5 years left on mortgage..Can I still refinance and save money?

Question: I have 5 years left on my 15yr 4.75% mortgage. Are there any mortgage options that I could refinance to and actually save money or should I just focus on paying more each month?
Comment: Do you have a particular reason for wanting to pay off the loan?  If there's only 5 years left, paying early doesn't net you a whole lot (see 'total universe' below) especially after you factor out deductability for what interest you are paying.
Answer: If you had originally borrowed $100k at 4.75% for 15 years, the last 5 years would include a total of $3,300-$3,500 in interest payment. That is the total universe of savings available to you if you were able to get a 0.0% mortgage.
Unless the mortgage is huge, I think that in most scenarios the upfront closing costs, taxes and other fees would immediately exceed any savings.
If you have the money, pay it down. Otherwise, keep on truckin' -- you have 60 short months to go.
Comment: +1 for "total universe of savings available to you" that is a great way to look at it
Answer: You probably won't save much, if anything at all, by getting another fixed-term mortgage.
The last part of a mortgage is mostly principal payments.  If you borrowed $200k (guessing) at 4.75% then during the last five years you'll pay about $10.5k in interest, as opposed to $41.7k in the first five years and $27.9k in the second five.  Another fixed rate loan won't get you a whole lot lower than 4.75%.
If you can score a teaser rate (say 2.5% for the first five years) on the balance at the beginning of year 11, and pay the same amount that you were before ($1,555) then you'd knock out the mortgage in 57 months and save yourself a little under $5k.  If the refinance costs only a few hundred, then you might make out.
Anyway, you may find other similar options that have a low teaser rate but (goody for you) you won't be around long enough to see it jump up.  Just watch for prepayment penalties.
I'd probably just bump up my payments, though.  I went through a refinance and I felt like my hand was forced a lot in that process, but your mileage may vary. :)
Answer: Another option would be to not refinance but also not pay any extra each month but to continue as you are making the existing payments and just put the "extra" you would have paid aside in an investment of some type (something you are comfortable with)
This as the added benefit of not tying up this extra money in your house should you need it in the next few years for something else.
You would then have the option in 2 or 3 years of continuing on this path or closing the investment and paying off the remaining principal in one lump sum.
If nothing else that big payment would be a really fun check to write.
Answer: You don't say how long your mortgage has to go until it's paid off, but presumably it's only five or ten years. Hopefully that means your payments now represent a smaller fraction of your income than they did ten years ago. That means your risk level may have changed. How bad would it be for you if your mortgage payments went up by 50%? Would it be disastrous, or could you survive by some means.
If higher mortgage payments wouldn't break you, now may be the time to look at a variable rate mortgage. Variable rates are typically than fixed rates on average, because you are assuming some of the risk. Rates are probably going up over the next five years, but they are probably going to be less than 4.75% on average - otherwise the banks wouldn't be offering 4.75% 5 year fixed rates. The downside is that rates MIGHT go up to much more than 4.75%. So you need to be in a position where you can take the worst the markets might throw at you - but if you can, then on average you will come out ahead.
Comment: From the OP: "5 years".
Comment: I wasn't sure if that was five years until the fixed term runs out, or 5 years until the mortgage is paid off.
Comment: @ DJClayworth. Got it.


How often are new Macbooks released?

Question: How often are new Macbooks released? And, does anyone know when they were last released?
Comment: I think this is OK because it's definitely hardware related -- and buying Apple hardware is an art, because you get totally boned if you buy at the wrong time.. :)
Answer: You might want to check out these sites:

Apple Buyer's Guide (model ordered)
Apple Buyer's Guide (time ordered)

They keep track of how often Apple's products are released, and how long it has been since their last release. They use this information to recommend whether you should buy now or wait.
Direct link to the section about MacBooks.
As of 1-16-10:

The latest MacBook was released 88 days ago, and is updated every 194 days on average.
The latest MacBook Pro was released 222 days ago, and is updated every 200 days on average.
The latest MacBook Air was released 222 days ago, and is updated every 255 days on average.
Comment: Wow! That's EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thanks!
Answer: They change them all the time. I believe the last release date was in September, which is usually when Apple finishes up its winter product line-up.
If something is released, it will be Janurary 26th (?). That is the date of the next Apple Conference. Although most people are predicting the release of the Apple Tablet.
When Apple releases/refreshes products is pretty predictable. There are 3 major conferences through the year. January 26th, June Somethingth, and September 9th.
Given, they don't always release/refresh a new product at each one of those conferences, but if something 'will' happen, it will be at one of those dates.
Answer: The timeframe varies but usually they renew the Macbook series every two years or so, I believe in January when Apple holds their yearly conference in San Francisco.  However, there have been big changes the last two years running, including upgrading all Macbooks to Macbook Pros with more RAM, etc.

How often are new Macbooks released?


VPN and Firefox proxy

Question: What happens if I use VPN and then configure my firefox browser to use SOCKS proxy? Am I then behind both or just proxy?
Answer: Firefox tries to connect to the SOCKS proxy server normally, but your operating system is routing all the traffic through the VPN server. So what happens simply is:

Browser -> VPN Server -> SOCKS Server -> Destination server

So, yes. You're behind both of them.
Answer: I believe you are behind both. When you are connected to a VPN all N/W connections to internet from all your applications is going through VPN. Again Firefox is an application and You are making a proxy connection to your proxy server.The server sees the VPN IP as your source IP.So You are behind both.

VPN and Firefox proxy


How would one know if one saw a random number generator?

Question: I have been reading various articles about random numbers and their generators. There are usually 3 important conclusions that I draw from them:

Random numbers are not truly random
Much of the time they have a bias (modulo bias)
Humans are incapable of being random number generators, when they are trying to "act randomly"

So, with the latter-most of these observations in mind, how would we be able to

Tell if a sequence of numbers that we see is truly random, and more importantly
Is there some way we can prove that said sequence is really random?
Answer: Pretty Simple Test:
If you really want to get into testing random numbers, you could simulate a program that outputs random numbers from 1-100 100 times as an example.
Then look at those numbers and see if there's any patterns. Then follow that test by restarting the program several times and repeating the process.
Examine all data to figure out if random numbers are always random, just random during individual tests, or never. :P
Answer: Testing a random number generator is probably mostly up to what you want to look for. Even pure non-repeatability is no guarantee of randomness.
There are some companies that will test a random number generator for the purposes of certification (e.g. online casinos). One that I found quickly is called iTech Labs, though their testing methodology page leaves a lot to be desired in terms of technical detail.
Other testers and certification bodies publish the required data for a certification; there's more specific detail here but not as much as you want.
You could potentially do a statistical analysis and compare the results of your random number generator to a "true" random source but the argument could be made for bias from trying to translate the true random source into your possibility space anyway.
Answer: Randomness tests verify the mathematical properties of the sequence. For example entry frequencies (all symbols are expected to have the same frequency), local variance, sequence analysis (the probability of a symbol must not depend on the previous ones).
A definite proof does not exist, but there is a quality factor - the probability of a sequence to really be random.
Another criterion could be based on compressibility: true randomness has maximum entropy and can not therefore be compressed.
This test is not reliable for randomness, of course, but allows quick and dirty testing with ready tools such as zlib.
Answer: I'm tempted to say that so long as you generate a sufficiently large enough sample set 1,000,000+, you should see more or less a uniform dispersion of (pseudo)random numbers occur. However, I'm sure some Maths genius has a way of discrediting this, because surely the by laws of probability you could get a run of one number just as likely as any other sequence.
From what I have read, if you really need random numbers its best to try and reuse what cryptographic libraries use. The field of Cryptography is obviously complex and relies on random numbers for key generation. From the section in OWASP's guide titled "Reversible Authentication Tokens" it says this...

The only way to generate secure authentication tokens is to ensure
  there is no way to predict their sequence. In other words: true random
  numbers.
It could be argued that computers can not generate true random
  numbers, but using new techniques such as reading mouse movements and
  key strokes to improve entropy has significantly increased the
  randomness of random number generators. It is critical that you do not
  try to implement this on your own; use of existing, proven
  implementations is highly desirable.
Most operating systems include functions to generate random numbers
  that can be called from almost any programming language.

My take is that unless you're coding Cryptographic libraries yourself, put trust in those that are (e.g. use Java Cryptography Extension) so you don't have to proove it yourself.


What game system is best for playing Fallout on the tabletop?

Question: Give details - why is the game system a good fit? What matches the Fallout setting?
Answer: There is a Fallout PnP system that uses the exact system in the computer games. Which, luckily you can find in No Mutants Allowed.
Whenever I play Fallout in tabletop environment, I use those rules. It is much more Fallout-ishy than anything else
Comment: I found the Fallout PnP system, but...can't say I'm a huge fan of it for anything other than the background information. Thanks anyway, though, it certainly fits the requirements I listed :)
Answer: GURPS RPGGEEK is almost always a great answer. I would suggest it if you want a 'crunchy' Fallout experience. You asked for specifics, so here they are:
Tech
In Fallout, you can encounter futuristic robots, WWII firearms, 1980's computer systems, barbarian villages where the pinnacle of technology is the plow, and nomads who's crowning achievement is the pointy stick. GURPS has always had support for multiple Tech Levels. It'll support PCs from any of those tech levels interacting with equipment from any of those tech levels.
As mentioned above, Fallout was designed for GURPS originally, so it's got a lot of meaningful weapon variety. In GURPS, there are many different variables in weapons, so you can have two semi-automatic pistols without them being the same except for their descriptions.
Aside from weapons, GURPS has good rules for computers, armor, vehicles, medicine, and pretty much everything else.
Mutations
GURPS allows you a lot of freedom to create mutants, a big part of the Fallout appeal. Designing new races is pretty straightforward, so you could have templates to make all those things you encounter in Fallout recognizable, but not all the same. Ghouls (Is that what those irradiated guys are called? Can't remember.), giant animals, supermutants, vampires, murkloks (?), etc..
Resources
For a GURPS Fallout campaign, I'd recommend the following books in addition to the core:

Atomic Horror RPGGEEK
Low Tech RPGGEEK
Bio Tech RPGGEEK
High Tech RPGGEEK
Answer: GURPS
Fallout the computer game was originally designed using Steve Jackson's GURPS - and an early name was "Vault 13: A GURPS Post-Nuclear Adventure"!  Sadly the corporate relationship fell apart, but as you might imagine it is still similar to it in feel and execution.  There is a pretty good GURPS fan conversion for GURPS Fallout as a result.
d20
Darwin's World is a d20 Modern game inspired heavily by Fallout. There is a Savage Worlds version of Darwin's World too if you want different mechanics.
Exodus: Post Apocalyptic Roleplaying was originally specifically called "d20 Fallout" before some kind of problem with the licensing.
So if you have a soft spot for GURPS or d20, both are good fits - explicit conversions, large player base, and many other supplements and sources to draw from.
Answer: As much as I hate seeing people answer their own question, here's some results from my own research, in case others stumble on this topic...
Deadlands : Hell on Earth - A good, quick system. Rewards player participation, and self-moderation of disadvantages. Supports differing levels of technology, but no concrete rules for a lot of high-tech items, like computers. Some setting-specific rules and character types, but easily adapted.
Twilight:2000 - No support for mutants, but lots of realistic millitary rules, and radiation effects. The first edition was pretty bad, but the second edition was a fairly simplistic system, using d20s. Good support for modern skill sets, but the character generation rules might suffer a little in a true Fallout setting.
Aftermath - a really old-school post-apoc game. The basic set had details of many different apocalypses.
d20 Modern/Future/Post-Apoc - It's d20 3.5. What else needs to be said? Nothing specifically supporting Fallout, but reasonably good generic rules, if you like class-based systems. Can be good for introducing players familliar with d20 mechanics.
Gamma World - A little too fantasy-oriented for Fallout. The high-tech gadgets and mutants are of a different style to Fallout, but at least there is plenty of variety. The latest version is even less crunchy than the previous ones, and would suit Fallout even less.
Comment: It's absolutely OK to answer your own question! Thanks for adding what you found!
Comment: Indeed. If you liked what you saw, you might be interested in trying Savaged Fallout (http://savagefallout.blogspot.com). I'm mixing and matching it with Darwin's World Savage Worlds for a game this weekend.

For a bit more gonzo, there's Johnatan Tweet's Omega World (classless d20 and a bootlegged Savage Worlds conversion).
Answer: Apocalypse World
Honestly surprised this wasn't an answer here already but here's why I think it fits:

The setting is post-apocalyptic by default but doesn't assume a specific cause of said apocalypse, so tailoring it to accurately reflect the fallout universe is a piece of cake.
The PC Classes are designed to evoke the various clichés and archetypes that the post-apocalyptic setting is defined by.
Light and Fiction-driven rules mean that your players are free to explore the wasteland as they see fit and the MC (AW's Game Master) has all the tools they need to make it happen with little to no prior planning.
Combat is gritty, dangerous and can be resolved on a variety of scales (from a one-on-one shootout to a full-on faction war) with simple mechanics.

Possible Hiccups that may have to be accounted for:

The Psychic Maelstrom is a core part of Apocalypse World (as are the playbooks that rely on it) but I don't think it has a direct analogue in the Fallout universe. On the other hand, I don't feel like it would clash over much with it.

My Experience: Fallout in all but name
While I unfortunately have no experience with playing Apocalypse World to follow the canon Fallout setting, almost all of the Apocalypse World games I've participated in have been rife with mutants, bizarre technology (both 'ancient' and homegrown) and freakish monsters all wrapped up in a dusty post-nuclear wasteland of gangs and cobbled-together settlements in the ruins of civilization.
The only missing thing in my own experiences is that my players were all happy to embrace the Psychic Maelstrom and the weirdery therein. As mentioned above this might clash a little with the Fallout setting. I don't feel like its inclusion would detract from the Fallout 'feel' but it's definitely an addition that doesn't have any precedence in my experience with the setting.
Comment: Adding that you've used it for "Fallout in all but name" would make all the difference. As the banner on the question says, experience is required as part of answers—and that seems to qualify to me! (We have that rule to prevent these from turning into a list of everyone's pet games that they're "sure would work.")
Comment: @SevenSidedDie Unfortunately not, my players are generally averse to canon settings. However I have experience with the Fallout setting and experience with Apocalypse World. Most of the AW games I've run have been about bizarre tech and strange mutants in dusty post-nuclear wastelands, Fallout in all but name, essentially. If that makes my answer unacceptable then I'm okay to remove it, as much as I believe Apocalypse World belongs as an answer here.
Comment: If you could say a bit more about how you reconciled the Maelstrom with Fallout-in-all-but-name in your own games (or didn't) and how that worked, that would hit all the right notes for a good game-rec answer.
Comment: Was wondering if anyone mentioned it.
Comment: As this is a [game-recommendation] question and it's required: do you have experience using AW for playing Fallout? If so, the answer should go into detail about that experience.
Answer: We've played Exodus for a couple of sessions so far and we are really enjoying it.
It's Fallout with the serial numbers filed off. (Apparently, they didn't do a very good job on that, due to the lawsuits involving the game.)
Exodus uses the d20 system with a ton of new material that sticks very closely to the source material. Chances are, if you chose a Perk in one of the games, it's now either Trait, Feat, or Talent. Character creation is pretty free-form. You select a Background and Profession, which give you access to class skills and bonus feats. (You also 'tag' three skills, which always gives you access to them and you can advance them above the normal rank cap.) Then you choose either the Offensive or Defensive class.
Comment: The lawsuits aren't over IP violations that would suggest a poor job filing off the serials; the lawsuits are by the RPG publisher for damages suffered when their license was annulled due to Interplay never actually owning the rights needed to grant the license. But otherwise, +1 for a spot-on game for this question, and from experience to boot!
Answer: Cyberpunk 2020, although long out of print, is a skill-driven RPG with an appropriately lethal combat system. The rules on cyberware and the Net might not be appropriate for a Fallout-derived setting, but everything else would be a good fit.
Answer: Don't forget the freely available Mutant Future from Goblinoid Games, a retro-clone of Gamma World.
The game supports both old style weaponry as well as mutant humans. Your GM can leave out the spidergoats if he wants.


Electronic Speed Controller

Question: What should be the specification of ESC that I should use for a 320KV 1820W brushless DC Motor?. Is it necessary to use an 80A ESC?, Basically, How can I choose the required ESC for a motor?
Comment: What voltage is your motor?
Answer: It depends on the voltage.
Say you are running 12V:
1820W / 12V = 151A

With a 24V system:
1820W / 24 = 75A

Answer: There are a couple motor metrics that will help you decide:

Motor voltage: Your motor has a range of voltages that it will run effectively at. Pick an ESC whose output voltage(usually the same as battery voltage) is in this range.
Stall current: This is the current the motor will draw when the load is so high it can't spin. Most motors will list this specification; you want your ESC's current rating to be higher than stall current.
Kv: This determines rpm per volt of the motor at 0 load. It is usually inversely proportional to torque; the higher the Kv the faster the motor will spin, and the less torque it can provide at that rpm.

You haven't given the motor voltage and stall current, so there's no saying what exact ESC you should pick, but the information above will help you decide.

Electronic Speed Controller


configuration.php unwritable when permission is 0644 but writable when 0664

Question: My Joomla is 3.9.4. When I tried to make some global configuration change in the backend, I got this error:

Could not write to the configuration file.

I looked at the file system, configuration.php has the right owner and is set to 0644, and I can make changes to it via FTP.
I then tried setting the permission to 0777, it is writable; then I tried 0666 and 0664 and it is also good.
Only when I set it to 0644 do I get the above error. I've never encountered this kind of problem before. I suspect it is something wrong with my server(I host the website on a VPS on linode), but I couldn't figure out.
What could possibly be wrong?
UPDATE
I found some more clues. This website was duplicated from another server where the website ran well. When I look both site's FPA, I found that on the problematic server, the permission section is like

While on the other server, it is

I don't understand how come one is writable whereas the other is not while both permissions are 0755.
Answer: The answer is here, need to set php running mode to FastCGI: https://docs.joomla.org/Why_can%27t_you_install_any_extensions%3F#File_ownership_advice_from_ianmac
Comment: please accept your answer so that the system stops bumping it.


Speeding up Apache and PHP

Question: What are some good modules or systems that for caching that I can use for decreasing my load on Apache on an EC2 server running PHP, and why would you choose them?
Answer: Here are some popular, industry standard techniques to increase your speed. You can try them out depending on your exact configuration:
Memcached
Memcached is a general-purpose distributed memory caching system that is often used to speed up dynamic database-driven websites by caching data and objects in RAM to reduce the number of times an external data source (such as a database or API) must be read.
http://memcached.org/
Varnish Cache
Varnish is an HTTP accelerator designed for content-heavy dynamic web sites. In contrast to other HTTP accelerators, such as Squid, which began life as a client-side cache, or Apache, which is primarily an origin server, Varnish was designed from the ground up as an HTTP accelerator.
http://www.varnish-cache.org/
Mod_pagespeed
Page Speed is a tool and library that identifies improvements that can be made to web-sites to improve their latency. mod_pagespeed automates the application of those rules in an Apache server. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images are changed dynamically during the web serving process, so that the best practices recommended by Page Speed can be used without having to change the way the web site is maintained.
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/11/make-your-websites-run-faster.html
HBase
HBase is an open source, non-relational, distributed database modeled after Google's BigTable and is written in Java. It is developed as part of Apache Software Foundation's Hadoop project and runs on top of HDFS (Hadoop Distributed Filesystem), providing BigTable-like capabilities for Hadoop. That is, it provides a fault-tolerant way of storing large quantities of sparse data.
http://hbase.apache.org/
Cheat on Slow-Start
Slow-start is part of the congestion control strategy used by TCP, the data transmission protocol used by many Internet applications. Slow-start is used in conjunction with other algorithms to avoid sending more data than the network is capable of transmitting, that is, to avoid causing network congestion.
http://blog.benstrong.com/2010/11/google-and-microsoft-cheat-on-slow.html
Answer: cwd's answer is excellent, just add a PHP opcode cacher (APC, eaccelerator, xcache) if the processing is PHP-heavy.
Comment: This is a good idea, I thought about that but forgot to mention it.
Answer: +1 to cwd for the mod_pagespeed suggestion.
If your goal is to reduce the load on Apache, and assuming Apache is the front-line daemon receiving HTTP requests (i.e. there's no cache between the user and Apache) you should be giving a lot of attention to client-side optimization, specifically reducing page weight and reducing the number of requests needed to load a page. mod_pagespeed is going to do a lot of these on the fly, but because it's an Apache module it's going to incur a little Apache load just to do those optimizations.
It's going to maximize client-side caching using expiration headers etc. without you needing to tune the Apache configuration in detail, which is a win. It might be good to do some of the other optimizations (combining or bundling CSS and Javascript files to reduce the number of each needed to build the page, CSS image spriting to reduce the number of images loaded per page) on your own to reduce the load on mod_pagespeed.
You can look at Google's Page Speed tool (linked from the mod_pagespeed page) and/or the Yslow extension for the Firebug Firefox plug-in to find good client-side optimizations for your pages.

Speeding up Apache and PHP


No heat in my 2008 Pontiac Vibe

Question: I changed my thermostat twice in a week on my 2008 Pontiac vibe. My car was blowing cold air and running hot but the thermostat would open up and it would go back down to normal. I would have heat for maybe three minutes and then it would be blowing out completely cold air again. I had a radiator flush and also flushed my heater core. What would be your suggestion. Possibly a new radiator or water pump?
Comment: I'd probably try bleeding the system again before you replace more parts. Use a spill free funnel, fill it, leave the funnel on with the cap off... and hold the engine at 2500-3000 rpm until the radiator fan comes on then recheck the coolant level.
Comment: Do you know roughly how many miles are on the car?
Comment: I second @Ben's thinking...I think this is called ["burping" the radiator](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REjYjiO8xIs). In other words, they may not have replaced enough coolant after they flushed your system. Might sound negligent (and it is), but it may not be uncommon...it's happened to me...definitely watch the linked video.
Comment: [This might be a better video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nThsFGa1vuE) with respect to explaining the issue, the thinking, and some how-to tips.
Answer: Since you've flushed the system, we can assume the coolant is free to flow where it should. It could very well be that your water pump isn't circulating your coolant very well anymore.
First make sure the belt is driving the pump properly (make sure the belt isn't loose). If the belt looks good, a new water pump shouldn't be too expensive or too difficult to change at home. If your coolant is still in good shape (it should be new, since you've had the system flushed) you can reuse it. Just drain it in a clean container and use a paint filter to keep particulates out when you put it back in.
A new radiator is only needed if the old one leaks, is severely rusted, or is completely blocked. You would have noticed a blocked radiator during your flush.
Comment: Make sure you get all the air out of the system when you're refilling it. Find all the bleeder screws, squeeze the upper rad hose a bunch of times, etc.
Comment: Roughly 149,000 miles. Never once had any issues in the 2 years I've had it. I got a water pump and am going to try that tomorrow. Haven't checked the belt. So I'll do that as well. Another thing that happened after I did all of this, was the fact my temperature gauge will go all the way up but yet it's still not actually overheating. I don't understand it. Still freezing cold air which the gauge goes up and down.
Comment: Thank you all for the help. I've tried all of these options and ended up taking it to a Pontiac dealership to have the service department work on it. No bleeder screws. They have tried bleeding the system out for 3 hours and they can't seem to get the air out. Doing tests to check the head and intake next. Anyone want to buy a vibe?!
Comment: Didja change that water pump?
Answer: Based on what you've said, I'd suggest looking at the heater core, it may be blocked or something may be restricting flow through it. The reason I think this is happening is that you mention that there is some initial heat, but then it turns cold. That would happen if there was minimal flow through the heater core. It would warm the air when the fan was first turned on, but then the air would cool down the core and there would be no more heat.
You can test this by turning off the fan for a while and checking to see if there is heat again when you turn it back on.
If the problem is air in the system, one way to get it out (given the lack of a bleed screw) would be to open the highest joint in the system and then pour coolant into the hose until it is as full as you can get it. But I'm not convince it is air in the system – if it was air that was restricting/blocking the flow I'm not sure if you would ever get heat.

No heat in my 2008 Pontiac Vibe


Which chapters do I need to read of The World God Only Knows (Manga)?

Question: I plan to read TWGOK manga, especially the chapters that weren't animated (between Season 2 and Season 3). Which chapters do I need to read?
Comment: well , it's mostly as the same in the final episode of KamiNomi, thanks
Answer: The first two seasons of the anime adapted everything from the beginning, and made it through Nagase's arc. Nagase's arc ends in chapter 41. Chapter 42 is an extra chapter, and 43 is the beginning of Tsukiyo's arc. From there until the start of season 3, the only parts that have been adapted are chapters 54-55 in the first OVA, and Tenri's arc (chapters 57-64; 56 is another extra chapter) in the second OVA. Season 3 animates the Goddesses arc, which begins chapter 114. Season 3 of the anime ends with chapter 189 of the manga. As of February 2014 this is everything that has been animated (unless you count the Magical☆Star Kanon 100% OVA which loosely adapts the corresponding spin-off manga chapters).
Hence, the minimum amount of reading to get all the main story arcs would be chapters 43-53, 65-113, and continuing from chapter 190. However, if you don't want to miss any of the extra content, I'd strongly suggest reading everything from the beginning. The story has a lot of bonus material and extra chapters that were never adapted, and many of the running jokes originate in those chapters.
Comment: @NaingLinAung The ending of the anime S3 corresponds to chapter 189 of the manga as I suspected above. I'm not sure if they cut anything out, though if they did it was not crucial. I do know that the various extras and specials were not covered.
Comment: by judging from current ending of TWGOK, Does it cover overall of Goddess arc??


How should I transfer swamp oak seedlings from pot to ground?

Question: I have an interesting project going on.  I was visiting the 911 Memorial site in NYC last fall.  There are many swamp oaks planted on the grounds, and in the footprint of where the twin towers stood.  The acorns were plentiful while I was there so I picked up a handful with the idea to grow my very own liberty tree from the 911 site.  I went online, learned how to get the acorn to sprout. SUCCESS!  I have 3 swamp oaks in 6 inch pots.  They are about a foot tall with anywhere from 3 to 6 leaves.  Very healthy looking leaves, but very skinny twig-like stems.  I have a grow light on them for about 8 hours a day.  My question is: What's next?  I want to plant them outside in the spring.  I've read a lot already about how to go about it, but lots of different opinions, and none for a swamp oak going in the gound in Connecticut.  Any suggestions?  What month? Soil prep? Watering schedule?
Comment: what portion of your 3 plants are in 6 different pots?
Comment: Not 6 pots, but six-inch pots.  I have now transfered them to 6 gallon buckets using potting soil with Miricle grow.  Trees are looking very healthy.
Answer: Swamp oak trees like a cold dormant period, preferably below freezing. For this reason, and also because of light, most people start the acorns outside. But because your trees were started inside and it was February when you asked the question, it would have best to plant them in spring, after danger of frost is passed. Planting tree seedlings is fairly straight-forward:

Don't put them deep enough to bury the root flare.
Dig a wide enough hole that the root ball is not squeezed.
Don't let the root ball break.
Tamp the soil well after planting.
Water well until established in the new ground.
Try to locate them in an area with as much sun as possible

From comment:

I have now transferred them to 6 gallon buckets using potting soil with Miracle grow.

The trees will not do well in six gallon pots long term for these reasons:

Unless you made holes in the bottom, the buckets won't drain. Even a swamp oak will eventually die in a bucket of mud.
Oak trees build a large root system very fast. It is best to plant them into the ground quickly, rather than to move them into larger containers.

I used to raise and sell oak trees (small nursery). I started them in flats, and when they were 6-10" tall, I would pull them apart and plant in 3 gal. pots, or a deep nursery bed (for bareroot trees). I gave them about twenty supplemental inches of rain (I naturally get 40-60" of natural precipitation/year), spaced evenly through the dry periods.
Oak trees are resilient, especially the small ones. I would recommend that you get those trees into the ground as soon as possible.


Representing key value dataset into Mahout vector

Question: I have a data set in CSV which is a set of key value pairs, the data set is huge and the values are a mixture of integers and short strings (i.e. not lengthy texts, but rather key words) and I want to process it using Mahout's clustering algorithms.
The issue is in converting this CSV into vectors that can be consumed by Mahout. I have been reading "Mahout In Action" and there seems to be two options for vectorizing, using numeric values with Mahout's DenseVector, RandomAccessSparseVector, and SequentialAccessSparseVector implementation or use Vector Space Model to vectorize text documents.
The data I want to vectorize it not really a text document, but as it is a huge data set with many different keys and values it is difficult to map it to numeric values. What is the best way to vectorize this kind of data for use in Mahout?
Any pointers would be appreciated.
Thanks
Answer: You are most likely to need a RandomAccessSparseVector.

Not a DenseVector, since most possible keys will not be represented. You have
a mix of integers and strings as keys, and so it is a big keyspace.
Not a SequentialAccessSparseVector, since there does not seem to be
natural ordering in your keyspace which would make a specific order
of access more effective in running your algorithsm in Mahout.

You can easily try different vector representations to see which gives you the best performance.


Canceling an ongoing file upload on Trello

Question: Is there any option to cancel an ongoing file upload on Trello?
Answer: There is no such option in the Trello UI. Anyhow, you can always close the Window. Also, you can disconnect from your internet connection for a moment, if you wish.
Answer: There is no option to cancel or escape the upload at this time. One fast and simple solution is:

Resize your window so you can see your desktop.
Drag/drop a small picture or text file from your desktop onto that "drop files to upload" UI.
Delete the file immediately after using the delete link.

This is possibly better than closing the window and losing your changes, or disconnecting your online connection.


Why did Harold, John, and Root continue to use the subway tunnel after Shaw was captured?

Question: In Person of Interest, the team continues to use the subway tunnel as a "base of operations" even after Shaw is captured by Samaritan operatives. Given that they almost certainly would've interrogated Shaw (which they did), and she was aware of that location, why didn't they find a new location in case she gave them information?
Comment: Some of them believed Shaw was dead and other(s) believed that Shaw will never betray her team.
Answer: I don't believe this was explicitly stated in the show, but my best guess would be that initially, they believed she was dead from what they saw at the stock exchange, or at least Harold did. Root didn't believe it, but she knew that as Shaw was Indigo Five Alpha, a high-level operative working for the ISA, with training in resisting interrogation (torture), she wouldn't have betrayed their location, just as she didn't break when root was torturing her in her introductory episode ("Relevance").
And finding a new location would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, with Samaritan monitoring everything, it took The Machine to find the subway in the first place and there may not be (m)any other places they could realistically hide with the resources to keep The Machine alive.


Does Powerpoint 2003 work with Keynote

Question: I have created a presentation in Powerpoint 2003 and have opened it in Keynote, however, when I veiw the presentation on the iPad the colors in the graphs have changed as well as the font alignment.  Is there a way to fix this so that it looks the same in Powerpoint and Keynote?  Is there a different version of Powerpoint that would work better?
Answer: Unfortunately, Keynote and Powerpoint do not talk to each other all that well. A lot of formatting issues have been known to occur.
If you're wanting to view/edit/present the presentation on your iPad, I would suggest using Keynote on your Mac and Keynote on your iPad. If you're wanting to stay as compatible with a Windows environment as possible, I would suggest using QuickOffice HD on the iPad and Microsoft Office for Mac 2011.
Hope this helps.
Comment: Also, Keynote on the iPad does not support the same array of colors, fonts, and styles as the Mac version, so that could be an issue as well.

Does Powerpoint 2003 work with Keynote


VMWARE SERVER 2003 Crash

Question: If a VM guest server2003 crash's can I just isntall windows on another host and point to the old SAN drives and set the old ip would that work?
Answer: It seems like it would be a lot easier to have a backup strategy for your VM guests rather than planning on deploying a physical server to replace a failed VM. Making clones of your VM guests (or even just making backups with a "traditional" backup program like NTBackup or Backup Exec) would make recovery a lot easier than attempting to deploy a physical server in place of the guest, since you'd have the guest's operating system (with whatever service packs, patches, optional components, etc, were installed) and registry instead of a "blank slate" that you'd have to rebuild.
Answer: Probably not without a bunch of work. You need to ensure that you don't jump from Intel to AMD or vice-versa. You will probably need to install a bunch of hardware drivers. You will likely have issues with networking and need to delete the VM based drivers out of device manager. (don't forget to turn on hidden devices if that turns out to be an issue for you.)
It can be done but it isn't pleasant. Consider that any host you are trying to use might be better off being set up as a new virtual host instead!
updated
one more caveat, it is really ugly to "downshift" from multiple processors down to just one. There is a multi-stage process involved. Just don't do it!

VMWARE SERVER 2003 Crash


Stretching/posture/exercise for separating vertebrae in spine?

Question: what is the best exercise/stretching/posture that will separate the vertebrae of the spine? I want to do this because I read that separating the vertebrae will allow the compressed intervertebral discs to decompress/swell again, good if you are sitting too much.
Comment: Is this a health or an injury-prevention question? Your second question is clearly off topic as asking for other places to ask never is on topic anywhere. Feel free to ask those questions in the [chat].
Comment: I removed the questionable part, I don't think that your question is off topic here, as we have a lot of posture questions already. However, if you are unhappy with the changes feel free to revert or edit again.
Comment: @Informaficker Both health and injury-prevention.
Answer: There are several ways to decompress your discs and spine.  The first is prevention by minimizing prolonged positioning, especially poor sitting posture.  This q/a gives you several ideas, as well as stretching and strengthening exercises to improve your sitting posture.
To decompress your spine and reduce the effects of gravity and prolonged sitting you can do traction, stretches, massage or learn to open and close your joints with Tai Chi or Yoga.

Traction: Inversion traction is a great way to decompress at the end of the day.  Grabbing a chin up bar and dangling can also stretch out your back and lats.
Stretching: An exercise ball is a good way to achieve some traction and stretch your abs and back muscles.  Some basic back stretches are knees to chest, spinal twist, hip flexor/quad stretch, hamstring stretch with or without a strap, and yoga stretches like the cobra and child's pose.
Massage:  A foam roller can help you release tight muscles and fascia that pull on and compress your spine. Leg muscles like your quads and hip flexors, hamstrings , hip adductors and ITB (iliotibial band) have attachments to the pelvis.  Any restrictions in these muscles and their fascia can pull on the spine, so releasing these can help to decompress.  These videos, Part 1 and Part 2 give good instruction for using the foam roller.
Tai Chi or Yoga:  Both are good exercises with techniques to elongate your muscles and fascia reducing joint compression, but generally you need instruction to maximize the benefits.  Here are some yoga type stretching exercises that can be done at your desk.

You are wise to address your spine as part of your overall fitness. Set up a daily routine to take good care of your spine on a regular basis.


How do I identify why my battery is draining faster than nornal?

Question: Lumia 920 with Black update, running WP8. Until about a week ago, my phone had good battery life. Now it drains quickly, and the phone is always hot. I don't recall updating any apps, and it's been fine with the Black update for months. What can I do to diagnose what's causing it to drain the battery faster than normal?
Comment: See: http://windowsphone.stackexchange.com/questions/1735/how-to-resolve-lumia-920-battery-life-problems/1737
Answer: There can be many reasons why the battery life on your phone appears worse, but Windows Phone 8.0 has no mechanism to tell you what's using all the energy.
The Windows Phone 8.1 update (it should be available for the Lumia 920 soon) comes with a new built-in app called Battery Saver, this will allow you to track down the problem if it continues.
In the meantime, the general advice is to...

Disable NFC if you don't use it.
Unless you're downloading large files or video often, turn off 4G as it will affect battery life.
Disable background tasks for apps that you don't use or care about.
Disable Bluetooth if you don't use it.
Comment: Thanks.  The odd thing is that I haven't modified what apps I have, and NFC has always been turned off. Switching off Bluetooth seemed to fix things, although Bluetooth wasn't a problem prior to this week


What is the most efficient way to gain fame?

Question: With all the bonuses that Realm of the Mad God offers, in what order should I gain each achievement?  What is the most efficient way to gain the most fame in a lifetime?
Answer: Well, for one, keep in mind you have to die to collect any fame that's been earned.  But, if you're looking to just pad your reputation then I suppose you wouldn't have asked anyway.
This page tells you exactly how your fame is calculated.  I won't transcribe it, but pertaining to your question, it kind of matters how you plan on playing your current life.
If you're looking to make this character last as long as possible, I would try to touch on them all, i.e. Slayer of the Gods, Cartographer, Leader of Men, Well Equipped, etc.
If you're looking for a quick blast of Fame, then get your character to a decent level and go for the high fame percentages, i.e. Oryx Killer, Boots on the Ground, etc.
Also, keep in mind that once you hit level 20, you receive fame for every kill you make, albeit quite a lot smaller than XP dealt when under 20.
There are plenty of Fame-farming guides on Youtube (zxcv, aratar) as well.
Hope that helps...fame is a tricky beast and from what I've been hearing on the forums/Reddit threads...it is due for an upcoming revamp, so take what you will from this answer.
Comment: Thanks for the input. I heard that Fame bonuses apply instantly when you get them, for example, if you're at 140 fame when you get Cartographer, it applies the bonus from there, adding 10% of 140, instead of your total. That's why I was looking for the best way to gain those achievements to not have wasted fame.
Comment: Well you do get fame in your little orange progress bar, but it doesn't dump into your reputation until you die :)
Comment: With the new fame upgrades, fame is applied at the end of your death, applying the bonus percentages to the total fame you earned.
Answer: When you want to get fame just go out to the center aka "God Lands" and kill anything that moves, but I would reccomend lvl 16 for lower Gods and 20 for the all out GODS.


How to come up with great melodies

Question: I got fl studio.
I know it from the ground up
but I still cant make good melodies
I have seen a lot to tutoirals
they all say to just write music
and I can't do that
I really need help.
Comment: Do you play an instrument?
Comment: Yes,I have been learning to play the piano
Comment: Most of my melodies come naturally from playing around with my favourite instrument. I don't think it's something you can sit down and force, it just comes naturally.
Comment: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is not about sound design. We have a number of questions on the theory of melodic composition and related topics over on Music.SE, so have a read there.
Comment: Start with a simple idea then use a lot of delays and reverbs(not stupid much) , theres actual melody made in the decay ! Keep your ears open for that! Also arpeggiators fdo a nice job in terms of inspiration!
Answer: I have unusual advice for you. The magic is in the bath room!!
60% of my music starts from when I am taking shower and I have to rush out to put down those melodies in MIDI. The other 40% I came up with melodies in front of the DAW but soon struck with chorus or something, then again I can fill that up just by taking a bath.
I found piano and violin the ultimate duo for quickly jot down bathroom ideas for me since I cannot read or write sheet music. Piano sounds full by its own and works with both melodies and bass, while violin can emulate vocal or melodies idea where the sound is continuous or pitch shifting. Today I have about 7 "bath rooms" project with only 10s of violin and piano in it. From time to time I would come back and I even made a song from multiple of these combined.
Comment: I kinda get it but.. not really....
Answer: Songwriting in general is a craft, it takes years to perfect. The good thing is you're trying, everyone has to start somewhere.
You can't think too logically about writing melodies, I think it comes spontaneously and inspirationally from playing an instrument. The best times seem to be when you're noodling around and something just pops out, you think to yourself 'Hey that sounds really good, what if I take it here...'
At least that is how it works for me. Keep on practising and learning the piano, try creating arpeggios around simple chord sequences, change it up, something will happen for sure :-)
I spent years playing bass guitar in a band, before I even started to think about writing music and writing lyrics etc. I also took a 'Modern Musician' online course with Berklee College through the Coursera website. That really opened my mind to writing my own music.
Also it might help you to use some composition software, since a DAW is really focused around the music production angle of the process.
There's a great new tool called Odesi that might be worth checking out:
http://odesi.mixedinkey.com/
Another idea I used at the beginning (and probably the most useful that helped me get through finishing my first song) was to take a famous simple song that I really liked. I mapped out the basic structure of the song (just chords and drums) in my favourite DAW. I then marked each section of the song with the parts that I needed to fill in (intro, verse, chorus, break, guitar solo). Then by myself, I filled-in each part of the song with my own ideas. It works really well (and it's something that famous artists like David Bowie used to create new song ideas). Since all the melodies and solo's you fill in yourself will be yours, it will become your own song!
Hope this helps, and good luck with it!
Answer: Ok, I have one more answer, it is to fool around.
Many DAWs can ultimately achieve the same functionality, but what set them apart is how they provide inspiration/speed for you. Using FL Studio I can never finish a song, but when I use Ableton Live the "happy accident" happen so often that I love it. And in FL I cannot get it down fast enough that most of the accident disappears, so speed is the key here.
For example, FL has "pattern". If you modify the pattern then the one already placed on the timeline will update accordingly. This is a strong point of FL over Ableton for some users. Everything in Ableton's timeline is not linked to anything (but the clip itself individually store data that can extend over the end/start point), but because of this, often I mess around in the Ableton's timeline and often found new ideas from fragments of junks that I left in the timeline. In FL I would required to be "neat" because if I did the same as Ableton in FL I will end up with hundreds of patterns. Ableton is dirty, I copy and paste all I want, sometime I miss FL's system but that's how Ableton provide me ideas.
Usually it happens while you fumble on the MIDI keyboard, or attaching rhythm altering effects like delay, MIDI manipulating effects and so on. The important point is you have to do something in the DAW for this to work. I have heard many stories of classical musician walks in the park with notebook, inspiration strikes and he note down the melodies. This never works for me so I found the fooling around in the DAW more effective. Maybe this is the case for you or not the case for you, you have to try many ways. And maybe, many DAWs, many color skins, many workplace.
One of my best song started from collab in Starbucks with my friend because we think it would be cool if we find some place to start the music together and after that we can work separately. That place happen to be Starbucks because we thought it's cool and have power outlet. Even though it sounds overly cliche to work in coffee shop, we did come up with "that one bass line" for our DnB song in 3 hours of coffee shop. After that, the WHOLE song kind of spread out from that little bass line. Today, I still find that amazing. If we did not decide to go to Starbucks at that time the song might be vastly different from what I have now. This is one of the little thing that counts a lot.
Comment: The bad thing i just cant do anything in the daw even tho I know it from the ground up i still can make good music with it for my video games
Answer: You can put three notes down and turn it into a song, but generally, all you need is a little inspiration. A good song usually starts with a simple idea. This could be a rhythm, a melody, chords or even a simple drum beat, anything that triggers that spark of inspiration. In my experience the best ones evolve from a simple idea which will build and evolve into a full compliment of parts.
Try to interact with the song as much as possible. For example, for one of the songs I am currently working on, the spark of inspiration came while I was messing with a synth I had created. One sound struck me as a great sound for a bass line. So I used the click track and midi keyboard to get the bass line down. As I played it back, the drum pattern came naturally. So I played back the whole thing and it sounded great, so I held it there and searched for a sound for a melody part. It was actually quite hard to find the right sound to fit with the current song, and after feeling a bit dismayed, I ended up using a simple bright piano. As I played back the song, I messed around with notes on the keyboard, just playing to the rhythm and what felt right, and even though I am pretty useless at playing the piano, a few simple notes soon became a full melody. I then introduced chord changes and breaks. The melody is now my favorite part of that song, it complements the drums and bass line and pulls you along.
So to summarize, I think inspiration for a melody, the right sound and the right song can play a big role in creating a good melody.
Maybe you should just pick a sound that sounds good to you, write a simple melody and stick with it. Then build a track around it, come back after an hour and see how it sounds. Maybe you are just hearing the melody by itself so it sounds dull, repetitive or uninteresting. Creating parts around it, to compliment it should make you see it as more.

How to come up with great melodies


After the Horus Heresy, what are the next series chronologically?

Question: I came to my instant Warhammer addiction by way of a single Horus Heresy book sitting in the library surrounded by lesser books not carrying the light of the Emperor...Once I beheld the staggeringly amazing Universe, I was hooked.
Of course, since the book that drew me in was somewhere among the 32 Horus Heresy novels/anthologies, I needed to understand where in the Emperor's Universe I was and started the Heresy series proper. Yet, my journey it seems is far from over. For it is Warhammer 40k, not Warhammer. And that means 40,000 years to chronicle. So people, how do I travel through this 40k?
Series by series please. I'm not usually the type to read one book out of the middle, if I know I want to read them all eventually.
Thanks for any assistance.K
Comment: I added the [tag:suggested-order] tag because it looks like you want to know which order you should read them in. If you want to know their chronological order, I can change it.
Comment: Thank you, I was going to add an order tag, but then missed it. Suggested works. They can suggest chronologically or otherwise if they please.
Comment: Just read everything by Dan Abnett and Sandy Mitchell.
Comment: Horus Heresy is set in the year 30k. Also there are Warhammer (not 40k) books if you prefer Fantasy to SciFi.
Answer: That is a very tough question to answer as by now there are virtually hundreds of books in the W40k universe.
Most of the answers would be hugely speculative and based on personal preferences. The Heresy books span  the 30th and the 31 millenium.
After that you could read the Beast Arises series. those are set a bit after.
When you are done with that series then it is anybods guess. Some books have timestamps and tell of a particular period, others dont. You basically wont loose any continuity if you read them in any order you want.
There are the Blood angels Series, The Ultramarines Series, The Dark Angels trilogy, The Space Wolves books Starting with how Ragnar Blackmane became a Space Marine and going to how he became the Wolf Lord.
Then you have your Inquisitor series (Eisenhorn trilogy and Ravenor Trilogy, read the first before the second as they are connected)
Then you have your Gaunts Ghosts series ( 13 books so far and counting )
The Calpurnia trilogy
And I have barely scratched the surface here. The important thing to note is that wherever you choose to start you wont spoil stuff for yourself as the books raraly mention events in other books.
Answer: The timeline is pretty meaningless in the 40k universe, read the books you like.
After The Horus Hersey, everything is a massive jumble. I'd really advise you not bother trying to follow any sort of timeline in regards to what you read.
There is a timeline, it's a pretty interesting itself if you have some time to kill, but you should really read the books you like the sound of.
There are so many contributing authors in the 40k universe, some are brilliant, some are not, if you try to adhere to any sort of timeline, you'll be forced to read horrible books that will really put you off the 40k universe entirely.

Just to keep this answer roughly up to date, the next big deal in the 40k universe took place about 1,500 years after the HH.
A huge ork warboss leads an invasion into Imperial space. It's covered in The Beast Arises series of novels:

1,500 years have passed since the end of the Horus Heresy, and the Imperium is at peace. The Space Marines keep the Galaxy safe and the High Lords of Terra busy themselves with politicking and infighting. But something has been out there in the darkness, waiting...The Orks have returned, and they are more powerful than ever before. Can the Imperium hope to survive when The Beast arises?
Answer: First of all, the usual wikipedia link to all the Warhammer 40k novels.
Basically, except for the obvious timeline Horus Heresy versus the rest of the books (Horus Heresy being technically Warhammer 30k), there is no real order between series.
Of course, each of the series has a chronological order (which is not always the order suggested by the numbering of the books - see the HH for instance).
For the HH, the Black Library has suggested a reading order, that you can find here: The Horus Heresy.
Answer: The next earliest series written so far post Heresy is the Beast Arises series, this is set about 1500 after the fall of Horus and details an Imperium that has lived in relative peace suddenly being attacked by the biggest Ork Waaagh since the battle of Ulanor. It also tells of the story of the rise of Drakan Vangorich and the events that led to the Beheading.
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/The_Beast_Arises_(Series)


Bourbon soaked wood chips in secondary

Question: Making a wee heavy and adding medium toasted oak chips that have been soaked in bourbon.  The chips are tied up in a cheese cloth bag. My question is, should I let the chips dry thoroughly before dropping into the carboy? Or should I add them when they're still moist with bourbon?   Thanks in advance...cheers!
Answer: I would add the oak (still wet) and the bourbon it was soaking in to the carboy. The bourbon has probably picked up a lot of oak flavour that you want in your beer.
Answer: I have a similar Porter which is due to be transferred soon. I've researched online for an answer to this question, and opinions vary greatly.
Some say that the whiskey will have dissolved a lot of the tannins, so you shouldn't put it in. Also a lot of those people think it is merely a way of bumping the alcohol by spiking the beer with whiskey (I think they're missing the point of why we are doing this!). Others say the whiskey has all the flavor and you shouldn't put the oak in because you'll just get extra tannins. Others say put the whole lot in.
I had decided to do the same as @Tobias suggests - put the whole lot in.
In my case, I have oak cubes in a jar of Maker's Mark.
If it works, I intend to repeat next year but with Laphroig (an Islay malt).
Answer: If you are using the Bourbon to sanitize the chips and not looking for much Bourbon flavor, toss only the chips. I don't know if it make much difference if they are wet of dry other than the alcohol will evaporate if you let them dry.   If you are trying to replicate beer aged in Bourbon barrels it only makes sense to toss the Bourbon and oak chips into the secondary. I use around 5 ounces of a good Bourbon to soak the chips in and then toss the whole thing into a 5 gallon batch. Be sure to take samples often after the chips have been in the secondary about a week as the wood flavor can get pretty intense pretty fast. My rule of thumb is to pull the oak chips out just as I think it's getting a little too oaky as the oak flavor will fall out over time leaving a nice balance.
I've used the Whisky Barrel Oak Chips as well. The whisky is not very pronounced but it does provide a good oak flavor.

Bourbon soaked wood chips in secondary


Finding pitch from a wideband spectrogram

Question: We can use the narrowband spectrogram for finding the pitch of an utterance. But is it possible to find the pitch using the wideband spectrogram? If so, how would that be done?
Answer: If your window length is shorter than the pitch period of a voiced utterance, the spectrogram will not be able to capture the fundamental frequency. This is the problem, yes?
But evidence of the fundamental frequency will still be available in the spectrogram because spoken voice has plenty of harmonic content. If you can identify the upper harmonics, showing up as horizontal stripes in the spectrogram, and find the size of the gap between them, this will be the fundamental pitch. Say your FFT resolution is very coarse under 200 hz, but you find a peak at 240 hz, 360 hz, and 480 hz. Well, this is a dead giveaway that the fundamental was 120 hz.
Moreover: The glottal impulse (vocal folds slamming together) is like a broadband impulse. You will get periodic vertical stripes along the spectrogram if the pitch is low enough, and your FFT window short enough.  The time difference between these stripes is the pitch period of the voice, so this is another clue you can use to determine the pitch even when the fundamental is ambiguous.
Comment: Thanks for the reply! I have a pitch algorithm that is very "trusted" at my place of work. I had some pitch values from a piece of music that seemed absurd. To verify, I took an estimate from the narrowband spectrogram and wanted to take an estimate from the wideband spectrogram as well to make sure that my manual estimate was correct. I will accept this answer, but it would be great if you could explain the wideband part with a figure. Thanks!
Answer: Frequency is the derivative of phase.  Most spectrograms throw away phase, and just show spectral magnitudes.  Wide-band spectrograms throw away phase more often, and thus are more informationally lossy regarding frequency information, compared with narrowband (longer time window) spectrograms.
One might be able to use non-local information (the overtone series or adjacents time points in the spectrogram) to infer more information about a particular frequency band, but this assumes the overtones are harmonically related and not inharmonic or accidental, or that the spectrum is stationary or predictable across time.  If not, these estimation methods can fail.
Comment: What are overtones? I am trying to figure out pitch values for music (vocal + very low volume instrumental background), so I would think that the data I have is harmonic but the spectrum is not stationary. Would I be correct? And is it possible then, to compute the pitch using the above methods?


Are Ether and ERC20 compliant Token interoperable?

Question: I know ERC20 compliant tokens are interoperable but are Ether and ERC20 compliant tokens are interoperable?
If so, where can I find the proof, such as whitepaper, journal, blog, etc.?
Comment: I'm not sure what you mean by interoperable. ERC20 tokens all implemented the same interface, so you can write one client to handle them all, but otherwise there is no interaction between ERC20 tokens. Ethereum does not have the same interface as ERC20 tokens though.
Answer: No.
Ether is the native value token on ethereum. Its existence is necessitated by the trustless consensus process and it's issued via the mining process. Transfers and accounting are native to the protocol.
ERC20 is a contract interface. They are not exactly interoperable but they present a uniform ABI which is conceptually a lot like an API. ERC20 tokens are issued by and accounted for in contracts at the application layer - on top of the protocol.
A contract would need separate processes to deal with three separate concerns pointed to by this question. First, handling native ether. Second, handling ERC20 tokens that are part of the intended design. Third, (optional but recommended) handling stray tokens from other applications, e.g. unwanted strange species of tokens sent to the contract in error.
Hope it helps.
Comment: Just one more question, at
https://www.investopedia.com/news/what-erc20-and-what-does-it-mean-ethereum/#ixzz51dRcaaXt
they said "Rather, they are designed to be compatible with new tokens, provided those tokens adhere to the rules."
what does it mean by compatible? that's what got me confused as in tokens are interoperable.
Comment: @xdimy has a point. It comes down to what is implied by "interoperable". There's a consistent interface - names and inputs for the functions that handle various concerns  That makes it possible for an ERC20 wallet to basically handle them all instead of implementing novel interfaces for each token. There is no automatic substitution/exchange/trade and a contract has to implement each case separately. A contract that implements these functions is compatible: https://github.com/OpenZeppelin/zeppelin-solidity/blob/master/contracts/token/ERC20/ERC20.sol
Answer: As I understand 'interoperability' it means that 'systems or programs can interact to each other without modification.
Tokens don't interact with tokens. But, for instance, a ERC20-compliant wallet can send ERC20 tokens to another ERC2-compliant wallet because they both support the standard token interface. And this means these wallets are interoperable.
But wallets can also send ethers to each other.
So the answer is: interoperable are not tokens or ethers but applications or contracts which support exchange of any of them.


elementary OS does not shut down

Question: I installed the newest version of elementary OS recently on my Thinkpad Carbon second generation. The OS works fine. The only thing is that the computer is not shutting down when asked to. If you choose shut down the device is only logging out. If I want to shut the computer down I have to force the shutdown via the power button. I already did update and upgrade the Ubuntu drivers with no effect.
Comment: i do have a similar kind of experience, need to force restart or shutdown most of the time. when i shutdown the system normally it stuck at the elementary logo. not sure why its happening maybe some process not quiting in time or something like that.
Comment: What happens for both of you if you enter:
`sudo shutdown -h now` in terminal?
Comment: Did you try to kill cerbere before shutdown?
Answer: In my case sudo shutdown -h nowwould hang too.  I also tried changing the grub configuration as suggested in many posts, but still had the same result.
Boot into recovery mode by pressing the shift key at boot.  From there go to 'Advanced Options.  There is an option to run fsck to repair your disk.  For good measure also perform the check grub option.  After that, select reboot normally from the menu.  The system will reboot and then should shutdown normally.
Comment: When the computer is shutting down if you press the up arrow key you can see what the computer is doing. My setup used to hang for a while on some networks shutting down the CUPS printer service, to ensure there were no unfinished print jobs. That has been fixed now, but perhaps you can have a look at the text shown during shutdown, and let us know what it is getting stuck on.

elementary OS does not shut down


Text hidden - no anchor points

Question: I have some text that came with a file, and I increased the size of text thereby hiding some of the text. I have used the direct selection tool on some text, and chosen the little white box, which I believe is the anchor, and stretched it making the whole word visible. However, this does not work on some text which is curved (see example, mising 'egal'). There is no white box anchor. Adding anchors does not help. Am I doing some thing wrong? I also cannot rotate those same words using the rotate tool, but I can with the Free transform tool (if that helps?). Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Answer: It looks like your text has been written on an existing path with the 'Type on a Path Tool'.

Any text that doesn't fit on that path will overflow and be hidden—as you can see.
If you want to edit the path, you need to adjust the path the text was written on not the bounding box of the text object. I've highlighted the path and end anchor points here:

It may be easier to select all the text on the path, copy, draw a new path and paste the text on to that path with the 'Type on a Path Tool'.

UPDATE: It seems that if the start or end handles of the text on a path are directly over the anchor points of the path you cannot select the anchor points. To get around this, without anything selected use the direct selection tool and hover over the path, you should then be able to select the path and edit its anchor points.
Comment: Ok, actually I just tested and if the type start/end handles are directly over the ends of the path you can't select the anchor points as you should be able to! ...to get around that, deselect the type - then with nothing selected use the direct selection tool and hover over the path and select *the path*, you should then be able to edit the anchor points.
Comment: Thanks Cai for your quick reply. I have tried your suggestion with both the selection tool and the direct selection tool, but when I hoover other either anchor point the cursor become black with a left or right pointing right arrow. I cannot stretch it. This would be ideal as I have alot ot text like this and it would help not to have to draw new paths. Any thoughts? Thanks again!
Comment: Those arrows show when you select the vertical lines that indicate where the text begins and ends, what you want to select is the path below the text. You should be able to select the anchor point by *clicking* (not dragging) the *anchor point* (not the path) - with the direct selection tool
Comment: @Jim Let me know if that works and I'll update my answer.
Comment: Absolutely Fantastic!!! Thank you soo much!! I got it now thanks to your help. I was cracking up for a while there. Thanks again. Correct and well explained for a novice like me! Thank you!!
Comment: Hover over the path!!
Comment: No problem at all. Glad I could help.

Text hidden - no anchor points


Unknown Musical Symbol: Straight Dotted Line Between Eighth Note Stems

Question: What does the dotted line mean between the eighth note stems in the LH part? This appears in the Dover edition of Haydn's Piano Sonata No. 1 in C Major. It is present in both movements one and two. When I've looked at other versions of this piece, the dotted lines are missing, but in their place is portato notation. I'm wondering if the dotted lines have anything to do with that? Any insight would be much appreciated!
Answer: In Haydn's time, short beams were used in the same way as short slurs in modern music, i.e. to show articulation. Since much sheet music at that time was hand-written, this convention saved time for the copyists - and it's just as easy to read as modern slurs, when you know what it means!
I haven't looked at the OP's particular example, but in some critical editions this type of "dotted" beaming is used to show differences in beaming between different hand copies of the same piece, or to show editorial "corrections" where different beaming was used for different repetitions of the same musical phrase within the piece. (Whether such changes are really "corrections" or just editorial pedantry is a different question, of course!)
Answer: I doubt that Breitkopf & Härtel intended the beams to be aligned and the dotted lines not to be printed. Here's another example, from the second movement's b.8:

That beam between the first two quavers/8ths in the lower stave is definitely wrong -- it goes down whereas the notes go up. That shows that it's implausible that the engraver intended separate beams and the dotted line was not intended to be printed (a suggestion that had been made earlier in this thread though it has since been deleted).
This edition has a few editorial marks in parentheses (dynamics; accidentals for ornaments). This suggests the possibility that the dotted line is editorial. Seeing as four successive quavers/8ths in half a bar of 4/4 would normally all four be joined with a single beam nowadays, perhaps the editors indicated "we beam the notes in fours though the original beamed them in twos"? But that doesn't explain why this is done in some but not all possible cases.
Comment: See the post by idontneedadisplayname; the slope of the beam is about what it should be if all four notes had been written in bass clef (using ledger lines for the first two, and up-stems for all four) or all had been written using treble clef (using ledger lines for the last two, and down-stems for all four).  Using an upward-sloping beam for a run of four consecutive descending notes would seem weird.
Comment: @Rosie F "That first beam is definitely wrong -- it goes down whereas the notes go up." Noticing the Bass Clef that precedes the end of the beam, i would hazard a guess that before that downward movement the composer was writing in the treble clef and thus the beam is in fact correct, otherwise why would the composer arbitrarily add a bass clef sign into the music? The composer is going from E to D and then lower down the scale, in order for the music to not look silly, with the downward progression and endless notes running off the staff, changed the Clef to bass and continued.
Comment: @supercat You seem to be referring to a different beam from me. I have edited my answer to clarify. I was referring to the example in this answer, not the one in the OP.
Comment: I commented to bring that post to your attention.  That having been said, perhaps "that beam between the first two quavers above *would* definitely be wrong *if the dotted line were not intended to join it to the next pair of quavers*.  Given that intention, I think the slope of the beam is correct.
Answer: This might seem silly and anticlimactic at first, but think about it: might not the editor have marked the page for aesthetic accuracy - that is, to make sure his lines are parallel?
My first guess was that this was meant to show the reader the transition of the B with the change of clef. However, what then, would the second line denote?


Caden has 4/3 kg of sand which fills 2/3  of his bucket. How many buckets will 1kg sand fill?

Question: I have already finished Calculus II but I go back and practice the basics on Khan Academy. This problem confuses me conceptually every time. I know what the answer is, but I am having a hard time rationalizing the steps. What are the mental steps you take solving this problem? Thanks in advance and please have mercy on me. I am doing this for my own entertainment not for a grade!
Comment: Simply use unitary method.
Comment: This is a [division](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_(mathematics)) question, specifically $\frac{\frac23}{\frac43} = \frac12$.
Answer: If $1$kg of sand fills a fraction $F$, then $4/3$kg of sand must fill a fraction $4/3F$.
But you are given that $4/3F=2/3$.
Solve for $F$
Comment: @StrykerGraham Actually, to be _quite_ sure, you know that $$\frac{2}{3}\text{ bucket}=\frac{4}{3}kg$$Solve for $kg$, and you get $$1kg=\frac12\text{ bucket}$$Alternatively, in case you want to be more wordy, and less algebra-y, if $4/3kg$ fills $2/3$ of a bucket, then $4kg$ fills two buckets.
Comment: So to be _quite_ sure, the idea is that F = 1KG. The amount of sand I have filling **2/3** of my bucket is **4/3** kg, which is as you say **4/3** of my unit amount. Therefore **F = (2/3)(3/4)**
Answer: Here's a simple elementary approach:

We're told that Caden has 4/3 kg of sand, which fills 2/3 of a bucket.
Three times as much sand would fill three times as many buckets.  Thus, if Caden had 4 kg of sand, it would fill 2 buckets.
Therefore, 1 kg of sand would fill half a bucket.
Answer: A picture is worth a thousand words.
This is a drawing of the bucket cut in 6 slices.
The bottom 4 of them are filled with sand.

                 +------------------------------+
                 |                              |
                 +..... empty .... 1/3 bucket ..+
                 |                              |
                 +------------------------------+
                 |  1/3 kg sand  =  1/6 bucket  |
              .- +..............................+ -.
             /   |  1/3 kg sand  =  1/6 bucket  |   \
            |    +------------------------------+    |
 1 kg sand <     |  1/3 kg sand                 |     > 1/2 bucket
            |    +................ 1/3 bucket ..+    |
             \   |  1/3 kg sand                 |   /
              `- +------------------------------+ -'

Solution: 1 kg of sand is made up of 3 "slices" of 1/3 kg, each of them filling 1/6 of bucket.
3 * 1/6 = 1/2 bucket

Answer: Let x denote 1 kg od sand y denote 1 bucket
$$\frac{4}{3}x=\frac{2}{3}y$$
now
$$x=\frac{2}{3}*\frac{3}{4}y=\frac{1}{2}y$$
$$\therefore$$
1kg of sand fills half a bucket
Answer: In 11th grade chemistry, I learned about conversion factors.  I wish I knew about them sooner.  You are given this equation:
$\frac{4}{3} S = \frac{2}{3} B$
Rewritten:
$1 = \frac{\frac{2}{3} B}{\frac{4}{3}S}$
Simplified:
$1 = \frac{B}{2S}$
This equation is useful because you can multiply anything by one without changing it.  Here's how you'd use this.  You have 1 kg of sand which I'd write as $1S$.  Let's multiply this by our equation above which I've shown equals one:
$1S * \frac{B}{2S} = \frac{1}{2}B$
Even though we're multiplying by one, the units cancel in such a way that we now have buckets.  That's our answer.  We're asked for a number of buckets.
Try this with other conversions.  Miles to kilometers.  Celsius to Kelvin.  You don't need to remember that $distance = rate * time$, you just need to know the units and how they relate.
Comment: Conversion factors are actually where I first think about going when I approach a problem like this... I just wasn't sure how to put this into the standard "? = known factor (...)" format
Answer: 'Caden has 4/3 kg of sand which fills 2/3  of his bucket.'
These two, a kilogram and a bucket, are simply two units of measure of sand. The quantities $4/3\,kg$ and $2/3\,bucket$ are simple multiplications of a number and a unit, and they both denote the same amount of sand:
$$4/3\, kg = 2/3\, bucket$$
To find out 'How many buckets will 1kg sand fill?' you simply multiply both sides by an appropriate number so that you get a desired value on the left side:
$$3/4 \times 4/3\,kg = 3/4 \times 2/3\, bucket$$
You  can do that, because if two values (LHS and RHS) are equal, and they get multiplied by the same number, the results are also equal. So by associativity  you get:
$$(3/4 \times 4/3)\,kg = (3/4 \times 2/3)\, bucket$$
$$1\,kg = (2/4)\, bucket = 1/2\, bucket$$
Solving for $1\,kg$ is quite simple, because we need to multiply by an inverse of the given coefficient. In general case we might want to solve for any other value, say 'how much copper you need to make 3,5 kg of brass if you use 7 kg of copper for 10 kg of brass?' You can write the two equations then:
$$\begin{align}
 x\,kg_{Cu} & = k \times 3.5\,kg_{brass} \\
 7\,kg_{Cu} & = k \times 10\,kg_{brass}
\end{align}$$
where $k$ is a part of Cu in the alloy.
As LHS equals RHS in each equation, you can divide them on both sides and the results are equal, too:
$$\frac {x\,kg_{Cu}}{7\,kg_{Cu}} = \frac {k \times 3.5\,kg_{brass}}{k \times 10\,kg_{brass}} $$
then simplify to get a simple proportion:
$$\frac x7 = \frac {3.5}{10} $$
and finally
$$x = \frac {7\times 3.5}{10}$$
Answer: Set up a ratio:
$\frac{4}{3}$ kg per $\frac{2}{3}$ bucket is $\frac{4/3}{2/3} = 2$ kg per bucket
Answer: As the bucket is filled by $2/3$, a half of its actual content is needed to get it filled completely, that is a half of $4/3$ kg.
Answer: It is a simple linear relation.
4/3 kg 2/3 bucket. Add 50 percent or multiply by 3/2
6/3 kg 3/3 bucket = 2 kg 1 bucket
so, 1kg filled in 1/2 or half bucket.
Answer: 4/3 Kg fills two thirds of the bucket, e.g. not a filled bucket. 3/3 < 4/3. The number of filled buckets will therefore be none.


Minecraft log in help

Question: i have changed my mc email to login and I haven't set up the security questions and I forgot the email. I know my username and password but I need the email to log in. Does anyone know how to log in with just the username and password?
Answer: According to the Mojang's support portal, you need to locate your transaction ID of your game. This transaction ID is an identification number located in the email your received to confirm that Mojang has received your payment for the game.
To make it short, the transaction ID is the proof that you bought the game. I think it could also be found in your PayPal transction history if you bought the game with PayPal.
Once you have found your ID, contact the Mojang support from this page: Link!
If you want to take a look at the support page from where I took this information, you can click here
Comment: Thx TheBird956!!
Comment: @tommay No problem! Dont forget to mark my answer as accepted so other users know this question has been answered and might be usefull for them.

Minecraft log in help


Drag select time range in Reaper not working

Question: I am using Reaper 3.75 and normally I click and drag in the time-bar at the top to select an area, but suddenly it is not working anymore. Have I activated some kind of strange mode, and how do I get out of it?
Comment: You probably enabled Locking by clicking the lock icon in the toolbar by accident.
Answer: Check your Lock Settings for the project.  Press Shift+L (or right click the Locking icon in the toolbar) to open the dialog.
When I selected Enable Locking and Time Selection, I was unable to make a time selection by clicking and dragging in the Timeline.
Clicking the lock icon in the toolbar will toggle Locking.
Answer: I just had a similar thing happen; When I moved the triangular things along the ruler at the top, suddenly the time selection wouldn't change (the ruler changed, but the highlighted area didn't move, nor did the selection time meter.
Solution for me was under Options, I had to check "Loop points linked to time selection"
Not sure how it got unchecked, but it was frying my egg for a couple days until I figured it out.
Just thought I'd throw it up there in case anyone else found this same page looking for solution.


Rice - Expiration Date

Question: How relevant is the expiration date on uncooked Rice (different varieties)? Are there ways to store rice to prolong it life?
Answer: This website: http://www.eatbydate.com/grains/rice-shelf-life-expiration-date/ has the following table.
<code>--------------------------------------------------------------------
| Dry                    | Pantry      | Refrigerator | Freezer    |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
| White Rice             | 4-5 Years   |       -      |     -      |
| Oxygen Free White Rice | 25-30 Years |       -      | 30* Years  |
| Brown Rice             | 6-8 Months  | 8-12 Months  |     -      |
| Wild Rice              | 6-8 Months  |       -      |     -      |
| Minute Rice            | 4-5 years   |       -      |     -      |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
| Cooked                 | Pantry      | Refrigerator | Freezer    |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
| White Rice             |     -       | 5-7 Days     | 6-8 Months |
| Brown Rice             |     -       | 4-5 Days     | 6-8 Months |
| Wild Rice              |     -       | 5-7 Days     | 6-8 Months |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
</code>
From personal experience, rice that has been picked recently has a much better taste. I normally buy rice from the Asian market that has a harvested date on it. Often this date is within the last month. After about 6 months the rice tends to start losing its aromatic flavors.
Brown rice has a much shorter shelf life than white rice, and will go bad if kept in a humid or hot environment. If you aren't going to use rice within 1-2 years I would say maybe freeze it so it will keep the aromatic flavors longer.
Answer: Rice has a pretty long shelf life. Are we talking about white rice, brown rice, or what? White rice, stored in the pantry, can last a good 4-5 years.
Answer: Expiration dates are used by food distributors as an inventory control rather than a safety notification in the US.
Some packages may be marked Best by. That refers to flavor and texture not safety.
My issue with rice is the pantry moths. I buy rice in 2-5lb bags. I place the bag inside a ziplock freezer bag and put it in the freezer for  at least 24 hours. I remove it to the refrigerator to defrost, and keep it sealed to avoid internal condensation. This kills off any bugs. I keep it inn the zip lock bag until I use it. I keep it in a kitchen cupboard at room temperature
This technique works for all grains and starches which could attract bugs, including wheat flour.
I have found old packets of rice in the cupboard that are perhaps 3 years old. They have cooked up well although  as Meskarune noted, the flavor was a a bit stale. It was fine as a base for a sauce,etc.
Answer: Brown rice has a shorter shelf life than other rice because it includes the rice germ, which has a high oil content. What limits the shelf life is the oil going rancid, which can occur in 6 months (or less in hot weather).

Rice - Expiration Date


Should we ask for a 'general reference' close reason?

Question: Looking at this question, What is a "performance capture" animation movie?, I tried to vote to close it, but none of the reasons fit well. I would have liked to vote to close it due to being a general reference kinda question. Have a look at this blog post for background.
Comment: Tried teh same thing myself
Answer: This is my opinion and not any statement of official policy.
The General Reference close reason has been implemented on a limited number of sites on an experimental basis. But I'm starting to feel that the adverse community effects are worse than the problem it was designed to solve.
When someone asks "Who was the author of [X]?", it should certainly be closed as uninteresting to answer (i.e. general reference). So what they are presented with is this:

general reference
  This question is too basic; it can be definitively and permanently answered by a single link to a standard internet reference source designed specifically to find that type of information.

…but the impression it sends to everyone watching is "Your question is already in Google. Go find it yourself."
In communities where the issue of "General Reference" has come up, they inevitably start enumerating which Internet resources will become purveyors of the verboten material… rather than focusing on which questions will be interesting to the site. It all becomes very dismissive and new-user unfriendly.
I think it's better to explain in your faq if particular type of question is not appropriate for the site (even if it's just to say "no general reference"), and then simply close them as off-topic with a reference to the faq explaining why.
The "General Reference" close reason was my response to users who ask lazy questions without any effort, research, or context put into it. It satisfied that feeling you get when you just want to hit someone upside the head and say "Why don't you just go flippin' look the thing up yourself!" But in sober retrospect, I think it's better for community building if you educate users what it is to ask interesting questions rather than just slapping a 'dummy' sticker on it.
Comment: @Mnementh: It depends on the question to determine why you are *really* closing it. If it is explicitly stated that a question of that type does not belong (e.g. maybe annotated in the faq) then it is [off topic]. If the subject is on topic but simply not a productive use for the site, it would be [not constructive]. On *rarer* occasions, it may even be [not a real question].
Comment: Thanks for the humble explanation.  I think you've convinced me to agree with your un-official opinion. :)
Comment: So they should be closed with another reason, that does not apply in this case?
Comment: So it should indeed be declared in FAQ, to allow closing it as Off-Topic. The other reasons may not apply to all such questions. See http://meta.movies.stackexchange.com/q/19/66
Comment: Do you have an opinion on [scifi.se]'s handling of GR? Could you make it known on our meta? I've always felt that [Borror0's diagram is far too stringent](http://meta.scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/689/what-sites-should-be-considered-general-references) and applied [a more restrictive policy](http://meta.scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/955/is-wikia-com-general-reference/956#956) that amounted to treating only [Wikipedia, IMDB and ISFDB as general references](http://meta.scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/403/what-are-standard-internet-reference-sites-for-sf).
Answer: On French Language & Usage, we use the "too localized" close reason for questions that can be answered by a dictionary entry or Wikipedia link. If you get as good an answer by browsing http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/foo as https://french.stackexchange.com/q/42, then the question isn't helping anyone but the asker (and him only just barely).
The problem with a general reference close reason is that it can be abused. I've often seen people who want it to close questions they consider too easy, but what's easy to you may not be easy to the asker. The general reference close reason has unfortunately come to being associated with Borror0's diagram, which Jeff liked, but ignores some important issues. A question is only too simple for the site if it meets several criteria: the answer must be found in an obvious place (not some random Google hit), which must have some aura of reliability, and that place must have not just an entry in a database but something that does answer the question comprehensibly.
In a nutshell, a question about X should be closed if the best way to answer it is to reproduce the Wikipedia article about X.
Answer: Edit:  I'm retouching on this because I think it is an important reason to have due to some easily answered questions in addition to Trivia questions.
I think we need it
Here's why:
Due to the nature of some of the questions on this site potentially being trivia (which is forbidden in the FAQ), some appear very easy to answer with a simple Google search.
Examples:
--TV Show awards
--Woman in Red
While, in their own right, they are good questions, but a general rule is if your answer appears in the first few hits of Google, then it is generally a bad question.
Now, closing these questions is easy enough, but the reasons we currently have are not, as they portray the wrong message to the user.

Having a General Reference close reason, similar to what is on Lit.SE would be perfect for this site as well.  To let that user know that it may be a good question, it is inherently too easy and shows lack of research which is the whole point of the site.
Current set-up:

Duplicate - Doesn't work here for obvious reasons.
Off-Topic - This is the closest one to General Reference, but doesn't portray the message of "Too easy" more like "GTFO, wrong topic!"
Not Contructive - While the name works for the message, the description doesn't, implying the user meant to discuss instead of get an answer for.
NARQ - Doesn't work in this context because it is a question, just not one allowed.
Too Localized - Doesn't apply to me as this is definitely a question that is useful for the future, but just not a right fit for the site.
Comment: Just to comment on the tv show award example... the reason I answered it and didn't vote to close it was based primarily on the phrasing.  If you search google for "Academy Awards for TV" or "tv academy awards" (which is how the OP asked) the Emmys are nowhere to be found in those results.  As it stands, there are multiple award shows that honor television in the states, but only one that could be considered an equivalent to the Oscars.  Add in that it was asked by a non-usian not in the US, and it seemed like an okay question to me.


are archive files still encrypted after deletion?

Question: I'm just curious. It seems that they should be but I googled the question and didn't get a straight answer. If you delete a file it only gets marked as free space on the hard drive and is easily recoverable (undeleted), so I hope it's not the case with archive files, that they remain encrypted after you delete them from the archive. Can you make it clear I'm not wrong on this one?
Comment: Is it correct to refer to a not-unpacked-file as a `file` in this context? It seems like this misapprehension of the dual-meaning of the word `file` in the context of archives is at the heart of the OP's question. I think Kyle Jones' answer touches on this distinction: some (most?) archive tools will unpack and repack to edit the file list. Some can do this {with magic} without unpacking. The former delete the temp files (and are more easily recoverable in some form) the latter are probably less recoverable.
Answer: The answer to your question depends on how the deletion was done.
If the RAR was unpacked and decrypted, a file was deleted from the unpacked directory, and then the directory was rolled back into an encrypted RAR, then the deleted file can be recovered.
If your deletion tool edited the RAR archive directly, modifying the unencrypted structural elements without ever decrypting the encrypted blocks, then the deleted file cannot be recovered since it was never unencrypted on disk.
Answer: If the file was encrypted when it was deleted then any recoverable data is still in encrypted form.
This assumes file-level encryption. The answer would be different for a plain file placed into an encrypted filesystem.
Answer: I agree with what RedGrittyBrick says in his post.
And if you are really paranoid about the possibility that someone can retrieve your file, you can use utility to permanently remove a file on a mechanical hard drive.  For Windows, you can use Eraser.  On Linux, you can use the 'shred' command.
Permanently deletion of file on Windows and Linux is only achieve if you are using a mechanical hard drive.  Solid state drive and flash memory is based off a different architecture and therefore permanently deletion of a file might not be possible (at least not that I aware of).