2012 Moderator Election - Town Hall Chat Digest

Question: The following is a "digest" version of the 2012 Moderator Election Town Hall Chat. The format, as described on Meta Stack Overflow, is one answer to this question for every question asked in the Town Hall, containing all the candidate's answers to that question.
To view the digest chronologically, please sort the answers by "oldest".
If you have questions or comments about this, please do not answer this question as the answers are designed to be used for the questions from the Town hall itself. Instead, please ask on the parent question or in the Town Hall Discussion Room.
If you see any corrections which need to be made to this digest, or if you were a candidate who was unable to attend the town hall and would like your answers included, please @Rebecca or @TimStone in the chat room and let us know!
Comment: I completely forgot about this. I would have liked to have been there and asked a couple of questions. Oh well. I digest the answers and see if there's anything else I want to add.
Answer: Roger Attrill http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/ad48679f7618bce2dde8d4e23403b1ef?s=16&d=identicon&r=PG Roger Attrill asked: I'd like to ask what the candidates opinion on fun is in the context of fun questions - mindful of the fact that I saw Joel speaking in person here in Cambridge (UK) a couple of nights ago and he felt quite strongly on the topic. So - how should fun questions be handled?

Rahul http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/11b5be85d5d080e819a2531d4dd3f4fb?s=16&d=identicon&r=PG Rahul answered:  Like I mentioned in my nomination text, I think we need more of them - the current set of questions on the site doesn't represent the profession very well because it's very "dry". Although we have a lot of interesting questions and answers, some of the best trafficked ones are the fun ones, like the rotating 3d cube question (and your answer) because it shows inventiveness, creativity and originality, which I think are important skills for UX designers.
Rahul http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/11b5be85d5d080e819a2531d4dd3f4fb?s=16&d=identicon&r=PG Rahul continued:  So it's definitely something we should address by allowing such questions and actively encouraging more of them
Jon W http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/99fe25a522e50997d75b8ae95cea19a4?s=16&d=identicon&r=PG Jon W answered:  UX is a very subjective, and therefore personal subject. It's not all facts and figures and we all work in this field because we enjoy it. Provided it's fun in the correct context (i.e. at least related to UX) then I'm fine with it. I wouldn't want to encourage too much of it - it's a professional site after all, not a Subreddit - but fun questions and responses mean better chance or them being shared externally and therefore bringing in people from outside the site.
dnbrv http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/0299470f4dcad8b4d79fd01c5dc7be4a?s=16&d=identicon&r=PG dnbrv answered:  If by fun you mean the infamous cube then they certainly have a place here. They are a great subject for conversations outside of the site, which means they can bring more traffic.
Answer:  Roger Attrill asked: For the current non-moderators: How much time do you expect to spend on the site as moderator, and will this affect the excellent participation so far in terms of your own questions and answers. ie is moderation an additional exercise or a replacement one - or somewhere in between?

 Jon W answered:  I have UX.SE open on my browser at work almost all the time, and when off-site I have access on my iphone. The same with at home. I'm there frequently even if i'm not posting. I review posts regularly, even if 99% of the time no changes need to be made. The moderation is just an extension of that. 3 moderators isn't a huge number, so I'd need to be available slightly more often than currently, but the means and motive to do this are both simple.
 Ben Brocka answered:  I expect to spend as much time as I currently do or a little more; which is to say one-multiple daily visits. Since I already watch for problematic questions and raise the issue in chat, comments or flag problematic posts I don't expect moderation duties to significantly impact my contributions to the site.
 dnbrv answered:  I might dedicate an hour or two specifically for moderation but other than that I'm not expecting significant changes in my participation because of the new duties (I vote & comment regularly already).
Answer:  Rebecca Chernoff asked: What do you think the moderator's role is in community building? Should they stick to the janitorial duties, or be actively involved in the decision making process and promotion of the site?

 dnbrv answered:  That's a part of my "platform": a moderator should promote the community whenever and wherever possible.
 Jon W answered:  For new posters I think that we need to be more lenient to the 'noob' questions, we need to get these people into the site. Encourage them to post, even let some dupes / woolly questions and answers through if it means we can get people into the site. However the longer these people are around the less we should let inappropriate questions/answers through.
 Rahul answered:  I don't think "janitorial duties" is a good way to describe what we do. Regardless of our intentions, what we effectively do is mould the site through our actions, so we should be aware of that and regard ourselves more as shepherds than just people who clean Q&A up. As such you can't help but be involved in every facet of the site, because it all contributes to the common goal of keeping the right shape.
 Ben Brocka answered:  Moderators set the tone of discussion and should be a good, representative face for the community. I feel a moderator that participates actively in contributing good content to the site serves as a great example.
Answer:  Christofian asked: What do you think is the most important rule that a moderator enforces?

 Jon W answered:  Respect each other. We're all here to learn about the subject, and we learn that primarily from each other, not textbooks. Keep arguments from boiling over into too many comments that everyone has to read, that's not appropriate. Move it to Chat instead.
 Rahul answered:  I don't think in terms of rules or enforcement - I don't see us as policing the community, but helping shepherd it, like I mentioned in reply to Rebecca's question. So I can't distinguish which is "most important" - I'd say that one of the most important things mods do is keep things on the right track as lieutenants of Stack Exchange Inc. I try to do what I think is best given a set of guidelines.
 dnbrv answered:  Within the community, a moderator is foremost the "maintenance guy". I don't like the term "janitor" because that implies primarily clean up. A moderator is supposed to make sure that the conversations are civilized, on topic, and of quality. Thus, it's not only cleaning up bad content but also helping others improve bad content.
 Ben Brocka answered:  When to close a controversial question (some thing it's on topic and some disagree),  because that's really when the line in the sand is drawn for the tone or topic of a site
Answer:  Rebecca Chernoff asked: What is the main problem (including problems on how users use the site) that you actually see in the site you would be moderating, if you are elected moderator?

 Jon W answered:  Now that it's out of beta there are lots more users coming in, many posting 'do my work for me' questions, many posting duplicates too. We need to convert these new users into regular ones, try not to scare them off by closing the questions off too abruptly, the more people we can get to be active contributors the better the content will be on the site in future.
 Rahul answered:  I don't think in terms of problems, but in terms of opportunities. (lol that was corny) Our biggest challenge right now is to get accepted by the larger UX community. There's a great opportunity there that we need to take ownership of and carry forward. One way is to start attending conferences more actively and spreading awareness around, and another is to try and draw on "famous" people in the community that some of us may know. Jin has been helping out here
 dnbrv answered:  I think the biggest problem is keeping questions on topic. I've noticed many people here and on other UX-related sites ask broad hypothetical questions that are out of scope of this community. So, as a moderator, I'll be spending a lot of time helping those OPs understand the rules to make sure they aren't scared off by the limits.
Answer:  Rebecca Chernoff asked: Why do you want to be a moderator (as opposed to having high rep privs)?

 Rahul answered:  I didn't think I wanted to be a moderator until Shog asked me to be one and I started doing it. Then I realised it's like a new game within the site - the points/badges game had worn itself out for me already and the game of keeping up with flags and edits feels more compelling, while simultaneously contributing much more back to the community. I enjoy using the site more when I can also moderate - it motivates me to keep active and keep the quality of the site in check.
 Jon W answered:  I want to do my part in keeping the site growing. It's getting bigger, more people are using it, it appears highly in Google searches... If it's going to be a big resource for developers, designers and IAs then it needs to be looked after. I'm on the site almost daily, have been with both UX.SE and UXExchange for a while so feel I am in a good position to keep it heading in the right direction.
 dnbrv answered:  I'm rather active on the site and sometimes I see content that requires moderator's attention quicker than a moderator is available. Although I try to comment as much as I can, I feel that at times having the diamond next to my name will make the OP take the comment more seriously.
 Ben Brocka answered:  Some of the statistical tools helpful in knowing how the site needs to grow (visit stats ect) are not available regardless of rep level. These can be used to guide the site along (without directly sharing the sensitive information of course; just using it to identify rough problem areas)
Answer:  Patrick McElhaney asked: What I'm hearing from all of you is that a moderator should stick to "janitorial" duties (although you don't like that particular term). Does anyone think that moderators are obliged to be involved in "decision making process" and "promoting the site"?

 Jon W answered:  A lot of that can be done by anyone, it's not something limited to Moderators (sharing questions etc). However Mods should lead by example so for example I'd ressurect my dormant Twitter account to do just that.
 Jon W continued:  We can also pull people in from other sites (Yahoo Answers, Quora etc) and as a mod it would be a duty to represent the site there. Also monitoring some of the other SE sites to see what questions should be migrated over here.
 Rahul answered:  That's not what I said; I said we should be shepherds, not janitors. I think a shepherd is much more than a janitor. Janitors clean the bathrooms; shepherds guide the flock. Janitors interact directly with nastiness, shepherds can touch things subtly from a distance and obtain the desired outcome.
 Rahul continued:  I think we're more valuable guiding the site calmly by suggesting improvements, edits, and resolving disputes while maintaining the FAQ for accuracy, doing customer support, handling meta issues etc. than we are if we just view ourselves as people who close questions.
 dnbrv answered:  As I've said before, moderators must be involved in decision-making and promotion. However, it shouldn't be "an oligarchy of the diamonds" - other members' concerns must be taken into consideration, too.
 Ben Brocka answered:  I sort of answered that with my response about community building. I think mods are 100% part of the decision making process of the site and should start (but not dominate) the important discussions that the community needs to have. I don't feel a moderator has to promote the site actively but it's an activity I feel all engaged users should try and do, and mods are in a particularly good position to do so
Answer:  Christofian asked: How would you handle a disagreement between you and another member(s)?

 Rahul answered:  9 times out of 10, let the member have the right of it. In the remaining 10%, I'd involve the other moderators and probably jump into the mod chat to ask for advice. Based on what I hear there I'd take the next step. This hasn't happened before, though, and my 9/10 rule of thumb probably means it's very unlikely to ever happen at all
 Jon W answered:  That's up to the community to decide really. Everything is done in public here so it's easy to gauge public opinion on issues. I'm in Chat very often (pinned tab in Firefox) so would discuss stuff in there with whoever is available and come to a decision if possible. If I'm wrong then i'd just look like an arse if I stuck to my guns. In my role as IA i have to back down from my opinions, this is an extension of that.
 dnbrv answered:  Let's hope I won't need to deal with such a situation during my tenure. =) Though if such a situation arises, I'll ask for other mods & power users to chime in - I already often ask for advice on voting to close unclear questions.
 Ben Brocka answered:  If it was an issue that needed action (closing a question, punishing a user) I would try to get a sense of the community's feeling on the issue. If it were a personal disagreement I would concede if I felt the discussion was no longer productive
Answer:  Rebecca Chernoff asked: Two highly respected members of the community get in a comment war on a question. They both flag each other's comments and are cussing and it is clear that this is beyond a heated argument. What do you do, what don't you do?

 Rahul answered:  Roger vs Patrick, fight! First of all, comments aren't the right place for that. I would tie off the comments and direct them to fight it out between themselves elsewhere. I'd also delete any comments that have language in them that doesn't belong on the site since it doesn't add any value for anyone browsing the site later on. After that it depends on what they do next.
 Jon W answered:  That depends on what options are available to a mod. I'd like to lock the question from further comments if possible and request them to discuss it in Chat instead. Possibly starting up a seperate room where it can be dealt with in slightly more privacy. I would then post a comment in the main question explaining to the community what has happened.
 dnbrv answered:  First, post a warning & remove all name calling (edit comments or delete them). If both continue after the warning, I'll ban them for the minimum time to chill off. Top users must be held to the same high standards as mods.
Answer:  Patrick McElhaney asked: How do you deal with someone who seems to argue with you no matter what you do?

 Jon W answered:  Don't rise to the bait. Trolls are trolls, and we shouldn't feed them. I'd just make sure they're not disrupting other people as well as just myself.
 Rahul answered:  I know who you're talking about ;) and I've been largely ignoring him. But keep an eye on the person in question in case they get into it with someone else. You don't want their behaviour to dissuade someone from coming back - if that happens, then it's time to escalate things.
 dnbrv answered:  Ignore the comments unless they're constructive and then ask fellow mods to deal with that person.
 Ben Brocka answered:  If they are posting inflammatory/offensive posts with the intent to abuse, I would remove the offending posts. If the user is clearly trying to rile up myself/others I would ignore them, and instruct others to "not feed the trolls". If a repeated pattern emerges I would take it up directly with the offending user
Answer:  Rahul asked: If you guys think mods should be involved in promotion, how would you go about attracting more female members to the community? Do you think it's necessary to do so?

 dnbrv answered:  I think it's all about promoting the community in the right places. I'd work with IxDA and UPA to reach them.
 Ben Brocka answered:  Pinterest seems to be an effective social space that's dominated by female users. A Pinterest account could share some of the more visual questions/answers to show off mock ups and problems in the community. I don't think it's necessary as I don't feel we have a significant problem (similar to the related discussion on Meta.SO about "do we need more female users"), but I do feel we need more promotion of the site and that women should be included
 Jon W answered:  Roughly covered in another response earlier; anyone can promote the site, that's not a special Mod privilege but as mod we should lead by example.  Check sites outside of UX.SE, both in the other SE sites as well as more casual places (Quora, Yahoo Answers) Also use our own social networks to reach out to others.
Answer:  Rebecca Chernoff asked: New users often are not accustomed to the Stack Exchange system, and sometimes struggle to present themselves properly, either in the way they use the site or their attitude. How willing are you to work with "problematic" users, and at what point do you decide that someone isn't worth the effort?

 Rahul answered:  I always try to go the extra mile for new users because I feel like the UX offered by SE sites currently isn't as good as it should be and I'm very sensitive to that. Often there's also no one else there for them, so as a mod I feel like it's my responsibility to at least make that effort.
 Rahul continued:  I usually stop making an effort if the user doesn't respond after a week (eg. they never came back - you can check on their profile) or if their language is incomprehensible, which unfortunately can happen with non-native English speakers.
 dnbrv answered:  First, use the comments to explain what the problems are, and then invite them to chat or Meta to discuss the issues in more detail. Recently, there have been several new users who came in with overly broad questions that got closed. They complained, we tried to explain. In the end, the users left. We also had a couple of new users who were posting low-quality replies. After comments, some of them greatly improved their style & others left.
 Jon W answered:  That's the main role of the Mod at present, I believe. encouraging new users to become regular users the site and not just people who post-and-run, never to be seen again. New users need to be given more consideration than others so they're not scared off.
 Jon W continued:  ..That is hard though, if people are flagging and voting to close questions off. If we can keep these questions open, keep them involved and guide them into rewording it (or even letting them accept it may need to  be closed, but as friendly as possibly) then so be it.
 Ben Brocka answered:  I always try to help out these users by asking clarifying comments ("Are you asking X...To what ends do you want to know...") or editing their posts where appropriate and explaining how they can make their posts fit better with the Stack Exchange model.
 Ben Brocka continued:  I like trying to help "problematic" users when they are learning to use the system, but if someone clearly has no respect for other users, the Stack Exchange Q&A model I would begin to consider them a lost cause to be dealt with  punitively rather than a student to be encouraged
Answer:  Rebecca Chernoff asked: Final thoughts from the candidates please?

 Ben Brocka answered:  Is Rebecca a robot?
 Ben Brocka continued: Sorry I missed the start of the discussion; work duties called first. I'd be happy to answer and direct questions if anyone feels I missed/didn't get a chance to explain anything
 dnbrv answered:  Vote for me! =)
 dnbrv continued:  I got a goal for the next elections: make sure more people participate in nominations & in the town hall (although I do expect it to be a small percentage of the total population).
 Rahul answered:  Well, I never thought I would make it here today. I would make a great UX mod because I promise to put two new pop machines in the cafeteria, and I'm also gonna get a glitter Bonne Bell dispenser for all the girls' bathrooms. Oh, and we're gonna get new cheerleading uniforms. Anyway, I think I'd be a great UX mod. So, who wants to eat chiminichangas next year? Not me. See, with me it will be summer all year long. Vote for Rahul!
 Jon W answered: I just feel that it's becoming a great community here, and as I'm passionate about the subject, am a regular and active contributor I can use that time and desire to do my part to a community that has helped me out numerous times in the past.


Unable to locate shower shutoff valve

Question: I wanted to repair a dripping in-shower valve, and as the first step searched for a shut-off valve to the shower, only to discover there is apparently none. Similarly, I cannot find a valve for the second bathroom's tub supply only. All other fixtures have their shutoff valves.
My unit is a condo in a 3-story building located in the Los Angeles county, California. According to the LA county FAQ, state and county plumbing codes are based on the 2000 Uniform Plumbing Code, and the latter, if I am understanding it correctly (version on the Watt's site, PDF, page 29), seems to require that all fixtures could be shut off without shutting off other units:

605.3 In multi-dwelling units, one (1) or more shutoff valves shall be provided in each dwelling unit so that the water supply to any plumbing fixture or group of fixtures in that dwelling unit can be shut off without stopping water supply to fixtures in other dwelling units. These valves shall be accessible in the dwelling unit that they control.

The building was built around 1985. Hot water is heated centrally in the building, so I am looking for a pair of valves, not a small setup to overlook easily. How likely it is there is no such valve installed for the showers/tubs? What could be a less obvious location for the valve (inside the wall is very unlikely, is it?). It would not be a very big deal to arrange a time to shut off water with the neighbors, and the valves that shut off 3 units on one floor each are accessible with a step ladder in the underground garage, but I would avoid that if possible.
Comment: The building was built in 1985, yet you quote code from 2000. The code in effect in 1985 would be the code that this building is built to, not some future code. That said, I believe you are interpreting the code wrongly. In a multi-dwelling unit, each unit should be separate from one another, not each fixture.
Answer: In my experience, with a house built in the '80s, there was no separate shower shut off valve. I had to shut the water off for the entire house to repair the fixture.
Comment: Showers don't normally have separate shut-off valves.

Unable to locate shower shutoff valve


Update Manager problems

Question: I'm running Lucid and whenever I open Update Manager, it says I should run a partial upgrade. I think this may have happened when I was trying to update and my computer shut off. So I click Partial Upgrade and while it's calculating the changes, it gives me an error. It says:
Could not calculate upgrade
An unresolvable problem occurred while calculating the upgrade.
The package update-manager-kde is marked for removal but it is in
the removal blacklist. This can be caused by:
 * Upgrading to a pre-release version of Ubuntu
 * Running the current pre-release version of Ubuntu
 * Unofficial software packages not provided by Ubuntu

This is most likely a transient problem, please try again later.

This is extremely frustrating, and every time I try to upgrade, this happens. I might just try sudo apt-get install -f to fix it, but that's all I can think of to fix this problem.
EDIT:
sudo apt-get install -f did not work.
Answer: If you don't use KDE you can remove the package with
sudo apt-get remove update-manager-kde
and run the update-manager again.

Update Manager problems


Brain anatomy- hippocampus and amygdala positions

Question: I'm trying to teach myself about the structure of the brain and am slightly confused as to whether the hippocampus and amygdala are parts of the temporal lobe or whether they are just parts of the cerebrum which are close to the temporal lobe. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you :)
Answer: The hippocampus and the amygdala is neither part of the temporal lobe or the cerebrum, it part of the limbic system located at the top of the brain stem and is cover by the cerebral cortex that the temporal lobe is a part of.
Comment: Thank you for your reply! I was wondering- are the hippocampus and amygdala at least part of the forebrain? And are they both part of the limbic system? Is the whole of the limbic system part of the forebrain? Thank you for your help :)


Citadels Tax Collector timing

Question: When does the Tax Collector's ability trigger for characters that have abilities that involve the end of their turn? My specific examples are as follows:
The Alchemist builds a district with all of their gold. Does the gold he spent return and THEN he is taxed, or is the tax ineffective because there is no gold and only then he gets his gold back?
The Diplomat's ability says that at the end of his turn, he may use the swap ability. Can he do this (and thus use up an remaining gold he has) or must he pay the Tax Collector first?
Answer: The alchemist description found in the rules, page 18, strongly suggest that first the tax collector taxes the alchemist, then the alchemist gets money back from his construction. Then, if the alchemist has no money after building something, the tax collector gets nothing. See also a similar question on BGG.
Applying the same rationale, the diplomat swapping ability will be effective in the end of the turn, after he pays the tax collector. Note that the diplomat's collection of coins from red districts may happen before or after building something (if the player wants it, of course), as stated in the rulebook, page 12. The end of turn happens after that.
Comment: That's the rationale I was using. However, the diplomat's ability specifically states that it is done at the end of his turn (and I think this implies that he cannot collect from a newly acquired building).
Comment: No, the coin collection is not restricted to the end of the turn, only the swapping. Please, refer to the rules, pg 18.
Comment: "At the end of your turn, you may take a district from another player's city in exchange for a district in your city."
Comment: Yes. That's about swaping, not about collecting coins from red districts.
Comment: Oh, now that I read your previous comment more carefully, I understood what you meant. Like the diplomat swapping ability, the alchemist ability is triggered at the end of the turn but prior to that, he must deal with the tax collector ability. But the bonus coins the diplomat gets from red district happen prior or after building. This rule about bonus coin collection is explained in the manual, page 12. The end of the turn begins is reached after everything else is done, including the collection of this bonus.
Comment: I updated the answer to reflect the comment above.

Citadels Tax Collector timing


How much should a new graduate with new job put towards a car?

Question: What is a responsible amount to put towards a car if my new job will pay $95k and I have almost $7k in the bank? I also have approximately $30k in student loans I have to pay.
Comment: $0. Get a bike instead - save a ton of money and get/stay fit doing it. Pay off those loans A.S.A.P.
Comment: What is your degree in?  Great starting salary!
Comment: You don't mention any living expenses at all. Do you pay rent/board to your parents? Any car comes with a minimum yearly cost for insurance, registration, maintenance, petrol, etc., but on $95k you should have no trouble affording all that stuff as well as paying off the student loan at a good pace. But if you have other expenses you haven't mentioned... Do you have medical insurance?
Comment: What do you need the car for? If you're going to live in a large city, perhaps something like Zip Car might be better? If you're in the North, you might need something with 4WD.  Do you see yourself commuting with it? Just for weekends? We'd need to know more about what your aims are.
Comment: @PeterK. I'd be using the car to commute from my parents house about 20 min in Los Angeles
Comment: also...OP:  good luck with that 14.5 mile commute!  I can tell you're not a true LA native...they all refer to travel within LA in time values, not distance values.  For instance:  Q: how far is it to WIlshire and Vine in Beverly Hills from here?  A: about 50 minutes.
Comment: Can't you just live simply for now (ie. no car) and stop being indebted within 6 months? Why people consider so normal to owe up to the most they can?
Comment: @Danyul Do you ever have to travel to client sites? If you do, you might want to spend a little more on one with a known logo - I know it sounds vain, but it changes things. The difference between showing up to client sites in the convertible I had before compared to the more economical mid-size sedan I have now is noticeable.
Comment: @corsiKa - I'm curious what the "noticeable" differences were?
Comment: @corsiKa No just to the same office everyday.
Comment: @Danyul - "about 20 min in Los Angeles" - so you only live 2 miles from work? On the other hand, I disagree with many of the comments. You will making more than enough to cover your student loans and a car - as long as you're sure that your job is secure or you have other prospects. You don't want to get stuck on the 405 on a bicycle (hmm - maybe motorcycle?).
Comment: @HannoverFist welllll actually miscalculated. According to google its a 23 minute drive without traffic upwards of 40 minutes with traffic. 14.4 miles away.
Comment: @nnnnnn Ill be living with my parents for now. No other expenses, the company I work for has pretty good benefits.
Comment: it's a great point about board @nnnnn. OP, you ***ABSOLUTELY*** should pay at least 3000- a month (maybe much, much more than that, 4000-5000 would be more realistic in LA) for the insurance, utilities, groceries, maintenance, sinking costs, carrying costs etc etc etc etc etc.  If you think "3000" is a lot, you're in a fantasy: immediately go rent or buy a place and do all that yourself and see how much it costs.  Don't "discuss" or "offer" this to your parents.  Write a check. (You can write the first one today from your 7k petty cash - why not? You're not 10 yrs old. Pay your way.)
Comment: @JoeBlow, perhaps if you live in a beachfront property, would one person's monthlies end up that high.  Yes, you can "blow the doors off" in LA, expense-wise, but you can also live far more reasonably than $3000/month.  That's the full rent for a two bedroom house in Redondo Beach.
Comment: hi @dwoz I bet the parents house would rent at $2000 - $6000 a month man. OP is getting that as a gift at his age.  But don't forget expenses!  Insurance repairs sinking groceries electric cable netflix city taxes cleaners gas water lawn care pool care appliances! furniture! supplies sheets laundry wear and tear lightbulbs HVAC repairs window cleaning security etc etc.  Imagine trying to rent a fully-furnished, totally-provisioned, fully-serviced house wth all your meals, laundry, etc etc in LA.  (PS What you say distance/time in LA - damn right!!!)
Comment: @GrasDouble Cars are a very important status symbol in the US. Not having a car there is very different from not having a car in most European countries. For example a lot of Dutch people don't own cars, in the US on the other hand I met multiple families who owned literally 4 cars, 1 for each of their kids (don't know anyone like that in any of the European countries I lived in).
Comment: @dwoz I did mention by time first! And yes I am a true native which is why im living in my parents house. But also I've never owned a car and just got my license 2 years ago so I don't know all that much about the roads here.
Comment: @GrasDouble honestly I've never owned a car and was never allowed to borrow my parents and LA is a really tough city to live in without a car, growing up without one was a major stress. And like DavidMulder said its a social symbol as well and thus had negative social impacts on me. I wish this was Europe
Answer: You are currently $30k in debt.  I realize it is tempting to purchase a new car with your new job, but increasing your debt right now is heading in the wrong direction.  Adding a new monthly payment into your budget would be a mistake, in my opinion.
Here is what I would suggest.  Since you have $7k in the bank, spend up to $6k on a nice used car.  This will keep $1k in the bank for emergencies, and give you transportation without adding debt and a monthly payment.  Then you can focus on knocking out the student loans.
Won't it be nice when those student loans are gone?  By not going further into debt, you will be much closer to that day.  New cars are a luxury that you aren't in a position to splurge on yet.
Comment: Paying off those loans is certainly a great feeling. I worked hard to pay off mine quick, and got them done in 1.5 years, which made it possible for me to get married and buy a house without extra debt hanging over my head. With an income of $95k a year, there should be no problem with putting $1k-2k towards those loans each month.
Comment: Really?  You buy a "good" $950 '92 Oldsmobile Bravada and I'll buy a "good" $3500 2006 Civic Coupe.  I bet you break down first.  Due diligence is the name of the game.  Do a carfax, have a "car guy" buddy take a look at it, test drive it, only buy from certain parts of town (never from a dealer), etc.  Buying a car, or anything for that matter, is not a game of chance (unless you're buying entertainment in Vegas...like slots or roulette).  If your life experience indicates that buying machinery is a game of chance, you're doing it wrong.
Comment: You should be able to find a pretty damn good used car for $6k. Mine was $5k, I know.
Comment: Wow - just wow - the guy has 7k in the universe and he's going to spend 6k on a car, leaving 1k.  The first problem with the car, which will happen within days, will cost 2k.  Theres no difference in cars from $500 to $10,000 - they're just "old cars" and **all** can/do instantly breakdown. There is no "reliability factor" difference in cars from $500 to $10,000. It's a pure crapshoot.  And (if, incredibly, prestige is an issue) there is zero prestige difference in a car from $500 to $10,000. It's just a "crap old car". First repair will be $100 to $2500 **purely randomly**.
Comment: Agreed on buying used but with his expected salary, I'd set the spending limit on it closer to $10k - $12k, it's just much easier to get something decent around that price than it is for $6k, where in my experience you encounter lots of cars that will need repairs sooner rather than later. $10k gets you closer to a car that may even have some factory warranty left and at his salary the small loan he'd need can be repaid pretty quickly.
Comment: @JoeBlow I agree.  This has been my experience with old cars as well.  Especially so in harsher environments like the north east (US) where cars are hit with snow and all four seasons.  Should save at least $2k if you are going to buy a car less than $10k for the inevitable maintenance.
Comment: Am I the only one who read that Ben specifically wrote "up to $6k" so as to keep *at least* 1k in emergency funds? Judging from the comments here, the expected maintenance cost and likelihood of such a cost coming up in relation to the price of the used car is way too complex of a topic to handle in the comments. For one, you haven't even considered the original list price for the car in the equation. While I'd encourage Ben to edit in a reference to the potential for higher-than-expected maintenance costs, this discussion should maybe be held in [chat] but certainly not here.
Comment: Ben posts good advice though I'd be more aggressive.  Take $3k and find a used Honda or Toyota.  Nothing sporty, just something that runs.  You'll be free of it in 3-5yrs if you're diligent on that loan repayment (and you should be).  I don't think $1k is a sufficient safety net in CA, especially LA.  You certainly need a car, just get a basic vehicle though.
Comment: @JoeBlow "Theres no difference in cars from $500 to $10,000 - they're just "old cars" and all can/do instantly breakdown" - Bold claim; citation needed. :-) . Also, in the (terribly unfortunate) case of the $2.5k breakdown in the first month, put it on a credit card and pay it off with next month's salary (even student CCs have a $2.5k limit). The expected spend here is far less: ($2.5k + interest * probability of breakdown) vs (interest on a loan for a new car + extra insurance) .
Comment: hi @acpilot.  you are referring to the judgement needed to choose (given, say, $1000) the best used car available for $1000.  I'm naturally assuming that the purchasor is able to buy the best car available for $1000.  Now, say I buy two cars (A) and (B), one for $750 and one for $5000.  Let's say that, as my buddy, ***your*** purchase both of them, A and B.  **You put great care into purchasing both A and B**.  I now own two cars. For **both** those cars, it is **equally completely random** what **repairs** will be needed in the next 1, 6 or 12 months. If your aim is ...
Comment: ... if your aim is to ***minimize future random repair costs*** on the two vehicles A and B over any future mathematical period, there is **absolutely no difference** in that likely cost.  Between A and B, it is identically likely that (say) you will have a $2500 repair in month 4.  It is identically likely that (say) you will have a $200 repair in month 3.  It is identically likely that (say) you will have a $700 repair in month 6.  There is *no difference at all* in upcoming repair cost likelyhood between a $750 and $5000 car. You know this as a car guy!
Comment: I recommend buying a 2012 or 2013 Nissan Leaf - they can be found on cargurus.com and etc. for 6-8k. Most are still under factory powertrain and battery warranty and inherently seem to be more reliable than an internal combustion engined car. But of course buying a good used Honda/Toyota/Nissan etc. is not a bad idea as well.
Answer: What are your goals in life?
If one of them is to appear wealthy then buying a high price import is a great place to start.  You certainly have the salary for it (congratulations BTW).
If one of your goals is to build wealth, then why not buy a ~5000 to ~6000 car and have a goal to zero out that student loan by the end of the year?  You can still contribute to your 401k, and have a nice life style living on ~60K (sending 30 to the student loan).
Edit:
I graduated with a CS degree in '96 and have been working in the industry since '93.  When I started, demand was like it is now, rather insane.  It probably won't always be like that and I would prepare for some ups and downs in the industry.
One of the things that encouraged me to lead a debt free lifestyle happened in 2008.  My employer cut salaries by 5%...no big deal they said.  Except they also cut support pay, bonuses, and 401K matching.  When the dust cleared my salary was cut 22%, and I was lucky as others were laid off.  If you are in debt a 22% pay cut hurts bad.
Comment: All good points.  I remember the dot com boom - lots of slick new cars on the bay area freeways.  And I remember the dot com bust - lots of articles in the paper (*) about 20-somethings who were sleeping in their slick new cars because their stock options disappeared and their houses were owned by the bank.  (\*) "the paper" was something we used to get news back then before Facebook ...
Comment: yup, +100 if I could.  There is simply nothing more flakey than "a hot software job I might have next month in California".  It's one step up from saying "I'm a drummer".
Answer: As someone who has a very similar debt amount and environment (new grad, nice new paying job, want a car, etc), I'd like to share something with you.
Life has unexpected costs.
Luckily I didn't buy that new car the first few months out of college like I had planned to; I'm glad that I didn't because, as a fledgling "adult", despite having lived on my own while in college while working part-to-full time there are some things you just don't realize until it either happens or it happens to someone else. Here are some of those things:

Car accidents
Car maintenance
Higher insurance rates on that new car
A down-payment on a new car is probably going to wipe a new grads bank account
A nicer apartment/house/inventory means you should consider an umbrella coverage
Accidents in general (I shattered my collar bone)
Price hikes in utilities (or during months of extreme-climates)
Increases on your rent
Tooth ache that crops up out of nowhere that needs immediate attention (and money)
A new job is not a secure job
You get lonely and realize that a pet is more comforting than a new car
Deposit/monthly fee on that pet
Vet bill
Dating is not cheap
You grow up and realize that eating healthy is more expensive than Dominoes
Kitchen essentials if you want to push that healthy diet to the max (a fruit blender is not cheap)
Then you go to the gym and have a gym fee and initial costs (clothes, running shoes, etc.)
Someone you love gets sick and you have to unexpectedly fly to them
That old laptop from college isn't cutting it anymore
The minimum payment on student loans
The amount of interest on student loans. (Average 4.75% for my loans on $30K is $1,425 a year)
Theft (in my case it was my 1-speed bike I used for exercise)
Paying for dinner when you go out with family as a display of gratitude and success
Going out to socialize with new friends from work (do not underestimate how significant this is)

I could go on but I won't. $95K is good money and I would definitely recommend spending it a bit to enjoy yourself. But I would honestly tell you that taking your monthly expenses, adding a few hundred on top of that and then multiplying  that sum by 3 would be a smart savings amount before picking up a car loan. Maybe that's an excessive savings but I've seen way too many people burn out over their cost-of-living and their failure to adjust appropriately when shit hits the fan. So instead of having to deal with the stab at your pride when having to lower the cost/quality of living that you'll probably grow accustomed to at a $95K salary, just prepare for the worst.
Oh, and did I mention...
A NEW JOB IS NOT A SECURE JOB
Consider yourself to likely be the first asset dropped from the company if even the tiniest thing goes wrong. I know way too many people who were fresh hires at Intel, Boeing, and a few other big tech companies that pay around what you make and, despite being bad asses in college, they were dropped like a bad habit when their employers hit rough patches.

To those even more experienced than me, please feel free to add to the list. I'd personally love to know them myself.
Comment: Buy yourself a $1000 car for transportation.  Get the smallest simplest car possible.  Concentrate your whole life ONLY on your job. Don't start thinking about cars, martinis, idiotic toys, or anything else.  CONCENTRATE on your job.  Review the situation in 6 months.  The ONLY thing that will give you confidence is MONEY in your POCKET (and bank).  A car will NOT give you confidence. Your only friend in life is your bank account.
Comment: Dating is not cheap...lol
Comment: Hi Sky.  If you're living in one of the most expensive/difficult cities on Earth, and your job is literally (by far) the most flakey/edgey on Earth ("other than being a drummer!") ... and your only outlook is you "probably" have a job coming up ...(again, in the single industry where companies/projects big and small evaporate on a dime) .. life *is* pretty depressing. $1000 cars have no difference to maintain that other used cars, it's just a crap shoot if there's a repair.  I am suggesting OP absolutely *should not* even vaguely consider buying *any* car: it's not in the bounds of reason.
Comment: Just TBC, ***by all means*** the OP should buy a car.  BUT that should only happen in say 6 months minimum (maybe 12).
Comment: Woah this really puts life into perspective. You never mentioned a suggest price for buying a car though or how much did you end up spending when you were in my position?
Comment: @JoeBlow - Sounds like a very depressing lifestyle. If OP is making 96k, he definitely has the wiggle room to have some spending money.
I'd wager that $1000 car will get quite costly to maintain after a year or two.
Comment: "I'd wager that $1000 car will get quite costly to maintain after a year or two." This is an unfounded claim that people who buy new cars use to justify their expense. Which is lame because they shouldn't have to justify their spending habits to anyone else but themselves or their spouse. But anyways, any middle to lower class citizen of Earth who has owned a used car, even one that they picked up for $750, will tell you that for the most part, an oil change will do if they picked a reliable car model and did their research before purchasing the vehicle. That's $30-$80 a year or so.
Answer: In a very similar situation as yours, I bought a used motorcycle for $3000. It was still reasonably new, very reliable, and with California weather, you can use it year-round. It reduced my time in traffic, and it had very low fuel and maintenance costs. The biggest expense was tires.
The biggest pitfall in buying a motorcycle is auto-insurance. Do your research and ask for quotes from your broker before even considering a particular model of bike. When I decided that my finances justified a new motorcycle, I was surprised that full collision coverage cost about $3000/year on a lower powered bike that had a bad accident record because it appealed to new riders. I got a much more powerful bike that appealed to more experienced riders and the premium was only $500/year.
Is this answer not what you were looking for? Spend as little as you can on a 4-6 year old car. Drive it until you can save enough cash to buy the one you really want. I'm currently driving a 2007 Corolla, and I'm waiting until I can get a new civic turbo with a manual transmission to replace it. (They currently only offer them with a CVT, but next fall they'll have them with the MT, so I'm probably 2 1/2 years out from buying one used.)
Comment: @Danyul - I bought my first bike used, the second was new. Learn on a cheap bike so you don't feel bad if you scrape it up a little. Buy one that is already bruised for the discount on the scratches. The only thing that drove me crazy was putting all the gear on before each ride. You should have a full body suit. I had two, one for wet weather and one for summer riding. The resell is usually similar to cars, but on the smaller scale with the lower starting price. My second bike appreciated $1200 in the two years I owned it, but that is completely abnormal.
Comment: Looking for a bike is the same as looking for a car, you look at a lot of ads, read reviews, and have it checked out by a mechanic before paying over the cash. If there is a safety course you can take for a few hundred dollars I recommend doing that upfront. Start with something 600cc or less, no smaller than 250 if you want to ride on the freeway, and even then it will barely keep up with 70mph traffic. (Not that you can ever go that fast on LA freeways. ;) Maybe ask a new question on Monday and I'll try give an answer in more depth.
Comment: @JoeBlow you might be reading your own interpretation into the question and comments. I didn't him talk about fancy stuff anywhere. The first car I bought was fancier than I needed, and I was situated in a similar city (5 hours north by car) I was living at home with my parents, and I wish I had also purchased a motorcycle to start with. I moved out after a year, and I did a lot to help my aging parents while I lived there. You know nothing of the OP's circumstances; the rush to judgment is a little out of line.
Comment: By my understanding most motorcycles tend to require maintenance more often than cars, even if the maintenance costs are lower (though I suppose that depends on the brand? Hondas are apparently quite reliable, not that I've ever owned one myself), which can be a factor for some people (lower maintenance costs may be offset by the increased risk of inopportune breakdowns, etc.). Also, is there any particular reason in terms of finances to favor manual transmissions over CVTs (up-front vehicle costs, maintenance costs, etc.) or is that just your personal preference?
Comment: Both of my motorcycles were Hondas, though the one I wanted to buy, but didn't because of insurance costs, was a Suzuki. As far as frequency of maintenance, I liked to re-lube the chain monthly, that's not something you have to do on a car. I didn't feel like I was doing service too frequently, but as I look at my records I can see that I did. I guess I was single, so I had plenty of time on my hands. The total cost of ownership was certainly significantly lower, starting with gas.
Comment: As far as CVT vs. MT, part of it is driver preference, but certainly it is lower cost, both upfront, and for maintenance. In particular, I am quite comfortable with the thought of replacing the clutch myself on MT, whereas the CVT is probably not accessible at my skill level when repair time comes. Also a note on the Corolla, I'd probably drive it 10 years more, but I somehow got a lemon, and I don't think this one is quite going to make it that long. I'll probably give it to a family member (for free) when I buy my civic (and a AAA membership). That way I don't feel bad when it stops working.
Comment: How long does it take to get used to a bike? What are some of things that drove you crazy about having a bike? Did you buy your bike used or new? How does their value hold when you resell them? Im really interested in getting a bike, thanks @NathanL
Comment: Why buy an expensive motorbike?  I would consider buying a **scooter** - go for that european look.
Comment: @JoeBlow LA is a very large city geographically. A scooter with a large enough engine to drive at freeway speeds will not offer a significant discount over a used motorcycle of similar engine size.
Comment: @NathanL - fair enough.  OP just seems to have a rush to "spend money on fancy stuff".  If the idea "motorbike!" arises, perhaps it's a good idea to step back and say "if there a cheaper, less glamorous, alternative" in theory you know? As a discussion point, and a reminder to not throw money at the first target that comes along. It could be the route does not actually involve the freeway, you know, it could be more a neighborhood journey. Food for thought.
Answer: most of the people who lurk in money.se will probably tell you to spend as little as possible on a car, but that is a really personal decision. since you live with your parents, you can probably afford to waste a lot of money on a car. on the other hand, you already have a large income so you don't really have the normal graduate excuses for deferring student loans and retirement savings.
for the sake of other people in a less comfortable position, here is a more general algorithm for making the decision:

estimate your income taxes (~23k$ between federal and CA for 95k$)
decide how much to save for an "emergency fund". 3 month's expenses is a common recommendation. some people say 1 month others say 1 year. if you had low disposable income, you might pad this a bit for non-unemployment problems (e.g. car accident).
decide how much to save for retirement. this is a personal choice, but you should at least save enough to get your 401k match. one way to decide is to pick a retirement date, and use one of the simple online calculators to estimate how much to save each year.
figure out how much you need for basic necessities (e.g. food/clothing/shelter/insurance/job-related transport)
decide how much to save for other large expenses (e.g. vacation, paying down your student loans, down payment on a house/apartment, buying your next car, funding your startup, getting married/divorced, having children). generally, this means picking a date (e.g. when you want to be debt free), then calculating how much you need to save each year to get there.
see how much is left, this is your "disposable income".  you need to carve your car payment out of this amount. odds are you won't be very happy if your car payment is more than 25% of this number. but who knows? maybe you are a status-oriented car fanatic who hates restaurants, travel, movies, gadgets and hobbies.
Answer: Money is a token that you can trade to other people for favors.
Debt is a tool that allows you to ask for favors earlier than you might otherwise.
What you have currently is:

$7,000 favors you are owed
$30,000 favors that you owe others

Your salary is meaningless in this context.
If the very worst were to happen, such as:

you lost your ability to work
you lost your family
you lost every other financial support system that you would otherwise rely on

You would owe $23,000 favors, and your "salary" wouldn't make a difference.

What is a responsible amount to put toward a car?

This is a tricky question to answer. Statistically speaking the very worst isn't worth your consideration. Only the "very bad", or "kinda annoying" circumstances are worth worrying about. The things that have a >5% chance of actually happening to you.
Some of the "very bad" things that could happen (10k+ favors):

you lose your job/sources of income for a typical unemployment period of one month to a year
you are involved in an accident that leaves you unable to work for a period of 1 month to a year
your house/apartment/abode burns down and you lose the majority of your possessions and need to replace them

Some of the "kinda annoying" things that could happen (~5k favors):

you get sick/injured and have some moderately expensive medical bills
something expensive that you need breaks and you have to replace it
you get picked for jury duty and must serve for up to a month

So now that these issues are identified, we can settle on a time frame. This is very important. Your $30,000 in favors owed are not due in the next year. If your student loans have a typical 10-year payoff, then your risk management strategy only requires that you keep $3,000 in favors (approx) because that's how many are due in the next year.
Except you have more than student loans for favors owed to others. You have rent. You eat food. You need to socialize. You need to meet your various needs.
Each of these things will cost a certain number of favors in the next year. Add all of them up.
<code>+  3,000 student loans
+  5,000 food
+ 12,000 rent
+  5,000 socialization
+  9,500 retirement savings
=============================
 $34,500 favors owed per year
</code>
Pretending that this data was correct (it obviously isn't) you'd owe $27,500 in favors if you made no money.
But you do make money.
Up until this point, I've been treating the data as though there's no income. So how does your income work with all of this?
Simple, until you've saved 6-12 months of your expenses (not salary) in an FDIC or NCUSIF insured savings account, you have no free income. If you don't have savings to save yourself when bad things happen, you will start having more stress (what if something breaks? how will I survive till my next paycheck? etc.). Stress reduces your life expectancy.
If you have no free income, and you need to buy a car, you need to buy the cheapest car that will meet your most basic needs. Consider carpooling. Consider walking or biking or public transit.
But what about when you have savings?
You listed your salary at "$95k", but that isn't really $95k. It's more like $63k after taxes have been taken out. If you only needed to save ~$35k in favors, and the previous data was accurate (it isn't, do your own math):
Per month you owe $2,875 in favors (34,500 / 12)
Per month you gain $5,250 in favors (63,000 / 12)
You have $7,000 in initial capital--I mean--favors
You net $2,375 each month (5,250 - 2,875)
To get $34,500 in favors will take you 12 months ( ⌈(34,500 - 7,000) / 2,375⌉ )
After 12 months you will have $2,375 in free income each month. You no longer need to save all of it (Although you may still need to save some of it. Be sure recalculate your expenses regularly to reevaluate if you need additional savings).
What you do with your free income is up to you. You've got a safety net in saved earnings to get you through rough times, so if you want to buy a $100,000 sports car, all you have to do is account for it in your savings and expenses in all further calculations as you pay it off.
To come up with a reasonable number, decide on how much you want to spend per month on a car.
$500 is a nice round number that's less than $2,375.
How many years do you want to save for the car?
OR
How many years do you want to pay off a car loan?
4 is a nice even number.
$500 * 12 * 4 = $24,000
Now reduce that number 10% for taxes and fees
$24,000 * 0.9 = $21,600
If you're getting a loan, deduct the cost of interest (using 5% as a ballpark here)
$21,600 * 0.95 = $20,520
So according to my napkin math you can afford a car that costs ~$20k if you're willing to save/owe $500/month, but only after you've saved enough to be financially secure.
Comment: I really like the way you estimated yearly expenses. One thing I noticed is that you didn't mention anything about general savings (non retirement), how do you feel about that? I'm not entirely sure what you mean by `but only after you've saved enough to be financially secure.` would you mind clarifying? Also I was wondering if you use any applications to manage your spending, or if you keep track of it in an excel sheet, or if you keep track of it at all?
Comment: @Danyul, actually i did a poor job of explaining the difference between general savings and retirement, and what I focused on was your general savings, **not retirement**. The 34,500 figure is your [general savings number that you need in an insured savings account](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/25qrbm/a_crash_course_in_risk_analysis_why_six_months_in/). The 9500 example number labelled "retirement savings" should be treated as a necessary expense so that you actually save money, but could have equally said "strippers and beer" for the purposes of my answer.
Comment: "I was wondering if you use any applications to manage your spending" Personally I use a lot of napkins and envelopes for planning. Using excel spreadsheets lead to wanting more accurate numbers. I find planning is better done with fudged numbers that overestimate costs and underestimate income. That $75/month cell phone bill? $100 line item. I don't really worry about my budget on a day-to-day basis because I have a certain amount of financial security, but I do reevaluate expenses semi-annually to maintain that financial security. And I do actually use spreadsheets for tracking.
Answer: I have a slightly different take on this, compared to the other answers. In general, I think your emergency fund should always be at least 3K, especially if you own a used car that is out of warranty. Any number of unlucky auto repairs could easily cost over 2K. So, if you have 7K in savings, I would personally buy a car that is 4K or less or finance any amount of the car over 4K (if you can get a relatively low interest rate). Then I would pay down the financed portion of the car as quickly as possible while maintaining at least a 3K emergency fund.
That being said, notice I mentioned "In general". Your situation may actually be quite different. If you don't have much debt, with your income you might be able to build up a couple of thousand in savings in a single month, and if so the above doesn't really apply. Even if you spent the entire 7K on a car, you'd likely have at least 3K in your emergency fund within 60-90 days.
As for what's responsible, there are too many factors to dictate that. If you don't have many other expenses, you could possibly afford a $40K car, and I don't think anyone here could fairly call that "irresponsible" if you spent that much, though surely no one would call it "responsible" either. Perhaps the best advice is to buy the least expensive car you will be happy with. Many people regret overspending on a vehicle, but few regret underspending (unless they got a lemon that requires lots of repairs).
Finally, you could also consider another option. You could get a very cheap car for 1K or less and drive it for a year. By then you may have closer to 20K saved up for a much nicer car than you can afford today.
Comment: The first paragraph here is perfect.  ANY used car (from $500 to $10,000) **WILL** have a completely random repair which can be from $100 to $2500. It makes *absolutely no difference* whether you spend $500 or $10,000. It's simply a crapshoot. You can *not* buy reliability with a used car. It's a crapshoot.
Answer: Regardless of your circumstances, the amount of money you should put into a car is about $6000-8000 or the amount of cash you actually have, whichever is less. You can get a very reliable gently-used car in that price range, and a car that's plenty good to drive for basically whatever your budget is, down to about $1500-2000 or so. Spending more is never a financially sound decision; it's purely a luxury expenditure. Buying a car with a loan is always a financially bad decision.
Comment: The "1%" is fake. It just means you got a bad price to begin with.
Comment: "Buying a car with a loan is always a financially bad decision" So you're saying that instead of taking ~1% loan I got on my new car I should have bought it outright, and not put so much in savings? Yea, no. Loans and debt are a tool, and like any tool they are useful in certain circumstances. Taking the stance that it's never a good idea to use it is I think a disservice to yourself.
Comment: There's that "always" word again. You suggest that buying an overpriced car outright is better than buying an overpriced via a loan. Lets look at the math shall we? I'm not good at negotiating so we're going to hold the cost of the car constant at $20k. Now, I can choose to spend that $20k all at once or I can choose to spread that $20k out over a few years with a 1% interest rate. Assuming meager interest on an investment account at 3-5%, if I were to drop the 20k on the car now, I'd get exactly $0 in interest. But if I were to invest, I'd get 2-4% gains on the investment.
Comment: It's *always* financially better to buy a $1000-2000 car now then buy a better one when you have the cash than to overpay for the better one right away.
Comment: You're comparing multiple financially unsound courses of action to argue that one isn't bad. It doesn't work that way.
Comment: The 1% doesnt have to be fake. He could have gotten it from a third party, like a credit union or a bank. All the dealer would see is the check.
Comment: Even if the 1% were real (seems unlikely), paying 1% interest on $12000-14000 of luxury expense (difference of $20k vs what you could have paid) that does not get you any additional utility is not a good financial decision. If it makes you happy and you want to throw away your money, well go ahead and do it, but that's outside the scope of money.SE.
Answer: So many answers here are missing the mark.  I have a $100k mortgage--because that isn't paid off, I can't buy a car?  That's really misguided logic.
You have a reasonably large amount of college debt and didn't mention any other debt--
It's a really big deal what kind of debt this is.  Is it unsecured debt through a private lender? Is it a federal loan from the Department of Education?
Let's assume the worst possible (reasonable) situation.  You lose your job and spend the next year plus looking for work.  This is the boat numerous people out of college are in (far far far FAR more than the unemployment rates indicate).  Federal loans have somewhat reasonable (indentured servitude, but I digress) repayment strategies; you can base the payment on your current income through income-based and income-continent repayment plans.  If you're through a private lender, they still expect payment.  In both cases--because the US hit students with ridiculous lending practices, your interest rates are likely 5-10% or even higher.
Given your take-home income is quite large and I don't know exactly the cost of living where you live--you have to make some reasonable decisions.  You can afford a car note for basically any car you want.  What's the worst that happens if you can't afford the car?  They take it back.
If you can afford to feed yourself, house yourself, pay your other monthly bills...you make so much more than the median income in the US that I really don't see any issues.
What you should do is write out all your monthly costs and figure out how much unallocated money you have, but I'd imagine you have enough money coming in to finance any reasonable new or used car.  Keep in mind new will have much higher insurance and costs, but if you pick a good car your headaches besides that will be minimal.
Answer: I think the answer to how much you "should" spend depends on a few more questions:

What are your short term (1-5 years) financial goals?
What are your long term (5-20 years) financial goals?
What kind of car will help you achieve these goals?

Once you answer these questions I think you'll have a better idea of what you should spend.
If you have no financial goals then what kind of car you buy doesn't really matter.
But if your goals are to build and accumulate wealth both in the short and long term then you should know that, by the numbers, a car is terrible financial investment. A new car loses thousands of dollars in value the moment you drive it off the lot. Buy the cheapest, reliable commuter you can ($5k or less) and use the extra money to pay off your debts. Then once your debts are paid off start investing that money. If you continue this frugal mindset with your other purchases (what house to buy, what food to eat, what indulgences to indulge in, etc...) and invest a bit, I think you'll find it pretty easy to create a giant amount of wealth.
Answer: Your financial situation is horrific. Actually, terrifying.

As an absolute basic in life you always need 1 month's salary free and clear sitting in the bank. You do not have this. You don't even get to count that. It's what Napoleon would refer to as an "iron reserve": you have to have this. You actually won't even have this for some two or three months.

Note that you have a staggering amount of debt.

You have absolutely no assets.

You own nothing.

You have no savings.

So at this point we can say "Could your situation be any worse?" and the answer is "It could not be any worse."
On the "good things in your outlook" side you have the idea that you probably have a job (it's unfortunate how you refer to it as "will pay" when you mean "might pay") but you're in perhaps the highest-expense, most-flakey economic zone on Earth.  Recall that i) every company eventually closes and ii) every job eventually ends.
In your situation it is inconceivable you can spend more than $500 - $750 on a car.
The next incredible problem you face is that I'm guessing you just have no clue how expensive it is to insure and run a car. Any ideas of buying anything more than a junker is a non-starter, but on top of that you're not realizing how expensive it is going to be for you to run a car.
Disturbingly, you have a very poor idea of even how far it is you have to drive each day.
The only realistic solution for you is to bike each day to work (buy the cheapest possible bike); become the "eccentric guy" who really focusses on health. Bike in for an hour, shower at the office or a nearby gym, enjoy your day and bike home. You'll need a backpack to carry your pack lunch, buy the cheapest backpack.
Since it's LA, it may be impractical. You may literally need a car. In that case, your only solution is
Borrow a car.
That's the only thing you can do.  Plain lean on your parents or relatives to borrow some old car and use that. (It will still cost you an awful lot of money to do so - repairs, tires, insurance, and everything else.)
A reminder,

You do not have your one-month "iron reserve".

You have a staggering amount of debt.

You have absolutely no assets.

You own nothing.

You have no savings.

Additionally you live with the parents; you have a dream of a job (in one the highest-priced, most flakey regions) and "job" is another word for no security - jobs evaporate all the time for many reasons. Please be careful. Regarding a car, find a way to borrow one; offer to make a repair on it, say.  Don't spend one cent on anything your first six months at work, concentrate only on your job.  See where you are after six months.
Comment: You're being a drama queen. His situation could certainly be worse; he's, in fact, in a better situation than probably 80% of people his age. Second, he does not have a staggering amount of debt. He could pay that off in 30 months with his salary. Some people spend 20 years. Finally, he has much more than 1 month of his takehome pay in the bank.
Comment: I don't like debt, either, but I think that the OPs situation is not nearly as dire as you are making it out to be.  He has a great salary beginning, his living expenses are low (paid for by parents), and he's got some money to purchase necessary transportation.  Let's say he spends most of his cash on a car, and then the worst happens: he loses his job before it begins.  He's really no worse off than he his now: His debt is the same, his living expenses are still low, and he has transportation he can use to get a different job.  Thankfully, he didn't expand his debt with a new car loan.
Comment: Re 3) able to live with his parents, that's an asset. Re 5) *$7k in the bank*
Comment: If (more likely) the job does come through as planned, he can quickly replenish an emergency fund and knock out the debt fast.  Certainly, the less spent on a car, the better, but there is no need for the OP to torture himself with a junk car or to be a further burden on his parents by borrowing a car.
Comment: True that living with his parents is a give-away: really he should pay full rent.  (It's better that if they do want to gift him all that money, they should keep it and give it back as a pure gift in a few years.)  Regarding the $7k, he's negative.  You really can't describe **absolute basics** like "your clothes" as an asset, I don't think.  ***Note that, catastrophically, op 'doesn't even have any clothes` - at best op has 'some underwear and half a shirt'***, so to speak. You absolutely need one month's pay as an "iron reserve", you can't count that or the "shirt on your back" to assets :O
Comment: Hi Matt, consider.  (1) the guy is living in (basically) the most expensive/difficult area in the country (2) his career is in the 2nd most wildly flakey career field (second only to "being a rock drummer")  (3) he very simply **has no job** but has the hope that he thinks he has a job that will probably start soon if everything works out and everyone's promised it will be fine  (4) massive no-asset debt by any terms  (5) owns nothing (not even an old car, say, if he needs to move cities).  All this, and there's talk of ... buying a car?  What, to show-off?  It seems outside all sense.


Non ascii characters to similar ascii characters at Vim

Question: I want to convert nonASCII characters to similar ASCII alternatives. I can do it at shell using echo şİçğ | iconv -f utf-8 -t ascii//translit but how can I do it for selected vim text?
Answer: For a line-wise operations, you can make a command and mappings :
command! -range Translit <line1>,<line2>!iconv -f utf-8 -t ascii//translit
nnoremap <leader>t :Translit<CR>
xnoremap <leader>t :Translit<CR>

The normal mapping <leader>t will translate the current line.
You can visually select lines with V and enter <leader>t to translit the selected lines.
You can also call it manually with a range, e.g :2,20Translit or :%Translit etc...
<line1> and <line2> are replaced by the actual line numbers from the range (e.g 2 and 20) before executing the command.

:{range}![!]{filter} [!][arg]             *:range!*
          Filter {range} lines through the external program
          {filter}. ...

The command I propose makes it easier to maintain. You can manage your mappings with the core command written in one place.

:h :range!
:h user-commands
Comment: Thanks. So what does `,` means? Is it `2` and `20` at `:2,20Translit` command?
Comment: Also, when I visually select a word, it changes the line. Is there a way for it too in vim?
Answer: You can implement a mapping to translit a visual selection by using the system() function and passing the contents of the selection as the input to the system command.
This mapping should work:
xnoremap <leader>T ygv"=system('iconv -f utf-8 -t ascii//translit', @@)<cr>p

Breaking it down:

y: Yank the visual selection into the default register.
gv: Go back to visual mode, on the previous selection. (This will allow us to replace it with a p next.)
"=: Use the expression register for the next p operation.
system(...)<cr>: Enter the system expression. The final <cr> finishes entering the expression and goes back to normal mode, where you can use it.
'iconv ...': The external command to run on a shell.
@@: A reference to the default register, where we previously yanked the visual selection.
p: Put. In this case, put the contents of the expression register, replacing the visual selection.

You access this mapping by entering visual mode, selecting some text and using \T (or similar, if you have overridden mapleader, in which case use that rather than a backslash as prefix.)
This works in both character-wise and linewise Visual mode. It doesn't work that well in block-wise mode, for some reason Vim loses track of the block once you modify the register.
With a bit more work, you could also make this work in normal mode with an operator (like \Tw or \Tiw to translit the current word under the cursor.) For that case, you set 'operatorfunc' to a function and then call g@ with a motion.
This code should work:
function! Translit(type)
  if a:type ==# 'visual'
    execute "normal! gvy"
  elseif a:type ==# 'char'
    execute "normal! `[v`]y"
  elseif a:type ==# 'line'
    execute "normal! '[V']y"
  else
    return
  endif
  call setreg('"',
      \ system('iconv -f utf-8 -t ascii//translit', @@),
      \ getregtype('"'))
  normal! gvp
endfunction
xnoremap <leader>T :<c-u>call Translit('visual')<cr>
nnoremap <leader>T :set operatorfunc=Translit<cr>g@

For more details on this solution, you might want to read this "Grep Operator" section in "Learn Vimscript the Hard Way". (Read the whole thing and make the exercises if you really want to learn Vimscript. It's an invaluable resource for that!)
UPDATE: This code also fixes the issue with block-wise Visual mode, by using setreg() with a third argument after getregtype() to preserve the block format. (Thanks @JürgenKrämer for figuring that out!)
Comment: This! The `command` is ok for a line-wise operation, but dealing directly with the selected text allows broader cases.
Comment: Maybe xnoremap? Great answer
Comment: @D.BenKnoble Good point. I don't really use Select mode at all, so I'm not sure I understand it correctly. I checked and confirm this doesn't work in Select mode, but I'm not sure that I can tell *why* it doesn't. I'll take a look later, try to figure this one out. Cheers!
Comment: @filbranden that's exactly right; snippets often use something like select mode to make it a sort of « form fillable » type thing (describing it is hard), so this map might surprise a select-mode user
Comment: @D.BenKnoble Huh... I just checked and it works great in Select mode, all of Select char/line/block-wise work... Why did you suggest to use `xnoremap` instead? Ah, maybe because the usual behavior of a printable character in Select mode is to replace the selection, right? Yeah that would make sense...
Answer: It's possible to do this internally in Vimscript, without shelling out to an external executable.
Vim's regular expressions include support for "equivalence classes" i.e. characters that "have almost the same meaning, e.g., when ignoring accents". (See :help /[[=.)
For example, you can replace the first ş in the current line with s by running the :substitute command:
:s/[[=s=]]/s

You can use this to write a command that will perform such a substitution for all characters in the currently selected range of lines:
command -range=% ToASCII call ToASCII(<line1>, <line2>)

function! ToASCII(start_line, end_line) abort
  " Set up the range of lines to edit
  let range_string = a:start_line.','.a:end_line

  " Iterate over the alphabet
  for c in range(65, 90)
    " Iterate over upper/lower case
    for capitilization in [0, 32]
      " Get the string version of the number
      let ascii_char = nr2char(c + capitilization)

      " Build a substitute command
      let subst_string = 's/[[='.ascii_char.'=]]/'.ascii_char.'/ge'

      " Run the command over the range of lines
      execute range_string.subst_string
    endfor
  endfor
endfunction

N.B. Because this code uses :substitute, it won't work well for characterwise visual selections. It's possible to write a solution that does, but the code would be a bit more complicated.


Unable to delete keyframes

Question: I have looked all around with no avail. I opened blender today, and now am unable to delete any keyframes. When I hover over it in the timeline with the green line, then "delete keyframe" and confirm, it says "Successfully deleted 0 keyframes from camera." (for camera). How can I fix this? I have tried selecting on dope sheet, but for some reason nothing happens either. Thanks in advance!
Answer: To unlock or lock a keyframe, you can do three ways.
1) click on the icon symbol to unlock the keyframes for the entire object

2) hover over the keyframes for the selected object press tab once, if grayed out the keys are locked if not then the keys are not locked.
3) if your mouse cursor is outside the timeline boarders (gray part of the timeline) with this icon greyed then those keyframes are locked.

and including the dope sheet

If somehow you are still stuck, just go into the dope sheet then Shift + Right Click select the key(s) you want to delete

Next tap X while hovering over the dope sheet Select left click the "delete keyframes".

Answer: Found the problem. Somehow all of the keyframes were locked in the Dope sheet, so I just unlocked them, and now I can delete them.
Answer: The timeline shows any and all keyframes. This includes keyframes that don't get removed when removing keyframes normally. Change one of you editor's window type (I suggest the timeline window, as it won't be needed) to the Dope Sheet Editor, and select any keyframes you want to remove, and press 'X' to delete them. I suggest you look further into the dope sheet editor, as it is very useful for advanced manipulation of keyframes like duplicating, moving, etc.
Comment: Selected unwanted keyframes, pressed X, confirmed, nothing happened...

Unable to delete keyframes


Has scrypt been broken, finally?

Question: If I understand correctly, according to this: http://blog.ircmaxell.com/2014/03/why-i-dont-recommend-scrypt.html, looks like the attacker can just create an optimimized version of scrypt that produce the same ouput with extremely high effiency (e.g. with N= 2^14, p = 8, r = 1, requires only 1KB instead of 16MB to run, while increase CPU work factor by only N/2).
Answer: The short answer is : no. That is not what I said, nor what I implied.
Using the tradeoff that I identified and talked about, you can trade memory for CPU time. So yes, you can reduce a particular derivation from 16MiB to 8KiB (approximately). However doing so will require several orders of magnitude more logic to be executed by the CPU. Some efficiency is gained by cache locality, but in general, it should be much slower. (on average, about 8,000 times slower than the 16MiB version, but as much as 16,000 times slower, depending on the exact random distributions of the algorithm).
There is a more interesting alternative though. My attack was an all-or-nothing bais. Basically, completely eliminate the V array, at the cost of increasing complexity. But you can make a more nuanced tradeoff. You can cut the array in half, and re-compute every-other value. Or cut it to every third value. Trading off storage space for CPU space. But at a varied degree. This is commonly referred to as a TMTO defeater (Time-Memory-TradeOff Defeater).
I did a more thorough analysis, including a proposed fix on this thread. It's worth noting that at least one of the proposals for the Password Hashing Competition uses my augmented algorithm.
So no, scrypt is still incredibly strong. And for its primary use case (as a KDF), it's quite a bit better than the alternatives.,
The point I was trying to make with my post, is that when not tuned optimally (used with improper settings) or with very fast settings, it can be significantly weaker than existing algorithms. Specifically for password storage. Where you know the result, and are looking for the source material (password).
Comment: Excellent work. Consider advising the https://wiki.ciphershed.org/Audit team of the sensitivity of your findings, they intend to use scrypt
Comment: Although something like scrypt may make it harder to use today's off-the-shelf hardware to attack many passwords in parallel, hardware built for the purpose of cracking it could still achieve more performance per unit cost than commodity off-the-shelf hardware in production machines.  An approach I've thought would seem better would be to design a password hash to benefit from GPU acceleration, such that a production machine with a GPU could use a "stronger" hash than would otherwise be possible.  A commodity GPU can perform more operations per second per dollar than an FPGA, so why not...
Comment: ...have the "good guys" take advantage of that when hashing passwords?
Answer: Note that scrypt is vulnerable to Timing Attacks: Issue #18 · pbhogan/scrypt, which means that an attacker who has some access to the host you're hashing passwords on has some additional ways to figure the passwords out. So it isn't broken, but has disadvantages compared to e.g. bcrypt.
Comment: Good point and good question. I hope that the answers are at the [referenced paper](http://eprint.iacr.org/2013/525.pdf).  I see e.g. "*As its core, scrypt uses the sequentially memory-hard function ROMix*" and "*Unfortunately, ROMix is vulnerable against
cache-timing attacks, due to its password-dependent memory-access pattern.*"
Comment: Side channels tend to be properties of an implementation rather than properties of an algorithm. In what way is *scrypt* vulnerable to timing attacks, as opposed to a particular implementation, or perhaps any naive implementation?

Has scrypt been broken, finally?


Unable to create Joomla user account through CiviCRM profile

Question: Running Joomla 3.5.1, CiviCRM 4.7.7 with the user registration profile set to require Joomla account creation, a new civiCRM user profile is created, but a Joomla user account isn't created. The user registration profile worked in the past, but I don't know exactly when it stopped working. Creating a Joomla user account with using the default Joomla registration form directly works. Any suggestions for resolving?
Comment: I am running into the same problem
Joomla 3.6.5 with CiviCRM 4.7.14
When I activate the option that users can create an account when registering for an event, right before being sent to the PayPal page to pay for the event, I run into the following error message: Fatal error: Call to a member function setFieldAttribute() on boolean in /.../public_html/components/com_users/models/registration.php on line 307 Users can register trough the normal login module, that works fine, just trough CiviCRM its not possible. Please, any help is really appreciated. Thank you
Answer: This issue is coming in case of multilingual site.
To resolve this issue , go to Root/components/com_users/models/registration.php,near line no. 307 find below mentioned code
    if (JLanguageMultilang::isEnabled())
    {
        $form->setFieldAttribute('language', 'type', 'frontend_language', 'params');
    }

    if (empty($form))
    {
        return false;
    }

Replace with

if (empty($form))
{
    return false;
}
if (JLanguageMultilang::isEnabled())
{
     $form->setFieldAttribute('language', 'type', 'frontend_language', 'params');
}

Try this solution.
Comment: Thank you. This resolves my issue with CiviCRM registrations not resulting in a Joomla user registration. Is there a way to force an update so that those who registered via civiCRM while it wasn't working can be added as Joomla users?
Comment: @CSDweb Could you post the question in your comment as a new Question as per the StackExchange guidelines that require a single question / single answer approach? You can provide a link to this question in the new one if you think the context will help. We don't want this to become a forum.


Can I connect all of my LED strips to a single power supply?

Question: Im working on a project with LED light strips, and want to connect them all to a sd controller. The lights are ws2812b 60 LED/meter, and have 20 meters of it. It calls for 14.4w per meter @ 3 amps per meter. Can I hook all these strips to one power supply of 400W 80A?
Answer: The power rating of the supply must be higher than the power rating of the load -- so based on the numbers, yes, this seems sensible.
However, the strip lights themselves will not support running that much current through them -- which means you can't just daisy-chain all the strips lights.
From https://www.pololu.com/product/2547:

The 60 LED 1 m strip drew 3.0 A and had a voltage drop of 0.6 V.
The 120 LED 2 m strip drew 4.7 A and had a voltage drop of 1.4 V.

The voltage drop means you'll have dimmer LEDs.. and at some point they'll stop working entirely. To get around this, you should provide power to each strip. You can interconnect the data lines, but separate power wires should be run to each segment. How long the segments are really depends on how much voltage drop you can tolerate (how dim the LEDs at the end get).

You can use a voltage drop calculator (Google it) to figure out the size of wire you should use for the distance and power draw -- but expect to probably run 18 or 16awg wire from your power supply to the segment.
It may also make sense to use multiple smaller power supplies (with shorter runs), depending on your distances, room layout, etc.
Comment: So if i want to run a sequence to all the lights do i daisy chain the data wire and send power to the strips say every 10 meters from the same power source on separate wires ?
Comment: Sorry, I wrote that for 5050-style LEDs, not individually addressable with a data bus. Updated -- and yes, you can daisy chain data wire and have separate power.
Comment: Separate power? or can i run separate wires from the same power source which has multiple connecting out ports to the led strip every 10 meters?
Comment: Either works. It really just depends on the exact situation: you just have to balance the size/length/complexity of wiring, cost of power supplies, and availability of space.
Answer: I've done a few projects like this. My guess is that 10 meters is probably too far apart to get results, though it depends on the copper thickness on the strip that you have. I'd hook them all together in a strip and then just add in the +5V and gnd connections every 5 meters; this powers the strips from both ends. You might get away with 10 meters if you do this.
You are going to need some hefty wire to deal with the voltage drop as you are pushing a lot of power through it. A quick calculation says that 5 meters of the strip takes 15 amps of power. You can find some wire resistance calculators online that will help you with this, but my ballpark guess is that you will need 10 gauge wire if you power at both ends.
IIRC, the ws2812 is constant current so voltage drop might not be that bad, but you'll want to experiment.
Finally, make sure your controller can handle 1200 LEDs. That's a lot to drive and you may see very slow update rates. Many projects break them up into multiple smaller strips.
Comment: My plan is to cut the strips in to 1 meter lenghts to make a 20 row x 1meter panel and run power to the first row and then to the 10th row i figured that using a 400w 80a power supply should be enough to power the lights


SSD with trim support - do I have to configure anything?

Question: If I install Windows 7 on SSD drive with TRIM support or if I add new SSD drive with TRIM support to existing Windows 7 installation do I have to configure anything to actually use the TRIM or is it some automatic background operation? If it helps I'm using OCZ Vertex 2.
Comment: My one word answer:
NO.

A longer answer:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx
Answer: As long as you're running at least firmware 1.4, TRIM is native on the drive so no configuration is needed from you
Answer: Observe that only Microsoft's own storage drivers and Intel's storage drivers support passing along TRIM commands to the drive. So depending on your platform you need to take care as to which drivers you install in order to make sure you have TRIM. Beyond that there is nothing you need to do to get TRIM working. Windows 7 takes care of the rest.