When / how should I ask about a manuscript's status in review?

Question: I have a manuscript that has been in review for 60 days. The journal asks for reviews within four weeks. At what point is it acceptable (and not detrimental) to contact the editor for an update? How should I phrase the request?
Comment: I guess it depends on the journal. I heard from my colleagues that they contacted an editor a year after submission and were replied with "we need more time". Regardless of the journal, I wouldn't do anything during the first 3-5 months.
Comment: To give a counterpoint to the people reporting from mathematics or theoretical computer science. In my field (physics), you have a first decision after sixty days for the majority of papers. Thus, I would consider it appropriate to send a polite question to the editor in most cases – if the journal hasn't given you a status update before this. In fact, from my experience with APS journals, they send you a mail about the delay before this (I have no experience with other publishers in this regard). But as already said this is strongly field-dependent.
Comment: Keep in mind that the journal has to *find* reviewers, and have them accept before that clock even starts running.
Comment: Are you sure they received your submission?  It's possible they didn't receive it and that's why they haven't replied.
Comment: @joel yes, there is an online manuscript status checker
Comment: Once they find reviewers, the reviewers have to submit the review on time as well (usually after a month). Often, reviewers need more time than this. It's not unusual for an article to be delayed because one of the reviewers is late. Then, the editors have to deliberate after the reviews are all in.
Answer: I don't know your field, but in mine (theoretical computer science), you have to get used to long review processes. My personal rule is to contact the journal six months after submission. Given recent events, my new, additional rule is to also state upon submission that I can suggest referees if need be.
As EpiGrad commented, the four weeks time certainly refers to the time allowed to the referee. But additional stages take longer: a first quick scan of your paper to decide whether it's worth troubling an editor with it; then the editor has to find referees; and, assuming they all complete their reviews in time, the editor also needs a little bit of time to reach a decision based on the reviews. Moreover, your paper might not be their top priority.
As for the "how", something like this would do:

Dear Editor,
I understand that you must be extremely busy, but I was wondering about the status of my manuscript [title, reference number] that I submitted on [date]. Have you heard back from the referees yet?
Thanks a lot for your time.
Best regards,
[name]
Comment: When you contact them you should also offer to suggest reviewers (or additional reviewers if you already gave suggestions) if they would like this.
Answer: I think an answer to this really depends on a lot of things: at least on the journal and the field you are in.
I am from mathematics and there I usually ask after 6 month. Only for journals which are known for long refereeing times I sometimes wait for 9 month.
By the way: The American Mathematical Society publishes a list of expected waiting times and backlogs for some mathematical journals (see e.g. here or google "AMS journal backlog").
Comment: Thanks for the link, it will certainly come in handy for future submissions.
Answer: I believe that accepted answer is too informal for some people. I prepared following template for myself. Using following link and Coursera professional email course. I waited 4 months before sending this email.
<code>Subject: Inquiry about my submitted article (#XXXX) to Journal - JOURNALNAME

Dear Dr. EDITORNAMESURNAME

My name is NAME SURNAME, and I am first author of article #XXXX (TITLE).
We submitted our article to journal JOURNALNAME on SUBMISSIONDATE.

We have not received an update regarding the status of our manuscript.
Could you let us know when we can expect notice regarding the decision of the editorial board?

Thank you for your time and effort.
Best Regards,

NAME SURNAME
</code>
Answer: If done respectfully, it is never unreasonable to request the status of your manuscript.
Comment: If done too soon it is unreasonable.
Comment: @mankoff I disagree. You are building a professional relationship with the journal and you have a right to understand the details of that relationship.  If you have questions about the process you should feel comfortable seeking answers.
Comment: @Jase I think this case is covered in my comment. If you were unclear about the process and have a legitimate question then no, it is not unreasonable.  If they clearly state that the process will take 2 months and you understand this, then I don't see why you would be asking for clarification.  In the original question it is clear that the OP has questions about the process that are not answered by the stated policies.
Comment: @Jase if you are just pestering the editor when they have made the expectations clear, then yeah that is inappropriate and I would also say not really respectful (even if polite).  The OP seemed to be confused about the policy though... the OP says that the journal had the ms for 60 days but they ask for reviews to be completed in 4 weeks.
Comment: What if they advertise to wait 2 months and you are e-mailing them after 2 weeks? This would be unreasonable.
Comment: I was talking about e-mailing them asking for a status update. Asking for clarification about their process is different.
Answer: I would say after six months is reasonable to ask for a status check. I am from engineering and I often politely ask after six months. If I don't hear from them with a final decision within the next two months I decide to withdraw the paper as it seems that the whole process will take too long and either the journal or the reviewer(s) is not very professional. Eight to nine months is very long response time for a first inquiry. Sometimes you just cant wait that long, you need to know whether is rejected or not because you need to present something on your PhD career, change a job, or as part of a funded project.
Answer: As the saying goes,  the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
In my experience, it is reasonable to politely request an update after ~2 months of review. With most manuscript trackers, it is possible to see where the manuscript is in the pipeline and send a gentle reminder if the manuscript is stuck in one stage for too long (e.g. reviewer section, review, editorial evaluation, etc). Keep in mind that most editors are volunteers and they may forget to follow up with reviewers in a timely manner due to their busy schedule. I find it hard to believe that a polite email would antagonize the editor since journals want to publish high quality papers in a timely manner.


Scrum: how to handle backlog-items that are longer than one sprint

Question: I'm starting with SCRUM and I have a problem understanding one thing. How does SCRUM handle backlog items that take longer than one sprint?
Comment: did you try to split them into meaningful backlog items ?
Comment: at the moment, it is more a problem that I think I will encounter in the future - and I'd like to handle it correctly.
Answer: Such items are either called Epic and must be divided into smaller user stories which are shorter then a single sprint and because of that can be planned, or Theme which will be divided into Epics and those into common stories. Epics and Themes share the main characteristic - high level of uncertainty = they cannot be properly estimated (estimate is usually very high and because of that they do not fit into a single sprint).
So it is good to start with such stories but you cannot plan them until the product owner breaks them into smaller specific stories. These stories are used only to make note of some bigger requested features (Epic) or whole feature sets (Theme). Breaking these stories will make the feature specific.
It also follows Iceberg structure of the product backlog.
Answer: You don't have such items. If you have, then the backlog item isn't specific enough and hasn't been properly broken down into smaller items. Some people call them not backlog, but fatlog items and in Scrum they are considered a anti-pattern.
The cake analogy user story:
As a cake-eater, I want to eat cake in the afternoon. I can't eat a whole cake in one afternoon, so it needs to be sliced to fit the amount I can eat.
Answer: When Scrum was first "invented", the default sprint was normally 4 weeks.
According to what I have been told, the reason for this very long sprint size was simply because people at that time had a very hard time imagining that you could possibly accomplish anything in shorter sprints.
As teams got more confident with scrum, they learned how to better divide backlog items into smaller items of more manageable size, and the development teams got better at not overdoing the up-front design, but just doing enough.
Today, I believe most teams would consider 4 weeks to be very long sprint duration. I am of the impression that 2 weeks is quite normal. XP teams do only 1 week iterations, and they finish complete user stories in each iteration.
So you need to be better at dividing the backlog items into smaller items, that each give a small increment in business value to the final product. It is possible, that has been proven. (though I will not rule out that there could be very specialized domains where it would be difficult)
Answer: I agree with 4 weeks being a long sprint these days. You want to decrease the feedback loop and getting better at turning small units of work around in shorter iterations. That way there is less to go wrong, less that will change and less complexity to manage in one go.
Splitting stories is often a trouble area for people but you get better with it the more you do. Work closely with the PO to work out if you can deliver it in stages and still deliver value in the sprint.
Here is a great poster that helps with splitting stories, its from a website called agileforall.com and you can find the poster here, its really useful to have this up as you refine backlog items:

http://agileforall.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Story-Splitting-Flowchart.pdf
It is also good to have your definition of done available when you refine and plan so that you can keep that in mind when committing to complete something in one short sprint.
Comment: Apologies, try the edited link ;-)
Comment: That poster is almost completely unreadable at the current resolution.
Comment: [patterns-for-splitting-user-stories](http://agileforall.com/patterns-for-splitting-user-stories/) describes the linked flowchart and the corresponding [Story-Splitting-Cheat-Sheet](http://agileforall.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Story-Splitting-Cheat-Sheet.pdf) has fewer informations but is much easier to read.


Mathematical method for spotting irregularity in numbers flow

Question: I am trying to build an engine which is going to predict orders for items inside shop.
Three main variables are:

Time-dates (x-axe etc 1.1.2013,1.2.2013 etc I do calculation one per day)
Available amount of an item. (green line inside graphs)
This line represend available amount of an item.
And as item being sold it decreases.
Dependent on new order (time until new order. Purple line on graph)
If we making an order every monday this line is going to be 0 at monday and 7 at satutday.It is not always 7 days base some time it is 7 some time is 14 etc depending on supplier.
It is reset with every time when supplier bring items to warehause.

In next three graphs I'll show three possible situation which I am hunting.
1.) Ideal situation, I sold out my items just before my next order is coming .
    I want to react on 9th day (blue) to send new order to supplier

2.) Bad situation when I sold faster when my order is coming.
    I want to react at 3th (orange) day . So I can warn user that he is sold items fast.

Bad situation Items are going out too slow and at end of order cycle I will have
overbalance items on stock.

Here is sample data of (MSSSQL)
<code>CREATE TABLE #stock(
    id int NOT NULL,
    item_id int not null,
    ts datetime not null,
    amount float not null)

create table #orders (
 id int not null
,item_id int not null
,ts datetime not null
,days_until_next int not null
,day_until_it_came int not null
,item_optimal_amount float not null)

create table #items
(id int not null
,name varchar(50))

insert into #items
select 1,'Good art'
union all
select 2,'Fast art'
union all
select 3,'Slow art'

insert into #orders
select 1,1,'2013-01-01',8,3,10
union all
select 2,2,'2013-01-01',8,4,210
union all
select 3,3,'2013-01-01',8,7,110

insert into #stock
select 1,1,'2013-01-01',8
union all
select 2,1,'2013-01-02',7
union all
select 3,1,'2013-01-03',6
union all
select 4,1,'2013-01-04',5
union all
select 5,1,'2013-01-05',4
union all
select 6,1,'2013-01-06',3
union all
select 7,1,'2013-01-07',2
union all
select 8,2,'2013-01-01',200
union all
select 9,2,'2013-01-02',150
union all
select 10,2,'2013-01-03',100
union all
select 11,2,'2013-01-04',50
union all
select 12,2,'2013-01-05',0
union all
select 13,2,'2013-01-06',0
union all
select 14,2,'2013-01-07',0
union all
select 15,3,'2013-01-01',100
union all
select 16,3,'2013-01-02',80
union all
select 17,3,'2013-01-03',70
union all
select 18,3,'2013-01-04',70
union all
select 19,3,'2013-01-05',60
union all
select 20,3,'2013-01-06',60
union all
select 21,3,'2013-01-07',50

select * from #items
select * from #orders
select * from #stock
</code>
I want to construct a query which is going to be run every day and try to find these situations.
EDIT: 1
My SQL is MSSQL2008R2.
Turnaround  for items is also variable. That means when I trigger new order it will not came in new day. I changed my model see sql scripts. Turnaround parameter is written in #orders table.  (Sory why I did not that mentioned in original question, I was afraid that it is going to be too complicated to understand What I trying to accomplish.)
For situation #2 It is not fixed on 3th day. I want to look at percents (absolute) numbers of ratio between remaining stock and time until new order. If items are sold out before time to make new order I want to react, But I also do not want to wait until running out of stock, I want to spot deviation earlier.  I do not know yet what amount of percents is needed for trigger of spotting art.
What I looking at is three situation:
Good situation is when time to new order is more then 80% and remaining stock is less then 20% of (optimal) started amount of item. In that Case Ill trigger new order.
For other two cases I do not want to stick to fixed amounts of percents.
I want to look at ratio of remaining stock and time until new order. If that radio is in ideal situation 100%. (100% at day first stock is at 0% time to new order is 100%, at middle of period until new order there is 50% until new order and 50% remaining stock, at end of period there is 20% remaining stock and 80% is passed time until new order.) That is example of ideal situation. Other cases is when I have 50% until new order and 10% of remaining stock. In that case sum of percent is 60% and I want to react. Or in case of slow art when time to new order is 80% and my stock is still at 80% of starting (optimal) value.
Comment: Is using SSIS or SSAS and option?  How about machine learning algorthims implemented in sql clr?
Answer: I think the easiest thing to do is to create a process that creates a log of how much stock was bought in a day and how much was left at the end of the day.  You can then run your analysis on this log.
The analysis could look at the last week or however long you want to determine what the average number of items sold were.  You could then compare that to what you have in stock and see if you would be running out soon (say current stock / avg sold per day to get the number of days remaining).  You then use this analysis to determine which days to buy more stock.


What impact would falling oil prices have on the natural rate of unemployment?

Question: My intuition is that as the price level falls, cost of inputs is falling for suppliers and their output increases. More people are then employed to increase production - correct?
Comment: It depends on which country you are. Since USA and Saudi Arabia inundated the markets with cheap oil (second half of 2014), they were able to break three enemies of the USA - Russia, Iran and Venezuela - all in a single stroke.
Answer: We need to distinguish between theory and the real world.
In theory, anything can happen. You would need a model that incorporates something that resembles an oil price (many standard models just have a single aggregated good). What then happens depends upon what other assumptions you stick into the model. Whether any of these models have any relationship to the real world is unclear. In any event, you would need to fix a particular model, and as a new question about its behaviour. (E.g., "What is the effect of an oil price rise in {Model X}?")
In the real world, we need to distinguish the measured unemployment rate, and the "natural rate." There are a number of ways of estimating the natural rate of unemployment, and what happens to them depends on all of the inputs into the estimation procedure.
What really matters in the real world is what happens to the measured unemployment rate (which may flow into the estimates of the "natural unemployment rate", as many of the estimation procedures resemble low pass filters). I think the answer is a definite "it depends."
Firstly, it depends on what country you are talking about. For an oil producer, falling oil prices can easily be a disaster for employment. Many oil producing countries have government revenues that are highly sensitive to oil prices, and so they may be forced to cut back spending. However, they generally have financial reserves, and so can handle limited price falls with limited disruption. Therefore, you need to look at each involved country separately.
For an oil consumer, a rapid rise in oil prices is disruptive; the 1970s experience could be used as an example. Consumers have to spend more on energy, making some products and services unviable. Meanwhile, the increased income is flowing to overseas producers. There is a "terms of trade" shock. The economy will eventually adjust to the new pattern of activity that incorporates higher oil prices, but in practice, the adjustment implies higher unemployment in the near run.
If the fall in oil prices is reversing a previous spike, this will presumably undo the previous disruption. However, if prices were previously stable, effects may be less dramatic. The effects on the economy will depend on how consumers react to the fall in energy prices. If they use the energy savings to buy domestically-produced goods and services, the total volume of domestic production rises, and so firms would presumably need to hire extra workers to produce the greater volume of output. However, the energy savings could just lead to higher savings, leading to no change in domestic production, and presumably employment (in the near run, at least).
The key is that falling input prices are generally not enough to cause increased production by itself; the firm needs to sell a greater quantity of goods, or else the extra production would just represent an undesired increase in inventories. (Since firms have to project demand, they could ramp up production (and hence, employment) to meet projected demand, but if that demand is not realised, they would have to reverse that decision.
For a country that is both a consumer and importer of oil (such as the United States) there is a trade-off between the benefit to consumers versus the potential loss of fixed investment in energy production. Therefore, it could go either way; you would need to do a fairly detailed model to get an estimate.
Answer: Falling oil prices may or may not lead to a lower price level depending on how you're measuring the price level and what measure of inflation the monetary authority is trying to target. Is the relevant inflation figure the GDP deflator? The PCE deflator? The CPI? The "core" CPI?
Ignoring any nominal effects of falling oil prices if they exist at all, the mantra here is "never reason from a price change". Why is the price of oil falling? Is it because we've invented a new technology which allows us to synthesize oil at low cost, or is it because there was a recession in China which is leading to lower global demand? In the latter case, clearly the experience of the US and of China would be different.
There's also the fact that higher productivity of the kind that would be caused by a new technology allowing easier production of oil may not necessarily translate into higher employment. In general, there are competing income and substitution effects in these situations - as you become wealthier you want to work less, but as wages are higher you want to work more. It's not clear a priori which effect would dominate.
Finally, "unemployment" as used in "natural rate of unemployment" is meant to be a proxy for output gaps - if unemployment is higher than the "natural rate", then there's a negative output gap, and vice versa. In down-to-earth terms, we define "unemployment" as the state of not working but actively looking for a job, and the unemployment rate is the ratio of the number of such people to the size of the labor force. A change in the employment rate (the employment-to-population or employment-to-working age persons ratio) need not have any effect on the unemployment rate. Unemployment in a time of negligible output gaps is mostly the result of search frictions in the labor market. If a technological development made it easier to match potential employees with employers we would expect the "natural rate of unemployment" to fall, but it's not clear if or how an oil price change would lead to such an outcome.
Comment: @Rodrigo I'm not interested in engaging in "geopolitical" speculation. However, you shouldn't confuse movement along the supply curve with the movement of the supply curve itself - it's entirely possible that "lower demand" (the demand curve shifting, i.e movement along the supply curve) can be offset by "higher supply" (the supply curve shifting). "Oil prices fell much more than other commodities" may just mean that the supply curve for oil has a higher slope than the one for other commodities - it need not imply anything about "oversupply".
Comment: Interesting. You only forgot to mention oversupply as a cause, since the oil prices fell much more than other commodities. Now, WHY would oil producers increase supply when the demand is falling, if not for geopolitical reasons, as I stated in the other comment?


Should I negotiate a lower salary to be placed in a lower tax bracket?

Question: I'm about to start the negotiation process for a new position. I expect the offer to be in the area of $72,000 - 76,000 / year. If the offer is higher than $73,800 should I negotiate to have my starting salary slightly decreased so that I pay 15% income tax vs. 25%? I'll be filing married-joint.
Comment: You know that brackets are progressive, right?
Comment: Tons of people make this mistake, which is 100% wrong.  There are rarely any tax cliffs where an extra dollar will cost more than a dollar in taxes.  A few punitive taxes, such as self-dealing with a non-profit or deferred compensation violations of §409A, are intended to produce a big cliff.  But normal compensation income will essentially never cause this problem.  Negotiate for more money.  Also, you are not correcting for the exemptions and standard deduction, so you are placing yourself in too high a marginal bracket anyway.
Comment: @MrDuk - Since it costs 1 reputation point to downvote, costing the downvotee 2 reputation points, I imagine it's  expressive voting rather than responsive.  Though I have encountered this question for years, so it's not a "bad" question in that lots of people have this conception of taxes and will need an appropriate answer.
Comment: So you would forgo extra income to avoid paying 25% tax on that extra income. You would still get $0.75 for every extra $1 in your pocket!
Comment: Progressive meaning every dollar in the new bracket will be taxed at the new rate.
Comment: I fear some have mistaken the voting buttons as "yes/no" and not "good question/bad question"  :)
Comment: @NL7 - the cost for down votes on *questions* is nil to the voter. It's only on *answers* that voters lose rep, too :)
Comment: Ah, I didn't realize because I don't downvote.  Thanks.
Answer: No, absolutely not.  Income tax rates are marginal.  The tax bracket's higher tax rate only applies to extra dollars over the threshold, not to dollars below it.  The normal income tax does not have any cliffs where one extra dollar of income will cost more than one dollar in extra taxes.
Moreover, you are ignoring the personal exemption and standard deduction.  A gross salary of $72,000 is not the same as taxable income of $72,000.  The deduction will generally be $12,200 and the exemptions will be $3,900 for you, your spouse, and any kids.  So married-filing-jointly with the standard deduction will get an automatic $20,000 off of adjusted gross income when counting taxable income.  So the appropriate taxable income is actually going to be more like $52,000.
Note that getting your compensation package reshuffled may result in different tax treatment.  But simply taking a smaller salary (rather than taking some compensation as stock options, health insurance, or fringe benefits), is not a money-saving move.  Never do it.
Answer: No.  In a marginal tax system, only additional dollars that push you into a higher bracket are taxed at that higher rate.  If you would pay 15% on $73800, then when you earn over $73800, you will still only pay 15% of the $73800, plus 25% of the extra amount over $73800.  As far as a marginal income tax affects things, you cannot decrease your net income by increasing your salary.  (There can be other potential reasons to keep your income down besides income taxes, as asked in this question, but as the answer there suggests, these often aren't great reasons either.)
As far as I know, every income tax system that has differing tax rates works this way.  That is, I'm not aware of any country with an income tax system where you can decrease your net earnings by moving into a higher bracket.
Answer: I think Feral Oink said it well here when someone asked if they should negotiate for additional benefits in lieu of a portion of salary.
"You never want to take a lower salary, especially not in exchange for something that is conditional e.g. benefits. Your salary is the only thing that is guaranteed as a condition of employment. Other things can be changed by the employer at a future point in time."
Does it make sense to take a lower salary so I can still contribute to a Roth IRA?
Answer: If your employer offers a 401k retirement plan then you can contribute a portion of your salary to your retirement and that will lower your effective income to remain in the 15% bracket (although as others have pointed out, only the dollars that exceed the 15% bracket will be taxed at the higher rate anyway).
AND if your employer offers any kind of 401k matching contribution, that's effectively a pay-raise or 100% return on investment (depending on how you prefer to look at it).


Can a hobby gearbox be used to mechanically amplify small forces for better force sensor resolution?

Question: I am trying to configure a force sensor (a piezoresistive force sensor) in a device to measure small forces (less than 0.5 mN). This is difficult due to noise of the system. One of the ways I have considered to address this problem is to mechanically amplify the force applied to the force sensor with a gearbox. The small force applied would be transferred to the gearbox with a gear on a drive bar, and the amplified force from the increased torque would be transferred to the sensor with another gear and drive bar (see schematic). However, I have no experience with gearboxes and would like some opinion on feasibility or if this system even makes sense. I am particularly worried that static friction forces in the gears would cause inaccuracies, especially because gearboxes are designed for a completely different purpose.
Answer: Any gearbox or lever linkage is going to have backlash to go with your other concerns. By the time you get to a system using this kind of mechanical amplifier to get the sensitivity you need along with the low noise, accuracy and precision you want, you're into making a what's essentially a precision watch... Can it be done? Sure. It's going to be time consuming and expensive though.
It will be faster, cheaper and more efficient to simply purchase a load cell designed to measure micro Newton level Forces. If you're a student, doing a project on a student budget with no corporate sponsor, you should call the company anyway, they might help you anyway.
If you really need to build the measurement device yourself, I suggest looking into a Torsion Balance. They're typically used to measure things like the gravitational attraction force between two objects, so the concept is in line with your measurements. You could also build a strain gage based sensor, perhaps some kind of canteliever beam.
Comment: I agree doing a mechanical type amplifier is error prone due to manufacturing tolerances. Backlash is allways a problem in them but we dont know the setup may not really care, also you can sometimes deal with backlash. Cantilever type and compression bar type strain gauge solutions are quite accurate even with somewhat cheap strain gauges. But again zero budget is zero budget, more work than worth it usually.
Comment: @joojaa the OP doesn't mention a budget, nor offer much in the way of context for this, so who knows.
Comment: Budget must be small though or OP would have never chosen such a setup though.
Comment: That's my guess, but who knows. When I was an undergrad, I worked on a student project and got a company that was interested in what I was doing to fork over ~$3k for instrumentation without much effort.
Comment: Yeah its pretty common to get one off demo of industrial stuff for dev project. I saw atleast one lidar handed over, few barcode readers and a few high end accelerometers. Guess some companies have a big sales budget.
Comment: Thanks! While I didn't specify, you are correct that I am on a tight budget. I'm also on a tight schedule for this project, so your comment has helped me decide not to use mechanical amplification. You've given me some very helpful suggestions that I'll look into.
Answer: You may actually be interested in using a lever instead of a gearbox, as its a simpler construction and has less friction. But produces same torque increase, as a gear is essentially a folded up lever. If you want to be really fancy you couple this with two pins but that is not nessesary.
Just be sure to calibrate the new system somehow after you have built it. On the other hand you can just invest in a strain gauge and connect it to a shaft with known dimensions, as this may be more reliable than relying on the accuracy of your rotating joint to transfer force form one place to another
Comment: Thank you for your response! After some consideration, I don't think a lever will work for the mechanical set-up of my system. I hadn't thought of using a strain gauge on the shaft itself, so I may further consider the costs of this suggestion.


Good allowance savings plan?

Question: I am about to begin receiving a weekly allowance from my dad. As I am not great at controlling my "buy buy buy now" impulses, could you guys help me put together a savings plan for my allowance, given that I want to save a lot, but not all, of my money for college and beyond. A plan from you guys would really help me control my spending on video games and the like. I am currently entering middle school, if that helps at all.
Comment: Maybe things have changed since I was your age (40+ years ago), but allowance was not expected to be used for major expenses like college. Even if you saved all your allowance, it probably wouldn't make much of a dent in a single year of tuition.
Comment: Would you mind telling us how much? Concrete numbers can be easier to work with.
Comment: I was going to say that you could ask your dad to hold on to the allowance you get, but I think it's superb that you are asking how to better handle your money yourself.  This will teach you how to grow (personally) long term and be financially more responsible than simply having someone else hold it for you so you can't access it.  Great question :)
Comment: @Barmar an approach I've seen is that parents of students who struggle to manage their own money pay directly for the bare essentials (even to the extent of prepaid grocery cards!), so the OP could be thinking of saving for discretionary spending rather than tuition.  A milder a common case is that the parents send money to the college student to cover the essentials; again the OP needs to plan to cover luxuries.It's even possible that they live in a civilised country in which the state covers up-front tuition costs(so not where I live) and we're talking about all living expenses.
Comment: @RonJohn, my proposed edit was to make it high school so as to avoid SE from having to nuke everything related to this user. As I mentioned in my comment above, I am confident that this user did not want to mislead people into thinking they were under the age of 13 ...
Comment: @ChrisH I see, you're thinking that "saving for college" means "saving for my college years". That's definitely an admirable (and unusual!) goal for a teenager.
Comment: I am sure you meant entering high school and not middle school, because SE doesn't allow people under the age of 13 to ask questions.
Comment: @DStanley I strongly disagree with your edit removing "* I am currently entering middle school, if that helps at all.*"  It gives important context for the kind of answer to give.  (I think the highest scored answers are way too complicated for someone not yet in junior high.)
Comment: @RonJohn There was a pending edit to change this to "high school" to avoid CIPA complications. My thought was removing this information was better than falsely altering it. That said, I'm not opposed to reverting it.
Comment: @DStanley since Congenital Insensitivity to Pain and Anhydrosis (first Google result for CIPA) doesn't seem appropriate to this discussion, I presume you mean the Children's Internet Protection Act (the **second** Google result...)  What CIPA complications might there be?
Comment: @RonJohn I have no idea - I just thought falsely editing the question was not appropriate.
Comment: @RonJohn Actually it should have been COPPA, not CIPA.
Answer: This is a great question. Kudos to you for recognizing that you want to make a change.
The secret to saving is to have a goal in mind. Saving money for the future is great, but unless you have a goal or purpose for that money that is accumulating, it is too easy to raid it when the next game comes out.
College is a very worthwhile goal, however, there are a couple of issues that make it a challenging goal. First, it is a relatively long ways off, as you won't be in college for another 4-5 years. Second, you most likely don't know how much college is going to cost, so it is hard to put a number on that goal. Still, it is an important goal, so we don't want to forget it altogether.
Here is what I recommend: when you get your allowance, divide it up into three categories: Giving, Saving, and Spending. The money you allocate for Giving is for you to give away to someone or something you care about. You might give it to your church, a charity you care about, or someone you run across who is in need. Don't skip this. Giving is an important habit to learn early in life. It will make you feel good and will help curb the impulses that are causing you to "buy buy buy now."
The Saving portion is the money you are setting aside for the future (college). I recommend that you open a bank or credit union account and deposit this money there every week. By doing this, you'll get that money out of the house, making it a little harder to raid if you have a weak moment when the next Pokémon game arrives.
Finally, the remaining portion of your allowance will be designated as "Spending." This is for you to spend however you want! This is an important part, too. The money here will allow you to buy things you want without raiding the money earmarked for your college savings. You can do whatever you want with it: spend it on snacks, a gift for a friend, a new shirt, etc. However, if you spend this money too quickly, you may not have enough cash when Super Mario Maker 2 hits the shelves in June. So you may want to split this category up further. Set aside some cash in an envelope each week for the next game you are looking forward to, and put the rest in your wallet for spending cash.
The amounts that you put into the three categories are up to you. As a starting point, I recommend 10% into Giving, 50% into Saving, and 40% into Spending. By doing this now, you will get in the habit of budgeting your income, which will serve you well as you get older and both your income and your expenses increase.
Comment: I would add: Do *not* get a bank account with a debit card if the purpose is to avoid spending the money in it. A debit card would make it **even easier** to raid. This may be obvious to us, but possibly not to a middle schooler new to saving money at all.
Comment: Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/91033/discussion-on-answer-by-ben-miller-good-allowance-savings-plan).
Answer: Learn how to use spreadsheet programs.
Numbers are hard to think about. If you can visualize them, or see the effects of your plan without having to think, it's easier to make good decisions.
For example, let's assume: You're making $100/month. A high-value video game costs about $60. A mediocre Steam game costs $10. So let's spitball an initial plan and say you want to save half your allowance, and you're okay buying a new "good" game every 2 months. A simple version of your spreadsheet might look like this (though you can definitely get fancier):

And with this plan you could save up $600/year. Are you happy with that number? If not, you can look at the other columns to figure out how to change that. Maybe after a month, you realize that you can get by with less spending money than you thought. Maybe it's a bad year for games and you'd be okay with only getting 4 of the good ones. You can make these changes in your spreadsheet and immediately see the change in your total savings.
You're the only who can decide the best way to spend your money, but a budget like this can help you think about what you really value and see if what you do aligns with what you really want.
As others have said, make sure your savings goes into someplace hard to access if you're having trouble saving it. A savings account is good. Once you've saved enough, maybe you can buy a CD, which earns you a bit more interest.
Comment: Cannot stress this enough - getting your budget down on paper (well, in this case, on a spreadsheet, a program with strong roots in accounting) helps you keep yourself honest to whatever it is you set.
Comment: If you want to see how long term savings (investments really) can build up have a look at an investment calculator (eg: investmentcalculator.io).  This says that your 50 a month could (emphasis on could) add up to nearly a million dollars by retirement age.  Since your finances will change massively during your life that's not really useful but it is inspirational.  Lot's of people who probably could have invested 50 a month since age 15 will be retiring on a lot less.  I guess the point is that starting early is very good and a lot of people (like me) put it off a lot longer than they should.
Comment: Thanks for actually taking the time to make a spreadsheet! :) Will look into it
Answer: Congratulations on being this foresighted.
Being that you're in middle school, your allowance won't be that high.
Thus, I suggest that you ask a parent to help you open a fee-free "kids checking account" at their bank, and an online savings account at a bank like Ally (which pays a noticeable interest rate).  You'll be able to see your money grow.
This way, you can ask your parent to give you a portion (half sounds good) of your allowance in cash, and automatically transfer the rest into your new savings account.
You'll have a debit card and the ability to transfer money between accounts, but the effort will be enough to hopefully make you think first and act second.
These are only aids, though.  The bottom line is that you must WANT to control your "buy buy buy now" impulses.  This isn't an "I want a cookie" want, but a deep desire want.
Hope that helps.
Comment: @SushiCraft99 and don't share your passwords!!  Ever, with anyone!!  (That's probably more essential for a middle schooler than more complicated financial advice that you won't need for six years...)
Comment: @SushiCraft99 if you're close enough to the bank that you can bike to it, then that would be even better.  **You** would be the one making the deposits instead of relying on Mom and Dad.
Comment: Yep! Already do that, I hide my passwords
Comment: @SushiCraft99 "*Any more sage advice?*"  An important method of not being tempted is to **stay away from temptation**.
Comment: What is HTH? Also, I do really want to actually save.
Comment: @SushiCraft99 "hope that helps".  Congratulations on your journey into adulthood.
Comment: @SushiCraft99 don't assume everyone who is nice to you wants to help you. Some will be nice then try and take your money. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Answer: When my kids were your age I put their allowance directly into the bank. The bank has special accounts for kids, with no fees.
Each of them also had a savings account (from birth, good for that cash from Grandma), and I arranged for a portion of their monthly allowance to be transferred there. This was really just to show how it works. But when it was time for driving licences and so on, they had the cash there waiting for them.
Once my son wanted to borrow money from me, and I was quite annoyed; "where is your allowance? You just got it"
"My account is empty."
"How can that be? Where's it gone?"
"Invested in bonds at 6% for 12 months. The lady in the bank suggested it."
"Good lad!"
Comment: "*Good lad!*"  Foolish lad, because now he had no more liquidity.  You should have charged him interest on your loan so that he'd learn what his error was.
Comment: Well, yes, he got a lecture on liquidity. But the experience taught him a few things. He didn't get the loan anyway.
Comment: For those of us in the US, "gilts" are the British equivalent of US Treasury Bonds. Not, as my first search result for "gilt" suggested, young pigs.
Answer: What helped for me was:

Measure

Every time, when you buy something expensive, record it in a spreadsheet or even simple notebook. For every purchase, assign a category: going out with friends, clothes, games, electronic devices, sport equipment etc.

Analyze

After regular periods of time make summaries. For you, It will be convenient to adjust it along with days when you receive allowances from your dad. Analyze in what categories you spend most money. Let then imagine consequences of not spending or spending less money into some category.
For instance, when your friends call for you to go out with them (I mean to make purchases, to eat outside, go to cinemas, etc), imagine what social consequences it can cause if you refuse too often. Or maybe you don't consider it as a problem because you are aware that only true friendship remain after being separated across different colleges?
Or for instance consider buying cheaper clothes. Do your girlfriend reject you claiming she won't be with a poor haggard not wearing original Reebook nor Adidas? Or maybe she would understand and be supportive for your long term plans and cheaper shoes would be really enough?
You can also search for totally different alternatives. Consider for instance change your habits. Play more physical activities instead electronic games. Learn how to cook yourself instead of eating out etc...

Planning

After some of first "sprints" let begin plan your expenses. Let assume in advance what amount of money you consider spending for each category. Please review your plan if is really feasible (at the beginning it might be too ambitious, I mean: zero expenses for games, equipment etc... but "nowadays Steve Jobs" is already waiting to announce new i-pad! It will be too difficult to resist the temptation)
Good psychological trick, would be to share your plan with someone close to you. Your mother, said father, sister, girlfriend etc... During the next planning, share your results. You will be subconsciously afraid of admitting in front of them that you broke your commitment.

Next iterations

The serious thing starts just here. If you didn't manage to stick to your previous plan, make "retrospections" what was the cause. An unexpected expense? Your best friend organised field trip on holidays? Consider some minimal budget for unexpected expenses in future plans.
On the other hand, if you spent less than expected for some categories, congratulation! Let now consider some budget cuts in future plans.
Comment: "Planning is everything, the plans are nothing" -- Dwight Eisenhower.  Now that the questioner has the money, practicing financial planning (item 3 above) -- even just drafting an initial one -- is a very valuable part of this exercise; financial planning at the $100 level tends to (oddly) produce skills and behaviors that map directly when planning at higher dollar amounts.  Just getting and applying a plan from someone else, not so much.
Answer: I'm going to paraphrase the most important lesson I learned from a book I read when I was your age called The Richest Man in Babylon.
Pay yourself.  Whenever you buy something you're paying other people.  When you save and invest, you're paying yourself.  If you receive $100, either as an allowance or from work, you were paid.  But if you run around handing out $60 for a video game, $10 for download content on the game, and $30 for a new mouse, you just paid everyone else and left nothing for yourself.
The idea of paying myself first shaped my relationship with working, spending and investing.  Later in life, I came to the next strong realization that money gives you control in decision making.
I'm sure times have changed but my "trick" to stem spending was to hold the thing I wanted to buy for 10 minutes.  I'm in a store, I want a thing, new grips for my BMX bike or something like that.  Most of the time, I would get bored and lose interest, the excitement for something new wanes and you're just wandering around with this thing that's way less cool than when you originally saw it. This was particularly effective in learning the difference between a want and a need. I learned that the whole shopping endeavor between buying cool new grips versus a new innertube or flat patch kit was very different.  I'd see the cool new thing and want it because it was cool and new, price wasn't an early concern in the process.  But inner tubes, I only cared about the price, "want" wasn't even in the equation.  Really, I didn't even want the patch kit, but I wanted to ride the bike, so I needed the patch kit.  Cool and new fades and it fades quickly.
I'd imagine that it's much more difficult to implement a process like this in the era of online purchases but the idea is to not make purchases out of impulse.
As far as savings vehicles, at your age I had an envelope with a folded up sheet of paper that acted as my bank and ledger stored in a silly overly elaborate hiding place in my room.  To me, having a tangible, visual representation of the growth of your savings is important.  Feeling the stack of money get thicker over time is more satisfying that a number changing incrementally.  In fact, I keep a lock box still with cash in it at home, because I still have that attachment to physical currency.  Sure, you won't make any interest income, but a high yield savings account at 2.2% will make $2.22 per year per $100.  Your savings is going to grow primarily from contributions and not spending.
Good luck! By even asking this question you are way ahead of your peers I'm sure.
Comment: That's actually a great idea! My father once said that if you want something, come back tommorow and see if you still want it. If you still want it then you can think about getting it.

Good allowance savings plan?


Where can I find the positions of the planets, stars, moons, artificial satellites, etc. and visualize them?

Question: What resources are available to find the positions of planets, stars,
moons, artificial satellites, asteroids, and other heavenly bodies?
Comment: I was sleeping under the stars with a program called redeye... taught me star trivia like Vega and all the constellations. It tilts and zooms and has labels.
Answer: There are many resources online, so this is a community wiki
answer. Please feel free to add to it!

If you want to visualize the stars/planets/etc (as viewed from Earth
or another location), you are looking for planetarium software:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetarium_software

If you want accurate positions for stars/planets/etc, you are looking
for horizons:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPL_Horizons_On-Line_Ephemeris_System
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons

If you want to compute star/planet positions yourself, you have
several options:

SPICE (http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/tutorials.html) will give you
results that match HORIZONS very closely. You can also use some of
SPICE's functionality online at
http://wgc.jpl.nasa.gov:8080/webgeocalc/#NewCalculation

SPK (Spice kernel) files are available at https://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/generic_kernels/spk/ -- while these are primarily intended for use with CSPICE, the format is documented and you can use it directly. It's described at https://github.com/skyfielders/python-skyfield/issues/19 and implemented in Python at https://github.com/brandon-rhodes/python-jplephem/tree/master/jplephem

If you want to do the SPICE computations yourself (numerically solving the differential equations), see https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/13491/21

You might also want to use an n-body simulator to do the computations yourself: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/25241/what-open-source-n-body-codes-are-available-and-what-are-their-features

IAU SOFA (http://www.iausofa.org/) will give you the International
Astronomical Union's "official" libraries to compute positions.

VSOP theory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSOP_%28planets%29) is
another option.

PyEphem (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PyEphem), which derives
from MIT's libastro library
(https://stuff.mit.edu/afs/athena/project/xephem/src/xephem-3.5.2/libastro/)

Skyfield: https://github.com/skyfielders/python-skyfield

libnova (http://libnova.sourceforge.net/)

If you want to treat planetary orbits as simple ellipses and ignore perturbations, you can find orbital elements at https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/txt/p_elem_t1.txt but you'll probably want to visit https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?bodies#elem first

VSOP87-multilang Implements the VSOP87 theory in over a dozen different programming languages.

Note that these computational libraries don't always agree with each
other or with planetarium software:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16293146

If you want a catalog of stars/etc, NOMAD
(http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astrometry/optical-IR-prod/nomad) and GAIA (http://gea.esac.esa.int/archive/) are
the largest such catalogs (about 1 billion entries each, lots of overlap). The NOMAD link also provides references to smaller catalogs.

For star names, https://www.iau.org/public/themes/naming_stars/ has an official list and Stellarium has several lists in the subdirectories of https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium/tree/master/skycultures in files named star_names.fab (including the official IAU list)

For high-resolution astrophotography try ALADIN (http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/#AladinLite)

If you want to find artificial satellites and spacecraft, start at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-line_element_set

Transits of Mercury and Venus across the Sun? http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit/transit.html

Planetary conjunctions?
http://laps.noaa.gov/albers/ast/conjun/conjun.html

Occultations of stars by asteroids? The International Occultation
Timing Association (IOTA) at http://occultations.org/

Create your own Sun-Earth-Moon model by using a ~17 inches (~44 cm) beach ball or box as the Sun, 4-5 mm object like a pencil eraser as the Earth and a 1 mm sized drill bit or other object to represent the Moon. Then, find a 150-foot string or tape measure. The sun and earth are ~154 feet (~46m) apart. The earth and moon are ~4.7 inches (12 cm) apart.
Comment: @uhoh This is a community wiki answer, so please feel free to add them yourself. But, if you run into trouble, let me know and I'll add them.
Comment: I also use SIMBAD (http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-fid) if I want to do a quick search for a star or galaxy based on its identifier, and you can also do the reverse and searching for coordinates too.
Comment: I like this one for seeing what's overhead http://www.ucolick.org/~bolte/AY4_00/weblab/project/chart.html .
Comment: That appears to be a framed verison of http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/ -- feel free to add the latter link above.
Comment: @barrycarter I wonder if astroquery mentioned [here](https://space.stackexchange.com/a/30654/12102) and [here](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/33003/planets-positions-azimuth-altitude-api#comment61048_33003) could be added as well?
Comment: @barrycarter okay I'll give it a try tomorrow, thanks!
Comment: For Python, `astropy` might be useful here as well: https://docs.astropy.org/en/stable/coordinates/solarsystem.html
Answer: To add to the excellent answer by barrycarter, there are 2 planetarium-like codes, that I know of, that run on a mac and would make excellent tools for viewing certain astronomical objects. The codes are Stellarium and Celestia. Both turn your computer into your own planetarium where you can search and view objects in space.
Comment: The second program is called "Celestia" not "Celestial".
Comment: It's actually a public wiki answer (not all my content), so you can add to it directly if you'd like. I had considered listing individual planetarium software (Stellarium is my favorite), but thought linking to the wikipedia list page may be more useful and neutral.
Comment: Celestia even lets you move around different from Stellarium which is more like a planetarium-theatre


Why abbreviation for "Definition" as "Def^n" (math context)

Question: I've seen in math and physics lectures delivered in English, that people use to abreviate the commonly very used word "Definition" by "Def n"(Def superscript n). What's the meaning of this n? That is, which sequence of letters of phonemes does this n stand for? And, which other words can be abbreviated in the same way? (I've seen more, I just forgot which)
Answer: Assuming you mean "defn" rather that the literal "def^n", then it's not an exponent it's just an abbreviation using a superscript.
Wikipedia's entry on superscript:

Many abbreviations use superscripts, especially historically. […] In handwritten shorthand, many abbreviations are still written this way, such as defn […].

If it's the literal "def^n" then I would think it's a humorous use of "^" alluding to its use indicating a superscript.
Comment: The rules are defunct, having been used for handwriting and handset typefaces for several centuries, gradually becoming archaic and even droll, like using _Yʳ Obᵗ Svᵗ_ as a complimentary close in personal letters.
Comment: Yes, by exponent I meant superscript (which I didn't know how to type other than with LaTeX). I know what you wrote: but I don't know the rules for abbreviating with this *n*. That's the question.
Answer: The n itself does not stand for a sound. The entire abbreviation "Defⁿ" stands for the sound of the word definition.
Could it be you are thinking of "Defⁿ" as a contraction? A contraction is a word in its own right. For example, isn't is a word, originally coined by contraction of the words is not.
Abbreviations are not contractions. They are still read as the original word. For example, you might abbreviate singular as "sing." but you would still pronounce it singular.
There really are no general rules for how to abbreviate or how to write an abbreviation, but some words are almost always abbreviated the same way and it is convenient for the reader if you adopt the common abbreviation. For example it is common in academic works to abbreviate pages as "pp." But that is not a matter of English spelling or grammar, just written style.
Comment: As it happens, I'd like to save space in a blackboard: so I would tend to contract words that frequently appear, as expansion as *exp^n*, etc. I just wanted to understand a pattern, in order to do it correctly. So, as far as I understand, there is no pattern, right?
Comment: People often think using analogy, so once you have abbreviated one word as xxx^n and explained it, you'll be able to use yyy^n with little or no explanation.
Answer: In similar situations, I've seen "defn" ('plain'/abbreviation) or "def'n" (with apostrophe / contraction) very frequently.   They are usually pronounced as the full word ("definition"), although occasionally 'contracted'.
I would guess that the superscript version is in (possibly humorous) reference to this.  I would not assume it is a standard that will necessarily be understood (especially if you'll be teaching 'across a language barrier').   I would be even more careful about "exp^n" for "explain" / advise against it (I've never seen that one, and would think you meant exponentiation).
Although, if you have a whole semester, your students will get used to your style (as a previous answer said).
"Def" or "Def." would also be fine, I think.
Comment: Moreover, "Sol^n" for "solution" is often seen in lectures or in typed notes. I'm sure there are many others besides.


Why is nitric acid such a strong oxidizing agent?

Question: In my teaching-lab experiments I've seen that nitric acid solutions are able to facilitate the dissolution of metals such as silver, even though they are more active than hydrogen. Does anyone know why nitric acid is so special? Why is it such a strong oxidizing agent?
Comment: Its not that special- concentrated sulfuric acid and all the oxyacids of chlorine are oxidising particularly perchloric HCL04.
Answer: Because, unlike in other metal dissolution reactions, the $\ce{H+}$ of $\ce{HNO3}$ isn't reduced—the $\ce{NO3-}$ is. The following data and balanced reactions are taken from Wikipedia:
\begin{align}
  \ce{NO3- + 4 H+ + 3 e- &-> NO  + 2 H2O} &
    E^\circ_\mathrm{red} &= \pu{0.96 V} \\
  \ce{NO3- + 2 H+ +   e- &-> NO2 +   H2O} &
    E^\circ_\mathrm{red} &= \pu{0.79 V} \\
  \ce{Ag+(aq) + e-       &-> Ag(s)} &
    E^\circ_\mathrm{red} &= \pu{0.799 V}
\end{align}
Since the standard reduction potential (SRP) of the $\ce{NO2}$ reaction looks smaller than that of $\ce{Ag+}$ (I may be wrong, but by significant digits it can't be greater than $0.799$), one can conclude that it's the $\ce{NO}$ reaction that's occurring here. And the $\ce{NO}$ reaction has a large enough SRP to oxidise $\ce{Ag+}$.
Usually nitrogen compounds are pretty versatile when it comes to redox reactions, since nitrogen shows many oxidation states. So the simple reason for why $\ce{HNO3}$ is so strong an oxidising agent (with respect to other acids) is that it has a different, better path available to it to get reduced.
Note that the exact reduction path (i.e. final reduction products/oxidation state) depends upon the concentration of nitric acid—so much that copper can be oxidised in three different ways.
Comment: what about platinum? the E reduction of platinum is greater than NO3, yet NO3 still oxidized Pt. also the same case for Ag
Answer: ManishEarth did a good job explaining already. Perhaps I could point out one more you could think of to understand why nitric acid has such a high reduction potential. The nitrogen centre in nitric acid is in +5 oxidation state, which is also the highest known oxidation state of nitrogen. As a result, the acid exists in high energy state to begin with as it is really unstable.


Ideal pressure cooker size for cooking a pound (454g) of beans

Question: I'm shopping for a pressure cooker. Could anyone advise me on what size of pressure cooker is sufficient for cooking a pound of beans? I don't want to buy one that is too small and overcrowd it.
Answer: A pound of beans should be 4-5 cups (about 1L) when cooked. I think it's pretty hard to find pressure cookers smaller than 4 quarts (16 cups or 3.8L), so you shouldn't have any worries at all. Even the smallest one you can find will have plenty of extra space.


Any way to make my oboe reed shorter?

Question: I had an oboe reed handmade for me and the reed itself is very good and responsive, but the cork of the reed is too long, essentially making everything I play sound flat, even when pushed in all the way. I wasn't sure at first if it was too long, but comparing it to the reeds the other players in my section use, there is a noticeable difference. I have no experience with reed making (which is why I had it hand made for me in the first place) so I was wondering if there was any way I could make it shorter myself. Considering I have no experience in reed making, I should probably get into it if I'll be playing the Oboe for the rest of my life,  and I suppose this would be a good start.
Answer: You can cut the staple shorter, but it depends on the staple. If the staple is the type that doesn't have a rolled or fluted edge at the cork end, you can shorten it with some basic hand tools.
Using a sharp knife (such a an x-acto hobby knife) or razor blade, you cut the cork around the staple pipe at the new length distance.  After marking the cut you can roll the staple on a hard surface while pressing with the blade to get a clean edge.
Once the cut is made, remove the cork off of the staple from the cut to the waste end. At this point you will need a fine tooth metal saw such as a jeweler's saw or metal cutting razor saw (I believe x-acto makes one of these also). Using the saw, carefully cut the staple pipe flush with your cork cut.
You then need to clean up the edge, removing any cutting burrs. This may be done with a file or scraper. The end then can be sanded smooth by placing some sandpaper on a flat surface and running the end across it.
If you haven't done this kind of work before, you should practice on some spent reeds first before attempting on your good reed.
Since it is a hand made reed, you should consider asking the maker to do the shortening for you instead of attempting it yourself.
Reed making can be entertaining to do, I found it similar to tying fishing flys, and yes, learning to make your own reeds is the best way to make sure you get exactly the reed you like.
Answer: I shorten reeds by cutting the bottoms off the brass staple with a cutting disc on a high-speed Dremel tool. This will of course reduce the inside diameter of the brass tube, which I then swag/enlarge back to the inside diameter of the original staple. Fortunately I have a huge supply of old (aka-cheap) brass staples, so experimenting is cheap! Loree oboes have a historical reputation of being flat and mine is (HD-12, 1985). This technique will produce staple lengths of anything you want to try.
Answer: Resizing your reed when you have no experience with reed making will probably be hard and the chances of you breaking the reed are quite high. You can either cut the bottom as Alphonso Balvenie described or you can cut the top.
Now there is a chance that you can just cut a tiny bit off the top and have the reed still working. If you want to get into reed making you could use this reed as your starting point.
As a first step I recommend you take some very close pictures of the original reed. Try to get as many details as you can so you can mimic the woodwork when you try it yourself.
What you want to do first is make the reed wet. Let it soak up water for about 5-10 minutes. This makes it soft and reduces the chances of the wood breaking. Then you need a sharp knife. Since you're not familiar with reed making I assume that you don't own a knife specifically for reeds. Don't worry, a common cutter knife does the job too if you're careful. Many professional reed makers even use special reed guillotines for cutting the top. These are quite expensive though and by no means a necessity. It just makes the job easier and cleaner (http://www.reedsnstuff.com/en/Service/oxid/Reed-Guillotine.html)
So if your reed has softened up a bit get your cutter ready and cut a tiny bit off the top. Use a flat surface to cut it on and press the reed together so you cut both sides evenly. Cut a straight line and do it in one go.
After you're done see if you can still play it. If all goes well you can repeat this until the sound is fixed.
But chances are that it will get hard to play at some point. That is usually because the wood at the top is now too thick.
Now again for the next step a special knife would be recommended but I have heard of people who literally used a normal cutter to make all their reeds so I guess you can use that.
Also before you start I recommend you check out some tutorials on reed making just so you get to know the basics and see how it's done (like how to hold the knife and the reed)
You have to scrape off little amounts of wood near the top of the reed. Do not use too much pressure as you risk ripping the top off. To stabilize it you should put a small, flat metal piece between the two reeds (something like this http://www.reedsnstuff.com/Oboe/Rohrbauzubehoer/Schabezungen/).
Some final thoughts. Reed making is a craft and everyone uses a slightly different technique. You need a lot of practice to find what suits you best but in the end it is worth it. A good teacher can help you out a lot. You could try to contact whoever made your reed and ask him if he could teach you. If you're not into that you could also just contact him and ask if he could use smaller cork pieces or shape the reed a bit smaller.

Any way to make my oboe reed shorter?


Looking for dedicated volunteer matching website software

Question: I am building a medical volunteering website for a NFP using Wordpress and the Nine to Five theme. It is working (in a test environment) okay, but wondering if anyone has come across dedicated volunteer matching website software.
Answer: I found this extensive catalog of software related to managing volunteers: http://manage-volunteers.org/.  Perhaps you can find a suitable application.


How to put image over the layer in OpenLayers

Question: How to set the Latitude and Longitude range that focuses on a specific region in Mercator Projection when the layer loads in OpenLayers API ? Is there any way to put image over the layer?
Answer: You want to overlay a image(raster) over the vector layer. This will hide the vector data because of the layer order preference used in OL
you can add images using OpenLayers.Layer.Image
var imgLayer = new OpenLayers.Layer.Image("img",http://myserver.com/images/img.png");
map.addLayers([imgLayer]);


Why would they show the Hunger Games live?

Question: It appears from the movie (never read the book) that the Hunger Games are shown "live". That there is no delay in the broadcast. It appears to be shown live as the audience is shown watching scenes that the Gamemakers and the Capitol would never want them to see. For example, after Rue is killed, Katniss throws up the sign for "respect" which causes the uprising of district 11. Why show that scene at all in a taped or delayed broadcast?
Comment: The riots did not take place in the book at that time.  The producers did not want to make the other movies until after they were sure it was going to make money (there have been many YA S/F book to movie flops).  As a result, they did not know if there would be another chance to portray the gravity of those actions to the audience.
Comment: @PaulDraper Actually, post-Janet Jackson, we don't actually have truly live TV in many cases; they often show it on a short (5-10 second) delay to allow the producers or their censors to bleep profanities or stop the feed in the case of something they don't want to show.  That certainly seems reasonable from a realism perspective here.
Comment: We have live news, live sports, live Super Bowl half-time, etc. It would be a lot easier on everybody (videographers, commercials, tech crews, players, entertainers, announcers) if live TV didn't exist. But people like it. It gets them *involved*, which is the point. And so we have it.                   The capital could pretend it were live, but that secret would have to be known by a non-trivial number of people, and would be be hard to keep.
Comment: @Joe, that is true. Nowaday, 5-10 seconds is common. If you're on top of things, it's enough to fix it if something really bad happens, albeit in a very abrupt and conspicuous way. It's a good idea. On the other hand, the Hunger Games could have been "pre-Janet" -- they hadn't had a wardrobe malfunction (yet).
Answer: In the book at least, it appears the Capitol can and does cut out scenes they don't want shown:
The Hunger Games (Book 1), Part II "The Games", Ch. 18:

Slowly, one stem at a time, I decorate her body in the flowers.
  Covering the ugly wound. Wreathing her face. Weaving her hair with
  bright colors.
They'll have to show it. Or, even if they choose to turn the cameras
  elsewhere at this moment, they'll have to bring them back when they
  collect the bodies and everyone will see her then and know I did it. I
  step back and take a last look at Rue. She could really be asleep in
  that meadow after all.
"Bye, Rue," I whisper. I press the three middle fingers of my left
  hand against my lips and hold them out in her direction. Then I walk
  away without looking back.

The Hunger Games (Book 1), Part III "The Victor", Ch. 27:

They play her death in full, the spearing, my failed rescue attempt,
  my arrow through the boy from District 1's throat, Rue drawing her
  last breath in my arms. And the song. I get to sing every note of the
  song. Something inside me shuts down and I'm too numb to feel
  anything. It's like watching complete strangers in another Hunger
  Games. But I do notice they omit the part where I covered her in
  flowers.
Right. Because even that smacks of rebellion.

The capitol didn't show the act of Katniss covering Rue's body with flowers or her salute. But the floral burial must have been shown when the bodies were picked up. It's not covered in the book, but while the actions of the tributes are monitored and edited for possible seditious acts, the recovery of bodies might be watched less carefully.
Comment: Good answer. The main issue with filtering out shots or events is that they leave a hole, and that gets people wondering what was cut out.
Comment: `But the floral burial must have been shown when the bodies were picked up` - I wonder why Katniss thinks that?  It seems like it would be easy enough to remove the flowers, then start the cameras and pick up the body.  I don't recall much about the actual body pickups really getting covered much in the books.
Comment: @Zoredache, the bodies are picked up remotely by tractor beam, so there wouldn't be anybody available to remove the flowers.
Answer: Per the Hunger Games wikia, gambling is one of the primary reasons for the popularity of the show. This includes "in-play betting" such as on the outcome of individual encounters.
Introducing a broadcast delay would allow unfair opportunities for those with insider knowledge.

The Hunger Games is a major source of gambling and produce intense
  betting, both in the Capitol and the districts. Katniss mentions
  people from District 12 betting on the two tributes reaped, and that
  "odds are given on their ages, whether they're Seam or merchant, and
  if they will break down and weep." In the Capitol, betting takes
  place throughout the Games, starting before training and increasing in
  intensity until a victor is determined.
Comment: @phantom42 - I don't disagree with that. Note that the superbowl is broadcast instantly (to prevent the "delayed-wire" effect on online gambling) whereas the half time show now has a 30-second delay or longer.
Comment: I can see why there wouldn't be a delay for viewers from the Capitol, but why not delay and edit for the Districts? The Districts (especially the poorer ones) would have no way of knowing, and considering the Capitol has forced them to provide tributes I don't see why the Capitol would care if gambling was unfair for the Districts.
Comment: we also know that even in live broadcasts that have the 5second or 30 second delay, they still miss cutting portions/editing language. while you dont see it, id put money that the hunger games have multiple channels. so you can choose who u watch, OR watch the main channel that shows the highlights/major events.
Comment: The delay is long enough to censor but it may be of note that it is not an exact silence. A recent example is the Monty Python Live that just showed a few weeks back, had jumping camera angles and very abrupt beeps, and even let "fuck" through: Would make it quite dangerous if the Capitol were to try and censor certain things while showing live. Just a note here if it helps anyone :)
Comment: Even most "live" TV or Radio is aired with a delay of just a few seconds so that censors can block or "dump" a portion before it hits the air. A broadcast delay of 5 seconds wouldn't be enough to tip gambling odds any significant amount.
Comment: Even "instant" or "live" broadcasts still have a few-second delay due to time traveled over the wire.
Answer: The "Hunger Games" are shown live because, like @Richard said, there is gambling involved (not going to go further this road).
But there is also the sponsors. If it wouldn't be shown live, then how would the sonsors have any impact in the games?
For example, in the 1st hunger games Katniss is sent a cream to help heal her fire wounds, and in the second she is sent a sort of tap take enables her to get water. If they were not shown live, then these gifts, that from what the books say cost a lot of money, wouldn't come in time.
Comment: I agree with the sentiment, but surely a thirty-second delay wouldn't make that much of a different, would it?
Comment: I would say no, it wouldn't make a strong impact. However in the books it also says that every gift is more expensive with the more time it passes. Now, I'm sure the prices are not incremented by the second (don't remember reading about this). But the whole gifting in the movie (in the books the action is all focused on Katniss) is taken care by  Haymitch, so I can argue that 30 seconds can make a differece to him, but it's just an opinion.

My main point is, they are shown live due to the gambling aspect, like you refered, and the possibility to outsidders to intervene in the outcome.
Answer: The reason the poor districts were rioting was because
they were oppressed and hungry. Cutting scenes from a show will
not make them less oppressed or less hungry.
Censors assume they can control the thoughts of the audience.
There is no sure way to control the way your audience thinks.
For me, all of Katniss' choices are a slap in the face of the capitol and its policies
choosing to ally herself with a weak contestant (Rue)
choosing to help the weak
choosing to protect and take care of the young
choosing to share her food even tho she was also hungry
The only probable way to censor her is to not show her at all,
and even if they don't show her I doubt it will make the
poor districts less hungry or less oppressed.
Comment: Welcome to SFF.SE. You make good points but this doesn't really answer the question, which is why the Hunger Games were shown live rather than edited and shown to the Districts with a delay (or not at all).
Answer: from book 1

Taking the kids from our districts forcing them to kill  one another while we watch- this is the Capitol's way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion.
Whatever words they use, the real message is clear. "Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there's nothing you can do. If you lift a finger, we will destroy every last one of you. Just as we did in District Thirteen."

hubris.
Comment: Please consider deleting two of your (three, so far) answers and collating all the 'answer' material you feel is relevant into the single remaining answer. (To edit an existing answer, click the '[edit]' link beneath the text; to delete answers simply click on 'delete'.) To respond to comments, you can leave a comment (on your own questions/answers) and then the use of the `@username` syntax will notify the appropriate user (if that user has commented on, or edited, your question/answer).


Limited SSH user on Ubuntu 12

Question: I'm running Minecraft on a server. How can I give my friend SSH access just to the minecraft folder (a root folder), the screen command, and some ports?
Answer: To achieve first 2 points you have to jail user to a desired directory, it's term called sandboxing sometimes and it's related with chroot in linux.
A good article hove to chroot (jail) a ssh user can be found here.
About the third point I'm not sure, but you can look at How to Limit network access by user / group using iptables - Owner Match.
But I'm not sure if you have to give him such restrictions/privileges.
Answer: On FreeBSD, we can use jail to restrict user. But jail don't exist on Linux. (It may exist, but its not part of the system.) Jail on FreeBSD is Virtualization on the OS level. We can achieve the same thing on Linux. I suggest you to read that article, since it also mention some program that can do that. I recommend Virtualization on the OS level for more performance:
http://wiki.openvz.org/Introduction_to_virtualization
So basically, you run like a second OS, and your friend will be restricted to it, and its content. The second Os that will run will like run inside a folder, and your friend wont be able to exit it to see the rest of your file. He will be restricted only to it. This has more advantage over chroot, since it may be easy to escape a sandbox created by a chroot.
You will be able to access the minecraft folder without any problem. But you will have to also install screen on the second OS, if you want your friend to have access to screen, and install all other thing you want your friend to have access.
Normally, your second OS will have its specific IP, you just have to say that whenever something connect to your computer to port x and y, redirect it to that IP. So if he connect to your computer trough port (the port you want him to use to SSH) he is redirected in the second OS. Same with the minecraft port.
Also, to make it more easy to you, you could create a symlink to the minecraft folder, so you don't always to have to go to the second OS's folder to reach the minecraft folder.
It may be not the best solution for you (or it may be) but its still a viable solution that you should consider, as its not hard to set up, and offer the most security and privacy.
Comment: Linux has LXC (LinuX Containers) that do the same thing. It's somewhat new, but was already present in Ubuntu 12.04, and can be installed easily enough.
Answer: SSH has not been conceived to achieve that. You will likely find a solution that you think is secure, but in fact, there will probably be a backdoor somewhere (ssh -W, ssh -o ProxyCommand, etc.).
I think the best solution is creating a VM which would have access to the minecraft folder and give your friend a SSH account on that VM.
For you, the best would be the use of operating system-level virtualization like lxc or OpenVZ, which basically implements improved chroot and other kernel level isolation mechanisms, with almost no performance impact.

Limited SSH user on Ubuntu 12


Are there internationally published sources of trade sanctions?

Question: How to implement embargoes with respect to a trading company?
Let's assume i am a small trading agent which assists and guides small exporters and importers while keeping embargoes and light sanctions under considerations. My source of info regarding sanctions are workers of other big players. I usually get help from them in order to declare a trade clear.
I know that United Nations publishes Sanctions Lists of banned Individuals and Companies, I also know that Banks and Exchange companies have software solutions to screen a name against these lists.
These lists are not enough for Trading as an embargo usually includes source, destination and product being traded.
Are there any Internationally published sources of embargoes which can be consulted? Is there an automated software solution (free or cheap) to screening a trade?
Answer: Try the WTO's Trade Monitoring Database.
Answer: The following site might help you out: https://www.globaltradealert.org


How to handle video with different frame rates in Lightworks?

Question: Most video editing software allows me to import video of different frame rates, but Lightworks either does not have this feature still, or I cannot find it (on Lightworks or on the internet).  Does anyone have any tips?  I would really like to use Lightworks, but using multiple cameras (one of them being an iPhone), and shooting in slow motion, makes this a deal breaker.
Answer: Looks like you will need to transcode all clips with frame rates not matching the project's frame rate:

If the frame rate is of a clip is not compatible with your project, it
  displays in red.  You will be unable to import the clip into your
  project.  Clips with incompatible frame rates may be playable in a new
  project set to the  same frame rate as the clip.

(page 40; User Guide)
You can use ffmpeg, a command line tool, to transcode such clips with commands of the form
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -crf 8 -r 25 -c:a copy -map 0 input25.mov

Edit: should make clear that 25 should be replaced with the framerate of the project. NTSC 30d i.e. 29.97 fps is denoted as 30000/1001 and 23.976 as 24000/1001.
Answer: in the latest version it is now possible to import mixed framerates


Is It possible to change the side of 0 and 1 in Huffman tree?

Question: When we are constructing the Huffman tree to get the Huffman codes, Is it possible to give "1" to left side and "0" to right side rather than giving "0" to left side and "1" to right side of the tree?
Answer: You can assign the $1$ and $0$ as you like, but be consistent. Only your code change, i.e. a 1011 becomes a 0100.
Comment: when we are decoding how  can we identify which method used for the encoding(0-left method or 0-right method).?
Comment: From the codeword itself you cannot determine the assignment. You need to look into the implementation itself. Most implementations however assign the left-child a $0$ and the right-child a $1$.
Answer: Yes, You can.  But you'll need the Huffman tree to decode since the placing of left child and right child is arbitrary. If you're given an encoded string and ask you to decode, you can't do that since you don't know the exact algorithm which is used in building the Huffman Tree.


Is there a word for describing an author or a text that uses a large variety of words, syntax, idioms, figures of speech, etc.?

Question: I am not only talking about people who manages to use a very colorful language, but someone who also uses a large variety of syntax, idioms, figures of speech, obscure grammar rules, etc, as if they wanted to put everything they knew about a particular language in the text they write. Is there a particular word for this? I am thinking there isn't a particular words for this, but a set of words that are required to describe such a text or person.
Answer: Lexicological perhaps? It's the adjective form of Lexicology, which is the study of words and their usages. Syntax and obscure rules don't really fit, however.
Source
Answer: Descriptions that come to mind are that the text is pretentious or showy and that the author is showing off.
The memorable name Engfish for bad writing comes from an article by Ken Macrorie in his book Telling Writing.

One day a college student stopped a professor in the hall and said, "I have this terrible instructor who says I can't write.  Therefore, I shouldn't teach English.  He really grinds me.  In another class I've been reading James Joyce, so I wrote this little comment on the instructor in Joyce's style. Do you think I should submit it to The Review?"
  The professor looked at the lines she had written about her instructor:

… the stridents in his glass lisdyke him immersely. Day each that we tumble into the glass he sez to mee, "Eets too badly that you someday fright preach Engfish."

and he knew the girl had found a name for the phony, pretentious language of the schools—Engfish.
Most English teachers have been trained to correct students' writing, not to read it; so they put down those bloody correction marks in the margins. When the students see them, they think they mean the teacher doesn't care what students write, only how they punctuate and spell.  So they give him Engfish.  He calls the assignments by their traditional names—themes.  The students know theme writers seldom put down anything that counts for them.  No one outside school ever writes anything called themes.  Apparently they are teacher's exercises, not really a kind of communication.


Why is there liquid at the bottom of my lemon meringue pie?

Question: Why is it that whenever I make a lemon meringue pie, (packaged lemon filling, directions followed EXACTLY), and I cut into it, there is always a puddle of liquid on the bottom? I do use 7 egg whites but I put a bit of cornstarch in to help with the beads of moisture on top. That works, but I don't think that is related to my puddle problem! I have also tried to add the meringue to the lemon filling when it was hot and when it was cold. I have also tried to refrigerate the pie and just leave it on the counter. Still, a puddle! Does anyone have any ideas why I am getting a puddle on the bottom of my pie?
Comment: I think what may be happening is that the acid from the lemon is making the protein in the eggwhite/meringue curl tighter and squeeze water out of the emulsion.  maybe try the corn starch in between the lemon and meringue?
Comment: Do you mean that the puddle is below the bottom crust?
Comment: Was the meringue baked?
Answer: Water seeping from meringue is practically always coming from the egg whites. There are a few standard things you can do to reduce it.
First, do not overbeat. For some reason, recipes love to direct people to beat egg whites "to stiff peaks". These are almost never needed, and can easily lead to self-destructing foam (the proteins continue tightening after the beating, squeezing the water out and creating large, easily-collapsed bubbles). Go for soft peaks at most. I have found that using a high speed setting also helps, and beating per hand almost always leads to weeping, even if stopped early.
Second, use cream of tartar to create a stabler meringue without too much beating.
Third, the cornstarch isn't binding enough of the free water. If you whip less, you will have less free water, but if it is still not enough, you can use something more effective, e.g. xanthan.
Look around the site for more advice against weeping meringue. Also look at the pictures in that answer - the meringue there is for macarons, which are very sensitive to the meringue quality.
Answer: Making pies with  meringue will also weep if the weather is damp or humid. When I make my Lemon meringue pie I always make my meringue first then I cook my lemon and then pour the hot lemon in the crust and put the  meringue on top and throw it right in the oven and seals it. Now if you're using white sugar you can substitute it for icing sugar and that can help also from weeping.
Answer: If despite these good pieces of advise you still experience the issue you can put some almond powder on your crust which will act as a sponge and absorb the excess liquid.


How to find a camera compatible with old Sigma lenses that were used with Pentax MZ50 SLR?

Question: I have some lenses off my old Pentax MZ50 SLR camera, and I would like to buy a new camera body. How do I find a compatible camera?
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Can I use lens brand X on interchangeable lens camera brand Y?](https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/62000/can-i-use-lens-brand-x-on-interchangeable-lens-camera-brand-y)
Comment: New as in actually new, or anything that is digital?
Comment: Usually adapter questions in which a camera has already been chosen are marked as duplicates of the Lens-X/Camera-Y question. While information contained at that question is relevant, no camera has yet been decided upon in this one. So I'm not sure it should be closed as a duplicate (though perhaps unclear or too broad because the specific lenses are not identified and there are a lot of K-mount variants to consider).
Comment: There are a lot of K-mount variants. Can you specify exactly which lenses you have? Do they have autofocus?
Answer: According to Camera Wiki, the Pentax MZ-50/ZX-50 uses KAF2 mount lenses. It likely also works with older (manual focus) K-mount lenses, though beware the Ricoh variant, which has a pin that can get stuck on the screw drive of some Pentax bodies.
There are significant trade-offs in functionality when using old lenses with digital cameras. With old Pentax-branded lenses, it can be worthwhile. However, you have a third-party lens that would likely lose autofocus when adapted. Unless you specifically enjoy using adapted lenses, this is likely not the best way for you to move into digital.
To use your old lenses, your options include:

Using a mirrorless camera with adapter. However, you would lose autofocus and electronic aperture. See Can I use lens brand X on interchangeable lens camera brand Y?
Use a Pentax camera that uses a modern variant of the K mount. There are full-frame DSLR (K-1), APS-C DSLR (K-3 and others), and APS-C mirrorless (K-01) cameras. New models are released regularly, so check to make sure you are looking at the latest ones.

The lenses you have likely require a screwdrive to operate autofocus. Check the specific camera models you're interested in if autofocus matters to you. The following image shows what to look for:

According to Mark Roberts: Pentax Lens/Camera Compatibility, there are some other issues you should be aware of (emphasis added):

Some third-party lenses (Vivitar and others) from the manual focus era have an issue that causes problems with later Pentax cameras: A flange which is meant to protect the diaphragm actuation lever but which is much bigger than is really necessary. If your particular lens has this "feature" it will prevent the lens from being mounted on many Pentax cameras, including all the digital SLR's.
Older versions of the Sigma 24-70 f/3.5-5.6 autofocus lens are incompatible with Pentax Digital SLR's — They won't autofocus or stop down the lens for shooting and have several other issues. Newer versions of this lens are labeled "ASP HF" and should be OK.

See also:

DP Review: The long, difficult road to Pentax full-frame
Pentax K-Mount Lens Series Explained: The differences between various Pentax lens series
Comment: Correction: every Pentax autofocus body, either film or digital (as of August 2019, at least!) has autofocus screw-drive motor built-in, every DSLR after K100D Super has additional contacts for SDM/HSM/PowerZoom functionality, so any Pentax DSLR in the last 12 years will work just fine.
Comment: @elkarrde Thanks. Revised.
Comment: Wonder how a lens could not "autofocus or stop down" on that lens mount (which has *mechanical* stop down and autofocus linkages) unless it isn't even recognized as an electronic lens at all :)
Comment: @rackandboneman – I don't know. I'd guess some type of electronic communication issue. With Minolta AF, even though the electronics aren't really used for anything other than lens identification, the camera will refuse to operate the lens, even though it's in perfect mechanical condition if it can't connect to the lens. There could be similar issues with other mounts.
Answer: Pentax MZ50 uses so-called "crippled" Pentax KAF2 mount, meaning you could use its lens with any Pentax DSLR ever built.
Technically, judging by the camera that lens was being used on, you could probably use whatever Pentax K-mount camera you can find, either digital or analogue, from Russian Zenit 122K, legendary Pentax K1000 and MX, many Ricoh and Chinon models, to modern digital SLRs, mirrorless K-01, and full-frame K-1.
If the camera supports aperture automation, it will work, if the camera supports the KAF2 autofocus protocol, it will work. If it works on MZ50, it will work on any film autofocus body, it will work on any DSLR as well. If the lens has an aperture ring (and it probably does), it will work on all other manual focus cameras with manual focus only.
On the other hand, you can always adapt the lens to other systems, but adapting K-mount lenses means any communication between the camera and the lens is lost, there's no autofocus, there's no aperture control from the camera. Any mirrorless camera will work,  Canon APS-C bodies work just fine, avoid Canon full-frame bodies, the mirror will hit lens aperture levers. Nikon and Sony/Minolta DSLRs aren't compatible. Olympus and Panasonic DSLRs are good to go. As long as the lens has an aperture ring, it can be used in manual mode.

TL;DR: you can use that lens on almost any K-mount camera, film or digital, Pentax or some other brand, as long as it has K-mount.
Answer: Googling seems to indikate that your old camera is using pentax k mount. That mount is still used by pentax dslrs. A quick search found in the swedish market found a new pentax k-50 with a kit lens for 5000 SEK (aprox 500€).
With this camera the lens will physically fit. What is harder to know is if autofocus will work well. On Canon old sigms lenses are known for autofocus trouble but I do not know about the situation for pentax. (Is your lens autofocus electronic or screw drive)
Note also that this is an apsc camera so the field of view will be narrower than on the 35mm film camera.


Apt-mirror monitoring how to?

Question: We have created a local Ubuntu repository using apt-mirror and i must say it has been awesome.
But now one issue that we are facing is that we need to monitor which version of Ubuntu is being accessed more for packages, which packages are being downloaded more and all sort of things.
It would be great if someone could show us the way or just tell us how could we set up a monitoring for apt-mirror.
Answer: You would just need to ensure that you have the right amount of logging setup for Apache2 and then just grep the logs for the information that you want. You would have to know the directory path for the given Ubuntu version. Here's some details for how to customize Apache logging:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/logs.html

Apt-mirror monitoring how to?


Removing dead fish from fish tank on shabbas

Question: If one has a fish tank with many fish, and one of the fish happens to die on shabbas, can one remove the dead fish if the chances are significantly high that other fish in the tank will die because of the dead fish?
Answer: According to Rav Yehoshua Y. Neuwirth z"l, in his work Shemirath Shabbath [Ke'hilchata] (27:29):

a. A fish which has died may be removed from an aquarium, so that the
  other fish should not die, if a considerable financial loss is
  involved.
b. Taking out the dead fish is not a breach of the prohibition against
  selection, since the dead fish cannot be said to be mixed together
  with the live fish.
[If there is a dog or cat in the vicinity, the fish should be fed to
  them].

I note that the above answer seems to assume that leaving the dead fish in the fish tank will endanger the other fish. However this is questioned by some.
See discussion here: Are there health risks to leaving a dead fish in the aquarium?
Comment: I must admit i never expected someone to bring a source that adresse the exact question, this post definitely deserves credit
Comment: Looking at the linked question, it seems one common cause of fish dying is because of disease or parasites.  If there's reason to suspect those you probably shouldn't feed it to a dog or cat.
Comment: The OP there writes: "... fish might die simply because they get old, or have a shorter life-span due to its condition before being sold to you, or because some other fish had a fight with it. - If only one fish died, without white / black spots, no sign of fungus or parasites, no alteration in the gills, I usually rule out diseases of environmental problems".