Is real organ music playable with digital piano?

Question: Is it possible to learn and play some classic organ music like J.S. Bach_ Toccata & Fuga on a 88 key digital piano, after switching the sound generator into "organ" mode? There is only one manual, and the feet keyboard is obviously missing, but the range of the instrument seems comparable. An organ, even digital, seems rather expensive instrument.
Comment: If you want to play the piece as written for organ, you'll need two keyboards plus bass pedals. If you want to convey the essence of the music, you can bodge together a version that fits a single keyboard. But you knew that really, didn't you? :-)
Answer: You have to distinguish between playing transcriptions of organ music and practicing for later playing of organ music on an actual organ.
The first was much in vogue in the 19th and early 20th century, when the church lost influence and keyboard virtuosos wanted to preserve the repertoire of the old masters (mainly Bach), without forcing their audience away from the concert halls to which they were accustomed. (Organs in oncert halls were not as prevalent then as they are now.)
Playing such transcriptions on a DP works about as well as playing anything else intended for grand piano. The difficulty is with the arrangements themselves, which are often much harder than the originals: you have to redistribute voices awkwardly to get them all sounded, and sometimes the arranger even introduced doubled voices to mimic the sound an actual organ would make.
Practicing for later playing on an organ works only up to a point. You can imitate the sound, but the playing experience for you (rather than your listeners) lacks the feel of a proper pneumatic or mechanical keyboard, and it's very hard to acquire the proper touch by playing exclusively on your artifically-weighted plastic keys. Also, playing with your feet as well as your hands is astonishingly hard for people used to piano playing, and no amount of pretence can make up for a large amount of practice on a real organ console.
In short, the one works passably well, the other lacks key ingredients that you really, really need to become an accomplished player. It's alright for previewing pieces to rehearse later (I do this myself occasionally) and maybe practice the manual part a bit, but it's no substitute for the real thing at all.
Answer: There have been a few periods when organ music was written for manuals only, and some of it is playable on a single manual, especially if you can set up the keyboard so notes above and below middle C have different organ tone colors. Many 16th and 17th century English, French, Spanish, and Italian organs had either no pedals at all, or there were a few pedals which were only used to sustain long bass notes. English and Spanish instruments were often built with "divided stops" that could be independently selected on the treble and bass parts of the keyboard. In fact early English organ music would fit better on an 88-note keyboard than on a modern organ, since the compass of the manual(s)went down to G below the bottom C on a modern organ console.
Those four national organ-building traditions were very different from each other, and each had its own contemporary group of composers.
The above doesn't include the German organ building school, and the related Flemish and Dutch. There are pieces by Bach's predecessors like Reincken and Buxtehude (and even by Bach himself) written for manuals only, but not many, and most of them are not very substantial.
The harmonium (i.e. a single-manual reed organ, now often called an "American Organ") was invented in France in the middle of the 19th century, and several organ composers wrote for it, including Alain, Boëllman, César Franck, Karg-Elert, Liszt, Reger, Widor, etc. (French missionaries introduced the harmonium into India, where it was incorporated into "classical" Indian music as a drone instrument, and still used for that purpose!)
But as other answers have said, you can't play what a typical member of the public would call "organ music" on an instrument with one manual and no pedals, unless you make a piano transcription of it.
Comment: Depends on when and where whether German/Dutch organ music needed pedals or not. Early Baroque music from the area (e.g., Sweelinck, Scheidt, etc.) rarely had an absolute requirement for them, and can be quite substantial (e.g., Sweelinck's Fantasias, Scheidt's chorale partite). Southern German composers, such as Froberger and Pachelbel, continued to write organ music that didn't absolutely require pedals well into the 17th century. Not to say that pedals weren't used - likely they were - but the music was made suitable for various keyboards.
Answer: This will not solve the pedal issue. However, I as well have a digital 88. It's the Kawai MP 9500. Prior to purchasing, I visited music stores with scotch taped nickels that weighted down the keys to approximate more or less a Steinway. After 1 and a half years I did find the above mentioned keyboard in which the keys are wood encased plastic. It is a wonderful instrument. At least you get the feel that's close to a 'real' piano. I'm not sure, but I think there are some separate pedals available so you can play those notes thru an amp. Hope this helps.


Does cloning a drive overwrite all the info on the drive negating the need to zero the drive using a utility like Dban?

Question: If I do a fresh install of XP and then run Eraser 6 (from Source Forge) to overwrite all the free space on the drive won't clonezilla write every bit of info from the cloned image to the new hard drive so I don't have to run DBAN or another utility on every drive?This could save a lot of time, dban takes quite a while to run and Clonezilla can write a 40 gig drive on these machines in about 1/2 an hour. I am asking if the data  on the target drive is overwritten since the data on the source drive was erased.
Answer: Here's the thing, clonezilla is usually filesystem aware, and hence, its image, only contain areas with data. Empty space is not stored in the image. So when you restore from this image, only the parts that actually contain data are filled, the rest, is left the same.
using dd on the other hand, makes dumb complete disk images, which might be what you want.
Answer: Practically this should work OK, however there may be small obscure bits that don't get overwritten - it really depends on how paranoid you are about people possibly getting a tiny snippit of information from you if they are really dedicated.
If you are worried about people grabbing your photos or personal documents it should not be a big deal - provided the entire partition is used. If you are worried that someone might know that once upon this time that drive was used in a particular machine, something like that, then no.
Realistically though, 99999/100000 it would be easier to get the information they want another way (social engineering, beating it out of you, bribery, dumpster-diving, key logging).
I would point out that 40 gig drives would be very old, and likely to start failing, so you may have bigger concerns on your hands soon.  (And remember that if a drive starts failing, data can be hidden in the failing parts of the drive which can't easily be overwritten, but might be recovered with enough effort sometimes)


Why did Shouko use hearing aids even though she's deaf?

Question: In Koe no Katachi, Shouko Nishimiya uses hearing aids. She's deaf, so can she actually hear something or not? I have read the manga but didn't watch the movie, so I haven't seen any clue about why she is using hearing aids. For what purposes did she use hearing aids in the first place?
Answer: Shouko uses hearing aids because she's deaf. They're meant to assist anyone with hearing loss of specific kinds to allow them to better identify sounds.
If you're looking for a clue, in the first chapter of her introduction, she plainly tells the classroom that she's deaf.

Picture taken from Chapter 1 of Koe no Katachi, available for free from Crunchyroll.
Comment: @Gorzius:  Having worked in an accessibility center in college, I can tell you that hearing aids at least help *somewhat*.  The phrasing isn't going to be as clear as a non-deaf person, but it will be somewhat understandable.  This is why in your picture below you can *mostly* understand what's being said, but it's neither grammatically correct nor phonetically correct (it's slurred in parts and patchy).  This also explains why her speech is similar; it's how she had heard herself talk.  No, the manga doesn't go into what degree of deafness she has, but we can infer.
Comment: i forgot about this one... she sure did tell that she's deaf
Comment: Well, the reason she tells straight off the bat that she can't hear might be because she might have learned through the years that it's just easier this way for everyone, compared to saying "I have severe hearing loss" or "I am almost completely deaf." || Also, I don't think for someone completely deaf the hearing aids could have any kind of help. || But actually, Shouko's level of deafness isn't actually clarified anywhere and the community is divided regarding it.
Comment: @Makoto I see. I have looked around for at least 15 minutes looking around about complete deafness and hearing aids but haven't found this.
Reevaluating the page below with the information you just provided I guess the mangaka's intent was to make people feel the hardships of deafness to some degree.
Answer: I think it's never mentioned exactly, but the only reason she is using hearing aids can be that she can hear some sounds, but her hearing is bad enough to be considered clinically deaf.
We can actually see her several times in the manga reacting to loud shouts and noises.
There are also some pages in chapter 51 that show speech bubbles from her point of view (one of these pages below), so this also might prove that she isn't completely deaf.

Comment: @Gagantous The page above is from the Crunchyroll version, but the official English release by Kodansha looks pretty similar. In the original Japanese version the text is similarly erased a bit, you can check out the raw [here](http://raw.senmanga.com/Koe_no_Katachi/51/6)
Comment: i read the indonesian version ( licensed ) and i have never seen the bubble speech looks like this ( in my version, the translation didnt looks like this, fince grammar speech, but this one looks ugly )
Comment: you're right i could see some white whatever is that, in both side of text inside the buble
Answer: I'm a hearing aid salesperson!
Shoko has some degree of hearing somewhere. She uses the "universal communication" method which is generally about getting it out and making yourself understood. Some people try only hearing aids, some people try only sign language and some people use both. Visual cues and hearing cues in unison are clearly enough for certain moments of short speech for Shoko where she doesn't have to write or sign.
That being said, when Shouya yanks her hearing aids out and she bleeds on the right side, it's implied that he perforates her eardrum or causes other structural damage. A perforated eardrum is contraindicated in some countries with a hearing instruments which is why she has to wear a left side monaural hearing aid for the remainder of the time.
Answer: She may have some degree of hearing, especially if she can hear certain loud sounds as shown in both the anime and the manga. The term "deaf" can be used as an umbrella term for all people with hearing loss, whether that be mild, moderate, severe, or profound. I myself have moderate hearing loss and wear hearing aids, and they help me hear almost as well as a person with normal hearing. Most people with mild or moderate hearing loss prefer to be called "hard of hearing" instead of "deaf" to prevent any confusion for people who aren't completely educated on the topic. Shouko most likely has severe hearing loss due to the fact that she responds to certain loud sounds as I mentioned before.
Answer: Even if someone is deaf they may use hearing aids to let them hear a little bit. This will help them not have to be completely deaf. I use hearing aids because I have hearing loss but I was born deaf. I failed my hearing test as an infant. :( so the hearing aids probably assist Shouko. She might not be completely deaf or she would have a cochlear implant. I have hearing loss so I know a lot about this topic.
Comment: They also might not have known much about hearing loss when they created the show.
Comment: So it might have been an honest mistake.
Comment: I am not sure... but possibly... it could be that they didn't know the difference between hard of hearing and deaf. I dont know but it is a possibility. Correct me if I'm wrong
Comment: If you want to add additional information to your answer, you can [edit it](https://anime.stackexchange.com/posts/62213/edit).
Answer: I have hearing aids myself so I can kinda understand, I guess?
Her condition of hearing must still let her hear some sounds, specifically louder sounds. From personal experience, the hearing appliance can help you hear sounds that you can't normally hear, making it a lot more clearer and reassured. Her hearing is considered quite severe, since she uses sign language to communicate quite often throughout the movie.
Her hearing aids will  really help support her, they would make her feel comforted, since they will allow her to hear to some extent and she has something to rely on to help her hear rather than have nothing to help her. She also flinches at loud sounds, because listening to a bang or a general loud noise is like listening to it x10 louder through a clear microphone and then hearing that reflected sound through a pair of earphones and sometimes the noise wouldn't even be that loud, but it has the same effect (not a great experience).
Anyway, yeah, she has severe hearing loss and likes to be supported by hearing aids.


Can white balance be changed in scene modes with the Nikon Coolpix L23?

Question: Can we change white balance in scene modes (portrait, landscape, etc....) of the Nikon Coolpix L23?
Answer: I know with the D90, you cannot adjust white balance, change the metering mode, or use exposure compensation while using scene modes. You must use P, M, A or S modes to access these.  I can only assume the Coolpix would be similar.  Those scene modes are programmed for the camera to make all the decisions for you.


What can't you do in Brawl with a sideways wii remote controller, and does using a nunchuk fix this?

Question: I noticed in the accepted answer to this question that there are some things you can't do with a sideways wii remote in Brawl. We are brawl newbies, so I wanted to ask what other things are either trickier or impossible to do in Brawl with just a sideways wii remote and does getting a Nunchuk to play with fix this.
Answer: There are quite a few difficulties you'll run into by using the Wiimote-alone controls.
Showstoppers

You cannot use the up tilt attack properly. Up tilts are used by attacking while pressing up without smashing. But on the Wiimote, pressing up is always considered a smash (it makes you jump), so the only way to use an up tilt is to begin holding up during some other action (so that when the action's over you're holding up and a smash is not recognized).
It is difficult if not impossible (or at least it is for me) to angle forward tilts. Quite a few f-tilts can be angled up or down, which alters their damage and hitbox location, but you have to have a very precise vertical position of the control stick which I don't think a D-pad can replicate. F-smashes can be angled because you can just hold up or down before the charge interval ends, but f-tilts have to be angled on startup.

Issues

Special moves that use analog controls are harder to manipulate. Examples include Quick Attack, PK Thunder, and Fire Fox: your ability to aim them is heavily limited.
The default shield button is B, which isn't exactly in a convenient location.
The default grab button is either - (which is even more out-of-the way than the shield button) or A+B (which if you don't get it right might make you taunt instead).
You cannot shift your shield. With a control stick you can reposition your shield by moving the stick around. But with a D-pad, pressing any direction results in enough of an input to cause you to jump, roll, or sidestep. Shield shifting is useful if your shield is a bit small and you can see an attack going for an exposed bit.

Niggles

There is no "quick smash" option like the Gamecube/Classic controller's C-Stick or the Wiimote+Nunchuk's Shake Smash. Yes you can get a quick f-smash by pressing 1+2, but the other two smashes don't have an equivalent (pressing 1+2 with up or down is basically the same result as just 2.)
You cannot walk slowly.

Notes

You can shorthop with Wiimote-alone, and it's no tricker than with other controllers.

Using a Wiimote-Nunchuck will fix all these problems; having a control stick really is the way to go and all the button functions are in more accesible locations (except for maybe the side taunt). Smash Bros. was simply not designed for D-pad use.
Answer: I have found it to be much more difficult to phase through floors that you pass through with the wiimote. You would have to double tap extremly fast so it sometimes takes a few tries.
Also note, performing short-hops for areal attacks (which helps reduce lag for many moves) is very difficult with the wiimote.


Why can't proportional gain alone, reduce the error to zero?

Question: I was told that the proportional gain alone cannot the drive the error signal to zero in a feedback loop. Why is that? If there is a tiny error, there will be a tiny or larger (depending on the number of proportional gain) correction, so why won't the error signal reach zero? When the error tends to zero, the correction will tend to zero as well. But just before error becomes zero, there WILL BE corrective action, so why it cannot achieve the desired output?
Comment: It may drive the system to zero, but proportional gain alone doesn't make zero a ***stable*** equilibrium, which is what you really want.
Comment: @Paul: No. With a P term only, the error will NOT be driven to zero.
Comment: In other words, error may reach zero, but it won't stay zero with proportional gain alone.
Comment: @DaveTweed: Depending on the problem, it may.
Comment: @Paul: See [Chris Mueller's answer](http://engineering.stackexchange.com/a/7740/86), and then see if you can come up with an example of such a system.
Comment: @DaveTweed: I have updated my answer to include some examples of where it is possible to achieve zero error at infinity. Thoughts?
Comment: @ericnutsch: I think that you have introduced an integrator into the "plant". While it is true that some systems work this way, it isn't what the original question is about.
Answer: To understand why proportional gain won't drive the error point to zero, it is best just to look at the math.  Consider the PID loop shown in the image below.  The loop algebra in the $s$ domain comes out to
$$
\begin{align}
  e(s)&=r(s)-y(s)\\
  y(s)&=P\ u(s)\\
  u(s)&=\left(k_p+\frac{k_i}{s}+k_ds\right)e(s),
\end{align}
$$
where I have used $P$ to represent the plant/process.  Putting all of these together gives
$$
e(s)=\frac{r(s)}{1+P\left(k_p+\frac{k_i}{s}+k_ds\right)}.
$$
If we now turn off the integral and derivative terms by setting $k_i=k_d=0$, then this becomes
$$
e(s)=\frac{r(s)}{1+Pk_p}.
$$
The only way to make this zero is to have infinite proportional gain, i.e. $k_p=\infty$, regardless of the frequency/timescale unless the plant itself has a term which becomes infinite at low frequency.  If we add the integrator back in by only setting $k_d=0$, then the error point becomes
$$
e(s)=\frac{r(s)}{1+Pk_p+\frac{Pk_i}{s}}.
$$
At low frequencies $s\rightarrow0$ which makes the last term in the denominator become infinite which makes the error point go to zero.  So, we can see that an integrator drives the error point to zero at low frequencies.
Answer: Because by definition, to have a non-zero output, you must have a non-zero error. This means that the output cannot match the setpoint perfectly. Only by adding an integrator can you drive the error to zero while maintaining a non-zero output.
Answer: Consider what happens if the desired response is not constant - for example a vehicle doing a controlled acceleration or braking (i.e. not just the "floor the gas pedal till you hit the speed limit" style of driving!).
The only way for proportional gain to make a correction is to lag behind the desired response. To reduce the errors, You want something in the controller that measures the way things are changing with time.
Comment: This is not a useful answer. Too much hand-waving and not enough fundamental principles.
Answer: //begin edit//
After reading Chris Mueller's answer I have a better understanding for the misconceptions associated with this question (my past self included).
When a positive controller output is required to hold the systems current state; it will never reach zero error because the controller needs the error term to compute this positive output as shown in Chris' proof. This includes this assumption of the process side of the loop being; y(s)= P * u(s). This positive output is required for most real world systems and is referred to as steady state error.
However, when controller output is not required to hold the systems current state; it is possible to reach zero error because the controller only needs to output the change required. For positioning with a simple hydraulic cylinder controlled with a proportional flow valve for example, no output is required to hold position. This would also apply in other special cases like heating an adiabatic (perfectly insulated) container. The process side of the loop in these cases would perhaps be; y(s)= P + u(s).
So in a "state-holding system" only...
//end edit//
...at infinity, yes, you will reach your setpoint. However, most of us don't have until infinity.
A good analogy is; you have a destination you would like to go to, like the grocery store for example (this is your setpoint). You decide to walk half of your current distance to the grocery store each day (this is overdamped, underdamped has a whole different set of problems)
Day one you are half way, "great progress!". Day two you are 3/4 of the way, "not bad". Day three you are 7/8 of the way, "thought I would be there by now". Day four you are 15/16 of the way, "I sure am hungry". Day five, your are 31/32 of the way, "I give up"...

It depends on what you consider "at the setpoint" and what you consider "too much time". In this scenario we died of starvation in the parking lot of the grocery store.
//begin edit//
Lets say a company you work for makes $100 a second when the internal temperature of an adiabatic (perfectly insulated) container is brought to within 0.1°C the set point.
//end edit//
We could wait an hour for a proportional term to get us there and lose all that money, or we use a PI that could get us there in 2 minutes, or we could nicely tune a PID to get us there in 10 seconds.
Comment: This isn't actually correct.  Even at infinity (equivalent to very low frequencies) proportional gain will not drive the error point to zero.
Comment: @ChrisMueller, Thanks, I have learned something today. Most of my experience is in position control so it makes sense why I never thought of it the way you presented. Please see edits in my answer.


Having trouble with a new wallet

Question: Not sure if this is the right place to post because it is not specifically bitcoin, but it is crypto, and I need the help of someone a bit more tech-savvy than myself... I have just downloaded the wallet for a new cryptocurrency, and it was working fine, but as I was getting used to the layout, I accidentally checked "connect through socks proxy" box in the settings. Now I have tried to go back on the wallet and it won't open, and comes up with error message "unsupported argument - socks found. Setting SOCKS version isn't possible anymore, only SOCKS5 proxies are supported". I have tried deleting all the files, redownloading the wallet, and restarting computer, but it still comes up with the same error message and won't let me open the wallet to change the setting back! Is there a way to change this setting without opening the program, or bypass this error message so I can open it and change it? As this is a new currency, there is only this one wallet available so I can't just use a different one, and I really don't want to leave my coins sat in the exchange! Thanks in advance for any advice..
Comment: We cannot guess from the provided info, what you are using. Maybe you want to tell us, which wallet, which OS, the link maybe? I have a guess, that there is a hidden config file, that contains the config settings you mention. This file just needs to get out of the way...
Comment: It's ignition wallet for windows. The layout is pretty much exactly the same as other wallets I have downloaded, with the command console, etc. I just can't get it to open to get on there and change the setting now that SOCKS is enabled..
Comment: I don't know the details of this wallet, maybe you can try to create a new user on your windows, and install for this new user the wallet, without activating the socks function...
Comment: I will try doing that. Thanks. I have emailed the developers but I'm being impatient. I don't like leaving my coins in an exchange!
Answer: The solution for anyone else is to change the Ignition registry value for fUseProxy back to false, then relaunch the wallet. Search for it in regedit.

Having trouble with a new wallet


hidden files always being shown

Question: When opening a folder, by default it always shows hidden files. I can uncheck the view option and they disappear but reappear on the next opening with the hidden files option re-checked. Have I inadvertently changed an option or is this a bug? No-one else seems to have encountered this.
Comment: Go into your file manager's preferences and untick "Always show hidden files" or something like that.
Answer: Assuming you are using Nautilus (the standard file manager in Ubuntu), read the help files on Nautilus views. To change the default option, you can do the following:

In any file manager window, click Edit ▸ Preferences and select the
Views tab.

In that tab you can unselect show hidden and backup files. By default,

The file manager does not display hidden files or folders.

You can also toggle showing/hiding hidden files by using CTRL+h.
Comment: not applicable for Ubuntu 22.04
Answer: I'm using ubuntu 15.04. Recently I upgraded form terminal using the cmd "sudo apt-get upgrade". After this Nautilus was showing all the hidden folders by default. However, after searching a while in internet I ended here. Maybe the solution I post here has already been posted in some forum, but here is how I solved the problem in Nautilus.

Install the "dconf editor" using the command:
sudo apt-get install dconf-tools

open dconf editor using the command:
dconf-editor

Browse to org > gtk > settings > file-chooser
Uncheck the "hidden file" key appearing in right side.

That's all. Enjoy!
The key from org > gnome > nautilus > preferences : show-hidden-files is ignored as it is deprecated.
Comment: One liner : `gsettings set org.gtk.Settings.FileChooser show-hidden false `
Comment: This worked for me. For whatever reason my version of nautilus doesn't have an "edit" menu option and looking at other stack overflow answers suggesting I change org > gnome > nautilus > preferences doesn't work (which itself had "show hidden by default" off anyway). Not sure why this happens since I didn't change or mess with anything when it decided to default to showing hidden files.
Comment: Here are the [bug report](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-gnome/+bug/1171852) and [solution](http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2133298&p=12623240#post12623240) mentioned.
Comment: @mxdsp You rock. Your oneliner is great.
Comment: Good  workaround for a bug recently.. using nautilus, you cant make the hidden files to not show by default.. no matter what.
Comment: works in Ubuntu 22.04. However, dconf-tools is not available. I think it is replaced by dconf-editor, reference: https://askubuntu.com/a/1296114/582028
Answer: Here are the steps I took to remedy this.

Open File Explorer.

Goto Preferences under Edit menu

Uncheck Show hidden and backup files if checked

Close and enjoy, see below:
Answer: Another way to fix it: open gedit, type something and click on save. When the file chooser window opens, press Ctrl+h to show/hide hidden folders. This changes the settings to the way they're supposed to be.
Comment: Ctrl +h is  just a shortcut from Nautilus. Gedit just opens a Nautilus session in the background, but this shortcut also works in Nautilus without entering Gedit.
Answer: As others have said, the default behaviour can be changed after opening file manager and going to Edit->Preferences->Views and unchecking Show hidden and backup files.
Using Ctrl+H only temporarily toggles hidden files, and when a new window is opened the default view comes again.
Now I am going to say that why suddenly the default behaviour got changed even when you don't remember changing it.
It is because when the file manager is opened externally, (like choosing file to upload in a browser, etc), and we press Ctrl+H, the toggle is not temporary, it is permanent.
I found this issue/feature in Ubuntu 16.04.
Answer: Ubuntu GNOME 16.04 LTS with Gnome Files 3.14.3
To make it clear: I don't have the Unity desktop. If you have Unity or other desktop besides Gnome, this answer may not be of use to you. Second, I have done some mods so my panel may look different and may be in a different location. However the concept should be the same if you are using Gnome.

This image shows that you cannot access the Files "Preferences" menu when Files is closed. So whether you have Files docked in the panel or not does not matter. You need to open Files before you can start.

This is my menu in the Files app. Note I don't have any menu like "Edit -> Preferences" as others have shown elsewhere.

When Files is open you can right (outside) click its icon in the panel to open "Preferences".

Now when I go to the "Views" tab I can see "Show hidden and backup files". At this point my answer should be the same as shown elsewhere. It's just a matter of understanding that not everyone has the same desktop or Ubuntu version.
Comment: You want me to answer the question: Have I inadvertently changed an option or is this a bug?
Comment: One answer was "Go into your file manager's preferences and untick "Always show hidden files" or something like that. – user25656". Not helpful  if you can't find file manager's preferences. I showed how to do that.  Another answer: "In any file manager window, click Edit ▸ Preferences and select the Views tab." Worthless answer for those who do not have "Edit" in any file manager window, since it is actually embedded in the icon. Basically I had the exact problem with Files app showing hidden files. I did not find the answer here, so when I finally found it on my own I decided to post it.

hidden files always being shown


Is there a list of components all the kanjis are made of?

Question: I started to make a list of all the "components" (I don't know how to call them) all the joyo kanjis are made of, for me to be easier to memorize all the kanjis (I memorize them by remembering the components the kanjis are made of). At first I thought this list could match the radicals list, but it isn't the case. I was wondering if that list already exists and it has a name, since mine (although it isn't cleaned up) it has over 400 "components", and it isn't sorted in any readable way, so I could improve mine.
Comment: The problem is there wouldn't be one and only decisive list, because granularity matters. Which are you comfortable with for 葛: [艹曷] or [艹日勹人]?
Comment: The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course refers to these "pieces" as graphemes, and there is a list of common graphemes in an appendix.
Answer: Unfortunately, this is a bit of a complicated situation, as there are a few closely related ideas:

Any piece of a kanji you might recognize as appearing in multiple kanji.
Any piece of a kanji that either is on the official list of radicals from the Kangxi dictionary, or on a closely related list (such as a slightly edited version of that list for another dictionary).
The particular piece of a kanji that is used to index it in the Kangxi dictionary (or similar).

1. and 2. are both commonly called "(kanji) components".
2. and 3. are both commonly called "(kanji) radicals".
And 3. alone is called "the main radical".
Lists of things like 2. can be found in many dictionaries (see jisho.org's radical search , for example) or other references like the links in bcloutier's answer.
But a bigger list of components in sense #1 is more rare. A list of 407 (or so) components can be found at Kanshūdō.
Comment: [Wanikani](https://www.wanikani.com/) has a large proprietary list of components in sense #1 for mnemonic purposes.
Answer: James Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji" takes the approach of diving the joyo kanji up into all of its "pieces" so you can take a look at that.
Comment: It's worth mentioning that he doesn't generally use the real meanings of the radicals, and sometimes makes up radicals that aren't technically recognized as such. His book is meant as a memory aid rather than a linguistic reference, and is commendable for what it is.
Comment: Now that I know the book much better, I can say the "pieces" I was looking for, it's exactly what "Remembering the kanji" describes as "primitives". And the amount matchs and everything, they are 469. Really useful to speed up memorization of the kanjis
Answer: The "pieces" are called "radicals", and yes there is a list of all of them. There is a list of 214 radicals used in the Chinese language called the "Kangxi Radicals", located here.
There is a simplified version of these that does away with non-Japanese characters and archaic usages here.
You can also find the main radical for every Joyo Kanji here.
Each radical has a name as well, the full list can be found here.
Comment: This is not correct.  The Kangxi radicals are a system of indexing characters in dictionaries, and each character has a single assigned radical (not always consistent from dictionary to dictionary) which typically corresponds to the semantic portion of the character.  But there are more than 214 elements that make up characters, and you cannot decompose every character into Kangxi radicals, so as the OP has discovered, the set of "pieces" that make up a character simply do not correspond directly to the set of 214 radicals.
Comment: @snailplane, which part isn't correct? He was asking for a list of components that make up all the Joyo Kanji, which is in my second link. You can write every kanji in that list using the radicals and their variations. Once you get down to the level of single strokes it's difficult to create a character that isn't made up of them.
Comment: -bloutier The part where you said the "pieces" are called radicals is not correct. The OP is clearly using "pieces" to refer to all constituent components which make up kanji characters, not just the radical which is used as an indexing reference. One problem in discussing kanji is the lack of standardized nomenclature. I prefer the term "subcomponent" or "component" to refer to the elements/radicals/primitives/pieces that make up the kanji characters.
Answer:
CHISE IDS database. (and derivatives like https://github.com/cjkvi/cjkvi-ids) (GPL licensed)
Contains a lot of Kanjis. Includes pieces which aren't official radicals and also shows how they're arranged in the Kanji.

RADKFILE/KRADFILE -  (CC-BY-SA licensed)
Used by popular software, like jisho.org.
Answer: As you know, the closest concept to your "pieces" is that of radicals.
However, one might use this term to refer to slightly different concepts, varying in strictness:

A radical of a given character is the unique identifier (picked out of a list of 214 radicals) of this character in a dictionary (especially the Kangxi dictionary).
A radical of a character is any part of the character that appears in the list of the 214 Kangxi radicals.
A radical is any part of a given character.

For the jōyō kanji, the indexing radicals are listed on the official list (for example on Wikipedia). Every kanji is either the base character of a radical, or is assigned a radical from the list.
The very first kanji, 亜, already illustrates very nicely why this assignment is not always meaningful when looking at the origin of a character.
From the etymological perspective, 亜 (or rather its traditional form 亞), is a 象形文字 depicting (most likely) the (dark) foundation/basement of a building. The meanings of 悪 and 唖 may be thought of 会意・形声文字 derived from this meaning of "dark".
Being a simple picture, it doesn't have any meaningful components, certainly not any related to 二 "two" which is its indexing radical on the jōyō list.
Moreover, several etymologically distinct radicals have been unified to one form, the most prominent example being the radical ⽉, which represents both 月 (e.g. in 明) and 肉 (e.g. in 腹). Another example is ⺍ which unifies at least the top of 螢 → 蛍 and 學 → 学.
I think it would be interesting to have a list/database of all "pieces", which are based on the characters' actual origins. 亞・亜 would be a "piece" of 亜, 悪 and 唖 and 二 wouldn't be a piece of 亜. Also, 亞・亜 would not be a piece of 壺・壷, because 壺 is itself a 象形文字, and only contains something like 亜 for cosmetic reasons.
In some cases, the origin of a character is unknown, but it's still possible to compile such a list based on a decent kanji etymology dictionary, like 新漢和大辞典. (I also have 漢字源 in my Canon 電子辞書.)
Comment: I don't think people would use the term "radical" so loosely as to refer to any part of any character, as in number 3 in your answer. That is not what the word "radical" means to the majority of kanji scholars, in my opinion.
Comment: @kandyman Maybe "any part" was *too* loose, but there are parts that some people reasonably call "radicals", which are not on the list of 214 radicals. For example the top of 単 is [sometimes called つかんむり](http://kanjitisiki.com/syogako/syogaku4/128.html). Of course you could say that *to you*, such examples are also not radicals. But that just means *to you* "radical" should be understood only in sense (1) (or (2)), which is also perfectly reasonable. I just think that it is not always interpreted as strictly as this.
Comment: I'm not talking about strict definitions here. You can't just call anything you want a radical and claim that "some people" do that is so it's all good and fine. The total number of components which form kanji characters in the Joyo Kanji list is around 560 components (https://pastebin.com/6E8Jx89N). Those are NOT all radicals nor can they be reasonably called so. A big problem when talking about kanji is the poor nomenclature. That certainly isn't helped by arbitrarily calling anything you want a radical. It's simply not factually accurate and I felt it necessary to point that out.
Answer: I've made a website that might help. It decomposes complex Kanji into simpler ones.
https://japanesedecomposer.tk/
Comment: I just did a search for 編 and it didn't list the 糸偏 radical as a constituent component. Is this tool just for full words?
Comment: Yeah, when I just started doing it, I assumed that listing radicals would be unnecessary. Because so many other other sites already do that. Half way through I changed my mind but the result is that not all character are decomposed completely, meaning including radicals. For convenience every entry row has a link to jisho where you can easily see the radicals. So it's not only for full words. Just press "Get Kanji" and in this case you will get these: 編扁冊一 and their meanings.


Linear acceleration from MPU 6050

Question: When reading the MPU 6050 has accelerometer and gyro, I assumed it was linear acceleration, but now I second guess that.  From this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmd6CVrlHOM it seems like they are using acceleration and gyro to make one rotation direction.  I need to know what direction the mpu is moving, not just a rotational value.  Is there a way to extract this information?
Comment: Please tell us more. Do you want to measure the acceleration and deacceleration in a direction, or the motion with a constant speed in a direction ?
Comment: I am trying to find vertical velocity with mpu6050 but I failed. Did you find any benefical thing ? Thanks.
Answer: The MPU6050 has an accelerometer and a rate gyro (which tells you how fast it is rotating). The accelerometer will tell you which direction is down and in a motionless situation, that is all the information you have.
You'll probably want something like the MPU9150, it has a compass, which will give you the directional information you're asking for.
Comment: A compass will not tell you direction of movement, only direction of (apparent) orientation
Comment: When you're motionless you're ok, no movement information to report :-) The bigger problem, I think, is that at a steady speed you also have 0 acceleration, but you are moving. A compass will tell you your heading, but that may or may not be your direction of movement. I think you're talking about building an INS (inertial navigation system), you'll need to be able to determine a starting state and then track changes (accelerations) from there. You may want a GPS.
Answer: The MPU6050 has accelerometers in the x, y, and z axis. When placed on flat surface with no acceleration, you should get 0g (or whatever unit it uses, I cannot remember off the top of my head) in the x and Y directions, and 1g in the z axis. By continuously polling these values, you can find out the linear  acceleration of each axis at a given moment in time.
What you saw is probably because the chip also has three Gyroscopes, for measuring rotational acceleration and speed. The chip can do both.

Linear acceleration from MPU 6050


If the expansion of the universe is speeding up, how long until everything nears the speed of light, and what would happen?

Question: Since dark energy is causing everything to speed up infinitely, wouldn't everything near the speed of light? And since it's nearing the speed of light, wouldn't all kinds of strange things start happening such as time dilation?
Comment: I don't think so because the original velocities of the galaxies are the same. It's just that space is expanding faster and faster.
Answer: The answer to your question is that if we assume the Universe is infinite then there will always be objects receding from us at the speed of light, simply because recession velocity depends linearly on distance. Indeed there are objects that we can see (i.e. they are within our observable Universe) that recede from us at the speed of light (this is a very misunderstood issue, so I'd advise anyone taking issue with this statement to make sure they've read this paper first).
If we assume dark energy takes the form of a cosmological constant, then the Universe asymptotically becomes like De Sitter space over time. This means that the sphere of objects that are receding from us at c (the Hubble sphere) settles down to a constant radius which is inversely proportional to the square root of the cosmological constant.
Edited to add: recession velocities though are purely a function of cosmological coordinates so don't confuse them with local velocities which are always constrained by c.
Answer: This is  a tricky question, because dark energy does not always affect the distances between any two given objects in the universe. Consider this question: Galaxies are moving away from each other then how Milkyway and Andromeda galaxy coming towards each other?. The Milky Way and Andromeda are incredibly far apart, yet they are moving towards each other because of gravity. Likewise, the other galaxies in the Local Group are gravitationally bound to the Group, and won't be leaving it. The gist of this is that it's difficult to determine just where dark energy becomes the dominant player in the universe.
We can calculate the speed (recessional velocity) at which objects move away from each other by using Hubble's law, $v=H_od$, where $v$ is recessional velocity, $H_o$ is the Hubble constant, and $d$ is the distance between the objects. We can use the Hubble constant, along with the Friedmann equations, to derive the Hubble parameter, which can then be used to calculate the expansion of the universe over time. The Hubble parameter is a function of time, while the Hubble constant is constant throughout space-time; it is the current value of the Hubble parameter.
So while we can use the Hubble constant to calculate how fast objects are moving away from each other now, we can use the Hubble parameter to calculate at what time two objects will be moving away from each other at a given speed. I invite you to use the following pages to get you started on some calculations, but I will warn you to not use them for any objects inside the Local Group.
Here are the aforementioned pages:
Deceleration parameter
Scale factor
I hope this helps.
Answer: If space expands, objects embedded in that space move relative to each other at velocities that are only linearly increasing with their distance. So, nearby such objects never move at the speed of light relative to each other.


If non-Jews express their desire to do the Jewish Mitzvot; are Jews required to assist them?

Question: BACKGROUND: Recently during Sukkot, and the time to shake the Lulav and Etrog a non-Jewish "member"of the Congregation felt insulted, because he did not have his own, and our Rabbi would not allow him to borrow one to use.
Obviously depending on the answer to my other question about a non-Jew being required to do the Mitzvot; this may nat require any further consideration.
Comment: @DanF "he cannot transfer the lulav back to you as he is not obligated in the mitzvah" No it's bc he's a child, and children can't make Kinyanim to give things (at least Mideoraita). Adult women for instance, can give Lulavs just fine even if not obligated.
Comment: You  can edit your other question so as to make it clearer to address.
Comment: Why would he even want to do this. He is only required to follow the sheva mitzsvos Bnai Noach. He has no requirement to do anything else.  In fact, if he tries to say the bracha, he would be taking Hashem's Name in vain.
Comment: @sabbahillel First if all, who said anything about making a berakha, second of all, didn't you just say the gentiles only have 7 mitsvot? Taking God's name in vain isn't one of them! Third, who says that even were there to be some parallel issue regarding gentiles that it would have identical parameters to that of a Jew? Fourth, who says that even were that to be the case, that he would be any worse than women who according to R. Tam, may (perhaps even should) make blessings on mitsvot they perform?
Comment: @mevaqesh Actually the shevah mitzvos are considered seven categories which overlap with (according to Rav Aharon Lichtenstein) several hundred of the 613. Taking the Name in vain would be "blasphemy".  Trying to take lulov and esrog would appear to be like eating matzos on Pesach (or having a seder) or trying to keep Shabbos. In any case, I do not see the point of the question.
Comment: @sabbahillel interesting ideas.
Comment: There may be another aspect involved, here. The lulav must be owned by the person. When you transfer the lulav to someone else, that person makes a "kinyan" by accepting the lulav, and you give it to the other personas a gift. I read that there is a problem giving the lulav as a gift to a minor, as he cannot transfer the lulav back to you as he is not obligated in the mitzvah. If that is the reason why a minor cannot receive, or rather transfer a lulav to you, then this would certainly apply to giving the lulav to a Gentile.
Comment: Re above - the reason is that a child can acquire possession but may not transfer possession. I understand this to be a general rule regarding *kinyanim* and contracts. This ruling may apply to Gentiles as well. Note, though that the rule about Lulav ownership applies only to the 1st day in Israel and first two days in Diaspora. So, beyond that, there may be some other reasoning that applies to Gentiles. It may have been nothing more than a concern that the Gentile may be careless and damage the Lulav or Etrog.
Comment: @DoubleAA Yes. I corrected my assumption in my latest comment.
Answer: Your Rabbi was most likely following the halacha as explained by Rambam in Mishnah Torah, Sefer Kinyan, Hilchot Zachiyah v'Matanah, Chapter 3:11 which prohibits a Jew from giving a gift to a non-Jew.

אָסוּר לְיִשְׂרָאֵל לִתֵּן לְעַכּוּ''ם מַתְּנַת חִנָּם. אֲבָל נוֹתֵן הוּא לְגֵר תּוֹשָׁב. שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (דברים יד-כא) "לַגֵּר אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ תִּתְּנֶנָּה וַאֲכָלָהּ אוֹ מָכֹר לְנָכְרִי", בִּמְכִירָה וְלֹא בְּמַתָּנָה. אֲבָל לְגֵר תּוֹשָׁב בֵּין בִּמְכִירָה בֵּין בִּנְתִינָה מִפְּנֵי שֶׁאַתָּה מְצֻוֶּה לְהַחְיוֹתוֹ. שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (ויקרא כה-לה) "גֵּר וְתוֹשָׁב וָחַי עִמָּךְ":

"It is forbidden for a Jew to give a gift to an Akum (Literally one who is under the dominion of the stars and constellations. This means a gentile who has not accepted the 7 commandments of Noach.). But one can give to a Resident Alien (meaning one who accepted the 7 commandments of Noach and who resides in the land of Israel). As it says (Devarim 14:21) To the stranger who is in your gates, you will give it and he will eat it, or sell to a gentile.; through a sale and not through a gift. But to a Resident Alien whether through a sale or through a gift: Because you are commanded to sustain him. As it says (VaYikra 25:35) (who is) a stranger and a resident and lives with you."
This is also the Halacha as found in Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat, Hilchot Matanah, 249:2 and the Ba'er Heitev.

עכו"ם שאינו גר תושב אסור ליתן לו מתנה אא"כ הוא מכירו או אם יש בו בדבר משום דרכי שלום
מתנה. אם לא שיש לו ג''כ צד הנאה מהעובד כוכבים דה''ל כמכירה. סמ''ע:

"It is forbidden to give an Akum, meaning that he is not a Ger Toshav (a Resident Alien), a gift. Rather, we say thus, it is a sale to him (to the gentile) or if the transaction has some beneficial aspect (for the Jew) in the transaction.
Ba'er Heitev: It is a gift if there is not also some aspect of benefit to the Jew from the Akum, that thus it is like selling. (As found in Sefer Meirat Einayim)"
When one Jew gives his lulav to another Jew in order to fulfill the mitzvah, it is given as a gift, meaning it becomes the full property of the other Jew. The concept of giving a gift in order that it be returned is only between one Jew and another.
That special type of gifting, which means that the act of the giving is only accomplished when the prerequisite is accomplished, is only between Jews. In the context of the lulav, that means that by fulfilling the requirement of returning the lulav, it becomes retroactively the property of the Jew who received the gift. And only then does the one who received the gift receive the benefit of the actual fulfillment of the mitzvah.
Comment: "The concept of giving a gift in order that it be returned is only between one Jew and another." I'm fairly certain you've just made this up. There is much discussion about why MAML doesn't work for selling Chametz, but your suggestion is not offered (or at least, I've never seen it, so many people must not hold of it).
Comment: "I'm not making anything up. It's the precise language Rambam uses." Ummm... what?? The Rambam doesn't mention a Tnai anywhere I see in any sort of "precise language". There's not much more I can do here, I fear.
Comment: That is an highly inaccurate translation of the Shulchan Arukh. A more correct one is: "It is forbidden to give an _Akum_ who is not a _Ger Toshav_ a gift unless he knows him or there is [concerns of acting in] the ways of peace." Please fix your post.
Comment: @DoubleAA You know the section from the Mishnah Torah I cited in our chat. I'm not making anything up. It's the precise language Rambam uses. When he uses the expression בין אדם לחברו in the laws of acquisition and gifts he is restricting the discussion to between one Jew and another. He emphasizes this in the halacha cited in my response above by explaining how the non-Jew (נכרי and עכו״ם) is excluded from all those laws with the exception of a Ger Toshav. That applies to a Ben Noach who lives in the land of Israel. He bases this upon the written Torah which he cites.
Comment: עכו״ם means 'a servant of the stars and constellations'. A servant is under the complete dominion of their master. For context, think about how at the Red Sea, the Jews saw "Mitzrayim" dead on the shore of the sea. The commentaries explain this was the supervising angel of Egypt. The angel is the 'Master' over the gentile that does not follow the 7 mitzvot. This is also how Rambam explains it.


Is Mixing Yeast OK?

Question: Say I wanted to make an ale which has some of the banana characteristics of a Belgian yeast, but also wanted some of the citrusy flavors of an American ale yeast. Could I achieve this by making a starter which is half Belgian yeast and half American yeast (or maybe some other ratio)? What results should I expect from introducing two (or more!) strains of yeast in the same batch?
Answer: I do not know of any American Ale yeasts that provide citrusy flavors.  Its all hop derived.
American Ale yeast is very neutral in flavor.  So yes you can mix them, but the only fermentation character you will really detect will be from the belgian strain.
I have done some interesting blending of English Ale yeast and American Ale yeast in the past.  The flavor was all English in character, just mildly subdued.  I used two yeast strains I was very very familiar with so I can say subdued with confidence.
But the reason why I blended them wasn't for flavor it was for flocculation.  I was wondering if the super flocculant nature of the the English yeast would help to pull down the American strain (which normally takes much longer and cooler temps to flocc well).
And yes indeed all the yeast flocculated out quite nicely.  It wasn't 100% like the English would be alone, but man it was really improved over American alone.
The strains I used were WLP001 from WhiteLabs and S-04 from Fermentis.
Good luck with the experiment.
Comment: What are the chances that the English yeast simply out competed the American yeast in your experiment above?
Comment: I was curious about this too. Has anyone done any scientific studies along these lines?
Comment: I suspect that there wasn't much of a competition loss.  The English Ale flavor was muted significatly suggesting that the american ale yeast did indeed ferment some percentage of the bill
Comment: You can see a study where WhiteLabs did basically just this cross (American X English) for lowering attenuation except using WLP002. http://www.whitelabs.com/sites/default/files/Best%20of%20Both%20Worlds%20Data.pdf
Answer: Multiple single strain fermentation followed by blending gives much better control over the combined yeast character and is way more reproducible.
It goes like this. Split the batch into multiple fermenters, innoculating each with a different yeast strain. You can split the wort volume equally the first time you brew the recipe. Ferment each part optimizing temperature for each yeast strain (e.g., hotter WLP565, colder for US-05). After fermentation and conditioning, just prior to packaging, you can experiment blending in a small glass with different ratios to reach the desired yeast profile and complexity. When you found the ideal ratio, package according to it and take note. Next time you brew the recipe again, split the wort following this ideal ratio for maximum utilization.

Is Mixing Yeast OK?


How do I calculate the tail size of my rc plane?

Question: I'm in the conceptual design phase and my plane is supposed to be of 1.7kg. Wing dimensions are 1m*0.3m and AoA that it will fly at will give a pitch down moment of 0.03. The moment arm between CG and tail is 1m. How do i calculate the size of the tail. It's supposed to be a conventional tail.
Comment: What have you tried so far? It looks like you have everything you need there except the $C_l$ of the airfoils and area of the tail.
Comment: Haven't done much yet, was still researching on it. Cl of the wing airfoil at the set AoA is 1.4. How do i calculate the area of the tail?
The tail volume ratios and tail volume coefficient seem confusing to me. Do i have to consider these things in my first ever rc plane?
Comment: What is your intended speed range? It seems you are setting $\alpha$ and $C_l$, which will give you only one flight condition, and therefore one particular HTP solution, which may be in the middle or on the extreme of your flight envelope. And no, you don't need to consider these things, you can make anything fly, even a folded A4 sheet. But since you are here, I assume you want to consider them.
Comment: By plugging in the values of Cl, wing area and lift, I've calculated the stall speed from the lift equation which comes out to be 8m/s. I'll fly it at low speed, maybe not more than 20m/s, since it'll be my first flight. And yes i am setting alpha and Cl from the airfoil graphs, isn't this the way you proceed while designing?
Comment: I'm not sure about calculations but the general rule of thumb I know is for small free-flight planes you'd want the h-stab to be around 1/2 the span of the wings. For RC planes of up to 1m wing span you'd want it to be around 1/3 the span of the wings. Larger planes can have stabs as little as 1/4 the span of the wings (indeed, that's what you'll typically see smaller full-scale planes)
Answer: There's a formula for calculating minimum tail volume coefficient (tail area X distance from the wing) for light aircraft.  Not sure if the same value applies to RC but it's a good starting point. This is from David B Thurston's book Design for Flying (Thurston was an engineer on numerous Grumman programs going back to the Hellcat).
(Tail Arm ÷ main wing MAC) X (Tail surface area ÷ wing area) = .55 or greater
Tail Arm is the distance from the C of G to the 30% chord point of the horizontal tail.
.55 minimum is for a symmetrical airfoil section tail typical of light planes like Cessna 150s.  I would use a higher number for a flat sheet tail surface, and being RC, so maybe .6 to .8.
While you're at it, Google "tail volume RC aircraft" and you'll find some more information specific to RC that'll be helpful.
Comment: Agree with the higher coefficient. RC planes fly really slow compared to real planes (100mph is considered really fast). Combined with the small size of the models and we're dealing with very low Reynolds numbers. I'd err more towards .8 than .6
Answer: This is a great opportunity to compare experimental results with mathematical predictions in a scale model aircraft.  Once you have chosen your tail planform, you size it until its torque cancels the forward shift of the wing center of lift during pitch up.  If it is too small, the aircraft will continue pitching up and stall (try no Hstab at all and you'll see)  Naturally, pitching tendency includes pitch components of wing, tail, fuselage, landing gear, nacelles, etc.  The Hstab, as AOA increases, will begin to contribute a nose down force to help keep center of all lifts in the same spot.  This work can be done "the hard way" in flight, or in a wind tunnel (safer). Better to err on the side of large. Your 1 meter pitch torque arm should make this model very stable and easy to fly.  The next step will be area and throw of your elevator for controlled flight.
Comparing tail design of similar models and existing data is a good place to start.
Set your Hstab angle so that when it has 0 degrees AOA (neither up or down force) the wing AOA is optimal (usually for cruise).


Why does my Moka pot sometimes produce GREAT coffee and sometimes awful coffee?

Question: So I try to grind about the same each time but for some reason if I don't hit the jackpot on adjusting my hand grinder I get sour or bitter coffee. Why is my Moka Express so finicky?
Comment: Just a tip: Try to grind _exactly_ the same amounts every time rather than _about_ the same. Minimising variables will help you diagnose your problem better. In this case, it seems like you're betting it all on grind size. Moka pots are very sensitive and you should ensure that you are placing on a constant medium-high heat source. You should see the coffee ooze out the top very slowly to begin with; this is a sign of a good extraction. Ensure your water to coffee ratio is the same every time, ensure good temperature gradient and extraction time and you should be golden.
Answer: Actually, this question is self explanatory. I assume you only need some guidance and confirmation for what's going wrong.
A better known fact is:

if your coffee is underextracted, it tastes sour.
if your coffee is overextracted, it tastes bitter.

Now, let's tie up this to grind size:

if your grounds are finer, your coffee overextracts if other conditions are kept stable.
if your grounds are coarser, your coffee underextracts if other conditions are kept stable.

It's known that Moka pots are not controllable devices. So, all the other conditions (temperature, pressure, etc.) are nearly same each time. Thus, it's obvious that your grinding directly affects the taste of your cup. You should be consistent about your grounds. :)
And a final note, one of the jewels of this site is this extraction chart that you may check.
Comment: I was just messing with a Moka Pot last night for a customer.  Think pulling espresso shots without ANY of the pressure or temperature controls.. we got serviceable coffee, but I definitely agree, not the optimal way to brew coffee.  If you are jonesing for espresso and don't have the funds for an espresso machine this may be an option, but otherwise it wouldn't be my preference.
Answer: Reading the following makes me sad:

Moka pots are not controllable devices

A Moka pot (or Percolator) in fact is a controllable device. I use them since more then a decade with success with a much lower level of control as I list you here:

Measuring temperatur
Scientific paper about applied thermal engineering and moka pots
Using laboratory equipment for brewing coffee with a moka pot

The easiest is to start with:

Use a grinder
Preheat the plate (I use 7-8/12 on electric stove)
Use very warm (not hot and surely not cold) water
Put the pot off of the plate before the coffee is finished as in the end you get water instead of coffee due to the coarser grains bleeding out earlier
Do not temp the coffee, especially not hard, but get one of the cheap plastic tampers and tamp if slightly, but even
Comment: Of course, you can still change many things as you have mentioned. The grind size, amount of coffee, amount of water, tamping, pre-heating the water or the stove (or simply changing the heating up time of the water). But I consider all these things as pre-brew changes, not brew-time changes. (This resembles me compile time modifications of a source code and runtime modifications of source code.) For example, in V60, you can stir the grounds, wet them prior to infusion to bloom, etc. Such things are not possible in Moka pots. Or, if these are possible, I would like to hear gladly.
Comment: @MTSan I get your points! Completely valid arguments. I would _assume_ that comparing a Percolator to a Melitta/ V60 is too far away. IMO it's more like a cave men version of an E61 espresso machine. On the opposite —and I stopped drinking Melitta-style coffee a decade or more ago, so never any effort on my end here— I am not sure if there is a big chance of having a _scientifically correct and repeatable_ stirring mechanism in a brew over. Controlling during brewing time should be enough by time and "pre-brew" :D efforts to make results comparable.
Comment: Ah! I meant "directly controllable during brew time". Sorry. Excuse my engineering background.
Comment: Same background here, so let me ask these questions: (1) Why not controllable if the procedure can be repeated? (2) Why not during brewing time? (3) Where is the uncontrollable part during brewing time?
Comment: I feel like this turns out to be a nice discussion. I assume we just have different perspectives: Let me explain. When I say control, I would like to control the procedure directly by myself, by touching it. Not indirectly by the result of some differential equation. Even then, the brewing happens when the vapor passes through the grounds. You have the grounds tightly screwed in into the container. You cannot mix, stir or tamp them at that moment. The temperature of the vapor is always close to 100 degrees Celsius. The pressure is water's gas pressure and constant. So, nothing to change.


Indexing audio for video editing

Question: What tools would you recommend to index the audio track for video editing? I'd like to be able to do a text search for words in the dialog to more easily locate video snippets. I'm using FC and/or Premiere.
Answer: Premiere CS4+ has a feature called Speech Search. I haven't used it personally, however, so I'm not sure of the quality. However, this site has a sample of video, and also a PDF of the transcription Speech Search provided (they describe it as "eh").
Comment: +1. I've used this feature and I must say it's very hit-or-miss. It can only handle specific accents, and identification takes a long time.

Indexing audio for video editing


"Graduation" of this Community

Question: This is a question just because I am curious. I am following this SE site for a long time and I got the impression that is was in beta stage for a long time so I checked the Area 51. What I saw was that it is in beta for more that 5 years! How is that possible? Is there a timetable for the "graduation" of this community?
Answer: Graduation is no longer either required, or expected of small Stack Exchange sites, and as long as we are still an active community we are at no risk of being closed down.
It's been a few years since Stack Exchange woke up to the idea of perpetual beta sites - small, niche sites, such as Robotics, which may never reach graduation criteria, but equally will never disappear.
In addition to Graduation, site closure, and a clearer outlook on the health of SE sites , see Should we rename or remove the "beta" label? for more information.
In the long term, I hope that perpetual beta sites will start to get some of the benefits of graduated sites, even if it isn't worth Stack Exchange spending time and development resources on a custom site design.
Also, consider this, we don't have a single 10k user right now. If we were to graduate today, the only people who would have access to moderator tools would be ♦ moderators. The problems are even worse further down the reputation scale, we only have 6 users with 3k or more reputation, who aren't already ♦ moderators, so only these 6 people would be able to cast ordinary close votes.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to graduating too soon.
For the moment, Robotics simply isn't a big enough site to qualify for graduation right now. If you want it to be, we need more questions, more answers, more votes, and these come from more active participants in the site. Growing our community is the only way gain the critical mass required to get to graduation.
Comment: Sadly that's not the way it works @Adam. We need to prove that we are a popular, vibrant community before the Stack Overflow team can justify spending their own time, effort and, of course, money to graduate our site.
Comment: Those benefits I believe are very important. One of them is the design because users when they see a beta site they have in their mind that is not as active as other sites and in danger of closure. The theming of the beta sites is generic and affects them negatively. Is there any timetable as to when there might be a graduation?
Comment: Adam, unfortunately this is the chicken/egg argument - as we are a small, low active site, we cannot graduate...

"Graduation" of this Community


What is Keyword Stemming?

Question: While reading an article I got a word called Keyword stemming. Can anyone please tell me what is it?
Answer: It is the process of reducing each word to its stem. E.g. "searched", "searches", "searching" all become just the root word (or stem) "search" in a search index.
In terms of websites, this is frequently used for search functionality. I.e. enabling any form of the search term to find all variations of the supplied keyword. It can significantly improve the search experience.
Comment: "Stemming" reduces words to their stem, but I think "keyword stemming" goes the other way. Rather than _reducing_ words to their stem, website developers will create longer keywords from the stem, to specifically target different variations of the stem word.
Answer: On top of whats already been mentioned in other answers and assuming you are speaking from an SEO point of view,  I'd recommend doing some research on LSI (Latent Semantic indexing) which should be put under the same roof as Stemming.
Some good factual information can be found here : http://hanifsipai.com/latent-semantic-indexing-search-engines-optimimization-seo/
Answer: Stemming is the process of removing affixes, suffixes, and pluralizations from words until you have the most basic form of the word. This helps a machine identify words that are similar, eg a keyword and a word in a document. A commonly used stemming algorithm is the Porter Stemmer. It uses a sequence of steps to successively remove keyword modifications.
For example, the word "survives" would be stemmed in the first step of the algorithm to "survive." It would be stemmed further in the fifth step to the most basic form, "surviv." Here is a keyword stemming demo.
Answer: The keyword stemming is the process of finding the same keyword in different forms, which leads to the possibility of making maximum hits from the search engine. There is a suffix of the keyword, a prefix that does not have much trouble finding Google. This technique helps to identify similar keywords like - one keyword is the market. it's similar is marketing, marketer.

What is Keyword Stemming?