If the IPv6 address will be strictly based on EUI-64 logic then is there any real need of Neighbour Discovery Protocol?

Question: I am building my fundamentals on IPv6 and have realised the multicast group is nothing but FF02::1:FFXX:XXXX. Here xxx is nothing but 24-bits of Mac-address
(48 bits) with simple 7th bit magic. However, if the address is based on EUI-64 then why a host can't do some maths to figure out the Mac Address by its own rather than using Neighbour discovery protocol. This way, IPv6 will be faster since there is no need to resolve IP address to mac address. I know that Microsoft doesn't like EUI-64 concept due to security. However, the logic is pretty straight forward use 24bits of Mac-address. So, anyway you are exposing 24-bits of your mac-address and the rest 24-bits is actually a manufacturing ID. So, basically I am trying to understand the rationale behind the Neighbour discovery protocol - multicast address intelligence if the address scheme will use EUI-64 with no randomness.
Comment: Modified EUI-64 is only one of many possible ways an IPv6 address might be assigned to a host.
Answer:
... and have realized the multicast group is nothing but FF02::1:FFXX:XXXX. Here xxx is nothing but 24-bits of Mac-address ...

You are right: IF the IPv6 address is based on the MAC address a Neighbor Discovery would not be needed.

So, basically I am trying to understand the rationale behind the Neighbour discovery protocol ...

The question is: Why is the MAC address not always coded into the IPv6 address.
RFC 1970 (introducing Neighbor Discovery protocol in August 1996) names some reasons:

Computers having fixed IP addresses - such as servers: When replacing the network card the IP address has to be changed.
Anycast: This would only be possible if all computers sharing one IP address have the same MAC address.
IPv6 should not only work on Ethernet but also on layer-2 protocols possibly using a "MAC" address which is longer than 64 bits.

If only one computer uses an IPv6 address not reflecting its MAC address you need the ND protocol.
Answer: Like ARP for IPv4, ND for IPv6 is trying to resolve the layer-3 network address to the layer-2, e.g. MAC, address. Most OSes now use privacy extensions and random addressing, so the IPv6 network address is not based on the original modified EUI-64.
Also, remember that not all layer-2 protocols even use MAC addressing. The IEEE LAN protocols do, but some use 48-bit MAC addresses that are converted to EUI-64, and some (particularly the new wireless protocols used by many IOT devices that depend on IPv6 use 64-bit MAC addresses that can be directly used without conversion to the modified EUI-64). There are also other protocols, mostly used for WAN addressing that do not use MAC  addressing.
IPv6 ND must be designed so that it works whether or not the network address is based on EUI-64 addressing.
ND also covers many more things than layer-3 to layer-2 address resolution. See RFC 4861, Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6), Section 3.1. Comparison with IPv4:

3.1.  Comparison with IPv4
The IPv6 Neighbor Discovery protocol corresponds to a combination of
the IPv4 protocols Address Resolution Protocol [ARP], ICMP Router
Discovery [RDISC], and ICMP Redirect [ICMPv4]. In IPv4 there is no
generally agreed upon protocol or mechanism for Neighbor
Unreachability Detection, although the Hosts Requirements document
[HR-CL] does specify some possible algorithms for Dead Gateway
Detection (a subset of the problems Neighbor Unreachability Detection
tackles).
The Neighbor Discovery protocol provides a multitude of improvements
over the IPv4 set of protocols:

Router Discovery is part of the base protocol set; there is no need for hosts to "snoop" the routing protocols.
Router Advertisements carry link-layer addresses; no additional packet exchange is needed to resolve the router's link-layer address.
Router Advertisements carry prefixes for a link; there is no need to have a separate mechanism to configure the "netmask".
Router Advertisements enable Address Autoconfiguration.
Routers can advertise an MTU for hosts to use on the link, ensuring that all nodes use the same MTU value on links lacking a well-defined
MTU.
Address resolution multicasts are "spread" over 16 million (2^24) multicast addresses, greatly reducing address-resolution-related
interrupts on nodes other than the target. Moreover, non-IPv6
machines should not be interrupted at all.
Redirects contain the link-layer address of the new first hop; separate address resolution is not needed upon receiving a redirect.
Multiple prefixes can be associated with the same link. By default, hosts learn all on-link prefixes from Router Advertisements. However,
routers may be configured to omit some or all prefixes from Router
Advertisements. In such cases hosts assume that destinations are
off-link and send traffic to routers. A router can then issue
redirects as appropriate.
Unlike IPv4, the recipient of an IPv6 redirect assumes that the new next-hop is on-link.  In IPv4, a host ignores redirects specifying a
next-hop that is not on-link according to the link's network mask.
The IPv6 redirect mechanism is analogous to the XRedirect facility
specified in [SH-MEDIA]. It is expected to be useful on non-broadcast
and shared media links in which it is undesirable or not possible for
nodes to know all prefixes for on-link destinations.
Neighbor Unreachability Detection is part of the base, which significantly improves the robustness of packet delivery in the
presence of failing routers, partially failing or partitioned links,
or nodes that change their link-layer addresses. For instance, mobile
nodes can move off-link without losing any connectivity due to stale
ARP caches.
Unlike ARP, Neighbor Discovery detects half-link failures (using Neighbor Unreachability Detection) and avoids sending traffic to
neighbors with which two-way connectivity is absent.
Unlike in IPv4 Router Discovery, the Router Advertisement messages do not contain a preference field. The preference field is not
needed to handle routers of different "stability"; the Neighbor
Unreachability Detection will detect dead routers and switch to a
working one.
The use of link-local addresses to uniquely identify routers (for Router Advertisement and Redirect messages) makes it possible for
hosts to maintain the router associations in the event of the site
renumbering to use new global prefixes.
By setting the Hop Limit to 255, Neighbor Discovery is immune to off-link senders that accidentally or intentionally send ND messages.
In IPv4, off-link senders can send both ICMP Redirects and Router
Advertisement messages.
Placing address resolution at the ICMP layer makes the protocol more media-independent than ARP and makes it possible to use
generic IP-layer authentication and security mechanisms as
appropriate.
Comment: "_NDP and RS,RA are different._" No, they are all part of the IPv6 ND protocol. IPv6 ND encompasses several IPv4 protocols. You are trying to isolate ND to a small part of what ND does. It is explained in the RFC I linked: _[RFC 4861, Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4861)_. That RFC defines IPv6 ND. [Section 3. Protocol Overview](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4861#section-3) makes it very clear that IPv6 ND encompasses a lot more than IPv4 ARP.
Comment: This doesn't answer the question really - NDP and RS,RA  are different. Also, I am not comparing complete IPv6 with IPv4 like I know IPv6 - DAD is really great. However, I believe the only reason why ND is required is that you can have IP address not based on Mac-address.
Comment: so, if we say that in a particular network, I am going to use only EUI-64 addressing scheme then why doesn't it allow to not use NDP to get Mac-address instead decode the mac-address by itself.  This provision will help in the flexibility. Obviously, there is a gain out of it.
Comment: How do you tell IPv6 that the network only uses EUI-64 addressing? There is also a difference between EUI-64 and _modified_ EUI-64 (which is what I think you mean). You want to add complexity to the protocol, and that is something you could propose to the IETF (anyone can submit an RFC for consideration), but I'm pretty confident that IETF members, probably the authors of ND, thought about that.
Comment: @dexterous_stranger, the IPv6 auto-configuration with the modified EUI-64 is mostly not used (almost extinct) today, except for link-local addressing, although many businesses will manually configure link-local addressing for network devices (e.g. `fe80::1` for Router 1) and hosts like servers that people may want to know specifically what the link-local address is.


Profile setting to sort answers only by votes

Question: There is any option in the user profile that allows indicate to the system that, when a question is opened (click on question link), it must present the answers ordered only by votes (regardless of the accepted answer) ?
Comment: Each site will remember what you last ordered answers by and always present them to you in that order; until you change it.
Comment: No, that doesn't exist. There are userscripts which do this.
Comment: See [Modified answer view based only on votes, not accepted status](https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/60777/295232)
Comment: @benisuǝqbackwards: I see only three sort options "active", "oldest" and "votes", I've "votes" selected and still accepted answer appears first.
Comment: @Glorfindel: yes, before to post this question I've been reading several similar ones and I've see that the debate about pinned question is historic. It seems something about personal opinions, for this reason I ask about an existing profile flag. (my personal opinion is that the problem with the pinned accepted answer is going to worst)
Answer: It's pointless to have this in the profile, since each site "remembers" the last sort you've used, for good, using server side storage attached to your account. (Not a cookie, i.e. cross platform.)
This means that once you sort answers by "votes" it will always sort by votes, unless you choose to sort by something else.
The fact accepted answer is on top regardless of its score (unless posted by question author) is by design, and can't be changed.
If you want it changed, you can start a new feature-request question here.


Proof of ownership and dividend in a company

Question: I want to use the ethereum blockchain to prove ownership for example in a company (or even a hedge fund). How do I guarantee my investors (or buyers) that they bought a share of my company?
Comment: Is this ownership in a company that issues shares on a public exchange like the NYSE?
Comment: No. It is my own company ... that I want to make public on the ethereum block chain and skip regular public exchanges.
Answer: I'm assuming you already have already incorporated your company and have a shareholders agreement outlining rights, etc. Also, I am not a lawyer. I'm trying to keep this answer as general as possible, too.
Firstly, you'd have to find out if you can create a company and issue shares on a blockchain in your jurisdiction -- after all, a company is, by definition a legal entity. In fact, the whole point is to create a legal entity that replaces a person for the purposes of pursuing business (for benefits such as longevity, tax purposes, limiting personal liability, etc).
Secondly, you'd have to prove that you have the legal authority to issue shares in the company and/or that you are presently in possession of shares that you are issuing on the blockchain. In most/all jurisdictions, you will also be required to list yourself (or whoever is responsible) as the record keeper of note for shareholders in your company. You may also be legally obligated to do certain paperwork if your shareholders exceed a certain number ("going public"). In Canada, at least, you will also need things like a mailing address of shareholders so that they can receive documents that they are entitled to as shareholders.
Thirdly, you will need to prove that any securities you transfer on the blockchain can be linked to your company's list of shareholders. This may require some legal documents on your end and people checking your bricks and mortar operation or obtaining records from your incorporating jurisdiction.
Fourthly, you will need to provide a link between your on-line identity and your real-world identity. Otherwise, transactions are suspect.
There may be (and most likely are) some steps missing.
Answer: I have to create a token and a cryptocurrency? The cryptocurrency will be the shares.
This way for each 1 ether I get I will return 1 unit of my cryptocurrency (for example). If the investor does not want to have shares in my company, then I simply buy back his cryptocurrency (the one that I issued) for ethers again.
If my company has a dividend then I divide the dividend to the number of units cryptocurrency (plays the role of shares) that I gave to the investors. Next I search the ethereum addresses that invested in my company and send them the proportional dividend I would like to pay them.
I would prefer the trade of my company to be once per year and only for a period of one week. This will give me the security of using the funds invested in my company for at least a year. This can be implemented with a smart contract.
Also all profits can be stored into an account (that can not leave) and be distributed only once per year at an exact date. This way share holders will be able to see the dividend even before it is finally distributed. Of course this means that profits are not re-invested, but gives confidence to investors.
Also a smart contract can discourage selling your shares too fast back to the company. If you sell in 1 year than you get 0.95 for the ethers you invested. If it is two years you get 0.97 and so on until in 4 years you get 100%.
An example will be a company that buys real-estate. It buys houses and apartments and rents them. It will be a collective scheme where all the profit is accumulated in a single ethereum account. Once new investments are sufficient for buying a new property the company will do just that and continues to collect rent and distribute it as a dividend. Of course if all your money are invested you can not return the money to everyone at any time (just like a bank), so you would like a fixed period where you will be prepared to give money back to investors.
Comment: Some of this looks like further requirements for your original question. Also, your dividend payment scheme would probably be better implemented as a pull rather than a push. The trading of the shares and profit distribution dates don't have to be in the smart contract (in fact, I'm not sure why they would be). Also, I'm not sure I understand the economic reason for restricting trading to one week per year. Not sure why no reinvestment into company gives investors confidence.
Comment: They should be in the smart contract so that the investors are sure that at some point they will get something. Setting a date also contributes to the re-assurance that at some point the investor will get something. Also why companies give dividend after all? A regular dividend is proof of the stability of the company and it is attractive for people who are not just waiting for the price of this company to go up. So it is a choice - either reinvest or attract these investors that prefer companies with dividend.
Comment: If you plan to pay d% dividends per distribution, the only way to guarantee n distributions can be paid is by locking up n x d% of the initial investment. But you're just putting that under a mattress with no liquidity. It does nothing. Why doesn't the investor just keep the n x d % of the initial investment and do something else with it? Dividends do not prove stability of a company. A company can pay capital return dividends. Dividends are paid to (potentially) manipulate stock price around the ex-div date, to return capital, and when companies have excess cash and can't provide good RoR.
Comment: A Ponzi scheme can provide guaranteed dividends to investors. That doesn't mean it's stable (or legal in all jurisdictions).
Answer:
How do I guarantee my investors (or buyers) that they bought a share of my company?

If they have a "unit" of the crypto-asset, then you can trust that they only obtained it through only possible ways your contract would have defined. You can trust this because all miners on the network verify validity (this is the main innovation of the blockchain).
The crypto-asset can be implemented much like a token and all logic would live in a smart contract stored on the blockchain.


Aluminum mash tun?

Question: My current brewing set up is as follows: 2 Fermenter's Favorite 10 gallon all grain coolers hot liquor tank and mash tun, 15 gallon Megapot boil kettle, Edelmetal Bru Burner, and a homemade gravity stand. I usually brew 10 gallon batches with 12 to 13 gallons pre boil. My local hardware store has a killer deal on 15,20, and 25 gallon aluminum pots. I was thinking of picking up a couple to replace my coolers and outfit them with ball valves and thermometers etc. The main reason is because I currently can only do single infusion mash recipes. Any luck with aluminum anyone? Or should I stick with my coolers until I save my pennies for all stainless gear?
Comment: This is sort of an opinion based question and not really how this site works... but who cares.
Comment: It is still a question though and the site is for answers and input from fellow brewers correct? There are a lot of questions on the site with no real concrete answers it doesn't mean they shouldn't be discussed.
Answer: I personally would not use an aluminum kettle for a mash tun.
Aluminum transfers heat too well. While that's great for a boil kettle or hlt, a mash tun needs to hold heat. Even if well insulated it will lose much more heat than its stainless steel counter part and way more than a cooler style tun.
Answer: Aluminium is not used commercially as the risks of contaminating the work with aluminium, CIP with Caustic and Acid destroys aluminium. Likewise you do not want to contaminate your wort/beer. If the pH of your wort was to drop below ~4.5 then it would risk affecting the stability of the oxide layer.
They would be fine to use for HLT or CLT. ie anything that does not come in contact with the wort/beer.
I would personally wait and get the lovely shiny 304 or 316 SS, that will last you a lifetime.
Answer: You can certainly use aluminum for a mash tun and do a direct fired set up.  It comes down to whether or not you like that process.  I have a direct fired stainless steel mash tun.  I use a false bottom and a pump to constantly recirculate the wort through the mash.  This keeps things moving when I am applying heat and prevents scorching or overheating the wort at the bottom of the mash.  It works pretty well.  But there are draw backs.
For one, you have to babysit this thing the whole mash period.  And if you don't have some sort of automated temperature and burner ignition system, you have to manually fire the tun off and on occasionally to keep the temps up.  Aluminum will give up heat faster that my stainless as well, so you'll need to cycle on and off quite a bit.
I have noticed that if the temp gets to far away from target and you try and apply too much heat then you end up with screwy mash profiles and sometimes poor attenuation due to degraded enzymes and poor conversion.
Its something worth trying out, but I am currently thinking of going back to the cooler set up just to stop working so hard during the mash.   And I can do something else while the mash is going in my cooler.
Just food for thought.

Aluminum mash tun?


How can I begin installing Windows Updates while others are downloading?

Question: It's always annoyed me that Windows Update downloads everything before it begins any installs.  Assuming I have no Internet Explorer updates or network drivers or anything else like that to install that might affect my connection, is it possible to have updates be installed as they are downloaded rather than needing to wait for all of the other updates to download?  I have Windows 7 SP1.
Answer: No way to change this behavior in Windows, its been this way for decades.
Answer: I think that there are just possible workarounds which could not be easy to proceed with.
You can grab wsusoffline and get the updates. If you want - the core of it are foss software and some batch and vb scripts.
Maybe you can use it as a source to do similar what you want.
Anyhow it only works with updates ms gives away as accessible ones. It does not contain the specific updates p.e. for hardware. (I prefer to update hw. drivers via the official sources than ms.)
Other possible way to make a change - Find a page or contact on microsoft's site or any way to reach the developers and file a feature request or tell them the idea.
I agree with your idea on that point that it can save up time.
Probably a (hidden or accessible) ["Download & Install"] button would also be fine in the WU window.


I am a shareholder but am not invited to shareholder meetings

Question: I have been a shareholder in a company for about 14 years and have never been invited to a shareholder meeting. The company is still around and over 10 times the size that it used to be. How do I go about finding the person I need to contact to get myself invited and find out what I have been missing, and what do I say to them?
Comment: You might want to include some information about your location. It wouldn't shock me if this kind of thing varied by jurisdiction.
Comment: Doesn't the company has an address? A CEO? Any representative?
Comment: The company does have an address and a CEO and I do know both of these things but I am unclear on whether sending some sort of snail mail letter or email to their newest CEO is the best course of action. I started a conversation with one of their founders on LinkedIn and as soon as I asked him about the shareholder meeting thing he stopped responding to me.
Comment: I did receive two communications from their corporate secretary, the most recent was in 2013 regarding an election of members of the board directors. The contact information on this letter is outdated, but I believe the same person still holds that same office.
Answer: A large publicly traded company will have a "shareholder relations" department.   Check the website or call the main office and speak with someone there.  You should also be receiving ballots to vote on shareholder-decided issues such as electing directors, appointing auditors, etc.  The invitation is usually included with the election information.
Comment: This is true for a large publicly traded company, but it's not clear to be from the question if that's the kind of company being talked about here.
Comment: Hi, the company is not public. They are based in California but Incorporated in Delaware. The company is about 150 employees and there isn't anything like a shareholder relations department. I received shares in exchange for some work I did for them when they were just starting out.


where are my gnome user settings?

Question: I had a gnome session die on me in the middle of setting some display options.  Now, I get a blank screen when I log in with this particular user.  I tried removing all the .gnome and .gconf directories in my home directory, but that didn't fix it, what else can I try?
Answer: If you already removed .gnome .gnome2 .gconf .gconfd, try also removing .metacity.
The issue may be in your xsession for this account rather than Gnome settings.  The session setting should be in .gnome2/session, so removing this should have fixed your problem.
Answer: Check the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file for errors. Since the session died in the middle of setting display options, you should also check if there is any change to xorg.conf. If there's a backup version, try replacing that. Finally, you should mention how exactly you're starting up the gnome session.
As for the gnome session directories, I think you've already removed the ones that matter. The GNOME Project has the full list of hidden directories that the GNOME Desktop adds to the home directories of users.

where are my gnome user settings?


Why does my cat come to me when I'm sitting on the toilet?

Question: Whenever I sit on the toilet, my cats come to me and rest at my feet. Why? Do they miss something?
Comment: Because they want attention and they've figured out that you can't get away when you're on the toilet.
Comment: Day 624:  Hooman subject still refuses to use litter box, still insisting on going in water bowl.   Luckily the water bowl refreshes itself after being defiled.
Comment: I'm curious as to how the cat is able to rest at your feet while you're seated on the toilet. Do you leave your door open while relieving yourself? Does the cat follow you extremely closely?
Comment: It may be partly because you don't want them to. Cats tend to see eye contact as threatening, and if you're avoiding eye contact when you sit on the toilet (because you don't want them to come and sit with you) they may see that as a sign that you *do* want them to come and sit with you. I don't know if that's what's happening or not, but that kind of body language misunderstanding can happen between people and cats.
Comment: Your cat likes the smell of poo.
Comment: I don't have any sources - but I wonder if cats who feel part of the 'pack' accomany us to the toilet, as it's a otherwise dangerous situation to be in.
Comment: my cat does that to, its just that they want to be with you
Answer: It is one of the most common behaviour in cats.
Cats normally do not just follow you to the bathroom, they usually follow their human companion to everywhere. But cats following us to the bathroom is more noticeable, hence the confirmation bias.
Cats following humans can be due to a variety of reasons. They might be spooked by something you can't see or hear, they might want food (my cat's favourite reason to follow me to the bathroom), they might want pets, they might be curious or in some rare cases, they might think that you are vulnerable with your pants down so they might want to protect you.
I observed that most cats have a daily routine. They go to sleep at similar hours, demand food or pets at similar hours etc. Your bathroom schedule might have synchronised with your cats' petting schedule so that might be why they are following you.
One more thing, cats also learn from other cats, so one of them might just be following you because the other one is.
Comment: I'd go with the protection angle. Our will be happily nested between my feet at night, but if my wife gets up to use the bathroom, he invariably gets up and guards the door. Its gotten to the point where I'll announce "I'm sending a cat to help." before he even gets up.
Comment: mine insists to be in the bathroom, but also wants the door open at the same time :)
Comment: @Thomas It is asserting its dominance and there is nothing you can do since it consistently catches you with your pants down.
Comment: @Thomas open door is also very common. I guess they want to roam free in their world, albeit how small their world is :)
Comment: @DavyM Yes, the former.
Comment: "they might want pets" Do you mean that they want to be pet, like stroking with your hand, or do you mean that the cat wants a pet of its own? (I'm betting the former, I've never heard of a pet having its own pet)
Answer: My theory is it's because they've learned you're a captive audience when you're on the toilet, meaning there is nothing else distracting you from giving them attention like there probably is anywhere else in the house.
Answer: I believe, in essence, it has to do with the cats both being curious and wanting to keep us companionship. With that being said, I think an additional and significant factor attracting cats to follow people to the bathroom could also be their common fascination with running water - cats are known to frequently have an obsession with sinks, faucets, drains and porcelain thrones for that reason.
It has to do with their instincts - cats prefer running water over stagnant water, because in nature it is a lot safer to drink; they are thus intrigued and interested by both the sight and the sound of running water. Because the majority of visible and audible water flow occurs whenever there is a person inside the bathroom, they are compelled to follow in.
Answer: According to Dr. Kathryn Primm on iheartcats, cats feel vulnerable when you aren't around and they're curious and these are reasons for them to follow you to the toilet.
But I like the take from meowlingtons that cats don't respect your privacy.  This coincides with my own experience.
I share a cat with my girlfriend. The cat is less respectful to her than to me as I taught it discipline and don't just give it whatever it wants when it wants it. For example I require the cat to sit and patiently wait for food while the girlfriend lets the cat jump up and practically climb all over her as she's preparing food.
Furthermore I have observed that a cat will not even think about touching food I leave on my plate even when I'm in a different room but it will try to pounce on my girlfriend's food even when she's holding the plate so the cat's behavior is also (not exclusively) linked to respect (or whatever you wish to call it) in my experience.
Anyhow, this cat never comes into the bathroom when I'm on the toilet. Sometimes she will wait outside the doorway.  So from my point of view, the cat does what it thinks you want. If it thinks you want to wear cat fur coat 24/7 that's what you get.
Comment: Shouldn't that be "My girlfriend's cat lets me share her with it"?
Comment: @HenryM that behaviour is very well documented in dogs but I never heard that cats do what you want them to do. On the contrary, I believe cats do what they want to do and they get along better with you if you let them do what they want to do.
Comment: @C.Koca In my experience you can train a cat the same as you train a dog. It just takes the cat 30-60 times longer to do what you want and the cat will challenge you and pretend to be untrained at certain intervals like 3 months later, 6 months later and so on. Consistency is key. Granted, most people probably don't think it's worth it. When a cat was introduced to a home with an existing bird I was forced to work on getting the cat to not eat the bird so I learned some tricks.
Comment: Update, the cat no longer tries to get to my (now) wife's plate of food either. It took much longer for the cat to learn because the wife tends to be more permissive but we finally reached the point where the cat has manners.
Answer: The cat may also be curious to learn how to do what you're doing. I had a tortoise calico kitten who was very interested in bathroom routines. By the time she was three, she would sit on the edge of the toilet seat and do her own business. She even figured out the flusher a few years later!
After she learned to use the toilet, she never went back to the litter box again.
Sadly, as she got older, she couldn't balance on the seat and would just sit in the bowl making a matted mess of her back end. Eventually, she moved to using the bathroom sink. Cleaning out the sink was... less pleasant. She never bothered with learning the sink faucet controls. And she never went back to using the litter box to matter how hard I tried.
Answer: This is very normal in cats. The reason they might want to sit next to your feet, or just be near you while you're going to the bathroom, is an instinctive thing that cats all do. They usually do this to protect you, since going to the bathroom is a very vulnerable action.
Do not worry if your cat doesn't do this, nothing is wrong with them, they just might not trust you enough to want to protect you. And don't think you're a bad cat owner if your cat never does this action to protect you.
Comment: Do you have any sources or websites that state this reason? Could you add them if people want to read up on this?


How to keep going after a failed project?

Question: I was posting my story on another site. After a while it sunk to the bottom. Not a big deal. But soon it seemed like everyone began to ignore it. So I cancelled it because I couldn't keep posting back-to-back and I had nowhere else to share. Nobody tried to talk me out of cancelling it. I'll be honest, it kind of hurt. So I erased more than half of the story I wrote (there was an obvious decline in quality, at least to me) but I can't seem to get my inspiration up enough to continue and I really don't want to scrap this project. So my question is, how do you find the steam to keep going when you know your story partially failed?
Comment: All of you really helped me lift my spirits :) I'll admit, I was hung up that my story kind of died out. There are a couple of factors to that that would allow it to make sense as to why I was hung up on it, unfortunately most of those factors are personal :/

Also, not only was I asking a question, but I wanted to test parts of this community. To see if people would treat me like an ignorant child or help me pick up the pieces (I find it difficult to find a good community that ACTUALLY helps one another).

Thank you all for being wonderful :)
Answer: You have a few options:

Your story didn't fail. It just didn't find its audience on that site. Post it somewhere else.
Your story didn't fail. It just didn't find its audience right now.
Post it again in six months.
Your story didn't fail. It just needs an editor (or at least a beta
reader). Find someone to read it and help you improve it.
Your story didn't fail. It just needs some work. Put it away for
three months and work on something else (which may or may not be
writing). Come back to it three months from now and re-read it with
fresh eyes, and  you'll see a whole bunch of things you can fix.
Your story didn't fail. You are relying on outside influences to
encourage you to write, which means the story is not burning a hole
in your head to be told. Put it away until you itch so badly to work
on it that you have to pick it up again.
Comment: Your answer implies that writing projects cannot fail. I miss the option: Failure is a normal part of learning. Start the next project. Eventually one will succeed.
Comment: I know numerous people who have been working on their first novel, comic book or whatever for a decade or longer. Even if a project didn't ultimately fail, after a certain time I think it is better to move on to the next project - and maybe return to the present one afterwards, with a fresh mind and from some emotional distance.
Comment: I'm happy with this being an emendation to your otherwise great answer.
Comment: @what Yes, you are correct. Of course projects fail. The OP sounded very hung up on "my story failed" and I wanted to show how "failure" can be reframed in a number of different ways which aren't so momentum-killing. Also, the OP specifically wanted to continue with *this* project, so I was trying to show paths to take for that outcome.
Comment: @what Perfectly legitimate. Make it an answer.
Answer: Several thoughts here.
The first is, don't be discouraged by failure. Learn from it and move on. We all fail sometimes. Thomas Edison, when discussing his attempts to invent a practical light bulb, once said, "I haven't failed. I've found 600 ways that don't work." His point was, trying something and discovering that it doesn't work is a natural part of getting to something that does work. If the very first thing you try works, that might well be more good luck than skill.
Second thought: A few years ago I visited a church where the kids were putting on a program, singing and skits and poetry readings and so on. And one young lady got up and was so nervous trying to perform in front of a group that she literally was on the brink of fainting and had to be helped off the stage. But then ten minutes later she tried again and did a beautiful job. And it occurred to me: It doesn't matter if  you fail ten times in a row ... as long as you try eleven times.
Maybe your story is very good and you just need to find the right audience. Maybe your story is very bad and you need to learn from the experience and try again. Either way, don't give up.
Answer: Try to get feedback from the people who read/stopped reading if you can bring yourself to speak to them - this will allow you to learn from what happened. Don't see it as a failure, see it as a learning curve, because that's what writing is. You never stop learning as a writer.
Put the project aside for a little while and work on something else. Eventually the characters will start to come back to you with new ideas and you'll return to the project with a fresh perspective and renewed enthusiasm.
When you do return to it (or whilst you're working on something else), get feedback from anyone who will listen. The more feedback you've got, the more you'll be able to learn about what worked, what didn't, and how you can improve your project and ultimately, finish it.
Answer: Unfortunately, if you can't face rejection of your work, you can't be a writer.  The sad truth is even the most successful writers have all had the experience of being at one time or another critically panned, rejected or otherwise.  As the saying goes, if you can give up writing, do so, if you can't... you're doomed to be a writer!
One thing that can help, even though it is difficult, is to try to gain some emotional distance with your work --not with writing it, but the finished project.  It's hard not to feel like you are being personally rejected when people reject your work, but it actually isn't personal, even when it feels like it is.  And while it may be that the work has some fatal flaw, it might also be that it didn't succeed for reasons entirely unrelated to how good it is.
I do also recommend reading the book "Mortification".  I know it made me feel much better to read about famous and well-respected authors facing empty book signings and worse (like the author who found a used copy of his book in a clearance bin --only to realize it was the copy he had signed for his parents!)
Answer: No honest attempt is ever wasted. At worst, you've practiced your skills and learned that this one didn't work at this time in this place.
And remember that many good stories were rejected by everyone the first time they were circulated, or were conceptually fine but the author's skills weren't yet up to doing them justice and were more successful later  on after the author was more polished and better known.
If you're going to be an artist, of any kind, you need to accept that not every attempt is going to succeed, and those which are successful technically may still not find their audience until much later, if ever.
Competing publishers exist in the paying market (and why publishers compete with themselves, offering magazines which have similar subject matter but different editorial policy) precisely to provide the opportunity for creators and consumers to find each other. It's not at all uncommon for a story to be submitted to 20 different markets before someone picks it up.
Either try to find the right audience for this story, or set it aside and come back to it after you've gotten some distance and can evaluate it more fairly.
Meanwhile, remember that they haven't rejected you -- they just didn't pick up on this piece. Keep trying. This happens to everyone. It's inherent in learning a craft, never mind an art.
Answer: It sounds like you were writing fiction, in which case you are an artist producing art.
Now others my attach adjectives to both those nouns - good, bad, popular, unpopular, sublime, wretched - but that is none of your business.
You own your process. The outcome is not in your hands.
You can chase the bubble reputation, even to the cannon's mouth, and you might even hold the delicate globe for a brief moment before it disappears, but that is all effort and energy taken away from your prime task: working out how your relationship to existence expresses itself in words.
You can even take rejection as an imprimatur of progress. This mania for collective intelligence ignores what I call the Copernicus factor. Imagine if the survival of his ideas depended on their popularity.
Of course you take coaching and feedback, but you cannot escape your responsibility of judging its validity for YOU. Including this, of course. Including this.


G, B, E strings buzzing?

Question: While playing any chord that involves the G, B, and E strings on my acoustic I get a very noticeable buzz. Open, they're fine. I'm pressing down as hard as I can using my fingertips but nothing is changing. Am I doing something fundamentally wrong or is this an issue with the guitar itself? Thanks!
Answer: It's the guitar. Check whether it buzzes on all frets or only part of them. While you're at it, check the other strings as well at frets you don't usually play. Here you can find a table qualifying the buzzing problems by type.
Answer: Most likely it is a problem with the frets or set up on the guitar.
One common issue that comes up with guitars that have been played for awhile on the treble strings is that the frets under the thinner strings will develop grooves or divots - (worn spots where the strings come in contact with them).  To determine if this is an issue with your guitar, look very closely at the first 3 or 4 frets under the G, B and E strings to see if there is more fret wear there.  You may even see a noticeable divot or grove in one or two frets, particularly under the unwound B and E string.
If that is in fact contribution to your buzzing, you may need to have your frets leveled (by having them filed down with the proper tool, crowned and dressed, or if the frets are badly worn, you may need to replace them.
Another possibility is that your action may need to be adjusted.  This should be done by a qualified guitar repair technician or luthier.  Properly setting the action may involve adjustment of your truss rod, adjustment to your saddle height, adjustment of the nut height or slots, or a combination of the foregoing.
If you have recently switched to a lighter gauge string, this could contribute to buzzing if the diameter of the strings allows it to sit further down in the slots in the nut.  Also the lower tension on the lighter strings can cause them to buzz when heavier gauge strings may not.
No matter what the problem is, it should be fairly easy to remedy once you determine the cause and take appropriate action to address it.
Good luck.
Comment: Agree that lighter gauge = less tension = more propensity to buzz. Not sure that sitting lower in the nut slot will make a difference on any fret, only the open string.
Comment: @tim Point well taken.

G, B, E strings buzzing?


What are the most comprehensive APIs for cryptocurrency market data?

Question: I'm looking for a well documented, easy to use API that provides data on the majority of cryptocurrencies. That data should include the 1 hr, 24hr, and 7 day price changes, as well as the entire history of the volume, and price for each crypto. I've looked into some APIs but none have provided this sort of comprehensive information. There are many great sites that have access to this sort of data, so it must be out there. Any help is appreciated! Thanks!
Comment: I'm interested too, did you find a good alternative? maybe something free for commercial use?
Comment: Lots of good info below.
Answer: Most exchanges offer API solutions for market data. Here are some examples:

GDAX
Bittrex
Kraken
WAVES DEX

CryptoCompare has an API that aggregates data from many exchanges, and they also offer many query parameters. Link: CryptoCompareAPI
Additionally, many block explorers provide APIs for blockchain account information.
This ZChain Playlist shows how to use PowerShell to query the ZChain ZCash block explorer API.
Comment: Also consider the [HitBTC API](https://api.hitbtc.com/) supporting REST and WebSocket too.
Answer: If you want something simple and fast with a huge amount of coins try https://chasing-coins.com/api/
Comment: Fabulous, just what I needed kind sir!
Answer: Cofounder & developer here, you can check our site coinpaprika.com API
Answer: Take a look at the CoinAPI data provider, which have full coverage of the cryptocurrency markets and provide data via REST, WebSocket and FIX protocols.
Answer: You can check out Coinograph cryptocurrency API. It provides raw trade data, candles, orderbook and ticker.
Disclaimer: I've built the product.
Answer: CryptoCompare API is the most comprehensive free api that I can find of.
Links:

https://www.cryptocompare.com/api/
https://min-api.cryptocompare.com/
Answer: check out cryptoquote.io
this real-time data feed provides access to real-time streaming price data from the cash exchanges and liquidity providers for institutional order flow as well as historical database, market metrics, logo API and widgets.
Built by my team
Answer: You can check out the following API. Although it's mainly used to get standardized coin symbols across exchanges, you also get additional coin data in the response:

https://CryptoStandardizer.com
Comment: This answer could be improved by explaining why you're recommending this site and by answering in detail, whether all the features the asker is looking for are present.
Answer: You can try CoinGecko api, they provide like comprehensive data. More than you will ever need. https://www.coingecko.com/api/docs/v3
Comment: My absolute favorite! Really nice API.
Answer: at Kaiko (www.kaiko.com) we are able to provide you with this comprehensive datasets.
We are a market data infrastructure company since our creation in 2014 and provide trade data, order books and aggregated data (ohclv, vwap, count). We already work with funds, academics, and individual traders and are currently growing fast.
Happy to speak with any of you that have data requirements, just contact us via our website.
Full disclosure: I work at Kaiko :)
Answer: I think this one is best, they don't have restrictions https://www.coinlore.com/cryptocurrency-data-api
Answer: Almost each crytpo exchange has its own API, you can integrate it for free and get the data. The first challenge that they are too many (more than 200 exchanges so far), that means 200+ API integrations which cost a lot of time. The second challenge is that these exchanges provide a lot of data and after start collecting you will need to take care of many TBs which is an additional servers cost.
That's why there are such services like Coinmarketcapi professional API, coinapi and CryptoAPIs.io
I made a compare and i picked https://cryptoapis.io/ because they have more exchanges, more options and cheaper.
Answer: Founder & developer of https://tardis.dev  here. It's an API I've built that provides high frequency cryptocurrency historical raw market data — tick-by-tick trades, full order book depth snapshots & delta updates, quotes, liquidations and more available via HTTP and WebSocket API. Based on that data you can build OHLC candles, volume bars, dolar bars etc.
Answer: We use https://bitdataset.com/api/ It is free for our tasks.


should I unfreeze tracks in ableton before exporting a song?

Question: Should I unfreeze tracks in ableton before exporting a song? Just wondering if this will make any difference in the way it sounds. In the past I noticed when I exported songs with tracks frozen they didn't sound as good but it could have been some sort of placebo effect. I think I might have been playing around with the sample rate too so that could have been a problem.
Comment: I'm not complaining, just connecting the two questions for future reference.
Comment: see also: http://avp.stackexchange.com/questions/382/rendering-vs-recording-in-ableton-live
Comment: thanks for the heads up! I did some quick searches about this answer and probably would have found the info I wanted, but I  figured others would ask this same question (and probably phrased this same way). I can't spend as much time on avp as I used to sadly :(.
Answer: Whether a track is frozen or unfrozen in Ableton shouldn't make a difference in terms of audio quality but might make a difference in terms of audio content. The reason for this is that you might have modulations in your track that are complex enough that each time you play the track, the result is slightly different. When you freeze a track, you capture a particular set of modulations. That set of modulations might sound better or worse than the last one you listened to.
I assume that when you freeze and flatten a track, the resulting audio is at the project rate. If your project rate is 96 KHz and your export rate is 192 KHz as in your previous question then you may notice a difference between the quality of the unfrozen track and the frozen track. I'm making an assumption here that the frozen/flattened track will be sampled at the project rate, rather than the export rate.
When I freeze a track, I usually start by duplicating the original track. Then I freeze the new track, and then flatten the new track. Finally, I mute the original track. This gives me the original material and modulations used to create the audio file, plus a static audio file that is both easy on the CPU and captures that particular set of modulations.
You can take this a step further and export two versions of your track - one with frozen tracks, and one without. Then create a new Ableton project, and drop the two tracks into two different Audio tracks. Turn on the crossfader, and enable one track for the A side of the crossfader and another for the B side. Slide the fader all the way to the A side, and launch both clips at the same time. As your tracks play, move the fader back and forth. Can you tell a difference? Is one better or worse?
Comment: you were spot on about the quality difference by the way
Comment: awesome answer! I had never exported a song with frozen tracks until I was trying to figure out that sample issue.
Answer: Excavating but another point worth mentioning. If you decide to alternate the song tempo after the track was frozen, it would be better to unfreeze before export to let all the output be undegraded. otherwise, watch the pitchshifting methods as a minimum.
Comment: that's a good point. Thank you for pointing it out to add more specifics to the answers


Will the built-in flash of a Polariod camera be adequate for a wedding photobooth?

Question: My best friend is getting married in one week. He asked me to set up a photo booth near the reception so that people can take pictures of themselves using funny accessories. The photo booth should be set up inside the reception hall. I don't know the place and I do not know how much light there will be. The pictures are to be taken using a simple Polaroid. The Polaroid is equipped with a small flash but if the light becomes lower as the night comes, can I rely on a Polaroid flash or should we rent a flash umbrella ? In my opinion, the flash umbrella would ensure better lighting in low light situations. What is your opinion?
Comment: Are you talking about their instant cameras or a P&S?
Comment: Which Polaroid camera will you be using? During their history Polaroid produced quite a number of cameras models.
Answer: Taking polaroids at wedding receptions is nice.
There are some things that you should be aware of:

There's no polaroid film available any more. You can get modern film
from the impossible project, but it does not develop as quickly as
the original polaroid film. Waiting a long time for a polaroid image
kind of defeats the point of using that technology.
Fuji offers film in different formats. The instax wide is quite
tempting for a wedding reception, because often people come in groups
(families, couples, friends...), which are easier to frame in a
horizontal format (compared to square polaroid). Take a look at it
and see if that would work for you. In my experience, people don't bother about the aspect ratio being different to the original polaroid.
Sharing pictures is difficult. Taking interesting images will lead to questions like "can we all have a copy of that image?" But with instant film, there's only one image. If you want to give those photos to the people, the entire group will only have on original. If these photos go into a guest book at the reception, this is not a problem, but keep it in mind, because people want to have copies of those images.
Consider shooting digital and using a small photo printer.

I don't know the place and I do not know how much light there will be

Make yourself familiar with the place. Consider this a studio. You should create as much light as you need. Make yourself familiar with the camera that you are using and take a few test shots.
Answer: Sure, some sort of "proper" lighting setup will give you better results than on camera flash... but as your friend is wanting photos of people with funny accessories on a polaroid camera, I suspect that he's not after your traditional formal portraits. Keep it simple, go with the on-camera flash and concentrate on getting fun images which capture the guests enjoying themselves rather than worrying about anything else.
Answer: I've done a few booths so far, with a fixed lighting system and some on-camera flashs, and I havent had it even once where the fixed lighting was actually used.
The scenery of these images change so often that you should not worry about it, from single pictures to 6+ groups you will see everything and as the day passes (and probably the more booze is involved), the trashier those images get. Its a lot of fun, but keep it simple, the on-camera flash will suffice, people will not care about 'setting up a perfect shot'.
What you might want to check, if you can set up some additional static lighting (ambient) if it should turn out to be a dark corner.
Answer: Unless you're trying to achieve professional-quality lighting, yes.
If you are considering any kind of external lighting keep in mind that no P&S is going to properly compensate for an external strobe, so any supplemental lighting would need to be constant or you'll have a lot of blown out photos and frustrated photo-takers. If you want people to use their own cameras as well (like smart phones with weak flashes) then provide some additional (subtle) lighting as needed. Otherwise the on-camera flash can really help the candid nature of the photos and take pressure off of the people taking the photos. Professional equipment (even if in appearance only) can be intimidating if there isn't someone to operate it.
The last wedding I attended had a photo "booth" area, but didn't even provide a camera, encouraging patrons to use their own cameras and share the photos later. I think providing a P&S would have been good for the wedding party to get additional casual photos for their wedding collection.
Another friend had an actual rented photo booth which saved the photos for the wedding party, but also printed the photos immediately for the people taking them. This would obviously be rather complex to setup if not renting something already made to do so.


How can I save money on car insurance?

Question: What are some of the easy or not-so-easy ways to save money on car insurance?
Comment: spend 15 minutes with Geico?... sorry had to be done haha
Answer: I came across the following post from Nov. 5, 2009 on the Mint.com blog:  10 Things That You Can Do To Lower your Car Insurance Premium.  See their post for details, but here's a summary of the tips:

Switch Vehicles
Pay Up Front
Drive Like an Angel
Cut your Miles
Improve Your Credit Score
Reduce your Insurance Levels
Buy a Vehicle with a Theft Device or have one Installed
Same Insurer, Multiple Policies
Be a Loyal Customer ¹
Increase your Deductible

¹ I'm not so sure about the suggestion to be loyal.  I'd still shop around as JCarterRN suggests, but give my current company the opportunity to do better before I'd jump ship.
Comment: +1 Chris, loved this answer.  Definitely agree with the footnote - I actually shopped around with an agent, who couldn't beat my current rate, so I stuck with my current company.
Comment: Ironically "theft device" sounds like a device to cause theft.
Answer: The best thing you can do is shop around, and tell your current company that you're shopping.   I had been with GEICO for years and recently discovered (while shopping for renter's insurance) that AllState offered the same coverage for a few hundred dollars less.  When I called GEICO to cancel, they offered me an additional discount (for being a member of a credit union) that I hadn't received before.  I still switched, but was sad that I hadn't been getting that extra discount just because I never asked if there were other discounts I might qualify for.
This article by ChristianPF talks about some changes you can make to reduce auto insurance costs.
Answer: One that isn't typically mentioned: move. Rates are often higher in certain zip codes where there are more accidents and/or thefts. I cut my insurance nearly in half by moving. If you're looking at moving anyway, it's worth considering.
Comment: Yes!  Moving had the largest impact on my rates of anything I did besides... getting older.
Answer: Most of this advice applies to the UK, where I work in motor insurance pricing for a large personal lines insurer, but a lot of it is more general.
A loyal customer is usually an overpaying customer. The guiding priciple most financial services companies go by is that there's no point rewarding loyalty except to create it where none exists, i.e. by giving massive discounts to desirable new customers.
Shop around every time your policy comes up for renewal, and whenever your circumstances change. Never allow your policy to automatically renew - you may be charged a higher premium by default if you do! Phone up your current insurer and haggle to see if they can beat the best quote you find - their agents will usually be able offer a discount.
If applicable in your country, use price comparison websites. Use at least two - different insurers sometimes offer different rates on different sites, competing harder on some than on others, especially if the price comparison website happens to be owned by one of the insurance companies that quotes on it. One example of this is http://www.confused.com, which is owned by RSA group, a major insurer.
If there are no price comparison websites for your country, try purchasing your policy through a broker. They'll get quotes from a panel of insurers and offer you the cheapest. They can be especially helpful if you have a problematic driving history, e.g. drink-driving convictions, as many mainstream insurers will decline to quote for such people.
Other suggestions
Chris Rea's answer is a good starting point, but I would disagree about cutting back on cover. In the UK at least, many insurers often charge an equal or greater amount for lower levels of cover, because the people who choose these policies tend to be worse risks.
Re switching vehicles - a cheap old car will not necessarily be much cheaper to insure than a new expensive one, as you can still injure people with it or crash into other people's cars, and the newer car will probably have better safety features. However, a less powerful and smaller vehicle typically poses less of a threat to others and will therefore be cheaper to insure.
Another tactic not mentioned so far is 'reverse fronting'. 'Fronting', where the main driver poses as an additional driver and nominates a less risky driver as the main driver, is illegal, but the reverse - adding a less risky driver as an additional driver - is legal and can sometimes reduce premiums. This is because only one of you can drive the car at any one time, and sometimes it'll be the less risky one. So, especially if you're male and aged < 25, see if adding your safest parent as a named driver makes a difference.
If you have the choice of storing your car on a driveway or on the street, get quotes for both and see which is cheaper. If you live in an area where burglary is commonplace, thieves are more likely to steal cars left on driveways, as they can break into the owner's home and steal the keys. If not, the driveway is better, as it reduces the risk of a collision.
If you have previously driven another vehicle (e.g. motorbike or moped), or if you've been insured as an additional driver on someone else's car, call up insurers directly and ask if they can offer you a no-claims bonus for this. Quotes from price comparison websites tend to limit you to the numbers of years of no-claims you've accrued as a main driver, and may not reflect your full available no-claims bonus.
Extreme measures
Some insurers give you the option to install a tracking device in your car that can tell them various things, e.g.

How fast you drive / are you speeding?
What time of day/night you drive
How sharply you brake / corner
What distance you drive
Where you drive

Some people may be uncomfortable sharing this much information with their insurer, but for particularly risky drivers (I'm looking at you, males < 25) it can sometimes result in a substantial saving. One insurer that offers this is http://www.insurethebox.com/.
Finally, if every insurer you can find is quoting in excess of £10,000 for a year's cover, you may find it cheaper instead to purchase a vintage agricultural vehicle and get it covered on a specialist farmer's policy:
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/864501-teen-quoted-17k-for-car-insurance-resorts-to-driving-tractor
Comment: Do you have any evidence to support: "Never allow your policy to automatically renew - you may be charged a higher premium by default if you do!" Interesting idea, but hard to believe that companies could do that without getting caught.
Comment: Obviously for contractual reasons I cannot provide proof. However, please note that insurers in the UK are not required to disclose how they calculate their premiums, or to remind their customers what their last year's premium was at renewal.

How can I save money on car insurance?


What arcs of Shingeki No Kyojin will the live-action movie cover?

Question: The live action movie for Shingeki No Kyojin is coming out in 2015 or 2016 if I am not mistaken. Does anyone know what arcs of the anime and manga the movie will cover?
Comment: I don't think any details about this have been released. In fact, I haven't even heard anything from the rumor mill.
Answer: First off, there are a number of minor departures from the source material, such as Mikasa's general personality and the setting of the world, but this is to be expected - all adaptions have a degree of director's license, and the main bones of the series are still easily visible.

"This is not the Attack on Titan you saw on the comic book page. This is not the Attack on Titan you saw animated on television" [...]
"It takes place in the future of our world, with remnants of warplanes and weaponry peppered across the countryside. Its great walls were built by human hands..."
Taken from Anime News Network

The first movie begins at the same point as the anime series, with the breach of the outer wall, and covers the majority of the main points up to and including the first battle in the Trost District:

Eren, Mikasa and Armin's friendship and discussing what is outside the walls
Eren falling out with the Garrison soldiers in his home city
The Colossal Titan appearing and kicking a hole in the wall of the Shiganshina District (Monzen in the movie)
Signing up to the Survey Corps. with the ideals of revenge
Travelling to and fighting in the Trost District with the other graduated recruits from Eren's training squad (Omotemachi in the movie)
Eren saving Armin, but being swallowed and having his arm bitten off in the process
Eren shifting into a titan from inside the one he was eaten by, and emerging in front of Mikasa
Eren (in Titan form) fighting the Titans inside the city
An unconscious but fully healed Eren emerges from his defeated Titan form, signifying the end of the first movie

Additionally, a more detailed plot summary can be read here, along with other information on the film.

Therefore, the following arcs are covered in the first film:

The 'Fall of Shiganshina' arc
The '104th Trainees Squad' arc
And approximately half of the 'Battle for Trost' arc
Answer: With the second trailer of the first movie released on Youtube, and based on below synopses, it seems like the first movie will feature the first chapters of the manga. The wall will fall by the Colossal Titan, Eren will join the Survey Corpse and will have to transform to defend mankind. It is also confirmed that Levi will not feature in the movie, but an additional character and additional content will be created instead.
From Wikia:

That day, humanity remembered... More than one hundred years ago, Titans suddenly appeared. The majority of the human race was eaten and civilization collapsed. The survivors of the war built three walls to prevent the invasion of the Titans, and kept the peace by securing the living area inside. In one hundred years, the wall has not been broken... until this day.

From IMDB:

A teenage boy named Eren Jaeger must use his special gift to fight alongside with the military to defeat the titan race. Mankind is on the brink of extinction when these man eating monsters terrorize everybody and destroy the last of human civilization left in the world.

Read more on
Wikipedia, Asianwiki, Finalreel or their Official website.


How can I hang heavy objects on a wall, without leaving any marks?

Question: Command Hooks don't hold very much weight wise and I would like to mount heavy objects - e.g. a whiteboard ...
any ideas?
(yes this is drywall - I cannot leave any marks in it ).
context: college dorms; they're not happy with any holes of course.
Comment: How temporary is this? You can just fix the drywall afterwards, like when you move.
Comment: wingardium leviosa
Answer: You have a dilemma. The strongest removable glue bases hooks, such as Command, appear to be rated to to hold a maximum of only 7.5 lbs.  Even if you double these up, you are at 15 lbs. It might be possible to rig a series of hooks to spread the load, but it would take a careful rigging to avoid having all the weight on the two outside hooks.
This is not a practical solution for something weighing over 20 lbs., especially if it is not static. A whiteboard is not static since it is subject to constant jostling as it is written upon.
Any surface attachment is problematic. When dealing with wallboard, you have a paint film attached to layer of thin paper/cardboard, attached to a plaster substrate.  The adhesive strength of the paint film sticking to the paper over a few square inches is not enought to hold significant weight. If you had an adhesive between the hook and the paint that was strong enough not to let go, the paint (or more likely the top surface of the wallboard paper facing) will likely pull away.
A possibility, one I have not tested, is the use of a tension pole system, such as ZipWall

The poles are extended between floor and ceiling and held in place with spring tension.  This system is intended to hold up a thin, lightweigh film of plastic to create a dust barrier, but several poles could probably hold a board of moderate weight.  This would only work if the ceiling were solid, not a dropped tile ceiling or any surface that was not plaster, plasterboard or wood.  It also rules out textured ceilings. Even if the ceiling is solid, there is a possibility of marring the ceiling.
While I know you ruled out nails, you might consider using Ook style picture hooks.

These use superfine hardened steel nails that are easily removable and leave a pinhole size mark.  Even that may disappear with a slight rub or covered with a tiny dot of tempera or acrylic craft paint. These hooks are available in weights up to 100 lbs. each and are aslo available with a cushioned back that is even better at avoiding damage to the wall.
If you want a truly mar free, safe installation, you should prop the board up on an easel-like structure, as suggested by Michael Karas.
Comment: That Zip wall is absurd, but I like it +1!
Answer: You could try out this idea near the wall
Comment: Sometimes the easiest solution is the best. The act of writing on it will pull it loose unless it's got a good mechanical fastening.
Answer: Superconductor
An element, inter-metallic alloy, or compound that will conduct electricity without resistance below a certain temperature. Resistance is undesirable because it produces losses in the energy flowing through the material.
Once set in motion, electrical current will flow forever in a closed loop of superconducting material - making it the closest thing to perpetual motion in nature. Scientists refer to superconductivity as a "macroscopic quantum phenomenon".
Link to information about superconductors
Video of superconductor in motion
Option A
Step 1: Cool a material to superconducting specifications
Step 2: place a magnet on the floor below where you would like to hang the item
Step 3: Find the center of the object and affix your superconducting material to the back of it
Step 4: Balance the object over the magnet.
Option B
There is no way to hang an object on a wall, especially one of significant weight, without leaving a mark. Even the sticky wall pads leave some residue.
Comment: One spill with supercooled air and the drywall is toast.  Plus, how will you bring in MegaJoule electrical power from 240VAC with NO holes in the drywall (not to mention the building).
Comment: Well... the theory says the ideal material needed to become a superconductor would have super conducting properties at room temperature. If you could accomplish that, once your material was turned into a superconductor and you found a suitable sized magnet to provide the force, you wouldn't need any electricity or supercooled air to maintain the levitation.
Comment: Whilst amusing, this is not a helpful answer.
Answer: Monkey hooks are rated for 50 pounds and leave a tiny tiny hole that you can fill with paint after.
Answer: I had the exact same problem at the beginning of this year, except I was hanging mine in the hallway. I plastered the snot out of the board with painters tape and put a few command strips on the edges, it held. That may work for you, plus it leaves no marks and handles high traffic (I have very immature friends and they used it a lot). Hopefully your story won't end like mine though, after being explicitly told that the board was fine to hang there, and spending 2 hours putting it up, the building director said it was "too large". I'm pretty sure it's just because everybody drew crude depictions of male anatomy on it all the time but yeah it can't be helped.
Anyway, coat the back of it in painters tape and put a few command strips on the edges
Note: You do not want to see anything other than blue once you are done taping it, if there is a single spot of color other than blue — tape it. Then press very firmly to the wall (I held it for approx 15-20 minutes just to be safe)
Also, to be extra safe like I was, tape across the corners multiple times and then tape that tape on its edges — then run tape right against the edges of the board (your board should be framed in blue tape by now) repeat this a few times and that board will not move unless you want it to.


Scale / Spread shows windows from all workspaces in 12.10

Question: I used Ubuntu Tweak to set up the lower left corner of my screen to activate scale/spread/show_windows/whatever_it's_called.  When I upgraded to 12.10, it now shows all open windows from all work-spaces.  It used to show only windows from the current workspace.  However, when I use super-W to do the same thing, it only shows windows from the current workspace.  What is going on here?  This feature is one of the main reasons that I use Unity (along with Dash and HUD), and without it working properly my productivity is hurt a lot.  Does anyone have a direction that I could look in to fix this?
Answer: Install CompizConfig Settings from the software center.  Under Window Management, click on Scale for options.  You're probably interested in the Behavior and Bindings tabs.


Can't find any replacement original chainrings (SG A-52-42-30) . What can I use instead?

Question: I have an early 2000's Giant OCR 2 roadbike (3x8 speed) with worn out chain rings on the Shimano Sora FC-3303 triple crankset. The original rings are the SG A-type, 5 bolt, 130 mm BCD in 52T-42T-30T sizes. All I can find are used ones, and I'd prefer not to change the crankset. Can I just drop the A-type originals and go with new ones in the same bolt pattern and BCD that are close (ie 53T-39T-30T)? Thanks
Answer: Yes, you don't have to use actual Shimano chainrings, you can use 'third party' brands.
There are a few manufacturers that produce replacement chainrings in a wide range of BCD measurements and tooth counts, so you be able to get exact matches.
If you do decide to change gearing, derailleur position and chain length will need to be changed, but you should probably be replacing the chain at the same time as as rings anyway, and also checking at the cassette for wear and replacing that if necessary.
Comment: Thanks, I'm replacing the chain, cassette, and rear derailleur at this point too. I've gotten several chain/cassette changes out of the bike, but the chainrings are original and are at their end of life.
Answer: Of course you can as long as the bolt pattern matches. It may happen that the new chainrings have slight offset, you would need to adjust your front derailleur then.
What will change is the gearing. Going from 52 to 53 for the largest cogring will decrease your cadence by less than 2% (will require more effort to maintain the same speed) but these are negligible values, I'd say.
You also may have to slightly rise the front derailleur, depending on how much clearance you have right now between it and the largest cog.
You should also check whether the new chainrings will fit your chain, i.e. if they are not too thick (for 1/8 chain only while your is 3/32) but I don't think it will be the case.
For your reference, I've changed the complete crank on my old 26" mountain bike.
I went from 46 to 54 the largest (if I can recall) and I needed a longer chain and the front derailleur had to be readjusted for height.
Answer: Thanks for the help so far. The original Sora 3300 triple has always required constant adjusting, and the only chainring replacements are 9 or 10 speed which means they should work, but might not depending on variables (which chain to use, etc). It's a bit spendy, but since the frame and wheels are OK  for my riding my current plan is to install a whole new Sora R3000 2x9 groupset (chain, shifters,RD,FD, cassette, crankset) for around $350 and do away with the triple altogether. If it updates key components as a set and gets me another few years of riding this bike it seems worth it.
Comment: If you are changing the entire group set anyway, why stick with 9 speed. I'd at least go to a 10 speed setup, as the extra gear will let you add a larger rear cog that will help offset the loss of your triple ring.
Comment: I'd also personally consider something at the 105 level as a minimum for quality, since that is the base level for stable but current technology. The cost will be higher, but not by a great deal.
Comment: Good advice, but the 105 is 11 speed which would mean a new rear hub. If I find a Tiagra groupset on sale I'll go with that.
Comment: An 11 speed rear wheel is cheap, relatively speaking. I'd still do 105 as best balance of cost, quality and future compatibility. But to each his own. :)
Answer: Update: I found a very fair deal from Merlin Cycles in the UK for a Tiagra 4700 groupset (mechs, crankset,bottom bracket, brifters, cassette, chain and brakes) with my preferred choices (crank length, medium rear mech, large cassette). It came in about a week through regular post (Canada) very well packaged and complete with new cable sets. Switching a 2005 Giant OCR from Sora 3300 Triple (3x8) to Tiagra (2x10) was straightforward, just had to Amazon a Hollowtech bracket wrench as I had not used one before. The next bike will be 105 with more carbon, but this feels like a good move to keep this one at a good level, and I don't miss the Sora triple so far. It feels as good as my older Dura Ace, although I know it's heavier.


Google Calendar "URL is too long to process and That's all we know" error

Question: I recently received an email from Google (it was an email address ending with @google.com) On the right hand side of my gmail, there was a link Add event to Google Calendar. Upon clicking this link, I received the following error message. What could be the reason for this and how do I resolve this issue?
Answer: The accepted answer isn't actually a solution.
I ran into this problem recently, and I made a simple Chrome Extension that fixes the problem, at least for Google Calendar. It uses the webRequest API to shorten the URL automatically after you click the link.
You can download it on the Chrome Web Store.
Comment: doesn't look like they were looking for a solution, but rather answer for why this was happening. As such, you've posted a good workaround and it's a valid one.
Comment: Upvoted for the solution. As @Dez said, I was actually more interested in the reason.
Answer: Refer the information about this error FIX: "414 Request-URI Too Large" Error Message from ISA Server and HTTP Error 414 Request URI too long
Answer: I know you aren't asking for a solution, but I came to this page hoping I could find one.  Maybe this will help someone else...
It's not an ideal solution, but I've discovered a work-around for the same issue my company has been having with sharing multiple calendars.  If users log into their own Google Calendar and then come back to the shared calendar and refresh the page, it works for them.


Guitar question tagging conventions

Question: Hi Guys,
I was pretty active on the guitars.se site, and in my effort to make the merge a success, I'm about to embark on tagging/retagging any unorganised questions from the old site that made the merge. However, before I start, I just wanted to check that the way I am going to tag the questions is the way that everyone else would agree with. My way is pretty much explained by Matthew Read's first answer to this question, applied to bass guitars:

I recommend bass-guitar for the first, so that it's distinguished from standup bass.  Tagging bass and guitar would mean that your question is both about bass and guitar, which is not your intention.
The rest follows from that; you should use acoustic-bass-guitar because it follows the same format, even though acoustic-bass should be unambiguous since there's no reason to add "acoustic" for a standup bass.  Likewise, electric-bass-guitar for questions limited solely to electric bass.
I think double-bass should be used as well, just to make it clear that it's not bass guitar.  I doubt there will be general bass questions (both double bass and bass guitar), so we shouldn't have bass at all.
Summary: Use bass-guitar and double-bass.  If questions are truly limited to them, use electric-bass-guitar and acoustic-bass-guitar.

Obviously I would be using this standard applied to guitars (electric, acoustic, 12 string etc).
Just wanted to check everyone else agrees with me, I don't want to start off wrong, so that everyone has to go and clear up my mess (not that I wouldn't myself obviously :) )
Comment: Well, I'm obviously down with that ... :P It's also how I've tagged a ton of the imported questions, so I do hope I don't have to redo it all!
Comment: Fab. Will crack on in the morning :D
Comment: BTW, relevant discussion on meta.so: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/93126/handling-of-inherited-tags
Answer: Yes, I think that's the standard that makes the most sense and is agreed upon by our community. We mods can also mass-retag things so the most important decision here is the use of a single tag instead of more than one and I don't think anyone is disputing the advantages of that.

Guitar question tagging conventions


Does a 'Under Construction' notice impacts site ranking negatively?

Question: Assuming one works on a website and decides to be polite and friendly by telling visitors it is still under construction, does it impact its ranking negatively? Does Google and others take this notice into account one way or the other for ranking?
Comment: How long do you have the notice up?  Is it just on one page or is it the whole site?
Comment: Two days ago. On one page (the main one, see http://yourcurrencyconverters-tostaky.rhcloud.com/). I am not asking this question for this specific site, but in general.
Answer: Once your site is live, do everything humanly (or inhumanly) possible to keep it up and serving content.
If you take a whole site down and replace it with an "under construction" landing page, expect to see your SEO suffer as inbounds are redirected to the content-less landing page.  Google will take note of this over time and either drop you like a rock (best case) or de-index you (worst case and more likely).
The best practice is to do your development and testing on some form of staging server, whether that is a simple local server environment or an actual replication of the live environment only accessible to your team.  Once your new stuff is ready, push it to the live server.  Doing this will bypass the need for any sort of "under construction" or "coming soon" notices.
Now, if this is a brand new site and you are publishing a "Coming Soon because we're not done yet" type of page, then that's a different story.  Google will see a content-less "Under Construction" or "Coming Soon" single page site as incomplete and probably will not index it as is.  But you should not be putting up a content-less Coming Soon page.  This is an opportunity for you to pre-seed your desired market with some actual, if generic, content and let Google chew on that while you get the rest of it up to speed.  See my answer on a similar question for some suggestions of what to post while you build.
Answer: It is likely.  An under construction notice would not indicate to me that a site is not a quality site.   Either it is brand new and has no content yet, or it is being worked on and the webmaster isn't happy with it yet.  If the webmaster isn't happy with it, maybe I don't want to go there.   All websites could use some improvement.  If the site is worth visiting, then forego the notice that there could be more coming if and when you get around to it.
Google certainly detects similar situations.  Their blog posts about what has changed in search include changes to their algorithm that detects parked domains.  They also pay attention to server statuses such as "503 Service Unavailable".


How are political staff (both congressional and campaign) paid in the US?

Question: For both politicians campaigning, or politicians that are already elected, how are their staff paid?  Does it from the the politician's pocket (which I am assuming is the case for someone that is campaigning but not elected) or say are they allotted money from their state to hire assistants/aides?  what about a currently elected politician who is also campaigning for re-election?
Answer: There is a big red line between campaign staff and member's staff, at least when it comes to the U.S. Congress.  Violating it can land you in jail.  To wit:

Congressional staff (e.g. Congressional aides, etc. ) are paid from a budget set aside for the purpose. This budget, called the Members Representational Allowance covers costs for staff, mailings, and personal expenses. The Statement of Disbursements is a record of the allowances for each office, and is usually between $1.2 - $1.5 million per member.  You can find your representative's office in this document.
The actual budget for each member varies, because it is based on actual expenses, but generally this is just a line item paid by the treasury from tax dollars.  Trust me when I say staffers are not getting rich.

The House sets the funding levels for the MRA annually as part of the federal budget process. According to the CRS report, this amount decreased from a total of $660 million for fiscal year 2010, to $573.9 million for fiscal year 2012. In 2012, individual representatives received MRA allowances ranging from $1,270,129 to $1,564,613, with an average of $1,353,205.13.

Interesting note from an article in NV called "How much does it cost to run a congressional office":

In the House, lawmakers can't hire more than 18 full-time employees — with a special allowance for an extra four part-timers, temps or paid interns. Additionally, none of those full-time employees can receive a salary of more than $168,411. Senators, meanwhile, don't have such limits — though committee staffers can't be paid more than $171,315.

The Congressional Management Foundation has guidance for freshmen on how to set up their offices.
Election staff is paid from the campaign fund, details of which must be reported to the Federal Election Commission on a quarterly basis, or it's local equivalent in the state. This fund may be funded by the member, the party, corporations, or individual contributors- but except for the member, there are strict limits on the amounts. Election staff that are paid (and there are usually only a few) are expenses no different than attack ads or junk mail.
While in the buildings, staff may not so anything related to the campaign. If they do, the member will definitely be talking to the ethics committee and could end up in jail. Interestingly, if you want to see what they are paid, you can go [here], since these payments are a matter of public record.
If the staff member wants to do something for the campaign, the Hatch Act allows the staff member to express their first amendment rights, but makes it very clear that it must be on their own time and done of their own free will with no compulsion from the member.

If the staff member wants to be more involved in the campaign (and this is not unusual) the staff member may take a unpaid leave of absence while the campaign is on. During this time, the party or the campaign fund may pay this person if they so choose.
The point in all of this,however, is that you are working for the campaign or for the members staff. It must be clear which and may not be both.
Comment: This budget for the actual staffers, where does that money come from?  Tax dollars?  And how is the budget determined?  Does each Senator get $X to pay any staffers he or she may want?
Comment: Answer updated - but yes, tax dollars.
Comment: Staff can also go part-time for the member's staff (with an associated pay cut) and use their newly acquired free time to work for the campaign, as long as the member isn't doing something like cutting office workload to free up staff time. [House ethics rules about this](http://ethics.house.gov/campaign-activity/campaign-work-house-employees); [Senate](http://www.ethics.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/campaign-activity)
Comment: ...and provided the staffer remains clear at all times if they're doing campaign work or official work, and doesn't do any campaign work (including things like answering a campaign email) on official time.
Answer: While it depends on how the campaign is financed, campaign staffers are usually divided into two groups: Paid employees and volunteers. The paid employees are usually the higher level staffers of the campaign (the campaign manager, public relations, consultants,etc). These people are often very expensive and they are compensated from the funds the candidate raises from campaign donations or in some cases from the candidate's own money that they invest into the campaign.
Lower level positions are almost always staffed by volunteers. They answer the phones, pass out fliers and literature, post signs,etc and perform the more basic tasks in the campaign. These are usually supporters of the politician who are drawn in from local functions or they are people who simply walk in off the street and volunteer their time. The number of volunteers almost always outnumbers the paid staff and they are often only "compensated" with free food and drink and the opportunity to claim that they worked on the campaign. In rare cases, they may be offered roles in the politician's administration; but those are exceptional instances.
In the United States, both state and federal funding is rather minimal and most campaigns are financed by private contributions. That is why politicians often spend as much time raising money for their campaigns as they do enacting legislation and addressing issues of concern to their constituents


Generating crema with a moka pot?

Question: I have a stove top percolator for making espresso.  It does not generate any crema.  it possible to do so with a stove top percolator?
Comment: Is it one of those small sort of mini alembic types?
Comment: it is a mini type
Answer: Moka pots (or stove top percolators) usually produce a pressure of around 1.5 bar, while most coffees require a pressure of at least around 6 bar for a crema to appear. However, there are some Moka pots with a special valve (called Cremator) which helps creating more pressures and thus produce a crema.
By the way, a real Espresso has to be brewed with a pressure of 9 bar ± 1, according to the Italian National Espresso Institute, so it can't be brewed with a Moka pot.
Answer: i read that the coffee bean type makes the difference. 100% arabica beans make no creama, while robusta beans do, however arabica tastes better, so mixing the 2 types will make a good tasting coffee and crema. problem is mixing. lavazza sells already mixed in one bag w/ different combinations of each bean. other important variables are grind size and water temp. the more u read about it the more u will realize that espresso is an elusive and difficult drink to make at home. the espresso gurus say the type of pot/machine is not as important as type of grind and grinder. ck out
https://prima-coffee.com/learn/article/making-espresso
if u want crema and no guess work, try out a nespresso machine and coffees. expensive but worth it if espresso and coffee are your drinks of choice.
Comment: It's a fallacy to say that all arabica does not make a crema on an espresso shot. It does.
Robusta does it better which is why most Italian espresso blends have a small percentage (probably under 10%) mixed in. It's usually not higher because of the "off" flavor of robusta. Robusta is also higher in caffeine than arabica. Very few, if any American espresso blends have any robusta because of the flavor. You will still find a crema on it though.
Most home espresso machines fail to make a good crema for many reasons. 1) bad grind
2) too little pressure in the machine 3) bad procedure (i.e. uneven
Comment: Could you provide evidence that arabica beans do not provide creama while robusta beans do.

Generating crema with a moka pot?


How secure is an .htaccess file?

Question: I am creating a new website and I want to make it as secure as possible. I was preparing to do some things with .htaccess and I'm semi-concerned about the security level it provides. Can someone (ex: a stranger online) access it? Can an .htaccess file can be cracked/hacked? How secure should I feel in using this for hiding directory content and such? Is it consistantly reliable, or a security risk?
Comment: "...using this for hiding directory content and such?" - If this directory content is sensitive/critical then it probably shouldn't be stored in the public HTML space to begin with.
Comment: @MrWhite Where do you store sensative information (ex: membership data) then?
Comment: Outside of the public HTML space. eg. Above the document root. (Assuming you weren't planning on using Apache's HTTP authentication to secure the directory?)
Answer: htaccess files usually can not be accessed and this can be verified in the httpd file of the server, which should have a rule to deny access to htaccess files.
htaccess files  are widely used  for seo and webmaster's purposes and are considered a staple when it comes to a variety of things (controlling access, redirecting, etc).
So, htaccess is reliable and you should feel safe using it. Keep in mind though  that this is not the best practice, as the apache documentation suggests using httpd file for user authentication and mod_rewrite tasks as it is less taxing on the server and thus increases performance. It is just that many webmasters are not necessarily their server's admins and thus they don't have rights to modify the httpd file, so they are granted access to httaccess files for the specific directories their web application resides in.
In the end, there is no concern when it comes to using htaccess files (exluding server performance but this depends on what you want to do) and it is a widely used method by many webmasters. The file is protected from the public by a deny access rule in your httpd file (if you can not verify it yourself, ask your server admin to check it) and even in the case it is not, someone would have to have specific rights to be able to modify it.
That being said, it all depends on your server's security. An exposed/compromised server can in no way guarantee the integrity of your htaccess file, or any file for that matter. But the htaccess, on its own, is not known to pose a security risk.
Answer: If your website does get hacked, most attackers modify the .htaccess file to reroute traffic off your site or to power pages with their own files.
While .htaccess isn't usually the security problem, it will likely get used as part of any hack.  Disabling .htaccess could make your site less desirable to hack, or limit the damage that a hacker can do.

How secure is an .htaccess file?


How does a light wallet function?

Question: I do know the core wallet downloads and sync the blockchain to the computer and then easily shows amount of monero one holds in this core wallet. But how can we create a light wallet for mobile and still be able to show updated balance without downloading the blockchain ?
Answer: Same like mymonero: How does mymonero web wallet work?
Instead of your wallet getting blockchain data and scanning it yourself, you give the service your viewkey and address and it does the scanning for you.
It has privacy drawbacks. The service can see your incoming transfers and amounts. It can not see the destination. However, it could make good guesses when you send to someone else registered on the same service (because it could cross-reference his list of received with yours). That's why the objective is to have people run their own micro-service which they will be ale to do soon when work on open-source back-end will be finished.
However, I imagine mass surveillance of those services and data analysis would require massive amounts of computing power :)
Comment: thanks for your feedback. Sorry quite a newbie here. But the service in this case, who is it ? Can I, for example, run the blockchain on a server somewhere, and then build a mobile app as monero wallet and connect the mobile app to the server ?
Comment: Service=anyone running a mymonero type backend server. There's an open-source one available [here](https://github.com/moneroexamples/openmonero) so you could set up the server and build monero app to connect to it. That's actually the plan with mymonero app and work is ongoing to have the back-end built into the "official" software.

How does a light wallet function?


Max Temp for Fried Chicken

Question: I'm currently working for a fried chicken pop up restaurant and we're trying to lock down our process to ensure chicken is fully cooked but comes out fast, crunchy, and juicy.  So far I've just been focusing on making sure it reaches 165 with a golden brown crust, but I'm wondering at what temp roughly boneless breasts, bone in breasts, wings, and dark quarters become too dry; my challenge is to get a well browned crust without drying out the chicken.
Comment: Ah, you mean the internal temperature.  In my personal opinion, about 170 F for white meat, 180 F is doable for dark....  this is also somewhat determined by whether and how the product was brined or injected.
Comment: I think you are going to have to experiment with your timing and fryers and how cold your freezer or fridge is (which dictates the starting temperature), but chicken is normally fried at about 350 - 365 F.   Timing is as much a factor as the oil temp; the size of the pieces is even more important.  Do you cook the wings (which are faster) separately from the breasts, for example?
Comment: Additionally, in a commercial environment, you are going to want to consider oil lifetime, which is reduced at higher temperatures.  There is no single answer.
Comment: Wings and boneless we do in a separate fryer @375F.  I'm definitely testing the timing.  I'm wondering, roughly, at what temperature white meat generally becomes too dry.  170F? 180? 190?  I've sent out chicken as high as 200F but I think I was pushing it then.
Answer: I wouldn't go any higher than 180F at most.  You can mitigate the drying effects of higher temperatures (especially on white meat) by brining the chicken first.
Comment: Thanks for the help, these were the temps we guessed (170 and 180) but I wanted to be sure.  We brine our chicken first but I'll keep those limits to allow for margin of error.

Max Temp for Fried Chicken


Is there any way to script a Google Docs spreadsheet?

Question: I have a really complex spreadsheet in Google Docs, and while it works, having the ability to script it a bit (à la VBA in Microsoft Office) would make it a lot cleaner. I heard that this is doable in Google Apps, but I can't find it in Google Docs. Is this possible? Or is this something only Office can do?
Answer: Yep its called Google Apps Script.
They just had a Apps Script Hackathon! They have some good examples and tutorials on the resource page. Someone also coded "Game Of Life" in a script :)
They also had a talk at Google I/O about it.
Comment: +1 Google Apps Script is great. I've been utilizing it a lot lately to automate work. It not only can do the same type of stuff that VBS can, but you can pull data from the web (or other gdocs) directly, schedule time-based event triggers to run on their own (hourly, daily, etc), and build UIs (including extending the toolbar with custom commands). It's pretty amazing.
Comment: Bernie, most of your links are broken !!
Answer: Look in the menu under Tools > Scripts. There's lots of examples and help to get going.
Answer: This is the official web site for Google Apps Script:
https://developers.google.com/apps-script/
Nowadays, it has an extensive help and tutorial section:
Answer: It's called Google Apps Script https://developers.google.com/apps-script/