Does tourist visa (90 days) apply after a long-term visa ends in Schengen countries?

Question: I am an Australian currently on a Netherlands working holiday visa that ends in May next year. I would like to know if when my visa ends I then get another 90 days just as a regular tourist visa as I would like to do some more travel within Europe when my visa ends before going home to Australia.
Comment: Best place to ask this is IND ([http://english.ind.nl/contact/](http://english.ind.nl/contact/)), since you are already in Netherlands, the phone call costs €0.10 per min. They will for sure give you a solid and legally correct answer. In such matters, I would only trust the official authority.
Answer: I had the same situation as you. I decided to leave the Schengen area when my work visa expired (hopped over to London for the weekend) and came back through Paris. I had no trouble at border control with getting an entry stamp, and the border agent hardly looked at my expired visa.
So I don't know whether you can automatically get the 90 days, but at least in my case, I got the 90 days after a trip to the UK.
My relevant question on SE is here.
Update:
I have now left and entered the Schengen area twice just fine after my work visa expired. I have entered through both Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports (both in Paris), and the border guards flipped through my passport, saw the expired visa, and still stamped my entry.
Comment: @phoog Not quite, I believe the sticker does say "90 days" in this case. Either way, my point is that it depends on what's on the sticker, this specifies the duration, implicitly or explicitly.
Comment: (+1) A small remark: Unlike the US, there is no maximum duration of stay granted upon entry in the Schengen area. Depending on their citizenship, visitors either need a visa (which will then specify a duration) or can enter without one (in which case the only limit is 90 days).
Comment: @Relaxed short stay visas don't necessarily specify a duration; inthose cases, the 90/180 rule applies, of course.
Comment: @Relaxed you are of course correct. I don't know what I was thinking when I left my earlier comment nor why I did not respond to your second comment when you posted it.
Answer: Exiting Schengen and reentering does not seem to be a requirement to make your stay valid.
[EDIT] However, I just found that the French Consulate in Sydney specifically says you should leave Schengen and reenter, suggesting to go to the UK :

If you want to stay in the Schengen space (for up to 90 days) at the expiry of your working holiday visa, you will have to leave France and the Schengen space and re-enter the Schengen area the following day as a tourist for 90 days within a 6 months period. You may leave the Schengen area (passport stamped at the border) by going to the UK for example.

[end EDIT]
As other answers show it, it is possible to spend up to 90 days inside the Schengen area for tourism purpose even if you had a long-stay visa before.
This is only experience and is not an authoritative source, but a friend (who does not need a visa for short stay) recently ended her stay on a student visa in France. She decided to stay for tourism afterwards. She did not leave the Schengen until more than 10 days after her student visa expired (with an exit stamp showing the date). She entered Schengen area and exited twice soon after, and never had any issue with immigration (who barely checked her visa the second time). She crossed the border at different places in Europe, making it relatively obvious she was traveling (and not working for example).
Therefore, even though the Consulate of France in Sydney says otherwise, as quoted above, it appears likely that exiting and reentering to have exit and entry stamps showing the stays are separate is not a requirement. It seems possible to have continuously a long-stay visa and a short stay (if no short-stay visa is necessary), but I would recommend to leave Schengen if possible. I suppose that any proof that you are not working (e.g. a document showing the end of a contract) would help, in case the border police is suspicious.
Comment: Note that this does confirm my answer and the fact that text cited therein is really current EU law. Incidentally, if a short-stay visa was necessary, it should in principle still be possible to get one and use it, it's a different question.
Answer: I asked an Australian and this was their response:

From what I understand of the WHV program, a Working Holiday visa
  'removes' that country from the rest of the tourist visa 90-day
  restriction.
So if you will have spent the last 90 days of your WHV visa in the
  Netherlands, then there shouldn't be an issue with travelling through
  the rest of the Schengen area for the next 90 days. I'm unsure as to
  whether that strikes the Netherlands as unvisitable, however.
Also, transitioning off your WHV to the regular tourist visa may
  require a run through somewhere like London to 'leave' the Schengen
  area on your WHV so you can re-enter as a tourist - but again, I
  cannot directly claim knowledge on this.
I would get in touch with the Australian embassy - they should at
  least be able to help you with more certainty than I.
Answer: As an Australian citizen, you do not need (and could not get) a Schengen visa but you can indeed visit the Schengen area for 90 days, visa-free, after the end of your working holiday visa. The relevant regulation is the Schengen Borders Code and in particular article 6:

For intended stays on the territory of the Member States of a duration of no more than 90 days in any 180-day period, which entails considering the 180-day period preceding each day of stay, the entry conditions for third-country nationals shall be the following:

[…]

For the purposes of implementing paragraph 1, the date of entry shall be considered as the first day of stay on the territory of the Member States and the date of exit shall be considered as the last day of stay on the territory of the Member States. Periods of stay authorised under a residence permit or a long-stay visa shall not be taken into account in the calculation of the duration of stay on the territory of the Member States.
Comment: To whoever edited this post: This is current EU law. To verify that, look up the last "consolidated version" of the Borders Code.
Answer: To corroborate what Paulinchen2 said:
From the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) website:

If you wish to stay in the Netherlands for longer than three months, you will need a residence permit. Check the residence wizard for further information.

From the FAQ regarding residence permits (emphasis mine):

Can I also apply for a residence permit if I am staying in the Netherlands as a tourist?
This will depend on your nationality. Most people must first have a provisional residence permit [Machtiging tot voorlopig verblijf, MVV] before they can apply for a residence permit.
You can only apply for the provisional residence permit in your country of origin or permanent residence. The conditions for obtaining a provisional residence permit depend on your purpose of residence. In the Residence wizard select your purpose of residence, nationality and 'longer than 3 months'. You can then find out whether you require a provisional residence permit and if so, how to apply.

And from the FAQ regarding holidays longer than three months:

It is not possible to apply for a short stay visa for a period exceeding 3 months. If you wish to stay in the Netherlands for longer than 3 months, you must apply for a residence permit. In order to be eligible for a residence permit you need a purpose of residence other than holiday and you must meet the conditions of the purpose of residence you have stipulated.

The wording and language seems pretty clear to me, although your exact situation hasn't been discussed. So, unfortunately for you, the answer seems to be that it's not possible unless you already have a Dutch resident permit (unlikely, as you only need it if you are staying for more than 90 days, and your current visa is valid for only three months).
Comment: I think you're misunderstanding the situation. SarahG says she is *already* in the Netherlands on a working holidy visa which ends in May, so it's valid longer than three months, so according to IND she must have a residence permit. The question is whether she can get a tourist visa afterwards without leaving and returning.
Answer: According to this (unofficial) website you can only apply for a Schengen visa while holding a residence permit up to 3 months before the permit ends, preventing exactly the thing you want to do. But that's for the UK, which is not a full Schengen member. And you're from Australia, so you don't actually need a visa to stay in the Schengen area as a tourist.
Interestingly, Australians also don't need a visa to stay in the (non-Schengen) UK, so a loophole might be to first go to the UK and then enter the Schengen area as a tourist.
But all in all this is a pretty special case and I'd suggest you ask the Australian embassy about this.
Comment: I don't think that this is relevant. The reason behind this remark is that to apply for a visa in the UK, most (all?) embassies require applicants to reside there. This has nothing to do with the OP's problem.
Answer: I am 99.9% sure that it gives you no extra time.
The 90 days you refer to is the maximum duration of stay without a visa. As an Australian you can apply for a tourist visa in the Schengen Zone.
Comment: That's incorrect in several ways. Importantly, 90 days is not the maximum stay without a visa, it's the maxium duration for (almost) all short stays under the Schengen regulations. Some people can enter without a visa, others require one but if you exhausted the maximum duration of stay, getting another Schengen uniform visa cannot extend it and your application should in fact be refused.


Theoretically what happens to a black hole that evaporates?

Question: Theoretically, does an evaporating black hole remain a black hole until it evaporates to nothing? Or does it change into something else once it evaporates to below a certain mass?
Answer: Utterly unknown.
So Hawking proposed radiation, that reduces the mass of the black hole (BH) by black body radiation.  The effective temperature is antiproportional to the mass of the BH.  In the linked paper, Hawking concludes that BHs end in "fairly small explosions by astronomical standards."
There are different solutions to the equations of general relativity that produce black holes, not only the common Schwarzschild metric.  Whether the curvature singularity or the event horizon vanish before the BH completely evaporates, depends on the internal structure of the BH.  As any mass, even very small ones, can become BHs if you compress them enough, there might be a singularity until the very end (not taking into account quantum mechanics).  On the other hand a "vanishing event horizon" is not something we should be strictly speaking about, because then it wasn't an event horizon in the first place.  You may see the looming problems with black hole remnants.
Also: according to the no-hair theorem, BHs are completely characterized by mass, electric charge and angular momentum.  If you can see a remnant, e.g. a clump of matter, could you derive its complete properties from the previous three only?
In research, a remnant seems to be generally undesired
 but possible.  This fresh and unreviewed paper jumps on the bandwagon and proposes white holes as remnants. So the debate about the end of BHs and their information theoretical implications is still a hot topic.
Disclaimer: I'm not a BH specialist.  (And I'm waiting for the time where "black hole specialist" is a craft job designation.)
Comment: The main web page for the linked paper is https://arxiv.org/abs/1412.8366 , and it appears the paper was published in 2015.
Comment: There are two papers linked in adjacent sentences. (I've tried to rephrase it to avoid that, but then it didn't sound quite right). I agree that linking to the abstract page might be better and changed the links.
Comment: "As any mass, even very small ones, can become BHs if you compress them enough" - what? Isn't the definition of a BH that it is so heavy that even light is sucked into it. If the Moon become as dense as a BH, it would still only weigh as much as it does today and today it doesn't attract light in any significant way.
Comment: @d-b It's due to the Schwarzschild radius. The mass stays the same, but the space in which it is packed is tiny, which is what causes the high gravity. The Schwarzschild radius is the radius in which the object's mass would need to be for it to collapse into a black hole.
Answer: According to theory of general relativity mass warps the spacetime. In black hole, its mass  causes high curvature of spacetime (infinite curvature at its centre called singularity). When black hole evaporates,its mass decreases therefore its ability to wrap spacetime decreases and when it evaporates fully there will be no distortion of spacetime. So it will become normal space without zero/very less curvature of space time.
Comment: I think you mean "warps", not "wraps".
Answer: Any object whose radius is smaller than its Schwarzschild radius is called a black hole. The Schwarzschild radius is given as $$ r_s = \frac{2GM}{c^2}$$
where G is the gravitational constant, M is the object mass and c is the speed of light.
What's important to note here is that this is a linear relationship; in other words, the radius decreases in exact proportion to the decrease in mass. We would therefore expect the black hole to continue to behave as a black hole pretty much right up to the point that it completely evaporates.
I say "pretty much", because what happens at the point of final evaporation is that the density and temperature of the black hole approach infinity while its mass and Schwarzschild radius approach zero. The physics at that point is well beyond my modest abilities/knowledge; I suspect our current models break down at a radius below the Planck length.


Can a prospective employer require you to pay to take a test as part of an interview?

Question: I just red this question about having to pay to take a test for an interview. Is it legal? Must an employer reimburse? In general this site says an employer can't charge you a fee to start work.
Answer:
Can a prospective employer require you to pay to take a test as part of an interview?

That is unlawful.
Section 10 of the BC Employment Standards Act prohibits a person to "request, charge or receive, directly or indirectly, from a person seeking employment a payment for (a) employing or obtaining employment for the person seeking employment". See also section 11.
A prospective employer is allowed to require proof of credentials (such as certifications or a diploma) which in turn might entail a non-reimbursable cost to the candidate. However, that is permissible because the credibility inherent to renown credentialing systems facilitates ascertaining that the prospective employer has no ulterior motive (i.e., profit) for requiring candidates to consume services from a certifying agency. In other words, the employer and the certifying agency must be two separate, totally unrelated agencies, for the former's reliance on the latter to be cognizable in a context of screening candidates.
The post on WorkplaceSE basically describes a scam. Although that post refers to the UK, it is most likely that many other jurisdictions contain a legislative provision similar to the aforementioned statute. As an example, see M[ichigan]CL 408.478.
Comment: A payment for sitting a test won't fall under "_payment for (a) employing or obtaining employment_" because paying for the test won't guarantee employment. That passage in Section 10 is rather intended to outlaw things like purchase of job offers for obtaining work visas.
Comment: @Greendrake "*paying for the test won't guarantee employment*". The statute does not require that the employment be guaranteed. By contrast, the statutory language uses the term "*indirectly*", in consideration that an employer could disguise as "testing purposes" his pursuit of candidate's money.
Comment: @IñakiViggers why is US legislature so much longer to read than Canadian?
Comment: @OxOfay "*why is US legislature so much longer to read than Canadian?*" I have no answer for that and don't even know the extent to which that is the case. That topic definitely requires knowledge of history of law of both countries.
Answer: The application of Section 10 cited by Iñaki Viggers was challenged in a 2009 case where an employment agency was charging a fee Pilipino people seeking employment as nannies in Canada: $1000 on application, $1500 on offer of employment and further $1500 after start of the employment. The Employment Standards authority found:

The Agency has misused the terms in order to obscure the following
  simple fact: the Agency requires individuals who are seeking
  employment to pay a fee to the Agency in order for the agency to help
  them obtain employment. I find the fees charged by the Agency are for
  Job placements, and are a contravention of Section 10 of the Act.

So, what matters here is the actual purpose of the fee. Specifically, whether it is for job placement (as opposed to, say, testing fitness for the job).
Unless the prospective employer in question only uses the declared fee purpose (to take test) as disguise to the actual purpose (job placement), there is nothing illegal for them to charge such a fee. After all, conducting tests incurs expenses, and the candidates are not yet (and most of them will not become) the employees.
It is, however, rather unusual for a company to genuinely make tests non-free for employment candidates. Normally, employers do absorb hiring costs to find a few good workers among crowds of candidates — otherwise they will miss out on those good workers who cannot (or would not) pay for the tests. Therefore, where someone says they hire for a well known company and require payment for tests, attention should be paid as to whether they are not scammers.


What's the purpose of running Armory through Tor?

Question: What's the purpose of running Armory through Tor?  Is it only useful once you get to the point where you start sending Bitcoins?
Answer:
Armory (in online mode) uses a full node.  Full nodes relay transactions for other programs on the Bitcoin network, so by running Armory on Tor, you help other people send their transactions with possibly-improved privacy.
Sending your own transactions through Tor with Armory can help prevent anyone from associating your IP address with your transaction, possibly improving your privacy.

Note: Tor and Armory must both be used properly to achieve improved privacy.
Comment: @RootFail: the slow down wasn't the main reason though. By design, Torrent protocol leaks your IP Address, this isn't bug it's what makes it work. If you are using Torrent over Tor, you get neither Torrent's efficient distribution network nor Tor's privacy, and you're hurting both networks.
Comment: I haven't heard of complaints from Tor administrators. Let's say there are 1,000 Tor Bitcoin full nodes collectively relaying 1 MB of transactions per block plus the blocks themselves at 1 MB.  If we further say every node is a hidden service so 6 hops (IIRC) are needed, that's 1000 * (2 * 1MB) * 6 = 12 GB of transfer about every 10 minutes---or about 20 KB/s per Bitcoin-enabled Tor node.  If all those nodes are hidden services, they're all doing relay---and I suspect most Tor relays have an upload speed faster than 20 KB/s, so the Bitcoin nodes in this worst-case example are net contributors.
Comment: @RootFAIL Actually the Tor team have actively welcomed Bitcoin traffic. (source: Bitcoin development mailing list) It will do the Tor network good by bringing more users and more variety of data.
Comment: Is it ethical to do this?  I know Tor doesn't want you to attempt to run Bittorrent over Tor because it can't handle the load, wouldn't running Armory anonymously also pose similar problems?  https://blog.torproject.org/blog/bittorrent-over-tor-isnt-good-idea
Comment: I mean if everyone did this would it slow down Tor browser?


Do the Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad support "middle click"?

Question: I'm currently using the old Apple Mighty Mouse and I configured clicking on the trackball as a "middle click" that's been very handy for opening links in new tabs, closing tabs, etc. However, the mouse is starting to show its age and I've been looking at Apple's Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad, and I'm wondering - do either of these support the "middle click" operation? If not, is there a gesture or a multi-finger click that can be used for the same things (i.e. opening new tabs, etc)?
Answer: Our friends over at SuperUser have an answer for us:

Here are two utilities that will allow you to customize gestures on the Magic Mouse, including adding middle click:

MagicPrefs
Better Touch Tool
Comment: Thanks for the quick reply. It's too bad that they apparently don't support it "out of the box", but I'll check those programs out.
Comment: Yeah there is a lot of potential for the mouse which apple didnt make use of. I haven't used any of those apps but I have heard good things, and have seen how configurable some of them are (very!).
Comment: I use MagicPrefs. It's not *quite* as nice as a real middle click, because the mouse seems to get a bit confused sometimes. I think I will try BetterTouchTool and see if it's any better.
Comment: The update to High Sierra seems to break MagicPrefs (which is discontinued), but BTT still works and looks like it will continue working / being maintained for the foreseeable future
Comment: MagicPrefs is actually still somewhat usable in High Sierra, but it seems to be pretty flaky for a lot of people. Any 3rd party software that listens to touch data from the magic mouse is at the mercy of Apple allowing use of one of their private frameworks. For one of the High Sierra betas, Apple removed support, but later added it back in.
Answer: Multitouch is another option for adding "middle click" functionality to the Magic Mouse.
(Disclaimer, I'm the developer.)
Comment: I tried all of the old programs for the magic mouse middle click but this is the only one that worked. Thanks Ryan. I just made a purchase. I highly recommend it. I'm on the latest macOS version (Catalina 10.15)
Comment: I too highly recommend Multitouch.  It works perfectly with XQuartz too.  BetterTouchTool is excessively and extraordinarily complex to configure just for proper button-down / button-up simulation, and it doesn't work correctly with XQuartz.  Multitouch on the other hand is trivial to configure.  Multitouch can also do the window-snap things old BTT did, though without the window-drag gestures so far as I can tell.
Answer: Middle Click is a free app and is perfect for that.

Do the Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad support “middle click”?


Should I trim the fronds on a Queen palm?

Question: The fronds are very sturdy and bend almost to the ground. They are probably over 10ft. in length. Should I trim them? Their weight sometimes causes them to "crack" off.
Comment: Can you add a photograph please?
Comment: That is the natural growth pattern. Trimming does not hurt them.
Comment: Welcome! Would you please post a picture or two of your palm? Also, how old is it? Is it the lowest fronds, upper, or both, that are doing this?  We'd love some more details. You can [edit] them into your question rather than answering in comments. That way, all the information is in the same place for everyone to see. Thanks!
Answer: Queen palms, and most palms, are being over-pruned in south Florida. The basic rule of thumb: if it is green it is helping tree grow and leave it alone.
Answer: A Queen Palm?  Yes, whenever any branch of a plant in the landscape grows so long it starts to bend the entire branch frond down to a point the weight (physics and levers) breaks the entire branch cutting that weight back where the frond bounces back up to relieve the pressure, is fine.  Not pretty, not normally necessary but the alternative is breaking the entire branch/frond.  Cut at an angle, clip a few leaflets (?) back  so it doesn't look lopped off and unnatural. Tough to do.
I'd look up some well paid landscaper that works on residential or commercial landscapes in your area and ask them what it is they do.  Ask for an example to go look at.  Start out by mentioning you are looking to hire a maintenance company then talk about this palm. Otherwise, they'll think you are competition or a DYI and they'll have nothing to do with you.  A Queen Palm?
You do have to send pictures before any pruning.  This plant is special, one of the most architectural plants in the world.  Please, we are dying to see this palm.  How old is it and where do you live?


How can I design a simple logo without any prior skill in graphic design?

Question: I want to create a simple logo, but I have no skills or experience in graphic design. Although I'm familiar with GIMP, I'm not sure how to get started. A text-logo would suffice, but it should be individual and not too ugly. Any advice?
Answer: I'm tempted to close this as "not a real question", but I'll try to humor you since you're only 10.
If you have no graphic design skills, then the obvious thing to do is just to hire a professional to design the logo for you. Otherwise, you'll have to accept that the logo you design will most-likely be terrible.
If there were a simple way (simple enough to be explained in a few short paragraphs anyway) to teach a complete novice to become a good designer overnight, then there'd really be no need for professional graphic designers, graphic design text books, or graphic design schools/courses.
That said, if you have very low expectations and don't care about how plain or generic the logo looks, then a simple way to make a "non-ugly" logo is to just use a simple logotype, i.e.:

Choose a good, clean (simple) typeface, such as Helvetica.
Select a font style, e.g. Bold, Italic, Bold+Italic, Black, Regular, Light, etc.
Type the name of the company however you want it to be rendered.

That's a simple, generic, non-ugly logo that anyone can create. It won't stand out much, and it won't convey much about your brand, but at least it won't be ugly.
Comment: He's not really 10, that's just the minimum age that se sites allow you to enter.  :)  I tried to be 0 years old on a site where I had no experience with any of the topics and that's when I found that out.  :)
Comment: I'm not sure about the legal ramifications, but you could also go to a site that offers free logo templates, choose a logo template and modify the company name. One such site is: http://www.templatesbox.com/category/all-logo-templates/index.htm
Comment: That's a good start, although I would wish it to be a little more individual. But not ugly is fine, and I think not terrible logo is better than no one at all. Thanks for the advice. But why it is no real question?
Comment: While I go along with this answer, I think it's worded a bit unfairly. The question is good; He isn't asking "how to become a good designer overnight" at all, but how to create a very simple logotype. Which is what you ultimately advise anyway.
Answer: I like to browse around at LogoPond to get inspiration and ideas. Once you figure out what you want, you can search for tutorials to figure out how to do it using the software of your choice. For a logo I would recommend a vector editing program like Inkscape instead of a raster one like GIMP.
Comment: Agreed - creation of your logo in a vector format is very important for scalability and usage at different resolutions.
Answer: Some tips (from experience, and also echoing the answers of others here...)

Brainstorm for your concept first. Don't feel like you need to start at the computer - often the best designs are birthed with pencil and paper. Start by sketching out a bunch of ideas, get some input from a few people, and settle on the most clear and obvious concept that you came up with.
Execute your concept in a vector-based software application like Adobe Illustrator. You can scan your sketches as a basis to work from, but make sure you create your final product in a vector format for scalability (meaning so that it can be used across various resolutions and applications, such as from web, to print, to signage or embroidery).
Make sure you have a version that works as a black and white (meaning as just one color), a version for two or more colors, and also something that works on any background color (whether dark or light).
Be sure to export and save various versions of the logo, but primarily a vector-based version (.EPS or .AI) and raster versions (.JPG, .PNG, .GIF).
Get more input, and make adjustments as necessary.
For future reference, any time an actual professional designer needs to work with your logo, always provide them with a vector-based version (the .EPS or .AI files).
Answer: The answer is the same to any question that goes "How do I do X without any experience in X" = read, research, practice, trial and error, get help, ask advice, etc.
Answer: If the question is: how can I get a logo that is "individual and not too ugly", without the DIY aspect being so important, my advice is hire a graphic designer who you can spend time with face-to-face and with whom you can figure out what you want together.  At the end, you can play around with the finished design to see how it is put together.
I've thought of hiring a graphic designer to critique my own creations, but have never got around to doing it.
Answer: The basic rule is
MAKE IT SIMPLE!

If you can convert it to monochrome (black and white - no gray tone) and it still looks good, you will have created a potential good (at least not ugly) logo.
To get something to start with, and you want symbolic rather than text, you can search for some keywords that describes what you want at an ICON search page like http://findicons.com or http://www.iconfinder.com . Then find an image that you like to start with and play around with that in Gimp or something.
If you are going to use it as a computer icon, you might also want to make sure it looks OK in 16x16 pixel. This is not easy!
Example
An example of a well known logo is the film studio 20th Century FOX. They have a quite advanced logo, that even has animation when on film. But it still looks good (and recognizable) in monochrome!
As it appears on their web site:

Simple monochrome version:
Answer: There are several things you need to design a logo. A message, a choice of font and imagery - You need to make sure that these three things are tight.
You need to fully understand the message you want to put across with the design and I'd also recommend researching fonts for the correct one to support your message and also use a website like Brandsoftheworld to perhaps look at similar companies to look at the imagery they used in their logo
Answer: Buddy. You are young and probably have no idea what most the people on here are saying. So let me see if I can help you out a little.
Some super easy cheapo logos i've designed all practically do the same thing. The name of the thing you are trying to logo in BOLD all capital letters. then if there is a slogan or alternate text, put that at the bottom in a smaller font and not in bold and in a lighter color.
make sure everything is close together and all aligned to one side. make sure the top line is darker in color than the bottom. this works for most logos that aren't supposed to look too fancy. it could probably work for yours.
Designer's note: (gosh guys I know the kerning and spacing is WAY off and this is horrible -- no message, color, mark, etc-- but this is demonstration purposes only. i'd never hand this off to a client unless i gave them a gun to shoot me with after. vomit)

Let's face it. You don't need a high level logo that will take months to figure out. If you want to make a plain text logo in Gimp and get away with it.. this is quick and dirty solution, my friend.
Answer: First piece of advice: Use Inkscape to build your logo, not GIMP. It's free and open-source, just like GIMP, but it'll give you a much better end product with logos. The reason is that GIMP is made for editing photos, paintings, and the like, so it works with pixels. Inkscape works all in vectors. Think of vectors as something like pieces of rubber that you've cut with scissors into shapes -- you can stretch them as large as you want and they'll still keep their shape. Pixels start to become very obvious as you increase the size.
Stick with clean lines -- in my early days, I made the mistake of getting too fancy. All my favourite logos now are quite un-fancy and would still look good if I copied them with a crappy, old-fashioned photocopier. That's because they're simple shapes with little or no gradients. And NOOOO photos or special effects unless (1) the situation really cried out for it and (2) I was certain my logo would always be used in a high-quality environment, like colour printing, PDFs, or large website banners.
Lastly (and definitely most importantly), pick up a great book about graphic design -- something like The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams. Her books are enjoyable, easy to follow, and give you an excellent introduction to the craft of visual communication.
Answer: Learn more about graphic design elements and principles and how to communicate a message through the logo. A logo that does not communicate the right message then is not effective and even confusing to viewers.


How do I install javac (JSDK) on Scientific Linux, 64Bit

Question: I am trying to finds a way to install the Java SDK (javac) on Scientific Linux 64bit with yum or anyway.. Can someone please tell me the best what to do this so I can use maven for my builds etc
Answer: Another option is to install the openjdk available via the distribution.
yum install java-1.7.0-openjdk java-1.7.0-openjdk-devel
Answer: Just download the SDK from Oracle, place it in a suitable directory like /opt/java.
chmod it, i.e.:
chmod 744 jdk-6u37-linux-x64.bin

unpack it, i.e.:
./jdk-6u37-linux-x64.bin

symlink it, i.e.:
ln -s jdk1.6.0_37/ jdk

set environment variables in /etc/profile.d/java.sh, e.g. (for ant but you get the idea):
export JAVA_HOME=/opt/java/jdk
export ANT_HOME=/opt/java/apache/ant
export PATH=${JAVA_HOME}/bin:${ANT_HOME}/bin:${PATH}

Cheers
Answer: Just download the JDK from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html,
and If you receive this error, UNIX cannot find the compiler, javac.
or
javac: Command not found - after installing Java
Here's one way to tell UNIX where to find javac. Suppose you installed the JDK in /usr/local/jdk1.8.0. At the prompt you would type the following command and press Return:
/usr/local/jdk1.8.0/javac hello.java
Note: If you choose this option, each time you compile or run a program, you'll have to precede your javac and java commands with /usr/local/jdk1.8.0/. To avoid this extra typing, you could add this information to your PATH variable. The steps for doing so will vary depending on which shell you are currently running.
Class names, 'hello', are only accepted if annotation processing is explicitly requested
If you receive this error, you forgot to include the .java suffix when compiling the program. Remember, the command is javac hello.java not javac hello.
For more details, consult this lecture "Creating a Hello World application" in this page. http://learnjavaeasy.com/course/learn-java-online-with-java-8-by-examples/


Did Mike's granddaughter get Mike's money?

Question: When Mike died in Breaking Bad, did the DEA confiscate his money, or did his granddaughter inherit it?
Comment: I think somewhere a line of dialogue was passed by...someone that the DEA took Mike's money *twice*, first time from Fring, second time when they caught the Lawyer
Comment: @TylerShads this is the key; Jesse offering money to Kaylee doesn't mean for sure that he knew she didn't have anything, but this line from Walt confirms it.
Answer: No. When money is found to have been gotten through illegal means it no longer belongs to the initial beneficiaries. This money (from what I understand) now belongs to the state.
From the latest episode (spoiler)  (aired 11th of August 2013)

 we see Jessie attempting to give half of his share of the $5mil (given to him by Walter/Heisenberg) to Mike's Granddaughter, knowing she now needs the money.

So I hope this answers your question!
Answer: I don't think we know at this point.
The lawyer was dropping off money for the guys in prison when caught, not Mike's money for his granddaughter, Kaylee. That safety deposit box was already filled, with a note for her.
If you want to speculate... you could suppose that the lawyer had the key to that deposit box as well on him and they did confiscate it. But you could also argue that since the deposit box was already filled Mike would have taken the key himself to be delivered to Kaylee at a later time.
Jesse attempting to give Kaylee half of the $5 million did not indicate to me that he knew anything about the money in the safe deposit box.
Answer: The government seized both the money Mike had deposited for his granddaughter by Gus Fring in an overseas account and the money left in the safe deposit box by the attorney. There's no indication that Mike had any other money stashed away as he had Walt bring him a "bug out bag" from it's hiding place at the airport so it seems that he left nothing to his grandchild.
On a side note, this seems to have been completely amateurish of Mike to have his funds seized. Had he used the money that Walt wrangled from his deal with Declan to purchase something like gold coins or collectibles, he could have easily concealed these from the feds and allowed them to be given to his granddaughter many years later following his death and after any statute of limitations had passed.


Finding the map seed of a Civilization V game

Question: I recently started a game on Civilization V and I really like the map I'm playing. I know it's possible to manually input a seed when creating a game but is there a way to display the seed of a game in progress?
Comment: I don't think I've ever seen a spot to specify the map seed, and I'm not aware of any location where the value is displayed on a running map.  I will admit to not having total recall of every Civ5 option/value/checkbox/dialog/etc, though ;)
Answer: I'm not sure about getting the seed from an existing map, but you can save only the map and then replay it with different settings.

In the MODS section, click Single Player. Select Set Up Game. The Map
  should be selectable here.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=387782
Answer: Now, there is no way to save the seed, but I found a way to restart on the same map. I recently messed up pretty bad because I had an amazing start for the pantheon "Earth Mother" but I went with "God of the Open Sky" instead. Filled with immediate regret for my action, I looked for any way to reset my pantheon or simply reset the game (I hadn't been smart enough to do a first turn save). I had no save file for the game but as it turns out, buried in the game's files, it has a background autosave for the most recently played game, regardless of your autosave preference settings.
I ended up restoring my session and righting my wrong by going to the C: drive (where I keep my x86 Program Files), going to Program Files, Steam, steamapps, common, and that is where I found my Civilization V folder. Once there I went to the folder marked "saves", the subfolder "single", and the subfolder "auto", wherein I found something titled OldAutoSave_Initial_0000 etc. etc., copy/pasted it into the folder "Single", and upon entering the single player menu and going to Load Game that I had a game titled that long title which turned out to be the start of the match I'd blundered. Ergo I saved my own ass, because this may be the best start I've ever seen. :)
T'was quite the adventure.


What should I choose? jQuery, mootools, yui, scriptaculous or prototype?

Question: Duplicate: Which Javascript framework (jQuery vs Dojo vs … )?
I am totally new to JavaScript, but I want to implement Ajax features into my website. Which JS framework should I learn? Please recommend or which one you are using and why you use it?
Comment: Where is the Extjs love? http://extjs.com
Answer: jQuery is currently extremely popular, so you're probably going to have the most luck finding recent tutorials/plugins/etc for it, as opposed to one of the other frameworks. That's probably a fairly good selling-point from the perspective of someone new to this.
Answer: Microsoft apparently blessed jQuery, so for now that's your best bet.
Comment: Should I bring up other things Microsoft has "blessed"?  I'm a big fan of jQuery, but I can't say I'm using it because Microsoft gave it a seal of approval.
Comment: @spoulson: If you really think about it... yes.
Comment: @spoulson For Microsoft to put its blessing behind an existing open source project is pretty huge. They almost always make their own proprietary library. It's a good sign for jQuery's continued progress.
Comment: Just because Microsoft said so?
Comment: I'm not a big fan of MS myself, but I suppose this answer is a good thing :) +1
Answer: I'm currently writing a paper on JavaScript frameworks. After all the research I've done so far, I can tell you this...
Seriously, nobody can tell you which framework is best for you. There's only one way to find out: try playing around with all the different libraries you're considering. It's a matter of personal preference.
See this excellent JavaScript Library Overview, a presentation by John Resig (who happens to be the lead developer of jQuery). It contains small code samples for all the listed frameworks. After viewing those, you'll probably know which framework to choose, depending on which coding style you prefer.
Also, this SO topic might be of interest.
Answer: Jquery is probably the best of the lot, it actually lets you "do more, write less"
Answer: One more for Jquery..Awesome plugins!!
Answer: I use jQuery now because it is easy and has lots of features. Before I was using prototype and scriptaculous.
Answer: Built in intellisense for jQuery in VS2008 (sp1 I think?) was one consideration for us, but essentially we've played with mootools, prototype, scriptaculous and jquery, and have found jquery to be the easiest for us all to understand/support.
We have a mixed team here, and even our business logic guys can pickup the logic/approach in jquery.
We also use telerik controls, and they've now announced more support for jquery - it certainly seems its star is in the ascension.
Try all of them, but if you're from a .net background, I think it's the logical choice at the moment.
Answer: I noticed Dojo wasn't included on your list.  It's a framework that's geared to heavy-weight AJAXified pages.
http://dojotoolkit.org/
That said, JQuery appears to have the most momentum at the moment, and other frameworks (like Dojo) are working on putting more JQuery-like functionality into their product, so I would recommend learning that.
Answer: Im having a really good time with jQuery myself. Thers lots of good documentation and tutorials for it, which is excellent if your new to Javascript.
If its only the ajax features your after I recommend checking out http://docs.jquery.com/Ajax . Also the tutorials at Themeforest is really brilliant. For example the jquery tutorial for absolute beginners day 10 is showing you the basics of jQuery + Ajax.
Answer: FORK Ajax. It does the job well, and it's very small (5KB minified) and simple.
Answer: I'll plug Mootools. Of course the reason anyone prefers any of these over another is "I started using XYZ first."
Answer: jQuery is my go-to framework of choice, but you really have to look at each ones' strengths and see how they align with your project
The important thing is, use a framework -- really any framework. The benefits of using a framework, no matter which one, are so enormous. The best ones get rid of all or most of the cross-browser headaches you are bound to experience.
Comment: I should expand: I prefer jQuery because I find it's pretty minimalistic and it's methods are very intuitive. The each() method has saved me a lot of time and it's got a lot of smart event methods baked in. YUI, by contrast seems to be a bit overkill for my taste, but it also has it's advantages.
Answer: The best thing to consider is what you want the framework for. jQuery was designed to make manipulating the DOM easier. So if that is the main focus of what you want to be doing, then great. It is a super rad framework and it is really is amazingly natural and easy to pick up.
That having been said, it is worth considering what the others have to offer. Other frameworks like prototype and mootools are most interested in turning javascript into a more powerful programming language with richer object oriented programming capabilities and functionality for arrays, strings and numbers. I don't know enough to be able to compare/contrast prototype and mootools, but maybe someone else could fill in on that.
This is a great article that explains the difference between mootools and jquery - jqueryvsmootools.com/
The good news is that you don't necessarily have to decide. Although you might occasionally come up with bugs, you should be able to use jQuery with either mootools or prototype (see here). Basically just call jQuery.noConflict(); before any script on which you want to use jQuery and everything should work just fine. This allows you to use jQuery for all of it's slick DOM manipulation and rad UI library while also giving access to a more powerful framework when that is what you need.
Please let me know if I've missed anything here and I hope this helps.
Answer: When I was new to JavaScript, after a week I found out that life is much easier with a framework. Anyway, I did not even knew, what exactly they are for; I've got some glue about $() that it's a smart replacement for window.getElementById(), and I assumed that there are some other comfortable methods for other purposes, like AJAX request.
I did not wanted to spend lot of time on learning a framework, so I was decided that I will choose that which I fall in love first sight. Then I was spending about a whole month with googling. I have not missed any of the "big names", but I dropped them soon. The main reason of the dissatisfaction was their site, the documentation: after reading a whole page of text, I was yet as dumb as before. What is it for? What they do? What is the input, what is the aim, what is the output?
Then, I found DOMAssistant. It's small, perfect, and well-documented. Just take a look on the first paragraph of the opening page, it's a totally clear definition of the JS framework:

What is DOMAssistant?
The idea of DOMAssistant is to provide
  a simpler and more consistent way to
  script against the Document Object
  Model (DOM) in web browsers. The idea
  is that everything starts with the
  element(s) in question, selected
  through id or CSS selectors, and then
  perform various methods on it, such as
  adding or removing classes, events
  etc.

So, I say, if you finally choose another, more fashionable framework, DOMAssistant is a must-to-see. And if you have no need for animated flying windows, it's also a good choice.


How not to include artists from collections into main artist list in iTunes?

Question: There are artists I'm listening to and different song collections of different users. Because of these song collections I have a lot of unknown for me names in the main artist list in iTunes. I'm wondering if it can be possible to not include artists from my collection into the main artist list? Thank you very much.
Answer: Mark the songs in these collections as part of a compilation and they will not contribute to the artist list.

You can also specify an Album Artist for these tracks. This will replace their regular Artist for the Artists list.
Answer: So if I understand correctly, there are several people using iTunes on your computer, and you would like to keep collections separate for each - or at least your part of it.
I propose you 2 solutions:
1) Use the Grouping field (tag) available in each track as a marker of the user it belongs to.
Simply select your artists or tracks and type your name in this field. Then create a Smart Playlist where grouping = your name. Navigating that smart playlist will now only show your artists. Press CTRL+B to display the Column Browser.
Note that you will need to specify the grouping when you add new tracks. The "Just added" playlist is useful for doing that.
2) Hold the Shift key when starting iTunes. It will prompt you to choose or create a library. This allows you to create a completely separate library for each user.
To avoid having to choose the library everytime, there's a Teridon's script available that allows you to create shortcuts that points to specific libraries, which you can put on your Desktop or Start Menu.
Answer: I believe that if you mark the collections as collections, the artists will no longer show up under the Artist. column.
To do this, select all of the tracks from a collection, and choose "Get Info".  On one of the tabs (I think it's the last one - don't have itunes in front of me at the moment) there's an option for indicating that the selected tracks are part of a collection.
I believe that you'll have to do this same process for any songs that are already on your ipod.
Depending on the source of the music, you might need to change some of the id3v2 tags to get things exactly the way you want them.


USA (Texas) Driving License for new immmigrant. Can i exchange my UAE Driving License with US one?

Question: I am new immigrant to USA - Texas. I have valid UAE driving License, is it possible to exchange it with US DL ? otherwise will UAE driving License help me in getting US one?
Answer: Summary:
In the long run, having a valid UAE drivers license won't matter; you must apply anew for a Texas drivers license.
You may, however, drive using your valid UAE license (and an International Driver's Permit, a translation of the UAE license if the license is printed in non-English characters) for 90 days after coming to Texas (see "1968 Convention" on the previously-cited page). At that point, you'll be a Texas resident and need to acquire a Texas license.
In Detail:
In the US, drivers licenses are issued by the individual states. The governmental office in Texas that handles this function is the Department of Public Safety.
Texas law has some reciprocity provisions, but they apply only to member states of NATO (member states listed here) and the 1943 Inter-American Convention on the Regulation of Inter-American Automobile Traffic (member states listed here). Additionally, Texas has country-specific drivers license reciprocity agreements with France, Germany, South Korea, and Taiwan.
The UAE is not a member of either international organization, nor does the UAE appear on the list of countries with Texas drivers license reciprocity. Your situation, therefore, is that of a new Texas resident with no drivers license, who must apply from the beginning.
For new residents over the age of 18, this DPS page contains these provisions pertinent to new applicants:
Applicants who have a valid, unexpired driver license from another U.S. state, U.S. territory, or from Canada must surrender their out of state/country driver license and are not required to take the knowledge or skills exams. Texas also has license issuance reciprocity with France, Germany, South Korea, and Taiwan only. Applicants who have a valid, unexpired driver license from one of these countries are not required to take the knowledge or skills exams if they surrender their out of country driver license. However, if the applicant does not wish to surrender their out of country driver license, they must take and pass all required exams. The reciprocity only applies to passenger vehicles, not commercial vehicles or motorcycles.  Foreign licenses not in English or Spanish will need to have a translation service or their consulate translate the information on the driver license prior to arriving. This translation requirement also applies for marriage licenses.
Applicants who have a valid, unexpired learner license from another U.S. state or U.S. territory, or Canada, France, South Korea, Germany or Taiwan and are applying for a Texas learner license, do not have to take the knowledge exam. Upon advancing from a learner license to a driver license, individuals must complete the Impact Texas Driver course, pass the skills exam. Individuals under 25 years of age must also complete driver education.
Applicants who have a driver license from any country other than the U.S., Canada, France, South Korea, Germany or Taiwan must take and pass both the knowledge and skills exams.
...
Over 18 moving to Texas will require proof of:
 - Identity (a valid out of state license can be used as a supporting
   document)
 - Residency
 - Citizenship or lawful presence
 - Social security number
 - Evidence of Texas Vehicle Registration for each vehicle you
   own. Registration must be current. Visit Texas DMV vehicle
   registration for more information. (New Residents who are
   surrendering an out-of-state driver license only) Proof of Insurance
   for each vehicle you own. If you do not own a vehicle, you will sign a statement affirming this.
Skills and knowledge exams are waived for applicants 18 and older that hold a valid out of state driver license, as are the ITD and adult driver education requirements.
Comment: There is one way in which the UAE license helps, however: it allows the bearer to drive in Texas for 90 days after moving there.  The Texas page you link to and the [driving privilege reciprocity page](https://www.dps.texas.gov/DriverLicense/reciprocity.htm) both overlook the 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic.  The US and the UAE have both ratified this, so someone with a UAE license can drive with that license in the US.  An IDP is probably a good idea.
Comment: @phoog You're quite correct. And I agree that an IDP may well be necessary; I don't know if UAE licenses are printed in Arabic (the official language) or English (the _lingua franca_ according the Wikipedia). I've amended the Answer.
Comment: UAE driving License printed in both Arabic and English Languages. accordingly and based on the best of my understanding for your answer and comments it seems that I can drive in Texas for 90 days using my UAE DL from the day in which I have admitted to USA as permanent resident. is this right ? no need to take further action?
Comment: I believe that's correct. Out of an abundance of caution, however, I'd get an IDP just in case a random law enforcement person is unfamiliar with multi-language licenses and/or the Geneva Convention. The 90 days would begin when you come to Texas, which may be a date after the date you enter the USA.


Why are some electrical connectors silver plated?

Question: Silver is pretty expensive. Unlike gold, it will tarnish in air. Why then would anyone bother to plate connectors with it? Does it have some unique electrical characteristics that make it useful?
Answer: Silver has the highest conductivity of ordinary metals. It's also soft, which means the mating connectors squish together making a larger contact area, and thus lower contact resistance.
Low, consistent contact resistance is important in RF connectors, because any significant change in contact resistance will change the impedance of the connector, resulting in increased SWR and attendant losses.
Silver is also easy to solder, which makes soldered connections to silver plated connectors likewise reliable and superbly conductive.
Silver plating is not without disadvantages. Its softness also makes it not terribly durable. It's also prone to tarnish. However, in the RF connector applications where it is typically encountered, connectors are mated and unmated infrequently, and protected from water intrusion through an over-wrap of appropriate tape or such.
Answer: (I'm a retired USN Electronics Tech.) This is what they taught us about why the Navy chooses silver over other options.
The oxides (aka tarnish) that forms on silver in air is nearly as conductive as the unoxidized silver. That is not the case with gold, nickel, tin, and so on. Thus when silver in a connection oxidizes you lose little conductivity and there is little increased resistance. That makes it ideal for corrosion friendly environments such as high humidity and/or salty sea air.
Comment: Gold does not oxidize or tarnish. Tin certainly does!
Comment: @MikeWaters Gold oxidizes but this requires different chemistry (e.g. chloride, ozone) and other types of effects (e.g. UV) found in defence/space industry environments.
Answer: It's a whole lot easier to solder silver plated connectors (specifically I am talking about PL-259s and the like) than the white metal used on the cheaper connectors.  Some folks have great soldering setups and a lot of experience soldering.  The rest of us are better off spending a little more to make assembling coax a lot easier and more reliable.
Electrically, of course, silver is an excellent conductor of both heat and electricity.  But it is soft and as @Phil noted, tarnishes. According to one study I read, as long as the tarnish layer is particularly thick, the conduction surface still performs well.
Silver tarnishes in the presence of water if a polar salt or sulfur is available.  Staying with the coax theme, protecting the connection from water intrusion (something you would want to do anyway) will probably mitigate the danger of tarnish reducing the current flow before something else happens to the cable (tree branches, squirrels, UV, etc.).
Reference:
Overview of the Use of Silver in Connections
Comment: Maybe you should edit the answer to make that clear.
Comment: I used to live in a house with a well that produced sulfur water. Even though you couldn't smell it in the house, and the water barely had a sulfur taste, the hydrogen sulfide gas would eventually tarnish silver electrical contacts to the point where they no longer conducted. That tarnish is silver sulfide, IIRC. It also turned the copper pipes black. However, most places don't have that problem, and ordinary silver oxide tarnish is indeed conductive.
Comment: Did you mean to imply that a thick tarnish layer is necessary for good performance? That's how I read "as long as the tarnish layer is particularly thick, the conduction surface still performs well."
Comment: No, the study states that tarnish does not degrade the conduction until it reaches a certain thickness.
Answer: Some claim it supposedly reduces PIM (passive interference modulation) because (pure untarnished) silver has better conductivity and skin effect than gold. Additionally gold is often plated over nickel which promotes adhesion and blocks base substrate diffusion, but nickel is ferrous and undesirable for RF connectors. Gold will tarnish if plated directly over copper.
Personally I think it increases MIP (money in pocket) and is mainly used over gold for that reason alone. Nothing will convince me to ever use it over gold for connectors.
Answer: Nickel is a magnetic material.  Magnetic fields traveling through it will react with it and create a non-linear system.  This will create radio noise in the form of intermodulation distortion.  Most of the time we just don't care because the noise is very low compared to the signal.  One place where we do care is in repeater use where the transmitter creates a high power and the intermodulation distortion creates noise that competes with the weak signal from the distant transmitter.  AKA de-sense.
Any place where a transmitter and a receiver are operating at the same time may be subject to this noise. Could be a busy tower site, or perhaps you listen to the radio as you transmit.
This is why we don't use nickel (otherwise an excellent plating material).  The reason we use silver is because it is not nickel and is also an excellent plating material.


AKAI MPK25 Midi controller

Question: I'm starting to learn to use samplers and synthetisers and I'm looking for a suggestion for a midi controller. An AKAI MPK25 would be a nice option to work with Alchemy? If not, could you suggest something in the same price range? Thank you  all for the input.
Answer: We use the M-Audio Oxygen 25, and have at least a dozen of them, they are very reliable and easy to set up.  The newest version has pads on it as well as the usual rotary knobs, fader, keys, wheels etc.  Our keyboards have been used (abused) to prop open windows, angle laptops and goodness knows what else but they just keep working.
http://maudio.com/products/en_us/Oxygen25New.html
Answer: I just got one of these for my next offshore trip - seem very well made & I actually like the little keys.. The only things it is lacking are a pitch bender & mod wheel, and the knobs are not continuous (which doesn't worry me, but for writing automation some people might not like them)
Comment: Thanks for the input, Tim! By the way, I really like your sound libraries. I used a lot the beachs and blow holes collection on a short film I edited sound recently. Concerning this thread, I must admit that I'm still completely ignorant about midi controllers? Would I miss in the future the features you mention, like the pich bender and mod wheel?
Comment: what did you get, Tim? I'm confused cause the AKAI has pitch and mod wheel.
Comment: Hi again, Tim! Just looked at site of akai again and the model I;m looking for actually seems to have pitch bender and a mod wheel: http://www.akaipro.com/mpk25
Comment: Tim, are you referring to the MPK mini? I just picked one of those up, and I'm loving it, (aside from the absence of pitch/mod wheels.)
Comment: ah yes, sorry! I got the MPK mini - my travel keyboard!
Answer: It's surprisingly good for the price/size. I always carry this in my laptop bag when traveling.
Even used in on a couple of gigs :)
But check out Akai MPKmini too. Same keys, but with 8 additional pads and 8 knobs.
Answer: for piano keys i use larger piano controllers like the CME UF80 but for pads, knobs and faders i'm a big fan of Livid's designs....
http://www.lividinstruments.com/hardware_ohm64.php
Answer: I have a MPK25 and i think its great for the uses you mentioned.
obviously you would want a bigger keyboard if you were playing piano, but for synths having all the rotary knobs is great.
one thing i will mention that there is a known problem with the pads having problems with sensitivity for velocity. its just that they are a bit squishy on the edges and if you dont hit them in the right spot your subtle tap may not be recognised.
there is an easy DIY fix for this, but if your not into opening your new keyboard then you might have to think how important the pads are to you.
if you dont really care about velocity on the pads then the full velocity button also fixes this issue.
the way i wrote that paragraph makes them sound way worse than what they are, sorry. but i did the pad upgrade on mine and they are definitely tighter and more responsive.
good luck
Comment: Great input Jamie! Thanks! I'm feeling pretty confident now to get one of those.
Answer: The MPK's are great although the 61 key one is a bit too stiff for me. Speaking of AKAI, I own the little AKAI LPK25 and it is amazing when you just need an idea to mess around with when your travelling... which has since been "upgraded" to the MPK Mini mentioned above so I imagine the keys are exactly the same.
Novation's Impulse range is also great value for money. I own the 61 key one and it blows the MPK61 (same size) out of the water. That's not to say the MPK's are bad, in fact I would buy an MPK Mini or an 88 key version (much better keys than the 61) if I had the money and needed them but my LPK and Impulse is perfect for me.
Comment: Same here - I have an LPK25 and it's amazing for a small keyboard controller of its size and weight. The keys play nicely if you don't have massive hands and the arpeggiator is a lovely and well thought out bonus. I don't miss the knobs, but I probably would if I didn't also have a Novation Nocturn (which is pretty good for controlling plugins and synths).
Answer: The problem here is that there are so many one the market that are all quite good. I use the m-audio axiom 61. the only reason i chose this over the others is the fact that I got it off ebay quite cheap. So my advice would be to look around and try get a bargin.
P.S. I am a fan of the novation pulse controllers but at the time I wanted to get one, there were no ebay special bargins so it was the axiom for me.
Answer: I use the AKAI LPD 8 to trigger Drums and automate parameters. And it is amazing for its price! And its so small, i can put it in every bag!

AKAI MPK25 Midi controller


What does the future hold for video game sound design?

Question: I was reading  this thread about sound design in the film/TV industry and I thought I'd apply the same question to video games. Do you guys suffer from a lack of time, budget, or respect? Thanks.
Answer: This is an area I've been actively exploring for a few years -- it's actually the reason I got into sound design in the first place.
I feel like the future of video game sound design is overall positive.  With the easy availability of development kits for PC and Xbox in XNA, and Flash -- not to mention every other coding language out there that can be used to make games -- more and more people are making games every day.  More games means more assets, right?
The downside is that most of the new games on the market are casual games. Facebook and sites like Kongregate are booming in plays-per-day compared to any single console, and that means more demand on single sound effects as opposed to soundscapes.  I've done a handful of games where all they wanted were one or two sound effects, total.
As far as suffering from a lack of anything, it's been budget, but that's because I'm working with indies.
Finally, I feel I need to point out that, if you intend to design for anything bigger than casual gaming, you NEED to learn the basics of film sound design.  Cut scenes ARE films, and need to be scored and designed just the same as any movie that crosses your desk.  Also, it's not uncommon for me to develop my video game sounds to a gameplay video, so I can get a feel of how everything sits together.
I guess what I'm saying is that, just like in film, there will always be work available for those who are willing to find it, but it's less likely you'll be working on a big-budget ANYTHING and more likely you'll be working on something tiny.  Learn how much you'll be charging for a single sound effect, because you'll get those requests a lot.
Answer: In my limited experience I have found the budgets to be far more generous than film, although it's really difficult to compare the two. Video games require sound design from the earliest stages, while film usually doesn't start the sound department until after the first picture edit has been completed. This can be the difference between 3 years vs. 5 months, respectively. And regarding respect, well, I suppose that all depends on your experience level, attitude, and how talented you are!
Answer: Yesterday the CEO of Activision said that within a few years he expects to be selling 'films' for $20-30.  Developers of big budget modern games often put a lot of resources into making cutscene fmvs which he apparently thinks gamers will be want to purchase without the actual game!
So for some sound designers the future of game sound may be getting closer to sound for film.
On the other hand, technology that allows the playback/synthesis of sound to change in response to user input will become more elaborate, that's different to film sound because a game's soundtrack can be very different every time you play it.
There is a company called AudioKinetic which makes tools for game audio development, they have software called Soundseed Air & Impact which use synthesis techniques to give sound effects different characteristics depending on the context (e.g. a weapon impact sound could be changed to sound bigger or smaller depending on the size of the character using it)


Is there any advantage to velocity motion models over odometry motion models for SLAM?

Question: I've seen several examples of SLAM algorithms (EKF SLAM, Graph SLAM, SEIF SLAM) written in terms of the velocity motion model.  I have yet to see an example of any SLAM algorithm utilizing the odometry motion model.  I wonder if there is an inherent advantage to using the velocity motion model over the odometry model for this problem.  Does it have something to do with the fact that odometry sensor information comes after the motion has already taken place, whereas velocity control commands are executed before motion?
Answer: I can't think of a reason why a velocity model (based on control commands)
would be superior to an odometry model (which uses the actual wheel speeds).
The lecture notes from Freiburg on motion models imply the same:

Odometry-based models are used when systems are equipped with wheel
  encoders.
Velocity-based models have to be applied when no wheel
  encoders are given.

The timing does not have an influence here. If any, it would affect the latency, but even that I would think is not the case.
The better your model, the better your prediction. Having actual measurements in the model provide you with additional information to improve the model. One thing which is very commonly performed is to use an IMU to estimate the rotational part of your motion model.
Answer: Through my reading of this book "Probabilistic Robotics" chapter 5 pp. 120,121. It seems what you thought is right. And this is the reason the authors mentioned.

Many commercial mobile robots (e.g. differential drive, synchro drive)
  are actuated by independent transnational and rotational velocities,
  or are best thought of being actuated in this way. The second model
  assumes that one has access to odometry information. Most commercial
  bases provide odometry using kinematic information (distance traveled,
  angle turned). The resulting probabilistic model for integrating such
  information is somewhat different from the velocity model. In
  practice, odometry models tend to be more accurate than velocity
  models, for the simple reason that most commercial robots do not
  execute velocity commands with the level of accuracy that can be
  obtained by measuring the revolution of the robot's wheels. However,
  odometry is only available after executing a motion command. Hence it
  cannot be used for motion planning.

Hope this helps.
Comment: I've read the same quote from the same book... which is what led me to believe that there was some sort of inherent advantage to the velocity model.  But it's still not clear to me if this extends to the SLAM problem.
Comment: I'm not sure if this has something to do with SLAM itself. To me, at least with EKF-SLAM, you need an initial belief, control input and observations to build SLAM whether the motion model is odometry or velocity. Actually, in the aforementioned book, they provide the odometry model but they used the velocity model for SLAM. But this doesn't mean you can't use the odometry model for SLAM, at least for simulation.
Comment: I guess its "odometry is only available after executing a motion command" quote, which is confusing. Motion planning has got nothing to do with the SLAM part.
Answer: One obvious example of where velocity motion models work better is in robots that don't operate on land: UAVs and AUVs, for instance.
Thinking about whether the information comes before (as in the case of the velocity command) or after (as in the case of the odometry) the motion is a red herring -- it doesn't matter.  You are creating a position estimate partly based on what you see and partly based on how you think you moved.  Each of those involve uncertainty, so you just need to characterize that uncertainty properly.
In terms of accuracy, sometimes it's more appropriate to consider exact wheel motion, and sometimes it's more appropriate to consider vehicle momentum; it all depends on the vehicle.


How to control speed of dc motor using servoblaster

Question: Im using servoblaster in pcm mode and setting pulsewidth from code for turning my servos position to desired angle. But my question is, cant i use it for controlling the speed of dc motor. I read some recommended pigpio for this purpose. But is it not possible with servoblaster?
Comment: You may want to add a link to the library in question and explain what "recommended pigpio for this purpose" you are talking about.
Answer: You can control the speed of a standard DC motor using PWM.
PWM works my splitting each second into many time slots.  The number of time slots per second is the PWM frequency.  During each time slot the signal will be high then low.  The percentage of the time slot that the signal is high is the PWM duty cycle.  It's a gross simplification but for the sake of argument full speed is a 100% duty cycle, half speed is a 50% duty cycle, etc.
Servoblaster generates servo signals.  These have a PWM frequency of 50Hz.  So each time slot is 20 milliseconds long.  Servos typically accept signals in the range 1 to 2 milliseconds long.  That is roughly the range which servoblaster will output.  That means you can vary the dutycycle between 5-10%.  I doubt that will be enough to even start a DC motor turning.
You really need to be using a proper PWM generator.
My pigpio will generate servo signals and PWM signals.  pigpio is pre-installed with recent versions of Raspbian.
Comment: Good explanation. Quick questions: what is the duty cycle range of pigpio? Will it work if i need 1 servo + 2 motors + speakers connected together?
Comment: pigpio allows 0-100% for general PWM and 2.5-12.5% for servos.  Yes you can drive servos and multiple motors simultaneously.  You can also use speakers at the same time.
Comment: Exploring servoblaster, i found its maximum pulse width is 20000 us and  default range can be changed by setting min and max width params. It solved me the problem of driving motors. It works.
Comment: @RaspiFan If you get time could you create an answer with what you did,  That would help others with the same problem.
Answer: Found the default cycle time in servoblaster is 20000 us but the default min and max width is restricted to 500 us to 2500 us to protect servos. Changed the default value from 0us to 20000us that solved the problem with motors.
Refer https://github.com/richardghirst/PiBits/blob/master/ServoBlaster/README.txt


Can men watch sport competitions of women via TV?

Question: I was wondering if it is permissible for men to watch the sport competitions which their players are women. (Note: I said that because of the cover of the women in different sport competitions. Since as almost everybody know, commonly they have not Islamic veil or hijab and even appropriate Islamic clothes ...). Hence, I would know if would it be permissible to see them in Sport situation or not?
Answer: First to answer your question, you need to know the following: What is the Awra عوره?
That is a whole topic on its own and answers ranges from the Niqab to the no Hijab to the privates based on different interruptions of the Sunnah and Ayat.
If you have your answer for that and feel confident about it, gaze your eyes to the following Ayah:

قُلْ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ يَغُضُّوا مِنْ أَبْصَارِهِمْ وَيَحْفَظُوا فُرُوجَهُمْ ذَلِكَ أَزْكَى لَهُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا يَصْنَعُونَ * وَقُلْ لِلْمُؤْمِنَاتِ يَغْضُضْنَ مِنْ أَبْصَارِهِنَّ وَيَحْفَظْنَ فُرُوجَهُنَّ
Tell the believers (men/women) to cover their sight and protect their privates that is better for them for Allah knows what they do.

So if you have your answer to what the Awra is that is what you are allowed to watch on TV if it is covered. Awra that you accept for your wife/sister/daughter and mother.


How can I make a camera the active one?

Question: I have multiple cameras in a scene. What I want to do is to change which one is active. This way I can view the scene from different angles. How would I do this?
Comment: Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/139/599
Answer: There are a few ways to set the active camera.

Key Binding: select it and press Ctrl+ Numpad 0.

From the menu:3D Viewport Header -> View -> Cameras -> Set active object as camera.

Scene property:
Scene tab in the Properties Editor and pick a camera object from the list:

Outliner (V2.90+):

You can click the green camera icon beside the camera's name in the outliner to toggle it as active for the scene.

Animation:
To change the active camera during an animation you can use Markers.

Add a marker where you want to change the active camera (M in the Timeline, or Timeline header > Add marker will add a marker to the current frame):

Select the object which you want to set as the new active camera and the marker which you want to bind it to, then press CtrlB in the Timeline (or Timeline header > View > Bind camera to markers):

Note that markers behave like keyframes, so you will need at least two markers with cameras bound to them to have any camera switching.
To illustrate this, here is an example with Camera.001 bound to the marker on frame 1, and Camera bound to the marker on frame 5:

Note: If setting the active camera is only effecting a single view, you may have Scene-lock disabled. In the 3D View header (Right hand side of layers buttons), there is a lock icon. This should normally be pushed in, unless you explicitly want to set a camera & layers only to a single view.
Comment: I just wanted to say that I had problems binding the active camera to a marker then I realized that I had restricted the rendering (the camera symbol on the right next to the camera in the Outliner). Cameras are not visible in the rendered product even if they are right in front of each other. Don't restrict the rendering or the viewport visibility of your cameras. This is a comment to help those noobs who like me were wondering why switching cameras was not working.
Comment: Note that clicking the camera icons to switch active camera will stop working if you are using an edit camera (e.g. you held down the mouse wheel button and rotated the camera). You have to choose an active camera first, e.g. `View -> Camera -> Active Camera` before the icon switching works (Blender v3.3).
Answer: Another way to achieve camera switching in Blender is through the VSE or Video Sequence Editor.

Establish multiple cameras in the scene.

Add a scene strip to the VSE for each camera and set the active camera of the strip to each camera in the scene.

Note: If you cannot add a scene strip (because the menu is empty), just add a new scene and then you can add your original scene into the timeline.

Add a Multicam effect strip above these scene strips and use the buttons to switch between cameras. With a VSE preview window open you will see the switching occur (but not in the 3D view)

This can be used to feed the compositor with time offset scene renders as well. For example you may want to have a repeated action from alternate angles, simply set up the switching in the VSE then drag the scene strip along the timeline.
Answer: In order to change the currently active camera, select the one you want to be active and press Ctrl0. This will also change your view to the new camera.
To change cameras mid-animation, you need to use markers. A marker can be added by hovering with your mouse over the timeline and pressing M. Next you need to bind the second camera change with that marker. You can do it by selecting the camera  and pressing CtrlB.
NB: It is important to know that markers behave a bit like keyframes, so it is important to add one at the beginning of your animation and bind it to your first camera.
Answer: run the following script:
import bpy
import os

scene = bpy.context.scene

currentcam = bpy.context.scene.camera

setcam = False

for ob in scene.objects:
    if ob.type == 'CAMERA':
        if ob == currentcam:
            setcam = True
        elif setcam:
            bpy.context.scene.camera = ob
            break

if currentcam == bpy.context.scene.camera:
    for ob in scene.objects:
        if ob.type == 'CAMERA':
            bpy.context.scene.camera = ob
            break

Comment: To someone who has no idea how to run a script, how do I run this script and what does it do exactly? Try to add a bit more detail when answering, if the API changes (probably will) then your script will probably become obsolete, a few comments here and there will help.
Comment: @iKlsR - I know it's quite old but in blender 2.8x goto the scripting workspace --> new text --> past the above script --> click run script --> that's it.
Comment: @iKlsR Of course some more context information would be nice. But I think your requirements would prevent people from posting useful scripts, as it just becomes to tedious.
Comment: @tobltobs I agree, however I don't see the harm in appending a line of text to say open the text editor and do this or that or linking to a post that already answers that, it's not time consuming. Could be just me but when I answer I use layman terms and assume you know nothing about Blender.
Comment: I needed this, you saved my life. Thanks!!

How can I make a camera the active one?


How do I change the default email client to Gmail in Internet Explorer?

Question: Does anyone know how to add or change the default email client in Internet Explorer 8/9? I'd like to have mailto links open with Gmail, much like Firefox is capable of.
Answer: AFAIK it can't be done easily. you can set it to a program and use gmail, or use a reghack like this
http://www.questionbin.com/blogcomment/How-to-set-Gmail-as-your-default-client-in-Windows.html
IE might have addons to do it too, but their addons are few and crap.
Answer: In Firefox go into Gmail and then in your browser bar enter this:
javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto","https://
mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","Gmail")
That will make Gmail the default in Firefox.


How do I determine which relevant features have been learned during training in a CNN?

Question: Is there any way to control the extraction of features? How do I determine which features are been learned during training, i.e relevant information is been learned or not?
Answer: There are methods called "scoring systems" where you give a image scores such as "0.9 stripes, 0.0 red, 0.8 hair, ..." and use those scores to classify objects. It's an older idea, not used to determine if the network is learning. It's not in a standard CNN.
To determine if relevant information is being learned or not, it's standard to use the testing accuracy, training accuracy, confusion matrix, or AUC.
Determining what exactly a CNN is learning is a complicated research problem that's ongoing. In short - you can't really know. For a basic network, you can tell that it is learning something but not what it's actually using to make determinations.
Answer: Yes there is! If a model generalizes well to the test set, we already know that it has found some useful features. However, the latent representation of the data may still be "entangled" - a single element of the latent vector may actually encode information about multiple attributes of the input, or a single attribute may be spread across multiple elements.  We usually prefer a representation in which the features are represented by the axes of the latent space - a "disentangled" representation.  For example, if we were encoding faces, it would be nice to have an axis for smiling/not, another for masculine/feminine, and ao on.
Pushing models to learn "clean" (disentangled) representations is an active sub-field of machine learning research with practical applications (like interpretability, but also because it makes it easier for "downstream" models to learn their tasks, e.g. a control policy in reinforcement learning system taking as input a learned representation from a world model).
Where to begin?  Start with L2 regularisation to push your network to "spend" those weights wisely (more weights close to zero => sparser latent vector) and work your way up from there.
Answer: So there's pictures of low level activation maps, and some gradient based information where yoy take the deriviative of the output with respect to the input and generate a heatmap.
I kind of have my doubts on how usefull this is in general, imo it kind of is creating a fallacious illusion of understanding.
There's some additional research using blurring to figure out the relevant features also but again I have my doubts.
Probably the most usefull is generating images by optimizing your class score. You can learn how badly your CNN actually labels things(doing this makes you realize quickly that CNN are garbage at actually understanding and incredibly easy to trick).


Is it better to get a commuter bike with a front suspension or without one?

Question: Is a commuter/city bike without front suspension comfortable?
Comment: For a comfortable commuter, fat tires are simple and effective without the  without the complexity, cost and maintenance requirements for suspension.  (Fat can be anything up to 4.5", for a commuter 'fat' is probably best at around a 38mm road/touring tire, but the fatter you go, the more comfort you get att he expense of weight and rolling resistance.)
Comment: Without more information, this is essentially unanswerable and/or a duplicate of existing questions.  If you commute on half-decent tarmac and can ride round holes in the road, you don't need suspension.  If there's a farm track that just happens to run from home to work, suspension would be more comfortable though still not absolutely necessary.  *But we don't know*.
Comment: Every diamond-frame bike has suspension already - the tyres are your first line, and your legs and arms are the second line of suspension.  Adding a suspension seatpost might be another option.
Comment: you could elaborate your question.
Comment: Keep in mind there's a thing called a lock-out front fork, sometimes with remote control on the handlebar, which lets you switch between suspended and non-suspended fork.  This could be a good choice, depending on your circumstance.
Comment: I am 58 years old and like my comfort - I spent money on a great mountain bike with front and back suspension and a really comfy seat - it is a perfect commuter - can go anywhere, bounce off kerbs, through roadworks, potholes, grates (a killer on a road bike) - and is zippy - a little heavy for carrying up stairs but not too bad(I am a 58 year old woman) - I splashed out on a really good lock - and the bike itself cost $2,500 - about 1400 pounds - it is worth every cent - don't listen to the speed freaks - if you want comfort and a worry free ride go the full suspension mountain bike....
Answer: Commuter or city bikes are designed for paved surfaces. A suspension fork on such a bike is not going to add much comfort, except perhaps when riding over potholes or kerbs, which are avoidable.
Suspension forks add weight, which brings a different type of discomfort as you have to exert effort to move that weight around.
This gets worse the more inexpensive the bicycle is. Low end suspension forks are heavy and have poor performance.
Comment: The biggest problem with suspension forks (and suspension bikes in general) it that, absent a lockout, they burn a lot of the cyclist's energy.
Comment: agreed on all accounts. a low-end suspension fork is worse than useless, since it will almost inevitably lock up early in its life, rendering it an especially heavy rigid fork. big supple tires, and learning to avoid the worst of the roads or post over bumps when they're unavoidable is the best medicine for bad roads. moreover - many suspension forks preclude the installation of full-coverage fender, which is way more useful than the suspension IMO.
Comment: This is complete BS. I disagree on all accounts. Any suspension fork will provide a completely different level of comfort on potholes and curbs than a rigid fork. To say that these are avoidable is just preposterous. A kilo or two make no difference on a commuter.
Comment: Potholes and curbs are avoidable if it's not too busy. I used to find shock forks really useful around London because the roads can be pretty bad, and the traffic (both bike + car) pretty intense. These days there are a lot more cycle-only paths, which tend to be in better condition (although also tend to be narrow, so hard to overtake slower people - inviting a curb-hop onto the road and back again). I definitely agree with the weight thing though - I definitely noticed than when I swapped the fixed forks out.
Answer: I find the ideal commuter bike is: lightweight, reliable, and inexpensive.
Reliable: A commuter bike can't fail or you'll be late for work.
Light weight: it has to be lightweight as you're navigating it around bike stands, carrying it up stairs, taking it over curbs, and putting it on bus racks or in the trunk of a car that's come to pick you up when and if your bike breaks by the side of the road and you can't fix it before being late for work.
Inexpensive: your commuter bike often has a shortened lifespan. It either gets stolen, hit by a car, or damaged by the elements.
If you're buying new, the bike you're looking is likely inexpensive but likely fails in terms of reliability and weight if it has front suspension. Most bikes that are inexpensive and have front or full suspension are what we call on this forum somewhat derisively [Bicycle Shaped Objects] or BSOs.
A used steel-frame road bike or hybrid with no suspension that can fit panniers is often a much better choice for commuting.
Comment: Inexpensive is also important because you will feel more comfortable putting it in questionable places, riding it in less than ideal circumstances, exposing it to elements when bringing the bike indoors is not an option, etc. It shouldn't be cheap, but think of it as your Camry, not your Porche.
Comment: I kindof object to "cheap". Of course the price is a (depending on your financial situation primary, secondary or irrelevant) factor, but it is not a criteria concerning the bike as such (weight, reliability, or looks, if you want). And since there is a strong correlation of price with quality and riding fun you may actually want a *more expensive* bike.
Comment: Noted, I changed it to "inexpensive"
Comment: Think "frugal" or "fiscally-responsible" and not "tight-fisted" or "poor"
Answer: The drawback of the suspension is that it can swallow energy, i.e. if you stand up to push the pedals harder, you can not exert the same force, plus I find the motion of the suspension annoying in this situation.
I used a bike without suspensions for more than 20 years, and I was happy with it both on paved and dirt roads.
In my opinion a good seat and well adjusted handlebar adds much more comfort, than a suspension.
Answer: I think a big impact of with/without suspension is maintenance. Suspension brings more movable parts, which means more maintenance and repair costs.
Suspension can feel comfortable when it works, because it absorbs some shocks. But one other thing it does, is to absorb energy you might want to use for speed, not bouncing. Imagine standing on your bike and pedaling really hard; you want that energy to drive you forward, but with suspension some of that energy goes into bouncing you up and down.
Sometimes you need suspension, like if you're going offroad or riding on roads with lots of holes. But in a city you might prefer not to have suspension, as you'll get lower maintenance and more energy efficiency.
For a commuter bike, I'd recommend something dead simple. Fewer bells and whistles that will eventually break.
Answer: It depends.
If you are going to ride with your commuter bike on roads where a front suspension benefits your riding or comfort, it is better to have a front suspension.
If, however, you are going to ride on roads where a suspension fork does not bring you any benefits, it is better to have a rigid fork.
There is a caveat though: If you like or dislike front suspensions for other reasons, e.g. you like or dislike the looks of it, you have to evaluate above decision considering these other reasons.
Answer: Basically depends on commute, trade off of comfort over efficiency.
My commute is full of speed bumps.
I prefer the ability to ride at speed over those bumps without having to keep doing 'brace-brace-brace' to avoid jarring to bits.
Maybe its because I'm on old side.
Comment: My commute has speed bumps and potholes, both in narrow and deep styles.  So I tend to bunny-hop them at speed.
Answer: I would add that while I agree with the above answers, the conditions of the road on your preferred route might have a big impact on this decision.
I opted for a fixed fork for both ease and cost, but now regret it as the roads I ride on are extremely pitted and bumpy near the edges (approximately 1-2 cm irregular ridges / patches where the top surface has broken away).
I've yet to try padded gloves or raising my handlebars to take some of the vibration out, I mention it as I assumed that main roads that feel perfectly smooth where my car tyres are positioned are not necessarily so nearer the edges where you'll be riding.
Comment: It's generally not a good idea to squeeze yourself into the side of the road. This tempts car drivers to overtake you without any safety distance, whatsoever. You have a right to sufficient safety distance, you are a vehicle, you take your lane. Whoever wants to overtake has to wait until the other side of the road is free.
Comment: The huge inertia of cars compared to bikes (something like a factor of 15 including the mass of the rider/driver) means they're always going to have a much smoother ride.
Comment: Car lanes are generally better quality than the sides of the road where bikes get to go, in terms of surface quality and the level of debris around.  The joy of cycling.
Comment: While I agree wholeheartedly with cmaster, it does kind of depend on where you're riding - do that on some of the streets around my home town and the car WILL come past, and they're far more concerned with the space between them and incoming traffic and them and you.  It shouldn't be the case, but unfortunately it sometimes is.
Answer: If you can afford it, for the average fun-loving , sociable person, suspension is a must!
There will be times when instead of doing the commute, you may want to do a social ride with friends along riverbanks and other areas where the path will be less than smooth. Fixed forks will limit you options for comfort in these situations and in fact the shaking handlebars can be seriously annoying along with any unstable traction.
Bikes don't have to be taken too seriously and should be a staple part of the fun of a normal life.
Answer: I live in Fort Worth, Texas, and I find that a suspension fork works well for my commuter bike.
My morning commute finds me riding on roads where there are: no bike lanes, bad roads, distracted drivers, or drivers in a hurry to get home for their morning sex. There are times on the commute I am forced to quickly ride off road in order to avoid that aforementioned bad drivers. "Suspension fork is good," I say to myself.
Halfway to work I eventually reach an upper - income area where there are some bike lanes,   and connected streets that lead me to work. Also, at five a.m. most of the homeowners in this residential area are still asleep, so the dangerous drivers are still in bed.
The suspension fork does help because I am not forced to stop and wait until the bad drivers have gone away.


What's the succinct reason for face-warping in wide angle lenses?

Question: Is there an accurate way of explaining face-warping when using wide angle lenses?
I realised I can't actually explain it without diagrams, so a succinct definition (no more than a few lines) would be greatly appreciated.
Answer: It's all about relative distances.
Wide angle lenses don't distort, take a photo from the same distance as you'd use a 50mm lens and crop, and you'll see none of the trade mark wide angle look.
When you get close to fill the frame, features that stick out such as noses are relatively much closer to the camera than the rest of the face so they appear much larger. It's easy to visualise by taking the opposite case, using a super telephoto lens from a long way away. If a person's nose is 100m away, then their eyes 100.02m away, which is pretty much the same distance, hence they appear the same size for a very flattering effect.
Now imagine the case where the subject is 10cm away, the distances become 10cm and 12cm, which generates an appreciable difference in size, enlarging the nose.
Answer: To fill the frame with your subject with a wide angle lens, you have to be really close. Perspective — the way lines map from 3D reality to a 2D surface like a photograph — is naturally strongest with objects that are close and flattens as things are far away. That's all there is to it.
This is really nicely explained with pictures at What does it really mean that telephoto lenses "flatten" scenes?, and How to avoid unflattering facial distortion when using a slightly wide angle lens? is likely also interesting.
Comment: I tried to beat [Matt Grum's answer](http://photo.stackexchange.com/a/41391/1943) in succinctness and to avoid even simple math, but the simple math he gives _is_ helpful in understanding what's going on. So even if you like this answer (thanks!) I suggest moving on to that one for the next step in understanding.
Answer: It is because everything is sampled through a single small set of points.  In order to get a truly flat image at any distance, the pixels of the image have to be sampled at the same distance.  You would need a lens the same size as the scene you are capturing to capture everything one to one directly flat perspective.
Instead, we have a small, relatively speaking, lens that has light focused to it from a wide area down to the area of the sensor.  The further off axis that light comes from, the more curvature it appears to have since the angle your looking at it from is effectively rounded.  The image that is sampled directly in front of the sensor is closer to a direct alignment through the lens, but the pixels way off to the side have to be captured at a large downward angle since there isn't any lens element to capture.
For long telephoto shots, the area of your view that the scene fills is much closer to the size of the lens, so the light is sampled more straight through.  In the case of a wide angle lens, the lens doesn't do anything to try and bend more light in, but the angle the light comes from is sharper.
A fish eye lens on the other hand does intentionally distort the light entering the lens to capture an even wider field of view, but at the cost of creating even more curvature.