How can I get my bread to be more fluffy and less dense?

Question: I've been making bread for a while now, but I can never get it to rise enough. The bread comes out really dense, so it's not very useful for sandwiches. I give it ten minutes after kneading, bash it down again, then another hour before baking. I've tried adding sugar as well but this hasn't made much impact.
Comment: As you can see from the wide variety of answers, there's many factors in play, and it's difficult to guess what's going on! Could you post a specific recipe and technique you're using? I think this would help produce more targeted suggestions. Welcome to Seasoned Advice!
Comment: What flour are you using and what region do you live in?
Answer: A big factor besides the dough is the temperature at which you bake the bread.
If you are not baking it at some recipe specified temperature you are probably playing on the safe side and your breads won't raise much.
You have to heat the CO2 pockets quickly so that they expand before the dough hardens. The more temperature you can give it the better.
Another possible factor may be the yeast. Are you waiting enough? Are you using enough? Like temperature, more yeast and longer fermentation times can't go wrong.
Comment: What temperature do you usually bake at, then?
Comment: Proofing the yeast is a good option too. Also good for making sure it's alive, and expands before the ingredients that could slow it down get to it.
Answer: The short answer to dense bread is always rise.
There are many solutions to rise problems.  There are also many other bread problems that are not just about rise (colour, flavour, wetness, shape).  However, denseness is always about the rise.
Rise happens when microbes (yeast) make air pockets in a network of gluten (or starch, in the case of rye and gluten-free breads). If your microbes don't make enough CO2, you don't get rise. If your gluten network isn't strong enough to hold the CO2 in pockets, it escapes and you don't get rise. Take note that both air pockets and gluten structure change over time, so time is critical. Temperature (besides baking) doesn't affect gluten but it drastically affects microbe activity, so that's important too.
Yeast, gluten.  Time, temperature.
Nearly everything else that affects bread rise is a function of one or more of those variables.  Here's a very brief list of a bit of the 'everything else'.  If you want a more specific answer, you'll have to make your question more specific.
Yeast:

Yeast must be alive.  (Check it's not dead, also not excessive antimicrobial ingredients such as salt or raw garlic.)
Yeast must be able to move to more food.  (Water.)
Yeast must have food to ferment. (Raw flour is food.  Note other microbes can compete for food.)
Yeast must be at respirating temperature to ferment. (This is a window.  Very low temperatures will stop activity entirely, moving up the scale will permit slow activity, all the way up to ideal, very fast activity and eventually death.)
Yeast must ferment for long enough for air pockets to form. (Not enough time means underfermenting).
Yeast must not ferment so long that the air pockets start breaking. (Too much time means overfermenting.  Stop the fermentation by baking it.)

Gluten:

Gliadin and glutenin must be present in the flour in sufficient quantities. (Check content of flour, eg gluten-free flours will not produce a gluten network).
Gluten must be formed and developed by kneading and/or time. (Not enough is underkneading)
But not too much. (Too much is overkneading)
If rye, pentosan network must not be kneaded too much, if at all. (Shape it like clay.)
Gluten must not be broken down by factors such as acid or enzymatic activity.

On oven temperature: Yes, oven temperature will affect your rise very slightly, in that lower temperatures will delay the killing of the yeast of the inside of the dough, allowing slightly more fermentation in the centre than on the crust.  Depending where your fermentation is, how hot the oven is and what shape your bread is, this may be fine, or it may allow the centre to overferment.  For that reason it is usually recommended to bake bread at very high temperatures so that the entire thing cooks at once.  However, if your problem is a dense loaf, oven temperature is not your problem.
On slashing: I'll grant that slashing allows a little more rise than without slashing in the specific case that your dough has trouble finding a weak point in the crust to expand.  However, excessive uniformity in shaping is not most newbies' problem, and of course slashing will not help rise for anyone new or old where there is not enough air in the dough to begin with (can't expand on nothing).  Again, if your problem is a dense loaf, slashing is not your problem.

On the other hand, if by 'fluffy' you mean 'like cotton fluff', as in fine in texture, insubstantial in taste and white in colour, there are recipes and specific dough-handling techniques that will give you that.  Recipes will never guarantee airy bread, though, so you might still end up with dense bread if you don't keep track of your yeast, gluten, time and temperature.
Answer: It sounds to me like you're not letting it rise nearly enough.
Answer: Are you slashing the doughball before baking it?
Although they can be decorative, they're functional -- once the crust is formed, the bread can't rise any more, which is going to affect the density.  The slashing allows for expansion even after the crust has begun for form.
Also, density might be a sign that you've worked in too much flour.  As you end up with more flour if you use dip-and-sweep vs. spoon-and-sweep, you might be adding extra flour without even realizing it.
Answer: After reading all the responses I would add that dough handling is very important. The dough isn't a boxer or your enemy so don't punch it or bash it down but rather treat it like a lover. When kneading, don't rip the dough apart, stretch it until it just begins to tear.  After the first rise, at least an hour in a bowl covered with plastic wrap, I gently turn out the dough on the counter top and cut to size then tuck the dough into balls and let bench rest for 15 minutes before repeated folding to shape loaves pinching closed the folds to trap gases. Let rise at least another 45 mins before slashing and baking.
Answer: Most recipes that I have made require a lot more rising time.  Usually an hour or more for each rise…some do best with 24 hours in the fridge for the second rise.   Certainly, there are some recipes that do call for less, but I expect that giving only 10 minutes for your first rise is not enough.
Also, you want to make sure that you are kneading the bread enough and not too much.  As a rule of thumb if I don't have a better guideline from the recipe, I will kneed the dough until a bit pinched off the dough ball will stretch about an inch before separating completely.
Comment: I agree. It takes me at least 3 hours to get some bread done, from start to finish.
Answer: Try some differn't recipes, there are lots and lots of differnt kind of breads and they work better in differnt places (altitude), flours (damper flours, finer flours) and ovens (all ovens vary).  Try a new recipe book and see which breads work for you.
Answer: Add wheat gluten.
Comment: "A small amount {of wheat gluten} added to yeast bread recipes improves the texture and elasticity of the dough. It is often used by commercial bakeries to produce light-textured breads." Even my bread machine recipe booklet suggests additional gluten for lighter-textured loaves. On the other hand, it's true that IANAB (I am not a baker). I tried adding gluten, it worked. That it's counter-intuitive I leave to far better minds than mine.
Comment: I really don't think so. The problem is underdeveloped gluten, most likely, not lack thereof.
Comment: If the problem is underdeveloped gluten, then adding wheat gluten will help the (otherwise insufficient) kneading develop the gluten better, even if the proper solution is to knead it longer, not add gluten.  However if the problem is that the yeast is dead, neither adding gluten nor developing the gluten more is going to solve that.
Answer: Only ten minutes proving time after kneading and before bashing down? That's pretty much the same as only letting the dough rise once. You also don't say whether the dough's increased in size before you bake it.
As a simple thing to try, leave the dough after kneading for long enough for it to double in size, then bash it down, shape it, then leave it until it does the same size increase again, then bake it.
If it doesn't grow, you've got a problem with your yeast. If it won't double, you might still have a problem with your yeast, or not enough food for it, or the gluten network's just too strong for it to stretch out that far.
Answer: There is no short or easy answer to this. I spent around 15 years learning to master this.
In short, the main factors are:

The right flour and balance between water and flour - depends greatly on flour quality.
The right kneading.
The right handling of the wet dough.
The right baking.

You can read a detailed description of my efforts here (including pictures and videos):
http://www.rkursem.com/food/bread/fluffy-bread/
Comment: Hey @Rasmus, nice blog post. Could you clarify if you used Celsius or Fahrenheit? Thanks!
Answer: I used to always get dense bread by always following the rule to rise once and then punch it down.  Unfortunately supermarket yeast is often lame and the crap would barely rise a second time no matter how much time I gave it in a warm place to proof period.  I recommend  forming the dough out immediately after kneading or dough hooking and let it proof just one time.
Answer: Add xanthan gum, 1tsp/400g flour.
Even work with high protein bread
Answer: if your flour has sufficient gluten and your bread does not rise, watch out for two things: it is either your yeast is dead or the dough is not allowed to proof for long enough. check the proofing temperature as well.
Comment: That information was already covered by the other answers.
Answer: If you've tried all the previous methods and still are not having success, I've heard that using seltzer instead of water can make the bread fluffier, usually recommended for whole wheat varieties since that flour is denser, but in other uses too.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-01-08/entertainment/0301080031_1_dough-sparkling-carbon-dioxide
Answer: Add baking powder and don't punch it down.
Comment: If the bread isn't rising enough to begin with, I'm not sure trying to turn it into soda bread is really the answer.


What is the biblical basis for why the sending of the Holy Spirit was necessary?

Question: Why couldn't the disciples begin following the great commission right after Jesus ascended into heaven? Why was the sending of the Holy Spirit necessary?
Comment: @dleyva3 That is because different denominations have different interpretations for any and every Bible verses, especially those related to doctrine or in which doctrine/instructions are derived from. The Great Commission and the procession of the Holy Spirit also happen to be widely discussed/debated. Hence, a narrower scope is needed to determine who should the answer come from in order for the asker to choose a right answer based on a given premise, rather then having a ton of answers because that would make the question very broad, having too many possible answers.
Comment: From whose perspective? I'm not sure that all denominations would agree; certainly different ones would use different references in their reasoning.
Comment: @MattGutting, I think asking about the biblical basis is key to this question. There's nothing wrong with having differing answers.
Comment: Understood. My comment was posted before that edit was made.
Comment: I see. but I still cast doubt on the premise of your question. I don't think it's necessary for a denomination to be specified when answering this question.
Comment: @dleyva3 I was the one responsible for the 1st edit and not Matt.
Comment: @FMS, Yes, that's apparent, but Matt asked about denominations as well.
Answer: The disciples could have carried out the Great Commission immediately, but they had already received word from the Lord that they would receive the Holy Spirit prior to this. Jesus had commanded that they wait in Jerusalem until then.

Act 1:4,6-8 KJV - And, being assembled together with [them], commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,... When they therefore were come together, they asked of
  him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to
  Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or
  the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall
  receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye
  shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and
  in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

This passage and the Great Commission of Matthew 28 are invariably linked: They both involve going to all the world with an evangelistic mission. While Matthew doesn't record Jesus mentioning the Holy Spirit like this before his ascension, these additional words of Jesus from around the same time in Acts (after appearing to his disciples and before He ascends) makes the connection to the Commission clear. The apostles already had experience going out on their own and bringing the Message with power of the Holy Ghost (Mark 6:12-13), but they  knew to wait, or else Jesus wouldn't have given that timeline: The Holy Ghost comes upon you, You receive power, You will be My witnesses. This is why it was necessary that they wait before following the Great Commission. The second part of your question is why the Holy Spirit is necessary.
The Gospel's effectiveness doesn't come with persuasion, but with power.

1Co 1:17-18 KJV - For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the
  gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be
  made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that
  perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of
  God.

and again:

1Co 2:4-6 KJV - And my speech and my preaching [was] not with enticing
  words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of
  power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in
  the power of God.

Without the power of the Holy Spirit blowing, there can be no conversion:

Jhn 3:6-8 KJV - That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that
  which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto
  thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and
  thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh,
  and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

I suppose you could keep asking why and way, but at the end of the day, this is just how God works. Were it not for the Holy Spirit, there could be no effective evangelism. There is active agency on His part that is more important than the actual words used.
Answer: The mission of the Son and the Spirit, is a joint one, consistent with the view that all the works of God are the works of his hands.

CCC
  292
  The Old Testament suggests and the New Covenant reveals the creative
  action of the Son and the Spirit,1 inseparably one with
  that of the Father. This creative co-operation is clearly affirmed in
  the Church's rule of faith: "There exists but one God. . . he is the
  Father, God, the Creator, the author, the giver of order. He made all
  things by himself, that is, by his Word and by his Wisdom", "by the
  Son and the Spirit" who, so to speak, are "his hands".2
  Creation is the common work of the Holy Trinity.
1. cf. Ps 33:6; 104:30; Gen 1:2-3.
2. St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 2,30,9; 4,20,I: PG 7/1,822,1032.

Scripturally
cf. The Work of the Spirit [cf. Jn 16:4-15 (RSVCE)].
Specifically v. 7

7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go
  away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but
  if I go, I will send him to you.

Catholic Perspective
(Which has scriptural references)
cf. I. THE JOINT MISSION OF THE SON AND THE SPIRIT (sans footnotes) in the Catechism of the Catholic Church

689 The One whom the Father has sent into our hearts, the Spirit of his Son, is truly God. Consubstantial with the Father and the Son,
  the Spirit is inseparable from them, in both the inner life of the
  Trinity and his gift of love for the world. In adoring the Holy
  Trinity, life-giving, consubstantial, and indivisible, the Church's
  faith also professes the distinction of persons. When the Father sends
  his Word, he always sends his Breath. In their joint mission, the Son
  and the Holy Spirit are distinct but inseparable. To be sure, it is
  Christ who is seen, the visible image of the invisible God, but it is
  the Spirit who reveals him.
690 Jesus is Christ, "anointed," because the Spirit is his anointing, and everything that occurs from the Incarnation on derives
  from this fullness. When Christ is finally glorified, he can in turn
  send the Spirit from his place with the Father to those who believe in
  him: he communicates to them his glory, that is, the Holy Spirit who
  glorifies him. From that time on, this joint mission will be
  manifested in the children adopted by the Father in the Body of his
  Son: the mission of the Spirit of adoption is to unite them to Christ
  and make them live in him:
The notion of anointing suggests . . . that there is no distance
  between the Son and the Spirit. Indeed, just as between the surface of
  the body and the anointing with oil neither reason nor sensation
  recognizes any intermediary, so the contact of the Son with the Spirit
  is immediate, so that anyone who would make contact with the Son by
  faith must first encounter the oil by contact. In fact there is no
  part that is not covered by the Holy Spirit. That is why the
  confession of the Son's Lordship is made in the Holy Spirit by those
  who receive him, the Spirit coming from all sides to those who
  approach the Son in faith.

And

CCC
  485 The mission of the Holy Spirit is always conjoined and ordered to
  that of the Son.1 The Holy Spirit, "the Lord, the giver of
  Life", is sent to sanctify the womb of the Virgin Mary and divinely
  fecundate it, causing her to conceive the eternal Son of the Father in
  a humanity drawn from her own.
1. cf. Jn 16:14-15.
Answer: The importance of sending the Holy Spirit appears to have been given by Jesus himself in:

John 14:26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Being human they like we would not have completely remembered or understood all that Jesus said to them, and therefore the Holy Spirit had a mission to remind them, and teach them the meaning of those sayings.


Installing 13.04 with Windows 8 - Secure Boot Failed

Question: I have a Sony laptop with UEFI, SecureBoot and Windows 8. I read Ubuntu UEFI recommendations, then freed some 35 gb on system hdd and installed Ubuntu 13.04 64 bit in EFI mode, keeping Windows 8.
After succesfull install, system booted into Windows 8 only, and I used Boot-Repair as recommended. Boot-Repair said that all is ok and here is his log: http://paste.ubuntu.com/6061646
But now system can not boot totally. Only thing I see is "Secure Boot Failed/Operating System is Invalid"
What can I do next to repair Ubuntu and Windows boot?
Answer: The easiest solution is likely to be to disable Secure Boot. Unfortunately, details of how to do this vary from one computer to another, but all x86-64-based PCs that ship with Windows 8 should give you some means to do that.
If you want to keep Secure Boot active, my advice is to upgrade your Secure Boot software; the last I checked, Ubuntu was still using shim version 0.1, whereas the latest available in signed form is version 0.4 (AFAIK, available only as a Fedora package). Even version 0.2 (available from Fedora, OpenSUSE, and Matthew Garrett) is better than version 0.1. See here for a fuller description of how to install shim "from scratch." (Unfortunately, the process is rather involved.) There's also the possibility of switching to PreLoader, which is easier to install and configure than shim, but more limiting in various ways.


How to set wall paper

Question: I have an iPhone 3G. Recently I am facing a problem with my phone. When I set a wall paper, it is not showing behind the icons. Of course it is showing the picture when my mobile locks. The background behind the icons is plain black. How can I change the wallpaper behind the icons?
Answer: In the settings app, there should be an option to change the lock screen background,  the home screen background, and an option to change both. You are likely changing just the lock screen, not the home screen. Try changing the home screen background.
Answer: Did you recently update it to iOS 4.2.1? If so, then I'm afraid you're out of luck, as that feature was dropped to help with performance issues. Unless you jailbreak it, you're stuck with the black screen.

How to set wall paper


Install error message when installing on a Dell Inspiron 4100

Question: I made a live install CD for ubuntu 12.04 to install on my dell inspiron 4100 everytime I get the install going it stops near the end and tell me there is an error and its going to desktop mode so I can figure it out but there is no error code or anything giving me an indication of what the issue might be please help I have no idea what to do
Answer: I had this exact same problem on the exact same machine and apparently, a lot of people are having it. The problem is with the installation software itself. You need to download the alternative installation for it to work.
As a side note, I had a problem with the alternative installation as well, where it would freeze whenever trying to configure network hardware. I circumvented this by pressing F6 at the beginning of setup to enter "Expert Setup" and working through each installation step except for network configuration. It took a little longer to install, but it worked like a charm. Hopefully, you won't have this snag like I did.


Are the "gentlease" and "sensitive" infant formulas anything more than sugar water?

Question: The primary ingredient for the regular infant formula is "nonfat milk". The primary ingredient for the "gentlease" and "sensitive" formulas is "corn syrup". Seems to me we should be going with the regular infant formula even if that means a little gas. Am I wrong for thinking milk is better than corn syrup?
Comment: I am neither a pediatrician nor a dietician, but I believe most folks would say that corn syrup is a bad thing for most anyone...so can't imagine giving it to babies. (But yea, definitely consult your pediatrician)
Comment: There's not much nutrition in corn syrup.
Comment: It's just interesting because the back of the container talk about how many carbs and protein and vitamins and it's all about the same between the two.  It just sucks that there is so much "marketing" on the packaging as if it's no big deal to switch. I mean, who WOULDN'T want to try the one that is easier on their baby?
Answer: Note that nonfat milk could reasonably be called protein-fortified sugar water.  The nutritiondata entry for milk indicates that one cup of nonfat milk is 12g sugar, 8g protein, 222g water (and 3g other).  Compare the nutrition information for Gentlease versus regular Enfamil and you'll find that they are quite similar.  My experience is that formulas are very similar in terms of nutrition.  So, if I were you, I'd go with whatever formula works best for your baby that fits within your budget.
Comment: What "works best for your baby" is really hard to determine. I mean, just because she's fussy one day doesn't mean it's the formula, you know? There is no science in parenting.
Answer: There's a big difference between sugar and  more complex carbs like lactose. See http://www.foodreactions.org/intolerance/lactose/absorption.html for an in-depth explanation.
Lactose will be converted to only glucose, and this will only happen in the small intestine, at a certain rate. Corn syrup however is glucose + fructose, which will hit the blood as soon as it can. Fructose has several issues, see http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2012/05/on-glut5.html for some background (sorry not really an overview link but better than the Lustig lecture).
So the blood sugar response between the two types will be different, with the corn syrup one unlike what babies will experience on mothers milk, and the fructose in corn syrup may cause  stress on the baby's body, it is a sugar babies are normally not exposed to until they eat fruit and even then not in very high volume.
Add to that the possible antinutrients that are in corn and in the syrup, and corn syrup becomes a cheap but in my eyes criminal choice.
Mind you I think http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/recipes-for-homemade-baby-formula is the best formula so I'm probably biased :)
Comment: Homemade sounds like a compelling option. Right now my wife pumps and we only supplement with formula (currently, the "sensitive" one, mostly because it's "easier on the baby" according to marketing . . I hate the marketing).
Comment: Okay, I just read the instructions for homemade and it seems more complicated than making beer. Not a good sign.
Comment: Right, and to be honest I never made it, but I wish I could. The misses and I don't see eye-to-eye on this. So I resorted to using the formula with the least allergens ignoring dairy (so no wheat, soy, maize or egg white), with a near 1:1 balance of the long Omega 3 and 6 fats (look at AA and DHA/EPA numbers) and only lactose for sugars, and a sensible vitamin/mineral mix. It takes a lot of box peering and some research but it's replacing something immensely complicated and optimized. As soon as the baby is old enough she'll be getting real foods from good sources.


What are survival rates of male patients in stage IV throat cancer that has metastasised to the lower pallet?

Question: The patient is receiving a combination of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The surgery to remove the cancerous throat tissue was not entirely successful as the surgeon discovered that the cancer had metastasised to the lower pallet.  The patient is male, in his early 60s, very athletic and fit, in excellent health with great cardiovascular capacity, etc.
Comment: I am happy to report that the patient who is an acquaintance of mine made a full recovery and is 100% healthy now.  He was pretty much fully recovered less than a year after I posted this question.
Comment: This is great. My best wishes.
Comment: Great !  If not too personal, can he still swallow?
Comment: I have lost touch a bit with the patient.  But, last time I saw him about a year ago he was perfectly fine.  And, he can eat normally.  He went through a lot.  As part of the treatment he had to have all his teeth removed.  Now, he wears dentures.  They are so well made, you can't tell the difference.
Answer: Roughly speaking, it appears that about 30-40% of patients in stage IV will survive for 5 years or more depending on where the cancer originated. This reference provides details.
Answer: There is a large difference in survival depending on whether the cancer was caused by HPV or ( probably) tobacco/alcohol. The HPV cancers have significantly higher survival rates. I am surprised the ACS information does not point out this difference. I was diagnosed with oral cancer about 9 years ago ( age 74), I had likely had it for a couple years before that, as initially 6 doctors missed the symptoms.Stage IV, chemo,radiation,surgery ( Oct '13) . MDAnderson quickly diagnosed HPV as the cause.


Charter internet weird experience with intermittent signal

Question: We've had Charter communications for about 6 years. The last 2 we've used a D-link dir-655 router with their modem and my wireless router served access to a 23 room house without issue for those 2 years. I live in Western Mass. We had tornadoes here beginning of November. Power/cable were down for 7 days.
After all was back to running, we had wireless access that wasn't as quick but it was working for a couple of weeks.  Suddenly it stopped working. I couldn't get a wireless signal any more. The laptop next to the modem couldn't connect because the network card hadn't worked in a long time. The desktop downstairs is 6 months old and was connected wirelessly. I even ran a network cable all the way downstairs to my desktop and that didn't work in any of the 4 ports out of the router, either.  I even have a network cable tester that showed the cable was good.  We decided to ask the cable company to replace the modem with a modem/router so we wouldn't have to buy a new one.  The tech came, installed a Netgear and everything was fine for about 4 hours.  Then the wireless connectivity issues started again. Every computer, wireless printer, magicJack, web-tv, Apple TV and cell phone (12 devices) had intermittent connectivity issues.  Rebooting the Netgear would give us about 2 hours of uninterrupted bliss and them it would start again. The speedtest.net was running download speeds between 2 and 10.  Charter sent another tech who said the Netgear device was not a good model and replaced it with a Netgear Docsis 3.0.  This brought my signal through his diagnostic programs back up to where they should be, he told me.  Even while he was there, I showed him that the speedtest.net was still bringing me inconsistent and slow speeds.  He finally put in a powered signal booster splitter on my inside line.  We reboot everything and all was good for about 5 hours again.  After that, we had the same issues.  This time, however, even rebooting everything would only last a few minutes of uninterrupted signal.  Also hardwiring the computer downstairs would only give me moments of connectivity and then I'd have to seesaw back and forth through the device manager with the wireless by switching off and on the Ethernet and the wireless cards and this would only work once in a while.
By the way, each time a technician was here, they said they checked the outside lines and said they showed only strong signals coming into the house and that the last modem/router was showing history of good signals.
Can anyone think of something that might be the cause of this issue?  I mentioned the tornado because it's after that when the signal didn't work exactly the same and then stopped working entirely after a while.  I spend many hours on the internet per day and am in charge of several websites.  I'm about to jump off a roof.
Answer: I would recommend having an electrician take a look at the wiring and the outlet the router/network hardware is plugged into. it's possible that the issues you are experiencing are due to bad/faulty power causing the devices to malfunction.


How much volume of the shot should pre-infusion take up?

Question: The espresso machine I use at work has a pre-infusion step. I've been wondering if the volume of the pre-infusion affects the shot, especially the pressure of the main extraction.
Comment: What do you mean by volume? On my automatised half-automatic, I can only set pre-infusion time and pressure. A bit of espresso starts to come through after about 7 seconds of my 9-second pre-infusion.
Answer: I was actually reading an article on this yesterday. There is no added volume during pre-infusion. All the pre-infusion step does is wet the espresso fully to prevent channeling.
The article I linked actually shows that less extraction happens during pre-infusion. So to answer your question, it does affect the shot, but not the volume.


Best study tools on the net or books

Question: I currently don't have a teacher and I'm looking for good study guides for the sutta's. I mean I'm reading them but when it comes to interpretation often I'm at a loss. Is there a source(s) or book(s) that can help with this? I know they're is no substitute for s teacher but until such time I'm working on my on.
Comment: See also [English (or other European) translations of Pali Canon](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/4109/254) and [Chronological or other sequence for beginners](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/4112/254)
Answer: Piya Tan at http://dharmafarer.org has translations and commentary of many of the suttas. Using the "sitemap" on the right or bottom of the page, you can find specific suttas (sorted by number), or, his "sutta discovery (SD) series" which is sorted thematically.
Some people disagree with [some of] his commentary (see e.g. this topic).
Answer: This website is the best study tool because if you ask about a certain sutta I can explain it for you.
Answer: Thanissaro Bhikkhu's "Wings to Awakening" (https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/wings/index.html) is a good interpretive guide to the suttas for practitioners. Also see the "Beginnings" material at this same site (https://www.accesstoinsight.org/).
Answer: "The Discourse on Right View: The Sammaditthi Sutta and its Commentary" translated from the Pali by Bhikkhu Ñanamoli, and edited and revised by Bhikkhu Bodhi, may be of interest to you.
Right View is said to be the forerunner of the Noble Eightfold Path.
Answer: This is a good website for early Buddhist texts : https://suttacentral.net/
Comment: It has translations of the suttas. Does it have "study guides" too?
Comment: You are right it does not , sorry about that!

Best study tools on the net or books


Coordinates of amino acids in a protein sequence

Question: In PDB format, the coordinates of each of the atoms are available. Are the coordinates for the amino acids available separately? As in say a protein sequence consisting of a chain of amino acids MKL... Where would I get the coordinates of M and K and L separately? Is there any method by which the coordinates of the amino acids can be calculated? I don't want the coordinates of the atoms, I want the absolute coordinate of each of the amino acid in a protein sequence as a whole...
Comment: It depends what you want them for. You could take an average of all the atomistic co-ordinates of each residue, you could take the co-ordinates of only the carbon in C-R. It's unclear what you're asking for. Are you asking for a sensible method, an available tool, or are you more broadly wondering what constitutes the center of an amino acid conceptually?
Comment: Each atom is annotated in the PDB-file in terms of which aminoacid it belongs to - is this what you are interested in? It might be useful if you would clarify your question, as I think that we are trying to guess at the moment what you actually want to know.
Comment: @Gerhard now is the question clear?
Comment: Are you saying that you want the 3D-structure of an individual amino acid?  I assume so,  as you have accepted the corresponding answer.
Comment: How is this question unclear? To me it's pretty clear that she wants the "pivot point" or "origin" of each individual amino acid on the chain (most likely along with its orientation in space), as if the amino-acid was a single molecule as a whole, not subdivided into particular atoms.
Answer: If what you are after are the structural co-ordinates of particular  amino acids crystalized individually (i.e. considered as small molecules independently of any role in proteins), then you should find them along with other small molecules in the Cambridge Structural Database.
Comment: Another way of approaching this problem is to focus on the middle carbon atom between the H2N- from one side and -COO from the other side that make peptide bonds with adjacent amino-acids. This middle carbon has the rest of the amino-acid molecule attached to it, and it's definitely on the chain, so you can use that atom's center as the "pivot point" for the entire amino-acid; perhaps even calculate its orientation in space relative to the chain by looking at the bonds connecting this atom with its neighbors. That would be my answer if the question wasn't blocked ;q
Answer: It may not make a lot of sense to consider one amino acid as an indicator of the position of the entire amino acid as different amino acids vary a lot in size. For non-sensitive applications such as plotting the protein backbone you may use the alpha Carbon. If side chains are important you can use what is known as the last heavy atom (What is the last heavy atom of an amino acid?).


How can I reduce the noise coming in from an RTL-SDR dongle?

Question: I've recently received an RTL-SDR dongle, and I'm picking up a lot of noise that is probably coming from my PC, especially a lot of "spikes" on the 2M band. I've already started using a USB extension cable instead of plugging the dongle into the PC. What else can I do to reduce the noise floor and get rid of the RFI on 2 meters?
Answer: Here is an assortment of common ideas and recommendations for RTL-SDR devices:

Mount the device directly on your antenna, or otherwise minimize the amount of feed line used. (This does not directly remove noise but rather increases signal, but that's just as good if not better. It may also remove noise by moving the device further from your computer equipment.) Of course, if your antenna is outdoors you will need a weatherproof enclosure, and you must make sure the USB line meets USB specs despite its increased length (such as by using an active extension cable designed for the purpose).
Make sure you have the RF gain set correctly!

Too little gain will bury real signals in the noise floor; turn it up until you see the noise floor rising a bit so that you're seeing the noise from the antenna.
Too much gain will overload and produce duplicated signals across the spectrum; turn it down until those extra spikes go away.

I have found that the built-in AGC may err in the direction of too much gain.
Build a shielded enclosure around the device; they come in plastic cases with no RF shielding at all.
Add snap-on ferrite beads near the ends of cables, if they didn't come with built-in ferrites.
An RTL-SDR-specific suggestion I have frequently heard is to modify a USB extension cable by removing the shield at the female-A end. (One could also modify the device's male-A plug but that might interfere with the mechanical connection.)
The argument given is that the ground and shield are tied together on the PCB, and by disconnecting the USB cable shield from the ground you prevent noise carried on the outside of the shield from entering the RF section's ground.
I have not yet tried this modification myself, and a few comments here suggest it is not worthwhile.
Comment: If disconnecting shields indeed does make a difference, an even better solution would likely be to snap ferrite beads on the feedline and USB cable.
Comment: Well, I can say that I put ferrite beads on my USB cable(s) and it made almost no difference. (For my equipment and environment, anyway.)
Comment: I've experimented with cables which have shield connected at both ends and which have no shield connection at device end and it made no difference in my setup.
Comment: How does minimizing feed line length increase signal without equally increasing noise?
Comment: @PhilFrost It increases the incoming signal+noise from the antenna, while the noise from the dongle or computer does not also increase. So there should be a small effect.
Comment: [Can I improve reception with a more sensitive antenna / preamplifier / better feedline?](http://ham.stackexchange.com/q/2213/218)
Answer: I've just mounted mine in an eddy stone box. I put a BNC on the end and swapped the USB plug for a socket and made a hole in the box to fit the cable from a USB extension. Works a treat, rugged, mobile and no noise. 73
Comment: Any chance of quantifying "no noise"? I'm thinking of trying to do same and and interested in finding out how much improvement there is.
Comment: Sorry I haven't measured but where I am I suffer a lot of breakthrough from the medium wave and other various broadcast stations. To be fair outside of the enclosure it isn't bad but having done some basic tests in the die cast box all is well. It really is a simple mod I bought the 92x38x31mm box and it fits perfect with ample room for connectors and still small enough to be mobile. Will uploadpixs when I get a spare 5 mins.
Comment: The box was £7 delivered so worth a punt either way. You also don't have to make a  permanent mod like I did and you can still test easily to see if it's of benefit. In fact an old biscuit tin will prob do for tests hi hi
Answer: If you want to go to the extreme have a look here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mCRLfUnXTE
At 8:40 into the video you can see a way to almost completely
eliminate the problem. Look at the entire video to get an
idea of the magnitude of the problem.


My HTC Desire has suddenly become full and is displaying the "Disk Space Low!" Message

Question:
Possible Duplicate:
HTC Desire low on internal storage, I'm clueless — Any help?

I have always had a problem with my Desire's phone storage capacity so recently I did a factory re-set and started again.  Everything was fine for a few weeks, I had loads of space and could download and install to my hearts content.  Then all of a sudden I have the dreaded "Disk Space Low!" message again.  Thsi is despite having only 39.116meg of apps installed on the phone. All possiable apps are on the sd card and there is nothing in the cache.  Also all contacts, dates etc are stored on google.
Can someone please explain what is taking up all this space i.e all 139 MB?  I cant even download the latest software update!
Answer: Try viewing your disk usage with DiskUsage, it helps visualize the problem.


About Alan Turing and chess

Question: I read Turing had some algorithm or method he could use to play chess 'against' this pen and paper algorithm assigning certain numerical values to each piece. Is this true? Is there a pen and paper algorithm one can use to play a kind of chess with oneself?
Comment: I am sure that at some trivial level it is possible. I have not heard of anything, however.
Answer: Yes, he played a game against Alick Glennie, actually he created an algorithm based on mathematical calculations. Then he tried his algorithm using pen and paper to do calculations.
<code>[fen ""]
[White "Alan Turing"]
[Black "Alick Glennie"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.d4 Bb4 4.Nf3 d6 5.Bd2 Nc6 6.d5 Nd4 7.h4 Bg4 8.a4
Nxf3+ 9.gxf3 Bh5 10.Bb5+ c6 11.dxc6 O-O 12.cxb7 Rb8 13.Ba6 Qa5
14.Qe2 Nd7 15.Rg1 Nc5 16.Rg5 Bg6 17.Bb5 Nxb7 18.O-O-O Nc5
19.Bc6 Rfc8 20.Bd5 Bxc3 21.Bxc3 Qxa4 22.Kd2 Ne6 23.Rg4 Nd4
24.Qd3 Nb5 25.Bb3 Qa6 26.Bc4 Bh5 27.Rg3 Qa4 28.Bxb5 Qxb5
29.Qxd6 Rd8 0-1
</code>
The main idea of algorithm is here:

Mobility: For the queen, rooks, bishops, add the square roots of the number of moves that the piece can make, counting a capture as two moves.
Piece safety: For the rooks, bishops and knights add 1 point if there is one defender and 1.5 if there is more than one
King mobility: For the king use the same method of scoring as for the piece, but do not count castling
King safety: Deduct points for the king's vulnerability, defined as the number of moves that a queen could make were it on the square of the king
Castling: add 1 point if castling is still legally possible after this move. Add another point if castling is immediately possible or if a castling move has just been made
Pawn credit: score .2 points for each rank advanced and .3 points for each pawn defended by one or more non pawns
Check and mate threats. Score 1 point for the threat of mate, and .5 points for a checkmaterial values used to each of the pieces were:pawn =1, knight=3, bishop=3.5 rook =5, queen=10
Comment: Yes and No, the basic concept and algorithm is what we know about chess as general guides which is implemented in computers by evaluation functions . Here the main problem is computing move variations. It needs lots of paper and time.
Comment: Does this pen and paper algorithm have the basic concept 'in' it that all chess programs share? If the pen and paper chess algorithm is feasible could a mechanical or low-tech device be made that can play this without any electronic circuitry involved?
Answer: Yes, Turing created a "Paper Machine" along with David Champernowne in 1948 that they called "Turochamp". As far as I know he only played one recorded game with the system, against Alick Glennie (full game found here). There was only one recorded game against the Paper Machine because it took a very long time. Calculating one move without an electronic computer could take up to an hour.
You can read more about Turochamp here.
I have not found any source code for running Turochamp yourself, but I"m sure someone out there has coded it. For the 100th anniversary of Turing's birth Kasparov played a game against the Paper Machine, notes here.
Answer: Chessbase has made an implementation of Turing's engine available at the bottom of this post.

About Alan Turing and chess


how to pass the value for datetime field in where clause in sql server

Question: hey guys,
i have created a stored procedure, wherein i have datetime field in the select query.
here is what my query is
select * from tablename where publishdate like '%03/10/2011%'

is this possible, or how should i form a query my objective is query should return the records for 10-March-2011
Answer: Using CONVERT
select * from tablename where convert(varchar(10), publishdate, 103) = '03/10/2011'

Answer: Try
select * from tablename where day(publishdate) = 10 And Month(publishdate) = 3
And Year(publishdate) = 2011 --Let the required date be 10th March 2011

Hope this help.
Answer: The best method for doing this is:
Select *
from   tablename
Where  publishdate >= '20110310'
       and publishdate < '20110311'

By separating the conditions like this, you are allowing SQL Server to use an index on the publishdate column (if an index exists).  The query I show would use a super-fast index seek instead of a scan, resulting in far better performance.


Would a question about food digestion be on topic?

Question: I have a question about the mechanics of digesting food.  Would that be on topic here?  I'm thinking no, am I right?
Answer: Not unless there's some subtle or tenuous connection to the cooking process that I'm not anticipating.
We do seem to have a biology site on the network now; if your question is at a reasonably technical research-ish level then you could try asking there, although I suspect, like most of the other science sites, that it'd get closed if it's deemed overly simplistic or if you're looking for somebody to break a complex subject down into layman's terms.
Comment: @justkt: I assume we're talking about a baby? What about [parenting.se]?
Comment: The only tenuous connection to cooking is that I'm trying to figure out how small to chop food for an eater with few/no teeth from a perspective of maximizing digestion rather than from the avoiding choking perspective.  I think that's a too-tenuous connection.  Just wanted to check.
Answer: I believe you are correct, that would be a medical question.


Why does the Great Wall of China follow such a bendy route?

Question: Why does the path of the Great Wall of China bend back and forth so much? Naïvely, it would have taken less material and guards to defend if it had taken a straighter path, so there must have been some reason. But what?
Comment: Ruddy mountains refused to line up straight to have that wall built on top of them. Ruddy guards refused to man a wall in the valley to have not-so-nice things shot at them from above. ;-)
Comment: Not just the Chinese wall.  Much of Hadrian's Wall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian%27s_Wall is built at the top of hills and scarps.
Answer: The Chinese designed the wall to be an effective barrier; that was the goal. To answer your question, we need to ask: what land barrier stopped foreign troops the best?
The answer in China, and everywhere else, is mountains. The Great Wall is nothing more than a fortification of existing natural barriers. Look closely at the pictures you've posted, and those posted by Ken Graham. You'll see that they built the Great Wall directly on the mountain ridge. So this is the easy reason the route is bendy:
Because it follows a mountain ridge
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't enjoy building a wall along a mountain ridge. It was a ton of work just to survey the land, and clear trees in both directions from the construction site, and then carry the materials to the site.  The expenditure of materials might have been the least costly component.
All this being said, the the real barrier was the mountains. On these mountains, the wall served 3 major functions:

To fortify the mountain passes, yet allow trade to continue
At the passes, the wall was actually the primary barrier. The wall in the passes is very high and has multiple defensive wings.

To provide a location for watchtowers at regular intervals.
These watchtowers were not just for watching the terrain north for gathering troops, but also for communication between towers.

Logistics: To provide a direct path between mountain pass fortifications for the transfer of troops, equipment, food, and other materials.

When I've hiked the wall, I found it very difficult, but far easier than traveling along a natural mountain ridge. I think the men who ran along the wall wearing armor and carrying weapons were strong men indeed.
Comment: Note, also, that in the absence of ports the wall is horse-proof even if unmanned.  (That is, short of actually tearing it down.)
Comment: Not only horse-proof but cart-proof. This means you cannot invade with a baggage train.
Comment: The very short section I've walked along seemed to be placed to give a good view out from China. It would have been difficult to mass an army anywhere close to it, on the outside, without being noticed.
Comment: So, despite taking more resources, it's cheaper to build, cheaper to maintain, and more useful once it's built? Explains everything. Thank you.
Comment: _"was could might have been"_?
Answer: The Great Wall of China:

It is the longest man-made construction in the world. In the old times, it was of great military importance of preventing the enemies' intrusion and was regarded as the 'Guardian Angel' of the central plain in the past. - Great Wall of China FAQs

Why did they build the Great Wall of China?

The Great Wall of China is the longest man-made structure in the world, stretching 21,196.18km (13,170.6956 miles) long. It was built to keep out raiding parties of nomadic tribes, such as the Mongol, Turic and Xiongnu, from modern-day Mongolia and Manchuria.  The first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, is often considered the father of the Great Wall, but even before he united the nation in 221BC, individual states built walls to keep out invaders as early as the 7th Century. Qin connected, lengthened and fortified the walls to protect the northern border between 221-206BC. Subsequent dynasties, most notably the Ming, maintained and rebuilt it.
Always maintained as a military defence – at its peak the Ming Wall was guarded by more than one million men – the Wall evolved other uses. Aside from being a transportation corridor, it was used to regulate trade, such as collecting duties on goods transported along the Silk Road. It was also used to restrict both immigration and emigration.

But why does the Great Wall of China follow such a bendy route?

The wall was generally built at the boundary line of the day. In normal conditions, taking the commanding position was the most important factor to win a battle. In this case, lofty mountain top was always the preferred location to build the wall. - Great Wall of China FAQs

The Great Wall of China
Answer: Mountain roads are "best" built along ridge lines that minimize (to the extent possible), the surface area of the mountains containing the roads to minimize the necessary excavation. This, in turn, is dictated by the process of building the road through the parts of the mountain, where the slopes are the "minimum."
At its heart, the Great Wall is just a long "road" with walls on both sides. You can see from the pictures that the mountains on either side tend to have steeper slopes than the ridges through which the wall is actually built. These ridges are the points of minimal slope changes. (Think of these slopes as "hypotenuses" over the x axis with the ideal slope being zero.)
A path that was "straight line" (as the crow flies) would usually violate the above rule, and therefore be inefficient in a real environment, even though it would look "optimal" on a map. So a wall with appropriate "bends" will "take less material and guards to defend [than] if it had taken a straighter path."
Comment: @TomAu I think you're confused about what a contour line is. Like Max says, the Great Wall of China is clearly not at a constant elevation. In terms of your several variables: given two variables, x,y (lat,long) the same z (elevation) is always found _if_ the wall were built on a contour. But here the wall just stays as high as possible. Also, If it were built on a contour the wall would encircle a mountain.
Comment: This would be a reasonable guess if you haven't looked at the photographic evidence that others have posted: the wall almost always follows the mountain ridge.
Comment: It sounds like you're talking about a [geodesic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesic), not a contour line. This is also plausible, and is going to get you the shortest amount of material, but it will often hug the sides of mountains, and would overall look much closer to an as-the-crow-flies straight line than the pictured curve. If you intend to talk about contour lines given some 3D objective function, what is the function, and how does it relate to the surface?
Comment: @Max: Ridges, by definition, are points on the mountain where the slope changes are closest to zero, hence a minimum. Added a line and a link to make this point.
Comment: It's quite clear in the pictures that the ridges are not contour lines (i.e., they are not at constant height).
Comment: One thing I notice is that the wall only ever goes up and down, that is, it points in the direction of its own gradient. A geodesic won't capture that property.
Comment: Why would the wall's *surface area* be relevant? Did you mean *length*? What am I missing?
Comment: @terdon: Think of a slope as a "hypotenuse" of a right triangle, in relation to the x axis. The steeper the slope and the larger the angle, the longer the hypotenuse is in relation to the x axis. The slope/angle that minimizes the hypotenuse is zero. On a mountain, the slope will "never" be zero, but nevertheless, you want to build the road along ridges or "mini-plateaus" where the slopes are "closest" to zero to minimize the necessary excavation. Put another way, you would rather have "little" excavation over a longer route than "a lot" over a shorter one  Amended answer to reflect comment.
Answer: High ground is also easiest to defend. As noted before, it was built in top of the ridges. This offers a defensive advantage, as well as good visibility.
Comment: This is too brief to be a good answer. It contains no sources or references and adds nothing that isn't covered in other answers and comments.
Comment: No reason to be overly verbose. Occam's razor.


Do I need a macro lens to do macro shots with a bellows unit?

Question: I have a Nikon bellows unit and would like to pair it up with a 50mm adapted lens. Do I need to acquire a macro lens or will a standard lens work? Is a 50mm okay. I just would like to do macro. The camera I have is a Fuji X-Pro 1.
Answer: As a previous owner of a Nikon PB-6 bellows unit, I remember from the manual that Nikon did recommend using macro lenses with the bellows unit. I don't see why a non-macro lens would not work with a bellows unit, but you will certainly be able to get even closer to your subject with a macro lens (if that matters for the type of macro shots you have planned). Also, macro lenses are usually specifically designed for close-up photography and will likely give you better results in this scenario.
An important issue to consider when using a bellows unit is the presence of an aperture ring on the lens. Unless the bellows unit specifically provides a  feature to change the aperture on the lens (typically a lever close to where you mount the lens on the bellows unit), you will not be able to stop down the aperture on your lens. You really want to stop down the lens, because with a bellows unit, the depth-of-field (DOF) of a wide-open lens will be tiny.
To be on the safe side, I would choose a lens with a dedicated aperture ring, allowing you to set the aperture manually. It can be a manual focus lens or an autofocus lens, just the aperture ring needs to be there. Nikon "G" series AF-S lenses do not have an aperture ring like the older "D" series AF/AF-S lenses do.
I was using an older 60 mm AF-D Nikkor micro lens with my bellows, but I also had the 70-180 mm Nikkor micro zoom lens mounted on it. With the larger focal lengths, you get higher magnification. It really depends on your intentions.
Any mountable lens will work just fine on your bellows, provided you can change the aperture somehow. But since you have a Nikon bellows unit, I would go for a used Nikon manual focus micro lens (50 mm or longer), they should be available for a reasonable price and they are all equipped with an aperture ring.
Comment: It may be that the flatter field typically provided by a macro lens is an advantage.
Answer: About close-up photography:
Most any lens that mounts on your bellows will work. However there are caveats. The bellows and its cousin, extension rings, allows the camera lens to be relocated forward of its normal position. Such lash-up allow extreme close-up photography. A problem develops in that the f/numbers engraved on the lens barrel are now incorrect. As an example, if the lens is racked forward to obtain "unity" (life size), the inaccuracy is two f/stops  (4X reduction in light energy transversing the lens). This boo-boo is called "bellows factor". Simply stated, when using extension rings or bellows, the photographer must make exposure adjustments based on the now increased magnification.
One of the big advantages of the macro lens is, the bellows factor problem is attended to by the design of the lens. Bellows factor compensation can be difficult however in the modern camera eads exposure through the lens,  and can automatically set exposure regardless. That's true if the camera body and the lens remain interconnected. Sorry to report that many extension rings and bellows do not maintain body to lens linking. If this is the case, you become the exposure adjuster.
Another point, the standard camera lens is optimized to take pictures of objects at a distance of about  1 meter (yard) thru to infinity ∞. The standard lens will be slightly compromised as to acuity if tasked to do close-up work. The micro lens is optimized for close-up work and it maintains the accuracy of the f/numbers and it is interconnected to the camera body affording full automation.
To improve the acuity of the standard lens when doing close-up work, we often mount it backward. This slightly improves acuity as the rear of the lens is optimized to work a flat field and most close-up subjects are even, nearly level. This revering of the lens prevents coupling the lens to the body.  It does add some extension thus a little more magnification is obtained.
My advice – For now procure a macro lens and get your feet wet before moving on to the more difficult.  Now you can move on and procure extension rings (best choice) and then a bellows.
Comment: I'm all for learning (I have never used a bellows btw).  But he has a 50mm lens and a bellows and wants to know if he can use that combination.  You've basically suggested he go buy a macro lens and extension rings. And procure a bellows later (which he already owns). So I'm pointing out that it sounds like you did not understand the original question.  You can update your answer to address it, or leave it as-is, up to you.
Comment: He *has* a bellows.  He's asking if he can use a normal 50mm lens on it, or if he requires a macro lens.  So your references to mounting backwards, full automation etc are not really relevant to the question.
Comment: @MikeW ---  With 30 years of experience under your belt, you know all about bellows factor and the advantages and disadvantages of bellows. Others many  lack your wisdom. Why cast aspersions on a learning opportunity?


Is an analogy between karma and modern day physics possible?

Question: The Buddha spoke about kalapa's. A body, including the mind, consists of tiny particles which arise and cease in a everlasting flow of sequence. Karma as the law of action/reaction. Unwholesome acts cause unwholesome results for the producer of that action and wholesome acts cause wholesome results. Neutral action causes neutral /no results. Is there a correlation between this truth and the truth of Newton's third law of motion? For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Since quantum physics entered the realm of scientific knowledge, on a sub atomic level action reaction became not absolute anymore in predictability.
Is it a delusion to suggest that on a highly subtle level unwholesome acts might not in all cases lead to unwholesome results as wholesome acts might not in all cases lead to wholesome results?
Comment: Where did the Buddha speak of kalapa?
Comment: My assumption that the Buddha spoke about kalapas was based on a dhamma talk during vipassana retreat by my teacher, who , I think now, had reason not to go into detail about the origins of the concept of kalapas (Abhidhammattha Saigaha) and used therefore the simplification that these were the Buddha's words. Since I am not a buddhist scholar I was unaware of the falsehood of the statement made in my question. Thank you very much for clarification.
Answer: I need to do some more reading about quantum physics, I really do.  It seems very interesting.
What I can say, is there is a clear analogy (to me at least) between Buddhism (or how I understand it) and modern mathematics.
It is my opinion that the single most important theorem in mathematics is Godel's 1st Incompleteness Theorem.  Basically, this theorem shows that no system of constructing proofs of arithmetic is expressive enough to prove all true theorems and disprove all false ones.  No system of logic can tell all tales and solve all problems.
This hydra has many heads.  Another well-known one is the Halting Problem in computer science.  This one states that there is no single algorithm that can determine whether any algorithm halts.  This is an extremely deep result assuming the Church-Turing thesis, which states that any computable function at all is computable by a Turing machine.
It's very similar to the beginning of the Tao Te Ching.  While this is not a Buddhist text, nonetheless it opens with "The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao.  The name that can be named is not the eternal name."  We are extremely fortunate that it can be proven logically that all logic is faulty in some way.  We are privy to the knowledge that all knowledge is false, and that that is the only true knowledge.
It is my belief that there is no truth.  When somebody says "This statement is false", a good and proper response is, "Yes, every statement is false."  Newton's third law is not true, nor is any other physical theory true.  Edge cases will continue to be discovered ad infinitum.  If any physical theory were true, and the universe operated deterministically according to its laws, there would be no experience.
The only things that are real are the things that transcend this world, such as our Karma.  Of course, to us there is no difference between the things that transcend this world, since we cannot access or imagine them.
Do not rely on Karma to bring good results in this life, since the distinction between good Karma and bad Karma itself is just a dualistic notion.  Just know that you are here for a reason, and have faith.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIFgZD4errQ
Answer: No I don't think it's possible. At best it's a weak or stretched analogy; at worst it's a misleading one (implying too much equivalence between the system-of-kamma and the system-of-physics); or it's an unfalsifiable theory with cherry-picked results (e.g. "we observe phenomenon X in one system ... what phenomenon in the other system is analogous?"). The problem there is that the analogy exists because you created it, not because they're genuinely (or useful, predictively) analogous.
It is (or was, has been) especially common to confuse things using Quantum Physics (see Quantum woo and Quantum mysticism).
A cleverer teacher than me (e.g. the Buddha) might use what you know already to give analogies which explain his Dhamma; so if you knew Physics you might appreciate any apt Physical analogies; but I can't think of any. The only analogy I've ever made is that kamma is like the weather: things happen when the conditions are right but the details are complicated to predict.
More on the subject of Quantum Mechanics, see also Observer effect (physics):

An especially unusual version of the observer effect occurs in quantum mechanics, as best demonstrated by the double-slit experiment. Physicists have found that even passive observation of quantum phenomena (by changing the test apparatus and passively 'ruling out' all but one possibility), can actually change the measured result; the 1998 Weizmann experiment is a particularly famous example.[1] These findings have led to a popular misconception that observation by a conscious mind can directly affect reality,[2] though this has been rejected by mainstream science. This misconception is rooted in a poor understanding of the quantum wave function ψ and the quantum measurement process.[3][4][5]

If you read the references [3] through [5] it's clear (if you understand e.g. what the famous "double slit experiment" is) that the "observation" it's talking about is the act of installing the physical test equipment (which I'd also know as "probing the system"), or the action (effect) of the equipment itself ... and it's not to do with whether any "conscious mind" observes the results of the experiment.
I kind of like jcarpenter2's answer, because I thought this was an unanswerable question but that answer (perhaps successfully) talks about the limitations of logic and not just about physics.
I could try to add another analogy along those lines -- inspired by Heisenberg's Uncertainty and the start of the Tao Te Ching -- that making a verbal observation (i.e. a comment or description) about something will affect (disturb, interfere with) the thing described (or the perception of the idea described) ... but I don't think that's a useful analogy. The Buddhist analogies are purposeful, have a goal (liberation or cessation). Inventing further useless analogies is just proliferating views, leading to a "thicket of views" of the sort that we're warned doesn't lead to liberation. Even Occam's razor (also Einstein) suggests preferring simpler theories.
I think it's better to try to understand Buddhism, to approach Buddhism, on its own terms: understand what it's saying, understand what the Buddha would have been saying to the people he said it to ... without preconceptions such as that it's talking about Rutherford's theory of atoms. Perhaps the only really useful preconceptions are ones you might have learned in pre-school, i.e. morality, of the sort that allows the Buddha to tell the Kalamas they should judge for themselves.
Answer:
A body, including the mind, consists of tiny particles which arise and
  cease in a everlasting flow of sequence.

The body does not arise & cease in some dualistic sequence. A body is born from two cells (sperm & ovum) grows over 20 years & then slowing declines in its health but not form until it ends.

Karma as the law of action/reaction.

The word 'karma' means 'intentional action' and, based on the quality of intention, there will be results. For example, there is the intention to make money via an investment. If the investment is successful, there will be happiness over the result; if the investment fails, there will be disappointment. This happiness & disappointment is the result of the intention or wishfulness.

Unwholesome acts cause unwholesome results for the producer of that
  action and wholesome acts cause wholesome results. Neutral action
  causes neutral /no results. Is there a correlation between this truth
  and the truth of Newton's third law of motion?

There does not appear to be a correlation with Newton's third law of motion because much (but not all) of what is described as wholesome acts is related to non-doing, such as non-killing; non-stealing; no-lying, etc. Thus, these kinds of wholesome acts maintain the natural balance of the mind rather than create a dualistic reaction.
Also, the kammic law you have described is not an absolute "truth" but a mere generalization. For example, if you are a perfect parent, it can be generally (but not always) expected that you will have good children. However, if your children die, the love of your perfecting parenting will generate suffering. This shows the wholesome act of perfectly loving your children can bring a negative result.
However, if it is (erroneously) assumed good kamma always brings a good result, this would seem to contradict Newton's Law because there would be no opposite reaction.
Where as with the reality of kamma, yes, something similar (but not exacting) to Newton's law would occur in relation to kammic acts of doing (as opposed to non-doing) because the elasticity of the brain results in excitement or hope over good results, which will eventually lead to an opposite reaction when those hopes fade (such as with the absence or loss of children who are loved).

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

As I posted, this does not necessarily occur with the mind because results of kamma are extremely varied thus cannot be quantified using the precise mathematical laws of physics.

Since quantum physics entered the realm of scientific knowledge, on a
  sub atomic level, action reaction became not absolute anymore in
  predictability.

There is no absolute predictability of kamma. Kammic law is merely a generalisation. It does not form part of absolute truth (Paramattha Sacca) in Buddhism.

Is it a delusion to suggest that on a highly subtle level unwholesome
  acts might not in all cases lead to unwholesome results as wholesome
  acts might not in all cases lead to wholesome results?

Unwholesome actions always lead to an immediate unwholesome result. For example, if the mind has an angry intention, immediately, there will be stressful vibrations within the neurology of the mind-body. However, the mind may quickly learn a lesson from this anger or this anger may actually bring a good result (for example, getting angry at another person that leads to the other person changing their behaviour in a positive way).
In summary, over the long term, wholesome kamma does not always lead to wholesome results & unwholesome kamma does not always lead to unwholesome results. This can be read about in the Maha Kammavibhanga Sutta.


Difference between audio quality

Question: I have two speech audios. One of them is very sharp and crisp  audio . While the other has some humming with the speech. I am not talking about the static humm. The speech itself has a humming effect.
I want to understand what is that makes these two speech sound different. And is there any way (using MATLAB, Audacity) to make the second audio sound crisp like the first one?
Answer: It sound like the good version has simply been cleaned up using equalization.
The humming you speak of is just bad low frequency 'rumble'. It's a bad recording, but in the cleaner version somebody has removed some of the more troublesome frequencies, and maybe boosted some of the brightness.
It would be pretty easy to tidy up the 'bad' version using the same, simple technique which would definately be available in Audicity and MATLAB.
Answer: That sounds like "musical noise", artifacts from extreme compression.  If the people designing the audio compressor were not able to anticipate the characteristics of coherent speech better, chances are rather slim that your attempt on fixing the result after the pertinent information is not just gone but substituted by strange noise could be successful.
Comment: Eh, this answer would be better without the second sentence.

Difference between audio quality


Starting Hands in Texas Hold'em

Question: How many possible starting hands are there in Texas Hold'em?
Answer: 169
While Chris is technically correct, as far as strategy is concerned, there is no difference between having an Ace & King of spades vs. Ace & King of hearts. There is however a difference between having a suited Ace & King vs. a non-suited Ace & King. Looking at it that way, there are 169 possible starting hands.
Comment: I was thinking of looking up that number.  Guess it's farther down in the wiki article.
Comment: @Chris TL;DR? ;)
Comment: @John Exactly :).
Comment: This is a very useful link.  It shows the starting hands in a nice grid format:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_hold_'em_starting_hands
Answer: It depends on how you define "starting hand."
There are 52*51=2652 permutations of any two cards.
There are (52*51)/2 combinations of two cards, if you treat (Card A, Card B) as being equal to (Card B, Card A), e.g. ace of spades, king of hearts as being equal to king of hearts, ace of spades). the total is 1326.
There are 169 different hands consisting of the following:

13 pairs (one for each of 13 denominations from A to 2.
78 combinations of (X, Y) of the same suit. That is (Ace of spades, king of spades) is considered equivalent to (ace of hearts, king of hearts).
78 combinations of (x,Y) of two different suits. That is (ace of spades, king of hearts) is considered equivalent to (ace of clubs, king of diamonds).
13+78+78=169 different two card hands.
Reconciling different hand combinations:
13 pairs times 6 combinations= 78 pair combinations.
78 suited combinations times 4 (suits)= 312 suited combinations.
78 unsuited combinations times 12 =936 unsuited combinations.
78+312+936= 1326 hand combinations.
Answer: 1326
According to Wikipedia,  using the formula (52 * 51) / 2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poker_probability_%28Texas_hold_%27em%29

Starting Hands in Texas Hold'em


What should I do to repent from backbiting?

Question: I used to make fun of other people and done some backbitings too. Now after knowing the bad consequence of it, I feel very afraid. It is not possible for me to go to each and every of those people and seek for forgiveness. Now I know that until they forgive me, all my good deeds will be gone. This makes me feel very afraid. :( What should I do now? :(
Answer: One great thing about you is that you realize the significance of what most people consider as a "small" sin. You take this "small" sin so seriously up to the point where you are afraid of the consequences, especially in the after life. Thus, you decided to take on the path of repentance seriously. At this point, I believe you are already on the right path.
Now for you question. Here's a spot on answer from islamqa.info (Expiation for Gossip):

What the one who wants to free himself of the sin of gossip must do is strive hard to seek forgiveness from the one whom he gossiped about, and ask him to pardon him, and apologize to him with kind and good words, and he should be as humble as he can in this, even if he has to buy an extremely valuable gift or offer financial help. The scholars have stated that all of this is permissible when it comes to restoring people's rights.
Because the scholars among the righteous salaf (predecessors) and fuqaha (jurists) thought that seeking people's forgiveness for gossip might lead – in some cases – to greater evils such as grudges or breaking of ties, and people might feel resentment and grudges to an extent that is known only to Allah, most of the scholars granted concessions allowing one not to seek forgiveness (from the victim), and they hoped that it would be sufficient to pray for forgiveness for the victim of gossip and make du'a (supplication) for him and praise him in his absence.
Other scholars were of the view that nothing could expiate for gossip but the forgiveness of the one who was wronged. But the correct view is that if the one who gossiped repents sincerely, he does not have to tell the one about whom he gossiped about it, especially if he fears that this would cause more trouble, as is usually the case.

Regarding the du'a itself:

Undoubtedly such a du'a requires us to specify the person for whom we are praying, either mentioning him by name or describing him, by saying: O Allah, forgive me and the one whom I have gossiped about and wronged; O Allah, pardon us and him, and whatever else you can say in your du'a.
As for praying in general terms, it does not seem to be sufficient to achieve what you are hoping for from Allah. Just as you gossiped about him by mentioning his name or describing him, and you singled him out for harm, so too you should pray specifically for him and ask for forgiveness for him, so that the bad deeds will be replaced by good.

In short, you need to repent sincerely, never go back to backbiting, strive hard to ask for forgiveness whenever possible, and finally, make sincere du'a for the person you're backbiting. That should be sufficient to remove your anxiety, keep moving forward in the path to repentance, and in the end, receiving forgiveness from Allah.
Allah knows best.
Comment: Another related answer from islamqa.info: [Repentance From Backbiting and Informing Victim](https://islamqa.info/en/99)


How do I keep a pattern overlay layer effect from moving around separately when animating?

Question: How do I keep a pattern overlay layer effect from moving around separately when I do a rotation of the object the effect is applied to in After Effects? I created this composition in Photoshop and imported it into After Effects. It is almost correct except that the scratched metal pattern isn't following the rotation of the gear shape. It moves in a different way. See example here: https://cl.ly/3x2L2P2S2X3K Thank you.
Comment: Link is broken. Flagged for closing as "needs clarification".
Answer: Delete any motion or rotation keyframes in the overlay layer. Now line it up with the gear layer as you want, then make the gear layer the parent for the pattern layer.
To set a layer's parent you need to have the parent column visible in the timeline window. If it's not visible, right-click the column headings and choose it from the list. In the parent column you can then use the drop down to select the layer's parent or drag the pick-whip (the little spiral widget) to the chosen layer.
Comment: Thanks @stib I have located the parent column but there are no options for parenting the gear with its pattern overlay because it is a layer style. See here https://cl.ly/2R3J062Z3d0c Maybe this isn't the best way to be setup for this transformation. Anyway, parenting with the later above doesn't solve the problem. It looks the same as in the example render.
Comment: Oh, ok, probably the best thing to do would be to precomp the gear layer (**Layer>Pre-Compose**) before you parent the precomp to its parent.


Are there any online wallets available for Litecoin?

Question: Are there any litecoin wallets available on the internet right now? I have a mac and the mac version software is very confusing.
Answer: We have just released http://www.coinwallet.co which supports Litecoin.
Answer: Harborly is a US based litecoin wallet that also allows you to buy and sell with your bank account.
Answer: There are! Check the Litecoin Wiki for more information, and a list of services.
Answer: According to the current Wallet service overview of the Litecoin-Wiki there are six online wallet-services (copied from there):

liteaddress.org - Litecoin address generation tools
reddit ALTcointip bot - give and receive Litecoin tips from reddit users
Coinkite - Coinkite is a web wallet with merchant services, Point-of-Sale terminals and debit cards. Sign up here
CoinWallet.co - Online wallet
Harborly - Online wallet that can be linked with any US bank account
HolyTransaction - Online wallet, multi-currency support


Deleting an Answer

Question: What are the "good" reasons for deleting someone else's answer? And, related,
— can you delete someone's answer with no reason?
— how many delete votes does it take to delete an answer?
Answer: It depends on who you are as to how many votes are required.
Users with less than 10K reps can delete their own content, with the exception of questions that have upvoted answers attached to them.
Users with 10K+ reps can cast delete votes on other people's content, and it takes three votes to delete something.
Moderators can delete with only one vote, so not exactly a vote.
Reasons to delete something are that:

it's spam — An unsolicited advert, but this should be done by flagging rather than delete votes. 6 spam flags delete a post, and help inform the system what spam is.
it is other nonsense — This covers two main types of problem. First of all there is gibberish, e.g. "a;dsfh;hulasdfs". Secondly there are offensive posts. It could be argued that both are offensive.
it does not attempt to answer the question at hand — This doesn't include wrong answers, but does include questions and comments (either on the question or one of the answers) posted in the "Your Answer" box.
it is very low quality — This is more subjective in definition. Answers that don't explain their rationale are typically what I would call low quality. Especially single word request answers that amount to no more than "you can use <this word> for that." I would also include answers that are posted after another answer with (almost) the same answer but are less informative. Low quality answers don't always have to be deleted, if a downvote and/or comment give enough incentive for the answer to be improved then the answer can stay.
Comment: @BrianHitchcock I'm afraid there aren't going to be super bright-line boundaries around any of the close reasons, except possibly spam and personal attacks. Outside of that, quality assessments are, well, qualitative, which is why the system asks humans to do the judging. But as a risk control, the system does require a  measure of consensus from experienced users (hence 3+ votes from 10K+ users).
Comment: Thanks. Could you put some boundaries on "nonsense" and "low quality"? For example, should an answer be considered "low quality" simply because it is submitted after another answer has been accepted, or is less complete than the answer that was accepted?  Are downvotes necessary or sufficient for deeming an answer "low quality"?
Comment: I hope that's clearer.
Comment: I once got a deleted answer. It falls on the "very low quality" category (it was totally incorrect), but what makes it grave and not just a downvote-fest kind of answer is that it was accepted as the correct answer. And the question is a duplicate, so it was closed as well. In cases like this, should the answer be deleted if it's incorrect and accepted?

Deleting an Answer


Clear NeoVim Terminal window

Question: I am using NeoVim terminal with picocom.  Every so ofter, I would like to clear the terminal buffer/screen inside the NeoVim terminal without exiting picocom, is there a short cut that clears the NeoVIM terminal buffer?
Comment: That does require exiting `picocom`, which is what I am trying to get around.
Comment: Are you, by any chance, looking for `:redraw!` ? I never used picocom, but i'm confident that `:redraw!` is present in neovim. (the `!` at the end of `:redraw!` is to force the clearing of the screen before redrawing.)
Answer: What you want isn't possible.  picocom would need to clear the screen, but it's not a curses program so it can't.  If you want to declutter the screen so you can stay focused on new output, you can "clear" what's on the screen by modifying the colors of what's displayed in the terminal window.
function! s:fake_clearterm() abort
  let top = line('w0') - 1
  let bottom = min([line('$'), line('w$')]) + 1
  silent! call matchdelete(1234)
  call matchadd('FakeClearTerm', '\%>'.top.'l\_.*\%<'.bottom.'l', 0, 1234)
endfunction

highlight default FakeClearTerm ctermfg=234 ctermbg=16 guifg=#333333 guibg=#000000
tnoremap <silent> <c-l> <c-\><c-n>:<c-u>call <sid>fake_clearterm()<cr>i

Explanation:
The FakeClearTerm highlight group sets a dark gray foreground and black background which dims the text.  You would have to adjust this to match your color scheme.
s:fake_clearterm() gets the terminal window's top and bottom lines (w0 and w$ respectively).  Then it creates a pattern matching any line within window and applies the FakeClearTerm highlight group to it. The match is given a priority of 0 which allows searches to highlight text within the dimmed text.  The match ID 1234 is arbitrary.
ctrl-l is used to "clear" the text.  It's using tnoremap which means it has to be used in the terminal's insert mode.  In normal mode ctrl-l redraws the screen.
After "clearing", new text below the matched region will use default colors.
Caveats:

Neovim's highlighting won't overrule colors set by terminal's output.  Since picocom doesn't print colors, this shouldn't be a big deal.
Scrolling up is still possible and the text in the scrollback won't be dimmed.
You have to :call matchdelete(1234) yourself to remove the highlight.

Clear NeoVim Terminal window


Melodic minor scale

Question: Why do classical teachers often tell students to play melodic minor descending as natural minor? I read that Schoenberg said it was to release tension of the leading tone but if so why don't we do this to all scales with leading tone
Comment: Because that's the **definition** of 'melodic minor' .  If you want a different flavor of minor key, go ahead but it will need a different name.
Comment: I'm still not sure why other scales than natural exist (and how to use them)
Comment: A "Classical teacher" would not be doing their job right _unless_ they teach that melodic minor is different ascending and descending.
Answer: Common Practice harmony is all about dominant - tonic relationships.   About G7 going to C major.    It NEEDS the dominant chord to contain the leading note, the seventh degree of the scale a half-step below the tonic so that it can combine with the fourth degree of the scale to make the tritone interval that powers the dominant 7th chord in wanting to resolve to the tonic.   Hence the 'sharpened 7th' in the Harmonic Minor scale.
But although Common Practice loves the augmented 4th of the tritone, it complains that the augmented 2nd between the 6th and 7th degrees of the harmonic minor scale can sound a bit - well, un-melodic.   Hence the Melodic Minor scale.   Going up, it retains that harmonically-vital leading note, leading up to the tonic but sacrifices the 'minor-ness' of the 6th degree.   Coming down, when the leading note is, by definition, NOT rising to the tonic, they can both be flattened for full minor effect.
Jazz players do it too :-)
Comment: yep, it is the augmented second between the 6th and 7th scale degrees that makes melodies harder to write. It is called the melodic minor because the raising of the 6th is done to aid melody writing.
Answer: Interesting thought about, say, major scales having a m7 when descending!
The reason may well be that if that was used, it would tend to put the sonority into the key a 4th above - original key C, with B♭ sounding, makes it sound like key F. Particularly when the tritone of E and B♭ sound together. That's the pull towards an F chord, thus a modulation. Which does actually happen quite a bit. But if it was used regularly in scales, it would stray from the diatonics that are the mainstay of Western music.
Having said that, more and more, we hear the ♭7 chord (here B♭) being used in modern music. Time for a change?
The other part of the question has been admirably solved in Laurence's answer.
Comment: If Schoenberg wants to "release tension of the leading tone" that's his business.   But Common Practice harmony is all ABOUT that tension!    And, in a 'jazz theory' context, a lot of the 'why does this work' questions here could be solved by considering bVII as diatonic. (As I've suggested in other threads,)
Answer:
Why do classical teachers often tell students to play melodic minor descending as natural minor?

It's a textbook definition. You will be tested to give back that answer.
It doesn't apply to real music where the raised ^6 and ^7 degree are used in descending lines if the surrounding harmony is dominant.

I read that Schoenberg said it was to release tension of the leading tone but if so why don't we do this to all scales with leading tone

It does happen.
But it depends on how you interpret "release tension of the leading tone" and whether you think various movements should be categorically grouped together.
Let's accept the "tension of the leading tone" to mean its tendency to ascend to the tonic.
In minor that tendency to ascend can be weakened by lowering the leading tone facilitating a descending line, like a descending bass in i v6 iv6 V note that v6 is a minor chord.
In major that ascending tendency can also be weakened to allow a descending line, but instead of descending to the dominant, it would be common to descend to the subdominant like I V7/IV IV, or to put the changing ^7 degree in the bass, I V42 IV6.
Some might call this a modulation (but that would really depend on other factors not conveyed by chord symbols alone) and this is why I said it depends on how you interpret "release tension of the leading tone." Certainly the tension of the leading tone relative to I is released when tonicizing IV, but you could also say the tension is being re-positioned to degree ^3 which then is the leading tone to IV.
With letter names: C C7 F the leading tone to C is B natural, at C7 that tone becomes Bb - the tension has been released from B by making it Bb - relative to F that Bb acts like the ^4 scale degree, and E which was the ^3 degree relative to C is now the leading tone relative to F. So the B tension was release, but redefining F as a temporary tonic imbued E with new tension as a leading tone.
So, relaxing the leading tone does facilitate moves to different chords in both minor and major keys.
Comment: The melodic minor notes (ascending) often get re-used in both directions by jazzers.. But my bottom line is - well, there are only twelve different notes anyway, so...
Comment: They get used in both directions in classical style too.
Comment: True enough, but isn't that where the concept of two in one came from?
Comment: The only thing making to topic difficult is the really bad textbook definition. It makes no distinction about harmonic voice leading motion, where the directional aspect actually matters, and embellishing (diminution) motion where direction doesn't matter but harmony does.
Comment: Don't believe everything you read in text books! Especially *theory* text books. 'Cos at the end of the day, that's what it is - *theory*.
Comment: I don't. Isn't that clear in my answer? Most of my common practice harmony understanding now comes from historical, figured bass teaching rather than modern textbooks.
Answer: I find a lot of these sort of, should we, should we not, all comes down to personal preference and context. If you blowing a solo over some changes, there's not a lot of difference when the tempo is 160 and there's a full band behind you. On the other hand, if it's a subtle solo piano composition, well then there might be a time where that sort of idea is appropriate.
I am not saying one is right or wrong, but context matters.
Answer: The melodic minor scale is a combination of parts of the other minor scales. The altered 6 and 7 are an attempt to solve the following problems that exist in the minor scale:

The dominant often resolves to the tonic
The dominant chord uses a #7-1 motion for a perfect cadence
The motion between 6 and #7 is an augmented 2nd

The solution to both of these problems, is the melodic minor scale going up, which contains #6 and #7.
Regarding the scale going down, any stepwise motion from 1-7-6 does not need a #7 or a #6, since there is no leading tone motion (7-1). So, the downward version of the melodic minor scale can use, and does use, the natural minor.
[Note: the natural minor exists within the Major scale, and is closer to the natural key]
We do not do this for all scales, since the most frequently used scales are the Major, minor, and (strictly) pentatonic scales. The Major does not require any alteration, and the pentatonic scales are strictly the five notes. The minor scale is the only one of these which presents these problems in voice leading.

Melodic minor scale


Options for SharePoint 2010 developer training?

Question: What are my options for solid, relevant and affordable training for SharePoint 2010 development? I am working with a relatively small budget and would also have to do this on my own time, so it would need to be flexible.
Answer: Before you do any training I would strongly suggest you look at the MSDN SharePoint Developer Center and the SharePoint Learning site especially. They have a ton of great content and hours of videos from Microsoft professionals and MVPs. There's vids from Teched 2010,
Download the Information Worker VM, which you can use to practice with (comes with Visual Studio installed).
Last but not least, checkout the free Critical Path webinars coming up over the next few weeks & months.
Edit: I meant to say Before you pay for any training
Answer: You should start with Microsoft's SharePoint training at: Microsoft SharePoint Developer Learning Center
It pretty much covers all the basics.
Once you are done there are plenty of books that offer very good training, for example:

Beginning SharePoint 2010 Development
Microsoft SharePoint 2010: Building Solutions for SharePoint 2010

And since SharePoint is a huge platform you should decide what you want to cover in more depth: be it branding and design, BCS, InfoPath etc.
Answer: To give a rather left-field answer; formal training is not always the best solution for everyone. I much prefer to learn by doing, rather than reading about doing.
That said, it never hurts to have at least an outline of what you can do with SharePoint. With that in mind, I'd recommend reviewing the 70-573 syllabus to get an idea of what can be done.
Once you've got an idea of what's possible, go try something out! If you get stuck, then MSDN is an absolute goldmine of a resource.
Hopefully this at least ticks the "cheap" requirement.
Answer: In addition to the great answers that have been posted so far, downloading the SDK and keeping it handy on your laptop is always a good idea.  Also, I've recently come to appreciate the book SharePoint 2010 Development with Visual Studio 2010 (Microsoft .NET Development Series) by Carter, Scholl, and Jausovec. It fills in the blanks in areas where that other books I read may have missed.


Code doesn't compile in unit tests target (XCode)

Question: I have a problem with my unit tests in XCode. I have an active target which directly depends on a UnitTests target. I have generated some code with ProtocolBuffers library and I have added these classes together with ProtocolBuffers project to my project. Everything compiles well in the active target, however in the UnitTests target I'm getting the following error:

Undefined symbols for architecture armv6:
    "_OBJC_CLASS_$_CRequestMessage", referenced from:
        objc-class-ref in CConnection.o
  ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture armv6
  collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

I had noticed that the generated m file is not added to the UnitTests target so I added this file to the target. Now I'm getting over a thousand errors, including:

(...) ../ProtoBuff/Classes/CodedInputStream.h:27: error: cannot find interface declaration for 'NSObject', superclass of 'PBCodedInputStream'

NSObject is not visible?
Of course before adding the generated code everything had worked and compiled well.
Any ideas how to deal with this?
Thanks!
Answer: Did you add "ProtocolBuffers.h" to your target?