Lyx IEEEtran template copyright overlaps text, authors not appearing

Question: How do you make certain that the copyright and publisher id mark are correctly located at the bottom of an IEEEtran template Lyx document when rendered as PDF?
I've tried a couple of suggestions but no matter what it always appears to overlap with the text of the document at the bottom of page 1 (see first image).
Also, although it specifies in the template that your name and paper title will appear next to the name of the journal it doesn't render in the pdf even for the example that comes with a fresh install of Lyx.
How do you get the authors and paper title to appear with the journal title in the upper left corner of the pdf? (see 2nd image).
issue with copyright overlapping and author names as programmed in the Lyx example that do not show in the pdf in the upper left corner with the journal name:

Here's some suggestions I attempted but none worked:
problem having copyright notice and header at the same time in IEEEtrans template
http://www.michaelshell.org/tex/ieeetran/     (see publisher ID mark)
Comment: See the answer here: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/213338/copyright-notice-overlapping-with-text-in-lyx/213346#213346
Comment: Did you ever find a solution to your problem? I am experiencing the same issue. Thanks
Answer: Find the overlapping paragraph in LyX, use Ctrl + L, input <code>\IEEEpubidadjcol</code> twice at the beginning and end of this paragraph.
Comment: Why at the beginning and end?


Why does a helicopter need cyclic control rather than just tilting the whole main rotor?

Question: Helicopters use a cyclic control to tilt each blade differently through the rotor's revolution. This is quite a complex mechanism. What is the advantage of this vs tilting the whole rotor plane? This seems to be a much more simple solution.
Comment: If the helicopter had any forward speed, wouldn't the lift of the rotors heading into the wind would be greater than those retreating?
Comment: I sure wouldn't want to get near one on the ground that had a tiltable rotor running.
Comment: @MarkAdler Does the [Osprey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Boeing_V-22_Osprey) count?
Comment: Google for "dissymmetry of lift".  The blades have "flapping" hinges which enable them to flap up and down and twist.  The advancing blade(s) flaps up, reducing the angle of attack and therefore the lift produced, whilst the retreating blade flaps down, increasing the angle of attack and therefore lift.  This counters the tendency for the helicopter to roll towards the retreating blade.  Ultimately, it is this phenomenon that limits the maximum speed of a helicopter.
Comment: @DavidRicherby No, it doesn't.
Answer: Tilting the rotor doesn't do much, in fact the body will be tilting more than the rotor. The gyroscopic effect will work against you.
The cyclic increases lift on one side of the rotor which will tilt the rotor. Which will then move the craft in the correct direction.
In other words the cyclic system gives a more direct response to input.
Answer: Rachet Freaks answer is good, but I feel a bit incomplete.
You ask why it needs a cyclic control.  Well, you need a control to tilt the disc, either directly or by flying it into position, so let's call that control the cyclic control (since it affects the rotor cyclically).  So whatever your mechanism, you need a cyclic control to tilt the disc.
So what do we mean by tilt the disc?  It's splitting hairs a little bit, although precise, to distinguish between tilting the disc, and causing a cyclic change in lift to each blade such that the rotor flies into a tilt.  The reasons for flying it into a tilt are as Rachet Freak states.
You then state that it's complex, so let's examine physically tilting the disc versus cyclically altering the pitch of each blade.
Cyclically altering blade pitch:  The power shaft from the rotor gearbox passes through the middle of the swashplate and is attached to the rotor.  The bottom of the rotating rotor is the rotating part of the swashplate which acts as a bearing surface rotating on the lower part of the swashplate which is non-rotating and fixed to the fuselage.  The blades are attached to the rotating swashplate with pitch links which can move to turn the blades in their cuffs.  Now all we need to do is to attach the cyclic control to the non-rotating swashplate so that we can tilt it.  In turn, this will tilt the rotating swashplate and the pitch links will transmit this to the blades, causing them to rotate in their cuffs, altering the angle of attack and therefore lift.

(By KoenB (blender drawing) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
Physically tilting the disk:  The first half of this is the same.  Just remove the pitch links so that the disc will physically follow the swashplate.  All good so far, and the only complexity you have removed are the pitch links attached to the blades to rotate them.  But now you have a problem.  You can only increase or decrease total lift by varying the power applied to the rotor from the engine and therefore the total rotor thrust.  The easiest way to solve this is to put the pitch links back and allow the blades to rotate in their cuffs.
Therefore, trying to physically tilt the disc needs the same complexity as cyclically varying the pitch and loses a lot of the utility of the helicopter.
Comment: I guess Gyro vanilla tillting device is a good illustration of the second option.... Tons of (public domain) pics available on the net I presume?!
Answer: The earliest autogyros by Juan de la Cierva did this, tilt the whole rotor. But when the autogyros became bigger, the control forces became too heavy and that is when he designed the feathering mechanism, so that aerodynamics could take care of it by using blade flapping.
It's actually quite beneficial to not have to tilt the whole rotor: the rotor axis is beefy and it has gearboxes connected to it. Yes the feathering mechanism is complicated, but a construction to allow the rotor axis of let's say a CH-53 to tilt, with its three engines and gearboxes connected to it, has its own complicated problems to solve.

Image source
Comment: Also for high angle of attack, tilting rotor is not possible


Rapping for a long time without breathing

Question: I have been listening to an underrated rapper named K.A.A.N. recently and in most of his songs, it seems as though his lung capacity is ridiculously large. I don't know if this is some sort of circular breathing technique in which he is able to expel air out of his mouth as he inhales, or if he truly does have insane lung capacity. Does anyone know of any breathing techniques that would allow me to rap for say 90-120 seconds continuously, seemingly, or realistically without breathing?
Comment: Have you checked live footage? If you have a link to a live example I'd love to hear/see it. Studio could always be manipulated, live would be harder. Also, you'd be amazed at how small a gap you need to keep nipping partial breaths, unnoticeable by an audience.
Comment: There is a video on youtube of a rapper named Mac Lethal, he raps for about 80 seconds understandably, without breathing. it's a home-filmed, at least seemingly uncut video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5x0Qnupl54
Comment: K.a.a.n. hasn't done much live stuff aside from a couple freestyles and an improvised version of a song he did with Josh Salley, in which he didn't go all the way through the verse, allowing Salley to intervene a couple times. He has music videos, but they have cuts, as most, if not all music videos are.
Comment: You can't tell from a regular music video, as it's a simple mime to what may already be a layered track. Unless you can see him do it live, assume it's a recording 'trick', nothing more.
Comment: @DevinYoung I was literally just about to link that video.  Super cool but wouldn't really apply to a live music setting.  I'm willing to bet that this rapper is indeed cutting takes together.  I'm not familiar with him to be able to say offhand but it is incredibly unlikely that there is a human that can do that effectively and consistently.  I'd also doubt that any circular breathing would effectively allow you to continue rapping while doing it.
Answer: Yes. I know of two ways to increase lung capacity to make it possible to sing for much longer passages:

Train for and run a half marathon
Train for and run a sprint triathlon

I've done each of those (at different times) while singing in a band and if you focus on your breathing while training (which you pretty much have to), you can train yourself to much greater lung capacity.
Answer: Beat boxers make sounds whilst inhaling and exhaling, so they can satisfy their body's need for oxygen and keep the beat going. Could you do the same?
Comment: This is a possibility... I have a suspicion that when he makes a long "e" sound (such as in the word "see"), he makes it really high-pitched many-a-time, so he may be using that technique in that he taught himself to inhale while creating the long "e"
Answer: I knew an old talkative woman who could prattle on endlessly and she tended to complete her sentences on the intake in order not to make a pause.  Now she did not seamlessly revert to breathing out again while speaking (I think she'd run out of oxygen) and the vocal quality was quite more wheezy when she did that, but she was not getting paid for it either and I rather doubt she practiced in private.  And she couldn't exactly be called of high bodily fitness: you'd rather expect her to run out of breath even when speaking normally.
This is, of course, purely anecdotal evidence and extrapolated to a young person of reasonable bodily fitness, nevertheless I can well imagine that particularly in connection with good microphone technique a practised artist could pull this off reasonably convincingly in live situations.
However, many rap recordings I remember are more or less obviously overdubbed if you listen closely for telltale signs: there is a quality of stuff blending in and out as if someone were constantly completing his own sentences.
Answer: It also depends on the syllables in the words you use and how you order them as to if you find a certain sentence easier to speak, as in a recurring "I" sound or "o", "e", "a", or any sound really as long as it's the same sound repeated quite often, then change the syllable only slightly for example, also it helps you rap faster.
E.g.
I'm Invictus like a pylodictus my lyrical skill is ridiculous sticking my d*ck in a b*tches utriculus.
Answer: He does this thing known as circular breathing. A lot of musicians who play trombones or saxophones use it. K.A.A.N managed to use this while he is rapping. Basically what it is is breathing in while letting out air. It is extremely hard, and if you listen closely enough you can hear him doing it. But, at some points, I do notice him going up to 100 seconds without doing this technique. He is a very impressive man.


Can I cook couscous for a chicken dish in my crock pot at the same time as the chicken?

Question: I'm wanted to make a lemon garlic chicken in a crockpot and I'd like to serve it with couscous. Is there a way to cook the two together? I know I can cook the couscous and then add it in the crockpot at the end but I'd prefer to avoid using an extra pot. Can I just add extra liquid (broth) and then add it in halfway, or add it in with the chicken right from the start?
Answer: I think this is going to be a bad idea; you'll go from ideal couscous texture (fluffy and light) to mush. I have an article (on my blog) about how to make fluffy couscous. The crux is simply to put it, with the appropriate amount boiling water, in a wide, shallow vessel and cover it for 5 minutes. You can even set that up ahead of time, and when you are ready to serve the food from your crockpot, just add the boiling water from a teakettle and you'll be good to go.
Answer: If this is the kind of couscous you generally get in the US, the normal method of cooking it is to stir it into boiling water and then remove from heat and cover tightly. That suggests that you should be able to stir it in at the end of cooking your chicken, along with whatever liquid is necessary to bring you to the 1.5:1 ratio. That'd be pretty much the same as cooking it normally, as long as your crockpot lid isn't too loose. If you're cooking the chicken well below boiling, you could make sure the liquid you add is boiling.
Comment: I would suspect that the liquid already in the crockpot would be a problem -- you'd need to determine how much is already there so you'd have the right proportion of couscous to liquid.  (and even then, its not boiling liquid, so it's not going to cook quite the same).
Comment: @Joe: Yeah, I know it's not going to be easy, but as far as cooking *in* the crockpot, I think it's about the best you can do. But Michael's right; it's not exactly hard to cook it separately, and you know it'll work.
Answer: Instead of the 5 min / boiling water method, you can also steam couscous, but it's much more work -- Alton Brown's technique calls for steaming, separating the grains, then steaming a second time.  Tradiationally' it's cooked in a couscoussier, which is basically a steamer, but has a larger pot underneath so you could cook your main dish at the same time.
If you could fit a steamer above the crock pot, and it was generating enough steam, and you could get the steam to not all escape out the sides ... this could work.  But it'd still be something else to clean, so I don't know if you'd want to do it.
If I were going to try to keep it all to one pot, I'd probably pull the chicken, measure out the liquid in the pot, pour it back into the crockpot with any additional liquid needed, turned to high -- heat it 'til it bubbled (which is going to take a while, it's a crockpot) and add the couscous, cover, and let sit for a few minutes (might not be 5 ... you'll have to check it)


Parallel fifths in the orchestra

Question: I started to learn orchestral music with four part harmony for choirs and there you always try to avoid parallel fifths and octaves...
How does this relate to a whole orchestra? Do you have to take care of them only within the sections (strings, brass, woodwinds), do you have to take care of them within the whole orchestra or does it even matter in the whole orchestra?
Comment: @AlbrechtHügli That's not parallel octaves, that's just doubling at the octave. Parallel octaves and fifths refer to the relationship between two entirely different voices, not just multiple lines playing the same voice.
Comment: Assuming you want the 18th-century style of music - take care to distinguish between doublings and parallel octaves. In 18th century music, parallel octaves are when two independent lines start playing octaves - this is bad in this style, as the two lines "collapse" into one. For doubling, you establish the two instruments as playing the same line from the start, and thus play octaves for the duration of the line.
Comment: Imagine Violoncello and Doublebass: the will play octava parallels in any style. So don't mind the parallel fifths in orchestra voicing. It's not a question of "take care" it's a question of counterpoint and opposite motion. If you want it or if you need it ... do what you must do.
Comment: @AnselChang, you should write your comment up as an answer.  The answers below completely ignore the issue of doubling in a larger orchestral setting while getting distracted by the genre issue (which isn't actually the question being asked).
Answer: IF you care about avoiding parallel fifths and octaves—and that's entirely a stylistic choice on the part of the composer—then, for the most part, you care about them regardless of the instruments involved. And you care about them at the level of basic harmonic structure completely independent of the orchestration of the moment. In other words: no, it isn't something you avoid only within a particular instrument family, it's orchestra-wide.
For the European composers of common-practice tonal music in the 18th century (with considerable overlap into the 17th and 19th centuries as well), they almost always avoided these parallels, and they did so regardless of whether it was a piano sonata, or a symphony or anything in between. It's a fundamental aspect of harmonic connection for them, not a surface level concern. What I mean is: by the time they're thinking about how to distribute the harmonies amongst the instruments, the voice leading is already set. It's not even something a composer of that period had to consciously think about, it's just how the primary musical grammar worked for them. When they did want the sound of parallel fifths—as Beethoven did in a famous passage of the sixth symphony—they wrote it, but it wasn't the default.
Here in the 21st century, most of us don't already have this preconceived idea about how harmonies "should" connect. A lot of popular music styles use parallels all the time; in a lot of basic heavy metal music I would (only half-facetiously) say a composer was making a mistake if they didn't use parallel fifths and octaves. Different musics have different grammars, but those grammars tend to apply regardless of specific instrumentation.
Answer: Parallel 5ths are absolutely fine in choral music.  In fact, the very earliest choral music was ALL parallel 5ths!   Where they AREN'T fine is in a style of writing which values the effect of four independent voices, the style epitomised by Bach's chorale settings.   Listen to the beautiful rich harmony of those, also listen to the barer but still beautiful effect in this piece.

Both styles are perfectly valid in orchestral writing.
To address your question more narrowly:
There is a principle in orchestral writing that in a tutti the harmony should be complete within each section - i.e. you don't give the root of a chord to the strings, the 3rd to the brass and the 5th to the woodwind.  If you follow this principle, it implies that any parallels WILL arise both within and between sections.
Comment: This may be true, but it doesn't really answer the question,
Answer: Two instruments which play parallel fifths or octaves will often sound like a single more powerful instrument.  The extent to which this occurs will generally depend on the particular instruments involved.  This effect can be very useful if employed in places where it would make musical sense.  It can also be jarring if it occurs willy-nilly without rhyme or reason.
Note that in a symphony orchestra, the number of different instruments will typically be much greater than the number of different musical lines that be maintained simultaneously.  The most useful way to employ a symphony orchestra will thus often be to have various groups of instruments play various sections of music in parallel octaves or, less commonly, fifths, so that they sound--for those sections of music--like unified more powerful instruments.  Note that when using parallel fifths, the part that's up a fifth should generally played on an instrument with a relatively "pure" tone, such as a flute.
Comment: But that isn't parallel motion (well not in the sense being used when talking about counterpoint) that's just doubling. Doubling a voice in multiple octaves happens all the time even in solo piano music of the common-practice era; it's only at the level of the fundamental voices that it's generally avoided.
Comment: @PatMuchmore If the doubling only happens sometimes, then it's still parallel. And you really need to make an Answer about this, because there's no reason to assume the OP makes such distinctions.
Comment: @trlkly Yes, there is a point at which the distinction can become quite nuanced, you're right. Separate lines coalesce into a single voice temporarily, and then separate later, and it isn't always easy to make a distinction between legitimate doubling and un-stylistic voice leading. At any rate, I did write an answer, and tried to address the central confusion of the OP's post, maybe I failed.
Comment: @PatMuchmore Sorry. I missed that was *your* Answer. Then my comment is that that you may want to add an explanation of  the difference between part doubling and parallel octaves in your Answer, since you keep mentioning it in the comments. Unless I'm missing it, you don't appear to mention this at all in your current Answer.
Comment: @PatMuchmore: The effect of making several instruments or voices sound like one will occur when they are doubled, but is prone to also occur when voices move in parallel fifths or octaves between chords in a progression.  The reason parallel fifths and octaves are generally avoided in counterpoint is to avoid having this effect occur at times it is not wanted.
Answer: There is a similar question to this one here: Parallel Fifth in a Symphony Orchestral
However, I wouldn't say that it matters too much within the whole orchestra. People these days are so familiar with the sound from all the pop & rock songs out there. I think it will just fly by within a whole orchestral score with so many instruments playing at the same time.
If you compose something and then think "ohh boy, this sounds like block-chords", then you probably should change it, but otherwise - if it sounds good to you, it sounds good to other people as well.
You probably should only take care of them in small arrangements when they're exposed, but even then... There are no rules in music. If you like the sound, then stick with it.
Answer: Different musical styles are more or less permissive of parallel fifths and octaves, and this can vary even between pieces by the same composer.
However, there is no fundamental difference between orchestral writing and choral writing from this perspective. If you wanted to write an orchestral piece using the same musical language that you've used for choral music, then you would avoid parallels in just the same way.
One difference is that an orchestra has many more instruments. This doesn't mean you need to attempt to write 50-part harmony! typically, not all the instruments will be playing at once, and if they are, it is common to have multiple instruments playing the same part . It may appear that there are parallel unisons or octaves between these instruments, but if two parts are playing exactly the same music (even an octave apart), then this is called doubling, and is not an example of parallels.
Often, orchestral music will be based around some fairly simple (4-6 part) harmony. This underlying harmony will obey the normal rules for the style (including avoiding parallels if appropriate), but the parts might be blended and embellished in different ways among different instruments for textural reasons. This is called orchestration, and it's a separate skill that is not so important in choral music.
Answer: This answer affirms the need to specify genre, but specifically explores upon the differences in parallel 5ths and 8ths for 4-part writing versus orchestral writing in 18th-century music.
The purpose of avoiding parallel 5ths and 8ths, especially around 18th-century music, is to give the listener the impression of distinct musical lines, especially in the diatonic setting. Parallel 5ths and 8ths would otherwise blur the two lines together. If your goal is to utilize this effect of distinct melodic lines, then you would use it in the same way with the orchestra as you would do in 4-part harmony. Obviously, if you instead want some sweeping parallel 5ths and octaves to intensify the piece, by all means, do so. You are the composer, after all.
In terms of 18th-century composition: now, there's a catch, a key difference between 4-part harmony and orchestral writing. The orchestra is much bigger. In this case, octave doublings, are allowed, but they are different from parallel octaves.
Octave doublings result when a whole line is played in octaves by multiple instruments for the purpose of increasing dynamics, strengthening the line, diversifying timbre, etc. Note that this is still one line played by multiple instruments. One establishes the 2+ instruments as playing the same line from the start, and they play octaves for the duration of the line. This is distinct from parallel octaves, where two already-distinct lines briefly "merge" with parallel octaves, giving a feel of two lines collapsing into one.
In 18th-century music, 5ths moving in parallel motion are not allowed in any context, except in an unrelated topic of German 6ths.

Parallel fifths in the orchestra


mic recommendation for microscopic recording

Question: which mic (or what type of mic) would you recommend for properly capturing microsound? e.g. recording really small tiny acoustic elements? i'm interested in capturing high resolution inner detail of some physical materials.
Answer: Might want to see if anything in this thread helps you.
How to capture very low volume sounds?
Answer: you may want to look into contact microphones. they can get you a lot of detail that might otherwise be lost, but it's not always easy finding the best place to attach them on small devices.
about microphones in general (and this isn't always true, but it's a starting point): large diaphragms are generally more sensitive to lower acoustic levels than small diaphragms, but small diaphragms generally have better high frequency response. that can help inform your choice of microphone.
Answer: I think the mic has been mentioned before but if you want something super sensitive the now discontinued Sanken MO-64 can record ant's footsteps and a snail's hearbeat.
What exactly are you planning on recording?  What do you mean my by inner detail of some physical materials?  I'm trying to think if you want a contact mic or a sensitive large diaphragm condenser...
Comment: the MO-64 is a great example. is there any (cheaper) equivallent for it in the market? ... i'm interested in capturing small insect sounds, elasticity of several sensitive materials such as springs, rubbergum, thick fluids, etc.
Answer: We have a Sanken MO-64 in the studio, all I can say is...wow.


Is this a climber? Any idea what it is?

Question: enter image description here
I inherited this beautiful rose plant when I bought my home.  I live in Florida.  I studied pruning online and thought I did pretty well, but I don't know if I should prune it way back next year during our one (sorta) cold month of January.  I do deadhead and the branches I've cut seem to do very well.  It mostly blooms on the end of very long branches.  Sometimes in groups of five roses and sometimes just one rose.  It blooms over and over.  I'm thinking it's too "leggy" as there aren't many roses in the mid part of the "bush".  What am I doing right?  Wrong?  Oh, also they have a pretty scent, not too strong.  Thanks so much!
Comment: Can you add a photo showing the plant from the ground up please - want to look at how many stems there are and how tall ....
Comment: Hi:  Sure, I had to hunt for one, sorry!  It is at least 6-7 feet tall.  All branches originate from big "trunk" or "stem".  Sorry, this was my first rose encounter.  I was so afraid it wouldn't live.  Evidently it's been in the yard for a long time!     These aren't perfect, but they're what I have right now.  Thank you for responding!
Comment: I will concentrate on better pruning in January.  And, ill try to support the branches horizontally, as described.  I'm very excited now to see what it will do!  I can see a comment in my inbox from Bamboo but when I click on it, it takes me only to the answer left by @33232.  Was that other one deleted?  I'm BRAND new to this so I may have done something wrong.
Answer: If this a climber this is what you should do:
If you only have flowers at the top, then pruning is the issue.
It should be done in the dormant season, January is best on a cold but dry day.
The idea of a climber is to create a woody frame first of multiple branches And have that frame as horizontal as possible and attach it to wires to give it support. Like tree branches without a trunk!
What this will do is push the plant to grow side shoots which will be vertical, basically looking for the sun... this is where your flowers will be.
In winter, you prune the rose and "trick it" in thinking it is being weakened. The response is for lots of its energy to make flowers in order to seed and survive.
The pruning is done on the vertical side shoots, leaving 2 buds on it.
Take out dead, damage, diseased branches first.
Using these techniques, learn to improve the shape and flower production of the plant.
Good luck.

If this is a  Floribunda or a Hybrid tea, the pruning is similar. See below

Is this a climber? Any idea what it is?


How much health does the green buff around neutral minions give you?

Question: How much health does the green buff around neutral minions give you? It's really a useful thing to know because then, I could judge whether or not to risk it.
Answer: The formula is (25+(5*maxlevel))*1,(%health missing)
So if your lvl 1 and full hp you will get 30 hp, and if your hp is 50% then you will get 45hp
Tested it a few weeks ago because i wondered myself.
Comment: Please add a source.
Answer: It gives hp based upon your max lvl teammate, just like the monsters gain health per champ lvl
Answer: The lower hp you are, the more hp it restores. I don`t believe Riot has released an exact formula for how much hp the sigil restores.


How to do comparison among 8 columns of data with one another?

Question: How to do comparison among 8 columns of data with one another? I have to compare every column with every other column. Also i need to know : what is missing in one column and present in another and vice versa.
Comment: What kind of comparison? What does your data look like? We really need a lot more information.
Answer: If you're using Excel or some spreadsheet, sort the items in the same order and use your eyes.  If an item doesn't exist in a column, add a blank entry to the others to keep everything lined up.  It's slow and a pain, but it works.
Sort each column of data in the same order, then extract each to a separate file in Excel or a text file, or some common format.  Use an application such as BeyondCompare to compare two files at a time.  It will show mismatches between the two.  I don't think it can do more than two at a time, however.  It's not slow and usually works very nicely.


Complete book of chess search

Question: I have read a number of chess books by now, which either contained a number of analyzed games, or some tactics. But I am a little underwhelmed with completeness. What I am hoping exists is a really complete book that contains a bit of everything. I am reading silmans A-Z, which gets kind of close. But coming from academia I'm thinking of something more similar to a 2000pg textbook format, which after reading will have provided a relatively complete understanding many chess concepts.
Comment: Can you mention a few examples of 2000-page academic textbooks that provide a "relatively complete understanding" of a whole field?
Answer: The Steps Method is a graduated series of books that attempts to provide all material necessary to take a player from complete beginner to expert. I have not used it but it has a strong reputation.
To proceed past that, the best thing I can think of is Yusupov's 9-book course (Build Up Your Chess et al), which is around 2700 pages in total and attempts to take a player from about 1500 FIDE to master. I am a bit more than halfway through and give it a great deal of credit for my rise from 1800 to 2000 USCF.
Of course, either (or both) of these series must be supplemented by actually playing games.
Answer: I found The Mammoth Book of Chess to be a good all round book, if you're going to only buy one, it pretty much covers everything. It has a Tactics section with easy/hard/medium, endgames tactics section, openings overviews with example games separated into open/semiopen/closed openings, mid game and end game strategies sections, and I think a history section and a computing section. You can get a second hand one quite easily.
Answer: Chess has had more books written about it than any other topic except the Bible.  It is a highly complex game and volumes have been written on just a single topic, so I think expecting one book to provide a complete examination of all concepts is probably unrealistic.
Having said that I can also tell you that you are on the right track reading Jeremy Silman's books because he is superb at explaining ideas with clarity. Few authors have this ability.  Check out his endgame manual.
Of course, Bruce Pandolfini is also known as a good teacher.
Also, I have read many books and can recommend a few.  Aron Nimzovich's "My System" offers many useful ideas.  Nimzovich invented many of the terms still used today to describe various important principles.
Next, V. Vucovic's " The Art of Attack in Chess" is a unique guide to learning how to spot and exploit weaknesses on the board so that you may understand why a move is good or bad.
Alexander Kotov and Paul Keres have a  definitive book  with " The Art of the Middle Game". It is one of a kind!

Complete book of chess search


Is cast iron cookware from China safe?

Question: I recently purchased a cast iron bread pan, and didn't see that it was made in China on the Amazon sales page. Oops. I saw it on the box and haven't opened it yet. I know there is a lot of concern when it comes to Chinese goods and heavy metals. I like heavy metal { \m/...(>.<)…\m/ }, but not in my food. So, is something like this safe? I Googled the question, but like with so many things it looks more like uninformed fear than anything else.
Answer: I should have spent a bit more time searching. One of the searched results that looked like a fear video was actually the opposite. Here is some stuff from that video and comments.
First: Lead boils at about half the temperature that iron melts. So even if you start out with a mix of lead and iron, it won't last long. Second:

A bit of arithmetic: - Cast Iron Assay can expect Lead content to be 0.001 to 0.15%. (By weight or volume is not significant, see below) My 26.5 cm Chinese skillet, as yet unused (which is why I am researching) weighs 2.1 kg. At 0.15% that is a total lead content of 3.15g. Realistically, how much of that can ever get into the food? Cast iron density is around 6800 - 7800 kg/m3. At the higher figure this works out to a volume for my skillet of 2.1/7800 m^3 = 2.7 x 10^-4 m^3= 270cc. Ignoring the handle and sides, let us consider only the flat cooking surface diameter 20cm, and assume a depth of say 1mm available to leach the lead. Volume of a cylinder = pi r^2 x h = 3.14 x 10cm^2 x 0.1 = 31.4cc. Thus 31.4/270 x 100 = roughly 11.6%. 11.6/100x3.15 = 0.37g = 370μg of lead available. Lead toxicity is at about 10 μg/dL of blood. Average human blood volume is 500dL. So, if ALL the available lead in the pan was taken out AT ONCE, and you managed to absorb it ALL, just into your blood, , you would have a blood level of 370/500 = 0.74μg/dL, about 1/14th the toxic level, before your system kicked it out at around half per 30 days. Go figure.

--flamencoprof
So no, I don't need to worry.
edit: Hmm. The video's figures were wrong. Iron melts at about 1811K and lead boils at about 1749. Close but not quite. Still, from this source it seems that a typical blast furnace should still boil lead.
Comment: There are commercially made steels in which lead is intentionally added, eg steels meant for turning on a lathe - lo and behold, not all the lead is boiled out when making it. Also, not every mixture of materials can be divided by simple distillation (see eutectic alloy, see azeotrope...)...
Comment: Sooo.... from that, is it safe or not, you just quoted the stuff but did not say decisively what it made you conclude. 'So I dont need to worry' but then an edit below.
Answer: Please test for lead instead of guessing.  A home lead paint test kit should work.
Comment: You're right, guessing is bad, but I am not guessing. The boiling point of lead is lower than the melting point of iron.
Answer: The melting point of lead (621°F), a boiling point of 3,164°F and starts to vaporize The point where Iron is ready to cast is 2300-2500.F doesn't come close to the point of stratification of the metals. It's all about the metal you start with in the first place. Chinese Cast Iron? Who knows

Is cast iron cookware from China safe?


When to ask for apparel size in a shopping app?

Question: When Is it appropriate to ask user to choose apparel size ( XL,XXL) ?on the product screen or on the cart screen?
Answer: I'd test it to be sure.
However my hunch, having worked on a fair number of clothing ecommerce systems and having dong testing on those, is that you want to be specifying size on the product screen, or before (via search by size for example).
The reason? Almost every clothing store will not have every single size in stock for every line of clothing. Certain sizes will tend to sell out on a line before others.
So - if you have specifying size late in the process the experience of shopping for a bunch of users becomes:

On Search: Oh I like that
On Product: Yeah: that looks good
Shit.. they don't have it in my size...
Repeat.

This happens too often - folk just give up.
Answer: Assumption: You are following the amazon-ish way and product selection on product screen leads to cart/check-out screen.
Product screen.
When the user is selecting the product, you cannot expect them to purchase a garment without specifying its size. It might lead to the feeling that there is no size selection at all.
eg: how would you like to walk into a shop and pick out a t-shirt to buy and you can only see the size when you reach the cashier?
The cart needs the size display for re-inforcement that the user picked the correct size and also allow for change incase the user decides to change it.
Answer: The product screens.
That way you can show what is available and in stock, if you've created your site to be able to do that.
Also on the listing pages size is a good filter and you can also provide information on the listing pages as well when users interact with individual items.
The cart screen is far too late for most things.


Create ultra-restricted account in windows 7

Question:
Possible Duplicate:
How to make a Windows User Acount that can not change anything?

I need to share my PC with friends and I want to create a new user account for them with specific requirements that go as follows:

They should only be able access specific programs(Browser and its plugins, antivirus, task manager etc.). Start menu should not show any other programs
They should have write access only to their profile(Desktop etc)
The profile should reset upon logoff(similar to windows 7 guest mode)
They should only be able to shut down/log off(no hibernate/stand by etc)
Read access to specific folders ONLY(no read access to any partition as a whole)
They should be able add torrents from magnet links to uTorrent(this seems quite opposite to no-write-access elsewhere policy but still if there is any workaround)
Internet access over LAN

What I have tried(or considered):

Combination of Windows 7 guest mode(not guest account) and parental controls - but guest mode has been removed from final version of windows 7
Regarding uTorrent, I have configured it to load torrents automatically from a folder - what about magnet links?
Windows SteadyState works fine but it is for XP only. Furthermore, I am worried that  setting up drive protection in windows steadystate will conflict with windows 7 drive access on my dual boot(XP and 7) machine.

I would like to avoid using third-party tools as far as posible.
Kindly suggest a possible solution to create such a locked down user account.
P.S. I have my own administrator account.
Comment: C'mon guys...I earned tumbleweed for this... :P
Answer: I didn't try all the suggestions.
However, you can deny usage of particular drive:

Right-click on any drive to change permissions
Go to seccurity tab
edit
Deny permissions to any specified users
Apply
OK
Comment: That wouldn't fix the problem (make the ultra-restricted account)


Properties File in Selenium

Question: I am still unclear why you need Properties file in Selenium. It seems to me that everything stored there can be more effectively store either in Excel or with @DataProvider and @Parameters annotations, so why is Properties file really needed? Also, what is the difference between Properties file and Config file?
Answer: Property and Config file are essentially the same thing except for what is stored in each one.
Config file is typically utilized to vary a configuration of a setup in order to allow the same functionality to exist, but the configuration differs slightly.
Property file is typically utilized to set a bunch of variable properties related to whatever the specific purpose is.  This isn't usually "configuration" of the environment, but more parameters for operating specific code interactions.
Selenium is just code libraries, so the question is really more related to how you want to utilize the libraries in a framework in order to execute test automation.  I find that property/config files are useful for setting up driver specifics such as screen resolution, driver types, other parameters that may shift depending on criteria of the test execution.  I usually keep the maps and keywords in the external data source where there is more modification happening and leave the config file there to govern the "environment" setup for the tests to run on.
The method is totally up to the scripter though and many variations can be utilized and accomplish the same goals.
Answer: In Selenium .properties files are mainly used to store GUI locators / elements, and also Global fields like database configuration details.
There Is not any built In facility to create object repository. So maintenance of page objects(Page element locators) becomes very hard If you will write all objects of page on code level.'.properties' files are mainly used in Java programs to maintain project configuration data, database config or project settings etc.
Each parameter in properties file are stored as a pair of strings, in key and value format, where each key is on one line. You can easily read properties from some file using object of type Properties.
Answer: A properties file is just a way to store static data. You could also use a class, database, a plain file or Excel. So you definitely don't need it with Selenium.
The biggest difference between your suggest Excel is that property file can be versioned. Excel is binary format which does not really version readable. Also if you version Excel it might take up a lot more space, therefor it is not practical to use Excel as your test-data store. Keeping your test-data versioned could be very handy if you need to fork the product into multiple versions that you need to test separately.
Personally I would try to store the test-data in object repository like classes, keep the data as close to the code as possible. Unless you have non-technical testers and business-owners that update or extend the test-data. They might not be able to learn version control and how to use an IDE.
A config file is also a data-store, but logically for (environment) configurations. We put something in a config file if we expect someone to change it in a different infrastructure environment for example. Settings that will be changed more often. Calling them a config-file just makes it easier to locate and understand, but I have also seen settings being placed in a config database table.
After all it just boils down to personal preference how to store data that might change frequently.

Properties File in Selenium


Can my workplace view my Tor traffic?

Question: I connect to the internet using my company's Wi-Fi and Tor. Can they still see the websites I visit?
Comment: I propose to reopen this question. It specifically asks about using Tor at workplace and the answers nicely describe the problems specific to this environment, especially use of computers which are managed by somebody else. This important part of the question is not covered by any of the questions which are considered duplicates.
Comment: 1) Are you using a company computer? They could have some logging software installed 2) In which jurisdiction are you?
Comment: In the future, please do more research before asking, and show us in the question what research you've done.  Your question is covered well by other questions with the [tag:tor] tag.  See, e.g., http://security.stackexchange.com/q/1057/971 and http://security.stackexchange.com/q/27845/971.
Answer: First:

Don't use work computers for personal use, people!

Many network policies forbid personal use. Our policy states that personal use is not forbidden but is monitored. If you don't want to be monitored you need to use equipment you control.
TL;DR: If you don't want your parents to know you smoke, don't smoke in front of your parents.
Work Equipment
If you are using a work computer, yes, if they want to, they can monitor everything you do. All they have to do is install software on your computer (which is actually their computer) which logs all web browsing activity.
If I caught someone using Tor in my organisation (absent special permission) I would fire them on the spot, for violating half a dozen policies, including circumventing our protections against data exfiltration, required both by data protection law and our agreements with our customers.
Own equipment
If the equipment is owned and controlled by you, I am wondering why they have given you permission to connect it to the network.
If you don't have permission, then again, that is grounds for termination.
If you have permission
If you are using your own equipment, and you have permission to connect to the network, (for example the company supplies visitor Wi-Fi as a courtesy, and allows staff to use this) then you are in the same position as when you use a hotel, coffee shop, or fast-food restaurant Wi-Fi, and there is then nothing special you need to know.
So what should you do?
If you want to e.g. email your doctor about your cancer diagnosis without alerting your employer, you should do it from your smartphone, using the data connection.
Comment: I would use TOR just so you could fire me on the spot
Comment: This answer is a great reason why questions should be formulated neutrally. It's fine to advice someone of best practices but from a technical point of view half the answer is off-topic.
Comment: +1 how stupid can people be. Use a smartphone with data service for your personal communications from work.
Comment: Note: I am explaining the *why* as well as the *how*: *why* the employer will want to do this, and *why* you should not try to circumvent their policies, and *how* to achieve what you want (privacy, presumably) without doing so.
Comment: Really great point mentioning why circumvention is a huge liability for employers.
Comment: @simonzack I have never seen a place that is security conscious and allows BYOD with sensitive information on the network. BYOD is fine if you have a "public" network people connect to, but that network should not have any open access to sensitive customer information (to access sensitive info you go through a DPI firewall or use a secure app ect.). But that setup is the exact situation Ben was talking about in the *"If you have permission"* section where using Tor is fine as it is a "public" network.
Comment: "wondering why they have given you permission to connect it to the network" why do you feel this is a bad thing? Many companies are embracing BYOD.
Answer: Generally speaking No. Assuming:

You follow Tor's best practices

Tor does not protect all of your computer's Internet traffic when you run it. Tor only protects your applications that are properly configured to send their Internet traffic through Tor. To avoid problems with Tor configuration, we strongly recommend you use the Tor Browser.

so if it's not setup correctly things can still leak like DNS requests for example.
You are using a private computer (or at least one the company doesn't control). If they are admins on your computer they could install VNC or some logging software that will record your actions regardless of what software you use.
Comment: The workplace can detect that he is using Tor though.  Which might be worse than them knowing where he is browsing.
Comment: @Taemyr "If only suspicious activity is private, privacy becomes suspicious."
Comment: Your workplace has the right to restrict what software you use on work computers and the work network. Don't be surprised if you're told to stop using Tor entirely.
Comment: @Pacerier What you are doing is probably not so bad as what you could be doing.  When all the employer sees is that you are using TOR he is left to guess.
Comment: @Taemyr, What do you mean? Tor doesn't bypass data transfer limits. The limits are still there.
Comment: @Taemyr, It doesn't need to detect. It could just limit the bandwidth for the "total connection" regardless of where they connect to.
Comment: @Taemyr, ? Why is that worse?
Comment: @Taemyr, They need to be re-educated then. There's nothing wrong with keeping to tor for all connections.
Comment: @Pacerier At the very least it will bypass the companies data transfer limitations.
Comment: @Pacerier Difficult to enforce when the system can not detect that you are connecting to e.g. dropbox.
Comment: @Pacerier I am not referring to the amount of data that is transferred.  I am referring to a corporations need to control what and how data is transferred.
Answer: You should be aware that Windows allows administrators to run scripts on any computer that connect to the local Windows domain, so if you login to the domain, the admin controls your computer.
The same is potentially true by just connecting to the network.  This is the untrusted network threat model, which is almost impossible to protect against unless your computer sends 100% encrypted traffic - which it doesn't. One unencrypted auto-update request, from Microsoft or some other vendor, gives anyone in control of your network the ability to install any code they want on your computer.
Comment: @Jeff-InventorChromeOS actually Windows updates have to be signed by Microsoft for them to install.
Comment: "just connecting to the network" won't allow them to run code on your computer. That's what we call an RCE and is considered a security vulnerability if software allows it. Sysadmins can only run scripts on Windows remotely because the system was connected to the active directory by an administrator earlier; you can't just run code on anyone connected to your WiFi network. That would be, well, either lots of fun or hell, depending on which end you're on.
Comment: http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/w32flamer-microsoft-windows-update-man-middle "Hijacking Windows Update is not trivial because updates must be signed by Microsoft."
Comment: Untrusted network threat model allows it, because so much software updates over unencrypted channels.  Even Microsoft updates were unencrypted until recently.  For example 'http:// microsoft.com /update' gets switched by the proxy to whatever EXE you want, then you own the computer.
Comment: @kinokijuf, Citation please.

Can my workplace view my Tor traffic?


Do I need to wash and bentch on oatmeal?

Question: I was reading in Artscroll's The Laws of Brachos that if someone eats an amount of mezonos equal to the amount of bread he would have eaten during a meal then he needs to wash and bentch. For some reason it seems to not be the case, but should I be washing/bentching for oatmeal (or even any bowl of morning cereal made from the 5 grains)? If not what's the reason?
Comment: Boiled mezonos is different from baked mezonos. I suspect you missed something in the book there
Comment: Note that oatmeal might not be mezonos
Comment: Hmmm ... good question. You're making me wonder. For that matter, perhaps if you plan on eating a whole box of Tam Tams, you may have to wash too.
Comment: @DoubleAA, Correct, the chapter was referring to Pas haba beKisnin I mistakened it for all mezonos.
Comment: @DoubleAA: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/53871/what-exactly-is-shibbolet-shual
Answer: No.
There are three categories of grain-based products:

"Bread." Always hamotzee.
"Snacky, quasi-breadlike substances." (Pas haba beKisnin.) Mezonos, but if you eat them like a meal, then hamotzee. This was the category about which you read.
"Definitely not bread." Always mezonos, even if you ate ten pounds of the stuff for dinner. (Though you'd have bigger problems at that point than the laws of brachos.)

Cooked-in-liquid things like noodles and oatmeal are in this last category.
Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 48:8 reads:

Dough -- even a basic, breadlike flour-and-water dough -- if it was cooked, the blessing beforehand is mezonos and afterwards al hamichya, even if one ate enough to be satiated. The same goes for mashes made off the five grains [wheat/barley/spelt/oats/rye] and then cooked -- the blessing is borei minei mezonos beforehand and al himchya afterwards, even if one ate enough to be satieted. The same goes for noodles eaten with broth or milk in which they were cooked.
Comment: Can you define what is meant by "Definitely not bread"? I would say marble cake is "definitely not bread" but it's under the category of Pas haba beKisnin.
Comment: @AniYodea that's a different question! Noodles and oatmeal -- definitely not bread. Cheerios -- most poskim hold definitely not bread, but Dayan Feurst holds they're in the middle category. Marble cake is a thin batter baked in an oven, which is one of the categories classically described as the second category.
Comment: More here: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/3683/21


Windows 7 failed on installation at 98%

Question: I hope you can help me after umpteen failed attempts to load Windows 7 on an ASUS P5WD2 premium board and dual core intel 3.4Ghz 2Gig Ram  processor ran the beta versions  beautifully, the mini dump info is as folllows, fails at approx 98 % load on install same every time no matter what i do, have tried disabling ethernet driver no difference:
Dump File         : 121810-30718-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 18/12/2010 16:28:32
Bug Check String  : IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Bug Check Code    : 0x0000000a
Parameter 1       : 0x00000000
Parameter 2       : 0x000000ff
Parameter 3       : 0x00000000
Parameter 4       : 0x82878550
Caused By Driver  : ndis.sys
Caused By Address : ndis.sys+35023
File Description  : NDIS 6.20 driver
Product Name      : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company           : Microsoft Corporation
File Version      : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Processor         : 32-bit
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : H:\Windows\Minidump\121810-30718-01.dmp
Processors Count  : 2
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 7600
======================
Please help!
Additional Notes from Answer:
first i did have the release candidate 64 bit working fine until it ran out of time , I then tried dubious copies of 64 bit W7 which a friend guaranteed worked on his computer but the same thing happened again and again, failure , the computer unexpectedly closed down that is what it says , after up dating registry values I now have a legit copy of 32 bit W7 failure at this same point and the mini dump report of the blue screen is as described, it fails at exactly the same point in the same way every time , I have tried with no partitions on a good 500gb West Digit caviar , 2 gb Ram and an intel 3.6 ghz dual core( not the extreme  ie with out hyper threading).
used a program me to extract mini dump info also in the crash report it highlights
file names : ndis.sys +35023
             ntoskrnl.exe +54c11
             yk62(times)86sys 12b6b
the last two do not appear in the mini dump report
I do not know where to go from here, it suggests it is a driver or some  drivers that are at fault ?
But I am not sure how to solve this one am a novice at this level.
Comment: We need some more history in this issue, is it a clean install of W7? Has the installation ever booted without the error?
Answer: There is a similar problem complained about here. Hope this is helpful.

Windows 7 failed on installation at 98%


Time it takes from EZE to AEP airport

Question: I am traveling on American Airlines to EZE with an arrival time of 7:30 am and a departing time of 11:35 from AEP.  Suggestions on if I am going to make it and what I can do in advance if anything to expedite my travel between the two airports.
Answer: There are a range of options to get into town (Manuel Tienda Leon - a shuttle company, local buses or taxi) - see the piece on Wikitravel.
EZE is about 30-45 min from downtown by taxi, although during busy times it can be longer.
From town to AEP, it's easier - about 20 minutes by taxi.
Your best bet given your tight time-frame is to get a taxi from one to the other.  They're not too expensive, and are certainly fast. White-knuckle fast.
edit - it looks like Tienda Leon does do inter-airport shuttles.   If you're on time, you could consider them when you arrive. There's a guy usually waving a sign for them as you exit the secure area at the airport.
edit again - Driving time is approximately 38 min for 39km from airport to airport, according to Google Maps. Of course, that's assuming decent traffic.
Answer: I´m in the business of doing airport transfers here, this is a tight, but doable connection, and we suggest you get to AEP the fastest way you can, which would be to hire a reliable private chauffeured car service, who will be waiting for you with a sign right as you arrive. 4 hours is the bare minimum we suggest for this transfer, as your arriving flight may be delayed, immigration and customs can often take 90 minutes for morning arrivals, and if there is traffic, it can take 90 minutes for the transfer and AEP suggests that you arrive 90 minutes before a domestic flight.

Time it takes from EZE to AEP airport


Adding Printer to a workgroup client

Question: We have a color printer connected locally to a workstation that has been joined to a domain (which runs windows xp). I need to add this printer to a workstation that hasn't been joined to the domain. I used unc path and added this printer to the workgroup workstation, but every time that this client shuts down the pc or restarts it the connection to the printer will be lost and we need to add it again. Is there any way to add it permanently?
Comment: Which client do you reboot that causes this? And which PC is it removed from?
Answer: The printer should still be there after you reboot the workstation.
Have you check your logs ? Could be a credential error, or something like that. Maybe the workstation can't remember the credential used to log on the domain computer. You can "Check" Remember password for future use when you install the printer.
You could add a script in All User > startup to connect to the printer ( not elegant but it works). If you choose a script, you will have to put credential in the script, might try to use a bogus account only used to connected to that machine for that printer.

Adding Printer to a workgroup client


I find myself making the same mistake when practising - despite focussing on that part- how to remedy?

Question: I'm an extremely newbie musician (preparing for Grade II on oboe - no prior musical experience). I've looked into the best ways to practise (and I have a teacher) but I find myself struggling with certain passages and repeating my mistakes - even when I focus on getting those bits right over and over. I even find myself playing the scales wrong. So any advice on how to remedy this? I do want to become a good musician (yes, I know it will take years and years and that's fine) so I want to develop good learning habits now. I have passed Grade I (first time) so what advice would you have for me around developing good practise habits. Thank you
Comment: Somewhat related: [http://music.stackexchange.com/q/3121/28](http://music.stackexchange.com/q/3121/28) and [http://music.stackexchange.com/q/3215/28](http://music.stackexchange.com/q/3215/28).  And as a minor note, don't leave the instrument after playing 10 times wrong and then finally getting it right once -- make sure you've played it more times correctly than incorrectly before you leave.
Answer: If you don't have a metronome, get one.  They have phone apps for them now so it is pretty easy to get one.  Start with a very slow speed.  Once you are able to perform it ten times in a row at that speed, increase the speed by 5 beats per minute.  Once you can play it ten times at that speed, increase again.  Do this until you reach the speed it is to be performed at.
If you get to a speed that you are unable to do, drop back down to the last speed you could do it and do it a few dozen more times, then do the progression again.
The reason you are likely repeating the same mistakes is because you are never properly correcting them.  Repetition is key, and the best way to ensure that you are playing it correctly is to start slow and build up your speed systematically.
Comment: I was thinking about answering but you touch the right points, so +1 to you. I just add: Playing with errors is training playing with errors, don't do it. Think about marcial arts masters, the slower you practise and have control over what you are doing the faster you will get good. And one last thing, drop the papers (if you didn't do that after), It was not until I played Bach's solo Chaccone (12min) by memory on my 2nd year at music univ that I understood how much more you develop by rehearsing by memory.
Comment: In Frances Clark's famous [piano pedagogy book](https://www.francesclarkcenter.org/shop?product_category=Books), she says that one must play at a speed 3 times in a row without error before proceeding to the next tempo. I might increase the speed by 2 or 4 bpm instead of 5. Each of those numbers should be adjusted to your style, I suppose.
Answer: I personally like to break it down into 2 factors with my students: Speed, and the size of the passage. You keep reducing both until you can get it 100% correct 3-5 times in a row.
The smallest possible "practice group" in this case is going to be between 2 notes. And even then there are 3 things to keep in mind:

How is your first note?
How is the transition to the second note? (it's easy to forget this part)
How is the second note?

While incorporating everything that has already been said about speed, I would also think about the size of your "practice group", that is, the number of actual notes you are repeating those 3 or 5 times. At the very smallest, it will be 2 notes repeated (lets say) 5 times. Then when you feel good about that, add a single note. Repeat all 3 notes now 5 times, but only at a tempo that you can guarantee will be 100% correct. Then, you add one more note, and keep on doing this process until you are doing the entire passage.
I don't have scientific evidence to support this following claim, but it has been my experience in my years of teaching lessons that what matters for learning music is not the speed, but whether it's correct or not. So the best first step is to just play it correctly at however slow it needs to be. The speed comes naturally when the notes themselves have been assimilated. You can speed up the process by trying to gradually push that upper tempo, but really in the end, I believe it's just familiarity with the correct notes that enables the speed, not the other way around. I always tell my students that your brain doesn't care how fast you play it, it will just remember what you do the most: play it correct or incorrect. So set your brain up for success in remembering the correct notes.
There is another method I use to "bust" problem areas in a passage. One is to do the add-one-note-at-a-time method but start at the LAST note of the passage. Do the same thing in adding one note at a time, but go backwards in the music. Even though these are the same notes and the same passage, I feel like going backwards writes a new "memory" in your brain of the passage that has a better chance of overwriting the incorrect one as opposed to trying to "rewrite" the old one.
Comment: Yes, exactly! Perhaps I wasn't very clear, but I meant that you should start your practice groups exactly where the problem is. Think like your doing a giant puzzle, you always start with pictures, corners, colors etc., that are similar, only then do you piece them together. So if your problems are in bars 1, 7, 8, attack each bar individually, down to even just two notes as described above before you attempt to add in bars 2,3,4,5,6 as well. Another important concept is time. It very well take more then one practice session. Just make sure you never hit a wrong note. (Speed and group size).
Comment: I find that I can play the first few bars well - consistently and without mistakes. It's the bars in the middle that I seem to falter on - I have taken groups of 6-8 notes and done as you have recommended - maybe I need to take smaller groups of notes. My issues tend to be with the timing - and I have found that using a metronome helps with that. Love the piece about learning it backwards - maybe I'll start that with my problem bars in the middle!
Answer: There are a number of techniques, and unfortunately playing the same part over and over doesn't always work.  Personally I can get extremely bored playing 4 notes for an hour, though partly that's a discipline thing.  First I'll tackle the base mechanical ways of solving the problem then move to a more psychologial approach, to cover all bases.
Isolate the part
Take nothing but the exact shift that you're messing up, perhaps even down to the 2 notes and play just them for a minute, then add another note either side, with the intent of building up that phrase/block from it's most simple rudiments
Isolate the technique
If there's a perticular technique or technical concept involved, either find pieces or etudes that focus on that concept, or write some of your own simple exercises.  This allows you to develop proficiency with the skills you'll need, while giving you a wider view of the technique than a single piece.
Slooooooow doooown
When I say slow, I mean really slow.  even slower than you're comfortable with.  This does 2 things.  It gives you time to really make every note count, get your timing spot on, executing the technique well.
The best part about this method for me is that you develop a real patience for learning, and when you do start to speed it up in increments you'll find that the music doesn't seem too fast, but too slow.  As you speed up it might even get to the point that full speed feels too slow, which of course means you're no longer thinking "this is too hard to play", which can be a real psychological barrier at times!
Speed up
Opposite problem of not focusing enough is being too focused.  The example I think of personally in guitar is doing long legato phrases.  The note clusters were such that you had to take each phrase as a large group of 11 notes and just aim for certain keynotes.
(If this is unclear I can reword later)
Practice in Bursts
My piano teacher always says it's better to practice 10 mins a day than 4 hours one day a week.  The brain needs time to absorb new techniques, new melodies, new sounds.  While you're regularly practicing it tells your brain that this is a problem to dedicate grey matter to, and your brain will work on the problem while you're away from the instrument.
It's just like when you try solving a math problem and you get an idea while you're seemingly doing nothing to do with it.  This is a sign that your brain is processing the information in the background.  One more thing on this, they did an experiment where they got people for 6 months to do a piano practice exercise in their head(not moving fingers) and found that their skill at the exercise improved dispite never playing a physical piano! Though not as much as the group that were physically playing the exercise
Forget about it
If you've tried everything and you just can't do it, it's ok to forget about it for a week, a month, or even longer.  Perhaps you're not technically ready and you need to learn more fundamental techniques first.  I love Rachmaninoff, but focusing on a Piano Concerto passage when I've only played a year is perhaps not the best use of my time.
Give it Time
Another big idea that I say a lot is whatever level you're at, that's fine.  Master, newbie, everything.  Once you accept where you are right now as a player without stressing, pressure and grief, your playing improves much, much faster.  Motivation is key in mastering a technique, and positive motivation is the best you can get!
Of course on that last point there will be times that stress crops up, just don't let it rule you!
Hope that helps!
Comment: I do actually practise for 15-20 minutes a day 4-5 days a week. I usually practise until I feel my jaw getting weak :-) Thanks for the stuff about the slowing down - then things can get tricky with my breathing - but it's all part of the learning! Really appreciate the bit about giving it time - I sometimes pick up some of the very first pieces I learned and find I can play them fine (and that is useful to reassure me of progress...)
Comment: Absolutely.  Personally I have a mind that wipes my successes and amplifies my failures when memory is involved, so I have a system of tracking where I am with everything I do.  Every Achievement I accomplish I add it to my list of 250 accomplishments and hang it above my bed, simply because when the negative brain kicks in I can look at that list and say "Damn I've been making a lot of progress lately". What that does is overloads your fear with the raw fact that I am making progress, and makes the learning more consistent and motivational!
Comment: Yep, our minds must be cousins - because I tend to beat myself up about my failures and gloss over what I have done - even though my teacher is very positive and reassuring! So appreciate the input :-)
Comment: Seriously, write your achievements down, especially the small ones day to day.  Put a blank sheet of paper on the wall and write down every milestone that you hit.  The list grows way faster than you'd think and serves as a great reminder of how far you've come.  I know for a fact Vai and Petrucci use this to keep track of progress and I have no doubt others have too!
Answer: All the advice here is very sound. Just let me add that it is important not to over practice something---especially if you are still making mistakes.  You will wind up actually practicing mistakes and building a mental block.  Always go for perfection and slow it down until you can play it perfectly.  Once frustration starts setting in, go away and do something else.  It is a good idea to be working on several things at once for this reason and go back and forth.  This way you can start fresh each time and the real test to see if have mastered something is to see if you can play it cold.
i sometimes will practice something for a while and not get it correct, but go away from it and come back and find that it is improved.  Each time I come back to it I am starting stronger than the last time and eventually the nut cracks.
Comment: will take that on board. I usually do a combination of long notes, then scales and then I have my 3 exam pieces to work on. And yes, that thing about leaving something and then coming back to it and finding it much easier - definitely true!
Comment: Coming back to stuff is weird. I might practice something one day and be really useless. I'll do those bits really slow and still be unhappy. But next day they run like magic. I think it's a long-term memory thing, you have to sleep on it. Time spent practicing is never wasted.
Answer: Agree that everything here makes good sense. Excellent ideas. A similar one my instructor suggests to minimize "learning" your mistakes is something that for youngsters he calls Band-aids. If you make a mistake, stop immediately. Back up one or two measures, and continue playing correctly from there. Perhaps even replay the problem section correctly a few times to "unlearn" the mistake, playing it slowly and deliberately.


How do you estimate the speed of Tour de France riders on tv?

Question: I was watching Tour de France with my father (who is a cat 3 racer), and he claimed to be able to estimate how fast the riders were going by observing the cyclist on the screen. I didn't believe him at first, but as we watched, and the screen showed their speeds, he was fairly accurate. How is this done?
Comment: You could do pretty well by estimating the number of bike lengths between rider A and rider B, then counting the time required for rider B to reach rider A's original position (by sighting against some feature in the background).  You could be quite accurate with this method if you had a video replay, but probably fairly good "on the fly".
Answer: This is not that hard for someone with a lot of riding experience. Often times you can tell the gear a rider is in from the TV. Then you can see the rider's cadence, and the road grade is often given. So it's fairly easy to guess the speed to +-2 mph. Plus, on a mostly flat road, the peleton will be riding at somewhere between 24-27mph, unless they are trying to chase down the lead group. If the lead group is gaining on the peleton, you know they are riding somewhere north of 24-27. And the opposite would be true. At the end of the sprint, the lead riders will be somewhere between 30-35. Given all this, it's not hard to fairly accurately guess the pace of any individual rider, at any given time.
Comment: @amcnabb - Yes, exactly. Look at the front chain ring, probably always in the big ring. And then look at the rear cog.
Comment: How do you tell what gear a rider is in? Do you look at which cog the chain is on and assume that the rider has, say, a 11-23 cassette?
Answer: He's a good guesser based on the road grade, their visual appearance of exertion, how tight they're riding and how quickly background objects are moving by...and mostly form experience I'd guess. unless he's dead on he's bound to have a "good guess" because they are riding withing a pretty predictable speed band.
If all you knew was the grade and distance from the finish line you'd be able to make a good guess right now without even looking at the riders.


How do I export contact data records?

Question: I am attempting to export to contact data records from the CiviCRM application. How do I export this information?
Comment: It is good if you can show what research you did before asking on SE. Starting with the documentation is a good step usually
Comment: What specifically do you want to export?  If you just want basic contact data (eg name, address, phone etc) then Search Contacts > Export works as described in the answers below.  If you want data like their contributions, activities, memberships, event participations etc -  that needs a different answer.
Answer: Without more information, it's hard to answer your question definitively.  There are a number of ways to export contact data.
However, the most common way is covered in the documentation under Exporting Your Contacts.  There's much more detail there, but the general principle can be summed up in the first three steps:

Search for contacts. Carry out a search based on your desired criteria using one of the available search tools, e.g. Quick search, Find Contacts, Advanced search, Search Builder, or a custom search.
Select contacts you wish to export. Select all records, or choose individual records for export using the check-boxes to the left of each record.
From the - actions - dropdown menu, choose Export Contacts. This takes you to the export wizard.
Answer: If you do a search of contacts exporting contacts will be one of the options in the action menu? So step by step:

Navigate to Search>Find Contacts
Click on the Search button (use one of the filters if required)
Select all contacts (or just a few if you want to)
If you click on the Actions box just under the selection you will see export contacts as one of the possible actions.

You will have this possibility with each search form. You can also use one of the reports and click the 'export to csv' button.
Does that help?
There is also an extension that you might find useful: https://civicrm.org/extensions/export-excel (only if you have issues opening the exports in Excel)

How do I export contact data records?


Won't ASIC miners eventually break SHA-256 encryption?

Question: I might be confused as to how Bitcoin works, but as far as I can tell, ASIC miners are getting better every year and faster at cracking SHA-256 encryption.  Won't this cause the eventual complete obsolescence of SHA-256 encryption entirely, much faster than previously estimated?
Comment: (Note that SHA-256 is not an encryption algorithm, it's a [cryptographic hash function](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_hash_function).  It's important not to confuse the two.)
Comment: Short answer: No. 2^256 is a **much** larger number than you think it is.
Comment: Question is flawed the premise of breaking encryption is not what this question is about. It should be about creating a hash collision.
Comment: Why would they? They're only a billion times faster than doing it via CPU.
Comment: As a fun exercise in arithmetic: look up the current hash rate of the entire Bitcoin network.  Multiply it by a trillion trillion trillion.  Work out, at that rate, how long it would take to perform 2^255 hashes, which is what you would need to brute-force a single SHA256 hash.  Look up the life expectancy of the universe and compare.
Answer: Another way to look at it is to take a look at a recent block that was mined, for example, block 388368.  Looking at this block on blockchain.info, you can see that the hash for this block is:
0000000000000000021ff110a589e44f56979254a204557311204f803910fdfa

It took roughly 10 minutes for all of the miners (doing a combined 700,000,000 giga-hashes per second) to find the above hash which has enough leading zeroes (17) to meet the difficulty requirement of the network at that time.  Since the remaining digits after the first 17 leading zeroes could have been anything, there are 16^47 (i.e.16^(64-17)) possible hashes that could have been found which would have satisfied the difficulty requirement (which is 3.92 * 10^56), yet it took all of the mining power of the entire bitcoin network ~10 minutes to find just one hash that met the requirement.
To crack a hash, you need not just the first 17 digits to match the given hash, but all 64 of the digits to match.  So, extrapolating from the above, it would take 10 * 3.92 * 10^56 minutes to crack a SHA256 hash using all of the mining power of the entire bitcoin network.  That's a long time.
Comment: keep in mind that the age of the universe is only about 7.2 * 10^15 minutes
Comment: Look at it another way. The probability of winning the 6-49 lottery is 1 in (49 x 48 x 47 x 46 x 45 x 44) which is about 1 in 10 000 000 000. If 20 million players play twice a week and each player plays on average 10 numbers each draw, then there should be only 2 winners each year.
Comment: @mti2935, If i'm not mistaken, what you're saying is this:
Given a specific hash and the current networking hashrate, it would take an unreasonably long time -- 10 * 3.92 * 10^56 minutes -- to find a block that would satisfy that hash. Thus, "no".
?
Answer: TL;DR: No, but if the hashes were collected, one might be able to better tell as to whether or not the SHA256^2 algorithm is broken.
If one can find a way to produce desired outputs from specific inputs, then a hashing algorithm is considered "broken". Both MD5 and SHA1 are know to be broken in this way. Theoretically, running an algorithm over and over again over a set of random inputs (exactly what mining is), could provide insight into patterns produced by the algorithm, thereby allowing one to prove whether or not it's broken. However, this insight would only come through statistical analysis of data gathered, and since most of the data is thrown out -- of the trillions of hashes per second only the ones corresponding to minded blocks are recorded -- this isn't feasible.
Another subtlety: because the algorithm in question is specifically SHA256 applied twice and not simply SHA256, even if the data were collected and analyzed, it may not tell us anything directly about SHA256.
Comment: That is a great point...it would take a lot of storage to keep all the results that miners produce for later analysis.
Answer: I understand. 2^255 is indeed an incredibly large number.  Not only is SHA-256 not an encryption algorithm, it is a cryptographic hash function, so my question was a little flawed to begin with, but the amount of time it would take to brute-force a single SHA256 hash is (currently) much too long even with the most advanced ASIC miners available today.  To brute-force a single SHA256 hash, we would need ASIC miners that are a trillion trillion trillion times faster than the hash rate of the entire bitcoin network.
Comment: If you work through the exercise I proposed above, even if you had miners a trillion trillion trillion times faster than the current network, brute-forcing SHA256 would still take you 71430540814238958387154 years.  The Sun is expected to go out in about 5000000000 years.
Comment: Nate - I absolutely get your point, although bitcoin mining technology is getting better all the time, we probably won't have anything that is powerful enough to brute force SHA256 for a long, long time.
Answer: The odds you calculate should be those of stealing the private key, not calculating it. The latter is the fools' method, while the former happens every day with key loggers.
Comment: Like the OP said, sha256 is a cryptographic hash function. So, there's nothing in there about requiring a private key in order to generate an sha256. Try generating an sha256 yourself and notice that nothing but the input string is needed: https://passwordsgenerator.net/sha256-hash-generator/ .


What are the common arguments against theistic evolution?

Question: What are the common arguments from Christians against the idea that God used evolution to create Earth over millions of years? This is not a place to argue. I'm interested in a rundown of the common response from Young Earth Creationists. Source your statements whenever possible.
Comment: Can you define your concepts better in the question? I am not familiar with these terms. It sounds like "Old Earthers" could represent a group of people with a range of views according to Wikipedia. Which specific beliefs do you you have questions about?
Comment: Is this better?
Answer: The first would be the lack of death prior to the Fall - as recorded in the creation account in Genesis 1-2: God's creation was "very good", and death was a result of the curse on Adam for sinning (Genesis 3:17-19).
If the written account of the Fall is correct (which I would argue it must be for Paul's profuse arguments through Romans (eg 5:12 "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned") to be sound), then "evolution", as commonly understood with a molecules-to-man transformation, cannot be right.
Romans 8:19-22:

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.


Can I make milk hot chocolate out of dark chocolate and sugar?

Question: Would it taste the same if I made a hot chocolate out of couverture milk chocolate + milk and a hot chocolate made out of couverture dark chocolate + more milk + more sugar?
Answer: Your premise appears to be that the difference between milk chocolate and dark chocolate is merely milk and sugar content, such that if one blends all three together, in any order or manner, the results would be 'the same' (or at least, taste the same). This is not the case. Not only would the ultimate ratios of cocoa-sugar-milk end up being 'off' dark chocolate contains ingredients that are not used in milk chocolate, lecithin (from soy or milk) to emulsify the chocolate liquer and sweetener in order to create a smooth product. This is a different process than simply melting solid chocolate into milk.
While you could ultimately end up with two similar products they would not taste 'the same'...at least to a discerning palate.
For some additional information see: What is the difference between Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate?  and Milk vs. Dark vs. Semi-sweet vs. Bitter-sweet chocolate?


Correct way to cite Stack Exchange Data Dump

Question: I'm writing a paper in which I use the data dump from Stack Exchange, specifically Stack Overflow's data. How I should cite it?
Answer: If your paper is statistical or based on an aggregate of data compiled from the data dump, you should give attribution to the original site that generated the content and the location of the data dump itself.
If you are quoting specific posts (i.e. reusing content posted by users), your attribution should go to the original author by referencing the original post on that site.
See
Attribution Required and
Defending Attribution Required for reference.


how to restore email from only a full website backup?

Question: I am in a helpless position right now..Till last month,I was hosting my website and email accounts with hostgator and everything was going fine till I decided to switch hosting for some services that they dont currently offer.I cancelled my account with them and was given  a couple of hours to move my files.I created backup of the entire website from cPanel and downloaded everything from their server to my PC.The problem is,since this was a first time procedure for me,I didnt know that I had to download all my emails to my desktop client.I had read some tutorials providing information on moving my website to a new host and all ,but none of them mentioned about email backups.Now i have all my emails downloaded onto my desktop as part of the full website backup and not on any email client.And Hostgator has closed my account with them.The new host I have decided to move my website to,doesnt host email and they are asking me to host my emails on google apps.Thats ok with me,but I need all the emails in my account since all of them contain my registration and billing details and passwords  and other such important things.Please,can someone find me a solution to this problem?
Answer: Unfortunately, there is no good way to move the email from a cPanel backup into GMail. Ordinarily, you would either use a desktop client to download the messages and push them to GMail or have GMail fetch the email directly.
You can still get to the email, in a way, as they are stored as individual files within the backup. Not a perfect solution, but you could use a text editor to view the content, in a pinch.
Live and learn, I suppose.
Comment: Hi Justin...everything is fine now..i had referred many websites including the wordpress codex before i made the backup copies of my mails and the website..In wordpress codex itself,it was mentioned that if I was only moving my web host,i dont need to change anything..and it worked like it said..i moved my site to another cpanel host only..and everything is fine now..thanx for the help..bye


What percentage of the hydrogen today has never been in a star

Question: It stands to reason that some of the hydrogen and helium that formed directly as a product of the big bang might never have fallen into a star to re-ejected when that star explodes.  My question is, given the best theory, what percentage of that matter has managed to drift without being sucked into a star.  Do we have any idea?
Answer: About 70% of the baryonic matter in the universe is hydrogen, with a mean density of about $4\times 10^{-29}$ kg/m$^3$.
Most of the stars that have ever been born are still alive, since an average star is only about $0.25 M_{\odot}$ and has a lifetime much longer than the age of the universe (so very little material has actually been recycled).
If we assume there are $10^{22}$ stars of $0.25 M_{\odot}$ in an observable universe of radius 47 billion light years, that are 70% H by mass, the "stellar" hydrogen is only one part in 73.
So, there is only one hydrogen nucleus (a proton) in a star for every 73 in the universe. This ratio would have been smaller in the past (E.g. when theSun was born). But as I mentioned, most of this hydrogen (about 90%) is in stars that are longer lived than the universe. Therefore my very rough estimate is that around 1 hydrogen atom in every 1000 on Earth has been inside a star. This contrasts markedly with say that 100% of carbon and oxygen atoms have been inside a star.
EDIT: To be fair, this calculation hinges a lot on how many stars there are in the observable universe. This number is very uncertain and could be higher - perhaps $10^{23}$ (see here), in which case my numbers are somewhat pessimistic and it might be more like 1 H atom in 7 is inside a star and 1 H atom in about 100 on Earth were inside a star. However, I don't think there is any argument that the majority of hydrogen in the universe is not, and has never been, in a star, but whether that is 90% or 99% is still moot.
Comment: You are using the number of stars today, but don't you need to consider the lifetime of a star, and the number of stars that have existed in the past?  Hmmm, on second thought it seems that stellar lifetime is in the billions of years, so there have not been that many turnovers.  To calculate how much Earth matter came from stars, don't you need to consider primarily the number of stars that have *died* in the life of the universe?  Matter that remained in stars does not count.
Comment: @AgilePro As I say in my answer, the vast majority (90%) of "stellar" hydrogen is locked away in low mass stars with lives much longer than that of the universe. The average star has a mass about a quarter that of the Sun and a lifetime of many tens of billions of years. If you look carefully, I *did* adjust for this factor in my calculations of the fraction of H atoms on Earth that have been in a star.
Comment: Fascinating that the diameter of the known universe is much greater than its age. Doesn't that imply FTL expansion during not only during its first moments but much longer? And is it really known that the percentage of stars of 1/4 of solar mass held true in the early universe? Larger star masses in the early universe would dramatically increase the percentage of heavier elements.
Comment: @TomRussell There are several SE Q=As on the size of the observable universe (and a wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe ). Only the *very first* stars could have been very massive. The bulk of star formation occurred at redshifts of 2-3 and not in pristine material. However, you are correct, we do not know that the mass distribution of stars was the same as in the local universe. That is why I said "If we assume...".


Camera moving at same speed as object

Question: Making game in BGE. I need the camera to only move back and forth(up and down the x axis) but at the same speed as my object(car). For whatever reason parenting things in BGE doesn't do anything. i have tried copying the logic bricks that make the car move but for some reason the camera does not move if the logic bricks are servo motion. Right now the camera is set as a static object and ticked as an actor. I can't change it from static to dynamic cuz this would make it respond  to gravity which i do not want.
Comment: @eromod sorry. i'm quite young and haven't had time to do much blender. what does that mean?
Comment: nvm, just found out that constraints wont work in BGE, sry
Answer: Parent the camera to the object to follow (or to any child of the object to follow).
As each other child the camera will inherit the transformations (loc, rot, scale) from the parent.

Ensure the parent is moving as you expect.
Ensure you parent the right camera

You can move the camera (e.g. with the motion actuator) while parented
As a gimmick you can enable slow "parent". This makes the "follow" a bit softer, providing better camera feeling.
Answer: Use the camera actuator.
It will try to keep the camera at a certain are relative to the target object.

Camera moving at same speed as object


Deathwatch Ranks

Question: In Deathwatch I notice there are rank tracks for general space marine, deathwatch, and specialty.  When you are rank 1 are you eligible for buying abilities from rank one of all three types?
Answer: Yes. From the sidebar "Chapter Advances and Deathwatch Advances", page 57:
"Deathwatch-specific Advances can be selected by any Deathwatch Space Marine of the appropriate Rank, and Chapter-specific Advances can be selected by any Space Marine from that Chapter of the appropriate Rank."
Answer: As an advancing Character on Rank 1 (for example after the first mission) you can chose from all the Advancements you have stated.
From the general Space Marine Advances, your given Speciality Advances and the Deathwatch Advances.
There is one exception though.
Upon Character Creation you may not use the Deathwatch specific Advances, as these 1000xp you are spending represent your training before you came to the Deathwatch.
See page 27 'Starting Experience'.

Deathwatch Ranks


How to improve team motivation with minimal wage increment but fair performance ratings?

Question: How would you motivate the team when the annual wage increment is minimal (less than 5%) even though the performance ratings are very fair?
Comment: As written, this question is too generic. What makes you think your team lacks motivation? Why is your company unable or unwilling to provide more competitive wages or offer more tangible rewards? Without context, it just sounds like you want to get more work out of people while paying them less.
Comment: You might have plenty of answers on the [tag:motivation] tag
Comment: There are a lot of studies but in my opinion, the best is Maslov. He said that you have to satisfy 5 levels of motivation (bottom to up order).
Comment: As asked, your question seems to imply that the pay structure is counter-productive in terms of motivation. IE: You seem to be saying "How can I motivate the team under such unmotivating conditions?" Is that your concern? Because it sounds like the current arrangement might be fine, assuming the bonuses are not carrots kept out of reach. ?
Answer: The good news is that money has been shown to be a very weak motivator in many studies. The increase one may exhibit by money is short lived.
A guy named Daniel Pink argued that motivation is intrinsic and can be divide into three factors:

autonomy
mastery
purpose

Start your research here.
This doesn't mean you can ignore the money.  You need to meet the basic need, you need to be at market wage, and then you focus on intrinsic drivers.
Answer: Surprising as it can be, it is not the salary that primarily influences the motivation of an employee in his or her daily work tasks; it is the quality of his or her work environment.
Today, more than ever, employees change employer regularly. We don't see careers of 20 to 25 years in the same company anymore. Many do not appreciate their work environment and try regularly to find a better place to work. They feel stuck in a job having few alternatives to change the kind of work they do. Many count their years to retirement.
You have to accept your choice of career and life goes on like this. If they have a promotion with a good salary increase, they don't feel more motivated because they are still in the same kind of work. Many business models try to counter that, offering a work environment that does not look like a traditional work environment. Facebook for example.
It is difficult, when you have responsibilities, to make a change of career. Most of the time, you have to accept a salary that is much lower than what you are used to. Many study in something they later regret, and wish they could go back to college to study in something different. But getting more student loans, more debts, is not a solution.
So, how do you motivate a tired employee to do the kind of work he or she does every day? Falling in burnout or depression takes a greater intervention than organizing a Christmas party.
What I witness most of the time, is that most employees have to back up their boss and they have to avoid being too innovative. They adopt a silence in front of the daily dysfunctional processes of their workplace that could be improved to the benefit of all. Day after day, their work environment becomes more and more bureaucratic. Having sessions with a management consultant often bring disappointment. Expectations are raised but fall rapidly on the floor and their business falls back into the same dysfunctional patterns.
A culture of confrontation, of fighters who confront themselves to win more power, does not bring more day to day satisfaction and motivation. It takes a humble and competent manager to put the quality of his company work environment first and to create and offer to all an interesting job to do while making a profit at the same time.