Who are the three people who could match Jaime Lannister?

Question: In Season 2, Episode 8, Jaime says that there are only three men in Westeros who stood a chance of beating him in a fair fight. Who is this referring to?
Comment: Related Question (at SF&F): [Who are the 3 men who would have a chance against Jaime Lannister in a sword fight?](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/68794/who-are-the-3-men-who-would-have-a-chance-against-jaime-lannister-in-a-sword-fig)
Answer: Since Jaime himself has yet to reveal who those three are, we simply don't know.
In the books Jaime idolized Ser Barristan "The Bold" Selmy (the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard at the beginning of the series) and has always spoke in admiration of his swordsmanship, so it's safe to assume that he's on the list. Other than that it's pure speculation. Among the living the Clegane brothers (Sandor the Hound and Gregor the Mountain) are often described as powerful warriors even by Jaime, so they might be the other two. There are many others, but they are either dead (Ser Arthur "Sword of the Morning" Dayne), not included in the series (Ser Garlan Tyrell), or haven't appeared yet (Oberyn "The Red Viper" Martell).
Comment: @MatthewStevenson `We all know that The Mountain is much better than The Hound` do we? The Hound went toe to toe with The Mountain after Loras Tyrell unhorsed The Mountain at the Hand's tourney. The Hound seemed more than a match for his brother, defending himself capably without needing strike back. He also flawlessly executed that beautiful "ducking a blow transitioning into bowing on bended knee"!
Comment: I'm pretty sure he wasn't talking about the Clegane brothers. When Tyrion demands a trial by combat, in season four, he asks Jaime, Jaime tells Tyrion that he would if he had his right hand. Meaning that when Jaime said the quote, because he still had his right hand, he was confident that he could best Ser Gregor. We all know that The Mountain is much better than The Hound and so Jamie could probably have bested him too.
Comment: @GrimmTheOpiner Perhaps you are right. I'll read through the scene from the books to gain more insight. I agree that my statement may have been misguided.
Answer: Ned Stark was holding his own against Jaime. That lead a Lannister minion to attack Ned and thus embarrass Jaime because it seemed that he needed help to defeat the older man.
Brienne was actually trying not to hurt Jaime in their fight. Jaime blamed his performance on being rusty and shackled. That is certainly true, but it seems that Jaime brags (used to) a bit much about his swordsmanship.
Comment: +1 for pointing out Brienne, but I don't think they knew each other at the time, so there is no way he could have meant her as one of the three - not to mention she's a woman, and Jamie said "men" not "people".
Comment: @druciferre The answer isn't saying *Brienne* was one of them, but that *Jamie*'s claims about his own skills might not be entirely true to reality at all and thus there might be very well more than just three men to make a match for him. Still I agree that this doesn't invalidate nor answer the question which three men *he* meant to be a match for him, no matter if this true or not.
Comment: Actually if I remember rightly the quote in the original question was spoken to her!
Answer: I would like to add that Oberyn probably wasn't one of the three. I don't think him and Jaime were well acquainted, and Martell did spend quite a number of years in the Free Cities, so I wager that most people outside of Dorne wouldn't have been aware of his fighting skill.
Also, I'm not sure how it was shown in the books, but in the tv series, when Oberyn fights the Mountain, we unquestionably see how impressed Jaime is (the camera went to his face about three times during the fight, each time him looking marvelled). If he'd already known of Oberyn's skill, I doubt he would have looked as impressed as he did.
So the three people were probably Selmy, the Hound and the Mountain.
Answer: I don't think I can name all three but we all know that one of them is Barristan Selmy. The only thing that puts that to doubt is that at the time, Ser Barristan wasn't actually in Westeros.
Despite his wimpiness Loras Tyrell is a marvelous warrior. When Catelyn Stark is trying to find the owner of the dragon bone dagger, Littlefinger says that he lost it in a bet with Tyrion when Loras Tyrell unseated Jaime during the tourney on Joffrey's name day. On top of that Jaime also watches Ser Loras unseat the Mountain, so Jaime may have thought him able to best him. Ned Stark wasn't one of them because Jaime says "in Westeros" and at the time Ned Stark was dead.
As for the third, I can only guess, the only possibility that comes to mind is Beric Dondarrion, but I can't think of any evidence to support it.


Domain, Hosting and DNS management on 3 seperate providers - is this possible?

Question: I wanted to know if its possible to do the following:

Buy Domain from GoDaddy.
Buy Hosting from HostGator.
Buy DNS Management from DNS Made Easy.
Answer: Yes you can. If you look at this article on the Godaddy website:
http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/664/setting-nameservers-for-your-domain-names
and look at the section "Setting Nameservers for a Domain Name Registered Elsewhere and Using Off-site DNS" it will tell you how to set up the DNS. Then you need to configure the DNS to point to your hosting.
Answer: Yes! It is possible to register a domain name from Godaddy, purchase a hosting package from hostgator and use the DNS management from a different company.
It is advisable to use the DNS management service provided by your hosting company itself; Hostgator in this case.


What is the name of the movement which is carried out by plane beginning from the runway and ending at takeoff?

Question: What is the name of the movement which begins after the plane lines up on the runway and takeoff clearance is received, and ends when the plane lifts off from the runway? Is it also called as 'taxiing'? I know that roll-out is used for plane's decelerating movement on the runway after landing; but what is the name of vice-versa?
Comment: Related: [What is a take off roll?](https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/21133/what-is-a-take-off-roll)
Comment: It's actually two things: Ground run until rotation starts, rotation until lift off.
Answer: Takeoff Roll
As per the FAA handbook (page 5-2)

Takeoff roll (ground roll) is the portion of the takeoff procedure
  during which the airplane is accelerated from a standstill to an
  airspeed that provides sufficient lift for it to become airborne.

And after that

Lift-off is when the wings are lifting the weight of the airplane
  off the surface. In most airplanes, this is the result of the pilot
  rotating the nose up to increase the angle of attack (AOA). >
The
  initial climb begins when the airplane leaves the surface and a climb
  pitch attitude has been established. Normally, it is considered
  complete when the airplane has reached a safe maneuvering altitude or
  an en route climb has been established.
Answer: I've been flying since the mid 70s and the term has always been "line up" as a generic term to describe the process of moving out onto the runway and stopping once aligned with the runway centre line.  As in, "when you line up prior to takeoff" when talking to a student.
When I was flying CRJs we would use the term "line up items" to describe pre-takeoff checklist items you do at the last minute while pulling out onto the runway (like selecting anti-ice, which had to be done as late as possible in the CRJ200 because its extremely hot evaporative WAI system would cook the deicing fluid on the ground).
As Carlo mentions, towers for all those years used the instruction "taxi to position and hold" until the change some years ago to "line up and wait".  It wasn't necessary to explain to pilots what that meant when the change happened.
Comment: The question is asking about the phase after entering the runway but before leaving the ground.
Comment: Yes but the question is not well worded.  He was actually asking if the takeoff roll itself was considered taxiing.   "Ending at the takeoff after the clearance", to Carlo and I, means a procedure that starts upon leaving the taxiway, before clearance is received, and ends at the start of the takeoff roll after the clearance is received.  That's the line up.  He should have just said, "is the rolling part of the takeoff still considered taxiing?"
Answer: This used to be known by ATC phraseology as 'taxiing into position'.  I.e. were the aircraft is holding short of the runway safety area, ATC clearance for takeoff has been received, and the pilot release his brakes and taxis the aircraft into the runway safety area and lining up into a position to takeoff.  After a fatal accident, I believe between the DC-9 and a PC 12, this term was changed to 'lining up' ie "Line Up and Wait"
Comment: This would be correct if the question were about what happens on the taxiing landes. However, the question specifically asks about the runway.


Buying a house with interest?

Question: I thought about it and if I want to buy a house in Germany, there is nearly no way that you buy it without interest. The exception is when you are wealthy. I know that bank interest is haram and I heard that there are also Islamic banks from which you can buy a house. For example the house has a value of 100k and they sell it to you for 150k to 200k. But when I buy a house with interest it is exactly the same. The difference is, that I pay the money over several years. And in the end I have payed for both 150k to 200k. How is this any different?
Answer: Islamic law doesn't preclude anyone (i.e. banks) from providing a service (i.e. assistance in purchasing a house) and making a profit (i.e. 100k) therefrom. It only regulates the acceptable means by which one may do so.

Those who consume interest cannot stand except as one stands who is being beaten by Satan into insanity. That is because they say, "Trade is like interest." But Allah has permitted trade and has forbidden interest. So whoever has received an admonition from his Lord and desists may have what is past, and his affair rests with Allah . But whoever returns to it - those are the companions of the Fire; they will abide eternally therein.
[Al-Baqarah 275]

Just because one bank can make as much profit by charging unacceptable interest as another bank can by a resale markup doesn't make them equatable: The one is still forbidden and the other is still permissible.
Answer: My teacher used to explain it with an analogy. Nikah and Zina have the same outcome (sexual desire fulfilled), but one is halal and one is haram. Meat sacrificed to idols and meat sacrificed in Allah's name are both the same in physical composition, but one is halal and one is haram. The end does not matter, the means of achieving it matter.

Buying a house with interest?


PMO Value Add Metrics

Question: What would be the best group of metrics to use to measure PMO value in services organization? What do you use in your org,if any? By this I am talking about more of the soft metrics like repeat customers, showing how a defined process helped the sale of a service, etc.?
Answer: The first metric is at least 10 times more important than any of the others.

Does it fulfill the company's strategic mission?  If the company doesn't know why it created a PMO, then the PMO should be shut down.  Someone else will quote the precise number but if I recall correctly 90% of PMO's fail in 3 years, largely because they serve no strategic objective.  *Update: This observation is informed by Mark Perry of BOT International. His podcasts emphasize this point. I regret not attributing it to him; took me a bit of digging to find the right citation.
Rate of project closure.  What % of projects are closed successfully by the PMO (Close can include "killed off before it becomes a zombie project")
% of effort devoted to project deliverables vs effort devoted to project documentation. (In theory those who work with the PMO will spend more time on the project deliverable and less time on paper churning.)
Quality of project documentation - is the project documentation consistent across projects? does it meet quality standards? (difficult to measure in a non-PMO environment. Perhaps use the number of revisions as a proxy).
Total value of successful projects delivered that align with enterprise strategic goals.
Portfolio metrics - randomly this was published the same week the question was asked; I felt compelled to include it for reference.
Comment: This is extremely interesting and has helped crystallize my own thoughts on PMOs. I had not heard factoid 1., but I can believe it. Too many PMOs adopt the HR model of deploying process that only they can police, thereby becoming self-supporting, but which do not serve the key requirements of the actual deliveries. In my not-so-humble opinion of course :)
Comment: Observation #1 is based on [Mark Perry's](http://www.botinternational.com/thepmopodcast.htm) podcast on PMO's. He is... vehement... about this point.
Comment: I believe all of these points are important. One thing I should have clarified, however, is that this PMO is for a services team (managbes customer facing projects) so in terms of "strategic importance" I believe it is there. My ultimate goal is to show - beyond the fundamental benefits of a well executed project - what other value add does a PMO lend to an organization's ability to sell their services. Crtedibility or perception of maturity? etc. Thanks for your response!
Comment: I'm not sure how I perceive credibility - I can't measure credibility, and any metric for perception that I contemplate is too subjective to value the measurement.  "Maturity" only works if you have a maturity model, and I'm not aware of a maturity model for PMO.  The only things that I'd measure for those two fall into "quality" - does the PMO produce standards and guidance that facilitate project closure across the organization?  Are the standards used? Are they useful?

PMO Value Add Metrics


Icon groups in Xubuntu 14.04

Question: I am trying to put some icons into groups in the Xubuntu 14.04 menu.  I can do this no problem for applications I have installed myself (like Wine applications) but I seem to be unable to do so for system applications.
What I am trying to do is put the Settings Editor and Settings Manager icons into the "System" group in the menu, but no matter how many changes I make to the .desktop files in /usr/share/applications, the icons do not appear.
How would I do this?
Answer: You could try to install alacarte and use it to enable the desired menus.

Icon groups in Xubuntu 14.04


Is there a System Monitor Lens?

Question: I really want to know if there is a System Monitor lens out there. If this doesn't exist, it would be awesome to see system properties in a lens such as HDD usage, RAM, and another properties.
Answer: No, for other lenses that are available see What lenses for Unity are available?, better use conky for that feature. Otherwise System Monitor Indicator are also available, I guess for that matter.
Try OMG! Ubuntu! - Tag Articles: conky for good conky's, that are otherwise available.

Is there a System Monitor Lens?


Secondary characters in character-study fiction

Question: How would a story flow if I made the secondary characters solely for the purpose of showing the reader how the main character has grown though the years? I'm thinking a 10 year span right now. They would serve as "learning tools" if you will, shaping the character into the man he will be when the story has finished.
Comment: Welcome to Writing.SE Big Sky, glad you found us.  We have a [tour] and [help] you might wish to check out.
Answer: That is what secondary characters are for. If you conceive of a story as the arc of a principal character, then every event and every secondary character exists to define that arc, to push the character along that arc, and to demonstrate the change that occurs in the character (if any) as they traverse that arc.
Of course, some characters are more secondary than others. Some stories have multiple protagonists, each with their own arc, though usually one protagonist is preeminent. Some secondary characters have partial arcs, if only because for them to play their role in the main protagonist's arc, they have to develop as well.
The main concern in all of this is that as much or as little as you show of any particular character, whether you give them a whole arc, a partial arc, or merely a cameo, the reader has to find them convincing. If your secondary characters suddenly change behavior in the middle of the story in order to push the main character to the next plot point, the story is going to be unconvincing.
This, of course, makes piloting your main protagonist's arc to its desired end a complex bit of logistics, which explains why this stuff is hard to do and why most who attempt it don't manage to accomplish it with complete success.
There aren't any obvious paint-by-numbers tricks to accomplishing this. However, readers will typically give you much more leeway on improbable events than they will on inconsistent characters, as long as you foreshadow them appropriately.
Your story will flow fine if you create secondary characters who exist simply to show the protagonist's growth, just as long as their characterization is consistent, and they behave in a way that is consistent with their character as you have established it earlier in the book.
Comment: Very well put. Thank you very much for that break-down.
Answer: Adding a couple of points to @Mark Baker's answer (please read that one first).
It is fine if the secondary characters exist solely for the purpose of supporting the main character, but don't let the readers notice this. A nice guideline is "every character is the hero of their own story": your choices as you develop them in the story are guided by what the main character needs, but their existence in-universe is about them; if they seem unconvincing to you, you can think what you would change if they were main characters, and then try to reconcile your conclusions with what the actual main character needs of them.
There is no reason to do less when you can do more. There will be opportunities to enrich your secondary characters in ways that are not strictly necessary for them in their role of supporting the main character. As long as it does not detract from your story, why skip such opportunities? The main point is this: if you strictly adhere to some storytelling model where you've decided to limit the role of secondary characters, you might end up taking the idea too far. It's fine as a general idea, but don't impose it as an obligatory limitation on your story (unless you have some very specific reason to do so).


Reference Levels for film mix

Question: Are blu rays a good source for referencing film mixes. I know Dvd's are not coz they are extremely compressed. If blu rays are not where can i get hold of some film mixes for reference?
Answer: Most DVD mixes tend to actually be pretty dynamic (relative to the theatrical). On lower budget indies and whatnot there often is no difference between the theatrical and DVD/Blu-Ray.
As far as references go, calibrate your room (lots of great online resources for that) and then pick some movies that sound like you want yours to sound and listen to them in your room at whatever mix level you're using (79-85) and just teach your ears, basically.
Answer: what is the reference you're looking for? loudness or something else?
loudness: it totally depends on the monitoring system and the room. if you have your room and speakers properly calibrated you won't need to listen to a mix for reference.
dvd's are not always "extremely compressed". there are some great sounding dvd's, like 'saving private ryan'.
cheers

Reference Levels for film mix


Is it Ok to make up places if I want the reader to think it's set in the real world?

Question: What I'm doing is making a story in the medieval times and I wanted to make up a village and have my characters be there and travel around there but do I have to make everything around there in the book like how it was in real life? For example if my character where to travel south, in real life he would reach Berwick castle but in the book I don't want anything to be there. It's important to me that it's set in the real world because the second book is supposed to be in Wisconsin so I don't want to switch from not real to real. (Sorry if I'm confusing)
Comment: Yes, like Wakanda in Marvel is made up. Still about real world.
Comment: I think the only way you can go wrong is to use a real place and then get it wrong; don't let readers think you don't know the geography. If your characters go from Kings Cross to Hogwarts by train then many of your readers will place Hogwarts in the north; don't then disorient them by telling them that Hogwarts is on the south coast.
Comment: What kind of story is this?  Historical, alternate history, historical fantasy, etc?
Comment: @JoshuaRajandiran Well... it does on Earth-199999. We live on Earth-1218.
Comment: Stephen King has made up entire towns as settings for his stories in Maine that don't actually exist. I think this is also similar to what you are thinking.
Comment: Historical fantasy kinda like Bloodborne or Dark Souls but if it was in England @ArcanistLupus5
Comment: It worked for HP Lovecraft.
Comment: Sue Grafton did it all the time.
Comment: Michael Ondaatje did this in his travel journal slash memoire *Running in the Family*; the chapel was not real. Then again, this was pretty tactful, because a famous theme of his is 'uncovering the past' and 'the rumours of his family history.'
Answer: Jane Austen routinely did what it sounds like you want to do: she kept the big places intact (London, Bath), but the estates mentioned in her stories (e.g. Pemberly) are fictional, with only their general location given. The estate was fictional, but culturally it was set in its time, in England, which is all that she needed. Similarly, you can invent a village, and not bother too much with precise distances and where exactly it should be on the map. Pemberly could have existed, so could your village. In fact, I believe this was a common way of writing at the time.
Comment: Add Thomas Hardy to the list - he [invented an entire fictional region of England, Wessex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy%27s_Wessex). The entire Marvel comics universe works this way - New York City is really New York City, Hell's Kitchen is a real neighborhood, Westchester & Queens are real counties. But good luck finding Xavier's mansion or the boyhood homes of Peter Parker or Matt Murdock.
Comment: I was going to use James Herriot as an example his stories are littered with real places and fictional places, but it is def. set in real yorkshire.
Comment: I think this is still a common way of writing.
Comment: @MandisaW I feel it's worth making the point clear that Wessex did exist, but Tom Hardy's version of Wessex has significant changes in order to fit his story.
Comment: @SGR As I understood it, Hardy popularized use of the term as applied to the region. Not sure if ppl in the region referred to it that way though. [Clearly, they do now.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wessex) And yes, Hardy plays loosely with local geography to serve the narrative, which is fine IMO.
Answer: The location serves the story, not the other way around.
If you need to alter geography a little bit, that's fine. It's called artistic license, and everyone does it.
The danger is that changing the real world risks throwing readers out of the story if they are familiar enough with the area to recognize the changes.  They'll get distracted by the details, and you don't want that.
You can reduce this problem by obfuscating the details. It's fine if you know the exact spatial coordinates of your town. But if all the readers know is that the town is "somewhere in Europe by a river" then they won't know that there should be a castle there.
Comment: On the other hand, for the authors taking this to heart, *please* have a bit more specific location in mind than just "somewhere in Europe by a river", which could be pretty much anywhere from southern Spain to the northern parts of Scandinavia. There are likely to be major differences between those which *will* impact the story you're telling, and people *will* notice if you get this badly enough wrong even if you don't ever name the specific location at all. (Yes, I realize you're just using it as an example. Yes, it hits somewhat close to home.)
Comment: Agreed regarding the danger of throwing your reader. I read a novel once by an author who was a personal acquaintance of mine. It was set in the midwestern university town, in which we both lived. She used much of the geography, but what was jarring (to me) was where she juxtaposed locations. Wouldn't've been an issue for someone unfamiliar with the area, but it was for me. It would've been better (for me) if the location was fictional or if the rest of her geography wasn't so precisely mapped to the real world (i.e., setting a rural scene where my apartment building was).
Answer: I think that at this point you must consider the importance of the location to the plot or the message you want your readers to get. For example, Dostoevsky, in Crime and Punishment, omits street names by just giving their first letters (interesting reddit discussion in here). While some speculate he did it for censorship reasons, I viewed it at the time as a tool enforcing the reader to be more focused on the story. Hence, by omitting real locations, the reader will not be attempted to memorize street names because they are not crucial to the story. From fear that some people may debate me on this with regard to "Crime and Punishment", I will just conclude with the following:
I do not see real locations as important in stories. As long as the setting is consistent (i.e. you do not jump from place to place uselessly), I think you should be fine. When you say

It's important to me that it's set in the real world because the second book is supposed to be in Wisconsin so I don't want to switch from not real to real.

I think the best advice is just to not care about locations and focus more on character development in this part of the plot.
Another example of not real to real stories is in the Agota Kristof's trilogy: "The trilogy of the twins" (The notebook trilogy). If I remember correctly, the first book does not give you any indication about what the real location or time are. Next, it becomes more clear and uses more "real" descriptions. This comes up as the location and time become more crucial to the story-telling.
Answer: I think that would be fine to do! If you take Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments, for example, most of the series is set within New York. However, she made up the country of Idris for the home country of her made up race of Shadowhunters.
It's your story, you can set it in any type of world you would like!
Answer: A quick google search for Bernice castle came up with a bunch of females with last name of Castle.  Searching for Bernice Stronghold also came up blank.  So if google can't find that castle with all its modern powers, it is forgivable that your characters might miss it as well.
Just leave the exact name and location of your village obscure.  Give your readers nothing to search on, and they will not be tempted to search for discrepancies like a missing castle.
So instead of referring to the village by it's name, call it "our village" or "our home".  Refer to the next town over as "that small hamlet where cousin Mary lives".  You can even have your character's give the neighboring town a disparaging nick-name and use that in place of its real name.
Also, humor can also be used to justify missing details.  If the narrator sarcastically points out the idea that nobody ever mentions the name of this particular town, then everyone's efforts to avoid disclosing it can become a great point of humor.  Think obscurity through absurdity.
Comment: There are many towns who have the same name, so one can certainly name the town without worries. Just look at Springfield: you can find Springfields in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England. And if you look at North America, you'll find over 30 towns!
Comment: I meant Berwick Castle but it auto corrected lol sorry
Comment: Of course, Berwick is in the old kingdom of Bernicia.
Answer: Do as much research into the place you want your fictional village to be as you can.  Find out the topography, the climate, the surrounding large towns.  Know something about the people of that time and region.  At the very least it will grease your creative wheels and give you the ability to flesh out your fictional town with some degree of authenticity.
If you want to deviate from what is really there, for example you want Berwick Castle not to exist, then just make up a reason for it not to exist.  Who built it?  That guy just happened to die in childbirth.  Easy enough.  The main thing is just to make sure you know what is in your world in RL, and when you deviate, do so by choice, not by ignorance or apathy.
Depending on how much you want to deviate, there may be a lot of work involved.  For example, if you want a huge stretch of wilderness for your story, in a location that in RL is quite thickly inhabited, you need a good reason for that.  Maybe a plague?  But if so, how did your town survive?  A war?  Then there would be ruins.  A hostile force of some sort?  Then the story needs to deal with that hostile presence.
Of course, you can choose to ignore all this and just arrange things however you like, and many readers wouldn't notice at all.  But if you are writing a story that includes alternate historical elements, your target audience is likely to be knowledgeable in that area, and is much more likely to notice any mistakes.
Comment: Sometimes a writer will say in a foreword how the story's geography deviates. For example, *Catch-22* is set on an island called Pianosa; a brief foreword notes that the real Pianosa, near Elba, is too small for the events of the story. Similarly *The Fountains of Paradise* needs an island on the equator, so the author moved the island on which he resided much of his life, and said so.

Is it Ok to make up places if I want the reader to think it’s set in the real world?


Should I worry about the firmware version on my DSLR, and if so, how do I update?

Question: I know "upgrading is usually better", but I'm curious if that's something that can be done by Joe User who doesn't know how to disassemble a camera, or if you have to do something like ship the camera to the maker for them to do it. So, should I worry about firmware version on my DSLR, and if so, how do I update?
Comment: See also http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/12631/is-it-safe-to-perform-a-firmware-upgrade-on-a-canon-60d-camera and http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/6146/can-firmware-improve-a-camera
Answer: Yes, it's worth worrying about. Generally these fix software bugs or even add new features. It's very expensive and time consuming to get a software product near-bug free at launch — a luxury camera makers don't have in a fast-moving market. Firmware is the "operating system" of your camera, and keeping up with the latest version will make sure your camera is operating at its best.
Cameras companies tend to be somewhat secretive, often fixing things beyond what's listed, so even if the changelog doesn't seem interesting, it's usually still a good idea. However, unless I have an urgent probem, I usually wait a few weeks after a firmware is released to apply it to my camera. I've never heard of a catastrophic firmware release, buy I figure I'll let someone else be the guinea pig.
The procedure varies in details from manufacturer to manufacturer, but in general, you download a file, extract that blob to a memory card (sometimes using a custom program), and power on the camera with some button held. There will be instructions on the support site for your camera. The main risk is loss of power during the upgrade — if that happens, the camera may be bricked — the technical term for "turned into a doorstop" — and need to be sent in for repair (rarely covered by warranty). So make sure you have a fresh, fully-charged battery (or use an AC adaptor if you have one).
Answer: It's a completely user level thing to do.
Updating firmware on your camera is commonly just:

Start with a full battery - its critical this process completes fully once started
Download the firmware
Hook the camera up to the computer with USB
Run the downloaded program from your computer
Make sure you don't unhook the camera before it tells you to
Unplug the USB
Enjoy

This is a common procedure but you should definitely, definitely follow whatever specific procedure is listed in your camera's manual.  This may include loading from a memory card or other options.
Firmwares are sometimes critical fixes and sometimes just minor bug annoyances.  What it fixes may not be critical to the health of your camera, but it could be critical to the way you use it.  Consult the specific firmware release notes for more details. On a personal note, I pretty much always keep it up to date.
Comment: So I should make sure I have the latest firmware before I start playing with a brand new camera?
Comment: @Billy I would, sometimes its a critical fix, sometimes not.
Comment: @Jerry - very good,valid points
Answer: I'd go counter to the other answers in saying you probably shouldn't update your firmware unless there's a flaw in your camera's functionality that the update solves.
I say this because there's a risk involved, a risk that the firmware update will fail and leave the camera dead, requiring servicing by a professional to restore it to working order. Such operations are of course expensive and leave you without your camera for a period of days to weeks (depending on how busy the manufacturer repair center is that you send it to).
Answer: In general yes, you should worry, since it fixes bugs, improves the cameras software or even adds features. However, as with computer updates, there is always a risk that things go wrong or that the update introduces new issues. What I do is, I check what is adressed with the firmware update (this is mentioned usually on the download page), if it adresses something that is important to me I mostly update the firmware instantly. If it does not adress something important to me, I'll do the update at a point where it is not critical or annoying if I had to send it in or hassle to roll back the old firmware.


Where can I park my rainy-day / emergency fund? Savings accounts don't generate much interest

Question: Savings accounts don't seem to generate much interest. What other options do I have for my emergency fund?
Answer: Opinions vary but I've always thought that an "emergency fund" is just that... for emergencies... NOT investment.
While it "hurts" not to have your emergency money making more money... its MORE IMPORTANT to have quick access to it.
As long as the interest rate keeps up with the rate of inflation leave it alone.  Fill up your emergency fund with 3-6 mos salary and then INVEST your money beyond that however you see fit.
Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University" is a very good audiobook and I would recommend it to anyone asking questions such as this one.
Comment: It's still nice to see your emergency fund keep up with inflation. Parking it in a "normal" savings account that generates < 1% interest seems silly.
Comment: `As long as the interest rate keeps up with the rate of inflation leave it alone` That is in essence what parking means, in this context.  Of course, easy access is also a must, since it is an emergency fund.
Comment: I don't see how this is the accepted answer. It doesn't answer the question - what options do you have for having quick access while still keeping up with inflation?
Comment: @corsiKa he's saying that savings accounts aren't that bad of an idea.
Comment: "As long as the interest rate keeps up with the rate of inflation leave it alone." - This is exactly the problem. There are no safe, liquid places to put a sizable chunk of money that will keep up with inflation. But there should be no requirement to keep up with inflation anway.
Answer: Consider also setting up a CD ladder. CD rates are often better than savings account rates.
You have a 12-month CD that you purchase in January with a twelfth of your money, then another small one in February, then another in March.... then, when January comes around again, you a little more money to the first CD, and the ladder is complete.
The idea is that you have more access to your money than one big CD, since you'll always have a CD maturing next month that you can get to in case of an emergency, and you can get better rates on a 1-year CD than on something else (with less risk of being locked into a bad interest rate). And you'll be less tempted to tap it all at once to buy some fancy car or what-not because you can't get at it all at once (without a penalty). And in a major emergency, losing a few percent of your interest for early withdrawals is likely the least of your problems.
Comment: .... hence the indication that "CD rates are often better than savings account rates."
Comment: CD ladders are great, but only if they are paying more interest than one of the savings accounts I've mentioned.
Comment: FYI, GICs are just like CDs, so a GIC ladder applies here too
Comment: However, you'd need to invest 12 times more in CD than you'd have to keep in the savings account. So, this approach would only be reasonable if 12*(return from CD) is more than (return from savings account) + 11*(return from X), where X is the investment strategy of choice in absence of emergency requirements.
Answer: Specifically, if you are looking for a "reasonable" rate for a savings (especially in TFSA) account then Ally has a 2% guaranteed account and ING has a 3% one (but it is subject to change).
Update (Dec 9, 2013) - unsurprisingly, the ING special has disappeared .. I blame ScotiaBank. The current best rates are 1.35 and 1.40%. For Ally, we can blame RBC - current rates are 1.1
Comment: both links rotted.
Comment: TFSA = tax free savings account for canadians. $5000/yr limit, but you can invest and *retrieve* money tax free as far as I know.
Comment: @antony.trupe - the ING one was a special. Not surprising that ~3 years later it no longer exists. I've updated the links
Comment: In general the advice holds. Look outside the Big 5. ING is now Tangerine, Ally is still around I believe, Implicity is another. These are not banks in the usual Canadian sense and they pay a higher interest rate. They are a fine place to park your emergency fund. Whether to do it as a TFSA or not depends on how likely you are to make a withdrawal.
Answer: Actually there has been lots of talk around using a TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account) in Canada for just that purpose.  A TFSA allows you:

$5000 contribution limit per year with carry forward for unused balance
Flexibility to withdraw funds at any time
Income is tax sheltered

This blog makes some good points about exactly that:

The bestest thing about the TFSA is its flexibility. You can take money out of your TFSA at any time for any purpose, without losing the contribution room, which makes this account the number one choice for socking away an emergency fund. So even if you take money out in one year, you can put it back the next, without affecting that year's $5,000 contribution limit.
Comment: I'm not sure I understand - any money you put in there is already taxed. What is the benefit of this over a regular savings account? I just saw that income is tax sheltered. . .but seems like you'd need to have a significant savings balance for that to be of any real effect, at which point, why are you keeping that much cash in savings?
Comment: @iheanyi Income from labour that you put in is already taxed, but income from capital (i.e. interest income) may be taxes as well, as this is new income compared to the money you put in.
Comment: @gerrit Ignore my deleted comment. I just realized that I missed a critical paragraph which states: `You can hold any investment you can buy for your RRSP inside your TFSA, including stocks, bonds, GIC, and mutual funds. But you should probably stick with interest-bearing investments. Why? Well since all the capital gains inside TFSA is tax free, it also means any capital loss can't be claimed to be offset your other capital gains.`
Answer: I don't know Canada very well, but can offer some general points when considering where to park your emergency fund.
Savings rates are currently low, but then so is inflation. Always bear in mind that inflation decreases the value of your money, so if you're getting 4% interest and inflation is 2%, you're making 2% gross in real terms. If you're getting 2% and inflation is close to zero, you're actually earning a similar amount, it's just the numbers are going up more slowly.
Obviously when and how much tax you pay affects the actual return, it's just worth bearing in mind that low interest and low inflation are actually not that bad a savings environment as they first appear.
For an emergency fund the key thing is ease of access, consider keeping some portion of your savings in an instant access account for those emergencies that happen when the banks are closed.
In the UK there are various tax-free savings options, I'm guessing Canada has a few too, if so you should explore those options. While these may not have attractive headline rates, you don't pay tax on the interest, this can make them much more competitive (4% tax free is the same as 5% gross if you would have to pay tax at 20%). Normally tax free investments have caps so once you've invested a set amount you can't add anymore. This may be a consideration if you regularly dip into your emergency fund as you might not easily be able to build it up again.
My approach is to have about 90% of my "rainy day" fund in easily accessible but tax free savings. This discourages me from spending it unless I really need to. I then keep a slush fund sufficient to cover every day disasters (boiler packing up, needing a hire car for a week etc) in instant access accounts .
Answer: Since this post was written high-yield bank accounts interest rates have dropped significantly.  High-yield, low-risk options are hard to find right now.  Something like a Vanguard (or similar) bond fund might be an alternative to consider.

High-interest checking / savings accounts are often a better choice than CDs today for three reasons.
At the time this question was asked, CDs were probably a better answer as rates were much higher.  Since CD rates have plummeted in recent years, and because a CD is only semi-liquid, i.e., even if you ladder CDs, an early withdrawal fee often means foregoing the interest on that particular CD which you withdrew.
1.) On the other hand, high-interest checking and/or savings accounts are very viable options these days. There are several options available that earn ~1%+ APY.
It's not quite that simple, and there are a few gotchas:

some require a minimum balance
some have tiered interest rates, for example, your first $2.5k receives a low APR while every penny beyond receives the high rate
most have balance caps ~$10k–25k
some require a certain number of transactions per month (while the first three are low / no maintenance to workaround, this one could be a pain)

If you run into the balance cap problem, of course nothing is stopping you from having multiple accounts across different banks.
2.) The high-interest bank accounts are fully liquid able to be liquidated at anytime (without foregoing interest).
3.) A minor benefit is that the high-yield savings account is low maintenance whereas CD laddering is pretty hands on and may require physical trips to your bank.  (If you know of a way to automate the process more, please comment or edit.)
Comment: What is the problem with making more interest until such a time that I need to forego some interest in order to liquidate a CD or multiple CDs?  My current CD ladder is generating 25% more interest vs the comparable savings account with an early liquidation penalty of just a couple months of interest.
Comment: @quid The comparison is pretty situational depending on what CDs you hold based on balance, minimum amounts, rates, duration. (I'd like to better understand your specifics.)  That's the point I tried to make with (2): by liquidating that CD you forego the interest "earned" whereas with the savings account you never forego interest.  A good strategy probably involves both, especially when one's emergency fund is over ~$10k–20k.
Answer: If this is truly your emergency fund, then you should keep the money safe. Unfortunately interest rates are very low right now and there is not much you can do about that. However, ask your investment advisor for a CDIC insured high interest account, such as these:

0.50% RBC Investment Savings Account (Royal Bank)
0.55% Altamira High Interest Cashperformer (National Bank)
0.65% Dundee Investment Savings (Scotiabank)
0.70% Manulife Investment Savings Account (Manulife Bank)
0.70% Renaissance High Interest Savings Account (CIBC)
0.75% B2B High Interest Investment Account (Laurentian)
Comment: Note that ING and Ally are both CDIC insured, and even their basic (non-TFSA) savings plans pay much higher than those listed here. ING's is 1.2% and Ally is 2%. I can think of no good reason to stick with the "traditional" banks right now for a savings account.
Answer: You can also consider getting GICs which offer early redemption - ING has pretty decent ones. Early redemption offers poorer interest than savings account, but if you go the full term the interest rates are better than savings account.
Answer: I use an offset mortgage. (No interest is paid, but the amount in the savings account is subtracted from the outstanding mortgage amount before interest is calculated, so the mortgage is paid off faster by the interest amount saved).
The money is instantly accessible and there is no tax as the benefit is reduced/saved interest.
However, the mortgage rate is slightly higher, so it works best if your emergency funds are a reasonably large proportion of the mortgage amount outstanding.
Answer: What worked out well for me is a Capital One High Yield Savings Account, which came with a lower interest rate than most online accounts but higher than a brick & mortar bank. Also, since Capital One has Banking locations now, I can use the ATM card that came with this account to pull out the emergency money if I need it in a pinch at a place that doesn't accept checks.
Answer: Just use a savings account and don't worry too much about the rate of interest. It won't be much, no matter where you put it, so optimize for convenience.
You will lag inflation, but that's okay. It's an emergency fund. You just need the money to be there when you need it.
There is no better option. Anything that might generate a higher return will have risk and/or not be liquid. Either of those things is bad for your emergency fund.
Comment: Please don't dismiss the question. It may not be what works for your situation, but that doesn't mean it isn't a good fit for someone else. My emergency fund earns $500 a year in a CD, in addition to _not losing money_ to inflation. I haven't needed to make a withdraw in 20 years, and if I do in the future, the penalty will be a fraction of the interest I earn in 1 year. It's still serving all the needs of an emergency fund, _and earning me a vacation every 2 years_.
Answer: I was asking myself the exact same thing and I have come to the conclusion that most of your money should be invested in index ETFs and maybe some bond ETFs as well.
If inflation is about 2% and the interest you make in a savings account is less than 1% then you're actually losing money in a savings account.
Keep a few thousand bucks in your savings account and the majority invested and working for you.
Comment: This question was specifically about an emergency fund, and it'd be incredibly risky to keep that in the market.


MP3 Manager for Wordpress

Question: Looking for the following functionality, there does not seem to be a single way to do this, at least not that I was able to find. I would gladly pay for a plugin that did all of this to save me the time of writing one.
This is for a bands' site, so keep that in mind.

Create a new post type of Albums
Allow admins of the site, in a user friendly way, to upload multiple MP3 files at once.
Parse ID3 tags from the albums.
Using the files' ID3 tags, create a post of the Album title if one does not exist.
When the album post type for each individual album is clicked, it displays all of the tracks and users can play these tracks from the site or download them.

Does this functionality (or something similar) currently exist? I really appreciate any guidance :)
MG
Answer: Try this theme I helped build: http://upthemes.com/themes/garage-band/ It does everything you are asking.

MP3 Manager for Wordpress


Will a PPPoE connection work from an Ubuntu VM?

Question: I'm trying to explore how to set up a PPPoE connection on Ubuntu, for my housemate. The only Ubuntu machine I have access to now is a VM Player VM, and the connection doesn't seem to work. Normal internet works through sharing with the host, but if I disconnect the host's PPPoE, the guest doesn't seem to be able to establish its own.
Answer: Cause
If you are sharing the internet connection of your host system, you have probably set up a NAT connection for the virtual network card of your guest system.  However, if you want to experiment with PPPeE on the guest system, you should enable a bridged connection.
Enabling Bridged Connection
Under Virtual Machine Settings->Network Adapter, enable "bridged connection".
Explanation
In order for PPPoE to work you have to reach the modem on the link layer.  Bridging provides for that, reloading the ethernet frames form your virtual network card onto the physical network (and vice versa).
NAT, on the other hand, operates on a higher level (the network layer), reloading only the IP payload of some etherent frames while discarding everything else (PPPoE frames in particular).


Who was Makarov in Edolas?

Question: When in Edolas, the story reveals that there is an alternate version of every person there, with similar yet opposite characteristics. One of the main people I could never get a confirmation on being there was Makarov. At one point, a Edolas Fairy Tail guild member says that the Guildmaster is dead, but then later Natsu believes Makarov was the evil king in Edolas. Is it either of them, or is it something else?
Answer: Faust has been confirmed to be Edo-Makarov by Mashima. In the wikia it is stated that Faust is the Edolas version of Makarov.

Faust (ファウスト Fausuto) is the former King of Edolas, banished and succeeded by his disowned son, Mystogan. He is the Edolas counterpart of Makarov Dreyar.

They got this information from (the last paragraph of) the afterwords of Volume 29 by Mashima. Basically Mashima had to do cutoffs due to space or time limitations and had to remove Edolas Gajeel and Edolas Makarov('s confirmation) from the manga. Though those scenes were still added to the anime, thus making them canon as they were originally planned by Mashima himself. Both Faust and Makarov even had the same voice actor.
[Screenshot van de anime should be added here, but I can't seem to find it.]

Source
Answer: Well, in the anime, when Makarov asks "How am I at Edolas?", Natsu remembers the evil king also asked the same question as Makarov asked something about "Guilds are fun", so Natsu believes he is the evil king. I think this is a little problematic thing on the story line. As
@Dimitri mx  mentioned earlier, maybe he was dead in Edolas, or may be he has fallen to the evil side. Either way that part require some clarification from the author.
Answer: In my point of view Makarov can't be Faust in Edolas I mean..

They don't look alike at all
The Fairy Tail in Edolas said the guildmaster died
If he'd be he would be Jellal's father in Earthland as well but we know that he isn't (even though this would be quite interesting)

(Yeah this is answer is quite late I just wanted to bring this Jellal-father thing up xD)
Answer: He is the king of Edolas but was banish as they both ask the same question is "Is Being in a guild fun?" As also Mystogan put the fairy tail symbol up as he notice the symbol and walks off as Edolas is the opposite of the person in Earth Land that why he looks so different As he is tall, And on the evil side as i heard the same voice in the dubbed as for Makarov his short and part of the ten saints WAYYYY opposite from Faust (opposite) As i think this is the Logical explanation of your question

Who was Makarov in Edolas?


Laptop underclocking after trying to add new stick of ram

Question: So, for the past ~15 hours I've been trying to troubleshoot an issue that randomly came up after I installed a new stick of ram into my Sager NP8170 Notebook.
The stick of ram that I installed was a 2gb pc 10.7k stick of ram, unfortunately I didn't match the clock speeds (or so I thought) and everything started running much slower, so I removed the offending ram, leaving me with the 12gb (3x 4gb so-dimm), and despite not changing any other configuration, the computer is STILL very VERY slow.
The computer is currently running a Prime95 Benchmark, but I did run a 3dMark Vantage benchmark since it was a quick n' dirty to see what was going on, here's the old results, pre-problems:
http://3dmark.com/3dmv/3763496
Here's the new results that I had today:
http://3dmark.com/3dmv/3920048
The primary difference that I can see is that the processor clock jumped from 2793 mhz down to 798 (x4 on both of those numbers).  I was in high performance mode and there were no tasks running in the background.   Can someone help me troubleshoot wtf is going on?  I'm completely out of ideas: (Note, it is NOT a software issue, I did a full reformat last night)
Edit:  Easier comparison of the numbers:  http://3dmark.com/compare/3dmv/3920048/3dmv/3763496
Answer: Reset all of your BiOS settings.


Maple root buckling patio pavers

Question: We have a maple tree, one of whose roots is causing patio pavers to rise. The pavers are 10 - 12 feet from the tree. Should I either chisel off enough to level the pavers or remove the section of root? What is the recommended approach?
Answer: It is not worth modifying the pavers as the root(s) will continue to grow and lift. I can't plant anything in my yard without cutting roots, usually the size of you photo or smaller. I recently (one year ago) cut 2" and 4" roots about 3 ft. from an oak and it did not bother the tree. I have cut 4" roots from pines a few times , the reason I avoid it is that it is a lot work in a difficult location ; I have never seen a tree show any stress. I can't imagine cutting any roots 10 feet from a tree having a significant effect on the tree. I have "bare root" transplanted 3" silver maples and red buds , that is significant root loss, and never had a problem ( done when dormant). This remind me I have to cut a few 2" roots of a fig tree as they are on the surface and getting to be a problem for tripping and lawn mowing.
Comment: This is true.  Construction crews cut through mature tree roots all the time.    It's not going to do any major long term damage.  When I work as a nursery man, every couple years the rows between the trees would be plowed to keep each tree in its own area.   Usually that would mean the tree might be a little sad and could not be sold until the next season, but it did not long term damage.  That is a young tree, meaning its more susceptible to being hurt versus a tree that can have roots many many metres below the surface.   Some surface root remove will be fine.
Answer: If you cut or chisel the roots you damage the tree. This close to the tree trunk will cause die back.
Raising the soil around the tree will also cause die back unless it's done slowly over a few years.
If the health of the tree is a priority a deck raised on a 2" x 4"'s sitting on a block or slabs will provide a level surface and allow the oxygen that the tree needs to get to the roots.
Answer: An arborist we've worked with before looked at our situation and provided this:
First he looked at the drip zone defined by the spread of branches. He then said that, in general, it was okay to cut off a root that was less than one-third of the trunk's diameter outside the drip zone. (This doesn't mean one can do this for all roots outside the drip zone!) So for the root in question - out it will go.

Maple root buckling patio pavers


Two microphone setup to record voice and acoustic guitar

Question:
  what are some good microphone setups for recording a single singer/guitar player with two microphones? Position, types, levels, etc. Thanks!
Answer: I remember watching a Dave Weiner Riff of the week about recording acoustic guitar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_ZMChcnKck
He goes through mic choice and placement for different sounds.
Placing the mic near the sound hole gives thick sound with lots of mids and lows, whereas a placement near the middle of the neck gives all highs.
Ideally you would use a mic at each position and then mix the output, giving a good harmonic range.
Comment: If you really want them separated so that you can master them it is best to consider to record them separately, a side effect is that this also allows you to concentrate better on playing the guitar in a sitting position and allows you to sing better while standing up in a proper way. Only do this if you have the budget and time to do this... My guess is that three microphones would work, as long as you don't mix too much microphones as that could result in an harmonic mess.
Comment: @brian_d: You might want to consider editing the questions in your comment into your question so that they get more attention, or if they don't fit in the current context you could create a new question for it. Isolating the sounds in a physical way wouldn't be feasible, so I guess you might be able to filter the recordings of one of the microphones from the other and vice versa...
Comment: Thanks for this advice for recording a guitar with two microphones. Ideally the vocals and guitar would be recorded separately, but for a raw recording where someone is singing and playing at the same time, is there any technique to help isolate the parts? Three microphones maybe? (two for the guitar as you describe and one for the voice)
Comment: @TomWij, do musicians you record tend to go for this?  As a musician, I'd like to track as much as possible at the same time.  This gives opportunity for a little play between the parts.  Then again, I'm usually doing jazz... I suppose that doesn't always apply to all musicians and styles.
Comment: @Brad, sorry, I'm only limited to the theory I know, I don't have any practical experience in the Music world. Reading the comments over again it seems I've misunderstood his question...
Comment: @TomWij, No, I think your original comment was completely valid.  I was honestly just asking.  :-D  I have little practical experience, and was worried I was doing it all wrong.
Answer: Your big problem is that the guitar is going to be all up in your vocal mic and vice versa.  To minimize this:

Get the mics as close to the source as is practical.  You'd like to get the vocal mic right on the singer's mouth and the guitar mic as close to the instrument as possible (I like 12th fret usually but lower bout is also good, and a bit further from singer's mouth).  Performer technique will be your limiting factor here.
Choose mics with the right patterns.  A figure-8 on the vocal, pointed up at the mouth a bit so that the side null points to the guitar, will reject the guitar pretty well.  A tighter pattern on the vocal mic will help in any case (hypercardioid instead of cardioid)
Be careful of reflections.  Record in a relatively dead space; use spot-treatments to kill direct reflections that you can see
Watch for phase cancellation problems, especially if you can't get the mics close to the sources (remember the 3:1 rule)

OR, quit fighting to separate your sources, you will just be frustrated anyway.  Record with an MS stereo setup, carefully positioned to balance guitar and vocal the way you want it. Get a good-sounding room, take your time setting up, and hit record.  Done and done.
Comment: I agree with the last statement, crosstalk is not evil. Rather try getting the kind of sound you want that fits with the music.
Answer: I like recording the guitar by capturing the input from a mic like an SM-57 at the soundhole as well as the pickup, if the guitar has a good pickup. That gives you a better spectrum of sounds to choose from later when mixing. Experiment with angles until you get a balanced sound, but you'll need to position the mic so the talent doesn't brush the mic when picking and strumming. For vocals, whatever mic the singer prefers close to their mouth will be fine, hopefully one that's fairly directional.
You don't say if this is live or in the studio, but it shouldn't matter that much when recording vocals and guitar together. If this is a live-in-the-studio situation, try using a condenser mic to capture room sounds in addition to the above. (In a performance situation, a condenser mic would be overkill to capture crowd noise.)
Answer: A couple more possibilities...
You can make use of a microphone's polar pattern here.  Of course they all have their dead spots, and depending on what's comfortable, you could probably use a few different ones to accomplish your goal.  Cardioid and Figure 8 come to mind.

source
Imagine using two mics, both with a figure 8 polar pattern.
If you oriented the vocal mic such that the guitar was at 90 or 270, you would get quite a bit of isolation.  Likewise with the guitar mic.
Yet another possibility is to put a baffle of some kind between the vocal mic and the guitar mic.

source


KVM bridge network initial setup - 2 public IPs

Question: I have actually two problems with my server. The setup is like this:

server in a data center connected directly to the internet
one network card / two public IPs (one IP the server gets over DHCP, the other has to be configured manually)
Debian wheezy as kvm host
Debian wheezy as guest

First problem is that I don't get network connection on the guest at all.
Second problem is that I want the guest to responde to one of the IP addresses. The second IP I want to use to manage the host.
Let's start with the first problem.
Here is the interfaces file of the host:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual

auto eth0:0
iface eth0:0 inet static
address XX.YYY.ZZZ.161
network XX.YYY.ZZZ.161
netmask 255.255.255.255
broadcast XX.YYY.ZZZ.255
gateway AA.BBB.CCC.1

auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
bridge_ports eth0
bridge_stp off
bridge_maxwait  0
bridge_fd       0

With this configuration br0 gets the IP address from DHCP and I can reach the host server on both IP addresses. The host can also ping Google. Very well.
Now I start the guest.
root@debianvmhost:~# brctl show

bridge name     bridge id               STP enabled     interfaces
br0             8000.002590a31dee       no              eth0
                                                        vnet0

Seems like the vm is connected to the bridge.
root@debianvmhost:~# ps -ef | grep qemu

/usr/bin/kvm ...
-netdev tap,fd=20,id=hostnet0,vhost=on,vhostfd=21
-device virtio-net-pci,netdev=hostnet0,id=net0,
mac=52:54:xx:xx:xx:xx,bus=pci.0,addr=0x3

So far, so good.
But the vm does not get any IP address. When I manually set one of the public IP addresses I still do not get network access. I cannot poing th IP address of Google, the network is not reachable.
What do I do wrong?
Thanks in advance
Jaroslaw
Edit:
Sorry, commenting does not work on my mobile.
The hoster is Strato.
Answer: You can try to use bridge mode for this. But it is possible that your ISP most likely will block the traffic originated from MAC ADDRESS different than hosts NIC as they will only allow one MAC per switchport.
But if not you could try to use this tutorial:
http://wiki.hetzner.de/index.php/KVM/en
EDIT: Missed that you are getting second IP through DHCP. In that case I actually do not know how to do it through bridge mode.
Comment: Yes, you are right. Strato confimed that they filter traffic from unknown MAC addresses. I will have to try it with NAT. Thanks.


Can the shorting of S&P futures negatively affect the underlying index and constituent stocks?

Question: I hear people on financial shows talk all the time about index futures like SPY and QQQQ affecting the actual index. Can shorting these futures (in huge quantities obviously) cause the underlying stocks to be affected negatively? Or is it just an indicator of the market direction?
Comment: If you think you found an answer, you should post it as an answer.  People will let you know their thoughts by voting on the answer.
Comment: Also, if you create an answer, it helps to add a description to any links you post so we know what we might expect when going there.
Answer: There is an arithmetically calculated value for the difference, or spread, between the futures contract price and the actual cash value of the underlying stocks (in the appropriate weighting) comprising the S&P 500. This spread is a function of current short term interest rates and the time remaining until the futures contract expires. Whenever the spread is at fair value, there is no benefit from owning the futures instead of the actual S&P 500 stocks, or vice-versa. When the spread drops below or rises above fair value, by a large enough margin, then

...either stocks or futures will become more attractive than the other, and they
  [traders in size] will sell one and buy the other.

The spread varies all day, because the futures contract and the actual S&P 500 stocks trade independently of each other. The futures trade in Chicago at the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange). The underlying S&P 500 stocks trade on the NYSE in New York, a different marketplace. Supply and demand for ALL 500 stocks in the S&P index determine the cash price of the S&P 500.
Sometimes, there are short term discrepancies, which might seem to present an opportunity for arbitrage. When those discrepancies happen, and they can be due to many insignificant things e.g. the normal progression or "rolling over" of futures contract expiration dates, the spread can deviate from fair value. These differences are not large in magnitude, and the market quickly reacts removing any discount or premium. So there really isn't a chance for most investors to benefit from this sort of arbitrage.
This is the formula for the fair value of the spread:
F = S (1+(i-d)t/360)
where

F = break even futures price
S = spot index price
i = interest rate (expressed as a money market yield)
d = dividend rate (expressed as a money market yield)
t = number of days from today's spot value date to the value date of the futures contract.

Something like zero coupon Treasury bonds versus associated interest strips presents more opportunity for mild arbitrage.
To directly answer your question, no, shorting the S&P futures won't move the underlying prices of the 500 stocks. The relationship goes in the other direction i.e. the price of the 500 stocks, with the exception of tiny variations like I described above, are what drive the price of the futures contract.
Comment: @JohnBensin Done! That took forever to do!
Comment: @FeralOink Looks great to me.
Comment: @FeralOink Can you or the OP summarize the link and add it to this answer, just in case it disappears? I can always do it when I have a chance later, but I figure your experience might make it easier.
Answer: Yes.
Index ETFs are holding securities in the underlying companies, and short interest on those ETFs is part of the total demand for the underlying securities. I do not know how to measure this demand and compare it to short positions on individual stocks.
Comment: I'm asking about index futures though.


API pentesting for mobile and web. What's the difference?

Question: So, I have to pentest an API that is both used by a web app and two mobile apps (Android and iOS, obviously). My question is: do I have to test three times (i.e., for each app) or just once (since it's the same API backend anyway)? Is there even a difference between pentesting "through" the mobile app vs "through" the web app?
Answer: That will depend on what you wish from the testing.
What do you wish to test?
If you wish to test your webservice or Serrver side API with the objective that anyone can build a client to interact with it then you just need 1 test to make sure the service is strong and matches your needs.
If you are developing your own front end system to interact with the Server API then you will require to test them also.
Only then you can confirm that your fronted is working properly and cannot be leveraged by any malicious actor to subvert the API.


Where did the ninja clans other then Senju and Uchiha originate from?

Question: In the anime, it is shown that the Senju and Uchiha clans originated from the Sage of Six Paths who is the God of Shinobi. Where did the other clans like Sarutobi, Nara, Inuzuka, clans from other countries originate from?
Comment: If you've watched the latest episodes, you would see different villages and empires of the past. I would assume that has something to do with it.
Answer: Recall that the Sage of the Six Paths discovered the existence of chakra and used it to create jutsu. The direct descendants of him became Senju and Uchiha, where their powers were split between body and eye.
Other ninja clans were not descendents, however they were able to learn how to use chakra as well in different forms of jutsus. Of course there are some clans, like the Hyuuga where the series notions the possibility of them deriving from the Uchiha.
Clans like Sarutobi, Nara, and Inuzuka clans are not related to the Sage of Six Paths though. On the other hand, Uzumaki is blood related to Senju.
Answer: Just to clarify any misconceptions, there were already people living on earth before Otsutsuki Kaguya made her move to steal the chakra of the Divine Tree. Its actually not like the Otsutsuki clan populated earth in its entirety. Just like someone said in the comments, there were villages and empires belonging to different settlements at that time. And so to answer your question, all those other clans originated on earth just like normal families do. However, everyone was greatly influenced by the Otsutsuki clan.
Longer version:
The people who lived in The land of the Ancestors, welcomed Kaguya because they saw her as a Goddess and she bore 2 children with Tenji, the Emperor of the land (Hagoromo and Hamura).
Hamura Otsutsuki, the younger one, later on became the ancestor of the Hyuuga Clan, after which he went to the Moon to guard the Juubi's Husk.
The elder brother, Hagoromo Otsutsuki became known as the Sage of Six Paths, because he founded and taught everyone about Ninjutsu which was originally called Ninshuu. All other clans must have learned thier various Jutsus from any number of thier Ancestors who was a follower of Hagoromo (or a follower of a follower of Hagoromo, kinda like that).
Apart from the Hyuuga, Uchiha, Senjuu and Uzumaki clan (all of whom inherited specific chakra and traits of the Otsutsuki Clan), all other clans learned Jutsu's indirectly from the Sage of six paths teachings.


Getting values off CPU Usage History plot in Windows Task Manager

Question: I am choosing a new computer that will run a certain program, and I need to know how much memory the program uses so that I can spec the memory that the new computer will need.
When I run the program (and nothing else), I am looking at the CPU Usage History plot in Windows Task Manager. This plot shows the percentage of the CPU the the program is using. Occasionally there are sustained peaks. I want to know the value of the peaks, but there is no label on the y-axis of the graph. I just have to eyeball it. It looks to me like the y-axis goes from 5% to 100% with ticks at 10%, 20%, 30%...100%. Is that right?
Answer: As far as I know, you can't get more details on previously recorded events in the default Task Manager application.
However, Process Explorer includes the functionality you're looking for.

You can hover over the peaks in a graph and it will show you the process that used the most CPU time at that point.
Answer: Task Manager has limited functionality and displaying specific numbers in the trace is not one of them. Your best bet is to use a third-party program such as Process Explorer. ProcExp shows a graph and lets you hover the mouse over it to get details.
Answer: You should be using the Performance Monitor (type performance monitor into the start menu) for this task.
Look under Dataset
You can either define a dataset, or use the default Performance dataset.
Rightclick the dataset and select start.
When you are done, rightclick the dataset and select stop.
Go to Reports and select the most recent report.
By default it will show graphs of all performance counters.  Uncheck all the ones you don't want.
Right click the performance counter, eg CPU Time %, and, set the scale and color of the line.
You can also set the graph to only show a certain time slice, eg the last two minutes of the dataset.
The graph will show Max/Min values, Averages, etc etc.
Task manager/process explorer are great for spot checking. If you want to get some real data, use a real data gathering tool.
Comment: And you can export the data to a CSV file, import it into Excell, etc.


Did Allah create evil?

Question: Like in the title I said did Allah create evil or it's just   independent creation that it created own it's own or bys us or just to balance the good ?
Comment: see [this answer](http://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/37733/is-attributing-evil-to-satan-heresy/37740#37740)
Answer: The below verses answer this question, without any need for elaboration:

Say, "Who is Lord of the heavens and earth?" Say, " Allah." Say, "Have
  you then taken besides Him allies not possessing [even] for themselves
  any benefit or any harm?" Say, "Is the blind equivalent to the seeing?
  Or is darkness equivalent to light? Or have they attributed to Allah
  partners who created like His creation so that the creation [of each]
  seemed similar to them?" Say, " Allah is the Creator of all things,
  and He is the One, the Prevailing. (13:16)
Allah is the Creator of all things, and He is, over all things,
  Disposer of affairs. (39:62)
[He is] Originator of the heavens and the earth. How could He have a
  son when He does not have a companion and He created all things? And
  He is, of all things, Knowing. That is Allah , your Lord; there is no
  deity except Him, the Creator of all things, so worship Him. And He is
  Disposer of all things. (101 - 102) Surat Al An'aam
Comment: TLDR; Yes he did.
Answer: ALLAH (SWT) says in Quran that He is the one who created everything. Everything in this world is a test for us. So he can judge who is more in righteous among us.
So yes ALLAH (SWT) did made Evil.
Answer: Allah created the good and the bad to test his creation and test their faith. Allah created trials and tribulations to not only test but as a means of mercy to those who patient and faithful.
Allah also created provisions for all of us. Allah is all just, all wise and it is us who are finite in our wisdom. There is no evil except for their is its cure.
This is why this worldly life is but a short journey and the hereafter is where none of these worldy concerns (worry, sadness, jelousy, envy, or any negative emotions exist). For those who are admitted into Jannah by being sincere will attain this reward. Whilst those who were evil have a worse ending.
My Allah make us from the people of Jannah.

Did Allah create evil?


Two passports, origin country passport about to expire

Question: I currently live in Israel, and I am planning to fly to America on December 2, and fly back on December 6. I have two passports:  one American, one Israeli. The American passport is fine, but the Israeli expires on December 23. Will I have a problem?
Comment: Limits on passport validity normally only apply to persons visiting on foregin passports. If you hold a passport for the country, then you can stay as long as you want anyway, so how much longer your passport lasts doesn't matter.
Comment: On my calendar, December 6 comes before December 23.
Answer: The reasoning behind minimun passport validities as an entry requirement for many countries is that they wish to ensure that you will leave at the end of your permitted stay. If your passport expires during the time that you are allowed to stay for, then it may be problematic to get you on to a method of transport and in to your destination, especially if your journey would involve transfering in a third country. Sometimes the minimum passport validity is extended beyond the normal stay time - one presumes that is to ensure they can be rid of you even if you overstay your welcome.
As a passport holder for both the countries you intend to visit, you are entitled to remain in either state for as long as you wish, so enforcing a minimum passport validity would not make any sense.
However, Israeli rules state that as an Israeli citizen, you must enter Israel with a valid Israeli passport or other travel document. So, if you were delayed in the US by some unfortunate circumstance, you may find yourself needing to procure an emergency travel document to return to Israel. It seems you may still have time to renew your passport before travelling however, although you would have to face a considerable delay to face any trouble when returning home.
Other than that, make sure to follow the advice given to in "Which passports to use travelling between two countries of citizenship?" and "I have two passports/nationalities. How do I use them when I travel?"
Answer: In your case, your Israeli passport will still be valid when you come back. So clearly there is no issue.
In any case, as an Israeli citizen, you can come back to Israel even on an expired passport. It needs to be valid when you leave the country but can be expired when you fly back.
I know because (1) I asked at customs and (2) I did it with no issue.
Comment: While Israel will let you return, you may have a hard time convincing airlines about this.
Comment: I hear you. In this case the OP has a valid US passport so no issue but in general you are right that it might create some additional discussion
Answer: When you enter the United States, as a US citizen you must present your American passport. And when you return home, your document will still be valid. So no, you shouldn't encounter any problem.
You should apply for a new passport before leaving Israel, however, in case something complicates your trip and you are not able to return when you expect to.


Can Oracle and SQL Server exist on the same server?

Question: We want to install SQL Server on a legacy machine which is running Oracle.  Is there any reason why they cannot coexist on the same machine?
Answer: The "quick" answer is yes as long as there are sufficient resources for all services.
There are no known compatibility problems with running SQL alongside any other Microsoft or 3rd party products... database or otherwise.
Personally I don't really recommend it but I am assuming you have a good reason to do this.
That being said... yes you can. :-)
Answer: Travel back to 1999 versions, and it seems they can co-exist.
The same question and answer came up in 2001.
The same might be true with the modern versions.
I would say: go for it! Perhaps create a new virtual machine, install both applications with the versions that you are interested in, and see how well they play together. Good luck!
Answer: Yes, they can.  The only issues I've ever seen with Oracle and SQL server not playing nicely with each other was when trying to set up linked servers to Oracle in 64-bit SQL.
Answer: Back in 1999 we had SQL Server 7 and Oracle (10?) happily co-habiting on a development box. Can't imagine life has changed much since then.
Comment: What could change a 11 or 12 years?  ;-)
Answer: Been there, done that, although I had both Oracle and SQL Server running on a development system running Windows XP. The system was an 1.2 GHz Pentium system with 1 GB RAM and about 50 GB disk space.
Do keep in mind that they will both eat plenty of resources, especially under heavy usage. I just needed them because I was developing some product that had to be able to run on either Oracle or SQL Server. Piece of cake, actually, when you only have three or four users access the system at the same time.
Answer: I currently have Oracle 9i & SQL Server 2005 in my dev machine (Note: "dev machine"). To answer your question, based on my experience, yes they can co-exist in one server. But it all comes down to performance and resources issues.
Answer: Yes... however, just because you can doesn't mean you should. I'd want to keep them separate with virtual machines if I had to put them on the same physical box, at least on a production box. You're just doing so much to complicate any performance issues, bug hunting, you name it.
Not to mention an upgrade, or problem, with one of the two that effects the system stability (and we all know it can happen) will take down the service for users of databases on both platforms. That's got to be a bad thing.
Answer: Memory is a easier problem to manage (since you can dedicate it to the databases) than the attack that the two of them will lay on your disk array.  If you are going to double up on one server, please make sure you separate them out so they are pulling from separate disk arrays.  Otherwise when they use their temp files for sorting and big queries you will see a ton of spinning disks.
Also make sure you leave enough space in memory not dedicated to the databases.  Your operating system will need some breathing room for all the other binaries that are executed that are not included in the database dedicated space.  If you don't you will see the operating systems memory manager panic from time to time and switch from standard page swapping into page stealing.


Encouraging new users through comments and refraining from swift closing/rapid/multiple down-voting

Question: It was suggested that this answer be started as a separate meta discussion. Your thoughts on building up the SE IQ of new users without scaring them away?
Answer: To avoid scaring off new users while still setting the bar for quality, I suggest doing the following:

Edit and improve questions and answers if you see a way to fix problems with them. This shows new users how to approach asking questions or posting answers.
If you don't see how to edit, then leave a polite, constructive comment with suggestions on how to improve.
Downvote low quality content. Stack Exchange ranks answers based on votes, so it's important that other new users don't show up and see a bunch of low quality posts sympathy-upvoted to the top.
Vote to close questions that don't fit the site and that you can't edit.
Leave comments encouraging editing of closed questions to fix the posts. You can even offer to help the person fix the problems!
Vote to reopen closed posts that have been fixed. You can even flag them for moderator attention if there aren't yet enough close/reopen voters.
If a user fixes the problems with a post you've downvoted, consider removing your downvote. You can change your vote on an edited post.

When leaving comments, consider the following guidelines:

Don't criticize or say things like:  "-1 for posting link-only answer".  Offer solutions and helpful advice instead. Also, welcome the new user to the site.
Use comments to help a user improve his/her post, but don't use comments to discuss with other users whether or not the question is on/off-topic. Use a meta post instead. The new user just sees a bunch of people arguing and talking about how bad their post is. Instead, post the meta link in the comments under the question.
Comment: Never 'sympathy-upvote'. Cheers
Answer: Here's another way of putting our actions in perspective:
New people who come to this site are our customers. Our goal is make them repeat customers.
Behavior that makes us look like look unwelcoming is not likely to serve that goal. Engaging and educating newcomers is a much better strategy than rapping them on the knuckles for not obeying our obscure rules.
Comment: @jmort253 Perhaps we can agree that any question from a user with rep<50 and certainly first questions NOT BE CLOSED within 24 hours, if another user has noted its deficiencies and offered assistance. We must allow time and space for modifications to occur. My reaching experience suggests that children standing outside the room rarely learn to improve.
Comment: Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting you berate people, I [discourage that](http://meta.stackexchange.com/a/152487/155826), but it's important that we guide and teach. You wouldn't let someone walk into your store and knock everything off the shelves, making it look bad for others who come into the store, and we shouldn't do that here either. Poor quality content will scare away the new users who will show up and actually take the time to write good, clear, detailed content. See my [post here](http://meta.genealogy.stackexchange.com/a/1171/71) for more details.
Comment: @Fortiter - That's not bad advice, in most circumstances. If someone had your vision and foresight to edit that post like you did, it wouldn't have been closed at all. If you can continue to convince other users like yourself to help edit posts before voting to closing them, then I'm sure we can significantly reduce the number of closed questions, welcome new users, and keep the site looking awesome! :)
Comment: "but it's important that we guide and teach" - I disagree. It's important we answer people's questions. If you understood the question, then it doesn't need improvement. If you are going to set a limit on closing questions, please make it at least high enough the person can vote to reopen (500). Note it is highly unlikely any question will get reopened (see discussion on meta overflow). "your store" - it's not your store - it's theirs! 90% of hits to this site are supposed to come from non-members.
Answer: A few minutes before reading your original comments in meta, I added the comment to this "angry" answer https://genealogy.stackexchange.com/a/1470/70
In hindsight, the bare link to the faq is probably not a great idea but the character limit on a comment demands some clever writing to catch the correct tone.
Comment: @CanadianGirlScout - Just fyi, if you type `[ask]` or `[answer]` in comments, they'll automatically be converted to links to those resources, like [ask] and [answer]. :)
Comment: Linking to the 'how to ask' was a great move! I think that we maybe need to be encouraging this portion of it: **Make it relevant to others**

"We like to help as many people at a time as we can. Make it clear how your question is relevant to more people than just you, and more of us will be interested in your question and willing to look into it."
Comment: I went ahead and flagged that answer as "not an answer" and left a comment letting the user know that meta is the place for discussions about the site.
Answer: For a case study in HOW NOT TO encourage new users, take a look at the comments and the edit trail on How to make Gramps show more than 5 generations in the pedigree view
It is fortunate that @Luke has been in since the beginning, but if I were a new user who joined the public beta and was looking for examples of how to frame my question, that would drive me away forever.
Comment: Hi Fortier, I agree that example is a bit noisy. I suggested before that we not get into debates on the question itself as it can be a bit scary to a new user. :) Instead, if you wanted to help, you could post a meta question and drop a link in the comments. That would at least take the debate/discussion away from the face view of the post and be less intimidating to a new user. I suggest using comments just for helpful advice, and meta for debating with other users about whether something is on-topic/off-topic, etc. Hope this helps!
Answer: I just noticed that a recently-asked question by someone new to the site was closed by Robert Cartaino, who is a moderator by virtue of his other stack exchange experience.
For all the reasons stated in other answers in this thread, I suggest that we vote to re-open this question. And @RobertCartaino, would you please refrain from scaring away people who need encouragement rather than punishment?
Comment: @Fortiter - If you hired me to work with you, you'd train me to do the job, right? You wouldn't just let me run rampant, untrained, and do the wrong things and hurt your business, right? Hopefully, you'd train me and be patient with me so that I might eventually get what's expected of me. You might even be patient enough to give me some time to catch on. But ultimately, if I don't work out, are you going to keep me on as an employee?
Comment: Gene, just to be clear, Robert is a Stack Exchange employee with years of experience in building new online communities. [His comment](http://genealogy.stackexchange.com/questions/1773/how-can-i-link-or-separate-the-civil-war-soldier-and-the-photographer#comment2246_1773) also had lots of constructive advice about how to fix the problems with the post, which was lack of detail. You can still be nice to people while at the same time maintaining quality, and Robert's post is actually a great example of how to do that.
Comment: [cont'd] - Lastly, closure isn't punishment; it's a way to put the question on hold to give the asker time to fix the problems so it doesn't get answers that won't fit the question once it's been turned into something awesome. Hope this helps!  *Also, it looks like the edits made it a much better question, so I flagged it for reopening. The system works! ;)*
Comment: @Fortiter - I'm afraid you're missing the big picture. Editing that question was awesome! It's now has at least one reopen vote, and I flagged it as well. Keep in mind that what makes Stack Exchange so successful is the content. It's what will make this site be #1 in search engines. So if some people who write not so great content are going to be scared off by a little constructive advice, then I'm really not sure we can help them, and we probably don't want them in the community. We should definitely be nice, and be encouraging, but none of this means we should lower standards.
Comment: I heavily edited the question and posted the first reopen vote a couple of hours ago. I heartily endorse your pro-active approach.
Comment: @jmort253 I agree with you that the system works, and that Robert was acting well within his capacity and expertise. My problem is that *how* the system works is not clear to newbies, and if *we* do things *correctly* but send the wrong impression, we help neither ourselves nor the new person. I think this is an issue of perception, and, in my opinion, the perception that is created when someone's new question is closed is that they are not welcome.
Comment: No the system was "worked around"! I edited the question (not the OP) because it appeared to me that (after 12 hours) an inexperienced user might walk away rather than respond to the comments made. "Standard SE procedure" applied rigorously will have the effect of driving SOME beginners away.
Comment: While on the subject of "moderation" by staff. Could @RobertCartaino extend the same "gentle approach" to first posts on Meta (such as http://meta.genealogy.stackexchange.com/questions/1214/is-there-a-spell-checker-i-couldnt-find-one)
Comment: @GeneGolovchinsky - This is where *you* come in as an almost 2K rep user. Teach those users how to use the site by leaving comments like Robert did. Since you and Fortier are pro-genealogists, you can also edit and maybe avoid closure altogether. But letting this site get overrun with low quality posts isn't going to make this site popular. You can still be nice and still maintain high standards. ;)  Hope this helps!
Comment: @jmort253 I think I get the big picture precisely. You summed it up in "and we probably don't want them in the community". Sometimes people that you regard as "desirable" will view what happens and wonder if they want to be part of your community.


Why do we comfort a mourner with Hamakom Yenachem Eschem?

Question: Why, when comforting a mourner at the completion of a Shiva visit, do we refer to G-d as Hamakom? We say Hamakom Yanachem Eschem - why not Hashem Yenachem or Elokim Yenachem?
Comment: Similar: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/70273
Answer: From an article on aish.com by Rabbi Yisrael Rutman:

...a person who has lost a loved one often feels that he has been abandoned by God; that there is no God where he is. We say to the mourner, therefore, that HaMakom should comfort him: We pray that he be blessed by a renewed awareness of God's presence, even in the grief-stricken place in which he now finds himself...
Answer: I suspect another influence on this is that according to Midrash, in Temple times, mourners would enter the Temple and be told:

השוכן בבית הזה ינחמך
May the One whose Presence is felt here grant you consolation

If so it would make a lot of sense that in post-Temple times, the greeting became:

May the One beyond space grant you consolation.
Answer: My own thought about this is as follows: "Makom" specifically alludes to the fact that God does not inhabit this world; this world inhabits Him. Put another way, the existence of the world is transient in relation to God; God has intrinsic existence and He is the ultimate axis vis-a-vis creation. The pain of grief comes from the feeling that your loved one is gone, you don't see him/her anymore, you are separated, detached. But death is really an illusion - from God's point of view, almost nothing has changed: He still sees and relates to both the soul of the niftar and the avel simultaneously just as when he/she was alive, even as they no longer see each other. So from that perspective, they are in reality still together, their bond endures, they are both still encompassed in the same Makom just as before.
Answer: The loss is felt as a void in one's life - an empty space . Only G-D who is called HAMAKOM in that HE IS THE SPACE OF THE WORLD BUT THE WORLD IS NOT HIS SPACE. This means the existence is within G-D so G-D  is the space.
Since nothing in the world can make up for the void except for G-D who is and fills all space we express the wish that G-D will fill that void and make the heart whole.
btw MAKOM  is the square of the SHEM HAVA-Y-AH according to the ARIZAL.

10 square = 100
5 square = 25
6 square = 36
5 square = 25.

this totals 186, which is also the numerical value of MAKOM in HEBREW

mem=40
kuf = 100
vov=6
mem=40