plugging in via a wire and running Additional Drivers does the trick.
Comment: no, I have only wireless adapter in my computer and usb ports. Wireless works ok with windows. But I couldn't anything in ubuntu network connection. Looks like I do not have the driver.


What are the differences in using an eyepiece with a barlow instead of a shorter eyepiece?

Question: I intend to start making visual observations, and I want to know more about the difference between using barlow lenses and one or two eyepieces and using a complete kit of eyepieces, both for planetary and deep space objects.
Answer: In general, more glass means the image gets worse. However, if the barlow is good, the losses and aberrations are below the annoyance threshold or, rarely, below even the perceptual threshold. It's all in the eye of the beholder anyway.
Also, especially with cheaper eyepieces, it is sometimes the case that the more powerful eyepieces have less eye relief, while less powerful ones have more eye relief. But if you combine a less powerful eyepiece with a barlow, you preserve the long eye relief and you get more power. That's not the case if you have a set of high-end glass (which may provide plenty of eye relief anyway), but it's a useful trick otherwise.
Finally, in case you don't know this already, you can't just increase the magnification ad infinitum. Beyond a certain threshold, you just get large fuzzy blobs. Measure the aperture in mm, double it, and that's pretty much the threshold (it's not a hard limit, there is some variation both down and up). E.g., a 4" scope, that's a 100 mm aperture, which means don't expect much beyond 200x - and that's provided that all optics involved are perfect and the scope is very well collimated, which is rarely the case; otherwise, shave off some percentage points from it.
Other than that, no, there aren't many differences.
EDIT: Oh yeah, if your scope is short, let's say f/5 or less, cheap eyepieces will have trouble with the steep light cone and will distort the image at the edge. A 2x barlow makes an f/5 into an equivalent f/10 which is much easier on the eyepiece. But, OTOH, if your eyepiece is cheap enough that it can't handle an f/5, then your barlow is not high-performance either, so it may introduce some issues of its own. But usually there might be a gain if your scope is really short.
Answer: Modern Barlow lenses with modern glass and coatings have minimal effect on the quality of the image.  A good quality Barlow (don't bother with a cheap one!) will be an excellent addition to a beginner's hardware collection because it immediately doubles the range of magnifications available.
That said, you will find that most experienced observers very rarely if ever use Barlow lenses.  The main reason is simplicity.  Single eyepieces, even modern complex designs, are just a lot easier and safer to handle in the dark. Aside from giving superior optical results, they are far less likely to fall apart and come crashing to the ground.  Whenever I use a Barlow, my tension level increases noticeably.
Most experienced amateur astronomers have a Barlow lens or two kicking around, but they spend most of their lives in the eyepiece case.  The only times they get put into use are on that rare, once a year, night of perfect seeing, or if extra focal length is needed for planetary imaging. And even then, it will be a top end lens like a Tele Vue Powermate, which has minimal effect on the image.


Can I pour epoxy pebble flooring over electric warm floor?

Question: Can I pour epoxy pebble flooring over electric warm floor?  In our bathroom/laundry area, we plan to first lay hardiboard.  Then I may need floor leveler as well.  Should the warm floor be put down before the leveler (if I use leveler) and then can the epoxy flooring be put on top of all of it?
Answer: You should first palce the hardiboard and leveler as needed then palce the heating elemetns. So the answer is going to be yes.

Is the expoxy going to be clear? If so it will shine through the emelents and cause some undesired effects. If that is the case then i suggest using tile adhesive to cover the heating elements and level it then place your pebbles masterpiece on top of that. Pebbles inheritly will take longer to heat up but they also take longer to cool down so that can be a plus for energy saving in winter.


SGS doesn't go to download, recovery mode nor does it connect via USB after installing a battery MOD

Question: I installed some app called "Galaxy s battery icon mod 2" on my rooted Samsung Galaxy S (with a lagfix OCLF), it required rebooting my handset.
Then, it didn't boot up, my handset entered an infinite loop, (after the Samsung galaxy S GT-I9000 then the galaxy S logo appears) it vibrates as it does when some app hangs or freezes, some mouse cursor on the upper left side, and I can't even get it to enter recovery or download mode using the three buttons, but all what it does is restarting the phone and the loop begins again.
Tried to connect it via USB, didn't connect or anything.
Does anyone know what to do before resorting to the jig factory mode method.  Ah, and USB debugging mode isn't activated, and some times I get a recovery screen, guess it got something to do with the app, and it says enter key or something but I can't enter anything or selecvt anything on the screen, it got recover and cancel.
Answer: When an SGS won't go into recovery mode, there's a couple things you can try.  One thing is to hold all the buttons to get into recovery or download mode (VolDown + Power + Home, or VolUp + Power + Home, or VolDown + VolUp + Power depending on your model) until the device has reset 2 or 3 times, and then release Power so that the device stops resetting.  Hopefully then it will go into the appropriate mode.  If not, attempt again but this time do it while the device is plugged into USB.
Another thing to try is to remove the battery, then insert it while holding the above buttons.  You may want to try multiple resets combined with this as well, as well as having it plugged into USB.
Once you get it into recovery mode, you can try restoring your backup and/or doing a factory reset and clearing the Dalvik cache.  If you get it into download mode, I recommend using Odin to flash a stock ROM as per this question's answer: Can only access 2.2GB of internal storage from Windows. Just use an i9000 ROM, not the Captivate ROMs linked in that questions.  You can find one at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=846913, for example the newest Europe/Middle East/Asia one is I9000XWJS8.
Comment: I would like to add, that if you have adb access, you can try "adb reboot recovery" or "adb reboot download"
Comment: @Matthew Read the xda forum post is invalid..Can you please update your answer with a correct link?
Comment: @Lucky Ooh, probably not; I'm guessing most people have moved on from these old devices.


GET flash memory type: SLC or MLC

Question: Just for my knowledge, I would like to know whether the type of flash memory used in my pendrive is SLC or MLC. Is there a way to find it out? I googled but found nothing.
Comment: Unless it's a high-end drive, it's definitely MLC.
Answer: The correct answer was given by Mechanical Snail(check the comments above). The answer's brief and simple, every Flash device uses a MLC because it is cheap and has a higher density. Giving SLC to the customer would make the pendrive costly as cost per gigabyte for SLC is more than MLC. For uses like these MLC is always preferred over SLC.

GET flash memory type: SLC or MLC


Can I play and fully enjoy Starcraft 2 using a Touchpad and not a Mouse?

Question: I would like to play with StarCraft 2 on my MacBook Pro but I often (bad habit) use my laptop sitting on the couch where Mouse is not an option.
Do you think I could be able to fully enjoy StarCraft just using the MBP touchpad?
Comment: Why isn't the mouse an option? My mouse works fine on the couch surface. It means the positioning of my hand is not optimal, but it should still be infinitely better than touchpad.
Comment: No Nix Not a chance
Comment: As an alternative, consider looking into one of those cool lap-desk dealies. They are super comfortable on a couch, and they give you an even surface for a mouse. You can even opt not to put it on your lap, and just keep it on the side for just the mousepad.
Comment: VTC: This question is *highly* subjective, and varies greatly based on the person. A believe that something like "How can you compensate for the lack of precision with a trackpad versus a mouse?" would be a good question, if you wished to ask it.
Comment: I also use my mouse on the couch with no problems
Comment: @Oak I usually stay lying down and not sit (as I said, bad habit :-) )
Answer: Since I'm playing a lot on my notebook I'm sometimes forced (by various circumstances) to play on the touchpad. While it is definitely possible and not as a pain as it might seem, it is a bit harder than using the mouse. I found out that with some practice I was able to play against Hard AI quite well (won most of the time) and even the campaign is playable (most missions on Medium though, many Hard achievements are much harder to get when using the touchpad).
The key to success is to use the keyboard as much as possible. Everything should be mapped to a  group - units, workers, production buildings. Use space to get to the action immediately when something happens. With some training, you should be ok. I wouldn't however attempt to play against people in 1v1 Quickmatch, especially if you are ranked gold or higher.
Comment: Most of this is still applicable even WITH a mouse. Keyboard = Fast(er), Mouse = Slow(er).
Comment: @VvxJason I find that's true with most computer actions.
Comment: Against AI, always rush. Against AI APM etc. are not that big matters.
Comment: Is there a way to scroll the map with two fingers the way all other windows on OSX work?
Answer: Obviously, it can be argued on, but I've yet to see someone playing on a touchpad with the same speed and accuracy he has on a mouse. And considering the fact that Starcraft II is not the most slug-paced game around, it'll probably leave you a bit frustrated.
You could try getting used to a trackball, though. :)
Answer: I'm going to say no. You can play single player, but once you hit the ladder and multiplayer, the mouse control, speed and accuracy will greatly affect what you can do and how you can compete at certain levels.
Short answer: Your micro will be weak and your macro could technically take a hit as well.
Advantage: Playing with a touchpad could potentially help with your hotkeys and you will be in a good position when you do get a mouse.
Answer: I played it for a while using the Apple Magic Trackpad. It was playable, but I did find that i was at a disadvantage in fast paced games. Playing against the AI wasn't so bad though.
I think if Blizzard implemented some support for multi-touch gestures, it would make it much easier.
Comment: I was thinking maybe something along the lines of a three finger drag movement for moving the map around, rather than trying to move the cursor to the edges of the screen, or using the keyboard or trying to click-drag on the minimap, or different combinations of swipes, 2, 3 or 4 finger to select different unit groups etc.
Comment: I suspect that no one is fast enough with gestures, reliably enough, for that to be true. Having said that, I'm very interested in gesture suggestions. (No, I don't work for Blizzard.)
Answer: While it might be enjoyable, I sometimes play without a mouse on my laptop to force myself to use the keyboard more. It's more of a practice exercise, as one of my weaknesses is macro-ing up my army while attacking. It's really ineffective to mouse back to your base to produce units and then back to the attack. Playing on the touchpad has made me a better keyboard user, which has improved my enjoyment when I actually do use a mouse.
Answer: Just switched to a mouse today, as I've been playing on a Macbook for the past couple of weeks. I'm brand new to StarCraft so I'd suck either way, but I do notice that because right clicking with the Macbook requires the command key, it's incredibly difficult to use hotkeys with the trackpad. I probably won't ever go back, my APM increased by 20 just because I was able to use the hotkeys more efficiently with the mouse.
Answer: I have a mouse, a touchpad and a trackball, and I always use a combination of the trackball (if I need really accurate movement when microing something) and the touchpad (when I'm using the keyboard almost exclusively - when I'm macroing hard). I just find it easier to play with a trackball than a mouse generally, and using the touchpad allows me to comfortably use all of the hotkeys at once.
Answer: Well, I use an MBP without a mouse and I do just fine- but I haeve yet to attempt with one.  I don't feel frustrated with the trackpad speed or accuracy, but I would love some gesture controls.


Got a badge today, now my question is missing

Question: Logged into day to see the Organizer Badge for myself, but the question it is linked to  gets a Page Not Found:  How should versioned jQuery tags be combined on stackoverflow?
Answer: The question was deleted.
Please see this question for further discussion.
Comment: Thanks.  I wish it has been closed/locked so I could get back my research.
Comment: @Kevin: I posted the content from the question in a separate answer here. I've also voted to undelete the question.
Answer: Deleted content:
By Kevin Hakanson (question body):
I was looking at jQuery related tags and noticed the last two major versions account for five separate tags:  jquery1.3 (32), jquery1.4 (18), jquery1.3.2 (8), jquery-1.3.2 (4) and jquery-1.4 (3)
Since the Official repository of tag synonyms seems to the product-x.y format, I would suggest merging into jquery-1.3 and jquery-1.4, but I wanted to open for discussion.  Also, should this be added to the tag synonyms list?

By Nick Craver (answer):
I would recommend against merging the minor releases, there are issues in each release, for example a common question is about the change event not bubbling in IE (causing .live('change', func) breaks).  This issue is specific to 1.4.1 and fixed in 1.4.2 (along with many event questions).
I would recommend mapping:

jquery1.3 (32) -> jquery-1.3
jquery1.3.2 (8) -> jquery-1.3.2
jquery1.4 (18), jquery14 (2) -> jquery-1.4
jquery1.4.1 (1) -> jquery-1.4.1
jquery1.4.2 (8) -> jquery-1.4.2

Personally I would leave the minor releases intact, this would result in jquery-1.3, jquery-1.3.2, jquery 1.4, jquery 1.4.1, and jquery 1.4.2.
That being said, leaving only jquery-1.3 and jquery-1.4 wouldn't be all that bad, but the vast majority of questions aren't tagged with a version at all (something I'll start doing in future edits).
Update: I moved the jquery1.x.x tags to jquery-1.x.x to at least normalize the formatting for now, there are still a number of jquery1.3 and jquery1.4 out there that need a bulk retag.

Comments on answer:
Why would we merge jquery14 with jquery1.4? I thought we wanted to keep major releases separate. – devinb Jul 19 at 18:50
@devinb - jQuery14 is 1.4...1.4 is the latest release, there's no jQuery 14 out there :) – Nick Craver Jul 19 at 18:53
I see your point about minor versions affecting the question, but doesn't this better fit in the question text and not the tag? – Kevin Hakanson Jul 25 at 3:17
@Kevin - I don't think so, my opinion again of course...when I see certain issues I would immediately recognize the issue as a known bug in that version, I would tag questions with those issues with that minor version as well...to indicate it's specific to jQuery-1.4.1 Often the issue doesn't apply to jQuery-1.4 overall, and most people being on the latest (of 1.4 users) wouldn't be affected. That being said, I may be one of 5 people max that this really helps, if it doesn't help anyone else to find answers then let's cleanup/combine them, and leave the minor versions out. – Nick Craver Jul 25 at 12:26


Can A Qualifying Low Hand Also Win The High Hand Pot?

Question: For example, I was playing with a group of friends and one of the guys ended up with A-2-4-5-7 suited. He did win the low, but since it was also a flush he won both high and low pots. So my question is can you win both?
Answer: Yes.
Firstly, your hand has to qualify as being a low hand. Qualifying five-card poker hands must have no pairs in there, and also has no card higher than an eight.
As a player can only (and must) use two cards from their starting hand, there have to be at least three community cards available that are also no higher than an eight.
Flushes and straights are ignored in low hands, so your friend could indeed win the low and high pots.
Answer: You have to first consider that only 2 cards of your 4 cards are used to make a Qualifying Low or Qualifying High in Omaha HiLo. The same 2 cards can be used for both your High and Low hands. So YES.
You can think about it as playing 2 different games with the same cards but with the same pot - Note that you may not have a Qualifying LOW all the time and there's always a Qualifying HIGH all the time.
Answer: Yes it is possible to win both Hi and Lowe pots What comes to mind first is:
 If you have an Ace,2, and a 6,7, in your hand and the community cards are 3,4,5,j,10, then You win the low, A,2,3,4,5, and you wine the High with 3,4,5,6,7, (J+10 would be dead)
Or If you had a flush and a low hand. Say AS,2S, 8*, K*  and the community cards are 3D, 4D, 6S, 5S,JS, you would win a Flush and the Low hand. (* = any suit)
It is also possible to get a Full House and win a low with cards such as A, 2, 3, and 7,  If the community cards are  A,A,4,5,7, You would have the lowest hand with A,2,3,4,5, and a Full House with A,A,A,7 and 7.
Another scenario is this You have a 3,4,J, and a 10, and the flop is A,K,Q,2. and a 5, You could win high with A,K,Q, and your J, and 10, and a low with A,2,5< and your 3, and 4.
Sometimes these combination are what cause you to lose OR over bet on Omaha Hi/LO, If you are playing with a great low hand and one of the cards turns out to be a pair in the community cards then you might have been betting on two straights and the pair makes someone a Full House then you might have over bet, or If you are thinking you have the best low hand, and the person you are betting against also has the same low hand as you, (or better) and the high hand you will have to split YOUR LOW hand so YOU would only get 1/4th of the pot!
Really here I am showing you Mostly Pat hands. There are MANY combinations like this. Generally even when I have a low hand I will not bet on them, but I will keep up with the betting to win.  Pam


Where does the tradition of Christmas gifts comes from?

Question: Where does the modern tradition of exchanging gifts from Christmas comes from? I've heard that it's inspired by a similar tradition the Ancient Romans had on one of their festivals, is that true?
Comment: @spiceyokooko - Perhaps because it is often claimed that Christmas is actually a Christianization of older Pagan holidays.
Comment: Not sure where you get the connection of the birth of Christ (that's what Christmas celebrates) with the polytheism of Romans!
Answer: Most recently? From the 1840s, at least in England.

Christmas has many fathers, as traditions like gift-giving and feasting have periodically risen and then been suppressed over the centuries, and then revived with newly Christian significance retroactively applied to what might have originated in a secular or pagan custom.
The most recent father of our modern idea of the Christmas season in the "Anglo-Saxon" world, is the Victorian era, with certain customs developing independently in England and in the United States. Christmas trees, Christmas cards, turkey dinners, and caroling were all popularized in the mid-19th century. This is thoroughly covered in J.A.R. Pimlott's The Englishman's Christmas: a social history (harvester, 1978).
Gift-giving was, as in many cultures, originally a New Year's Day custom; the Scots have Handsel Monday and the French the étrenne. The latter term derives from the Latin strena, a term for both the gift and the gift-giving of the Roman festival of Saturnalia, and attests to its ancient origins. In addition to gifts to each other, medieval Europeans were to offer gifts to the sovereign; the 13th century chronicler Matthew Paris writes of Henry III extorting gifts from his court.
The heathen custom was rationalized into Christianity by associating it with the gifts of the Magi described in Matthew 2 (observed on Epiphany, January 6 in the Western Chruch) and with the story of Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, who was said to have given away his entire inheritance to the needy (observed on December 6). Saint Nicholas, of course, is the origin of the name "Santa Claus," and some of the associations of Santa Claus. Still, it was frequently suppressed, notably by the Puritans, and Christmas was not a particularly special holiday for centuries.
The gift-giving custom was revived in the Victorian age. It was an era where there was strong interest in reviving old customs (real and imagined), but as the popularity of Christmas grew, it displaced New Year's; Prince Albert called Christmas "a day for the exchange of presents, as marks of mutual affection and good-will." This image of Christmas was popularized by Charles Dickens in a series of Christmas season stories published from 1843 to 1848, the most famous of course being A Christmas Carol.
Comment: Voting this up over my answer because I personally believe this is right. I was attempting to explain the Roman theory (which I personally find interesting) in mine, but in fact I understand gift-giving for Christmas went out of style until Christmas Carol repopularized it.
Answer: I'm not saying this is The Truth®, but here's the argument typically given for the Ancient Romans you mentioned.
Nobody is really sure exactly when Jesus was born (even the year, much less the exact day). The biblical authors do not seem to have felt it was particularly important information. The earliest two Gospels don't even mention Jesus' birth at all. The first time somebody deigned to come up with a date for it was two centuries later, and that date was May 20. March 21, and several different days in April have also been used. The earliest reference we have that uses December 25th is from 200 years later (400 AD). So it seems highly unlikely this date was decided upon due to certian knowledge that it is correct.
So why this particular date? Well it just happens that the Romans had a big solistice festival called Saturnalia. Of course the solistice happens a few days earlier, but Roman practice at the time was to have a week-long celebration, culminating in the Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun, on December 25. Saturnalia was a very popular festival amongst the Romans, and involved gift-giving.
So the logic for the Roman origins is that the Christians settling on the same day for the Son of God's birthday as the Roman's Birthday of the Unconquerable Son is not a really weird conincidence, but rather a purposeful attemmpt to co-opt for Christianity what was otherwise an inconveniently popular Pagan holidy. So the gift-giving came over from Saturnalia.
Comment: @spiceyokooko - If you are referring to the final paragraph, I already said that myself. The rest however, I believe is well-attributed.
Comment: Then it still doesn't address or answer the question as asked.
Comment: This is totally _not_ speculation, however it isn't really a satisfactory answer to this question either (as TED itself points out in the comments in the other answer).
Comment: This is mere *speculation* and *opinion* and cannot be proven.


Will an 1/8' chain and cogs wear slower than 3/32' chain and cogs for single speed / fixed gear setup?

Question: Will an 1/8" chain and cogs wear slower than 3/32" chain and cogs for single speed / fixed gear setup? What about using an 1/8' chain mismatched on 3/32" chainring and cogs?
Comment: I doubt that there's much difference in chain or cog life.  And a 1/8 chain on 3/32 cogs might actually wear the cogs faster.  I think the main advantage of a fully 1/8" driveline would be that the chain would be less apt to jam (but that's a very, very rare event anyway).
Answer: I don't remember where, but I read once that because a 3/32" chain is more flexible laterally than a 1/8" chain, it is more tolerant of imperfect chainlines.  This makes sense to me, but I haven't seen any numbers to support it.  So with an imperfect chainline you might see faster wear with 1/8".
I suspect the difference in wear is imperceptible, especially with a steel cog.  The combination of a 1/8" chain, imperfect chainline, and an aluminum 3/32" cog would probably be where you'd see the most increase in wear because you add a slight bit of play where the chain interfaces with the cog, but I still doubt you'd notice much additional wear.
Answer: Just from personal experience 1/8" chains are less forgiving to any misalignment with the chain-ring and cog. You can really feel it (and hear it) if you place a 1/8th chain over an 3/32" chain-ring/cog. Constant use in that manner leads to things breaking, even if it's just your sanity over the clicks and pops you can hear as you pedal.
However, because 3/32" are more flexible, they seem to keep quiet and hide your misalignment issue. I've only ever broken one chain-ring and it was a 3/32".
In short, a perfectly set chain setup at 1/8" I believe would outlive an 3/32" setup. Or at least has so far on my fixed gears.
Answer: I personally think that the wear issue is not as simple as one size chain being better than the other.  Whilst this may be the case, it will all depend on the quality of the products involved ie cog, chainring and chain.
Answer: Your chain line is very important in a situation like this. Also if you use a flip flop rear hub your wheel has to be symmetrical.... So when you flip it around it does not affect the chain line.
For my chain line I use a Phil Wood BB which gives the most adjustment. I run a 1/8 crank (Paul Royal Flush). 1/8 chain. 1/8 Phil Wood track cog but I use a WI free wheel cog which is 3/32. They are both 18 teeth so when I flip the hub the tension is pretty close
Hope this helps
Chuckmeister


What is the purpose of tempering chocolate?

Question: What is the purpose of tempering chocolate?  If I'm dipping something in chocolate, can I get by with just melting the chocolate?
Answer: Chocolate is an odd substance when it comes to melting and hardening.  When chocolate hardens, its melting point will end up being just a few degrees higher than the hardening temperature.
When chocolate crystallizes at high temperatures, it forms a strong, dense crystalline structure that, texture-wise, is quite brittle.  Most bought chocolate (baker's chocolate and chips) is already tempered, but when you melt it, you break down that crystalline structure, and if you harden it at room temperature then it ends up forming very weak crystals that will melt in your hand.
If you use a special coating chocolate (couverture or the lower-quality compound chocolate) then you don't need to worry so much about tempering (although it's still a good idea), but if you use ordinary chocolate and don't temper it then your coating will end up being messy and wet and rub off on your hands while you eat it.  It might even melt while stored.
Tempering is the key to making a room-temperature-stable chocolate coating.  If you don't do this, you'll need to keep your pastries refrigerated until they're ready to consume.
Comment: In addition to Aaronut's answer, tempered chocolate is generally smoother, glossier, and 'snaps' better.
Answer: Tempering, in scientific terms, is a process of encouraging the cocoa butter to form a stable From V crystal structure.
When you temper chocolate, you are first melting the chocolate to a temperature that will break all of the crystals, leaving you a more or less uncrystalized soup of melted chocolate. From this clean starting point, you somehow encourage the chocolate to form only the right kind of crystals (Form V). This can be done either by adding pre-tempered chocolate as the melted chocolate cools or by agitating the melted chocolate on a marble slab. The former method is obviously much easier.
All real chocolate (including bars, most chips, and courverture) is sold in tempered form and must be in temper to use. The best way to use this chocolate is by melting it fully and adding unmelted tempered chocolate, but, if the chocolate you are starting with is tempered, you can also melt it very slowly until it is just barely melted it should remain in temper.
As far as the practical differences, tempered chocolate:

Glossy finish
Hard snap
Higher melting temperature
Will not have fat bloom (white splotching after hours to days)
Sets in 5 minutes or less
Answer: I wondered this myself over the holidays when I wanted to dip some cookies in chocolate.  I couldn't be bothered with buying a thermometer and figuring out how to do the tempering, so I just melted the chocolate (some nice quality chocolate bars, so not special chocolate meant for dipping) gently in a double boiler (ok, metal bowl on top of a pot of water), dipped, then set things on parchment paper.  It took a few hours to set and it probably would melt if you sat with it in your hand, but it worked well enough for me.  I stored the cookies at room temperature and they didn't seem noticeable melty when we ate them.
Comment: Chocolate bars tend to contain a high amount of lecithin as a preservative, which raises the melting point; that's probably why yours didn't melt straight up.
Answer: The beauty of chocolate is that it firm, crisp and solid at room temperature however when at body temperature like in our mouths it melts.
The simplest explanation of the effects of tempering chocolate is that the melting temperature increases when the chocolate crystallizes so it melts in your mouth and not your hands. Also, the texture of the chocolate is finer as cooled untempered chocolate has a grainy texture on the tongue.
Years ago I watched Pierre Herme who was at that time executive pastry chef of Fauchon in Paris put a plastic bowl of chocolate in the microwave until half was melted and then use a handheld electric blender to mix the melted and unmelted chocolate together to create a perfect tempered chocolate for dipping.
Perhaps, the easiest way to temper chocolate is to grate half the chocolate with a vegetable grater and melt the other half in a plastic bowl in the microwave until it is all just above body temperature. Then with a spoon stir in the grated chocolate. This is called the 'seeding' method. If the chocolate begins to get too cool just place it in the microwave for 2 or 3 seconds without melting it again.
Answer: Put your Hershey bar in your car's glove box. Wait for a hot day. Remove it. Fix the situation by putting it in your fridge.
Now taste it. That is what chocolate that is way out of temper tastes like. It is still chocolate, but something is clearly, terribly, wrong.


How do I know what size guitar strings I need?

Question: I'm about to buy strings and begin playing my acoustic guitar, but I don't know if there are different sizes of strings.
Comment: Welcome to Musical Practice and Performance.
Answer: We refer to the different sizes of strings as the "gauge" or "thickness".
You should probably replace your strings with the same gauge strings that are on your guitar already. If you change the gauge of strings, it will change the tension on the neck, and this might require that the instrument be adjusted by a technician--this is called a "setup" and it usually costs extra money.
So take your guitar to a music store. They can tell you what size strings are already on there and suggest a set to replace them with. They can probably teach you how to change them, too, and sell you an inexpensive string winding tool.
Sets of strings, at least in the USA, are referred to by the diameter, in fractions of an English inch, of the highest-pitched string. For instance, we refer to a set of strings as "12s" if the diameter of the highest string is 0.012 inches.
For an acoustic guitar, generally speaking, people would choose a set of 10s, 11s, 12s, or 13s. Most people use 12s or 11s.
Heavier-gauge sets will be brighter and louder, but will also require more force in the fingers to play. Lighter strings will have a more delicate sound and put out less volume, but will be easier to play.
Also, there is the matter of the formulation of the metal alloys in the strings. The most popular style for an acoustic guitar is "phosphor bronze" but there are others. Ask your local music store about the alternatives.
Answer: Wheat covers the details, but if I may pull back and generalize, for many things with guitar, there's Light or Thin, there's Heavy and then there is Medium. If you don't know which you need, try Mediums until you develop enough understanding to know what you need.


Where to start learning about Networking

Question: I am wondering if anyone can recommend resources on networking I don't mind if they are books or web pages. I just want to start learning a bit more about it as I want to take a gap year as a System Administrator or a IT Tech. I have experience programming and have been doing so for many years however i'm not a graduate so unlikely to get a software development job.
Thanks in Advance,
Dean
Answer: You can read as many books and websites as you want, but you're not going to really learn until you do some hands on work. Get yourself some cheap switches and/or routers on Ebay or somewhere and set yourself a home lab and start playing. Set yourself some projects and some goals, then when you get into problems, start looking for the solutions online or in books. Come here and we will help you out.
That said, why would you need a degree to get a Software development job? I know many many highly skilled software developers who have no degrees, and no need for one as they have experience. I also know many people coming out of university with a degree in software development that I wouldn't trust programming my TV. Systems administration is no easier, or less complicated than programming, and you're only going to enjoy it if it's actually what you want to do. If you're settling for being a sysadmin when you really want to be a developer, you're going to hate it.
Comment: Personally, I wouldn't want to work somewhere that having a degree mattered.
Comment: You're both absolutely correct. The degree is to get past the less-than-qualified HR who is typically in control of the first rounds of qualification. With that situation being the sad fact of life, we have a ton of paper-tigers who are in positions that they definitely do not qualify for, but they have the degree which the HR folks as well as the less-than-perfect enabling process has deemed as proof of qualification or better/more potential than the other person without the degree...
Answer: One of the "bast bang for the buck" would be to acquire a layer 3 switch. A ton of networking technologies in one box - switching and routing. If you can find any in stock, Asus has a very capable layer 3 switch for under $100 USD. It's not a Cisco, but has a very comparable technologies/features line-up and will at least provide you a chance towards good/meaningful exposure.
Answer: TCP/IP Illustrated - the networking bible
CISCO has good docs on networking
A Linux/BSD box to practice
Answer: My recommendation is the book Computer Networks by Tanenbaum... gives a great overview of networking functionality and protocols - I found this an excellent book to actually read cover-to-cover, and you can fill in the gaps by googling. It won't make you an expert overnight, but will give you a superb grounding. I originally read it as part of my degree and have bought the 2 new editions since.
Answer: I suggest you get hold of a copy of cisco packet tracer software which is a sort of virtual network simulation. It'll teach you how to setup routers and switches, including right down to the actual commands you need to run on them (cisco gear, anyway). It'll also go a far way towards helping if you decide to do a CCNA or similar in the future.
Might be worth picking up an old ccna cisco book off amazon second hand also - very helpful books.
Answer: If you want to get into the Sysadmin Job you have to know very well the basics of how a network functions and this can also help you if you go the developer way.
You can find a very comprehensive tutorial about how a network works in Networking Fundamentals by Juniper. I hope you will find this a easy as i did.
Answer: I found this HOWTO very useful:

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/NET3-4-HOWTO.html

After that, I learned volumes from m0n0wall and pfSense.
Perhaps you can learn from these resources as well!