Crack on guitar neck. Possible solution?

Question: Recently I've noticed that my guitar (classic) has some crack on the top of the neck, precisely where the neck connects to the head.
I've doing some research and it seems that it's not a big deal, and it's absolutely solvable.
My doubt is the following, I've been told that in order to fix it one would have to open the crack and glue it.
In this case the crack seems very small and I'm worried about following that procedure.
Of course a Luthier would do it, but I don't know if it's the right thing to do, or there's some easier way (and cheaper ) to solve it.
I'm attaching some photos to illustrate the problem.
Answer: Take it in and let a pro do it.  How did this happen?  Was it a surprise when you found it or did you knock it over and cause the split?  I have a home made Les Paul (I made it) that I knocked over twice.  The first time the head stock split but did not open, as a result the wood grain fit perfectly together like a jigsaw puzzle.  My dad (a Luthier) and I fixed it just as you mentioned, we gently separated, or opened, the split and filed it with glue (don't recall if it was wood glue or epoxy).  However, the second crack was not clean, like a compound fracture with shards of wood poking out that did not fit back together properly.  That time we fixed it but it's very sloppy.  The Luthier will have to check to be sure it's a clean break.  From the pics it almost looks like the crack is only in the finish.  Is this the case?  Or is it really in the wood too?
I do not know of any other way to patch a split in the wood.
Comment: Thanks for your answer! Actually I don't know what happened, I've left my guitar on the coach, some friends where playing and yesterday while I was taking a closer look I've noticed the crack.
Comment: It definitely seems that's just the finish, but actually if you apply a little pressure you can notice ( almost unnoticeable) that the crack opens a little , so I am assuming that the wood below is damaged as well. Such a pity, you can bet I won't allow anyone else to play my guitars. In 15 years of practice and more than 10 guitars  anything like this has ever  happened to me
Comment: I'll follow your advice and send it to a Luthier. By que the way, after fixing the crack, have you noticed some changes on the instrument besides the look?
Comment: (1) Don't leave your ax out, and (2) don't let friends touch it.  In my case the break was completely my fault.  The guitar fell forward and hit the floor face down, I suspect the inertia of the head rotating forward caused it to snap.  This may have happened to yours when you wern't looking.
Comment: As for changes in the performance of the instrument.  It was a poor quality copy, I made it in high school.  Also, back then I used a lot of effects and quite frankly couldn't tell you if the crack had a profound effect on the tone.  The first crack was so clean that there was no change in action.  The second was a mess.
Answer: It looks like it's being held together by the tension of the strings, which isn't too bad a scenario. It could stay like that for years!
However, if you need it fixing, an obvious is take it to a luthier. I've repaired several breaks like this, and yes, the split needs to be opened up to get the adhesive (generally epoxy resin two pack) into the gap, to contact as much material as possible. Then clamping hard till set.
If you feel brave, have a go yourself. Open up, and put a small wedge in before applying adhesive, so it penetrates as far as possible. I've had heads come off completely, that have been successfully repaired, so this looks 'not too bad'.
Comment: Thanks Tim, I think that I won't risk to make a huge mess. Good to hear that it's not actually a tragic situation. I must confess that I've had a little heart attack when I saw the crack. Let you know how situation evolves.


What does Naruto mean when he said that Sasuke is the one that accepted him?

Question: Well, I've really been thinking for this for a long time now and still I can't understand what Naruto means when he said that Sasuke is the one that accepted him and his existence more than anyone.
Comment: Any reference to chapter in the manga or the episode in the anime would help us understand the context better.
Comment: Ill write a answer shortly. Unless somebody beats me to it. The term he is talking about is one of many. Ill be using the term in episode 132 of Naruto at 15:08 as a example :)
Answer: The quote you are talking about,  most likely is this one used in Shippuuden

Way back, I used to hate Sasuke... But once I got used to being with him I realized he's really a lot of fun... to be around...he's the person that, more than anyone else accepted me and my existence. Sasuke is my friend... and he represents bonds that I waited so long to receive, so that's why... - Uzumaki Naruto

By this point in the story you should already know how hated Naruto was in town, and how nobody would acknowledge him as he was the scary nine-tails. But then Sasuke came along, which in Naruto's eyes was similar to him as they where both 'alone'. They started to build up a rival like relationship, pretty much the same as Kakashi and Gai have a rivalship. At this point Sasuke did no longer see him as the "dangerous  9 tailed", and slowly started to acknowledge Naruto as an equal, a rival, and as a friend.

 In episode 132 just after Sasuke says that skilled shinobi can read each others minds during combat, without even saying a word. There is a insight on how Naruto looks at Sasuke from 13:07 ~ 18:28 . Something similar happens in Shippuuden as well, just after the battle with Danzo.
Comment: A note: The children of the village did not know that Naruto was the 9 tails. They just knew the ninjas and their elders were scared of him and avoided him. The children of the village weren't allowed to know, under the last wish of the fourth hokagi so Naruto would have a chance to make some friends later in his life.
Answer: Well we know that from the start people of Konoha hated Naruto and were afraid of him because of him being the nine-tails Jinchuriki.
But when he met Sasuke he felt that Sasuke was also alone, just like him. That Sasuke didn't hate him and wasn't afraid of him. And in time he developed a bond with him, A bond of understanding. Naruto felt that Sasuke is just like him.
In the Zabuza incident Sasuke was ready to sacrifice himself to save Naruto, this had a great effect on him. From that day he developed an inexplicable bond with him.
Answer: I guess accepting someone means really acknowledging that person and Naruto always acknowledged Sasuke when it comes to competing. Naruto never cared as to what others are doing. He was pin pointed at Sasuke as Sasuke was getting a lot of attention and Naruto always wanted to be acknowledged and known like Sasuke.
Sasuke never acknowledged much people in his life but he always acknowledged Naruto more than anyone as he always competed with him all the time.Both were catching up with each other. Both wanted to become stronger than other.


Is there an App or Widget that can replace my Screen On and Off Button on my Moto Droid?

Question: The button is broken and I'm waiting for my replacement phone.  I can turn it on by sliding open the keyboard but I have to wait for it to sleep to turn the screen off.  Is there an app or a shortcut that I can put on the home screen to do this? Or maybe a hack to change my camera button to a screen off button?  It's an un-rooted Motorola Droid 1 running 2.2.
Answer: I ended up using this free app: http://code.google.com/p/lockenabler/ and with smart bar I was able to set the camera button as a shortcut. My cam button now turns off the screen on a long press.
Answer: There was an app reviewed by "Android Guys" yesterday call screen off , unfortunately its not free and costs 99 cents , here is the link
Comment: Thanks for the answer! I hate to be a cheapskate over a $1 app but I actually found a free one in the comments on that review: http://code.google.com/p/lockenabler/


Apache Error 98

Question: Whenever I boot up Apache, this error occurs:
(98)Address already in use: make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:80
no listening sockets available, shutting down

I've dug around the forums, and found the methods used to view all processes using port 80, such as:
lsof -i | grep http

and
lsof -i | grep :80

and then kill them. For some bizarre reason, nothing comes up when I run these checks, and even without the "grep", i still cannot find anything. I've tried reinstalling apache, including purging all the files.
Answer: Invoke lsof -i:80 as root and you will see which processes using port 80.

Apache Error 98


NNJoin, MMQGIS and Nearest Neighbor QGIS failed to measure shortest distance

Question: I have two layers, one point and one line.  I need the distance to the closest line from the point layer.  Not NNJoin, MMQGIS nor the distance hub in QGIS provided accurate measures.  Any ideas?
Comment: Just to get it right: You want for each point the shortest distance to some line? You are not looking for the distance to vertices but to some position along the lines?
Comment: Yes.  I ended up using the measure tool for each point to the nearest line.  We wanted to know what stream was the closest to a camera trap site for a wildlife study.
Answer: If you have to measure the distances once again, the following Python code may save you some time.
Have your points and lines loaded as map layers. Change the names 'point' and 'line' in line 4 and 5 resp. to the names of your layers. Copy the code into the Python console.
The function iterates over all points and finds the closest segment of all lines, and writes the closest position along the segment to a list. Then takes the position with the minimum distance to a points and builds a connecting line. The length of the line goes to the field distance.
<code>d_lyr = QgsVectorLayer('LineString?field=distance:float', 'dist', 'memory')
QgsMapLayerRegistry.instance().addMapLayer(d_lyr)

p_lyr = QgsMapLayerRegistry.instance().mapLayersByName('point')[0]
l_lyr = QgsMapLayerRegistry.instance().mapLayersByName('line')[0]
d_lyr = QgsMapLayerRegistry.instance().mapLayersByName('dist')[0]
prov = d_lyr.dataProvider()
feats = []
for p in p_lyr.getFeatures():
    minDistPoint = min([l.geometry().closestSegmentWithContext(QgsPoint(p.geometry().asPoint())) for l in l_lyr.getFeatures()])[1]
    feat = QgsFeature()
    feat.setGeometry(QgsGeometry.fromPolyline([QgsPoint(p.geometry().asPoint()), QgsPoint(minDistPoint[0], minDistPoint[1])]))
    feat.setAttributes([feat.geometry().length()])
    feats.append(feat)

prov.addFeatures(feats)
d_lyr.updateExtents()
d_lyr.triggerRepaint()
</code>
To test the code initiate 2 memory layers, a point layer named 'point' and a line layer named 'line', digitize some features, and run the code.
An example:
Comment: I tried out your answer and it works perfectly. +1
Answer: The NNJoin plugin uses QgsGeometry.distance, which in turn uses GEOS.  It should return the minimum distance:

Returns the minimum distanace between this geometry and another
  geometry, using GEOS.

So I am a bit surprised that NNJoin does not work as expected (as long as you do not choose to use approximate geometries).
Are you using a non-projected coordinate system?  Geos does not support that:

GEOS distance calculations are linear – in other words, GEOS does not
  perform a spherical calculation even if the SRID specifies a
  geographic coordinate system.

If you are not using a non-projected coordinate system, it would be interesting to see example data sets.  You could also open an issue on the NNJoin issue tracker.
Comment: I went back and re-ran the NNJoin and it worked.  It gave measurement close to the hand calculated ones.  Not sure what I did wrong.  The data is projected, and I did not use approximate geometries, today.  Maybe that was the problem.  Thank you.


testing web-database apps with maven

Question:
I want to test my orm-part of my web application written in java-jpa. When there is the test goal of maven running, the creating tables in database didn't trigger yet, because the app is not deployed on the server yet. Is there a way, how can I test this? When I say test, I mean for example do some persisting then some queriyng, check the results are OK, then continue. I think it's probably better than typing it by and hand everytime...
Answer: It is independent of Maven but DBUnit will provide all you need for database testing and will run as part of junit tests.
See:
http://www.dbunit.org/howto.html
Also useful for this are running the tests intransactions os the database is left in the same state after the test. Spring provides some nice ways of acheiving this. See here:
188.8.131.52 Transaction management - at http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.x/spring-framework-reference/html/testing.html#testing-tx
Comment: What are the benefits of dbunit vs. standard sql-maven-plugin?
Answer: You didn't specify the peristence provider you are using, so I'm not sure if my answer will be of any help. In case you are using Hibernate...
Hibernate3 Maven Plugin has a goal that generates a DDL script from your mappings (it supports JPA annotations, too). Then you can use Maven SQL plugin to execute the DDL script against your database.
This blog post has an example configuration for the Hibernate3 plugin:
http://unmaintainable.wordpress.com/2008/04/12/hibernate3-schema-creation/

testing web-database apps with maven


How to replace default blogger template with a custom blogger theme

Question: I want change the default blogger template to a more eye candy custom template. How do I go about this process (total newbie here)
Answer: You need to edit the template HTML.

Click the Design tab
Click "Edit HTML"
Check the "Expand Widget templates" checkbox
Copy the entire contents of the textbox into your favorite HTML editor
Edit to your heart's content
Paste back into the box (replacing the old content)
Click "Preview", if here are errors or visual problems, go to 4
Click "Save Template"

Good luck
Answer:
Download the desired template file. xml file in this case.
Go to blogger.com
Select your blog.
Click on template link.

Click on backup/restore button on top right corner.
Click on 'choose file' button on the pop up.
Select the xml file you downloaded in step 1
Upload it. Now go to layout link. refer image of step 4.
In the layout edit the section. remove unwanted widgets. add other widgets. drag and drop them. save settings. exit.


Periodic tick / click /crack sound from Logitech QuickCam Pro 5000 USB webcam

Question: While watching the input volume meter from my webcam in pavucontrol, it maxes out with a short (100ms or so) cracking sound every ~3 seconds, independently of the ambient sound. How can I get rid of it?
Looks like this has already been reported, but the project was abandoned. I don't suppose it would help to bribe with a bounty? :)
$ lsusb | grep -i cam
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 046d:08ce Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Pro 5000

From the Linux UVC driver footnotes:

1 First and second generation Logitech webcams suffer from firmware bug
  which make the camera somehow unstable. As the issue is
  timing-related, the exact impact of the bug on a particular user can't
  be predicted. If you plan to buy a Logitech webcam, consider getting
  one of the models not affected by the bug. More information about the
  issue, including possible workarounds, are available on the QuickCam
  Team website.
2 Starting at version 2.6.22, the Linux kernel includes a USB audio bug
  fix which triggers a (possibly identical to the above) bug in first
  and second generation Logitech webcams. See the Linux UVC wiki for a
  workaround.

Both references are down, so I guess that's it for this camera.
Comment: Looking at the bug report, unless this is resolved with a newer kernel, looks like a dead end. Can you try a newer kernel and report back ?
Answer: Apparently this is a firmware bug (see the bug report). Buying a new webcam seems the only solution.


Heaviest loss of last four teams remaining in history of World Cup

Question: Brazil just lost 1-7 to Germany in 2014 World Cup. What is the biggest loss ever among the top 4 teams in a world cup (that is biggest lost in the semifinals, 3rd place match or the final match)? Did this game have the biggest margin of victory? What game had the most goals?
Comment: Margin of victory, not sure. Most goals, yes. I got an ESPN push notification saying "Germany scores most goals in a World Cup semifinal in 7-1 rout of Brazil...". :-)
Answer: Brazil's defeat against Germany in World Cup 2014 semi-final is the heaviest loss of the last four teams remaining. This is tied with Sweden against Brazil (1-7) in 1950.
Other notable losses:
1930:

Argentina beat USA 6-1 (first semi-final)
Uruguay beat Yugoslavia 6-1 (second semi-final)

1950:

Brazil beat Spain (6–1) (after beating Sweden 7-1)

1954:

West Germany beat Austria 6-1 in second semi-final

Most goals in a match: In any semi-finals, this match has the most goals (8).
However, in the 1958 world cup, there were 9 goals in the West Germany vs France (3-6) game.
Source: Wikipedia
Comment: In 1982, there were 11 goals in the match Hungary v El Salvador. Hungary won 10–1.
Comment: @GeorgeLaw True but the question is for "heaviest loss of *last four teams remaining* in history of World Cup".
Comment: USA reached the semi-final in 1930?  Were there only four teams at the event?


How to maintain the colours of my design when printing

Question: I have taken a long time to design my own business card in Photoshop. However, the colours are much darker and all wrong (sometimes too blue, sometimes too pink) when they are printed by the printers. I have tried several printers and nobody seems to be able to get it right. The colours are accurate on my surface pro3 as I am told that this has a high percentage of accuracy. Can someone please help?
Comment: Possible duplicate of [How configure color in InDesign for a specific printer?](http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/74365/how-configure-color-in-indesign-for-a-specific-printer)
Comment: You can't trust screens for accurate colour, but if you share a screenshot of your design then someone may be able to point you in the right direction to get a more pleasing result.
Comment: Is your surface Pro3 color managed, and have you done a color profile/calibration on the machine recently. (No factory calibration does not count)
Comment: Calibrate your monitor. Always work in CMYK. Never submit RGB: convert it yourself. Get some match proofs. Use existing jobs to affirm your monitor calibration: look at the proofs, the printed version, and the screen together to affirm calibration. Adjust the monitor calibration to match the printed version. Learn to love uncertainty.
Answer: The way to specify colors for printing (simplified).

Get a CMYK swatchbook printed on the same stock you are using (gloss, matte, flat, newsprint, whatever).
Check the CMYK values in the file using the tools in Acrobat (for CMYK PDF or EPS file) or Photoshop. Compare to the swatchbook. For example, the 100M 100Y "red" that you see on screen is fiction. The washed out tomato red 100M 100Y swatch (if you're printing on newsprint, say) is what you're going to get from the press.
Adjust the color values in the file as necessary. This may involve creating new color swatches in your app, or using adjustment tools to modify the shades, but in any case, you must use actual color values based on the swatch book.
For critical work ($$$$), request a Matchprint(tm) -- a reproduction of the printing plates that shows the exact dot patterns and colors that will be used for printing. This is also called a contract proof because it's what the printer is promising to reproduce -- it's your "contract" with the printer for a successful print job.

Note: Some digital printers do not use this workflow, because they are not using printing plates, so the matchprint is a digital proof, or even a PDF file -- but it should still be a faithful reproduction of the actual CMYK color values that will be used.
Answer: If everyone else is mistaken... there is a chance you are the one that has it wrong on the first place. n_n
You normally should not use Photoshop to design a business card. You might get the text too fuzzy. But let us think you have the correct resolution.
If you have done your image in RGB mode... ouch, there is a big chance you can not print the colors you see.
If you are using CMYK mode, take a look at this: How configure color in InDesign for a specific printer?
Comment: Thank you Rafael, It's not about being wrong or right. It's about trying to fix the problem please. The problem is that nobody is telling me what I did wrong and how to fix it. Yes I did do it in Photoshop and in RGB mode. Does anyone know what I need to adjust in the settings to make the files compatible with a CMYK digital printer. I am assuming that this is what the printers are using but they are not offering any ideas or solutions.
Comment: Take a look at the link I posted. Specially on Point 6.
Comment: @Dany odds are you can not reproduce the colors. Extremely strong rgb colors are outside the possible range of CMYK prints. No matter how much you want you can not get those colors. You could use some special inks that do this but then its cheaper to hire a person to do this for you.


What is this? Multiple small cracks in passenger window

Question: I have seen this many times in typically older aircraft passenger windows and on a recent flight from Sydney to Melbourne I took the following pictures. It appears as if there are small cracks in the window or one of the laminate layers used to construct the windows. Could anyone shed some light on what is the cause and if there is any risk?
Answer: Airline pax windows are cast acrylic plastic (plexiglass) and when the panels age they can get little microcracks in the surface called crazing.  This can be formed from long term tension stress on the crazed surface as well as from degradation from chemicals (ammonia is one of the worst - NEVER use Windex or equivalent on plexiglass) or UV (acrylic cast for aircraft has a UV block in it that makes it relatively resistant to UV).
On airline windows it's mostly due to long term surface stress because the pressurization system is trying to blow the window out all the time and the outer layer is in tension.  Minor crazing is not a structural problem because it is in the outer couple thousandths of an inch of the plastic and doesn't reduce its strength significantly (1/4" thick acrylic sheet at 8ksi tensile strength, like you would typically find in a pressurized aircraft window, is roughly equivalent in tensile strength to .050" 2024 aluminum, so it's not that much different than the adjacent aluminum skin with minor abrasion surface scratches, structurally speaking).
Airlines restore windows with crazing and scratches by removing the outer crazed layer with abrasive products made for the purpose (like Micro Mesh https://micro-surface.com/).  There is an allowable minimum thickness of the acrylic and they can go down to that, and if crazing is still apparent at that point the window is scrap.
Comment: Thanks John, That makes sense and I appreciate the time and effort providing such a detailed answer. Cheers Ian
Comment: I was in China on business once and rode on a Shandong Airlines 737 with cabin windows that appeared to have been restored using Micro Mesh (a very special type of rubberized sandpaper) and they didn't do a particularly even job of it. My window was wavy like a window pane from a 19th century farmhouse lol.
Answer: There is usually a plexiglass cover on the inside of an aircraft window. There tends to be a little hole in the plexiglass cover to make sure there is not much pressure difference on the cover. The cracks are probably only on the cover, and not in the window itself. If it really is the window, it was probably replaced already. The cover has no structural role, it is just for thermal isolation, and to keep passengers away from the real window, so it is nothing to be worried about.
Comment: This seems unlikely as there is no stress on the inner window due to the vent hole you mentioned. John K's answer seems much more likely.
Comment: These cracks are much deeper than a few thousands of an inch, you need a magnifying glass or a microscope to see cracks that small. Constant stress is not needed to cause cracks, the inner panes are loaded during (de-)pressurisation.
Comment: There is a bit of an optical illusion effect that makes crazing look much deeper than it really is.
Comment: I sure hope so, because it looks like they are about 2 mm deep. Bending resistance decreases with the thickness to the power 3, and on top of that you get a stress concentration factor due to the crack. So cracks can be a pretty big threat to a window.


Determining Distances in Space

Question: I suspect the scope of this question may be to broad, but: what are some methods for determining distances between two objects in Space? Please present the methods in historical order, so as to make the evolution from primitive methods to modern ones clear.
Comment: Welcome to Astronomy! If you're looking for history, you could try us at [HSM](http://hsm.stackexchange.com/). Otherwise, see [this](http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/918/calculate-distance-to-stars) and [this](http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/92/how-distances-are-measured-in-the-solar-system-in-the-galaxy-and-in-the-univer).
Comment: The second link by HDE 226868 links to this[Cosmic Distance Ladder](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_distance_ladder) which fits your main question.  But it doesn't give historical sequence. It does indicate that historically Venus was important for determining the AU.
Answer: There are a few methods that could be used to measure distances to objects in space. I'm not sure of the ages of these methods, but in many cases, the smaller-scaled methods tend to be older (as we simply didn't know about the larger scale).
The scale of the solar system was initially calculated using the parallax effect - measuring the position of Venus relative to the Sun at different times from several places across the Earth, during a transit. We can use orbital velocities nowadays to calculate average distances from the Sun. In some cases, we can use the light travel time to orbiting satellites to calculate distances very accurately, too.
For nearby stars, the main method is to measure the change in position of the star as the Earth moves across its orbit. This also uses the parallax effect.
For more distant stars, scientists often need to use specific variable stars (such as Cepheids, and RR Lyrae type stars), whose variations are related to their mass. Scientists can then use this data to calculate distance.
Cepheid variables are also used for measuring distances to nearby galaxies.
For more distant galaxies, scientists can use redshift to calculate distance, as more distant galaxies are receding faster than nearer ones, causing a larger doppler effect.
Another method for measuring extremely distant objects is to look for Type 1a supernovae, which, since they always have the same luminosity (their mass is always the Chandrasekhar limit, or about 1.4 solar masses). This was used to calculate that the expansion of the universe was accelerating. However, this method isn't used very often, as these supernovae don't happen very often.
Comment: Are you sure parallax was used to calculate the distance to Venus? It would move so much that it would actually change position between the measurements, throwing everything off.
Comment: Honestly, I was being nit-picky. I upvoted because this is just as comprehensive an answer as the question seemed to be looking for.

Determining Distances in Space


Can you bring a sword to a gun fight (and win)?

Question: My wife also wants to try out the Shadowrun game I am joining, but she really prefers using swords over guns.  So she was wondering if there is any way (with either skills, items, implants?) that she can do this without being a burden on the party.  I figured with all of the tech there is some way to make the range and speed of guns a non-issue.
Comment: This is cyberpunk: **style over substance**!  ;)
Comment: I would start by looking at the Physical Adept powers.  Unless she likes to focus on the Fantasy aspect, then a mage may be more appropriate.
Comment: She doesn't like playing magic users, so while it is the fantasy setting she prefers, its the swords more than the sorcery aspect.
Comment: i want to answer, but the last time I played shadowrun was 1e and 2e. it seemed then that katana wielding was a first class combat option, but SR4 may well be a different beast.
Comment: Did you think about dagger, knives etc. and the possibility of throwing them? (And: cutting something's (somebodies?) throat might be advantageous when the sound of a shoot must be avoided.) Thus, a blade might have its advantages. (But I would not do without *any* fire power in the party!)
Comment: A sword vs a gun? Not really, in general. http://youtu.be/nhlHzYt4xRM ;)
Comment: Wish I could +1 Sadathrion's comment.
Answer: In general, guns are more powerful than swords, for a couple of reasons:

Range
A gun can be fired twice in one round
A gun can be used to do more damage, make it impossible to dodge, or attack multiple targets, using the burst fire rules
Guns can't be parried using close combat skill ranks

Swords have the following advantages:

Give enemies a penalty firing in melee
Deliver toxins
Higher damage potential (based on strength)
Higher potential dice pool (using weapon foci and reach), but bonuses are more expensive
Much stronger defense against enemy melee combatants
Most enemies will have lower Impact armor then Ballistic
Swords which are weapon foci can kill things that guns are useless against (e.g. spirits)
Swords are awesome

Whether or not a sword character can be viable in Shadowrun depends a lot on the GM's style, the situation, and the strategies of the players. In a sniper battle at ranges of 500+ meters, or a car chase, a sword character is going to be relatively useless. In a close-quarters urban firefight, a sword character can potentially dominate the field.
I would recommend using one of the following play styles:

Be a tank. Build durability, and get good at dodging, since you're going to be out front all the time. Soak up hits that would easily kill other members of your team.
Be a ninja. Use stealth to get close to enemies before the shooting starts, and use weapons like poisoned throwing stars and grenades to close the gap and be useful in more spread-out fights.
Be a sword-mage. Use invisibility and other magic tricks to mitigate the sword's disadvantages, and use the weapon focus to lay waste to other mages, spirits, and paracritters in astral combat

All three play styles allow for some kind of ranged attack (throwing weapons, or spells) to supplement sword-play and ensure that your character gets involved even when it's hard to close the gap.
It's worth mentioning that low-tech ranged weapons, like bows, can also be very effective in Shadowrun for a character with high strength, and don't suffer from some of a sword's obvious disadvantages.
If you're a GM, you should be aware of your party composition, and throw in challenges sometimes that appeal to your party's strengths. If you have a sword character in the party, throw them a couple of sword-wielding goons now and then to beat on.
Comment: I would say that I agree with most of this.  Though, it's a question of what the situation is.  Different guns, at that point, are more effective at different ranges, so it all boils down to what you take with you.  I always let my players know that, if you're going to be a sword fighter, at least take one point in some kind of ranged combat, for the times when you'll need it.  Thankfully, Agility is the base stat for hitting with both a gun or a melee weapon, so they should still be effective.
Comment: Worth noting that you can go cybersam instead of adept and also be pretty amazing with swords, but without the weapon focus benefits.  You can generally get a lot tougher, though.
Answer: You definitely can if you spend your BP well--I've seen a character who leaned on a bow & arrows, and some heavily modded punching, clean up in combat :p Shadowrun is a flexible system, and ideally the GM will take her character's strengths and weaknesses into account. Depending on the kind of adventure you're getting into, she might considering having another skill set besides fighting that will make her crucial to the party as well, such as wilderness survival, breaking and entering, or social manipulation.
If she's okay with playing a low-essence character, then there a lot of mods that will allow her to tank or ninja as she pleases. Getting modded for extra initiative passes (and generally pumping your reflexes) is a good place for a low-tech melee character to start; that way you can get in a lot of hits/close distance between you and an opponent/get behind something before other characters have time to react. She might consider taking a look through the Unarmed Combat/Martial arts qualities as well. If memory serves, there are a lot of advantages that even a vanilla metahuman can get through the special moves accompanying various marital arts.
Also, does she object to tech updates on fantasy-style weapons like, say, a monofilament sword? SR has some nice cyberpunk versions of old-fashioned weapons available. Basically, there's a lot of support in the system for characters with extreme, out-there shticks, and chances are that somewhere in SR there's a combination of stats and gear that makes it viable.
Answer: Play a Physical Adept with the Missile Parry power, and negociate with the DM to have it include bullets (although at a higher target success test).
I did as a DM in the 2E, and it never unbalanced the game, since the higher targets made blocking bullets tougher, but awesome when successfull.
Partial successes were seen as partial deflections (in game effects meant the damage went from S to M), and the visuals of an enemy seeing his bullets being delfected bare-handed by a Phys Ad were worth it.
Have a high dodge as has been pointed out, and be tough.
I played a Bow-Wielding Japanese Samurai once, filled to the brim with Cyberware, and deadly with the Katana.
Let me tell you even the other players didn't dare face him in combat, even the big Orc tank in the group feared him.


Раз, два и обчёлся

Question: I was just wondering what would be the origin of the verb обчёлся? Does it have something to do with закончил считать? I don't think we use other forms of this verb, but in this idiom. How old is this expression?
Answer: Обчёлся is past tense of Обчесться which is just the same as Обсчитаться i.e. to miscount.
Yet the verb Обчесться is almost never used nowadays except this idiom.

How old is this expression?

Well, I can only say that it's really old.
Comment: Interesting, never heard of this form.
Answer: I think the meaning is "not many, hardly any". I.e., if you count to two, you've counted them all (but not literally exactly two).
I've seen this written with a hyphen раз-два и обчёлся which subtly alters the "literal" interpretation to "one or two and that's about it". A hyphen between two successive numbers is used for estimates: e.g., "три-четыре" = "(about) three or four". And, naturally, the monosyllabic раз is often used in counting in place of один.
I'm not sure what you can say about the origin. Russian is very prolific with adding prepositions as prefixes to verbs to form new verbs, just like English is very prolific with using prepositions or adverbs after verbs ("give up", "look out", "get away with") to form phrasal verbs with new meanings. In both cases the new meaning is not always predictable.
Answer: This expression denotes a small quantity of anything.обчелся = обсчитался = быстро закончился счет = мало насчитал
Современным городам много света дарят уличные кафе, которых у нас почти нет. Да и обычных кафе раз-два и обчелся. (Ю. Нагибин.)
Folksy expression. The start time of use is unknown

Раз, два и обчёлся


How do you calculate your return on investment on automated tests?

Question: I've been looking at calculating the ROI on automated test on a project that I've been working on. However, I'm a little stuck when it comes to determining a good method for this. Simply counting the defects found when executed on the continuous integration sever doesn't really help as many developers run the test locally before checking in code, so I can accurately count how many defect have been found. So my question is how would I calculate this? My gut feeling is that they have massively helped, but I need to quantify this!
Answer: The easiest way I can think of is to base it on how many hours the qa people are saving by not having to regression test all the scenarios covered by the automated test.  If the response is they wouldn't regression test it, the answer to that that they should.  The ideal scenario is that the entire application should be tested from one release to the next, but this in most situations just isn't possible.  This is where automated testing really gives lift.  You can have the QA subject matter expert write up the scenario, and then not worry about having to test it again.
Comment: I've used this approach, we invested 5800 hours approx. which saved the project team form executed around 28000 hours approx, a total saving of 22200 hours (again approx.)!
Answer: I'm sure that the automated tests have helped and there should definitely be a ROI present.  The question is, since there are several different types, what kind of ROI are you getting for the automated tests you have.

Time savings - This one should be more quantifiable than other types of ROI.  Time savings comparing manual test execution to automated execution should be useful in building a good case.
Repeatability - Automated tests are executed precisely the same way every time they are executed.  This might not seem like a big return, but consider how many steps would need to be executed manually if these tests were not present and then consider how many mistakes might be made with that effort.
Traceability - Automated tests (usually) provide some type of evidence of execution. It could be a traditional log or a simple pass/fail output from execution, but either way, automated tests can keep better track of what was measured during execution and provide the data with less variation than a manual tester.
Availability - Automated tests can be kicked off manually or automatically to run at any hour of the day.  They don't get tired, sick, or take vacations, and they can be made to work weekends without special arrangements.

These are just a few off the top of my head, but you will be the best person to determine where these tests benefit you the most.  Sit down and really think about the positive additions these test have provided for your project.
Comment: Repeatability is actually a *disadvantage* if you're looking to find bugs - the natural human variation that comes in with manual testing allows far greater coverage. Good if what you mainly want is to be reasonably sure that a failure indicates some change since last run though, which is generally what you want from a regression suite. And you *can* write your automation to introduce variation.
Comment: @testerab are automated tests really supposed to find new bugs?  As you say, regression tests mainly exist to make sure old bugs don't return.  Exploratory testing (which really can't be fully replaced with automated tests) is what will find new bugs and utilize human variation to its fullest.
Comment: Our regression suite is there not to find new bugs but to give us a clear indication that the build is good enough to perform further testing. I think that it is important to have a deterministic regression suite and have another suite for fuzz testing that will try to find new defects.
Comment: Absolutely agreed that exploring is what finds more bugs: but exploring doesn't have to be purely manual. It just needs to have a human brain in the loop somewhere. This article is an interesting read: http://www.developsense.com/blog/2010/09/can-exploratory-testing-be-automated/
Answer: I can very quickly think of three benefits that should be somewhat measurable.
(1) Freeing up testers from the monotony of repeating regression tests and allow them to focus on new development and areas that need their attention.  Add up the time they are not spending on regression & show how that goes to new projects.
(2) Accelerated testing window.  Especially when R&D is checking in code frequently, catching a regression problem sooner gives them a much narrower window of when the bug was introduced.  Think about it, if I can say Test X passed 3 days ago & failed today, the developer only has 3 days of code to worry about instead of 3 months worth.  Track how quickly those are caught compared to the days of manual regression.
(3) Provides a much better level of testing for smaller releases.  In service packs, patches and hot fixes that have a very tiny testing window you there isn't always time to manually run the regression tests, but if they are automated you now have the option of running those tests even in that short time.  Count the number of regression tests run in a service pack that never would have been possible before.
Answer: I can't tell whether the OP is a tester or a developer.  I'll assume they're a tester.
It is difficult to measure the rate of return on the investment on automated tests because the relative cost and the return is speculative.
Here is my personal experience.  In some cases, an automated test may be the only way to reproduce a problem or to verify that a change has made the product better.  In mosts tests, automated tests uncover bugs that manual testing may have uncovered anyway.
Testers who have the skills to write automated tests are more expensive that those who do not.  And testers who prefer to automate may, intentionally or subconsciously, avoid testing features that are difficult or cumbersome to automate.
It may make more sense to start by figuring out the rate of return of your QA organization as a whole.
Comment: Should the answer change depending on who asks the question? It would seem it's rather objectively asked, which means it wouldn't matter.
Comment: @glowcoder My comments about the rate of return of a QA organization are not relevant to the OP's question if the OP is asking from the perspective of a developer -- outside of the QA organization -- who writes automated tests.  Ditto for my comment about testers who write automated tests.
Answer: It's hard to put a price on catching a bug before it goes out the door to a customer. It may be a small problem that can be corrected in the next release, or it may be the showstopper that keeps you at the office frantically trying to fix it so that you can get it to the customer as soon as possible.
If you are relying on your automation to check functionality so that you can avoid checking that functionality manually before shipping, then I believe the ROI can be calculated for:

Hours your team has spent on similar customer issues,  emergency or otherwise.
Customer's satisfaction and trust in you as a vendor.
Answer: First question: why do you feel that you need to quantify this? Are you being asked to provide metrics? Would a qualitative evaluation be more valuable here?
It also sounds to me like you're focusing at the wrong level - i.e. on too small a group: it's not so much about making the testers more effective, or the developers more effective, but about making the team as a whole more effective. Can you get feedback from the developers about how it's helped them? Is there anything that it's allowed you to do that you wouldn't have been able to do before (turn around an urgent change in 2 days without having to spend 3 weeks on regression testing, for example, or add functionality partway through a project which let you keep/win a major customer), that would be appealing to your stakeholders?
I can't write an answer about metrics without linking Cem Kaner's paper on metrics.
Comment: You can dig yourself into a big hole though by providing figures that aren't a good measure - once you start down that route, they then become a target. Sometimes it's better to resist the temptation to throw a whizzy chart into your report.
Comment: I've not be asked so much to provide figures, however, I would like to be able to justify this approach on new projects, and like always management talk in savings and cost.
Comment: Problem is so much of what Testers do and provide is subjective and doesn't have a direct cost, so its hard to convince bean counters.
Answer: I don't see this as an exact science so you need to make some assumptions. But if you can put some numbers, money or time, in what it cost to find a bug in development (dc), test (tc) and prod (pc). You can then give some different scenarios, let say automation decreases the number of bugs found in dev with x, in test with y and in prod with z. Then you have an estimate that is total savings = x*dc + y*tc + z*pc - (cost of automation).
That's a really simple model to get you started. I haven't used it myself but that's how I would start if I was to write an ROI for automation.
Answer: Keep in mind that automated testing will, for the most part, only catch things that "flesh-and-blood testers" have already caught. This is a good thing, because we want them thinking about new ways and things to test, not going over the same ground again and again.
A rule we had at my last firm (and I'm trying to get at my present firm) is for every bug, there's a test to catch it. This has a big impact. If you have a bug, and you release a patch that says "Hey customers, we have listened to you! We have fixed this bug you reported! Yay for us!" and then it turns out you didn't actually fix it, not only are they mad because you didn't fix, you've lost some trust from your customers.
So - how much is your customers trust worth to you?
Comment: Priceless is the real answer, however, I it would be nice to know the actual cost.
Answer: There are online services which allow to calculate ROI:
1. ROI Calculator
2. ROI Calculator2


How to automatically tag all samples in folder (Maschine)?

Question: Is there a way to automatically tag all samples in a particular folder?
For example, I have a folder in my samples directory full of vocals, and I want to tag them all with type "Vocal" and subtype "Male".
Is there any way to do this without locating each sample individually?
(I did that for one folder. It took almost an hour...)
Answer: Do you know if Maschine keeps its own database of tags which then relate to the files? Or does it store tags in the file metadata? I did a quick search without coming up with an answer.
If it's the former (separate tag database), you may be able to edit the database file directly. If it's the latter (tags stored as metadata), then you should be able to use something like Adobe Bridge (or another metadata editor) to batch tag the files.
P.S. I realize that this is an old question, but I saw it in the unanswered queue and couldn't resist!
Comment: @ZeroFlux Don't worry; Necromancy is encouraged on the Stack Exchange network. There's even badges for it.


iPad keeps asking for Apple ID login

Question: My iPad 2 keeps asking for my Apple ID and iCloud login, cleared Safari hx, reset my iPad. I was contacted by Apple that my ID was reset by IE on a Windows PC. Changed my Apple ID from my iPhone. iPad keeps asking for Apple ID and iCloud login. I believe I have a virus on my iPad.
Suggestions?
Comment: How did apple contact you?  I'm highly suspicious of THAT.. Unless it was an email telling you to visit appleid.apple.com or iforgot.apple.com then I doubt the "contact" was really from apple.
Answer: First reset your iPad: Settings > general > reset > Erase all content and settings.
Then go to icloud.com and click on reset password and reset your password to something complicated and not at all similar to the old password.
Now set up your iPad as a new device not from a backup (which may have the presumed virus) and sign into iCloud with your new password.
Keep an eye on it and watch for unusual activity on your icloud account.
Then take your time setting up your accounts and re-downloading your apps on the iPad.
Yeah I would do it that way rather than restoring from backup, it's a PITA but you'll have a clean iPad.
Comment: While I agree with this method, it its important to state that iOS & MacOS devices can not get viruses the way that they are made. They can only be affected by rogue programs that the user installs that they did not get from an App Store.
Answer: Finally made it!

First, erase the problem app
Go to settings, iTunes store, and sign out
Without signing back in, open the App Store.
Locate the app and download it
It will ask you for an Apple ID. Input the one you want.
It will download everything from the Apple ID from bullet #5!

iPad keeps asking for Apple ID login


How do I remove dried latex paint from clothing?

Question: How do you remove dried latex paint out of clothes? It has been there for several days. I haven't really tried anything yet because didn't want to make it worse.
Comment: I've had luck with GoofOff
Comment: Depending on the fabric I would try lacquer thinner on cotton, waterless hand cleaner on more delicate fabrics
Answer: I find that rubbing alcohol works quite well as a solvent for dried latex paint.  Soak and rub.
Answer: I suspect a lot depends on the fiber of the clothing in question and probably the paint as well. My experience is limited to cotton clothing (T-shirts). Rather surprisingly, a simple machine wash with regular detergent removed a mixture of acrylic (US "latex") wall paint, acrylic putty, gypsum and cement plaster. Honestly, I was extremely surprised regular detergent can remove all that. I suspect it's because cotton has a "puff" on its surface that gets removed (or turned into lint) by the washing cycle, together with whatever is stuck to it. With some lint-free artificial fibers, a simple machine wash might not work so well.
I have a relative who paints [paintings] with artist grade acrylics, and she says that those don't come off clothes well in the washing machine, so I suspect paint grade/type matter as well.
Answer: Mötsenböcker's LIFT OFF Latex Paint Remover should work, and is readily available in North American big box stores and Amazon.
From their instructions:
For Washables

Test for colorfastness by spraying an inconspicuous area.
Spray paint spot thoroughly; wait at least 60 seconds.
Agitate if necessary (the back end of a tooth brush works well).
Repeat if necessary.
Launder as fabric recommendations allow.
Comment: Which end of a toothbrush is the *back end*?  Is that the brush end or the handle?
Comment: I'd think they are talking about the handle. I've had success just rubbing the fabric against itself as well.
Answer: I tried every solution I could find on online.  Nothing worked.  Finally, on a whim and out of desperation, I squirted on some Goof Off.  It took only very minimal effort with a toothbrush to remove the paint completely.
Answer: Soap + HOT water can work sometimes. Hot water can break down latex paint. I would always try this before moving to stronger solvents.


Can I View SMS online

Question: Since Windows Phone syncs photos, videos, apps settings and SMS to the cloud (OneDrive), Did Microsoft provides any URL to read the synced SMSs online?
Answer: No, there is no way to view your Text Messages (SMS) online.
Windows Phone 8 does backup your text messages (SMS and MMS), if the feature is enabled, but the backup is now viewable - it's safely stored somewhere in the cloud.
If you transfer to a new WP8 device, that information can be restored to the new handset.
Answer: Backed up SMSes are displayed in Outlook.com categories, so:

Go to http://outlook.com
Click the cog -> Options -> Manage categories
Tick/check "Show in folder pane" and "Filter" for "Unread" and "Contacts", for example.
Go back to your inbox and click on the categories mentioned above to see relevant SMSes.
Comment: Wish I could vote this up 10 more times. It works! This needs to be spread far and wide... Now, any idea how to sync that down to a PC? I managed to add the account to Outlook 2013 as an ActiveSync account, but that doesn't seem to offer the "Categories" thing. I don't know how to add it as an Exchange account (if even possible) because its email address is on a personal domain, not an @outlook.com or whatever.
Comment: Have you tried moving them to another folder? If that works you might be able to set up a rule to move incoming texts to automate the process.
Comment: I can't tell what folder they're in to start with - I guess it's hidden - but I took a message I won't miss if it gets removed from my backup and moved it to the inbox. It shows up there on the web, but not on Outlook (even after synching).

Can I View SMS online


Looking for a party puzzle

Question: I'm having a block party coming up soon and thought it might be interesting to have some kind of riddle or puzzle for the guests to solve.  The idea would each guest would be given a clue when they arrive and they would need to talk to one another to get other clues and figure out the final riddle.  Has anyone seen anything like this or have suggestions on specific puzzles to try?
Comment: About how many people are invited to the party?
Comment: What is the sum of all your numbers?
Comment: I expect about 40 people
Answer: There is Sid Sackson's game Haggle from A Gamut of Games.
Every player receives a set of coloured pieces of paper (as a kind of money). Players can freely trade these pieces of paper in any way they want ("I will give you a red piece if you get my next drink.")
Further, you create a set of rules that assigns a value to each collection of pieces of paper. For example, each red piece might be worth 2 points, each blue piece 1 points, and so on, a full collection of all colours an additional 5 points, and another combination might give negative points. However, you don't make these rules public; instead, each player also receives a couple of hints about the precise rules. Of course, they are encouraged to also trade with this information.
At a set time, everyone should submit a collection of pieces of paper, trying to achieve as high a score as possible. You judge each collection according to the complete set of rules and give a price to the most valuable collection.
The hints you give out can be pretty direct, or you can turn them into a giant logic puzzle. Make sure that there is enough redundancy in the hints you give, so that players can get a good idea about what is valuable.
Answer: Sounds like you want an icebreaker (that involves puzzles!) at your block party. After looking for a little bit, I can't find anything much like what you're specifically asking for, but here's a couple of ideas:

A big crossword where you hand out individual clues to guests
Something like a word ladder, where the goal is to get everybody in order
A "who am I" kind of riddle, split into lines and handed out one at a time
If you're willing, a series of harder puzzles that individuals are unlikely to solve on their own isn't quite what you asked for, but could probably achieve the same goal
A jigsaw puzzle :P
Comment: For a jigsaw puzzle, an option would be to buy a 24 piece (or larger if needed) puzzle.  One piece per person, find and talk to someone who has a piece that touches yours in the puzzle!
Comment: The who am I riddle was my first thought.  I was thinking like a murder mystery theme.  A kind of who done it game.
Answer: I'm very new here, so I don't know if a framework is enough for an answer, or if a full, complete puzzle is required to be considered an answer, but here goes:

Get a list of 20 compound words (with no overlapping word parts).
Print each word part out on a piece of paper and give one to each member.
Explain that people are allowed to describe what their word is to other party attendees, but that they aren't allowed to actually tell them their word.
When people think they've found their "word-mate" they can check a list of the compound words to see if they're right.
The winner(s) would be the couple that found their
word with the least amount of mismatches.

This is a great icebreaker and is accessible to anyone from frequent puzzlers to complete newbies.
You might try making it optional, because getting someone who doesn't really care when you're actively trying to win would be frustrating.
Comment: +1, but you have to choose the word really carefully. Putting "blueberry" and "waffle iron" in there is just asking for trouble, just like mixing "lemongrass" and "tea party". No, wait, I take it all back. Put **exactly** those kind of awkward mixup possibilities in there! That should get people to know each other a lot better (Lemon tea is amazing. Yup.)
Answer: Seeing as how you just invited the entire Puzzling.SE family to your party, this probably will get solved quickly, but you could

 Give each person an integer {0-9} in this order:  3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971...and see if they figure out that their numbers, collectively and in order, make up the number for Pi.
Comment: I like this idea as a generator of a puzzle but I'm not sure how "math-y" my guest would be.  I'm definitely going to use this idea for our engineering holiday party!
Answer: Make up a 9-by-9 Sudoku. Remove the middle square, and place this in the centre pf a physical grid in your room. Partition the rest of the Sudoku into 2-by-1 dominoes. Give each guest a domino.
Finally, ask them to reform the Sudoku. Should generate a real buzz!

Looking for a party puzzle


Question deleted after it was edited to be relevant?

Question: I posted a question about a feature in the Skyrim DLC before it was released and it was quickly closed, which I understood. However after the release of the DLC I edited the question to make it relevant so I could receive  and it was possible for it to be answered since the content it was based on had been released. However shortly after I submitted my request for the question to be reopened i was deleted which I did not understand. I was told it was closed because The DLC had no been released so why the sudden deletion when it became relevant?
Answer: I was one of the three people who voted to delete it. Sorry about that!
While agent86 is correct in explaining why it was closed, in any normal circumstance, your question would've likely been reopened, having survived through the pre-release period.
To that end, we briefly discussed re-opening your question in chat, but I placed the third vote to delete (and thus deleted your question) because it was one of a number of questions that asked the same thing: what changes did Dawnguard bring to curing lycanthropy?
And we also have another question that's been around since the beginning:

How can I cure lycanthropy?

Because questions can attract new answers and existing answers can be edited, it's not necessary to re-ask a question when new information that can extend or invalidate existing answers comes to light.
So, since we had a number of duplicate questions already, I:

added a bounty to the original question asking for information from the Dawnguard DLC
voted to delete your question, being already closed and one vote away from deletion anyway

I should've left a comment pointing you to the canonical question, and I'm sorry I didn't.
Comment: I don't believe it's currently the policy to reopen a question that was asked pre-release if it manages to avoid deletion up until release, do you have a link or source for that?  If we haven't discussed it, discussing it would probably be best.
Comment: @agent86 The only reason pre-release questions are closed is because they are unanswerable: after release, they are answerable. If the question is now relevant and answerable and would survive if it had been re-asked, why *wouldn't* you re-open it?
Comment: @agent86 To be clear, I don't intend to say that you or other moderators should personally re-open questions after release. I'm merely saying had this question been the only one that had asked about curing lycanthropy, the community would've likely re-opened it despite the whole "but it's not fair" argument made in the question you linked in your answer.
Comment: Ok thank you for the explanation. It was just a major factor in my purchase of dawnguard. If an addition has been made to the original lycanthropy question then thats fine with me.
Answer: This is the question (10k only):
https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/73400/lycanthropy-cure-in-dawnguard-dlc
In the run-up to the Mass Effect 3 launch, the issue of what we do with questions asked pre-release was brought up, and the community consensus was that they would be closed and deleted.  You can see the rationale behind this decision here on meta:
How should we handle non-beta pre-release questions?
Comment: I can't speak for Grace Note's intentions in that post, but the fact that the question was deleted after the DLC was released is a little troubling to me.  There was no clear stance on when a question should be deleted (just that it be marked for pending deletion), but IMHO it should have been deleted before the DLC was released instead of the apparent knee jerk reaction after.
Comment: @MBraedley Voters are slow sometimes. It happens. /shrug.


Home Network with a wireless router

Question: I want to create a home network. Sounds easy, well at first it did. So far I managed to connect the Laptop to the router and to Internet, but I can't connect the PC to the Laptop using the cable-router-wireless path.
Who can explain to me how to connect a Wireless Router, a wireless Laptop (Win7) and a cable connected PC (WinXP) in a network so they can exchange files and connect to the internet from scrap?
Answer: Goto your laptop and get the following info:
Open a cmd prompt (run "cmd").
Type "ipconfig".
Find the IP4 Address, subnet mask & default gateway.
Now goto desktop and do the same and compare the two computers:
The IP4 address should be within the same range, but the subnet mask and default gateway should be the same.
Open the network connections properties on the desktop and set the static ip4 properties to match the laptops.
To share files the computers must be on the same workgroup. Goto control panel "system" and set the desktop computer name to what the laptop workgroup name is. Win7 default is set as "HOMEGROUP", XP default workgroup is called "WORGROUP". They must be the same on all computers.
Answer: you plug them all into the cable router. and if it doesn't have enough holes, you get a network switch plug that into the cable router, and plug them all into the network switch

Home Network with a wireless router


How do I recover my data (e-mail, documents, etc.) after reinstalling Ubuntu?

Question: After an automatic update, my computer would not boot, so I reinstalled Ubuntu from an optical disc (Ubuntu 12.10).  This happened about a month ago; I had the most recent update.  Installation instructions gave me the choice of getting the latest update online but said that if I got the latest update, I might lose my data, so I chose 12.10.  However, my old data did not show up.  How can I access it?
Answer: you simply reinstalled OS or did you format any partitions like ./ or /home? if so you you might have erased all the data you had if you didn't backed it up either. And it's also good if you used the same alias for username, if on previous OS you were Jimmy1 you should've stayed Jimmy1 not to become Jimmy13 or any other username info, because in this way you might have messed it up too.
Comment: I simply reinstalled the OS using the same username.
Comment: try this one https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery


Which kind of Manual Test cases should be automated for Regression Testing?

Question: Automating each and every Test case would be futile. So which kind of Test cases should be automated so that more time is not spend on writing the automated test cases than actual manual testing of those test cases?
Comment: 1. you ALWAYS spend more time on writing an automated test than running it manually.  2. "*not more time is not spend on writing the automated test cases than actual manual testing of those test cases*" is not really a good measurement in this case. Even if executing automated tests take more time than doing them manually they still can be more usefull than manual (depending on how much more "more time" is of course).
Answer: Automation is on ongoing process, it never stops and it can always be improved.
You should first prioritize the test cases, and then start automating from the most important ones. Focus on the functional cases first.
For example, you should first automate a basic flow, smoke test, happy flow etc.
After all the important test cases are automated and the process is stable, you will have time to automate the rest of the test cases that are less important and have a lower impact.
Even if you spend more time automating a specific test then running it manually, long term you will gain more time if that test case is automated.
I also need to mention that, from the beginning, you should carefully design your automation framework so that is easy to maintain, and you don't have to lose time trying to refactor or improve the framework in the future.
Answer: Well, according to classical approach you should consider the costs of automated tests implementation as the investments and thus choose the tests whose automation would give you the maximum ROI.
The challenge here is to calculate NetProfit value since this depends on your particular project specific and what you actually need to minimize (either the cost of testing or the time of testing).
You should take into account the average number of builds in release, test priorities (which are to be revised since the value of the test might change), time of each particular test execution and estimated time of the implementation and maintenance of the test and test execution environment.
Then you sort your tests by ROI value and plan the implementation according to the resources you have.
Answer: It takes a lot of effort to manage and prioritize tests. Coverage is one of several good approximations.
One way to prioritize is to use tools to measure which parts of application are used most often (which is different from coverage), and focus testing accordingly to cover those parts.
Another way is to use expert opinion and rules of thumb: Write a "happy path test" for most important functionality from user POV, and for functionality which is important for safety/security (cost will be high if your company was sued for providing wrong info). Measure test coverage and add more to to increase it.
Coverage is of course separate complicated issue (do your tests need to cover error handling which is rare and hard to trigger? etc).
Comment: Peter, implicit in your answer is the idea that the tester and testing is an outsider to the system/code under test. By using "Coverage", "used more often", and "expert opinion" (meaning to me a customer of the system.) we as testers can become insiders. I like your answer - Thanks!
Comment: @JohnBurley **Testers are outsiders** in the sense that they need less understanding of intimate details how the code works (if they understand more, they could be developers). It is good to have a second pair of the eyes who understand the requirements but were not involved in development to test the requirements. Developers could be blind to some detail or use some unsaid assumption, hence the benefit of second pair of eyes.
Comment: @JohnBurley **"Expert opinion"** is opinion by someone who understand system intimately - lead developer or system architect. **Customer is not expert about how the system works**. Customer is expert about how (and for what) system is used, but **customer understands only customer-facing surface of the system**, and does not have (and does not need) understanding of the intimate details of the system (as long as his/her mental model is close enough approximation).
Answer: Software Testing is primarily a risk-based activity so test cases should be chosen wisely for frequent execution, aiming maximum return with least investment.
There are primarily three types of test suites executed during each release of a software application: regression tests, release specific tests, and defect fixes verification tests.
I would select the below test cases as part of regression suite:

that have frequently caught bugs: Some areas in the application are so error-prone that they usually fail following a small coding change. We can keep track of these failing test cases throughout the product cycle and cover them in the regression test suite.
that verify core features of the application: Prior to designing the test cases, identify all the core features of the application. Ensure that test cases cover all functionality mentioned in the requirements document. One can make use of a traceability matrix to make sure that no requirement is left untested.
for functionalities that have undergone recent changes: Maintain the history of functionality changes for test case documentation in order to identify the test cases to include in the regression suite.
Covering integration scenarios: This includes all those integration test scenarios on the functional boundary where two modules handshake and pass data and integration happens.
that are complex in nature: Some system functionality may only be accomplished by following a complex sequence of UI events.
that have high business priority: Prioritize the test cases as they relate to business impact and critical and frequently used functionalities. It is always helpful if an analysis is completed to determine which test cases are relevant. One idea is to classify the test cases into various priorities based on importance and customer use. The selection of test cases based on priority will greatly reduce efforts spent on regression testing.
On a "case-to-case" basis: There is always room for expert judgment and experience to pick test cases on a case-to-case basis, depending on each company/domain/project/team/ feature etc.
Answer: There are several factors that I consider when determining which manual test cases to automate

How often tests are run manually
How easy the manual emulators and simulators are to use
How long the manual tests take to get the same feedback as the automated cases
The availability and cost of manual testers
How many variations need to be run
What unit and integration automated test coverage exists
The inability of humans to do large number of boring things consistently

Overall I follow the test type categorization for each group of tests (often representing workflows) of:

One smoke test
Usually that the first page is displayed before any data entry (catches 404's, 500s)
Several sad path tests
For when the user or system has an error
One Happy path tests
When everything works for the given workflow
Optional Happy/Sad path tests
When there is an optional part of the workflow, e.g. a non-required screen

For raw time comparison (leaving aside human factors), its really just a matter of what timeframe you look at and number of runs.  For example:
A manual test take 30 minutes.
Automating it takes 4 days, e.g. 4x8=32, 32*60= 1920 minutes and then once automated takes 1 minute to run.
Therefore if this test is run 4 times a day (common in places with CI/CD) then over 6 months, manual would be 183x10 = 3660 mins whereas automated would be 1920 (to write) + 183x1 = 2103
Just as importantly for many development shops that want to do rapid iterations, agile development, CI/CD, etc. it it just not possible to do large scale manual testing in a fast and efficient manner.  Even with 1000 off-shore folks bashing away, co-ordinating them starts to take a huge amount of time.  Plus humans tend to want continual wages of course.
Overall, as with so many Quality Assurance and Quality Engineering issues I feel it comes down to The Value Proposition.  Show how the costs, savings and revenue play out over time and automation can be an easier sell.


What is the difference between the project manager and business analyst role?

Question: I am bit confused between the role of project manager and business analyst. What is the basic difference between the two?
Comment: It would be nice if you can list down the confusion you have between the roles (which you have also mentioned in your question). Thanks.
Comment: Good answer by DPH, thank you for your teachings!
Comment: Currently as it stands, your question is a bit broad and open-ended.
Comment: There is nothing open ended about this @Aziz.  How could the OP possibly list their confusion?  That is absurd.
Answer: They're just different roles.
A PM is responsible for guiding the project to successful completion.
A Business Analyst is typically responsible for elaborating the solution from concept to detailed requirements.
There can be conflict between the two roles, also. In some organizations, there is a combined PM/BA role. I tend to recommend against them, because there is often a conflict of interests in how the project should be managed.
PM-oriented people tend to want to deliver the project on-time, on-budget, etc. BA-oriented people often tend to favor extending the project to improve the delivered product.


What if $\gamma$-rays in Electron microscope?

Question: I was referring Electron microscopes and read that the electrons have wavelength way less than that of visible light. But, the question I can't find an answer was that, If gamma radiation has the smallest of wavelengths of all, why can't it be used to reach to even finer details in microscopy?
Answer: As X-Rays & $\gamma$-rays have very low wavelength, one could think of building an X-Ray or gamma-ray microscope. But, the problem only arrives at focusing both. They can't be focused as visible light is focused using refractive convex lenses (in microscope) thus providing a magnification of about 2000. Another problem with gamma rays is that they've very high ionizing power and interact with matter to the maximum extent thereby destroying it (causing atomic decay).
But on the other hand, we've Electron microscopes which work on the principle of wave nature of moving electrons. Electrons accelerated through a potential difference of 50 kV have a wavelength of about 0.0055 nm. (which is according to de-Broglie relation of wave-particle duality - $\lambda=\frac{h}{\sqrt{2meV}}=\frac{1.227}{\sqrt{V}}$nm) This is $10^5$ times less than the wavelength of visible light there by multiplying the magnification by $10^5$.
If you've read enough about electron microscopes, you should've known the fact that Electrons could be easily focused using electric & magnetic fields than going into a more complex one... :)
Even if these great physicists try something of focusing the gamma rays, it's production and maintenance would be far too difficult and expensive either. Because, we know that $\gamma$-rays could be produced only by means of radioactive decays which is biologically hazardous...
Comment: ok..that focussing point of ur's makes sense..!!
Comment: A couple of comments on this (old) answer: (i) while transmission optics don't really work there's a good deal you can do to focus x-rays using reflective optics, and (ii) electron microscopes can *also* be very damaging to biological tissue, and having a 50 keV electron whizz past and deposit even a small fraction of its energy can be as bad or worse as gamma radiation. In-vivo electron microscopy is possible but very challenging ─ that's why super-resolution optical microscopy was such a huge breakthrough.
Answer: I think the main principal problem would be with high transmission of gamma radiation. It is almost unaffected by matter so you cannot imprint information about your sample on it very efficiently. Then, there are also many other practical difficulties -- it would probably be rather complicated to create directed gamma beams and you would need to use plenty of radioactive material and screen it well from radiating anywhere.
Comment: i think instruments must be there to measure that precision and blocking radiation is much of a trivial job these days...given the device and observer need no contact and can be handled via robots...do u have some confirmed info on your first argument ?
Answer: There are phase plates and other techniques that are being developed to be able to focus X-rays and thus create usable microscopes which promise resolution better than what is possible by refractive optics with visible light. However, these are not yet commercially available. Further, with the high penetrating power of gamma radiation no equivalents are being explored with gamma radiation. The reason could be the availability of electron microscopes with what is now simpler technology, that can provide resolution down to tens of picometres.


Were there any sages who supported the Zealots during the siege of Jerusalem?

Question: In Gittin 56a-b, we read how the sages warned the Zealots (a.k.a. the Biryonim) to not wage war with the Romans who were holding Jerusalem under siege, but that the Biryonim set fire to the store houses, making war inevitable.  Thereafter, Yochanan ben Zakkai faked his death and negotiated with Vespasian, the Roman General and future Caesar, to spare the city of Yavneh and to spare the line of Nesiim -- the family of Rabban Gamliel.  Were the sages united in opposing the Biryonim's tactics?  Or were there some well-known rabbanim who were known to have fought and died with the destruction of Jerusalem?
Comment: You realise as well that it is very difficult to answer this question historically, since the only two documents to record this phenomenon are the Talmud and Josephus, and both are ideologically motivated corpora - neither of them records "history" as we understand it today. Josephus's bias is to show that the majority of the Jews and their leaders actually supported dialogue with Rome, and the Talmud's is to support Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai and show that the council at Yavne had unanimous rabbinic support. Both biases might be perfectly correct, but how would you know?
Comment: I am pretty sure the answer is "Yes," for some value of "well-known rabbanim," but I can't remember any at the moment.
Comment: "*Were the sages united in opposing the Biryonim's tactics? Or were there some well-known rabbanim who were known to have fought and died with the destruction of Jerusalem?*" The second question is not the negation of the first; willingness to fight if necessary does not imply support for the biryonim.
Comment: If you want to look further into the history of the Zealots, there is lots of material on them (material which is easy enough to find - authors like Martin Hengel and Martin Goodman spring most immediately to mind). Their leaders, acc. to Josephus and the Talmud, include people like Shimon ben Giyora, Elazar ben Yair and Menachem ben Yehuda.
Comment: @ShimonbM:  Goes to show that those who "learn" from history always believe that they are emulating those who had done it correctly the first time.  Whether or not they do emulate the historic figures they think they emulate, is another matter.
Comment: @ShimonbM I'm not convinced that it is that difficult.  The issue of whether it is a Jewish obligation to hold the Land at all cost, or whether compromises can be met with an enemy, is as much a contemporary issue today as it was 2000 years ago.  One would think that those taking sides on the debate today would look back to those days as well.
Comment: They do, but the only people today who "side" with the zealots are the so-called Sikrikim of Ramat Bet Shemesh, who named themselves after them. By contrast, by the way, R' Amram Blau (who founded Neturei Karta) contrasted himself with them, siding with Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai and likening the Zionist police force and military to those who fought against the Roman siege. He also, in the same context, likened Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai to Jeremiah, and the zealots to those who sought to repel the Babylonian invasion.
Comment: 20,000 of Akiva's students died during the bar kochba revolt and although Akiva's himself did not support or take part in the fighting, he did support Bar Kochba Messiah and actually crowned him.
Answer: Rabbi Eleazar Ben Hanania Ben Hizkiya.
The evidence for this one is not 100% proof, but:
1) In Shabbat 13b it says that חנניה בן חזקיה וסעתו compiled Megillat Taanit.  He is also identified as one of the leaders of Beit Shammai, and is known for "saving" the book of Ezekiel among other things.
2) We only have an Aramaic version of Megilat Taanit, but there is a Hebrew commentary (known as the "Scholion on Megilat Taanit"), that is at attributed to at least 7th century CE.  You can see an online copy of it here:  http://www.tsel.org/torah/megtan/adar.html
The very end of this commentary attributes the megillah to a "Rabbi Elazar ben Hanania Ben Hizkia Ben Garon".  Note the difference from the bavli - there's an attached commentary in the link that says the megillah was started by the father (חנניה) and then completed by the son (אלעזר) eliminating the potential contradiction.
3) There is an Eleazar Ben Ananias (i.e. ben Hanania) in Josephus who was famously one of the three leaders of the Zealots during the churban.  See:  http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-2587505744/eleazar-ben-ananias.html
Note that he also is the person (according to Josephus) who made the ruling not to accept korbans from the romans -- helping incite the revolt.
---->
Thus, it is suggested by certain talmudic scholars that this is indeed the same person, and R. Eleazar was both a kohen, a rabbi, and a zealot.
See also here for some sources for further links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megillat_Taanit#Authorship
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10555-megillat-ta-anit
Final note:
I'll admit this is not 100% evidence, but I submit that this the whole theory is not so far-fetched that it should be completely rejected.  We know that Beit Shammai had a bunch of rulings regarding Tumah/uncleanliness of gentiles, etc.  We've also got the story of Zecharia ben Avkulus (Gittin 56b), which connects the rejection of a roman korban with the destruction of the temple.  The compilation of something like Megilat Taanit might very well be something a zealot might be inclined to write as proof of hashem's purpose.  Thus, if R. Eleazar Ben Hananya was a prominent Cohen/Beit Shammai, it's not impossible he that he would have ruled like Zecharia ben Avkulus (as described in Josephus) and would probably have sided with the zealots at least on ideology.
Comment: That is correct, but there is a difference between having a worldview that is sympathetic to the Zealots and actually supporting the Biryonim's actions during the siege.  Remember that by the time of the Vespasian/R. Yochanan meeting, all of the Galil was already vanquished, and the remaining rebels in Jerusalem were still killing each other and burning the grain. One of the two pupils who smuggled R. Yochanan out of Jerusalem was R. Eliezer who was known to be a follower of Beit Shammai (Niddah 7b - but not according to Rashi's pshat), so while there was a connection , it wasn't 100% support.
Comment: There is a book arguing for the connection between Beit Shammai and the Zealots: בית שמאי ומאבק הקנאים נגד רומי, by  הרב ישראל שלום יוסף פרידמן בן שלום. Here is a link to the (Hebrew) Wikipedia summary of the book: http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%9C_%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%93%D7%9E%D7%9F_%D7%91%D7%9F-%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%9D#.D7.97.D7.99.D7.91.D7.95.D7.A8.D7.95_.D7.94.D7.9E.D7.A8.D7.9B.D7.96.D7.99
Answer: The nassi at that time r' shimon ben gamliel strongly supported the zealots when the revolt began
but after when r' shimon saw how bad the zealots were (their hatred amongst each other etc.) he stopped supporting them and was ultimatly killed by the romans as one of the asara harugei malchus
"In those days of oppression, many joined the ranks of patriots who wanted to rebel and fight the Romans. Rabbi Shimon supported them very effectively. Even Josephus, the historian, who generally was not his friend, talks very highly about his great knowledge and capabilities. But Rabbi Shimon did not foresee the tragic results of the revolt which ended in the destruction of the Beth-Hamikdosh. He put all his considerable means at the disposal of the war party because he saw no other way out of the desperate situation. In this policy he was not followed by most other Sages who urged peaceful relations with the Romans."
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112313/jewish/Rabban-Shimon-Ben-Gamliel.htm
Comment: How do you know he originally supported them?


Peyot behind ears?

Question: Someone told me that it is better to not have long peyot if you are going to place them behind your ears. Has anyone heard a respectable posek say that? I think he said it in the name of Rav Ben Tzion Abba Shaul?
Comment: I don't know what Poskim say, but I knew both Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky and Rav Moshe Feinstein and both had peyot.
Comment: I know why _some_ people do put behind their ears, על פי קבלה the hair of your head is din and the hair of your face is חסד and you don't want them to get tangled. I doubt that's why most yeshiva bochrim are doing it though
Comment: @mocdeg Reb Moshe did not originally have peyot. He grew them since Hassidim mocked him for not having them.
Comment: I heard the practice started because the goyim made fun of people's peyos, so they hid them behind their ears. Maybe that's why some oppose the practice.
Answer: To answer your question: It's been said in the name of Reb Chaim Kanievsky that one should not hide one's Peyot behind one's ears, but he never says to cut them.
There are plenty well respected Rabbis who hide their Peyot  behind their ears, and others who have trimmed Peyot .

Just to put this in context, let's go back to basics - using classic sources.
The Torah forbids one to cut the hair in the Peyot area too short (Lev. 19:27; 21:5).
Details are in Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah, siman קפ"א
Definitions:

Peyot area: The (almost) triangular area between the top of the ear, the corner of the forehead and where the skull meets the jaw.
Too short: 3 main opinions:
That it cannot be caught with a tweezers or your nails
That you can't bend the tip back to the root
The literal Shulchan Aruch who says "don't touch any hair in this area".

How long must Peyot be?
Obviously long enough to not be considered "too short", but keep in mind the opinions (printed on the page in Shulchan Aruch) that say in the name of the Ari z"l that Peyot shouldn't grow into the beard area - and the Ari z"l used to trim his Peyot regularly.
None of the classic  Poskim (until the 20th century) discuss what to do with long Peyot - and it would be interesting to see what the opinions mentioned in the various answers use as their primary sources for not hiding them behind the ears.

Regarding "embarrassed that they're performing a mitzvah":
Surely this would depend on time and location. In Bnei Brak it may seem that you are embarrassed, if you don't flaunt your Peyot. In Paris (for example, where Jews are regularly being beaten up) it's gutsy to even have Peyot behind your ears.
That said (about Bnei Brak), some  of us are brought up on הצנע לכת and we don't flaunt our Mitzva observance.
Answer: I'm not sure about Rav Ben-Tzion Abba Shaul (I'd be very interested in hearing if anyone knows), but Rav Menashe Klein (Mishneh Halachos 7:121) quotes from R. Chaim Zvi Manheimer that people who grow their payos long and hide them behind their ears do look as if they're embarassed that they're performing a mitzvah, and that's a problem.
Personally, I would imagine that one is more likely to pull out hairs if they are longer, which may be an issue. I thought that the Debretziner Rav had a teshuvah about this but I can't find it at the moment.
However, I should point out that R. Binyamin Zilber (Az Nidberu 12:37) thinks that there's no problem, after all, where else should you put them that won't be annoying?
Answer: According to what I have heard, mekubalim say it is better to have your peyos behing the ears (because they symbolise gvurah - justice). Others (chassidish) say that the peyos are so powerfull so they should be shown (eg. not behing the ears).
Comment: While this may be interesting, it doesn't answer the question as asked. I suggest you move it to a comment on the original question.
Answer: Rav Binyomin Zilber (Az Nidberu 12:37) brings down   from a sefer  called Chatzvah Amudeha Shivah that strongly opposed the minhag to have peyos behind the ear.
He himself however goes on to say that he is amazed anyone would think Hashem cares, it has been a longstanding minhag and there is no denigration of the mitzvah when the Peyos are visible.
Of note the opposition in the former sefer was NOT  opposition to them behind ears per se. However some of the opposition to having peyos behind the ear  was that it seems like you are embarrassed of them.
That being the case it would make sense to  say better not have them at all then  have them and show embarrassment towards them.
Answer: Since Yechezqel 8:3 says that the prophet was picked up by the "Tzitzit of his Peyot", it has been my theory that peyot function to the head's senses like tzitzit function to the hands. You must see them in order to remind you to obey mitzvot.
It is also my opinion that hiding peyot behind the ears or wearing kipot toward the back of the head came about as pikuach nefesh, so one would not be recognized as a Jew during times of persecution.
Comment: [Welcome to MiYodeya](https://judaism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/3887/11501) and thanks for this first answer. Can I recommend you take the [tour](https://judaism.stackexchange.com/tour) to get a sense of how the site works?  Great to have you learn with us!

Peyot behind ears?


How do I deactivate the pop-up flash on the Nikon D7000 when using a hotshoe flash?

Question: How do I deactivate the pop-up flash on the Nikon D7000 when using a flash unit that is mounted in the hot-shoe?
Comment: What flash unit are you using with the D7000? What shooting mode is your camera set to?
Comment: If your hotshoe flash is on, then the pop-up flash is automatically overridden, is it not?
Comment: If the camera detects it, yes. Some third party flashes might not be detected.
Answer: Check to see if custom setting e3 is set to commander mode. If so the camera thinks you want to use the pop up flash to control slave units. You need to change the mode to any of the other options: TTL, Manual, or Repeating. This is covered on page 223 of your owner's manual.
If that is not it, make sure the external flash in powered on, and that it is compatible with your camera. If the D7000 does not detect it and the camera is in a mode that activates flash automatically it will pop up the built in flash. Even if the camera doesn't detect the external flash it should still trigger it but you will have to choose a mode that doesn't automatically activate the built in flash. Try one of the PSAM modes. Since you're going to need to set the flash power manually in this case, you might find Manual mode will allow you the most control. You might also want to turn off Auto ISO sensitivity since the camera won't know the flash is going to fire.
If you are using a third party flash, be sure the trigger voltage of the flash is not higher than your camera can accept or you could permanently damage the electronics of your camera. See the answers and links to this question.
Answer:
If the built-in flash has popped up, push it back down.  With a hotshoe flash attached, it generally should stay down.

If it pops back up, then try P, A, S, or M modes.  It should not pop up automatically in these modes.

Still pops back up?  You have the option of using the No Flash exposure mode

Failing that, as Michael Clark suggested, check the commander mode settings and turn the flash off there.
Answer: Well the pop up can be deactivated even in automatic mode by pushing and holding down down the flash button on the left side of the lens and rotating the back command dial to non flash. But it works only for one at the time in that mode.
Answer: Turn your Mode dial to the Flash icon with the line through it.
Comment: Is this really the only mode in which the pop-up flash will not fire even when a hotshoe flash is mounted?


Is unique IP address a must for SSL?

Question: The shared hosting company told me that if I buy an IP address then it will be applicable for the addon domains too. What does it mean? Then the SSL certificate won't work since there will be more than 2 domains in one IP (if I add an addon domain)? If the SSL certificate works with one IP where is hosted two different domains then why it does not work on a shared host?
Comment: Almost the same as my question, [Does an SSL Certificate actually require a dedicated IP?](http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/61637/does-an-ssl-certificate-actually-require-a-dedicated-ip)
Comment: No, it's not required. There are many hosting providers that allow SSL certificates on shared IP's.
Answer: RFC 4366 (Server Name Indication) permits virtual hosting for SSL and is pretty old and well supported nowadays
See http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/NameBasedSSLVHostsWithSNI for a pretty in-depth explanation.
Comment: This wiki article has more compatibility info for Server Name Indication support: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Name_Indication
Comment: Do you have any data on current SNI support?
Answer:

NOTE: While this answer was accurate at the time it was written and accepted, it is no longer correct. There are other answers here that address SNI which allows multiple SSL certificates per IP address.

Yes, you need a dedicated IP address for your SSL certificate. The following article explains exactly why:

SSL certificates on Sites with Host Headers

The key paragraph is:

It's a chicken and egg problem: The
host name is encrypted in the SSL blob
that the client sends. Because the
host name is part of the binding IIS
needs the host name to lookup the
right certificate. Without the host
name IIS can't lookup the right site
because the binding is incomplete.
Without the certificate IIS can't
decrypt the SSL blob that contains the
host name. Game over - we are turning
in circles.

There is a way to use SSL certificates with host headers on a shared IP address, but you still need to get that first IP address:

But there is a way if you need two
different sites on the same IP:Port.
You can accomplish this by getting a
certificate that contains both common
names, i.e. sitev1.example.com and
sitev2.example.com. Cert Authorities
usually allow more than one so called
"common names" in a certificate. By
binding the certificate to one of the
two sites you won't not get
certificate errors anymore. The client
is happy if one of the names in the
certificate matches.

When your host says "then it will be applicable for the addon domains too.", what they mean is either you can you use:

a wildcard SSL e.g. *.example.com then more than one site that is a host in example.com can share the IP address, for example www.example.com, webmail.example.com and so on.

a Subject Alternative Names SSL that permits more than one domain to be secured using the same SSL, for example: http://www.globalsign.co.uk/ssl/buy-ssl-certificates/unified-communications-ssl/
Comment: @ilhan this answer is no longer accurate. There are other answers here that address SNI which allows multiple ssl certs per IP.
Comment: Please update this answer to reflect the current situation.
Answer: It depends on the server software. IIS 7 supports hosting multiple SSL enables sites on the same IP address.
Answer: There are several kinds of server SSL certificates including those that work for a single server, those that can be used for an entire domain of servers (so-called 'wildcard' certs) and those that work across multiple domains.
Be very careful which cert you buy as it will limit how you can scale.
FYI: Certificate authorities (the companies that issue certs) do not like to issue domain-wide or  multi-domain certs as they view them as a loss of revenue. (Why issue 1 cert for an entire domain at $x when you can issue 5 certs for $5x?) but if you press themy, you can usually get them to issue you a domain-wide cert.
Answer: Hosting multiple SSL-enabled websites on single server usually needs single IP address per site, but SAN SSL Certificate can solve this difficulty. MS IIS 6 and Apache are both able to Virtual Host HTTPS sites using UC Certificate, also known as SAN certificates.
Using a SAN certificate saves you the hassle and time involved in configuring multiple IP addresses on your Exchange 2007 server, binding each IP address to a different certificate, and running a lot of low level Power Shell commands just to piece it all together.
Effortless and trouble-free to maintain than putting multiple IP addresses on your server and assigning a different certificate to each.
Answer: It means that all domain hosted by you will assign your IP. But you can restrict host to set IP only for specific domain. SSL certificate secured applied on domain but domain should be on dedicated IP. Some SSL certificate also can secure multiple domain like geotrust multidomain ev. On shared hosting there are multiple domain on same hosting so your IP also hosting some other client's domain. So it is not secure that's why it will not work.
Comment: There's no need to quote the question in the answer.

Is unique IP address a must for SSL?