What are the geographical restrictions in using the 70cm band in the United States of America?

Question: Geographical restrictions exist for various frequencies in terms of usage in the United States of America as stipulated in 47 CFR 97.303.  What are the restrictions, if any remain, in terms of geography where you cannot use all or part of the 70cm band?  I thought there was an ARRL map that showed this once upon a time but I cannot locate it.  The relevant US regulation just defines things by metes, bounds, and lines that I'm having a hard time conceptualizing.
Answer: Canada does not include 420-430 MHz in their band plan for 70cm, so the restriction is in place to prevent interference to Canadian radio services. There are also a few other geographical restrictions that are made explicit. This excerpt from FCC Part 97.303(m) — In the 70 cm band:

(1) No amateur station shall transmit from north of Line A in the 420-430 MHz segment. See §97.3(a) for the definition of Line A.
(2) Amateur stations transmitting in the 420-430 MHz segment must not cause harmful interference to, and must accept interference from, stations authorized by the FCC in the land mobile service within 80.5 km of Buffalo, Cleveland, and Detroit. See §2.106, footnote US230 for specific frequencies and coordinates.

Here's a rough representation of "Line A" on the map (http://www.hamradioschool.com/t1a06-interference-in-70-cm-band/):

There is additional information on the quiet zone info at: http://www.micronetcom.com/quiet_zones.html in Section E. "420-450 MHz band".
Answer: There are additional power output restrictions in California (around Beale AFB) and in Cape Cod, where the AF have PAVE PAWS radar installations that also use 70cm. The restrictions AFAIK are only mutual agreements with local ham operators and clubs (particularly clubs running 70cm repeaters), and have not been formalized as part of the FCC regulations. Here's an article here for more info: http://www.arrl.org/news/new-70-cm-coordination-agreement-reached-for-new-england
Answer:
Canada does not include 420-430 MHz in their band plan for 70cm, so the restriction is in place to prevent interference to Canadian amateurs.

Actually, this is to prevent interference to non-amateur fixed and mobile comms; the treaty/arrangement text is available with a simple search.  WHY Canada went and did this is another matter I haven't been able to find.  This is also why the FCC justified removing 420-430 from ham use in 3 US border cities around the Great Lakes, since hams were already absent there due to their being within Line-A's boundaries.
There is also text about interference to US radars on the band (just like the comment above), with the Concrete, North Dakota radar mentioned by name several times and Alaska a couple of times.  Lines B and D are not often mentioned on this side of the border, but are very important to the US NTIA. (I believe Industry Canada regulates everything over there rather than having two agencies do it like we do here, which seems pretty dumb on our part--but then again, you can never have enough alphabet soup agencies, right?)


Does a bitcoin node broadcast that it is full synced?

Question: When a bitcoin core node is fully synced, does it broadcast to the rest of the network that is has finished syncing? If yes, where in the bitcoin-core source code is this implemented?
Answer: No. The nodes notify only about block height in the beginning of connection in version message. When node wants to notify about new block/tx it received/created, it uses inv message.
There is no point to notify other peers about downloading full blockchain. Other nodes have nothing to do with such information.
Comment: It would be useful for blockchains that have very slow blocks, ie >24 hours as -maxtipage of bitcoin 24 hours causes a bug in the blockchain where users cannot use rpc mining commands, since the code thinks it is still downloading the initial blockchain. Thanks for your answer btw
Comment: @BarneyChambers that's interesting, but no one will use such slow blockchain
Comment: this has happened to a few blockchains ;) Brazio, Octocoin to name just 2
Answer: No, for the simple reason that the network do not need to know when and if a node finish syncing to latest block height.
That's irrelevant to the blockchain network so there isn't any sort of syncing complete message broadcasting.
Answer: No it doesn't broadcast a message like that.
Your bitcoin node doesn't know when it's fully synced. All it knows for sure is that it's up to par with all the nodes its currently connected to.
At any given moment, your node is working to be as synced as possible, listening to its peers. But that means you have to trust what they tell you, and trust that they are also up to date. Certainty is impossible, but the probability is pretty high (>99%) that you're up to sync when connected to several peers. The general rule is that if you connect to 8 peers, you can reach everyone. Even if a few are dishonest, the rest aren't, and all you need is one telling the truth.
What your node does broadcast is what services it offers, its version number, the time, and its current blockheight.


How does non-Abelian gauge symmetry imply the quantization of the corresponding charges?

Question: I read an unjustified treatment in a book, saying that in QED charge an not quantized by the gauge symmetry principle (which totally clear for me: Q the generator of $U(1)$ can be anything in $\mathbb{R}$) but for non-Abelian gauge symmetries the "charge" are quantized by virtue of this principle. Could someone give a hint (or reference) of the calculation showing that.
Comment: It is the property of non-Abelian gauge invariance that  all matter fields interact with the gauge field with the same coupling (or couplings in case of a non-simple gauge group). Otherwise you cannot make the Lagrangian gauge invariant. This is the same as saying that the charges of all fields are determined solely by the structure of the gauge group and its representations up to an overall scale, which can be absorbed in the redefinition of the coupling.
Comment: Huh, interesting question. I can't think of a reason offhand why non-Abelian-ness specifically would lead to quantization of the charge, but I will be interested to see what people come up with.
Comment: Ok thanks for the answer. I had already seen that, like the q + g -> q + g amplitude that requires the g of the fermion-gauge coupling to be the same as the g in the $A^{\mu}A^{\nu}\partial_{\mu}A_{\nu}$ but I was thinking about a quantization in the same way as magnetic monopoles quantize the electrical charge.
Comment: [This ref](http://courses.washington.edu/phys55x/Physics%20558_lec8.htm) defines ladder operators based on the gauge generators which raise and lower isospin.  I suspect that this works out similar to angular momentum ladder operators in elementary QM, where they lead to quantization of angular momentum.  In the abelian case, the commutators would vanish so this would be doomed to fail.  (Not posting as an answer because I'm not sure it's right, but it's something to look at...)
Answer: First of all, note that the real Abelian Lie group $U(1)$ comes in two (multiplicatively written) versions:

Compact $U(1)~\cong~e^{i\mathbb{R}}~\cong~S^1$, and
Non-compact $U(1)$ $~\cong~e^{\mathbb{R}}\cong~\mathbb{R}_+\backslash\{0\}$.

Also note that in the physics literature, we often identifies charge operators with Lie algebra generators for a Cartan subalgebra (CSA) of the gauge Lie algebra.
Moreover, note that the choice of CSA generators is not unique, see also this answer. The ambiguity in the convention choice of charge operators is similar to the ambiguity in the convention choice of spin operators, see also this question. We shall from now on assume that we consistently stick to only one such possible convention.
Given a Lie algebra representation, the eigenvalues of the charge operator are called charges.
Now let us briefly sketch some lore and facts related to OP's question (v2).

We observe in Nature that Abelian and non-Abelian charges are quantized, as accurately described by electric charge, electroweak hypercharge, electroweak isospin and color charges in the $U(1)\times SU(2)\times SU(3)~$ standard model.
If there exist dual magnetic monopoles, then quantum theory provides a natural explanation for charge quantization. Namely, by playing with Wilson lines, the singlevaluedness of the wavefunction requires that charges are quantized (i.e., to take only discrete values), and that the gauge group is compact, as first explained by Dirac.
It is a standard result in representation theory, that for a finite-dimensional representation of a compact Lie group, that the charges (i.e., the eigenvalues of the CSA generators) take values in a discrete weight lattice.
If a gauge group contains both a compact and a non-compact direction, i.e. if its bilinear form$^1$ has indefinite signature, it is impossible to define a non-trivial positive-norm Hilbert subspace of physical, propagating, $A^a_{\mu}$ gauge field states.

--
$^1$ By a bilinear form is here meant a non-degenerate invariant/associative bilinear form on the Lie algebra. For a semisimple Lie algebra, we can use the
Killing form.
Comment: @Qmechanics Can you please explain or refer to a reference about why charge operators are identified with Cartan generator?
Comment: @Qmechanic In the Gell-mann basis of $\mathfrak{su(3)}$ in what sense are $\lambda_3$ and $\lambda_8$ charge generators of color? Can you expand on this?
Comment: Doesn't second quantisation already explain charge quantisation? We start with the conserved Noether charge of the classical field, and then second quantisation of the field makes the eigenvalue of this operator discrete. Then why do we need magnetic monopoles to explain the same thing?
Comment: Discreteness of charges does not imply that charges belongs to a lattice.
Answer: The situation is similar with SU(2) spin quantization. Generators of the SU(2) are quantized, while U(1) this is not the case. Spin is quantized in 3D space, but in a 2D space it is continuous real number, with fractional quantum statistics intermediate between boson and fermion.
Comment: Interesting point related to braid groups and projective representations. $Spin(2)$ is here the compact $U(1)$. It is my understanding that so far, experimentally speaking, anyons in $2+1$ dimensional systems do not carry continuous, but only discrete fractional spin, which are therefore still quantized.


Parity Vault password lost

Question: Is there anyway to contact EthCore to have the password on my Vault reset?  I could certainly be wrong here, but I dont think the Vault of part of the decentralized network or encrypted to any large degree.  Within my vault is my parity wallet which contains my ETH.  My apple icloud password was inadvertenly overwritten with the wrong password and Apple has no way to access a list of previous passwords.
Comment: This is not a duplicate. A _vault_ is not a wallet.
Answer: All you lost is your metadata. Vaults are a privacy feature, not a security feature.
You can manually import your JSON keys by going to the Accounts tab, click on "new Account", select from "JSON File", and find the Vault's directory on your disk (a subdirectory in your keys directory named after the vault).
After import you can use the account like you always used to do.

Parity Vault password lost


Alchemy Resource Error

Question: I'm seeing this error message when testing my plugin in SDL Web 8.

The resource object with key 'None' was not found.

It previously worked in earlier versions of SDL Tridion.
Answer: SDL has changed the namespace of their resource strings so something like :
<%$ Resources: Tridion.Web.UI.Strings, None %>
Will not work in Web8.
It's recommended to create your own resource strings in your Alchemy project rather than piggy back on SDL's.
Answer: As Josh says, the namespace for the CME resource strings has been updated for Web 8.
Rather than Tridion.Web.UI.Strings, these are now in the  Tridion.Web.UI.Editors.CME.Strings namespace.
So, for example, when upgrading the 'Publish from Publish Queue' extension, I have updated the GUI Extension config file to reference the labels in the following manner, and the labels (e.g. Publish, Unpublish, etc.) now display correctly:
<cmenu:ContextMenuItem id="cm_pq_publish" command="PqPublish" name="{Resources: Tridion.Web.UI.Editors.CME.Strings, Publish}" />

These strings appear to be defined in the following file:
%Tridion_Home%\web\WebUI\WebRoot\App_GlobalResources\Tridion.Web.UI.Editors.CME.Strings.resx

Alchemy Resource Error


Third eye of Lord Narasimha

Question: The Narasimhar sannidhi in Srirangam temple has Narasimha moorthy with a third eye like Shiva. Is the third eye of Lord Narasimha mentioned in any scriptures like Puranas or Upanishads?
Answer: Yes, There are references from Agamas that Lord Narasimha is three eyed. Many of them are not available for us online and the exact source is not known but excerpts or dhyana shlokas of Lord Narasimha are available in hard copies and are only available and given through disciplic succession. Some forms of Narasimha (like Yogananda Narasimha) are not very well discussed in the puranas but worshipped in temples and worshipped by upasakas.
One of the dhyanashlokas is as follows.
Quoting from Rickross's answer which quotes a collection of different agama procedures and shlokas of different gods. This is a book written by Krishnananda Agamvagisha. He is a scholar in Vedas and Tantra.

Nrisimha's body's complexion is like that of a mountain made of precious jewels. And that glow is terrifying the demons. His hands are resting on the thighs. He has three eyes and the body is decked with clothing made with Ratnas. His two hands are holding the Shankha and the Chakra. The face is terrifying because of the teeth and the tongue, which is coming out and which looks like a flame of fire. Half of his body is that of a lion and the other half is that of human. ....

This may not be the form which he saved prahlada but there are many other forms of him.
Hence, we can safely say that Lord Narasimha is three eyed.
Comment: Thanks a lot for the answer. This question was troubling me from quite sometime.
Comment: @ManojGowda You're welcome. If you find the answer helpful, you can upvote and accept the answer. That marks question as solved. You can change your accept mark when you get a better answer.

Third eye of Lord Narasimha


White wine substitute in potato leek soup

Question: In this recipe, can I substitute or do without the white wine? Is there a non-alcoholic substitute?
Comment: related : http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/1332/67
Answer: Why substitute anything? Cooking is all about tasting, if you like how the soup tastes without the wine then there's no need to add anything to replace it. The white wine supplies acidity, which you may not actually want if you've already added sour cream. It also supplies fruitiness which again may or may not be to your taste. If you want more acidity then squeeze some lemon juice into it, if you want fruitiness add maybe 1/8 cup of white grape juice. Add a bit at a time, tasting as you go to make sure you don't overdo it.
If you decide you like the soup without the wine then don't add anything, your recipe won't miss the 1/4 cup of fluid.
Comment: Another related option would be to use even less White Wine Vinegar - as you note you're looking for a combination of fruitiness and acidity.
Comment: @gdD I want to substitute it because I don't have white wine...
Answer: Consider using white wine vinegar. The flavour profile obviously isn't the same, acetic acid changes things a lot, but you do get the other flavour compounds you get in wine.
That said, subjectively speaking, I agree with the suggestion of lemon juice to go with fennel and sour cream. Or maybe a combination of the two.
Answer: The amount, 1/4 cup, is so small that it probably doesn't affect the final flavor too much. Easiest substitute would be low-sodium vegetable stock.
Some commercial vegetable stocks do contain trace amounts of white wine, so check the ingredients in the nutrition facts if this is a problem.
Comment: I wouldn't be so confident you can't taste it. The other flavors in the soup aren't very loud.
Answer: I'm in the same boat.  I've tried vinegar, stock, water, orange/lemon/lime juice, etc. many times, but never been happy with the results.
Meier's Juice has a nonalocholic Chablis (dry) and Spumante (sweet).  I think this recipe would probably use the Chablis.  I've used both of these as wine substitutes for years with great results, and always have several bottles on hand.


Loading to Bitcoin wallets

Question: I've downloaded some bitcoin wallets because I am planning to load some amount in it using my ATM. But I don't know how. Will somebody help. How can I have some bitcoins in my wallet?
Answer: Firstly
Read

Help
I am new to Bitcoin, how can I get started?
How do you obtain bitcoins?
Can bitcoins be traced to scammers
scam with blockchain

Bitcoin "ATM"/BTM
Scrutinise "ATM" for fees etc to determine exactly how much BTC you will receive.
Open your wallet. Click the Receive button. Enter appropriate details (all aptional). Click the Request Payment button. Carefully write down or otherwise record the generated address. Details depend on exact wallet used.
Follow the "ATM" instructions and make sure you tell it to pay to the address generated by the wallet. You may need to type in the address or will be able to scan the QR-code.
Fiat ATM
Use a service like "local bitcoins" to find someone willing to swap your local currency for BTC.
Consider what you will do if the BTC don't show up for a few days (or never).
Meet them. See above re generated address. Give them your money and the generated bitcoin-address.
Hope they are honest.
Either
Take a careful note of the Transaction Id
After the transaction, wait half an hour and see if your wallet shows the amount of BTC you expected. If not, check your wallet is synchronised and/or wait a couple of hours.
Try doing a web-search for "blockchain explorer" and type in either your receiving address or the Transaction Id.

Loading to Bitcoin wallets


Why are some economists remarkably productive?

Question: I'm a first year PhD student and I randomly go to different professors' websites to admire their works. Usually an economist has around 20 published papers when he/she reaches professorship. But there are a few outliers, like Andrew Lo, Darrell Duffie, Kenneth Singleton and Paul Samuelson, who have like a few hundred of papers published. Are they simply more productive than others? Is the number of publications (of course above a certain standard of quality) a good indicator of the economist's ability?
Comment: There's nothing specific to economics here, so it would probably be better to move it to [academia.se].
Comment: @curiousdannii It is a little bit at the middle. They don't really like some specific fields for questions as they want that maximum number of people of the community could benefit from the question.
Answer: A short answer to your question is both yes and no. You have to first define productivity: productivity, in my opinion, cannot simply mean publishing the number of articles, but rather, their impact. A typical way of modelling the impact of authors is by looking at their h-index. There are many other ways of measuring productivity as well- where the articles are published is important as well. The top 5 journals in economics are (in no particular order): Econometrica, AER, QJE, JPE and ReStud. Articles published in these journals are generally of high quality. However, there are many articles that are published in these journals that do not always have the desired impact. Many a time, articles ranked in lower journals have a high impact. Consequently, it is extremely difficult to measure productivity. To me, the h-index is a good measure.
Comment: Thanks! Could you also tell me where could I find the h-index for different economists?
Comment: This website uses other measures as well, but try:  https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.person.all.html
Answer: Another aspect is a little bit about network effect. Suppose for a one moment that there are two researchers, one in USA and another in Asia, having both the same paper, do you really think that two researchers have the same chances to publish in Econometrica or in another top journal ?
So, the term of productivity is highly biased by this network effect.
It is a little bit close to ChinG's response. People not having chance to publish a very good high impact paper in Econometrica, publish in another good journals like Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Journal of Economic Theory and etc.
For me, a guy publishing in Econometrica being in Europe and another guy in USA with an Econometrica paper are not same.


Installing Moodle to a Craft CMS server

Question: I was wondering if anyone had any experience in installing Moodle to a server that already had a CraftCMS website installed onto it? I've followed the instructions on the Moodle Installation Guide (I put the Moodle files in the CraftCMS template folder) but when I get to the part where I go to http://domain/moodle to install it I get a 404 error. If I go to http://domain/moodle/install.php I get the install file but it doesn't work, I just get a string of text like the PHP isn't executing. I can't find any similar issue's on Moodle's forums so I think that this will have something to do with craft not allowing the PHP?
Comment: I don't have a specific answer, but what I think you need is something within the .htaccess file that looks for anything that is moodle specific.

By default, the .htaccess file is sending all requests through the index file (which is Craft) so Craft is trying to interpret your Moodle requests. Which, it has no idea what to do with.

Maybe something like this? http://coolestguidesontheplanet.com/redirecting-a-web-folder-directory-to-another-in-htaccess/
Answer: What Damon said is correct.  You'll need to modify Craft's public .htaccess file so that all requests to Moodle URIs go to it's public index.php file and requests to Craft URIs go to Craft's public index.php file.
Alternatively, you could keep them as two separate installations, which simplifies things.
Comment: I've moved Moodle (student-portal) out of the templates folder and into the base site directly under public_html. It worked but only if I use a specific address like  https://domain/student-work/index.php. After installation though moodle tries to link to other pages like "https://domain.com/home/database/public_html/student-portal/my" and I get another 404 error through craft. Is this still a htaccess problem? I'm not sure what code I am looking to change or add even with the site above as I have little experience in modifying the .htaccess files of a website.

Installing Moodle to a Craft CMS server


On which date was Christ born?

Question: Most Christians celebrate the birth of Christ (Christmas) on December 25. But was this really the day of Christ's birth? What was the actual date of Christ's birth?
Comment: @FMS: Thanks for the edit attempt. However, given the relatively ancient nature of this question, and the existing answers, I'd rather leave this question as is, and closed, than to invalidate the existing answers.  Feel free to ask your overview question separately, if you're so inclined.
Comment: Understood. From experience asking that question following my edit and most likely it will be marked duplicate  and pointed to this one i.e., an answer is available here. So agree to leave things as they are. PS You asked a good question and I believe I benefited from from the ensuing research. Mahalo!
Comment: @FMS: Questions should rarely ever be made duplicates of closed questions, unless the new question has the same flaw as the closed question.
Comment: Cf. e.g. [Who is credited with being the first to use these terms "conservatives", "traditionalists", "progressives and liberals" within the Catholic Church? (duplicate)](http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/34151/who-is-credited-with-being-the-first-to-use-these-terms-conservatives-tradit). They are a few more.
Comment: Here is another: [According to Catholic theology, why are there two and only two processions in the Godhead? (duplicate)](http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/36868/according-to-catholic-theology-why-are-there-two-and-only-two-processions-in-th) which was marked a duplicate when mine was asking from a **Catholic** perspective.
Comment: In  your first example, the duplicate happened nearly a year before the target was closed.  In the second case, the target isn't even closed (although I agree with you that the Catholic perspective makes yours unique and better)
Answer: As far as I know there is no proof of any certain date of Christ's birth. And it is only by tradition that we accept it as the 25th of December. Now I'm not one for following tradition for traditions sake, but according to this site a lot of the evidence that people provide to rule out December as Christ's birthday is not rooted in fact. I don't think the exact day is important to salvation myself, but the fact that He was born. According to the author of that site the movement to suggest he couldn't have been born in december was started by the Jehovah's Witnesses, I don't know if that's true but that's what he claims.
The author dosen't claim that Jesus definitely was born on Dec. 25th. But claims that we just can't rule that out. Here are a couple of his points:

Those against the December date claim that it was too cold for
shepherds to be out in the field in winter; However it didn't seem to
actually get that cold in Bethlehem in December, and even if it did
shepherds would in fact stay out in the fields even in colder
weather.
Claims are made that tradition puts it in December beacause of the
pegan winter solstice, the problem with that argument is that the
winter solstice is on the 21st to the 22nd, not the 25th, and there
are thousands of pegan holidays so ANY day is some pegan celebration
in some part of the world.

So can it be proved that it was the 25th of December? No. Can it be disproved? Probably not.
Does it matter more that it happened on a certain day or just the fact that it happened?
Comment: @ChimangoChisuwo every day is a birthday for some pegan "god" , why would that matter at all? Having said that in the vast majority of cases that Christians are accused of boworing pagan traditions or dates, they are simply made up when you look at actual evidence, people come up with a story that sounds good about how close some pagan celebration or something was , but the dates are almost always wrong and the traditions cited rarely are what was claimed. Just a sad attempt to somehow discredit Christianity.
Comment: I'm pretty sure that the argument against the December date is considerably older than the Witnesses.
Comment: I understand the 25th is a birthday for a number of pagan gods how is this handled?
Answer: Jonathan Cahn a Messianic Jewish Rabbi and pastor has a very interesting and intriguing take on this.
His detective work, drawing from Scripture and Jewish Laws, Traditions, and on Hebrew Holy Days, leads him to propose Nisan 1, 3756 i.e. March 20, 6 BC.
1st Clue: Shepherds at Night

According to the Rabbis in the Talmud, shepherds kept watch by night from around March to the next rainy season [in Autumn].
Birth at night in Autumn is eliminated because of the feast of Tabernacles during that season and all males had to be in Jerusalem.
The shepherds at night also watch out for new lambs because of the lambing season being in spring: Mar/Apr [Nisan].
Who better to greet the arrival of the Lamb of God than shepherds?
Bethlehem was from whence the lambs for the Temple sacarfice came.

2nd Clue: Hebrew Holy Days
Central events of the Messiah and his time on earth happen on Hebrew Holy Days, therefore his birth must have been on a Hebrew Holy Day, and therefore the birth points to Nissan 1, beginning of the Hebrew Year.
3rd Clue: Moon Mystery
Jesus died on passover 14/15 Nissan on full moon, therefore he must have been born on new moon 1st Nissan.
4th Clue: Stars
The Magi's visit, the Massacre of the Infants, and knowng from History when Herod died (4 BC) points to the year of birth being around 6 BC.
5th Clue: Circumstances surrounding John the Baptist's conception
From the priestly calendar using the Talmud and Dead Sea Scrolls, the date of the duty of the division of Abi′jah to which priest Zechari′ah, John's Father belonged, can be determined.
Final Clue: The OT Tabernacle
The date on which the OT Tabernacle was to be raised was Nisan 1. (The Word was made flesh and dwelt [pitched his tent] among us.)
See more here: Jonathan Cahn - When was Messiah Jesus born?, Connie Oelbaum | YouTube.

How does this compare to Catholic Tradition?
From this article by Dr Taylor Marshall, the Church reasoning is that Christ was conceived on March 25, a date that has cosmic significance - e.g. March 25 was thought to be the first day of creation - and therefore born 9 months later on December 25. The Rabbi has him born, NOT conceived, in spring. Pretty fascinating stuff.
Comment: @user13992: Very logical and well thought out answer. It would make sense that Jesus was born on a Jewish holiday which would explain why Jerusalem was crowded at the time of his birth. Sheep despite the fact that are covered in wool are particularly suited for winter cold thus  shepherds would not have them out all night.
Answer: We Armenians do informally celebrate the birthday of Christ on December 25th, but to celebrate his birth on the 6th of January is religiously accurate.
The historical reasoning behind this is that until the fourth century, Christ's birth was celebrated on January 6th across all Christian faiths, but for most was moved to December 25th in order to cleanse Christianity of all pagan traces (leftover from former pagan practices). Armenia was not included because as a nation it didn't adopt the pagan practice to begin with (and Armenia was the first to accept Christianity as a nation).
Most Christian faiths now recognize December 25th as Christ's birthday and January 6th as the Feast of Epiphany. However, both used to be celebrated—and currently are, by most Armenian religions—on January 6th.
Source
Comment: Many alternative dates are cited; September seems a popular month; when something is (or was) celebrated is often of little relation to the *actual* event. My interpretation of the question suggests to me that the January date is of no more repute that Dec 25th...
Comment: My understanding of the January 6th date isn't because 1/6 is more "accurate" but rather because the Orthodox churches never accepted the Gregorian calendar reforms that shifted things around by 13 days.
Comment: @TheGeeko61: I often celebrate my birthday on a date other than my actual birthday. I've also met a couple of people who didn't know their actual birthday, but that didn't stop us from guessing, and having a party anyway.
Comment: I disagree that when something is celebrated is of little relation to the actual event...  When has someone ever wished you a "happy birthday" six months from the actual date?
Answer: This is a question which has plagued me for many decades.  I am truly shocked that a similar question received such little response during this season.
In other discussions here, we all can agree that no one can answer the question directly.  No one knows the actual date of Christ's birth.
To know what one does not know is a sign of scholarship.  Sometimes, the wisest answer to a question is "I don't know."  To continue rambling in the answer is to address issues not identified in the question.  (As the previous sentence just demonstrated.)
end of answer
Comment: Don't you think Mary might have known?  And by extension the apostles who asked her, "So... when was Jesus born anyway?"
Comment: Good point... which is why I state in the present tense... that no one can answer... I didn't say that no one *has ever answered.*
Answer: The January 6 date used in the Armenian calendar is simply based on the greek calendar which placed nisan 14 on the greek month of Artemisios 14th (April 6). The west placed 'Good Friday/Nisan 14" on March 25th. (an ancient belief that an influential person dies on the day he is conceived). Thus nine months after the feast day of the Anunciation on the liturgical calendar, will be placed Christmas.
As the liturgical calendar evolved in the Eastern half of the Roman empire, the roman/byzantine east split the dual feasts of the Nativity and Baptism of the Lord. Adopting the roman/western date Dec 25 for the nativity according to the flesh, and retaining Jan 6 as the Theophany of Christ in the Jordan. Armenians who tended to be outside the empire retained the original eastern 4th century feastday. It is the 12 days between Dec 25 and Jan 6 where we get the concept of the "12 days of Christmas".
The January 7th date for Christmas used by Eastern Orthodox christians and by the Coptic church is simply based on the julian calendar. January 7 on our business/ gregorian calendar is december 25th on the julian calendar. In a few more decades January 8 Gregorian reckoning will become the day that Orthodox christians (on the julian calendar) will celebrate Christmas- yet it will still be Dec 25th on that calendar.
Gregory Nazianzen bishop of Constantinople gave a series of homilies (orations 38-40) for these feast days which was one of the transition years where the celebration of Theophany/Christmas was split into two (there is some controversy on which day; dec 25 or jan 6 they were delivered on). Regardless they are treated by Gregory as a single feast day. They were given in 380/381AD right about the time of the adoption of Dec 25 for Christmas in Constantinople: Oration 38 (chapter 3) and orations 39-40 make clear this was still viewed as a single feast:
:http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310238.htm
There is also a very interesting article published years ago in Biblical Archeology Review about this;
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/how-december-25-became-christmas/
Comment: This is quite informative. Could you perhaps add some references, too?
Comment: Welcome to Christianity.SE. For a quick overview of what this site is about, please take the [Site Tour](http://christianity.stackexchange.com/tour). Thanks also for offering an interesting answer. For some further tips on writing good answers here, please see: [What makes a good supported answer?](http://meta.christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/692/what-makes-a-good-supported-answer) I do hope you'll stick around!

On which date was Christ born?


What's the difference between the various dialects of English?

Question: I've read and heard "British English", "American English", "Australian English", etc. I know there are differences in accents and word choices but is there a larger difference that makes nationally-named Englishes any different than regionally-named Englishes? For example, I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, USA and that area speaks Pittsburgh English. Is that still considered American English, or is it a dialect within American English? Is there a family tree of sorts to show how/where all the different Englishes arose from?
Answer: There are way too many English dialects to list, but the general definition of a dialect is:

Dialects are linguistic varieties which differ in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar from each other and from Standard English (which is itself a dialect).

I actually did find a simplified tree of English dialects, and it shows the changes that occurred between one and the next.

There's also a dialect map for the US, which shows which regions share an overall dialect.

The website that the map is from gives a very detailed look at each individual dialect. There is too much to post here, but for example the site lists the New England dialect--and then breaks it down into sub-dialects:

New England
Many of the Northern dialects can trace their roots to this dialect which was spread westward by the New England settlers as they migrated west. It carries a high prestige due to Boston's early economic and cultural importance and the presence of Harvard University. A famous speaker is Katherine Hepburn. They sometimes call doughnuts cymbals, simballs, and boil cakes.

However, the dialects shown are only dialects of American English. Pittsburgh English, the dialect you originally asked about, is listed as a North American regional dialect of English.
Answer: As any language develops, it changes.  If one language is spoken in an area that is geographically removed from the rest of the language speakers, changes will result in the two languages drifting apart from each other.  All living languages changes over time.  The changes can range over all the aspects of language, such as phonology (leading to the languages sounding different) or lexical (where the newly introduced words or changes in word meaning can make the language somewhat incomprehensible).
The more the language changes from a "parent" language, the more likely the language will be eventually deemed a "new/separate language".
The distinction of which is often blurry (like Dutch being linguistically difficult to differentiate from being "just a German dialect"), and leads to the common adage: "A language is a dialect with a border and a military."  These sentiments of language identity are usually tied with a cultural/national identity and is a motivating factor in the declaration of a "new language."
It is plausible that some of these different Englishes could become their own languages in time, and the sooner that comes about the more likely it will be a nearly mutually comprehensible language with American/British English.  Off the top of my head, I could see Indian English (South Asian English?) branching off more quickly than many of the others, due to such a large amount of languages influencing the speakers in that region, and because it is already a very phonologically and lexically different form than American/British English.
And as a quick aside, I think these changes will be less common, or at least not as fast as they might have historically happened, due to the global society that is emerging from technology (i.e. the internet and mass broadcasting of media).
Answer: How exactly you distinguish one "dialect" or speech variety from another is really a bit arbitrary. At the extreme end, you might even say that every individual speaker speaks a different dialect (you wouldn't usually, but my point is there are no well-defined places to draw the line). It's really a question of analysis and where you decide to make divisions for your purposes-- the divisions often being as much political as linguistic.
You may like to check out Trudgill & Hannah's, "International English", for an overview of what they see as the major distinguishing phonological features of major dialects of English.
On the question of pronunciation, for example, they make the broad divisions as shown below. There is surely a whole hierarchy of subdialects within each of these major dialects, with variations on the broad features identified. But the point is that it gives you a broad overview and perhaps highlights some of the more salient features that we subconsciously use to identify different varieties of English (in this case, in relation to their sound system).
Comment: "you might even say that every individual speaker speaks a different dialect". The term for this is "idiolect", the language unique to each speaker, and contains the idiosyncratic features of that person
Comment: So do I read that to say the difference between Aus and NZ is significant but all England+Wales are the same?
Comment: @Martin: That chart just shows 11 differences.  Perhaps one or two other differences exist, for example within USA or within England.
Comment: @Thursagen -- it's common to use the "idiolect" to designate an individual's dialect, but my point is that really it's just one end of a spectrum. (At least linguistically speaking, but maybe not politically.)
Comment: Just to be cleear: thousands of identifiable differences probably exist within each of these countries if you go down to that level. The point is that this is an attempt to separate out some broad, common identifying factors to substantiate linguistically what we see as these major divisions (which are, as I say, ultimately political as well as linguistic).
Comment: when words start having completely different meanings, e.g. fanny, fag... is it time to accept that we are not talking dialects any more?
Comment: @kinjal - No, I don't think so. I don't know why or how you arrive at that conclusion.


Is a factually incorrect comment "not constructive"?

Question: Title of the question says it all really. Does the definition of "not constructive" include comments which are simply factually wrong?
Comment: Might be hard to decide for mods.
Comment: Ideally comments never contain facts.  Not the way they were originally envisioned to be used.  But certainly the way they are now, SO users do about anything to prevent their question from getting closed because the proper answer matches one of the 20 million existing ones.  Making the question intentionally vague is a universal strategy, it forces contributors to post guesses.  You can't be sure it is not a proper guess or won't be useful to the next googler.  That was a guess btw, your question is vague.
Answer: No.  It is not up to moderators to judge the factual accuracy of content on the site.  If you feel that a comment is factually inaccurate, you can reply to it to explain why you feel it is wrong.  If the author agrees with your critique, it would then become obsolete, and could merit a moderator deleting it on those grounds.
Answer: Let's take one step back here and look at it from this angle instead:
Is a comment that isn't asking for clarification into either an OP's question or adding correction to an answer really constructive?
Effectively, if you see a comment that states something blatantly wrong, it should tip something off; not because that it was blatantly wrong, but because the comment isn't being used for what it's intended for.  That in my mind merits removal for it being too chatty/not constructive.
As Servy mentioned prior, though, the moderators aren't going to act on content based on it being factually accurate or not, since it's not their primary position to do so.


How do I make piano chords sound interesting when playing along with popular songs?

Question: I'm wanting to start playing along with popular songs and the easiest way to find lyrics and music only has guitar chords. I can play those chords on the piano but it just sounds boring. How should I be filling the space between chords to make it sound more interesting and more full?
Answer: A guitarist has exactly the same problem as you do. If you just strum the chord on the downbeat, or on every beat, it sounds boring. You have to play more interesting patterns.
The guitarist does have a couple of advantages over a pianist in this respect. Early on, a guitarist learns to get more rhythmic interest out of a basic chord, by varying the rhythm of strokes, and by muting. Some of these effects are more difficult on a piano, and some are impossible.
The simple guitar chords a beginner learns are in a variety of inversions, so that level of interest is added "automatically" to a beginner's guitar playing.
At the very basic end of what a guitarist might also do:

Inversions - play the chord at a different position on the fretboard; or simply begin the strum on a different string.
Arpeggiation - very common for guitarists; break the chord into a sequence of single notes. Typically you'd go up for 3 or four notes (depending on time signature), then back down to the root.
Rolls - right-hand patterns that are more complex than an arpeggio. A common one is the classic blues/folk pattern where the bass strings go from the root to the fifth on the 1st and 3rd beat, while the remaining strings are played as a chord on the 2nd and 4th.
Connecting notes - you're going from a G to an F? Play an F# on the way down.

Of course, from there, there are plenty of variations. Learn by copying.
But you're on a piano. Fortunately, all of the above have direct equivalents on a piano keyboard:

Inversions - instead of putting your thumb on the root note and playing the 3rd and 5th, put your thumb on the 5th below the root you're playing, then the root and 3rd above that. You have several octaves' worth of notes to pick from.
Arpeggiation - I don't really have to explain, do I?
Rolls - the closest analogy to the guitar roll I described is a classic boogie-woogie piano part, where the left hand does the root-to-fifth-below bass part, and the right hand plays choppy chords in various inversions on the off-beats. There are lots of "learn to play boogie-woogie piano" books on the market.
Connecting notes - as easy (or easier) on a keyboard as on a guitar.

In addition, some songs are driven by their chord progression, so you can get away with block chords without it sounding boring.
Some songs have few, or no, chord changes, and interest is provided by the riff. In cases like these, you're going to need to create an approximation of the riff (or develop your own riff that fits).
On piano in particular, straight major and minor chords can sometimes sound a little basic, and a lot of the piano accompaniments you hear include dissonant extra notes - ninths, flat 7ths etc. It's hard to say when it's right to do this, but experiment and see what you like the sound of; and look at sheet music to see where they do it (ragtime sheet music is a good place to start).
As with all music, listen to the sort of stuff you'd like to sound like, and copy what they do.
Answer: Make Chords more Interesting
You can try different inversions of the chords. For example, you might use chord Ic (second inversion) when approaching a cadence. E.g. in the key of C, instead of playing C E G, you would play G C E. I find on the piano that if you play chords in such inversions that you don't end up moving your hand as much, it can sound nicer, as subtle movements which create a larger harmonic change are often more interesting to the ear.
Fill out the chords
Try experimenting with adding notes in, for example, in a perfect cadence, you might you V⁷ (dominant seventh) instead of just chord V. In the key of C, that would be G B D F. There are many other notes you can add into chords to vary/thicken the sound - for example if you add the 6th into a chord it can often make it sound more jazzy. The best way is to experiment and find ways that you like of varying the chords.
Comment: A lot of this stuff becomes easier with a little experience.  Don't be afraid to search for piano/voice arrangements of songs to get ideas for various chord voicings and rhythms.
Comment: Throwing in extra notes is often effective. A good lyric-and-chords transcription will include sevenths etc. though. I must admit to throwing extras in on a whim.
Answer: I'm a pianist for a contemporary church, and 90% of the time, I only have chords to work off. The main elements are broken chords and rhythm. I will seem a bit dictative here but I don't want to talk too much and feel free to experiment around. (Will use C Major as an example, / = rest)
When you play a song with just the piano, you have to fill out every register, so with two hands I try to spread out as much as possible. Left hand will always play bass and right will go from G upwards.

I'll start with rhythm because it's easier. Play just the root of the chord with your left hand in the bass (octave if you're feeling fancy) and with the right hand play C and G. Play the bass note on every crotchet beat and with the right, try different patterns, quavers, semi quavers, ties, syncopation etc.

It will sound blockly but this is what I normally do for fast songs... with some mixing.....

Broken chords are the main thing, because by breaking it down, you are spreading it out over the duration that it is played, elongating the harmony. Try playing the block chord on the right hand and with the left hand, play C G C1 E1 G1 / /). Do this slowly for every bar, then do the same for a different chord.

This is pretty much my base for songs and what I work off. The left hand will retain the beat with broken chords and the right will be more flexible with rhythm.
It is really hard to explain without showing you, there's a lot more to explain, ideas for improvisation, adding dissonance, building a song, rhythm with both hands etc. if you're interested, just ask and I shall blabber on because improvisation on chords is a joy to play.
Comment: Do you have a Youtube channel or anything where you show how you do it?
Answer: Start by playing inversions and partial chords/bass notes with the rhythm of the song. It's hard to explain, but don't just play block chords in both hands, mix it up a little.
You don't have to go crazy, but even just playing some inversions mixed in with partial chords to fill in spaces… you'd be surprised at the change it can make. Also, don't always expect the guitar chords sites to always have the correct chords, so if something sounds wrong… it probably is.
Once you learn a pattern that works well, remember it, because as you've probably realized… a lot of popular music is based on the same patterns, rhythms and harmonic structure.
Answer: Everything above is reasonable advice, but I think an additional consideration is just learning lots and lots of songs, because the more you have under your hands, the more you will naturally draw on this expanding musical vocabulary. When you think it sounds boring, you can draw on the entirety of your resources to add interest, whether that is adding melodic interest with a counterline, harmonic interest by increasing the density of the sound (adding to or changing the basic chord structures), or rhythmic interest (don't forget that the piano is ultimately a percussion instrument).
Also don't forget that one way to add interest is to consider, when it is appropriate in the entire context, not playing at all. In a group context, this is something that is not considered frequently enough. When you lay out and then introduce the new element later, what seemed boring now may sound entirely new and interesting. Of course, this doesn't work for a solo piano setting, but in virtually every other context it is worthy of consideration.
One frustration for chordal instruments in play-along settings is that the background is usually pretty full, and there is just no space for an additional chordal instrument. Not much to do about this when playing along with an actual commercial recording of a song, but on properly done play-along materials, you should be able to dump the channel or track that contains the instrument you play, which will open up the sonic space.
Comment: I agree.  But it's important to really analyze the chord progressions in each song you learn.  I do that NOW, but there were SO many songs I learned before I started into this so now I'm going back over them.
Answer: I usually improvise to include something like the melody, parts of the melody, harmony or an accompaniment. Sometimes I mix and mash with these things, or play a counter melody. Practice is key, eventually you can just sit at a piano and play most songs in an interesting way regardless of looking up chords (it is so much faster looking up chords though).
Answer: The easiest thing to do is to add full sound. Figure out which key the song you are playing is in. Let's say it's the key of C. Since there are no accidentals in that key, it's easiest.
Read the top staff. If the note is C, play C E G C, a C major chord plus the the root note octaved.

D- D G D, the note plus the fifth of the C major chord, plus the octave.
E- E G C E, the minor chord plus the root note octaved.
F- F C F, the note plus the root of the C major chord, plus the octave.
G- G C E G, the note as the bass of a C major chord.
A- A C E A, the minor chord plus the root note octaved.
B- B E A B, B sus4 chord with augmented fifth plus root note octaved
C- C E A G, CM6 with fifth octaved

This pattern continues for every key there is. It's kind of tricky at first, but with practice it becomes second nature.
Comment: Grace, for B, if it's B sus4 with augmented fifth, shouldn't that be a G instead of an A?
Answer: There's three starter ways to do this:

using tones from the "key of the moment" as stepwise passing tones
reharmonizing the chord progression, using passing chords and the like
harmonizing the melody using standard two-handed piano voicings (I won't get into details, you can see my book or other books, but at its basic level is a five-tone voicing that includes the root, 3rd, fifth, 7th and melody tone on top)


Unable to edit my own profile

Question: I was unable to login to stackoverflow.com with my usual set of credentials, and the password recovery mechanism stated that my email didn't have an associated account. I found this odd, but decided to simply create a new stackexchange account and start posting again from there until I could find out what was wrong with my original account.
To my surprise when I tried to edit and then save my new account I got the following error at the bottom of the page:
Oops! There was a problem updating your profile:

temporary error updating your profile -- please try again!
This email address is already registered.
If it belongs to you, visit our
account recovery
page to get access to this account.

What's going on here? Has anyone else run into this?
Answer: You had an older account with a different set of credentials, but the same email.
I merged them, so you should be good to go now.

Unable to edit my own profile


Singing lessons for an instrumentalist

Question: I'm a guitar player, but I'm considering getting singing lesson because I think it would improve my ear for music. I'm not looking to be the next Pavarotti or the local karaoke king. Would this alienate me from most singing teachers? What should I be looking for in a singing teacher?
Comment: *Would this alienate me from most singing teachers?* No.  They will be glad that you already have a good level of general musicianship.
Answer: I don't know much about singing teachers, but if you came to me for guitar lessons I wouldn't care if voice were your primary instrument. I also wouldn't care if you had no plans to become the next Jimmy Page or Tom Morello. If you just wanted to learn to do one song ok, I would still teach you because I would expect you would say "ok, I'll learn one more song" when you are done with the first one, and so on.
I would look for price, appropriate time availability, ability to teach the style of music you want to learn, and good personality fit for pretty much any teacher. An offer of a free intro lesson is nice becuase it shows awareness that not all student-teacher pairing make a good fit, and it's nice to audition teachers. Be a little skeptical of anyone charging a very low rate - they might have to in order to retain students and that's not a good sign.
Answer: There's a case on this here: Criteria for selecting a voice teacher
I think any voice coach is just happy to help, no matter what your background or future plans. I think studying multiple instruments is aways an incredibly helpful and good thing to do, both for your creativity as well as your overall musical comprehension. If I was a voice coach, I'd actually be a bit worried if someone whose primary instrument isn't voice, would come up to me and say "I'm definitely going to be the next Pavarotti, ok?" A coach always admires you for understanding that you might not be able to learn everything all by yourself, but you've decided to reach out to someone who can actually guide you to the right direction.
Whatever you're learning, you'll be more likely to stick to it and get more out of it if your teacher is actually a great personality whom you get along with well. Openly talk to candidates about your experience and wishes, and see how well they respond: Do they seem to understand your place well, do they seem cold and distant or personally concerned and innovative in terms of how they could help you. I would also want to actually check their background and be sure that they are professionally trained and credible in voice pedagogy. Any person with a functioning voice can technically perform the act of singing, but under different conditions, some people who train on their own by mimicking others, can unawarely inflict physical harm on their vocal system. When their methods aren't corrected by a credible teacher, they become habits and on the long run can inflict permanent damage to the voice. Singing is like sports: If you've never lifted weights, you do not look at the Olympic pros and go straight at forcing yourself to lift 100kg just because you saw them do it and it seemed cool. Voice is an instrument which has to be trained like muscles, there's a good reason why you have to start gradually, do your exercises, build a good foundation. There is no shortcut to just imitating the coolest and most radical singers that the world has, they have a solid background. Since you are a student, I think it's absolutely crucial that your voice coach is a trained professional, not someone who just started singing and would love to tell others how to do it by mimicking and following hunches.
Some coaches swear on specific trademarked singing methods in which they teach. If your teacher candidate is a certified coach of some specific method, my tip is to avoid "products" which are sold to you as "learn to sound like the craziest pop and rock singers instantly and without barely any effort". If that was sports, the equivalent would be "lose 30kg and gain perfect abs in one night with no effort". Don't trust a teacher who promises quick shortcuts in achieving a physical transformation.

Singing lessons for an instrumentalist


What are some good books and articles about the principal-agent problem?

Question: What are some good books and articles about the principal-agent problem? I'm looking for introductory academic books/articles or "popular-science" kind of ones.
Answer: In my PhD program everyone was using The Theory of Incentives: The Principal-Agent Model by Jean-Jacques Laffont and David Martimort. It offers a formal and relatively complete treatment without being too technical. I haven't read any other book on the topic, so unfortunately I cannot compare.
If you want to avoid any mathematical formalism, a good introductory article and literature review on the topic is Incentives in Principal-Agent Relationships by David E.M. Sappington, in the Journal of Economic Perspectives (1991).
Finally, I would also recommend that you have a look at the Nobel lectures by Hart and Holmström on contractual relationships inside organizations.
Answer: I found "Contract Theory" by Patrick Bolton and Mathias Dewatripont to be a very nice and thorough book. It, however, might be too advanced, although you can skip the formalism and just read the intuitions provided. Let me quote how the book is advertised:

The book emphasizes applications rather than general theorems while providing self-contained, intuitive treatment of the simple models analyzed. In this way, it can also serve as a reference for researchers interested in building contract-theoretic models in applied contexts.The book covers all the major topics in contract theory taught in most graduate courses. It begins by discussing such basic ideas in incentive and information theory as screening, signaling, and moral hazard. Subsequent sections treat multilateral contracting with private information or hidden actions, covering auction theory, bilateral trade under private information, and the theory of the internal organization of firms; long-term contracts with private information or hidden actions; and incomplete contracts, the theory of ownership and control, and contracting with externalities. Each chapter ends with a guide to the relevant literature.
Answer: "The Economics of Contracts" by Bernard Salanié is nice and concise. Like the Bolton and Dewatripont book suggested by Bayesian (and most other books on this topic) it is pitched at a graduate level and certainly does not fall into the "popular science" category.

The theory of contracts grew out of the failure of the general equilibrium model to account for the strategic interactions among agents that arise from informational asymmetries. This popular text, revised and updated throughout for the second edition, serves as a concise and rigorous introduction to the theory of contracts for graduate students and professional economists. The book presents the main models of the theory of contracts, particularly the basic models of adverse selection, signaling, and moral hazard. It emphasizes the methods used to analyze the models, but also includes brief introductions to many of the applications in different fields of economics. The goal is to give readers the tools to understand the basic models and create their own.


Back up iPhone that can not be unlocked--screen is broken/shattered. Need help!

Question: I left my phone on the roof of my car and drove away on a busy road.  It was hit several times and the screen is broken/shattered and glass comes off of it.  It receives calls/text messages, and the button on the top to turn on/off still works.  The screen is just in such bad shape that it won't register the touch of my finger.  I have an appt with Genius bar in a few hours to get a new phone.  I want to save all my pictures and apps off this phone if possible (I never backed up on the computer prior to this) but it prompts me to unlock my phone and I can't do it.  I can't use another iPhone as a guide, because it won't even recognize my finger touching the screen, but the phone still works.  Can I get some ideas on how to back it up?  I am not tech savvy and this is a difficult problem!
Comment: I know this is an extremely unlikely 'long shot' but if you have ever used a Bluetooth keyboard with your iPhone, you should be able to unlock your iPhone using that. However, that requires that you have previously paired the iPhone with a keyboard and that Bluetooth was turned on when the phone was damaged.
Comment: Did anything ever come of your visit to the genius bar? I've edited the comment from TJ and the possibility to use VoiceOver to navigate if any part of the digitizer still works just in case you could use those to get it unlocked and get a backup from iTunes the "normal" way.
Comment: Did you set iCloud backups? Those should happen automatically.
Answer: How about PhoneView (http://www.ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/).  Although its not a true backup of your iPhone at least you can get all the important stuff off of it.
Comment: The latest macOS download of this app is just a zip file with an empty folder in it.
Answer: Total Bummer about your phone. The genius appointment will cover where you might have your backups, but unless you can connect it to a computer that it has already synced, you will need a functioning keyboard-like input device to unlock the phone and make a backup to a new computer whether you use iTunes or a third party tool like Phone View.
Here are your options:

repair the digitizer and back up once the device lets you tap in the unlock code
use a bluetooth keyboard (one that was already paired) to enter the pin
use VoiceOver (triple tap the home button could enable that) to enter the pin

Both the VoiceOver and bluetooth options need the digitizer to set them up the first time, so if you didn't already do that before the failure, you may have to choose between a fixed phone and attempting your backup. (Just like backups are only good if they are done before the device fails or is lost).
You could also just look in iTunes preferences to see which devices are already backing up to your computer or log into iCloud on another device and see if and when the broken phone last backed up to iCloud.

iOS: How to back up
Answer: You may try to perform a backup of your device in DFU mode using Wondershare Dr.Fone. DFU mode is usually used to connected your device to iTunes in order to repair it due to software problems. You will find full tutorial in the link I provided.
Personally, I have never tried this app however backing up under DFU mode is really the only way that comes to my mind.
Comment: Dr.fone does not work with iphones that have cracked LCD and require passcode to unlock the device


How do I mute the guitar in a song so I can play with the backing track?

Question: I am tired of Karaoke style backing tracks and want to replace the guitar in a song that I already have. Can I do this with software?
Answer: If you know the name of the song, search the web for MIDI files. Under success, you can open MIDI file with some even free tool like MuseScore and remove unwanted staffs. The rest can be played by MuseScore directly or you can also export and burn CD.
Answer: There have been many sites which claim to "phase out" the instrument, but there are always those transients in the background like cymbals still lingering around.
Jammit has licensed the original backing tracks from the labels so you can mute or isolate the part you want to learn. Hope this helps you!
Answer: I have been seeing a lot of adverts on YouTube recently for a piece of software called RiffStation. It's supposedly able to isolate (and in your case mute) the guitar on tracks. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but the video demos look very interesting indeed.
YouTube Demo


Whats the difference between a 'page', a 'panel', and a 'handler'?

Question: I am porting a site over and looking through the code, and in a module there are folders for pages, handlers, and plugins/layouts (containing panels layouts) . The pages and handler folders contain .inc files. They are exports of pages and panels etc. However, what is the definitive difference between a handler, panel, and page?
Thanks
Comment: You mean what is the difference between them for the Panels (and Ctools) module? Otherwise you have to provide the codes of these files. Their names mean nothing.
Answer: If you navigate to admin/structure/panels. It gives a short description.
Panel page
Panel pages can be used as landing pages. They have a URL path, accept arguments and can have menu entries.
Custom content
Custom content panes are basic HTML you enter that can be reused in all of your panels.


Can I request that someone look over my legal code?

Question: I wrote two licenses under which I will place my software and art, and I want to make sure they're good enough for what they're intended to do. Is it OK to post them here for review?
Comment: I know that this is a meta post but especially since you're probably not going to post your real question now, I'd like to say that you'll do your users and yourself a favor by sticking with a well-known public license rather than inventing your own. Look at the license zoo maintained by the [OSI](http://opensource.org/licenses/) and the [FSF](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html).
Answer: Based on the guidelines in the Help Center, questions asking to review license text would be off-topic, as it's not code.
If you have a specific question about a legal principle related to licensing, you could ask on Open Source (assuming that it's related to open-source software) or Law.
Note, however, that no Stack Exchange site will give you personalized legal advice.  That means that if you're looking for someone to proofread or bulletproof license terms that you wrote, you should hire a lawyer.
Answer: No.
Code Review is for the review of "code" in the sense of interpreted or compiled programming languages.  Not for any other sort of "code" such as "legal code".
Comment: @DamienH Compiled or interpreted by a program or hardware. This is why Code Review is a bad fit for legal code.


Can the Universe be significantly older than 15 billion years?

Question: If place A experiences time at twice the rate in place B, then shouldn't place A be twice as old as place B? So doesn't that mean that the Universe could contain places older than itself? Or at least older than the 15 billion year date that we have gathered?
Comment: Near the horizon of a black hole
Comment: Related, and possible a duplicate: [Effect of space time relativity on the age of the universe?](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/68758/effect-of-space-time-relativity-on-the-age-of-the-universe)
Comment: Also: [Does a spaceship travelling at near lightspeed see the universe aging slow or fast?](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/225361/does-a-spaceship-travelling-at-near-lightspeed-see-the-universe-aging-slow-or-fa)
Answer: We should be careful when we make statements such as "twice as old as....". A better phrase could be "clocks at location B tick at half the rate as clocks at location A".
Let us first consider a location that is infinitely far away (or at least very, very far away) from any source of stress-energy (e.g. matter), where the metric line element is $ds^2=dt^2-a(t)^2 dx^2$. In this location, there is no (significant) gravitational time delay, and clocks tick at a certain rate (e.g. 1 tick/second).
Now I may compare that rate at which clocks tick at this location (infinitely far away from any matter) to the rate at which clocks tick at a location close to a massive object. Close to a massive object, we will assume that there is a non-negligible gravitational potential $\phi$ (for this discussion, this is the same gravitational potential as $\phi=G\frac{M}{r}$ for a spherical body from intro physics). In a region with a large gravitational potential, clocks will tick at a rate that is different compared to clocks infinitely far away from any source of stress-energy (where $\phi\approx 0$).
The difference in readings ($\Delta t$) between these two clocks after a time $t$ has passed is $\frac{\Delta t}{t}\sim \phi$. As it turns out, $\phi$ is very small. At the surface of the Earth, $\phi\sim 10^{-6}$ ($\leftarrow$ I think....too lazy to check right now).
As to your question about locations where the age of the universe is different, the only location where $\frac{\Delta t}{t}$ would be significant would be in regions of a strong gravitational field: near a neutron star or black hole. (Then again, we would no longer be working in the weak field regime of gravity, which is not very well understood.) The universe in these regimes would not be twice as old, but rather, a person, or particle will have aged half as much as it otherwise would have if it were not located in a strong gravitational field.
Answer: The universe age is defined with respect to some preferred reference frame, with time in that frame being comoving time, or cosmic time, or equivalently how time passes for a test particle moving with the average expansion, also called the cosmic flow. And the age of the universe in that time reference frame is about 13.8 billion years. It's a very useful reference frame to use that would be observed to be roughly the same anywhere in the universe.
But in Relativity time observed, or time measured by a (say perfect) clock depends on what reference frame it is in, and at rest. So different observers could measure times passing at different rates.
An observer moving with the cosmic flow will measure cosmic time. The gravitational field for that observer is the average field for the universe. If that observer measures the geometry of the universe, on the average, it will say it is the geometry we consider the cosmological solution. It's the FLRW metric, in the coordinate system that is comoving with the flow. If that observer measures invariant curvatures of that universe it will get the same curvatures we measure.
In fact, we have to adjust what we measure because we have a peculiar velocity of a few hundred Kms/sec with respect to the cosmic flow.
And the rate of time passing can be different for an observer who is in a gravitational field which is different than the average that determines the cosmic flow.
For instance, an observer hovering over the horizon of a black hole will have his/her time pass much slower than the universe aging. He/she might only age 50 years while the universe ages 100 years (all depending on how far above the horizon he/she is). Or about 6.9 billion years (if alive, or conceptually) while the universe ages 13.8 billion years. There have been questions as to what that observer sees, does he/she see the universe ending, or other stars exploding, while he/she ages less? The answer is a bit tricky, because the observer is just not able to see that much in this case, see eg the LAST answer for the PSE question at Falling into a black hole
And it is different if the observer is falling in or just hovering.
And yes, time can pass differently and things age differently depending on the gravitational field you are in. The times measured by our GPS satellites passes faster compared to the time on earth, and those have to be adjusted, although it is a very small difference
Similarly an observer can very very far from any nearby objects, say in what is called the great void, and time will pass faster. But we can only measure cosmological times approximately, and so far those have not made any difference, except as we note the redshifts or blueshifts associated with those. The universe we measure as about 13.8 billion years plus or minus about 35 million years 1 sigma (so 3 sigma is about 100 million years). Time on earth or for the solar system would just not be noticeably different for astrophysical aging measurements (like the age of rocks).
If you were to somehow have had an asteroid orbiting a black hole near it, would it's rocks age slower? Yes, but before that would make much difference it would have radiated enough gravitational energy and decayed into the black hole.
Not clear you could find a case where you could measure the difference. But if you did its explainable by all those arguments above.
The universe age is discussed at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_universe


Why aren't early opening moves generally given exclamation marks?

Question: As the title above, why aren't early opening moves generally given exclamation marks? I see question marks for obvious opening mistakes from time to time, e.g. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6? or 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Bg4?! But I almost never see exclamation marks for early strong opening moves. For example, after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 should be given an exclamation mark, being obviously a strong move, already challenging Black's center at move 2, or, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5! the Ruy Lopez being considered the best way to challenge Black's center already at move 3, and so on...
Comment: How about this: 1. e4! e5! 2. Nf3! Nc6! 3. Bb5! a6! 4. Ba4! Nf6! 5. O-O! Be7! 6. Re1! b5! 7. Bb3! d6! 8. c3! O-O! 9. h3! Na5! 10. Bc2! c5! 11. d4! Qc7! 12. Nbd2! cxd4! 13. cxd4! Nc6! 14. Nb3! a5! 15. Be3! a4! 16. Nbd2! Bd7! 17. Rc1! Qb7!
Comment: So what? If all of these opening moves are actually very strong moves, I don't see why exclamation marks should be omitted. By the way, in beginners books most of these moves actually do get exclamation marks, with explanations regarding why these are strong. On another note, is this - in your view - a perfect sequence of opening moves?
Comment: PS Did you notice how many exclamation marks were given to early opening moves by Nimzowitsch, in "My System"?
Comment: @A.N.Other if half the moves in a game are gonna get the "!", then why not get rid of it altogether?
Answer: Wikipedia says the following:

Exclamation points ("!") indicate good moves—especially ones which are surprising or involve particular skill. Hence annotators are usually somewhat conservative with the use of this symbol.

(emphasis mine). 2. c4 is the most played move after 1. d4 d5, therefore it doesn't receive an exclamation mark.
Comment: Indeed, and the first time it was played, 2. c4 probably warranted a !.  It no longer does.
Comment: @ANOther Wikipedia is not dictating standards. It is *recording* standards that are already in use.
Comment: Exactly. Book moves are the opposite of surprising.
Comment: It's just the opposite, because it's so good that it became a "book move" and everyone takes it for granted.
Comment: Since when is Wikipedia dictating standards in chess? Anyway, can't opening moves be surprising or involve skill?
Comment: So - if it's recording - what is the source for that statement?
Answer: To try to give a concrete example consider Sax-Seirawan, Brussels 1988
[Event "World Cup"]
[Site "Brussels"]
[Date "1988.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Sax, Gyula"]
[Black "Seirawan, Yasser"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2610"]
[BlackElo "2595"]
[ECO "B09"]
[FEN ""]

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. f4 Bg7 5. Nf3 c5 6. Bb5+ Bd7 7. e5 Ng4 8. e6  fxe6! 9. Ng5 Bxb5 10. Nxe6 Bxd4!! 11. Nxd8 Bf2+ 12. Kd2 Be3+ 1/2-1/2

(Annotation is mine to make the point)
In 1988 before this game 8 ... fxe6 was considered a blunder and the whole 5 ... c5 line was considered somewhat dubious. However Seirawan's find of 10 ... Bxd4!! effectively gave birth to a major new line in the Pirc, and Chess Informant voted this the most theoretically important game for the first half of 1988. Later white found ways to avoid the draw, and line is considered fairly equal nowadays, but even back then such strong novelties as early as move 10 were rare, and now, especially with engines coming into use, have all but disappeared.
So back in 1988 Bxd4 was a very surprising, strong move in a position where Black previously had been thought all but dead. Thus back in 1988 it deserved at least one if not more exclams. However nowadays it is routine - as a ~1850 patzer I have had this very game a number of times. It has lost its surprise value, and so no longer deserves the annotation.
Answer: Exclamation (!) is a highlight in analysis. Either it indicates strong move, or it is also possible to indicate unexpected move. Something to which opponent is totally unprepared. Something which will be followed by inaccuracy (?). This could be different depending on what exact game it is. What will follow after provoking move? Exclamated move could be not optimal at all, making a weakness in your defense. Nonetheless, even making you weaker, it could lure your opponent into blundering entire game.
If that is the game from XIX century where opponents could be not prepared and preferred to accept gambits, then it was "!" move.
Today we have openings up to 12 moves, and the theory behind every variant shows equality, so even if it is Queen Gambit Accepted variant - opponents are already expecting you playing it, you would not catch any initiative.
It all depends what century is the game from.
Today everybody knows QGA and most likely will choose 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 and there will be no surprise in that.
Comment: @A.N.Other - if you *were* annotating a game between complete novices in which `2. c4` was played, and they showed (by explanation or next moves) that it was a reasoned decision and not a random choice, you would be very justified in labelling it `!`. Such games are very rarely annotated -- the vast majority of annotated games are between experienced players who are playing well-known openings -- so `!`s in openings are equally rare.
Comment: You say that "everybody knows QGA", and this might be true, but let's assume that we are two complete beginners, and we haven't read any chess book, and this is our first game ever. Would you find and play 2.c4 as White, after 1.d4 d5?
Answer: Not many moves in the opening deserve exclams. A classic example was Morphy-Allies, Paris 1858: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Bg4 4. dxe5! and Black will lose a pawn, or lose bishop for knight while enabling White to gain time by developing with the recapture.
Answer: As noted by the existing answers, opening moves are usually standard and as such expected to at least some degree.
Arguably, Fischer's 1. c4 in the sixth game of the 1972 World Championship match could deserve an exclamation mark, since it was a remarkably good strategical move, albeit somewhat "meta-strategic".
Comment: Well, Fischer's 1.c4 deserves an exclamation mark because he won, this we know well... Had he lost, it would have been labeled as a bad decision. But I am talking about the objective value of opening moves. According to accepted modern opening strategy, the center is most important in the opening, so any move that directly or else fights for the center is a strong move, hence it deserves, at least virtually, an exclamation mark, this not being the case for 1.a4 and similar. I hope that my point is clearer now.
Comment: 1,e4 is certainly a stronger move than 1.a4 according to modern opening theory (But maybe in two hundred years from now 1.a4 will be considered stronger?). Anyway, aren't 1.e4 or 1.d4 clearly stronger than 1.a4 or 1.a3, for example?
Comment: @A.N.Other I don't see how this applies to my answer concretely. I just wanted to list an example of where an opening move, the first one at that, should arguably be given an exclamation mark. If you have a viable opening move, say 1. a4 and it proves to be "meta-strategically" sound (for the lack of a better expression) it might as well deserve an exclamation mark in my opinion.
Comment: i thought i read somewhere that Fischer himself might have (perhaps tongue in cheek) annotated a game as 1. e4!
Answer: The !, ?, !?, and other such symbols are meant to highlight moves that are unusual in some way: Unusually good, unusually bad, unusually dubious depending on the opponent's response, etc.
If they were used on opening moves, then they'd appear with practically every single game of chess.
At that point they'd become just noise and people would ignore them.  To have any impact, they have to be used rarely.
Answer: Lots of good answers here, but I'll add one perspective that's kind of been missed.
Every chess game starts out in a position that has been played before by others. The game continues in this state until, at some point, in some games, play evolves into a position that has never been played before. It is certain that you will not find an ! on moves that simply replicate a game that has already been played before because there is nothing surprising about copying a line from another player into a position that both players know, understand, and have seen before.
Only once a game moves into a novel position are the players truly challenged to demonstrate their skill and you will typically not see ! used until it produces such a novel position, and only rarely even then.
When Einstein published the theory of relativity, he was hailed as a genius.  !
When an undergraduate physics student turns in the same equations as homework a hundred years later, they simply get to come back the next day instead of being sent home with an F.
! is relative.  If you're the first person to make that move, sure - you deserve it.  If, 20 years later, that move is standard play into a line 3 moves deeper yet and you're just dancing through an opening with your opponent...well, sorry, no ! for you.
Comment: I understand, but then, for example, smothered mate with Queen and Knight is always given at least an exclamation mark, and we have seen it thousand of times. Following your reasoning, it should not be given the !, being well know by now.
Comment: And that would be the same for all well-known combinations, e.g. Bxh7+ followed by Ng5... And not just for combinations, but also for well-known well-known positional play, etc.
Comment: @A.N.Other Yes, but smothered mate with queen and knight can evolve out of countless positions.  I don't think the same endgame position would ever have been played more than once (and `!` awarded both times).  I think if you can conjure a smothered mate with a queen and knight out of a position where nobody else has yet done it (ie: a novel game) that's certainly worth a `!`, and I would guess that almost all cases of high level play where this has happened it's been a unique game.  Same with combinations - it's not the move itself, it's the position that you play it in that counts.
Answer: Why not

d4?!

or even

?

(Arguably, Go is a deeper game and in any event, don't you have something better to do with your time than play games?)
Symbols like ? and ! are not meant to communicate opinions, which is what they would be if you sprinkled them on standard opening moves.
To forestall an objection, an informed opinion is still an opinion.
Comment: So opening moves are just a question of opinion? Is that your point? Can't they be objectively good, interesting, dubious, or bad, as the other moves? Then when is opinion ending, and objective evaluation beginning? At move 8, 9 or maybe at move 15?
Comment: @A.N.Other The boundary between opinion and something more objective is fuzzy. Giving the Ruy Lopez an explanation mark (presumably at the expense of the 3-knights game and the Giuco Piano) would mostly function as a way for the commentator to express their opening preferences. I would find that annoying rather than informative. The commentator can express their (educated) opinions in the surrounding prose, but it shouldn't clutter the moves. On the other hand, I wouldn't object to seeing something like ?! or even ? in e.g. the Latvian Gambit, which is why I specified *standard* opening moves.
Comment: Don't you think that exclamation or question marks in the middlegame, too, could be a matter of opinion and personal style? I can give an exclamation mark to a move that simplifies into a good endgame for me, while someone else, in the same position, could give an exclamation mark to a sacrifice that leads to big complications, trying to capitalize on his tactical ability, to win the game... just an example of course
Comment: By the way, Nimzowitsch used to give a lot of exclamation marks to early opening moves, i.e. in "My System", as did Hans Berliner in "The System". Were they totally wrong in this approach? It seems to me that both of them knew a lot about chess, with the former being universally considered one of the greatest chess thinkers in history.
Answer: I've seen the first move annotated with (!) when the move was preparation for a specific game that was a surprise and it worked out.  1. e4!


How to install on a new host an Akeeba backup?

Question: I've been asked to migrate a site over from a previous host and was sent a backup file; it was generated using Akeeba. My question is, how do use this backup to migrate to a fresh installation? Any help would be most appreciated.
Comment: What do you mean by `migrate to a fresh installation`? Are you simply trying to restore the backup you have on a different server?
Comment: The site existed on another host, I have a backup file that was generated with Akeeba, and I need to install it on my new host where I just installed Joomla. Hope that clarifies things a bit better.
Answer: Sorry to provide just a link as answer, but the only reasonable way I know of is to use https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/akeeba-kickstart-documentation.html. Download link is here. The very short version is that you upload the kickstart.php and the backup to the root of the site and then use browser to go to yourdomain.tld/kickstart.php. This starts the extraction and later installation. But read the documentation first, it is not really difficult, but you do need to understand what the installer asks correctly for it to work.
Incidentally since the things kickstart asks and requires to work are the same things required by Joomla installation, you can probably solve any issues by reading the Joomla installation documentation. But Akeeba generally has pretty thorough documentation, so everything you need to know should be behind the first link I provided.
Comment: I had actually discovered the answer while reading through the documentation - go figure- but your answer is the right one. I had a small issue with the installation, needed to create a database, but that was quick enough. Thanks for taking the time to post.
Comment: @ParanoidPenguin Well, maybe this is somehow useful to somebody else. Besides I spent few years constantly doing site transfers with Akeeba or helping others with issues with the same so its not like I had to do any work to answer...
Comment: Incidentally, and purely for completeness, there are at least two other ways to install Joomla! from Akeeba backup. Using them for site transfer just doesn't make sense when kickstart is available.
Comment: I appreciate you taking the time, it really turned out to be a pretty decent process and your advice definitely will be helpful.
Answer: I myself too was very disappointed that I had to upload a php file with the backup every time I needed to install from the backup, since that added a few steps in the workflow.
Also the kickstart is just an unzipping tool for the default .jpa archive.
So what I do now a days, is go to the following settings page on Akeeba Backup's admin panel, and set the archive type to .zip.

administrator/index.php?option=com_akeeba (Akeeba Admin Panel)
administrator/index.php?option=com_akeeba&view=config (Configuration)
Advance Configuration
Archiver engine (Set to Zip Format.)

Once completed, when you create a backup through akeeba, it will generate a .zip file, instead of the .jpa file.
Now all I have to do is upload the .zip file just like I'd do to a vanilla Joomla! installation or a Wordpress or any other CMS for that matter, and unzip using the webhost's unzip tool which is available in most of the web-host admin panel including CPanel.
After which you can run the installation just by going to the url of the respective site, like you would do to a normal Joomla! install.
Benefits:-

No extra files required, just upload the backup and unzip.
Since we are using the Cpanel/xyz webhosts trusted script, there is a high chance of enough amount of memory being allocated, which could become a problem if an external script is used.
Even for your local use, when you just wanna peek into a single file inside the package, you don't have to use the akeeba tools like "kickstart" or "akeeba unzipper" whatever that's called.
You can Instantly check if an archive is broken, by simply opening it inside like winrar.
Sometimes(read On some hosts) kickstart gives problems with JQuery not loading and stuff, well... now you don't have to worry.

Cons:-

I had read somewhere that the .zip format is unrelaible, but in my personal experience never once have I faced data corruption when using .zip with Akeeba.
The .jpa format has password encrypting feature which cannot be used with .zip format, but when you are uploading a php script to a server already, who are we "password protecting" the backups from? Since the server admin can get your source code anyway after your securely unzipping the encrypted .jpa.
Comment: I agree that my answer isn't directly answering the question but its quite related to it, also I posted with the intention that it may help someone else who is in a similar situation, look at it as just a side note. Since I couldn't post it all in a comment, I thought an answer would be better.
Comment: Thanks for your post 9kSoft.  Been using Akeeba for years and didn't know the settings had a .zip option which sidesteps the need to use kickstart.  Can't wait to try it.  Thanks.
Comment: Telling how you can avoid using kickstart if you configure Akeeba to produce zip-files does not answer the question about what to do with a backup file **somebody else** sent to you. You might want to make your own question that actually asks about **this** and then move the answer there.
Comment: I know what you were trying to do, and approve of it, which is why I didn't downvote your answer despite it not answering the actual question. I really think making your own question that actually asks for your answer is the correct solution. But I am hardly a StackExchange guru, so I might be totally wrong. Maybe somebody who knows can comment on this?


I need to fly today, where can I search for options?

Question: A friend of mine needs to fly today. All typical aggregated booking sites don't allow searching for today. Anyone know where it is possible?
Comment: Related: [Last minute flight bookings - better to book online or at the airport?](http://travel.stackexchange.com/q/4213/108)
Answer: Kayak allows 'today' flight searches. You should also be able to make bookings with airlines on their websites directly.
Comment: LCCs are ALSO available on Kayak, just that most LCCs have their seats sold out way in advance. (For instance in EU, Kayak does both Ryanair and easyJet.)
Comment: but certainly +1 for the recommendation
Comment: Correct! On a later day LCC show in the results. Great site!
Answer: Most definitely Kayak - it's my number one stop for flights, be they a year ahead, or 5 hours from now.  And they certainly support LCCs - I once used Kayak to work out that Miami to London was quite a bit more expensive than Miami to Dusseldorf, and find another way for the final leg.  So I flew to Dusseldorf, trained to Cologne, went into a net cafe, found an EasyJet flight later that day, had lunch and headed to the airport.
It's certainly made travel more flexible for me - thinking back to using travel agents makes me cringe :/
Comment: I love Kayak too, but I've found they do miss some options. I've found flights cheaper on Expedia than Kayak (even though Kayak searches expedia), and I've had flights cheaper than both from travel agents (although I had to really push them to find cheap options).