What is the story behind Robert Langdon's Mickey Mouse watch?

Question: In Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code, movies, the character Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) wears a Mickey Mouse watch and when somebody asks about it he never answers (or did I miss it?). The watch doesn't suit his personality. What is the significance of the watch? Is it explained in the novels?
Comment: I have to agree with you. There is also some evidence on how Robert Langdon Loves his watch. The Points are: 1. **Losing His Watch**- In Dan Brown's latest novel; *Inferno* Robert Langdon Loses his watch and is clearly disheartened. There were quite a few points in the novel that clearly annotates that Langdon Really Loves his watch. The image of his beloved Mickey Mouse Watch Is Here:
!http://watchesinmovies.info/img/f/AngelsAndDemons_Mickey.jpg If you cannot see the watch clearly, the image depicted below is the exact watch used in the movies "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angles and Demons"
!http
Comment: Transhumanist Ray Kurzveil also has same watch, coincidense?
Answer: The vintage, collectors edition Mickey Mouse watch was a gift from Langdon's parents on his 10th Birthday. As per the book, Langdon has not owned any other watch after that.
Quoting directly from the book:

Although its juvenile dial often drew odd looks, Langdon had never owned any other  watch; Disney animations had been his first introduction to the magic of form and color, and Mickey now served as Langdon's daily reminder to stay young at heart

Growing up after his introduction to the magic of form and color, when he started taking interest into symbols and like, he would have figured more about Walt Disney, who, he says that, was doing his best to pass on the Grail story to future generations, during a conversation with Sophie.
Again quoting from the book, about the further details he gave to Sophie about Walt Disney

Throughout his entire life, Disney had been hailed as "the Modern-Day
  Leonardo da Vinci." Both men were generations ahead of their times,
  uniquely gifted artists, members of  secret societies, and, most
  notably, avid pranksters. Like Leonardo, Walt Disney loved infusing
  hidden messages and symbolism in his art. For the trained symbologist,
  watching an early Disney movie was like being barraged by an avalanche
  of allusion and metaphor.

This would have ensured that Walt Disney was and will always be a hero for Robert, and especially this watch would have been holding a very special place in his heart, which he said that introduced him to the world of magic, in the first place.
Comment: Answer was better than anything Dan Brown has written
Comment: You mention "the book", but the question mentions both *Da Vinci Code* and *Angels & Demons*. So from which book are those excerpts exactly?
Comment: By the mention of the character Sophie, I infer this is from *The Da Vinci Code* which makes the Leonardo da Vinci references more apropos
Answer: Apart from the already existing answers mentioning the books, the watch is also adressed a little more in Inferno, the third film in the series.
During Robert's kidnapping at the beginning of the story he loses his watch on the street (but gets it back at the end). When he notices that he's missing it in Sienna's apartment, he mentions that it's quite important to him and was a gift from his parents.
Answer: Tom Hanks is the voice of Woody from Toy Story, who is owned by Disney. When Vittoria asks Robert why his watch has Mickey Mouse on it, he says "Yeah, it's a long story" referring to Toy "Story". We then see Vittoria smiling in a shot. This is just a nice little hint at Tom Hanks work as Woody. There may be other meanings to it like in other comments, but I think that this is why it is being portrayed in a lighthearted way. Hope this helps.
Comment: But it's in book too, read other answer.


How does a monk address parents and relatives?

Question: In Theravada tradition, after one becomes a monk. Does he still call his parents and relatives the same as before he ordains. Or does he call them like everybody else? Does he call his parents "mom" and "dad", his siblings "brother" and "sister",...?
Comment: From what I have seen, they still call their family members by their proper titles. This may very from culture to culture. I am part of a Vietnamese lineage.
Comment: [In this blog](http://plumvillage.org/blog/monastic/becoming-buddhas-disciple/) a nun from that lineage refers to her mum and dad in writing as Mum and Dad.
Answer: It may depend on the tradition, but in the Pali suttas, the language changes unequivocally to more formal modes of address like "gahapati" (householder), "upaasaka/upaasikaa" (lay follower), etc.

Then the clansman Raṭṭhapāla rose from his seat, and after paying homage to the Blessed One, he departed, keeping him on his right. He went to his parents and told them: "Mother and father, as I understand the Dhamma taught by the Blessed One, it is not easy while living in a home to lead the holy life, utterly perfect and pure as a polished shell. I wish to shave off my hair and beard, put on the yellow robe, and go forth from the home life into homelessness. Give me permission to go forth from the home life into homelessness."

...

Then the venerable Raṭṭhapāla's former wives clasped his feet and said to him: "What are they like, my lord's son, the nymphs for whose sake you lead the holy life?"
"We do not lead the holy life for the sake of nymphs, sisters."
"Our lord's son Raṭṭhapāla calls us 'sisters,'" they cried and right there they fainted.
Then the venerable Raṭṭhapāla told his father: "Householder, if there is a meal to be given, then give it. Do not harass us."

-- (MN 82 - Bodhi, trans)
Answer: No, householder, such is not proper for one having left home.
He would address them proper like he would address other laypeople. Householder, good man, Brahman... Here in Cambodia the usual addressing of householders by monks is Nyom (Ñom(a)), as a polite and proper third person approach when speaking direct. For mother and father, Nyom would be attached with male and female and understanding would come from attentive following the context. Speaking about third people, Upasaka, Upasika or Nyom attached with name, male or female, would be used.
Speaking general about lay people "householders" would be used. Often the use of Buddha-Parisatas (gathering around the Buddha) would be used to speak about lay or mixed groups.
It's a special hard issue for modern and wester people, even more hard to bear for those strongly marxistic influenced and/or be-favored by monks seeking after followers, something very wrong and trading introduced to non-traditional societies. Pretty annoying for devoted followers who have joy to keep their objects reminding on their refuge in Sublime position.
One might be more interested in matters of respect, fundamental important for a real refuge and to grow toward such: Respect and veneration, apacāyana

Kandarayana Sutta
..."Brahman, the Blessed One — the one who knows, the one who sees, worthy & rightly self-awakened — has declared the level of one who is venerable and the level of one who is a youngster. Even if one is venerable — 80, 90, 100 years old — yet if one partakes of sensuality, lives in the midst of sensuality, burns with sensual fever, is chewed up by sensual thoughts, and is eager in the search for sensuality, then one is reckoned simply as a young fool, not an elder.
"But if one is a youngster, youthful — a black-haired young person endowed with the blessings of youth in the first stage of life — yet does not partake of sensuality, does not live in the midst of sensuality, does not burn with sensual fever, is not chewed up by sensual thoughts, and is not eager in the search for sensuality, then one is reckoned as a wise elder."
When this was said, Kandarayana the brahman rose up from his seat, arranged his cloak over one shoulder, and bowed down at the feet of the monks who were youngsters, [saying,] "You, sirs, are the venerable ones, standing on the level of those who are venerable. We are the youngsters, standing on the level of those who are youngsters.

How ever, not to be mistaken! Wise praise the gratitude and support toward parents and in this manner the Buddha gave many allowances to uphold this. Near relatives are also the only lay people which a Bhikkhu would be allowed to address in need, if wishing. He may also leave even Vassa (rain retreat) for seven days for his patents and siblings. And he would be allowed to share what is given to him in faith to support parants in need.
Since a general gard to bear topic, that of not equal or even contrary usuals, one should not hesitage to ask further, best here, on this matter, most are scared to take on it, living often in improper dependency of lay people communities, fearing worldly and support disadvantages.
(Note that this is not given for trade, exchange, stacks, entertainment and akusala deeds, but as a share of merits and to continue such for release)
Answer: After receiving the Discipline (10 novice or novice nuns) . Carrying their line of Thich ( with its own performance measures Ex: Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh).
So when the monks of their own homes, their family should not be called by its old name. You should call the name in the temple.(Ex: "uncle", "aunt").


What are the floating translucent little objects called in the field of view?

Question: Sometimes we see these small translucent shapes moving by when the eyes are open. When the eyes are moved they seem to follow that movement, but with a certain delay, as if they are floating in a thick viscous liquid. What is this phenomenon called?
Comment: *"Oh squiggly line in my eye..."*
Comment: First of all microorganisms are not visible to naked eyes. Secondly it is not clear what you mean by 'organism like structure'? The question is very likely to get closed as unclear. Please add some more information.
Comment: BTW, floaters as mentioned below are typically more prevalent for the nearsighted. The floaters are sometimes indicators of problems, sometimes not. You should consult an eye doctor.
Comment: This was never disclosed to me.  I didn't know this would happen as I grew older.  I want my money or my years back!
Answer: I think you are talking about floaters (a.k.a. eye floaters or flying flies). You may want to have a look at this english.SE post in case you were not talking about floaters.

Floaters are deposits of various size, shape, consistency, refractive index, and motility within the eye's vitreous humour, which is normally transparent.

You can read the wikipedia article to better understand the causes. These floaters are typically not microorganisms unlike you seem to think. Their scientific name is 'Muscae volitantes' and they are mostly caused due to degenerative changes in vitreous humour due to aging.
Answer: Are you referring to the "worms or strings/dots swimming on the eye/vision"-phenomenon?
These are also called "eye floaters" and quite common. According to IFLscience: http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/what-those-strange-things-you-see-floating-your-eye/ they are usually harmless, but may of course cause visual annoyance.
I was unable to quickly find a scientific source, but hope this helps.
If this was not what you were talking about, I misunderstood.
Regards
Answer: What you might be referring to are white blood cells in your retina as described here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_field_entoptic_phenomenon

The blue field entoptic phenomenon [...] is the appearance of tiny bright dots [...] moving quickly along squiggly lines in the visual field, especially when looking into bright blue light such as the sky. The dots are short-lived, visible for a second or less, and traveling short distances along seemingly random, curvy paths.
Comment: The rapid, random movement does not match the description in the question.
Answer: What you are likely seeing are tiny shadows cast upon the retina from strands of protein (and other debris) in the vitreous humor. They are indeed harmless and do correlate with age.
However, any which obscures your vision should be investigated as blood may have leaked into the eye.
Reference Floaters
Comment: Please add some references to your answer.


What is going to happen in 2012?

Question: The Mayan calendar completes its 5,125 year cycle, on 21 December 2012. Is there any evidence they foresaw the end-of-the-world?
Comment: No longer relevant. Closing...
Answer: Contrary to popular opinion, the mayan calendar does not end in 2012, it merely begins a new cycle.

"There will be another cycle," Andrews
  says. "We know the Maya thought there
  was one before this, and that implies
  they were comfortable with the idea of
  another one after this."

 E. Wyllys Andrews
The Mayan calendar is based on cycles, that does not mean they thought the world ended at that specific point the cycle ends.
And regardless of what the Mayans thought, there is no evidence for any world-ending event happening in 2012.
Update: The world didn't end on 21 December 2012.
Comment: @Glorfindel Thanks for the update.  I was wondering about that ;)
Comment: @GordonM that was [not my update](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/posts/259/revisions) though ...
Answer: The whole 2012 thing seems pretty arbitrary to me. Not only did the Maya make zero prophecies about the end of the world, their calendar wasn't even that good. 2012 proponents say that the Mayan calendar is so accurate, they didn't need an intercalary day (extra day on a leap year) to keep their calendar in sync with the year. Except intercalary days are necessary since there isn't an integer number of days in the year -- and the Maya did deal with this. Not with an intercalary day, but with an intercalary month.
The Mayan bunk notwithstanding, all of the proposed ways in which the world is going to end is also spectacularly arbitrary. Everyone has a different theory, most of them having exactly zero to do with the Mayan calendar. Apparently, all of these things are going to happen at the same time next year:

Pole reversal: the north/south magnetic poles are going to switch sides. This is going to happen because the earth is going to miraculously stop rotating, and begin spinning in the opposite direction
Planetary alignment: the planets are going to roughly line up in one way or another and that's going to blow the sun up or something.
Galactic alignment: the solar system is going to line up with the galactic plane. No word as to what effect this could have.
Nibiru collision: some yet-unobserved (except by the Maya) planet/asteroid called Nibiru is on a direct collision course with earth, and although it's close enough to hit us in one year, and big enough to annihilate us, it can't be seen.
Planet X encounter: the alien species that created us as dumbed-down versions of themselves for use as slaves is going to come back and visit/destroy us.
Nemesis' return: the sun's companion star that we've never been able to observe is going to disturb the oort cloud and cause a rain of comets on earth.
Betelgeuse supernova: Betelgeuse is going supernova and the resulting radiation is going to cook us
Solar flare: a killer solar flare is going to destroy all of our technology and send us back into the dark ages.

There are many, many more. They are all either bunk from different sell-out pseudo-scientists, or they are heavily twisted astronomical events (such as the Betelgeuse supernova, which could happen at any time (probably not for millions of years, though), but is much too far away to harm us) which were conveniently re-scheduled for 2012.
If you didn't click on either of the two links in the first paragraph, check out http://www.2012hoax.org for more information on all the doomsday theories.
Comment: pole reversals happen, they have happened in the past and there are indications we're moving towards another one. They have however nothing to do with the earth stopping its rotation and starting to move the other way, they simply happen because the earth magnetic field shifts (this is happening constantly, there are pockets of lower and higher field strength, pole reversal seems associated with the positions and strenght of those pockets).
Comment: @jwenting I know, but I was just restating a bunch of the theories about what's going to happen in 2012 to underline the absurdity. The fact that there's such a broad spectrum of things that are going to kill us all is (I think) an indicator that nobody knows what they're talking about. Solar flares, supernovas, and alignments also happen, but like pole reversals they're misunderstood and a popular reason for the end of the world.
Answer: There is a brilliant visualisation from Information is Beautiful. Basically, there was no Mayan prophecy concerning 2012, and most of theories of a catastrophe occurring were created by taking a date that is somewhere around 2012 and shifting it to 2012.
Answer: I can tell you right now what will happen: none of the predictions will be right, or, if any are, they will be right for the wrong reasons or in different ways from what the predicters expect.
Even this prediction will probably be wrong in profound and unexpected ways.
EDIT: Citation according to personal account by Robusto:

Every prediction I have ever seen made concerning the end of the world has been wrong. Every prediction of the end of the world that I have ever heard of has been wrong. In fact, in spite of all of them, the world has not come to an end. So the track record of apocalyptic predictions, especially when made on religious or numerological grounds, has been dismal. In research for a book I wrote about the 11th century, numerous sources cited widespread fears that the world would come to an end in the year A.D. 1000, for no other reason than that this marked the millennial anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ.

EDIT: Link to first millenium doomsday prophesy:

In his book, The City of God, Augustine stated that the book of Revelations was to be understood as a spiritual allegory, that the millennium was already realized within the church, and had started with the crucifixion. This resulted in all subsequent millennial statements being viewed as unorthodox, if not heretical. Some modified their doomsday prophecies in the year 1000 A.D. When the end didn't come, they changed the date to 1033 A.D., believing the new millennium had its beginning in the year of the crucifixion 33 A.D.

Final Addition
To date, 100% of the predictions about the end of the world seem to have been in error. This, of course, will not stop unscrupulous or misguided people from trying, or gullible people from believing.

What is going to happen in 2012?


How do I extract source code from a Jar file?

Question: I've received source code for a Java product to make further changes. The archive contains a bunch of JAR files.
Is it sufficient for developing the application, or those files for distribution only?
Answer:
I've received source code for a Java product ...

If you have really received the source code of a product, and all you've got is JAR files, then the JAR files (which are actually ZIP files with a different file suffix and a particular kind of "manifest") should contain a bunch of files with the file suffix ".java".  You should be able to check this using any ZIP archive tool.
If there are no ".java" files in the JARs (e.g. only a lot of ".class" and other files), you do not have the source code for the product.  Making changes will be really really hard, given that you are not a Java developer.
Assuming that you are doing this legitimately (i.e. with the explicit or implicit permission of the product's developer) you will save yourself a lot of time if you can also get hold of the product's build instructions.  For example, if it is built using Ant, you want the "build.xml" file(s).
Answer: A jar is analogous to a zip file, so they may or may not contain the source code you need for development.  You can read about jar files here.
Comment: *"A jar is analogous to a zip file"* - a JAR file **is** a ZIP file that follows certain conventions about the archive contents.
Comment: WinZip or any other  archive manager can open .jar files.  You may need to change the extension to .zip for some archivers.
Answer: Normally you package up .class (compiled) files and distribute them in .jar files, but it is possible to put any kind of file you want (including source code) in a .jar archive.  If you need to change the code in the library, you'll need to see the source.
It's also possible that the .jar files in your project are 3rd-party (or internal proprietary) libraries that you won't need to change at all.  It's quite common to include libraries that you just use without modifying in your jar.  If the rest of your application code is accessible, you can just modify that w/o touching the library code.
Comment: You can still modify .class files.  It's just a whole world of hurt harder.
Comment: If jars contain .class files only, does that mean I can't modify the application?
Comment: @Sphynx: Yes, as noted, it is possible, but prohibitively difficult.  I'd go to great lengths to lay hands on the source code before trying to work with the .class files alone.
Answer: Any modern Java IDE allows you to drop in jar files and use that as library code.  This does not require source etc.  You can then develop new code, that incorporates changes.
If you need to ALTER code inside the jars, you would be much, much better of by having the source code for that jar you need to update, and then work with that.
If you do not have source code, and you need to change a class, then you can decompile that class using e.g. JAD to a Java file (be careful, may contain bugs), and then work with that.  You just need to have that class in front of the jar in the classpath (unless the jar is sealed, and then you have a whole new question for stackoverflow).
Do you have more experienced Java programmers on your team, you can ask for assistance?
Answer: you can try decompiling the jar files back into their source, otherwise
the jar files won't help much for development.
jar files can however help you when they contain some
libraries/packages/classes that you find essential for
a project you are working on. That way you can
add them to your compilation path if you are using
Netbeans IDE and use them without even peeking at the
source. However this will work best if you are doing
some kind of incremental development on your project.
so, it highly depends on how you are building your
software i.e. is it incremental or might you want to
modify what you received... for the latter you ,might
consider de-compilation or asking for the source code


Balance of Trade - Currency devaluation in a price taker economy

Question: How will a real exchange rate devaluation affect Balance of Trade, if an economy is a price taker in world markets for both export and import?
Answer: If a country is price-taker then it faces a vertical demand curve at the world price. Now after devaluation, exporters would get more in domestic currency so they will increase exports. The net result is increase in both volume and average price of exports, thus revenue from exports increases.
Similarly, the importers are facing a higher price and even after they reduce their demand world price won't change. Here it gets tricky, the quantity consumed has fallen but price has risen. Now what happens to spending on imports depend on elasticity of demand curve for imports. However, the maximum percent increase in spending on imports is equal to absolute value of percent change in currency (assuming perfectly inelastic which makes negative quantity effect zero).
If the curve is elastic, spending on imports would decline, i.e., percent change is negative. Percent change in export revenue = |percent currency change| + (positive quantity effect). Starting from a balanced trade or a trade surplus, there will be an increment in trade surplus.
However, starting from large trade deficits, the answer is indeterminate as even though percent change in imports is always less than exports, but in absolute value it could be more as initially import>>export.


Asking Allah for the truth

Question: Can I ask Allah to reveal me the truth about some matter, through a dream/vision or some other means? Since Allah is the One who knows and hears all things, I want to know if I can ask Him in my dua if He can reveal me the truth of a certain past situation?
Comment: You can ask Him anything you want. He will show/give you if He wills. What we can do is to wait for His decision. He does, when He wants to.
Answer: As a rule, this is not rational that Allah shows you a matter directly. It likewise is not easy that God shows you a matter through a dream or so on.
Of course it could be possible for you to reach your wish(or question) in some ways, Such as :
Consulting, actually take consult with informed people, thinking a lot regarding the matter, and perhaps another item could be Dua. Actually you can reach many of your issue through Dua and praying…
I don't know what precisely your issue is, but I reckon Istekharah   (الاستخاره)could be a good way for you to indicate the best path.
in regard to how to do Istekharah (if you want to know), I found a site which could help you how to do that. (unfortunately this site is solely in Urdu and Farsi, so I hope you be familiar at least with one of the mentioned languages).

islamquest.net (Urdu)
islamquest.net (Farsi (Persian))
Answer: Assalamu Alaikum, of course Allah is all hearer and knows all the mysteries. Indeed we can ask Him for solutions and answers, there is nothing wrong in it.
But definitely not in a dream or vision. Because how will you know that the dream/vision is true right from Allah. You might need the sense to understand this which no free-will bearing creations of Allah has.
The answer:
The best way is your imaan... Have faith in Allah, we Muslims have to submit our will to the Almighty.
Pray for your problems, ask Allah for the truth, notice the signs Allah shows you, the truth will insha Allah unfold by itself very soon. That is how it is recommended.
Allah might or might not answer for He knows what is best for us.
Istikaara is a way to ask the Almighty to show signs when people are in confusion. Like example which career path to choose. May be after knowing what is the truth you were looking for, you can do istikaara and make decision.
Don't look for dreams and visions, people make mistakes in the reality which we control, think about the dreams which we don't control, some causes of nightmares is even said to have jinns disturbing you at sleep.
Allah will show signs of truth... Trust Him and be patient. He will test the believers, times like this might easily encourage you to do a haram (like asking a sooth sayer) but there will be a thousand lies with one truth in them. Read Surah Al Isra.

Surah Al Isra 17:81 ... And say, "Truth has come, and falsehood has departed. Indeed is falsehood, [by nature], ever bound to depart."
Answer: Think of Us as children... I mean really young kids... who normally ask parents for things that many of which can be unreasonable or even harmful.. Allah knows what we are asking him for and why we ask for those things. It is for him to decide, for Him being the most knowledgeable, wise and understanding. He will decide whether to grant us what we ask him for. He will also decide how to give us what we asked him for on his way. The most important in all this is that we should trust his decisions and accept the way he runs things for us.
Answer: Certainty is a rare thing in life itself, even rarer in dreams, most of them are not true or hard for us to make sense of. Perhaps there could be other ways for you to know what is right or wrong... Consultation, asking people, dua, or Istikhare as mentioned above, and insha'allah eventually you would come to truth and you would get your answer from where you didn't expect.
Talaq: verse 3:
وَيَرْزُقْهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَحْتَسِبُ وَمَن يَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ فَهُوَ حَسْبُهُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ بَالِغُ أَمْرِهِ قَدْ جَعَلَ اللَّهُ لِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدْرًا .
And he provides for him from (sources) he never could imagine. And if any one puts his trust in Allah, sufficient is (Allah) for him. For Allah will surely accomplish his purpose: verily, for all things has Allah appointed a due proportion.
I think the best course would be to act casual on the matter until you come to a bulletproof piece of evidence.
Sometimes it's a test itself from God to see how you act based on what you are not certain of, I mean would you make a swift action or will you have the patience to wait till everything has prevailed itself and then act/judge/etc.

Asking Allah for the truth


How much difference is there between brands of flour?

Question: How much real difference is there between flours (specifically all-purpose) such as King Arthur, Gold Medal at a considerable savings and a store brand which is even less expensive?
Answer: There is a difference beyond just the price.
All-Purpose flours are not the same:
Southerners tend to make more quick breads, pies, cakes, etc. where tenderness is the primary quality factor.
Southern brands of all-purpose flour such as White Lily, Martha White, Red Band, Adluh and others are typically milled from wheat that naturally has a lower gluten percentage.  They also blend it to achieve an overall lower percentage.  In addition, southern all-purpose flour is usually bleached, often with chlorine gas which weakens the gluten structure of the gluten in it and creates an acidic nature in the dough.  Gluten doesn't develop as easily in an acidic environment.
On average, people living in the northeast/midwest tend to bake a lot more yeast-based products (dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, pumpernickel bread, rye, wheat, white, french bread, etc.) which benefit from a higher gluten percentage.
Northern/Midwest brands such as King Arthur, Hecker's etc. tend to use wheat that has a higher gluten content for the milling of their flour and they typically leave it unbleached which allows the gluten to better develop during mixing/kneading.
National brands such as Gold Medal and Pillsbury are being distributed across the country so they blend their flour to fall within the mid-range of gluten content.
As for store brands, those that are national (such as Kroger/safeway) are probably being milled by the national flour mills and should probably perform about the same.  If it's a regional store brand (such as Piggly Wiggly here in the south or Wegman's in the Northeast) I'd be willing to bet that it probably falls within the scope of those regional types of milling practices.
For a chart showing the range of gluten content for various types of flour from cake flour to bread flour (including the all-purpose brands mentioned above) see Flour Power.
Answer: These days, there's probably very little difference between Gold Medal and the store brand. They are both industrial products, and may well come from the same mill.
As for the King Arthur, that's a more complex question. Needless to say, their organic product is, well, organic. In the all-purpose department, they will claim that theirs is more nutritious due to their process. I'm in no position to prove or disprove that.
If it's baking you are doing, I would recommend a bake-off and see if you can tell the difference. If you are thickening sauces, heck, buy the store brand. Though, in some cases, a whole-wheat roux has a nice flavor.
Comment: Me, too. Flour (market) power?
Comment: Bob's Red Mill is the best flour I think.
Answer: My hunch is that the biggest difference you'll find with flour is freshness.  If you could find grain milled yesterday (or today!), I bet it would have a much better taste, even if it was from the least expensive brand.  So, possibly outside the scope of your question, but, an airtight container for flour is definitely a good idea, as is testing out a grain mill or finding a bakery that has fresh flour, if you're really interested in the secrets of wheat.
Comment: Nope. Flour is routinely aged in order for the baking properties to improve! See e.g. https://bakerpedia.com/processes/aged-flour/


Can you identify this LEGO space set?

Question: I've just purchased a random box of Star Wars LEGO at a car boot sale and there's a few bits in there that I'd like to identify the set for.
Answer: It's not a Star Wars set, it's most of the main part from "70704 Vermin Vaporizer" from the Galaxy Squad theme.
The word "pressure" on the green tile hints that it's not Star Wars, as that would normally be in Aurebesh - the written script you see in the films.
It turns out the curved white roof tile (Circle 90G 6X6 Roof Tile) at the front was only used in three sets, which helps identify it.
Comment: This would actually not be a bad set to re-purpose as an APC for a Star Wars setup. You wouldn't necessarily need to remove the word - Roman script actually appears in the Star Wars universe as a rare-ish alphabet known as "High Galactic". Come up with your own story as to why the builders of this vehicle or the faction that configured it used that script.

Can you identify this LEGO space set?


How can 2 computers in different network communicate?

Question: Suppose my friend and I are connected to the Internet via some local ISP (not necessarily same), which means we are on different networks, hence our computers have different private IP addresses. Is there any way I can send a message to him if I know his private, as well as public, IP address (which is the IP address of his gateway router)? If so, then how will the packets will reach him?
Answer: First, just because your two computers are connected via the Internet at two separate locations doesn't necessarily mean that you are using private addresses.  That is certainly the most likely scenarios with IPv4, given the IPv4 address shortage, but it is still not necessarily true.  If you are running IPv6, you are probably using public IPv6 addresses.
Let's assume you are using private IPv4 addressing behind a router using NAT.
Knowing the other private address does nothing for you at all, so just take that out of the equation.
Under normal, non-hacker circumstances, the NAT routers at each end would need to have port forwarding enabled for each PC's private address, or the routers would need to be using one-to-one NAT, to enable the two PCs to communicate via the public addresses. You could also use a VPN between the two PCs to get around the NAT problem.  This all assumes that there are no firewalls in place to block traffic from the Internet into the private networks.
In one-to-one NAT, each network would have multiple public addresses which uniquely translate to a single private address, so using a public address will get you to the corresponding private address. This is also an unlikely scenario given the shortage of IPv4 addresses, but it is done in some places.
Port forwarding configures NAT to forward incoming traffic sent to a router's public address on a given port number to be sent to a particular inside private address at a given port number.
A VPN is a tunnel. Usually, traffic from one inside network is encapsulated within packets addressed to the public address of the other network and sent to the other network where it is de-encapsulated to the other inside network. This can be configured in such a way as to make the foreign network appear local to the tunnel interface of the local network.
A firewall on either end, or anywhere along the path, may be configured to block any or all of these methods.
Answer: First of all, all computers in the whole world are physically connected to each other via ISPs. The ISP runs cables all over which brings them together to multiple routers.
Anyways. To answer your question. You dont need his private IP. Only his public ip. To connect to his computer within his own private network, his router uitilizes something called NAT.
When you connect to his public IP lets say you want to control his computer.. The router/firewall on his end has to open the specified port for that service.
So an example would be something like:  lets say you want to turn off his computer from your computer (assuming such service exists), and that service uses port 10. You would send that special shutdown packet to port 10 to his Public IP address. The router/firewall on his end would then need to be configured to forward requests on port 10 to go to his computer.
Hope i helped.
Comment: is there any other way except port forwarding ?
Answer: 1 Step: as above - Port forwarding on the Router.
To be specific about your 'message' query then you might like to look at:
Spark IM client...
Answer: Technically, this can be easily done by doing what has been suggested above with port forwarding. But, you shouldn't do it for security reasons. The risks of infection or hacking are real even for home-based systems. And you might think you have nothing to hide ... but what about others in the house? You could become the starting point for external threats to get in deeper. Banking, credit cards, passwords, private info ... the threat is real.
Check out setting up VPN. If you're into technology and want to learn, the project will be interesting for you.
W.
Answer: There are 3 ways of doing so:
Port forwarding
This gives you fastest connection, but you need admin access to every router on server-side, or you need to call to ISP and agree with port forwarding with them, if you are behind NAT.
Howto: Look at other replies, or google "how to set up port forwarding".
Using VPN
Usually best choice in most cases. It's not the fastest one, but at least you don't need to set up port forwarding.
Howto: Download Hamachi, Tunnngle or similar. Alternatively you can use/buy your own VPN or use friend's one.
Using something as a middleman even when it's not made to.
Use this one only if you can't use for some reason port forwarding or VPN. You need to know programming in order to set up connection, since there're no open source examples available - not many people use this way and when they do, they're hackers and they keep it secret.
But there are few problems with this one here: it's almost impossible to set up full connection, "connection" will be more like instant messaging between two clients. Also expect the connection to be super slow - Mine had ping about 750 ms. I used free webhosting service as a middleman.
Howto: It depends on what you use as middleman, I used webhosting - client sends POST request and web (PHP) processes it and saves message into database (MySQL) with sender ID and receiver ID. Then, another client sends another POST request in order to read message and server answers with website which has nothing in it, but message for client.
Comment: Soliciting email is not acceptable here.  If you want to put a link for recruiters in your profile, that's fine, but it doesn't belong in an answer.


Changing a View doesn't reflect on a page

Question: I've modified my "Wanted" view of a classified ads list, grouped by Category, so that it doesn't display the annoying "Category:" text on each line. That works flawlessly when viewing the list independently, but when that list is viewed in a web part it persists in displaying the "Category:" text. No amount of refreshing or reinstating the "Wanted" view in the web part edit pane helps. When I create a View of a List, then choose that View for my web part, I expect both Views to look the same. What to do?
Answer: Looks like that is a common issue - here is a similar question and possible answers > https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/ie/en-US/5d1de812-acf4-49ff-96a3-a6a113025cf1/list-view-remove-group-by-headers-column-names?forum=sharepointgeneralprevious
Not sure what version of SharePoint you're using, but here is some javascript that you might consider > https://spjsblog.com/2011/08/30/remove-group-label-in-grouped-list-view/
If you have access to SharePoint Designer, perhaps this will be more suitable > https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sharepoint/en-US/f514fa73-5b35-402d-b43a-19f1580ca9bc/list-view-group-by-without-field-name?forum=sharepointcustomizationlegacy
Hope that helps.
Answer: Correct me if I'm wrong. I understand you that way, that you created a list, added the list view web part on a page and edited afterwards some view in the list. Right?
In that case you just need to edit the page and switch the view settings of the web part to another and back to the wanted view again.
Web Parts on pages just "import" the settings of a view to that specific moment and doesn't update the settings when the view changes.


Removing audio from video file using melt command

Question: I have a video file that I am able to play using command

melt video1.wmv

I want to construct a melt command to play video only, I dont want audio of video1.wmv
I tried to follow manual page of melt and found something relevant but not working
for example, I found -video-track | -hide-audio but I am not able to use this option.
I tried command melt video.wmv -video-track and melt video.wmv -hide-audio but none is working for.
could anyone tell me right command to see video only using melt
Answer: I found my answer
to play only video

melt -hide-audio video1.wmv

to play only audio

melt -hide-video video1.wmv


Rigorous definition of an outlier?

Question: People often talk about dealing with outliers in statistics.  The thing that bothers me about this is that, as far as I can tell, the definition of an outlier is completely subjective.  For example, if the true distribution of some random variable is very heavy-tailed or bimodal, any standard visualization or summary statistic for detecting outliers will incorrectly remove parts of the distribution you want to sample from.  What is a rigorous definition of an outlier, if one exists, and how can outliers be dealt with without introducing unreasonable amounts of subjectivity into an analysis?
Comment: Well, I would expect that you will have a `rigorous definition of an outlier` when you'll be able to define `unreasonable amounts of subjectivity` objective manner ;-), Thanks
Comment: There are MANY rigorous definitions of outlier. But the choice among those can seem arbitrary. But I think this is part of the misconception that statistics is a subject in which each problem has one correct answer.
Comment: But the definition can vary by underlying distribution and situation.  I could say ± 1.5 IQR, or 3 SD, or some such.  But I could take a totally different approach if I have two kinds of measures, say reaction time and accuracy. I can say RT's conditioned on a level of accuracy.  They can all be good and mathematically rigorous and have different applications and meanings.
Comment: If you want to know for a specific distribution then ask about your example.  It will be different for different situations.
Answer: As long as your data comes from a known distribution with known properties, you can rigorously define an outlier as an event that is too unlikely to have been generated by the observed process (if you consider "too unlikely" to be non-rigorous, then all hypothesis testing is).
However, this approach is problematic on two levels: It assumes that the data comes from a known distribution with known properties, and it brings the risk that outliers are looked at as data points that were smuggled into your data set by some magical faeries.
In the absence of magical data faeries, all data comes from your experiment, and thus it is actually not possible to have outliers, just weird results. These can come from recording errors (e.g. a 400000 bedroom house for 4 dollars), systematic measurement issues (the image analysis algorithm reports huge areas if the object is too close to the border) experimental problems (sometimes, crystals precipitate out of the solution, which give very high signal), or features of your system (a cell can sometimes divide in three instead of two), but they can also be the result of a mechanism that no one's ever considered because it's rare and you're doing research, which means that some of the stuff you do is simply not known yet.
Ideally, you take the time to investigate every outlier, and only remove it from your data set once you understand why it doesn't fit your model. This is time-consuming and subjective in that the reasons are highly dependent on the experiment, but the alternative is worse: If you don't understand where the outliers came from, you have the choice between letting outliers "mess up" your results, or defining some "mathematically rigorous" approach to hide your lack of understanding. In other words, by pursuing "mathematical rigorousness" you choose between not getting a significant effect and not getting into heaven.
EDIT
If all you have is a list of numbers without knowing where they come from, you have no way of telling whether some data point is an outlier, because you can always assume a distribution where all data are inliers.
Comment: Not all outliers are generated from an experiment, however. I worked with a large dataset that involved the collection of real-estate information in a region (sale price, number of bedrooms, square footage, etc), and every now and then, there would be data entry mistakes and I'd have a 400,000 bedroom house go for 4 dollars, or something nonsensical like that. I would think that part of the goal of determining an outlier is to see whether it's possible to be generated from the data, or if it was just an entry error.
Comment: @dsimcha - you **always** have prior knowledge!  for how were the data given to you?  you *always* *always* know that much.  data doesn't magically just show up.  and you can always make tentative assumptions.  "outliers" based on these assumptions basically give you a clue that something in your assumptions is wrong.  by studying the "outlier" (which is always relative) you can improve your model.
Comment: @Christopher Aden: I'd consider that part of the experimental process. Basically, in order to be able to remove outliers, you have to understand how the data were generated, i.e. no removing outliers without a good reason. Otherwise you're just stylizing your data. I've edited my answer to reflect this a bit better.
Comment: @dsimcha: I don't think you can identify outliers in that case (see also my edit).
Comment: This is perfectly reasonable, but assumes you already have a decent amount of prior knowledge about what the true distribution is.  I was thinking more in terms of scenarios where you don't and it could be very heavy tailed or bimodal.
Comment: Drat! I was hoping magical data faeries were real.
Answer: You are correct that removing outliers can look like a subjective exercise but that doesn't mean that it's wrong.  The compulsive need to always have a rigorous mathematical reason for every decision regarding your data analysis is often just a thin veil of artificial rigour over what turns out to be a subjective exercise anyway.  This is especially true if you want to apply the same mathematical justification to every situation you come across.  (If there were bulletproof clear mathematical rules for everything then you wouldn't need a statistician.)
For example, in your long tail distribution situation, there's no guaranteed method to just decide from the numbers whether you've got one underlying distribution of interest with outliers or two underlying distributions of interest with outliers being part of only one of them.  Or, heaven forbid, just the actual distribution of data.
The more data you collect, the more you get into the low probability regions of a distribution.  If you collect 20 samples it's very unlikely you'l get a value with a z-score of 3.5.  If you collect 10,000 samples it's very likely you'll get one and it's a natural part of the distribution.  Given the above, how do you decide just because something is extreme to exclude it?
Selecting the best methods in general for analysis is often subjective.  Whether it's unreasonably subjective depends on the explanation for the decision and on the outlier.
Comment: +1 Barnett and Lewis, who [wrote the book on outliers](http://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Statistical-Series-Probability-Statistics/dp/0471930946#reader_0471930946), state "an outlier in a set of data [is] *an observation (or subset of observations) which appears to be inconsistent with the remainder of that set of data*" [at p. 7]. They continue, "It is a matter of subjective judgement on the part of the observer whether or not some observation ... is picked out for scrutiny. ... What characterizes the 'outlier' is its impact on the observer ... ."
Comment: "the book" is slightly ambiguous here. I'd consider Barnett and Lewis the leading monograph, but it's not the only book on outliers. http://www.amazon.com/Outlier-Analysis-Charu-C-Aggarwal/dp/1461463955/ is recent. There is also an older book by D.M. Hawkins.
Answer: I don't think it is possible to define an outlier without assuming a model of the underlying process giving rise to the data.  Without such a model we have no frame of reference to decide whether the data are anomalous or "wrong".  The definition of an outlier that I have found useful is that an outlier is an observation (or observations) that cannot be reconciled to a model that otherwise performs well.
Comment: You can define outliers without a model, but I have found such definitions to be unhelpful.  BTW, by model, I don't necessarily mean a statistical model that has been explicitly fit to the data.  Any definition of an outlier requires you to make some assumption about what sort of values you expect to see, and what sort of values you don't expect to see.  I think it is better if these assumptions (i.e. the model) are made explicit.  There is also the point that in EDA, you are exploring the data, your definition of an outlier may be very different for EDA than for fitting a final model.
Comment: Hmm...In his EDA text, John Tukey specifically defined outliers without using any models at all.
Answer: There are many excellent answers here.  However, I want to point out that two questions are being confused.  The first is, 'what is an outlier?', and more specifically to give a "rigorous definition" of such.  This is simple:

An outlier is a data point that comes from a different population /
  distribution / data generating process than the one you intended to
  study / the rest of your data.

The second question is 'how do I know / detect that a data point is an outlier?'  Unfortunately, this is very difficult.  However, the answers given here (which really are very good, and which I can't improve upon) will be quite helpful with that task.
Comment: @whuber, you're right. Some make this distinction, but many aren't clear about these ideas. My position is that there is no meaningful reality of "outlier" other than *contaminant*. Nonetheless, people should also / instead think about the issue as being concerned about point(s) if your results are driven by them alone (whether they are 'real' or not), & thus your results are very fragile. In short, there is no reason to be concerned about point(s) that are from your population & aren't uniquely driving your results; once you've dealt w/ those 2 issues, there is nothing left to "outlier".
Comment: This is a thought-provoking answer. So, suppose I generate $99$ iid values from a Normal$(0,1)$ distribution--they are likely to span a range from around $-2.5$ to $2.5$--and generate one more value from a Normal$(4,1)$ distribution and it happens to equal $2$ (for which there's about a $1$ in $40$ chance).  It's highly unlikely that extra $2$ would be determined to be an outlier. Do you claim that it really is?  Your quotation makes me think so, but I don't see how this can be made practically operational.
Comment: @whuber, yes. I say that it *is* an outlier, although you would never notice it (which, I suspect, is what you mean by practically operational).
Comment: I appreciate the distinction you're making. I just wanted to point out the sharp contrast between your definition and most of the other definitions or descriptions of outliers in this thread.  Yours does not seem like it could lead to satisfactory practical procedures: you would always have to accept that a huge part of your dataset might be "outlying" but without having any way to detect or resolve that.
Comment: What you call an "outlier" here is often referred to as a "contaminant."  An observation might or might not be a contaminant--this is *objectively* either true or false, but often impossible to ascertain--whereas whether an observation (or set of observations) is outlying is a matter of how the data are examined and therefore is a *subjective* distinction.  (That does not mean it's a useless or vague one, however!)  It looks advisable to maintain this useful distinction between outliers and contamination rather than conflating the two concepts.
Comment: @whuber, I wholeheartedly agree. I see this as loosely analogous to hypothesis testing, where (eg) 2 groups may differ by a very small, undetectable amount, or may differ by a moderate amount, but the samples you ended up with were very similar by chance alone; nonetheless, from a theoretical perspective it's worth understanding & maintaining the distinction.
Comment: I also think that this leads us to a way of re-thinking the issue. Maybe what we need to worry about is not so much outliers per se, but *high-influence* data points, as they have the power to distort betas & flip decisions. (Again, in practice, the intersection of true outliers & high-influence points is likely to be close to the union of the sets, but I think the distinction is worth maintaining for the conceptual clarity it affords.)
Answer: Definition 1: As already mentioned, an outlier in a group of data reflecting the same process (say process A) is an observation (or a set of observations) that is unlikely to be a result of  process A.
This definition certainly involves an estimation of the likelihood function of the process A (hence a model) and setting what unlikely means (i.e. deciding where to stop...). This definition is at the root of the answer I gave here. It is more related to ideas of hypothesis testing of significance or goodness of fit.
Definition 2 An outlier is an observation $x$ in a group of observations $G$ such that when modeling the group of observation with a given model the accuracy is higher if $x$ is removed and treated separately (with a mixture, in the spirit of what I mention here).
This definition involves a "given model" and a measure of accuracy. I think this definition is more from the practical side and is more at the origin of outliers. At the Origin, outlier detection was a tool for robust statistics.
Obviously these definitions can be made very similar if you understand that calculating likelihood in the first definition involves modeling and calculation of a score :)
Answer: An outlier is a data point that is inconvenient to me, given my current understanding of the process that generates this data.
I believe this definition is as rigorous as can be made.
Comment: Similarly, "Outliers are sample values that cause surprise
in relation to the majority of the sample" (W.N.
Venables and B.D. Ripley. 2002. _Modern applied
statistics with S._ New York: Springer, p.119).
However, surprise is in the mind of the beholder
and is dependent on some tacit or explicit model
of the data. There may be another model under which
the outlier is not surprising at all, say, the
data really are lognormal or gamma rather than normal.
Comment: @whuber: You say "Contrast this", which I think means you disagree, but I'm not sure. I'd argue that model-formation -- implicit and naive, perhaps -- is why we see patterns in data, or the man in the moon, or outliers. The model may have no physics/chemistry/economic basis, but we have hypothesized a model. Otherwise, there is no surprise, there is no "outside".
Comment: Contrast this to John Tukey's definition (he used the term "outside"): "When we look at some batches of values, we see certain values as apparently straying out far beyond the others. ... It is convenient to have a rule of thumb that picks out certain values as "outside" ..." Later he summarizes this as "...identification of individual values that may be unusual." [EDA, chapter 2]. He emphasizes throughout the book that we are *describing data* rather than pretending to "understand a process," and that multiple valid descriptions are always possible.
Comment: @Nick That is consistent with Barnett and Lewis, whom I quote in a comment to [John's answer](http://stats.stackexchange.com/a/7157/919).
Comment: Tukey is insistent that in *describing* data we are not necessarily *modeling* them. It's fair to extend your definition of "model" to include data description, but then the term becomes almost too general to be useful. From Tukey's point of view (as I interpret it, of course), there is no concern about loss of face nor is there any question of convenience or not. Thus, although I respect your motivation, I think your attitude (as reflected in "face-saving" and "inconvenient") is less constructive than other approaches to this question.
Comment: @whuber: Outliers are literally inconvenient: they don't "look right", they don't fit whatever narrative you have regarding the data, they require an inordinate amount of investigation, if left in they may require different techniques to be used, and if removed they may hang over your head. As you know, it's not unusual for people to simply eliminate them with only vague justifications -- whether explicitly, or implicitly with techniques like trimmed means. Once understood, they cease to be inconvenient. I've edited my answer to remove the "face saving" part, which was a bit sarcastic.
Comment: I appreciate your comments about inconvenience, but it seems that lack of convenience scarcely distinguishes outliers from any other (non-outlying) values that might cause special difficulties, such as influential values, sets of overly collinear values, interval-valued data, and so on.
Answer: define an outlier as a member of that minimal set of elements which must be removed from a datasetof size n  in order to assure 100% compliance with RUM tests conducted at 95% confidence level  on all (2^n -1) unique subsets of the data. See Karian and Dudewicz text on fitting data to pdfs using R(Sept 2010)  for definition of the RUM test.
Answer: Outliers are important only in the frequentist realm. If a single datapoint adds bias to your model which is defined by an underlying distribution predeterimined by your theory, then it is an outlier for that model. The subjectivity lies in the fact that if your theory posits a different model, then you can have a different set of points as outliers.
Comment: Are you claiming outliers are unimportant in Bayesian data analysis?

Rigorous definition of an outlier?


Laptop Backup to the Data Center Without VPN

Question: We would like to backup user laptops to the data center – looking for suggestions/alternatives to back them up to the data center where they don't have to know about it. Blue sky like to haves:
•   Don't want VPN but needs to secure
•   Admin can access all files
•   Global dedup
•   Select file types only – MS Office, PSTs, PDFs
•   Incremental change only
•   Right now 60 users but needs to scale (all Windows7 64 bit)
•   Can allocate budget if have to
Don't mean to be vague but hoping to get some proven places to start laptop backup research.
Answer: check out synaman, we have used it in the past with great success
Answer: Exactly the product you want depends on the platform running on your servers in the data centre, but broadly the solution is in 2 parts: a central backup service running in the DC (or run by a 3rd party, in the case of Dropbox, Sugarsync etc), and an agent installed on users' laptops out in the field, which periodically sends incremental backups to said service.
Symantec have 2 different products for this -- NetBackup, and BackupExec, that might be worth a look.
Answer: drop box premium subscription can resolve this.
Comment: This is great if, and only if, you only want to give each user a specific backed-up folder.
Answer: One on-premises solution you might research is by Copiun – they were just nominated for backup prod of the year by Storage magazine. Copiun Laptop Backup
We are in the final stages of evaluating them.. so far we like everything we see..
They seem to meet your requirements if you need to keep the backup in the DC...
No VPN required - works securely with or without a VPN.
Admin file access - Admin can search and restore across all users.
Global Dedup - they claim 3x to 5x better than block dedup.
File Selection - there are policies that determine what file types you want in backup set.
Answer: I know you said no VPN, but if you were to get a VPN up, you'd solve most of the other problems with software built-in to Windows 7 - Windows Backup.  You can do file-based backup, but you can also get a bootable image and save deltas, each being a restorable image of the OS.  Also, those images are mountable as new volumes, so you can access the individual files by drive letter if you don't want to restore the entire image.
The last requirement, global dedupe, would have to depend on what's at the datacentre.  Windows Storage Server has file-based dedupe, but if it's something like a SAN, block-based dedupe would be built-in, so whatever files put there would benefit (you wont benefit much from file-based dedupe).
Solving the VPN problem seems cheaper and better.  (If you don't favour any of the VPN flavours that have clients bundled with Windows 7, a free alternative is OpenVPN).


How to overcome the difference between weighted and unweighted piano?

Question: I am currently learning piano by myself. So far, after 1 year and 3-4 months, I I can play some hard pieces. But my piano is unweighted one, and things become different when I have to play on a classical piano. Slow pieces are OK (Mozart's piano sonata no.16 - 2nd movement, Beethoven's "Pathetique" - 2nd movement, etc. or even Chopin's Etude No.3 - Op.10). All I need to do is focus on dynamics and pedal. But when it comes to fast pieces like Turkish March, Chopin Etude No.4 - Op.10, etc. or even Fur Elise, I simply can't play like I used to. My fingers don't push hard enough. If I can overcome this problem, I'll have opportunity to be a good pianist (I sight-read very well, can improvise in any key just in a blink, my knowledge on music is good (not only chords and keys but also counterpoint; I'm a true classical composer, like Beethoven's time)).
So, my question is: Is there any way I can overcome the difference between weighted and unweighted piano, without having to practice on a weighted one?
Answer: Put simply, no. If you've got this far and this good on a non-piano feel keyboard, you must owe it to yourself to do the job properly, and re-learn on a 'proper' weighted keyboard, be it a real piano, or a very good electronic keyboard, with weighted or at very least, semi-weighted keys. It's much more than merely increasing finger strength, though. The whole concept is different, and it will take a while to accommodate the different feel and techniques involved, and the pedal action will not be the same either.
Comment: As a keyboard player I completely agree with the answer. There is no other way than to buy a weighted keyboard and play.
Answer: Since you mentioned "true classical composer" then it might be worth mentioning clavichords, harpsichords and organs. In the baroque era those were basically the options for keyboard instruments. People couldn't well have giant organs in their homes so they had to settle for clavichords/harpsichords. Harpsichords were still quite large and expensive so you would have to be wealthy enough to afford one and also have enough space to play and store it. Clavichords were basically the equivalent of the "unweighted cheap keyboards" that  students have to use these days.
Keyboard players would then practice and compose using the cheap light limited instruments and perform on the larger more complex organs. Organs don't have weighted keys but they are still plenty more complicated that clavichords.
However no matter how skilled they got on their practice instruments they would  still need to practice on the organs in order to raise their proficiency at it.
Unweighted are fine and fit for their purposes; cheap keyboard for beginners or those who can't afford to practice with. It is better to have one than no keyboard at all. You cannot unfortunately overcome the differences without practice time anymore than you can practice truck driving in a car. You can drive in a car and accomplish things but a truck is a different thing that you just can only improve on with direct experience.
Comment: This seems rather misleading. Of the three instruments, the only one which was *touch sensitive* was the clavichord, but none of the three needed much physical strength to play them. The keyboards on baroque organs were designed with a much smaller touch weight than most later pipe organs, and certainly lighter than modern pianos. The OP is probably lacking the ability to *control* a piano-weighted keyboard, more than not having enough *strength* to play it.
Comment: I guess. But my point was that even though they are similar i.e. Keyboards, they require direct use in order to be able to get better. There is carry over because they are all keyboards but they are all different enough to require practice on them to get better.
Comment: For serious practice, organists used two clavichords stacked above each other, and a third one with a pedal keyboard. In fact that combination was probably more difficult to play *well* than a pipe organ, because of the touch sensitivity.
Comment: But it still wasn't a substitute for an organ because of all the organ specific challenges that come with playing an organ.
Comment: @xerotolerant - a lot of organ specific challenges are not involved with the feel of an organ manual, the thrust of this question.
Answer: I second the NO answer. I play both weighted piano keyboards and unweighted organ keyboards. To some extent you can play them interchangably. But when you get down to playing them well, they are different and you must have the right keyboard for the type of music being played.
Piano music requires that you control the velocity of the key to control the dynamics. Doing so relies on the inertia of the piano hammer mechanism. You can't learn that control without a weighted keyboard.
Organ music requires holding keys for the entire time you want the note to sound which can require a lot of finger substitution and "crawling" over the keyboard. Organ technique relies on the fact that you do NOT have to control the velocity of the key. You can use finger movements that are disadvantaged for apply a forceful movement of the key. It is more difficult to play organ music on a weighted keyboard than an unweighted keyboard.
So you have to have the right type of keyboard for the type of music you are playing. The good news is that it is nowhere near as expensive or space consuming as it used to be.
Answer: First of all, any good pianist should have a weighted keyboard; whether it is a good electric piano, a synth like Korg Kronos or a home grand piano is up to you!
The difference in playing on a weighted keyboard and an unweighted one is significant.
I am a keyboard player myself and I can say I started learning on an Yamaha DGX-520 and it wasn't a weighted one then when I started playing a Korg Kronos in a band I had a lot of trouble with fast licks and playing organ. So I played it a lot and my fingers got stronger and I felt how faster I've become.
After you've played a weighted keyboard once you sit down to a simple synth that does not have that you feel more powerful than ever, your fingers really start flying and everything becomes much either, you can't properly feel the unweighted keyboard.
The other good thing to remember is the proper work of the body, arms, hands and fingers while playing. I hope you had a teacher who explained that when you play you should use the weight of the whole body to take the note or chord you need. There are many lessons to learn that.


How do you use your iPod shuffle or nano?

Question: I bought my first Apple product a few months ago, an iPod shuffle, a tiny little music gadget that's fun to play with. However its getting a little boring because I don't know what I can do with it or places I can use it. Currently, I'm limited to listening to it during sleeptime as a lullaby machine. What do you do with your iPod shuffle/nano? how do you get the most out of it?
Answer: Nanos or shuffles are great for workouts at the gym or while running. You can use them just about anywhere. I personally use a Classic for my stuff, but the nano is great if you have a smaller library or want something very mobile.
As far as what you can do with it (other than playing music), it really depends on which generation you have. You obviously can't really run 'apps' on it, but many generations (of nanos) had some small games, radios, could play video, etc.
Answer: My shuffle has two playlists:

Sleep: Thirty minutes of soft instrumental music followed by nine hours of rainfall
Wakeup: One hour of four- and five-star songs lasting two to five minutes that have not been played in the past six months

It needs a recharge every two days.
Answer: I use my iPod nano in the car to listen to podcasts during my commute. I have a Belkin TuneBase FM Transmitter—the older model of what's shown below—so that I can listen using my car's stereo.
Answer: On my iPod Shuffle (Gen 3) I have one playlist, "Gym" - mainly fast paced rock and electronic music, I use this while I'm training. The shuffle is ideal for this as it is lightweight and clips to my gym kit unobtrusively.
That is all I use it for as have an iPhone, so use that as my day to day device, however, even the 2GB Shuffle will hold 12 hours of music if you want to listen to it at work etc, although I appreciate it is a bit trickier to navigate music.
Answer: I use may 6th gen nano (the touchscreen one) as a pedometer and a flashlight when my iPod touch runs out of battery. (Also as practice for iOS accessibility gestures.)
Answer: I have a long commute to and from work and I find that whether I am in the walking part of the commute or the part that involves buses and trains, it helps me relax, pass time faster or wake up better depending on the tracks I decide to play.
If I'm at home and want to work on artistic projects, it's also great to use in conjunction with speakers (I use a Bose SoundLink mini).
Once I played music while taking a bath it was really nice.
Based on how many songs play, you can know exactly how much time passed. Just try to remember the name of the first and last song, and when you're near your computer plug it to iTunes and click from the first to the last song and the total duration will be displayed.


email alert on a multiple related objects

Question: I have a junction object which holds multiple accounts, whenever a contact is created on one of the accounts I send an email to the primary contact of the related account. I'm using flow to achieve this, however when I call the email alert from the flow I'm only able to pass the contact id(single parameter) of the related account and send the email but with in the email template how do I show the information of the contact that was inserted?
Answer: There are 2 approaches:

I think you have created email template based on your junction object. you could create visualforce email template which will show the contact details based on contact Id.
You can create few formula fields on Junction object for those contact attributes which you are exposing in the email. Then in the email template you can refer the formula field.

I would suggest to go for approach 2 in case if you have few contact attributes and this is pure configuration.


How can I keep sapient species away from each other?

Question: Many other questions, as well as a few online sources, all agree that in order for me to have multiple sapient species in my world, they need to be either separated by a natural landscape or not a source of competition to each other. The easier solution here is to just set up a natural barrier in between the two species. What natural barriers can I use to keep my developing sapient species away from each other?
Comment: Do you want them to both be terrestrial?  If you had one land-based and one sea-based, they would have almost no direct competition with each other for a long time.  The same somewhat applies to air-based species like birds and such.
Comment: @MozerShmozer No, I am looking for barriers to help with not just terrestrial, but aerial and aquatic as well
Comment: This addresses your problem rather than the question, but perhaps your two species could be symbiotic. As the technology of both sides progresses, they will eventually encounter each other. Why not have them together from the start, but biologically dependent on each other?
Comment: I don't entirely agree that there needs to be a barrier between the two species, or more accurately, there doesn't need to be one any more.  There had to be one at some point in their evolution, for specialization to start, but they don't need to be separate now  While conflicts would occur between the two they could create separate 'empires' and exist.  Look at how predators can live near other predators without fighting, we would have *less* reason to fight then predators do with each other.  Especially if they formed a niche and symbiotic relationship helping with what the other couldn't do
Comment: See also [this question](http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/45410/faux-natural-barriers-between-environments-in-a-world-sized-zoo) for answers concerning barriers that people can't cross.
Comment: What tech level are you expecting first contact and/or regular contact?
Comment: How long do they need separation and how advanced have they become? It's somewhat feasible that a second sapient species might have developed in, say, Brazil at the same time modern man arose in Africa. One or two minor geologic twists could keep them separated a very long time. How long is needed?
Comment: The situation posed by [this question](http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/18432/what-if-the-earth-was-physically-split-in-half) would seem to accomplish this, too.
Answer: Barriers are tricky. They are only going to last until one of the species develops technology sufficient to overcome them. If these species are anything like humans, they will probably seek to overcome the barriers just because they are there if for no other reason.
Real world example: the Pacific Ocean is an incredible barrier. It is something close to a third of the entire planet's surface, has huge waves, and until modern times, was very hard to navigate. Well, with something like stone age technology, Polynesians managed to not only explore most of it, but turn it into a highway and colonize numerous islands across vast distances.
A better solution might be to make the species function in a way that, if not symbiotic, is at least cooperative by nature. It makes sense that a world with more than one intelligent species would function this way. For example, what if something that one species considered a waste product was valuable to the other? What if one species was much smaller than the first, and just by virtue of living like rats in their cities, acted as pest control for them (inhibiting disease) because they do not tolerate other small creatures in their territory?
Perhaps one of the species reproduces very slowly, but they are more intelligent. They need labor to keep a mutual economy running and the more common, less intelligent species need work and technology/engineering.
There are actually a lot of ways to integrate different species into an economic or biological system that benefits both sides.
I would recommend watching the 80s movie Dark Crystal. Not only were multiple species on that planet dependent on one another to reproduce, there were also examples of species that literally joined with one another to form a third species, but only at a specific time. Very creative stuff.
If you absolutely MUST have a barrier, a good read is Ringworld by Larry Niven. That "ringworld" structure (basically a slice of a dyson sphere) was so immense that it had artificial "mountain ranges" that simply continued to climb all the way out of the atmosphere. These "spill walls" kept the atmosphere inside the ring, and also served as an impossible barrier to any civilization that had not yet developed space travel. Maybe your planet has incredibly steep mountains because of some kind of un-erodable ore in the rocks?
I read in an old science fiction novella once about a planet that had a gravity well that was actually different at different latitudes. As you moved up or down, the gravity became greater or less. That might go past science fiction and into the realm of science fantasy (or it might be a very interesting, freak phenomenon), but it could serve to significantly limit the area of operations of one or both species (one might be too frail to survive the heavier gravity part of the environment).
Comment: You may want to re-watch the Dark Crystal again to refresh your memory.  The fusion of the two-into-one was a magical correction of the splitting of the original creatures 1,000 years earlier.  I do heartily recommend watching that movie, as to quote the best description I've heard of it, "It is Jim Hensen showing off."
Comment: you meantion quite a few things about cohabitation I had just written a comment about before reading your question :)  I would add that the question of how two sapiences evolved would still need to be asked, was it covirgent evolution, or are they offshots of each other.  The later seems likelier, but in either case you have the problem that sapience breaks the game too fast.  Once sapient technology grows so fast that in a blink of the eye (from an evolution standpoint) sapient species rules world, leaving little time for second species to evolve/diverge
Comment: the ringworld walls were not used to keep species apart however, only to keep the atmosphere in, and possibly to keep inhabitants from climbing over the ring edge. but given that humans figured out how to breathe underwater and get to the bottom of the ocean it is only a matter of time until they figure out how to climb those walls.
Comment: basically, the timetable from first sapience to total world control is so tiny that the odds of another species just happening to evolve during such a tiny window is remote.  Best way to address this is to have then be symbiotic, as you said, such that the same pressures drove both to sapience and they both put evolutionary pressures on the other to increase their intellect.  Explain away the 'coincidence' of such close evolutionary timelines by saying they explicitly were tied together and developing sapience together.
Comment: I thought the only mountain that was higher than the atmosphere in Ringworld was Fist-of-God.  The walls at the edges were not barriers between livable regions.
Comment: Yes, the spill walls in Ringworld were not there to keep species apart (what Larry Niven did for that was use gigantic oceans between planet sized islands in a mega-ocean, but I am not at all convinced that that is a good alternative). I believe something like the "spill walls" would be much better. Also: I would tend to be on the "symbiotic" side and would probably make both species in some way related (like a lemur and a gorilla maybe) for plausability.
Answer: Set up a world right on the inner edge of the "goldilocks" zone of its star.
The Polar regions, the Arctic and Antarctic, start at tropical biomes around Latitude 50° N or south, progressing to temperate from the arctic/antarctic circle to the pole.
From 50° to what we would call the tropics (23° 27′) it's progressively hotter desert, and between the tropics it's bare often glowing hot land, possibly fusing or bubbling around the equator, with boiling seas.
Each race evolves independently at one of the poles.  Until they reach at least 1940's levels of technology, possibly better, they won't be able to cross the inferno zone to discover the other habitable pole region and its life forms.
Comment: Nice. A good simple reason for biogeographical separation. With boiling seas will come extreme stormy weather too. If the land is fusing or bubbling, that may be too hot even for a planet at the inner edge of the habitable zone. I gave this a one up.
Comment: I like this solution. It raises a fun idea from a science fiction/plot standpoint: It would be very likely that both species would develop the technology  to communicate over long distance (radio) long before they could cross the molten region barrier. This might lead to some misunderstandings as they would be able to achieve "contact" before they ever saw one another. Would they be paranoid? Would they try to develop ballistic missiles before they even made face to face contact? What if they ended up looking almost the same atfer all the paranoia? Good story plot.
Comment: While I liked your answer there were a few prose inexactitudes. "Progressively hotter desert" instead of "progressively hotter dessert" (best served after the main meal) and "its life forms' instead of "it's life forms". What I forgot to mention in my comment above was the idea of the independent sapients only meeting if they acquire 1940's tech and can cross the equatorial inferno. Another good idea
Comment: @a4android you missed an *it's* for *its* near the top. So she had one of each but had them reversed!
Comment: @JDługosz Nobody's perfect. There was one of them that was hard to call, so I left it. People do usually reverse them.
Comment: @a4android how does "the zone of it is star" make sense or seem like it could be what was actually meant?
Comment: He, not she, though given my avatar it's an understandable mistake (look up Here is Greenwood), also, clearly everything from 50° to 23° is boiling hot fudge.  :P  Sorry, I don't tend to do enough proof reading on my online posts, I'm used to forums where teh is far more prevalent than the, and numbers can be used for letters on a regular basis...
Comment: It wouldn't be as hot as you envision but it could not be crossed until reliable air conditioners were built.
Answer: Use temperature as a barrier.
All natural planets are going to have a variable temperature between different parts of the world. Temperature gradients exist whether you're on land, in an ocean, or flying high.
Most natural barriers fail to be reliable because once they are surpassed, the environment on the other side is still hospitable enough that the species can survive (relatively) unimpeded. Given a species with enough reproductive ability, it only takes a few successful pioneers to found colonies and establish a long-lasting foothold. Imagine, however, what happens when a sapient species adapted to sweltering year-round heat in the tropics crosses their massive body of water and finds themselves in freezing tundra? Not only would it be a serious challenge for them to survive, but the climate difference may completely remove any interest in colonization.
Adaptability of each species is a concern for maintaining separation (see human history). You would likely want more extreme temperature gradients between species, perhaps with one residing near the poles and the other at the equator. Temperature also has the unique situation of not necessarily inhibiting both species evenly: it's easier with basic technology to maintain warmth than it is to cool off (though your mileage here may vary depending on biology).
Like any other barrier, temperature won't keep them separate forever. Technology can mitigate climate differences and globalization by either species will inevitably bring them into extended contact. Resources are limited and it's likely that there will be overlap in valued resources between the two groups. However, climate mitigation is a serious expense for an invading species. It creates a substantial home-turf advantage for the defenders that will help them maintain separation for quite some time.
Answer: I've read about a hypothesis that the Americas were not successfully colonised by humans—not for lack of trying—until certain megafauna died out.
You could have a region that is impassible due to what lives there, with normal barriers around it. The sapent species can conquer the barrier but can't diffuse into the new area.
Only once open-ocean voyages become possible would they skip that area, or try settling in earnest rather than just expanding a few miles per generation.
Comment: This is actually a very interesting idea +1
Answer: The primary issue is to ensure the various species are not in competition for the same resources. In practice, this means they will have to evolve in separate biomes with very clear boundaries between them, and not just physical barriers like mountain ranges either.
In fact, for a sentient species, physical barriers are hardly an issue at all. The Ancestors came out of Africa near the end of an Ice Age and pretty much walked around the world, outcompeting everything from megafauna, Sabre toothed tigers, super volcanoes and even related species like the Neanderthal and Denisovans. Little things like glaciers, mountains  and oceans hardly slowed the Ancestors down....
If sentience arises at nearly the same time on land and in the oceans, then the two species might discover each other as the terrestrial species takes to boating or the oceanic species starts exploring land. They will probably relate to each other as some sort of spirit being from the other realm which can talk after a fashion and can sometimes be persuaded to trade amazing things. There may be some limited competition between the species at the interface between land and ocean, but since they are so different and have so little overlap of resources, genocidal wars of extermination don't seem to be in the cards.
Answer: Make one species adapted to and dependent extreme conditions
If you have two species with modern technology, they will both spread across the natural boundaries of their terrestrial limits. The way to avoid this while living on the same planet is one species is adapted to extreme conditions (using humans as a baseline) and thus cannot survive outside of that extreme condition easily. I think the most salient example would be a deep-sea species, whose bodies are designed to live at certain pressures and derive energy primarily through geothermal methods. This would basically force non-interaction between them and a normal terrestial species.
Answer: The 1950's British weekly science fiction comic strip, Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, had the planet Venus separated into two independent hemispheres by the Flame Belt. Each hemisphere had its own sapient species, the evil Treens in the Northern hemisphere and the extremely nice Therons in the Southern. By the time Dan Dare and Friends reached Venus the Treens and Therons had been at war for millennia. Actually the Therons developed technology first and sent expeditions north where they discovered the primitive Treens. Once the Therons gave Treens technology things turned nasty. The Treens built an insanely technocratic and militaristic society bent on the conquest of the entire universe. Just shows how good intentions can go wrong, doesn't it?
The important bit here is the nature of the Flame Belt. This was essentially a seismically active equatorial zone girdling the planet Venus. Boiling lava, hot bubbling mud, volcanoes and steaming geysers. Something like the North island of New Zealand wrapped around the midriff of the planet Venus, but turned up to eleven.
This example was used to show one way this notion has been done before. Now to tackle the problem of keeping two sapient species apart so they can evolve independently.
The answer is, of course, to choose the right sort of planet that place it in the right orbit around its primary star. The planet will have deep oceans. This suggests it could be a high gravity planet because there are studies that indicate high gravity planets will have deep oceans. The planet orbits close to its primary star, so the star needs to be cooler than our Sun. For example, a red dwarf star. The planet will be in an orbital resonance such that it isn't tidally locked. So it will enjoy a day-night cycle, perhaps, something to that of Mercury. The timing for this will depend on the OP's requirements for his story. The planet's orbit and star can be adjusted accordingly.
Our two sapient species will evolve on separate island continents. Each island continent will have its own independent biogeography. This does not preclude the possibility that the two island continents were part of a supercontinent but due to continental drift had broken apart hundreds of millions of years ago.
One important geographical factor is the location of the two island continents on the surface of the planet. They must be situated such that there is circumnavigation zone for winds and weather to circulate around the globe, both above and below each island continent, without any major land masses to act as "wind or weather breaks". This means both island continents will be caught between weather and wind systems like the Roaring Forties but supersized on steroids that help seal them off from the rest of their planet. Since most of the rest of the planet is deep ocean that won't be much of loss, except possibly for islands scattered here and there.
These powerful weather systems will be driven by the heat of the primary star acting on the deep oceans and setting up permanent storm and wind systems. This is reason for placing the planet in close orbit with a cooler star, but a star that is still hot enough to produce the turbo-charged weather patterns to keep the two sapients separated on their own island continents.
The OP can decide whether or not there should be, say, another major island continent, but without sapient life just to give the planet some extra variety. Other islands can be scattered about according to taste and any need for additional color and excitement in the story.
Connecting the two island continents as part of an ancient supercontinent way back in deep time, anchors the development and evolution of the two separate evolutionary domains to what was originally a common evolutionary history. Their biogeographical isolation will have enabled their divergence and propagation into two distinctly different biological domains.
Answer: The best geographical features for separation of intelligent human like species would be large oceans.  Desert, mountains, swamp, deep forests; humans walked across all of them as lowly hunter/gatherers.  The ocean boundaries were slightly more effective.
Looking at unique areas of Earth biology, they are mostly large islands (or isolated continents): Madagascar, Australia, or the American Continent.
Early Homo Sapiens expansion was aided by the lower ocean levels and associated land bridges.  Your continents would need to be better isolated, such that no land bridges or winter glaciers would allow direct walking travel between them.
There is still going to be a lot of leakage across the boundaries once even rudimentary sailing technology develops in either group.  The vast distances covered by the various Pacific Islanders proves that once boats are invented the species will spread.
Your two species could develop like this, but once large scale contact is made, based on Earth history, it is not likely to be very nice for the less advanced species.  Coexistence is unlikely to last, wholesale enslavement or extermination of the other species is likely.
For comparison, the other known intelligent species to develop on Earth, Neanderthals,  only lasted a few thousand years against the only slightly more advanced homo sapiens.
Comment: Oceans are not reliable as a barrier. In my answer, I mentioned the expansion of the Polynesians across the greatest nautical distances on earth with nothing more than stone age technology.
Answer: Thinking outside the box, how about a binary planet? Two lobes close together: in Rocheworld they were close enough to share an atmosphere. This would alow for a common biosphere with exchange of microbes, seeds, etc. but any animal would have a very hard time crossing, even up to 19th century technology.
Call it a real air gap.
Answer: Ideological barriers
If you want to keep them unaware of one another natural barriers wouldn't be enough. As mentioned in another answer because technology grows and we tend to expand and explore there has to be another factor involved. If you want to keep them separate for a while longer even after technology has advanced to the point of allowing them to cross the oceans and mountains, and allows them to survive in habitats they aren't suited to there is a very simple solution.
Make a religion. It's the oldest trick in the book. And if you don't want a full on religion, make myths about it. Have you ever heard of the Boogey Man? Not as popular anymore, it was once one of the easiest ways to get kids to behave. If you make this elaborate enough adults will believe it too. This might require a conspiracy where the leadership of the two species know about each other and agree that it would be best not to be in contact.
It is also possible that a long time ago the two species were aware of each other and the elders decided it was best not continue co-habitating (for whatever reason, possibly a terrible war that threatened both with extinction) so the species split and they created the myths and didn't tell their children that they were only myths. Over generations these myths would be expanded on and new stigmas would arise around them.
Comment: Ideological barriers are so transient in the history of a species that they are hardly worth discussing. How many ideologies, religions, cults, and political factions has the human race seen come and go just in the last thousand years? How many in our whole history? Is there ANYTHING culturally speaking, the same now as two thousand years ago? If you think about this, you would realize that ideology comes and goes so fast it isn't worth talking about. This would only be a factor if our timeline were super short, like both species were just dropped onto a planet 30 years ago by someone else.
Answer: Differing biomes come back to mind possibly with some innately built in mistrust. Say one specie cannot live for long or well outside of adaptation to tundra based climate. Simply overheats and dies when below a certain longitude.
Much the opposite for the next specie super adapted to hot dry desert biomes unlikely or unwilling to travel outside desert.
You could go on and on with planetary "bands" or biomes at different longitudes or rings up and down the planet each with its own over specialized inhabitant(s) unwilling or unable to explore past its own biome.
Answer: There are some species based physiological barriers you could use depending on your setting:

Diurnal-nocturnal split, one species only comes out in the deep night and the other only after the sun is well up.
Pressure differential, a species that relies on a certain level of atmosphere cannot necessarily survive at higher or lower pressures and so species can be separated that way.
Chemical reliance, a species that relies on particular plants or mineral deposits as a dietary staple that are both highly toxic to other lifeforms and restricted to a particularly environment will not have a lot of competition for that environment nor company in it.

Now separations of any sort will not be completely effective, you will get some interactions, or at least stories of interactions, and in many cases these divisions will fall down as civilisations advance but if the rare interactions between species result in traditions of "drastic location avoidance" this may not be an issue. "Don't go into the woods or the (insert name of boogeyman here) will get you" only based on a real creature, or creatures, and actual disappearances.
Answer: A deadly disease.
Consider a world that has evolved as Earth has up to 5 million years ago.  At this point two things evolve:
1)  A bloodsucking insect.  It can cope with a lot climate-wise but it's not tolerant of thin air and thus lives only in the lowlands.  It's quite small, it's bites generally go unnoticed.  It's also small enough that short of a magnifying glass nobody is going to specifically identify it as something different than the various gnats and the like.
2)  A disease that's fairly benign to most things but extremely deadly to all apes.  It's a blood vector only disease, but the insects carry it from host to host.
Result: The lowlands pretty much everywhere are death to any ape, but since the insects can't function in the highlands those are safe for apes.  The world is thus divided into a set of highlands, each with it's own ape population.
As time passes sapients evolve in each highland but to attempt to travel to another area brings death.  Eventually they will figure out the problem but it's still not going to be easy to cross--you will need the equivalent of chemical warfare gear except the contamination threat is airborne, not merely surface contact.
I would expect first contact to be by radio, first physical contact via airships.
Note that with both of my answers to this you have a big problem that your sapients are extremely unlikely to evolve sufficiently in parallel to have two sapients coexisting but with neither having the tech to reach the other.
Answer: Atmospheric pressure.
Evolution proceeds normally up to a proto-sapient species and then a very large comet comes very close and is captured (the  world must have a big moon for this to happen.)  It's in a retrograde orbit with a periapsis not very far outside the atmosphere.  Since it passes within the Roche limit of the planet it's shattered.  Rather than one cataclysmic impact it (and the gases it releases as it boils) rain down on the planet in a tolerable fashion.
The lowlands now have an atmospheric density that is not tolerable to the proto-sapient.  For humans this would require about quadrupling the atmospheric pressure to cut the world apart into a bunch of highlands.  Short excursions into the lower altitudes would be possible but trying to walk to another highland is death.
Note that in time tolerance would evolve.  I do not know how fast this would proceed.