Purgatory - is it a place or state?

Question: According to Catholicism, does purgatory refer to a place or state? Has it ever been described as a place and then later a state, or vice-versa?
Comment: Humorously enough I think it's neither, for both are far too static. Purgatory is truly a process.
Comment: Related: http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/is-heaven-a-place-or-only-a-state-of-mind
Comment: What research have you done so far, and what have you found out?  This question reflects a fundamental lack of research.
Answer: To the best of my knowledge, the details of purgatory have never been set out in an official Vatican document (like a papal bull, council decree, etc.). The magisterium of the church is somewhat vague on this point. (For some well-cited reading on various aspects of purgatory, see New Advent's Catholic Encyclopedia.)
Somewhat recently, however, Pope Benedict tried to shine some light on the matter. In a January 2011 talk about St. Catherine of Genoa, author of a treatise on purgatory, the pope agreed with the saint's conviction that "purgatory was not a place, but a process."

"'The soul that is aware of the immense love and perfect justice of God consequently suffers for not having responded correctly and perfectly to that love,' the pope said, adding that the suffering is purgatory."
Answer: In an appendix to Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica, Jean Nicolai, a 17th-century commentator on Aquinas, states that not much can be said about Purgatory, but he seems to imply that it is a place:

Nothing is clearly stated in Scripture about the situation of Purgatory, nor is it possible to offer convincing arguments on this question. It is probable, however, and more in keeping with the statements of holy men and the revelations made to many, that there is a twofold place of Purgatory. one, according to the common law; and thus the place of Purgatory is situated below and in proximity to hell, so that it is the same fire which torments the damned in hell and cleanses the just in Purgatory; although the damned being lower in merit, are to be consigned to a lower place.

(Appendix 2, Question 1, Article 2)
At the same time, however, the Catechism of the Catholic Church seems to speak of it as a process or state:

All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect.

(paragraphs 1030–1031)

Every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory.

(paragraph 1472; emphasis added)
Pope St. John Paul II appears to have agreed:

Every trace of attachment to evil must be eliminated, every imperfection of the soul corrected. Purification must be complete, and indeed this is precisely what is meant by the Church's teaching on purgatory. The term does not indicate a place, but a condition of existence.

("General Audience of 4 August 1999", paragraph 5)
Finally, a 1979 letter of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith gave a salutary warning:

When dealing with man's situation after death, one must especially beware of arbitrary imaginative representations: excess of this kind is a major cause of the difficulties that Christian faith often encounters. Respect must however be given to the images employed in the Scriptures. Their profound meaning must be discerned, while avoiding the risk of over-attenuating them, since this often empties of substance the realities designated by the images.
Neither Scripture nor theology provides sufficient light for a proper picture of life after death. Christians must firmly hold the two following essential points: on the one hand they must believe in the fundamental continuity, thanks to the power of the Holy Spirit, between our present life in Christ and the future life (charity is the law of the Kingdom of God and our charity on earth will be the measure of our sharing in God's glory in heaven); on the other hand they must be clearly aware of the radical break between the present life and the future one, due to the fact that the economy of faith will be replaced by the economy of fullness of life: we shall be with Christ and "we shall see God" (cf. 1 Jn 3:2), and it is in these promises and marvellous mysteries that our hope essentially consists. Our imagination may be incapable of reaching these heights, but our heart does so instinctively and completely.

("Letter on Certain Questions Concerning Eschatology", 17 May 1979)
Thus, it seems the appropriate answer is: The Catholic Church believes that we don't have enough information to talk with complete accuracy about the nature of life after death, perhaps including the decision whether Purgatory is a place or a state; it has used both descriptions as they have seemed appropriate, and most recently has tended towards descriptions as a state.
Answer: The section Catholic Doctrine in the article Purgatory | New Advent has:

Purgatory (Lat., "purgare", to make clean, to purify) in accordance
  with Catholic teaching is a place or condition of temporal
  punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are, not
  entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the
  satisfaction due to their transgressions.

Therefore this article says Catholic Doctrine teaches that purgatory is a place or condition [state].

From my answer to What was St. Thomas Aquinas's view on the difference between punishment accorded to original sin and punishment accorded to individual sin? | Manwe Elder, St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of souls going to "abodes" and hence to him they go to places.
Answer: Purgatory is a place and a process. If you die in a state of grace, you go to Heaven. That doesn't mean you go directly to Heaven. If you still have some venial sin left in your soul, you make a pitstop in Purgatory to get the res of your sins out of your soul. "Nothing defiled can enter Heaven." (Apocalypse 21:27)
Comment: @Nathaniel CCC [1030-1032](http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_P2N.HTM); [1472](http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_P4G.HTM). user20202, you may want to add these references into your answer as corroboration.
Comment: Welcome! Sadly, this answer seems to just express your opinion.  It would be much stronger if you demonstrated that it reflects the teaching of Catholicism, as requested in the question.  I hope you'll take a minute to learn [how this site is different from others](http://meta.christianity.stackexchange.com/a/1809/21576), and review [how to write a good, supported answer](http://meta.christianity.stackexchange.com/q/692/21576).
Comment: @Nathaniel  User 20202 is offering answer without as much support as we usually prefer.   Hopefully, an edit to include sources will be forthcoming.  Please, User20202, provide support from the Catechism that supports your answer.   That's how we roll here: supported answers.
Answer: There is a famous story in the Bible from which it could be inferred that purgatory is not necessary for salvation. The complicated theological issue of purgatory's existence - which is the central theme of your question ("is it a place or state") - could therefore be avoided.
On Mount Calvary, one of the two thieves - sinners till the end of their lives -  cried out to Jesus:

And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23: 42 – 43)

The Greek for "today" is σήμερον, sémeron, which according to Strong's Concordance, also means "now". Jesus answering in the affirmative implies He had had His Father's confirmation of salvation for both of them at that instant, whilst they were still alive.
It is our complete faith in Christ that saves us, as per the exhortations of Paul the Apostle (Romans 10:8–10, New KJV):

But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:8–10)
Comment: Thank you for the advice. Much appreciated. I do not mean to argue for or against the existence of purgatory for the very reason you mention, but merely points to a well-known biblical event that implies that purgatory - whether it exists or not, which is the heart of the question - is not necessary.  It avoids the complicated existential issue, with even me, a Catholic, grapples with.  I have thus revised my answer as such, and as advised. My apology if I did not answer the question directly.
Comment: No worries, thanks for taking the time to revise and explain that.   Previous comment is removed.

Purgatory - is it a place or state?


How do I use shape keys to bake a soft body animation?

Question: I want to bake the soft body animation that can be placed in unity or unreal.
I also need the animation to loop. I know that you can you do loop key frames in graph editor. Is that possible with shape keys?
Comment: there is some issue with location transform, when origin is not set to 0,0,0. The imported mesh will be allocated.
Answer: To convert a Soft Body animation into shape keys you can use the MDD importer/exporter. The Export option exports the soft body animation to a file and the Import option imports the file into a set of shape keys, along with keyframes to automatically control the shape keys to maintain the animation.
First, use the User Preferences option to enable the MDD importer/exporter addon by opening the Add-ons tab, typing 'MDD' into the search and enabling the Import-Export: NewTek MDD format add-on.

Next, select your soft-body object and use the 'File/Export/Lightwave Point Cache (.mdd)' option, specifying a filename to export the animation to.
Once exported, use the 'File/Import/Lightwave Point Cache (.mdd)' option to import the animation. This will create a set of shapekeys with keyframes. The keyframes automatically adjust the shape keys influence so as to activate/deactivate them to animate through the frames of the animation. At this point you can remove the Soft Body simulation.

You can adjust the keyframes on the shape keys to effectively 'blend' the animation at the start/end.
Here is a fantastic answer which uses a similar technique except that it uses a Mesh Cache modifier in place of the 'Import' step. By using two modifiers (with offset frames) the animation can be more easily blended at the start/end of the animation : https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/10661/29586
Comment: thank you so much!!! i got it to work! i really appreciate the answer!
Comment: @NicolaSap Afraid not - although it would be feasible to write a script to remove all but every nth shape key and adjust the keyframing to blend between frames to interpolate.
Comment: @Ste I don't know about the speed of the mdd import/export, but you can also continuously [apply the modifier as a shapekey](https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/107678/30849).
Comment: not at the computer right now but does the import add-on support cache with a stride? (saved every nth frame). Since it's a lot of shape keys, some simulations where nothing changes abruptly could use some interpolation


What are good games to play during a one-hour lunch break?

Question: On any given day we can have any number of players, up to ten, so that's not a limitation. Keep in mind that setup, play and packing up needs to be done in the hour. My coworkers are all experienced board gamers, so complexity is not an issue.
Comment: It's not every day I see "this is ok because the question has no right answer" used in defense of a question
Comment: I'm not sure if this falls in the realm of answering your own question too quickly or seeding questions/answers (see  meta discussion here:  http://meta.boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/270/asking-a-question-you-already-know-the-answer-to-or-padding-out-the-site-with-q/272#272).  Also, where's the fun in answering when you've already submitted three answers yourself?
Comment: I don't think it falls under the thread mentioned. I think that was referring to answering questions that could have a definitive answer.
Maybe this should be marked CW. I'd be OK with that, though admittedly I've lost track of what is and isn't considered CW anymore.
Would it have been better if I had said in my question: we already play Pandemic, Dominion and Bang!? That's what people normally do, but I've never liked that because it discourages people from posting those answers. Those are viable answers which should get voted on.
Comment: @LittleBobbyTables Not trying to be argumentative, but is it any less fun than answering the question after three other people have answered? I've never quite understood the concern over people answering their own questions, but if it's an issue I'll happily delete them.
Comment: @Michael Well, if opinion type questions are allowed (which we have many of) then I think it's a perfectly good defense. If they are not allowed then that's another issue. :)
Comment: @Michael Technically though, it wasn't used in defense of the question, it was used in defense of the answers. ;)
Comment: Answers have been removed since there's some disagreement. I still consider this an open issue though. I'll bring it up on Meta.
Answer: Dominion is a great game for lunch. It's  the only strategy game I can think of with a playtime under a half hour. We can often get through two rounds during lunch at my office.
Comment: I should note you are limited to four players without the Intrigue expansion, and six with it.  Also note that playing with four or more players, the game may take a little longer, usually around 45 minutes.  But with the expansion or a couple copies of the game, it's easy to play multiple side-by-side games.
Answer: Fluxx
This is another card game that's really simple to set up.  I find that I play better when I'm not fully paying attention - always a consideration when food is involved.  It theoretically supports as many people as you want (the wiki page says 2-6, but I've played many games with more).  You should be able to complete somewhere between 0 and 12 games in a one-hour lunch.
Comment: I find Fluxx irritating to play because it's so chaotic.
Comment: @Don, that's why I like it so much.  It's fun to watch everyone's heads explode trying to make sense of all the rules.
Comment: @Don Its just a dynamic game, that's one of the coolest things about it, it doesn't stay the same for more than a few turns. :)
Answer: So where i work we are between 5 and 8 depending on the days to play every lunchtime for around 1h. For now my impression are (Roughly sorted from best to worse but including only the good ones) :
Citadels
It's one of the first game we played and still a hit in our group. There is a good level of strategy, medium amount of chance and great level of interaction between players.
One of the problem we had was the total time of the game that could vary a lot if you have players taking a long time to choose a character (There is a lot of strategy in this choice as if you are too greedy and so predictible you will either end dead or without any gold). We solved it by imposing a fixed 45s time to select a character.
The game need at least 5 players to begin being really fun.
The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow
Always a big hit, it's easy to play, need nearly nothing (The cards could be contained in a pocket) each round is fast and being dead is as fun as being alive as you could see how good liars the others are... There is a big amount of strategy, small amound of randomness and very hight amount of interaction between players.
The only problem of this game is that the number of players required for it to be fun is 8 and it require a non playing game master so our group is not often big enough to play it.
Kaker Laken Poker
We play it nearly every day after another game when we have time. It's a pure bluff, small amount of randomness, small amount of strategy, good amount of player interaction game.
It could be played in 10-15min without problems even with 7 players (Even if the box say 6 max)
The rule that there is one losser and all the others win make it really interesting as every one try to attack the player that is losing, making him lose more xD
Bang!
One of the game we play the most even with it's problems as all players in our group like it and it became the default solution when game choice is too complex (due to one or two players refusing to play some other games this day)
The game is fun with lot of interaction between players, lot of randomness, and a moderate amount of strategy.
The big problem of bang is it's randomness making some games very fast (Sherif with 4 life points near billy the kid with 4 bangs in hand being against him) and others very long. Also one player could die really fast and watch the other continue to play for a long time, witch is not fun at all.
Regarding the time to play on lunchtime you absolutely must get one of the extensions adding the one special rule per turn cards (Fistfull of cards or High Noon). As the number of extension cards is selected at start and the last one is fatal really fast for everyone it put an upper value to the number of turns possible. 8 cards for a 45min game with 6 players is a good bet for example. (6 players being one of the configuration that work the best)
The link to boardgamegeek.com on the title point to the bullet that contain everything you may need.
We currently played with only one green card authorized as otherwise it allow someone to protect himself too much and remove claus the saint from the game as it take too much time to play.
Dixit
Except for one of our player that doesn't have any immagination this game is really great and a lot of fun especially if you know the players you play with as you will tailor what you say for some of them to get the hint and others to miss it. Sometimes it work and sometimes you discover that everyone read the news yesterday and go your hint or that they all know the nearly unknow actor that you named...
The game is fast enough to play on lunchtime (The number of points or number of turns to win could be chosen depending on available play time), the maximum number of players is 6 (Playing with 3 or 4 players could be done but it is really less interesting, it should be limited to 5 or 6 players).
There is a small amount of randomness, moderate amount of reflection and no direct interaction between players outside of the narator/non-narator separation.
The box is uselessly big but could be discarded as a simple paper or a white-board is better to count points anyway.
Saboteur
Fun, easy to play, pretty fast (as the array of cards is fixed, the time don't really depends on the number of player and stay around 20 minutes) playeable up to 10 players. It's a great game for lunchtime.
The game have a high amount of randomness and player interaction and small amount of strategy for miners / great amount of strategy for saboteurs.
We always play without a random amount of saboteurs as getting only one nearly assure that he will lose.
Munchkin
If the number of player is limited to 4 or 5 it could be played in 1h (more and it's too long) and the game is really fun with lot of interaction between players (Playing a +10 levels to a monster the other player used all it's bonus to be able to kill is allways so much fun) a good amount of randomness and a little bit of strategy.
Some of our players don't like this game as the rules are not really well defined sometimes and lot of cards change them. It's also the only game where some editions explain that cheating is authorized (There is a rule for what happens to you if someone notice) and that if there is a debate the player owning the box decide the outcome :D
Ivanhoe / Camelot
The game is simple but there is finally a good amount of strategy as well as randomness and there are a moderate amount of player interactions. It's pretty fast so it could be played multiple times in one hour. The game is great at 4 players.
Linq
Good game of bluff and guess-who-i-am with a small amount of randomness, big amount of strategy and moderate amount of interaction between players. It could be played up to 8 players according to the box but more is ok. The rounds are very fast to play and you could do as many as you want.

Games for two players follow we don't play them as often so i separate them. It's good to have them to be able to split the group.
Gosu
Basically an alternative to magic. Very strategic and interesting but should be limited to 2 players for lunchtime games as more players is too long, getting well over 1h.
Mr. Jack Pocket
Really great nearly pure reflection game for two players. The game is small to transport and could be played in 30min without problem (The time depends a lot on the reflection time of each player, as with chess a time limit for reflection is sometime usefull)
Comment: I like this answer a lot, but I'd prefer if it were actually many smaller answers so I could upvote the games individually.
Comment: Great answer.  I love the mini-reviews with each one!
Comment: How can you possibly play a game of werewolf in a half hour? We usually need at least 3 hours for a game of mafia (which is actually nearly the same).
Answer: Magic: The Gathering
My co-workers and I regularly play Magic over our lunch break. Setup time is minimal, and the game scales well from 2-6 players.
With 4-6 players, we often have time for two games; with 2-3 players, three or four games.
Having 10 people play at once might make the game run too long, though. In that case, I'd recommend splitting everyone up into two groups of 5.
Comment: @CrazyJugglerDrummer Anyone who introduces a new player to Magic by handing them a terrible deck and then proceeding to crush them with  a finely-tuned Type I monstrosity is a cad and a scoundrel!  I agree though that it's hard for an enthusiastic new player with $30 worth of cards total to go up against a semi-pro, but this goes for Chess, Scrabble... most games really!
Comment: Upvoted because I don't really understand why people go so crazy for Dominion and not for Magic (except for the fact that Magic is perceived as a huge money sink, of course).  Magic has a much quicker setup time than Dominion - if you've got some preconstructed decks with you, of course - and as such feels like a better lunch-hour game to me!
Comment: @thesunneversets Magic is really good for experienced players, but not so much for new players, just because there's so many cards. Beginners at magic get a deck of cards shoved at them and often have to battle an experienced player's carefully pruned arsenal. Granted lack of skill is going to be a disadvantage at any game, but in other games all the strategy happens during the play, not in building a deck beforehand. Still love Magic to death though. Its by far the best trading card game.
Answer: Race For The Galaxy
This is the default game for our group when under time constraints.  It's very complex for it's play time (20-45) minutes, often making you feel like you've played a game twice its actual length.  As such, it's also very rewarding.  Plus, there are multiple expansions if you wish to explore the game further, and they still keep the play time to under an hour.  The expansions also let the expand the number of players from 4 to eventually 6.  Because of the simultaneous turn mechanic, the game time is not usually lengthened by adding more players.  Just be warned that the first (learning) game will take much longer.  Our first game almost 2 hours, the very next game was 20 minutes.
Comment: IMHO Race for the galaxy don't contain enough interaction between players to be really fun it's mostly a race for victory points.
Comment: That's a valid concern.  That was the case when our group first started playing.  However now the group tries to anticipate what phase each player will pick in order to take advantage of phases you don't call.  Also, this nature of game allows much more table talk in terms of strategy without tipping your hand.  We enjoy that aspect of it a lot, as it's missing from many of our other games.
Answer: 7 Wonders
Though there's a bit of setup it's still reasonably quick, and you get a lot of meaty gameplay in 30-45 minutes. It's designed for 3-7 players and has a very solid 2-player variant included (2-player takes longer than 3-7, be forewarned).
Answer: Euchre
It's dead simple to set up and easy to learn.  I worked in a office where we regularly had two games going every day.  Anyone was welcome to play, just sit down and deal.  We usually could play two full games (to 10 points) in a one-hour lunch break.
As a bonus (having just now skimmed the wikipedia page), there are apparently variations for 6 or 8 players if you need to support more people.
Comment: We would play this every day during lunch while I was in High School
Answer: We have started playing Carcassonne during our lunch breaks. Generally lasts about 40-50 minutes including set up and tear down.
Answer: My coworkers and I would get great mileage off our Cribbage set during lunch breaks. An average game would last us 35 minutes or so.
Answer: We've played a lot of Wizard, the card game. A full game (one card up to ten, then back down again) is sometimes a little too long, but its easy to shorten.
Answer: Khet
It's for two players only, but most games only take 30 mins or so and the rules can easily be picked up in 5 minutes.
Answer: It might be too simple for an experienced group, but Apples to Apples is great for lunch breaks, particularly as you can add / remove people as needed.
It's dead simple, so it's easy to get new people involved, and the only real requirement is to have ~4 people.  I've played it with groups as large as 9 before ... 10 shouldn't be a problem.
The only problem I've run into with the games is that at my current place of work, there's a fair number of people who didn't grow up in the U.S. and aren't native english speakers, so some of the cultural references (mostly people) are difficult for them.
Comment: Apples to Apples is really friendly for beginners, but if the players are more experienced and want a strategical challenge instead of a 95% luck-fest, it's not the best choice.
Comment: @CrazyJugglerDrummer: there's a little strategy to Apples to Apples, but it's all about figuring out the personalities of the people you're playing with, and not necessarily learning complex rules and how to exploit them.
Answer: If we go with the 'lunch' theme, although it only scales to 8 people with the expansion pack is the card game Lunch Money.
Comment: Lunch Money is fun, but i don't know if it is the version we have but nothing is written on the cards and you need to either learn all the (pretty complex) rules or get a paper version of it for everyone.
Answer: I got beaten to recommending 7 Wonders, which certainly fits your needs (7 players, ~40 minutes), so consider this a +1.
If you like Dominion, consider AEG's Thunderstone.  Deck-building, with a dungeon-delving theme.
Steve Jackson Games' Zombie Dice and Cthulhu Dice are decent for large groups.  Of the two, I prefer Zombie Dice, as it has a bit more decision-making and agency.
...while we're on dice games, there's Roll Through The Ages  It's only up to 4 players, but it plays in an hour or less and conveys an enjoyable civ-building experience.
If you're okay with print-and play games, I made two that might fit the bill: Office Gossip ( http://www.invisible-city.com/play/435/office-politics ) is a Werewolf-style game that doesn't need a player to sit out and be the narrator – everyone gets to play.  Uncontrolled Squid ( http://www.invisible-city.com/play/211/uncontrolled-squid ) is a team-based contested bidding game – all you need are standard Poker decks (1 per four players).
Edit: One more suggestion – Prolix from Z-Man Games is a word game for 1 to 5 players that plays quickly, is very portable, and is quite fun.  The premise: Think of a word that uses as many of the (ten?) letters on the scoring board.
Answer: Blokus is an outstanding game that's also very easy to track down, as it's available in most big-box stores. Each player gets an assortment of Tetris-like pieces in a single color, and must place one per turn if they can. Each piece placed must touch at least one piece of that color - but only at the corners. That's pretty much it for the rules, but this is a tense experience with quite a bit of depth and no randomness.
The biggest downside is that it's very clearly designed to be a 4 player game (though I'm told that there are a couple of 2-player variants that are worthwhile). I haven't played it, but I've been told that Blokus Trigon works well for 3 players.
Comment: Adding multiple answers to one question is strongly discouraged.  Please condense your answers.  We prefer to vote on answers, not individual items or games.  Thanks!
Comment: Sure, I'll take care of that. I thought one answer per game was what people were looking for here based on one of the comments above, on the answer that starts with Citadels.
Answer: I used to enjoy The Queen's Necklace BGG. It provides an interesting and variable play experience in about 45 minutes. You can play it online to try it out, too. Check the Days of Wonder site. I think there's a link from the BGG page.
Comment: Finding opponents in the online play is often quite a test of patience, since the online version ONLY plays 3-player. The game is best, IMO, at 4p, as well.
Answer: For Sale
Just played for the first time last week. If you have experienced board gamers, it probably wouldn't be something you play every day, but a game only takes about 15 minutes, and as soon as it's over, players are usually eager to play another.
It's an auction game that is themed on buying and selling real estate. Players start with money that's used to bid on houses of varying values (with art ranging from doghouses to mansions). After the houses have been purchased, players then enter a second round of bidding for more money, and bid with their purchased houses from the first round.
We had mix of experienced gamers and newbies, and it was just as well received by both. 3-6 players.
Comment: Can you give us an idea of the theme of the game?
Answer: Quarriors is coming out this wednesday and it's a short "deck" building game, except dice are used.
It's very portable which is an added bonus.
Answer: We've played Bang, Citadels, and Race for the Galaxy during our lunch break. Bang has the plus/minus of having people get removed from the game before the game ends.
Comment: You might want to add some information on **why** each of these makes a good lunchtime game. You might also
Answer: How about Are You the Traitor?  No setup to speak of, socially dynamic, and the play is rapid paced and doesn't require careful tracking of past events/actions/state (a plus when people are distracted by food).
Answer: For two players, we have played Dominion - with and without an expansion.  We have also played some of the Gipf project games, although they are only two player and both people will need to stay focused to finish the game.  Short setup time and quick teardown mean most of the time can be spent playing.
Other options are more "traditional" games - I saw Euchre recommended.  Shanghai/Hollywood rummy (or any of the rummies) can be played usually in under an hour, and because they have "hands", you can play over a few days if necessary.  Also, since it is just shuffling to setup, it is a quick setup.  :)
Answer: Treehouse - quick, pretty much as many players as you want, setup is easy, take down is easy. Not presently available from the manufacturer (Looney Labs) because they are changing their packaging, but you can probably still find sets in local game stores, or wait a bit for their new packaging.
Answer: There's a new game from a new company that might fit the bill, except it's only for 4 players. The game is called Launch Pad, and the company Stratus Games.
Launch pad is a simple quick strategy game that involves building rockets, and preventing others from building them. It's a lot of fun.
As for a game that would involve so many people, well, Bang is probably your best bet, and that's a really quick game. It works best with a lot of people, although it does have the disadvantage of having some people sit around with nothing to do for some time, as there are players eliminated early on in the game.
Answer: We usually did settlers of catan at the last place I worked at, although our group was limited up to six people. Always good for quickly killing off an hour.
Answer: Starfire
Starfire, played as a tactical game, is fast and pretty good for multiple players. Some prep needs be done outside play, namely ship sheets, but with experienced players, a fleet battle can be played in under an hour with a dozen ships on a side or more.
I've played a roughly 30-ship per side battle in 35 minutes before, tho' both I and the other player had counters bagged before hand, and fleets done up and printed out before hand.
Man To Man and The Fantasy Trip's Melee and Wizard
The GURPS combat system was released as a board game, entitled Man to Man. It's pretty fast playing, and very tactical.
Likewise, SJ's prior RPG, the Fantasy Trip, was released as two board games and a roleplaying expansion. The board games, entitled Melee and Wizard, sold quite well. Both are extremely tactical, and some copies keep surfacing in new or like new condition regularly. A later revision, Dragons of Underearth, was a board game with full RPG-style character generation, but limited skill and spell selections.
It's very possible with either to play out a multiplayer game in 30-45 minutes.
Full Thrust
With 1 ship per player, Full Thrust plays VERY quickly. It's a miniatures game of space combat. The Babylon 5 version used 12-sided counters; there is no reason one can't make similar ones for the canon FT races. I've played multi-sided battles with novice players in 30-45 minutes, to conclusion.
Note that the rules are available in PDF for free from the GZG website; the link is to the downloads page.
If you can find the Chameleon Eclectic Babylon Project EarthForce Source Book, it includes a Babylon-5 themed version of the rules.
Answer: If you've ever got just one other player or split into a group of 2, Memoir '44 is a great game. It's a WWII-themed game that's scenario-based, with 16 coming in the box and more available on the publisher's website (you can also create your own, if you're feeling ambitious). Not all of the scenarios are balanced between the Axis and the Allies, but the publisher's site has win/loss percentages for each scenario based on logged plays, so I've been using that data as a handicap to balance the matches when my experience doesn't match my opponents.
Setup looks intimidating, but I played my first game, including setup and rules explanation, in about 45 minutes. There are also rules to play on two teams with up to 8 people if you've got expansions and/or two copies of the base game; I haven't tried this, but I've read that it takes more than an hour, so that might not work for a lunch thing.
Answer: Coloretto is probably the best short game I've ever played - most games should take no more than 15 minutes to play. It's a card game in which you're trying to collect cards in different color groups. The more cards you have in any given color, the more points that group is worth at the end of the game - but only 3 colors (chosen at the end) count as positive points, and any other groups count as negative points. It's very simple to play and is the only game I've played I'd recommend without hesitation to anyone who has never played a "hobby" board game before.
The same designer later released Zooloretto, which is a board game adaptation that adds a little bit of complexity and playing time (though still straightforward and would still be appropriate for lunchtime board games) that I think is equally good. I'd probably always recommend Coloretto first, since it's cheaper, faster to play and more portable, but if you like Coloretto and/or want something with a little bit more depth to it, Zooloretto is also worth checking out.
Answer: I'll join Josh in recommending Magic the Gathering, and I did used to play that over lunch.
Also, while only for 2 players, a 13x13 Go game is normally well under a half hour if everyone maintains a decent play rate.


the sunlight that streams into a room through the window

Question: Is there a word for "the sunlight that streams into a room through the window, or a crack in the curtain or through a skylight"
Comment: This question has been asked before, but I can't seem to find it yet. In the meantime, closely related: [English equivalent of komorebi (木漏れ日) — "sunshine filtering through leaves"](http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/181055/english-equivalent-of-komorebi-%E6%9C%A8%E6%BC%8F%E3%82%8C%E6%97%A5-sunshine-filtering-through-leaves)
Answer: These are also called shafts of light

Shaft: 5. Something suggestive of a spear or arrow in appearance or configuration, as:
  a. A ray or beam of light.1

From Shakespeare: The Two Traditions:

A shaft of light falls on the scene as the young-looking Fortinbras enters...

1 American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Answer: How about sunbeams or rays of sunlight? The meaning of these terms is a little broader than the specific context you're talking about, but I can't think of a better word.
Sunbeam here is defined as:

a beam, ray, or stream of sunlight.
Answer: Crepuscular ray, while technically a reference to twilight sun, is often used figuratively for rays of sunshine in other situations.
Comment: I don't think many ordinary native speakers of English know the word "crepuscular" unless they are weather enthusiasts.
Answer: How about streaks of sunlight? Google Books

streak:  a narrow band of light M-W

Alternately, you might want to consider streams and flickers [of sunlight]. Google Books

stream: a ray of light M-W
flicker: a wavering light M-W

bars, bands, and strips are also possible options. Ngram
Answer: An additional term is god rays, often used as a synonym of crepuscular rays in particular.
It is regularly used in the gaming industry to refer to the capability of a graphical engine to render volumetric lighting, by means of which light is seemingly scattered when travelling through non-solid objects (like air).
Although I believe it is commonly known in the CGI world, neither Merriam-Webster, Collins nor Dictionary.com have an entry for this term. Wikipedia's Sunbeams page seems to be the most prominent semi-authoritative website mentioning the phrase.


audio volume low after installing new motherboard

Question: I installed a new motherboard very recently. Everything is working fine, but the sound volume has become very low. the volume is not very high even after setting full volume. what should i do?
Comment: What hardware? What OS?
Answer: Ensure that the latest drivers for your motherboard's onboard audio are installed.
Ensure that the sound settings in the Windows Sound Mixer (if you're using Windows) are set to 100% volume. You could also try this fix if you're running Windows 7.
It is possible that your motherboard's onboard audio puts out less power than your previous motherboard's. You could always purchase another sound card or an external amplifier to increase output power.


Are there any rabbinic writings which attribute controlling angels and demons to King Solomon?

Question: I saw an article claiming rabbinic literature spoke of Solomon controlling angels and demons. I'm not sure of the truth to the claim and was wanting to know if there are any rabbinic sources which claim this.
Comment: See [this link](http://www.jstor.org/stable/1451281?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents)
Answer: Yes. For example, Exodus Rabbah (30:16)

וכמה רוחות ושדים כבש שלמה
And Solomon captured numerous spirits and demons.

There is also a lengthy passage in Gittin 68a about Solomon and demons, that begins:

I gat me sharim and sharoth, and the delights of the sons of men, Shidah and shidoth. (Eccl. II. 8) 'Sharim and Sharoth', means diverse kinds of music; 'the delights of the sons of men' are ornamental pools and baths. 'Shidah and shidoth': Here [in Babylon] they translate as male and female demons. In the West [Palestine] they say [it means] carriages.
R. Johanan said: There were three hundred kinds of demons in Shihin, but what a shidah is I do not know.
The Master said: Here they translate 'male and female demons'.
Comment: You may be interested in Kohelet Rabbah to 2:8 which gives a further interpretation to Sharim, Sharot, Shiddah, Shiddot:  "עשיתי לי שרים ושרות" משוררים זכרים משוררות נקבות. "שדה ושדות", דיינין זכרים ודיינות נקבות.
Comment: @DoubleAA Interesting. Related: http://seforim.blogspot.com/2012/02/answers-to-quiz-questions-and-other.html.
Comment: Ebn Ezra also is interesting
Comment: The pseudepigraphical text "The Testament of Solomon" deals entirely with this question, and lists by name the demons Solomon purportedly brought under his control. The text's authorship, however, is disputed, and its source is possibly Greek. One translation: http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/testamen.htm
Comment: @mttpgn Very interesting!
Answer: The Agada says he used demons
Gittin  68a:

R`Johanan said: There were three hundred kinds of demons in Shihin, but what a shidah is I do not know.
  The Master said: Here they translate 'male and female demons'.
  For what did Solomon want them? - As indicated in the verse, And the house when it was in building was made of stone made ready at the quarry, [there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building]; He said to the Rabbis, How shall I manage [without iron tools]? - They replied, There is the shamir which Moses brought for the stones of the ephod.
  He asked them, Where is it to be found? - They replied, Bring a male and a female demon and tie them together; perhaps they know and will tell you.
  So he brought a male and a female demon and tied them together.
  They said to him, We do not know, but perhaps Ashmedai the prince of the demons knows.
  He said to them, Where is he? - They answered, He is in such-and-such a mountain.
  He has dug a pit there, which he fills with water and covers with a stone, which he then seals with his seal.
  Every day he goes up to heaven and studies in the Academy of the sky and then he comes down to earth and studies in the Academy of the earth, and then he goes and examines his seal and opens [the pit] and drinks and then closes it and seals it again and goes away.
  Solomon thereupon sent thither Benaiahu son of Jehoiada, giving him a chain on which was graven the [Divine] Name and a ring on which was graven the Name and fleeces of wool and bottles of wine.
  Benaiahu went and dug a pit lower down the hill and let the water flow into it and stopped [the hollow] With the fleeces of wool, and he then dug a pit higher up and poured the wine into it and then filled up the pits.
  He then went and sat on a tree.
  When Ashmedai came he examined the seal, then opened the pit and found it full of wine.
  He said, it is written, Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whosoever erreth thereby is not wise, and it is also written, Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the understanding.
  I will not drink it.
  Growing thirsty, however, he could not resist, and he drank till he became drunk, and fell asleep.
  Benaiahu then came down and threw the chain over him and fastened it.
  When he awoke he began to struggle, whereupon he [Benaiahu] said, The Name of thy Master is upon thee, the Name of thy Master is upon thee.
  As he was bringing him along, he came to a palm tree and rubbed against it and down it came.
  He came to a house and knocked it down.
  He came to the hut of a certain widow.
  She came out

See this link     ,  if you read hebrew see this
Comment: How come he was allowed to do this? Is this a good thing or might it be considered magic and divination?
Comment: @EzraHoerster Note that this is an aggadic passage; not a halakhic one...
Answer: Although he was not a rabbi, Josephus the Jewish historian of the first century says the following in Antiquities of the Jews viii. 2, section 5:

God also enabled him to learn that skill which expels demons, which is a
  science useful and sanative to men. He composed such incantations
  also by which distempers are alleviated. And he left behind him the
  manner of using exorcisms, by which they drive away demons, so
  that they never return; and this method of cure is of great force unto
  this day; for I have seen a certain man of my own country, whose
  name was Eleazar, releasing people that were demoniacal in the
  presence of Vespasian, and his sons, and his captains, and the
  whole multitude of his soldiers. The manner of the cure was this: He
  put a ring that had a Foot of one of those sorts mentioned by
  Solomon to the nostrils of the demoniac, after which he drew out the
  demon through his nostrils; and when the man fell down
  immediately, he abjured him to return into him no more, making still
  mention of Solomon, and reciting the incantations which he
  composed. And when Eleazar would persuade and demonstrate to
  the spectators that he had such a power, he set a little way off a cup
  or basin full of water, and commanded the demon, as he went out of
  the man, to overturn it, and thereby to let the spectators know that
  he had left the man; and when this was done, the skill and wisdom of
  Solomon was shown very manifestly.


What should I set my aperture to when there's a lot of light outside?

Question: I'm just looking for a simple reminder when it comes to aperture, such as: when there's a lot of light in the atmosphere where a photo is exposed, the aperture should be low, or something. The more light, the lower the aperture - something like that, but in the correct sense because I'm still not sure about it.
Comment: Also related - look up the [Sunny 16](https://photo.stackexchange.com/q/54274/44928) rule.
Comment: What do you want the resulting photo to look like? Shallow depth of field where only the subject is in focus? Very deep depth of field where everything is in focus?
Comment: You should use the correct aperture, the one that will give you the correct exposure for the particular amount of light at the moment you want to take a photograph. This is accomplished by taking a meter reading of the scene and then setting your camera appropriately.
Answer: While the aperture does control the amount of light being let through the lens, I'd say it's primary purpose it to control for depth of field.
For example, let's say that you're using the Sunny 16 rule. Assuming ISO 100 to start, you'd have:

Aperture: f/16
Shutter: 1/100 (or 1/125)
ISO: 100

This would stick you with a very large depth of field. Let's further assume that you want to shoot a shallow depth of field, say f/2.8. Your settings would change to:

Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter: 1/4000
ISO: 100

As you can see by the above example, a f/2.8 aperture can be used just as easily as a f/16 aperture in big, bright sun. As you can also see - changing the aperture resulted in a necessary change in the shutter speed (or ISO).
So, there is no rule that anyone can give you for aperture. Instead, you should refer to learning more about the Exposure Triangle.
Answer: If ISO/sensitivity and shutter time both remain constant, you want a smaller aperture in brighter light and a wider aperture in dimmer light.
We usually express the aperture in terms of an f-number. An f-number is the focal length of the lens divided by the width of the entrance pupil (the aperture as seen through the front of the lens) expressed with the numerator as "1" over the f-number. Smaller apertures have higher numbers, such as f/16 or f/22, and wider apertures have lower numbers such as f/1.4 or f/2. This is because 1/16 or 1/22 is smaller than 1/1.4 or 1/2.
But why limit yourself to only one aperture for the same shooting condition? The nice thing about manually controlling exposure is that you can select which thing is most important to you for a particular shot, choose the value for that variable, and then set the other variables to allow proper exposure. The is what is often called the exposure triangle. Some would say calling the exposure model a triangle is a misnomer as it is at least three dimensional, whereas a triangle has three lines but they are contained in only two dimensions.
If you are in bright daylight and want as much as possible to be in focus, set the aperture (Av - for aperture value) at f/16, ISO at 100, and shutter time (Tv - for time value) at 1/125 second. If you desire a faster shutter time to freeze camera or subject motion, use a Tv of 1/500 and set the ISO to 400 to get the same total exposure with a faster shutter time. In this case we decreased the Tv by two stops and increased the ISO by two stops.
So what's a stop? Each "stop" on a photographic scale is a power of two. If we increase exposure by one stop we double the amount of light we capture. If we decrease exposure by one stop we halve the amount of light we capture. ISO, Tv (shuttert time), and Av (aperture value) all have scales that are measured in "stops." ISO and Tv are straightforward -  each doubling or halving is one stop. ISO values go like this: 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, etc. Shutter times (Tv) go like this: 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15¹, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125¹, 1/250, 1/500, etc. Av is a little different. Remember when we said the f-number is the focal length divided by the aperture diameter? Well, the amount of light allowed into the camera is determined by the area of the aperture's opening rather than the diameter used to calculate the f-number. So on the aperture scale, each full step is a power of the square root of two: 1, 1.4¹, 2, 2.8¹, 4, 5.6¹, 8, 11¹, 16, etc.
¹ Photography often rounds numbers. 1/15 second is really 1/16, 1/30 is really 1/32, 1/60 is really 1/64, 1/125 is really 1/128, and so on. The same is true of the f-numbers based on the powers of the √2. For more about this, please see Is there a sane reason why ¹⁄₁₂₅ is not, instead, exactly half of ¹⁄₆₀?
On the other hand, if you want very shallow depth of field, select an Av of f/2.8, ISO 100, and Tv at 1/5000. If you have a lens that opens up to f/1.4 and you wish to use it in bright sunlight at ISO 100 you would need a shutter time of 1/20,000! The problem is that not very many cameras can shoot that fast. The top pro bodies usually max out at 1/8000 second. To get around that hurdle you could use a neutral density filter to reduce the light coming into the lens. A two-stop filter would get you back to 1/5000, but many entry level or mid-level cameras can't go past 1/4000 so you would use a three-stop filter to use 1/2500 or a four-stop filter to use 1/1250 and so on.
There are other scenarios where the shutter time might be the most important factor. Shooting sports or action under artificial lighting would be one such occasion. Most of the time we have to open the aperture as wide as it will go, set the Tv to what we need to stop the motion of our subjects (1/500-1/1000 is a good starting point for human athletes), and then set the ISO to whatever we need to get a decently bright image. At my hometown's high school stadium I shoot at f/2.8, 1/800, ISO 3200.


Reading 九十九 as "tsukumo"

Question: Why can 九十九 be read as "tsukumo"? I don't understand how those kanji could be read that way.
Comment: http://www2.chokai.ne.jp/~assoonas/UC99.HTML
Comment: That's really amusing.
Answer: I looked up in my etymology dictionary (小学館's 日本語源大辞典) :)
The answer goes like this:

つくも was originally a name of a kind of plant (modern standard name: フトイ; English name is softstem bulrush or great bulrush according to Wikipedia).
A compound word つくもがみ < つくも + かみ "disheveled white hair (especially of old women)" was coined, because of its resemblance to the plant. This word is seen in 伊勢物語 from the 10th century.
The kanji 九十九髪 came with the word. This kanji was actually kind of a word-played ateji intending to mean "white hair". Its logic was like a riddle and went like this: white = 白 = ( 百 without 一 ) = 100 - 1 = 99 = 九十九.
Afterwards [九十九]{つくも} became to be used without 髪 in some other words (mainly proper nouns), like 九十九湾 "Tsukumo Bay" in Ishikawa pref., or several rare family names like  九十九, [九十九里]{つくもり}.

So, how amusing. In modern Japanese, [白寿]{はくじゅ} means "the celebration of 99th birthday", and it must be under the same logic (in the reverse way). But few people know why 九十九 reads つくも, I guess.
Answer: Well, the pronunciation of kanji can be really irregular. In many cases the only thing we can do is to remember them one by one.
I think the second explaination in @isayamag post is right. In http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BB%98%E5%96%AA%E7%A5%9E,

「付喪」自体は当て字で、正しくは「九十九」と書き、この九十九は「長い時間(九十九年)や経験」「多種多様な万物(九十九種類)」などを象徴…

It says that 九十九 means so many years and much experience as well as various categories of things. According to many Japanese stories/animes, tsukumogami origin from either daily necessities or instruments or something else, and they have been existed for long time.
九十九->つくも is just like 八百万->やおよろず. In short, they both means the number(of spirits) is great.

Reading 九十九 as "tsukumo"


Is someone who is unable to believe in Allah a heretic?

Question: Suppose someone really truly wants to believe in Allah, but is simply unable to. Even after much trying and learning, he still is simply unable to believe in God. Would that person be considered a heretic? Is there anything that he can do to not be a heretic?
Comment: +1:what do you mean by heretic? People who dont believe in Allah are atheists which is worse then being  a heretic(innovator in religion)
Comment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFUfA6O0V4A
Comment: Simply ask God for guidance. We can only comprehend that which God has given us the ability to comprehend.
Comment: @MumtazAhmed If he doesn't believe in God, then he won't ask God for guidance.
Answer: I think,from my point of view, this person that can't generate his proof that Allah exists because he is choosing the wrong way of generating the proof , learning would help to understand the truth about Allah but it would be more and more unreal if this one is unfamiliar with notations  or his axioms consider what he reads is wrong,so I would give that person an advise to start building new axioms that is : new axioms that would lead to believe in Allah .
As a Muslim what I do often is to keep focused in the main reason why god create us , I don't think why god exists because it must do otherwise who make all these wonderful things we are seeing ? such as the creation of man ! science reveal the complex structure of cells it is organized in way that no coincidence would do it ever ! other example is the organization of the atom,on can see the similarity to the solar system !! so what make these things to be similar ? the last example is the big bang nowadays it is a truth but it was mentioned in the Quran 1400 years ago !!! the answer is Allah he make this organized structure of the universe and all things !!
Comment: As a Muslim, one's belief in God is an axiom in his model. There is nothing to prove or disprove for a Muslim, an axiom is like a belief, we accept it.
Comment: yes this form a proof ! and this a sign from god as mentioned in quran , so if you look in surah "almulk" you will read that "there is no differences between what alrhman creat " "ما ترى في خلق الرحمن من تفاوت " this is exactly what I tried to say !
Answer: God and His existence is very large concept, may not be readily there to take in.
Some things are "felt" even before proven by deductive science.
I don't think Einstein sat at his desk and played with formulas
for writing his theory. He's first seen and observed many things,
"sensed" how it can be-- that without anything behind supporting in any way
what he "saw". He then modelled and proved what still is difficult for a great majority to comprehend even today.
Human beings are equipped with many forms
of understanding and perceptions. What we see and realize build on
our conscious, mind, emotions, beliefs, ... . If it can be put into
clear-cut philosophy that's perfectly fine.
But i think closing the door to what we
can see but not prove would be missing a very big part of it.
Too lengthy for a comment-- that's why here.
Totally my personal opinion-- not a scholar on the subject.
Comment: That's actually the exact opposite of what Einstein did, as it is contrary to the scientific method. Nevertheless, I get your point so +1
Comment: that's refute without point. however, i've got your point-- i think.
Answer:
Suppose someone really truly wants to believe in Allah, but is simply unable to. Even after much trying and learning, he still is simply unable to believe in God. Would that person be considered a heretic?

Let's define heretic..

Heretic: a belief which is against the principles of a particular religion (Cambridge Dictionary)

Yes, because the fundamental notion of Islam is that you believe that there is something called 'God', who created you and Mars and what ever you could see with your eyes and what ever you couldn't see with your eyes.

Is there anything that he can do to not be a heretic?

The concept of free will comes into the picture. #e.g. I think this case is analogous to a believer who isn't very much strong in his faith about Allah and after life, wishing to offer Salah (prayers), but couldn't no matter how hard he tried, he is just unable to. We say that, he is not being guided by God. And God guides as he wishes, to whom ever he wishes.
The problem of Atheism is there not only in this era, but from back in the past, e.g. Pharaoh of the time of Moses (pbuh). The people of their era do not get convinced that there is something called God, because either they're too proud or they think they've unraveled the science of creation and existence, which makes them believe everything existed on its own.
The Iman / faith about God has to be created in his heart to cross the line of your case's person to believing in God. Your case, is quite contrary, and as I said is analogous to that e.g. #e.g. which I gave. In both the cases, they think they have faith, but they don't completely have it or they don't have it to the level it is required for their task to get completed.
It is impossible to happen, that a person is requesting God with whole heartedly to guide him, and yet, God is not guiding. If he would've asked God sincerely, then surely God would've guided. Again, as I said, this is a very complicated issue in Islam, the free will thing. Always, people from different sects, have varied opinions on this matter. Again...

Is there anything that he can do to not be a heretic?

To have faith in God, first of all he must try. And in this case, he is actually not trying, but he thinks he is trying. He first, has to believe i.e. cross the boundary and then ask God to guide him, then God might guide him. I hope the two comments (#1 #2) below your question support my point of contradiction. Until he actually tries, no matter how hard he tries, it is almost impossible to believe.
May the creator guide us all.


navigation among single posts

Question: In the twentyeleven theme each single post page has two navigation links which point to previous and next post, irrespective of the search made by the user. That is, the next post is the successive post in chronological order as it appear in the main blog page even if the user has opened the single post page from a category or tag page, and so such next post could be of another category and tag. Is there any theme/plugin or something else that makes the previous/next post links consistent with the page the user come from?
Answer: I cannot think of any one plugin or theme that would handle that exactly; but you could disable the previous/next post links and try rather to display other posts in the sidebar with similar post_types / categories.
This plugin has many options to display easily in a widget area:
WP Category Posts List
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-category-posts-list/
This is a much more attractive way to get the user to check out other posts that are similar than using the previous / next links.

navigation among single posts


How to stop computer waking up from sleep when LAN connected

Question: I have a Compaq desktop machine that wakes up from sleep only when the LAN cable is connected to it. The WOL feature is DISABLED in the BIOS, so why does it keep waking up? And why is it getting told to wake up? I was under the impression that an application or service has to specifically send a message to the machine in order to wake it up but I am not aware of any software on my network that would do this.
Answer: Open Device Manager, then expand Network Adapters, and on the offending adapter (in fact, do this for all them for now) right click, properties, Power Management, and uncheck "Allow this device to wake the computer"
Answer: Unplugging the computer would solve that problem. There also maybe a cable running from your network card to your motherboard. If you remove it, it may disable WOL.
Answer: Often you can disable the feature in the power management section of either windows or your BIOS.
Answer: I spent so long searching for a solution to this problem; i changed all the devices connected to my computer to not allow them to wake the computer when in sleep mode (wake on lan), I updated my bios, and tried numerous different things I found online but it still randomly woke while in sleep mode. After months of no luck i finally came to the solution MOZILLA FIREFOX; when Firefox is running and the computer is put to sleep it will wake up but is you close the browser the computer stays asleep. I hope this helps those who have tried everything out there and still cant find the solution.


Why is an amplifier's effects loop useful?

Question: When should you plug gear into your amplifier's effects loop and not into the standard input?
Answer: It is useful because it allows you to add effects to your sound after it has been through the amps EQ and pre-amp;  What this means; the pre-amp can do its magic on a clean signal from your guitar; before effects are added.
Adding effects which boost(overdrive/distortion) the signal into the effects loop can be dangerous for the amp, as the signal has already been boosted by the pre-amp; it should be ok if you experiment with it and are careful, but is not advisable.  Generally these things(boosters) should go in front of your amp; though if your preamp is up high; they will have little effect.
Modulators like phasers/chorus/delay can go in the effects loop; and will probably be better for your tone if there, since the your applying the effect to the already boosted signal from the preamp, instead of boosting a signal with an effect on it.
Unless you specifically want your modulators before the boosters this is a good rule of thumb:  boosters -> preamp -> modulators.
Comment: I actually prefer all my modulation to be pre-distortion, so be careful saying that it is better for my tone ;D. Post distortion chorus sounds 80's, but if you place it pre-distortion it has a subtle fattening effect.
Comment: +1 "Post distortion chorus sounds 80" Having been playing since pre-80s, I am free to call it what it is: it sounds like a washing machine. :-)
Comment: "Adding effects which boost ... can be dangerous for the amp..." What do mean by "dangerous" in this sentence? It's not really possible to damage a properly designed amp with a hot signal - it will just overdrive and cause distortion. It's a lot more likely to be dangerous for your ears than be dangerous for an amp.
Comment: Yeah i agree; there are no actual rules :)
Comment: makes a lot of sense!
Comment: @Jduv I agree; swooshing stuff like phaser and chorus before distortion is my preference. I'd disagree with the last two paragraphs of this answer as it comes to personal taste (in fact the last paragraph seems to contradict itself?)
Answer: In addition to @DRL's good answer, another use for the effect loop on an amp is to provide access to the power-amp in, avoiding the tone-messing-up circuitry, when you're using some modeling effects. For instance:
I have a Pod X3, which was Line6's bad-boy floor unit until recently. A modeler simulates the chain of effects, preamp, amp, cabinet, speakers, and microphone capturing the speaker's sound, if you want to enable all those things. Because they've already been factored into the sound, passing the output of the modeler into a regular guitar amp's input, through its preamp and tone controls will only screw up the sound you've worked hard to generate.
A good power-amp shouldn't modify the sound at all, except maybe add a bit of power-tube saturation or distortion, but again, the modeler has taken that into account, so we want to avoid that as much as possible.
Sticking with an overly anal/purist attitude, I also want to avoid speaker and cabinet coloration of the sound.
So, for me it made sense to buy one of Line6's Flextone III combos, and plug into its power-amp-in (effects loop return). That amp does some modeling internally but I skip past it, by going into the X3, then into the power-amp, and out its speaker. I also have a direct-out feed on the X3 if I need to go to a board.
It's kind of a waste of a pre-amp in an amp, but they're cheap now, pretty loud if need be, and very neutral sounding so the modeling is not effected.
It's just another use of the loop and ability to get between the pre-amp and amp.
Comment: @TheTinMan Love the X3 Live - I almost never use on-stage cabs any more, just go straight into the backline and take everything from my wedge. Great piece of kit. Need to get the HD next though...
Comment: @DrMayhem, last night I was thinking of using mine for an upcoming jam I was invited to. It'd be so much more convenient and easier to carry.
Comment: @TheTinMan - when we gig, both me and the rhythm guitarist can play from just a rucksack's worth of kit, so our biggest luggable item is the bass amp. And so far that has worked for everything from just bigger than pub gigs to festivals (usually pubs don't have a decent backline so we need to take our own amps and cabs)
Answer: Use the fx loop to insert delays and reverbs as the loop is after the preamp circuit.  I've tried delays and verbs straight into the front of the amp and the sound can get messy when distortion is used as each repeat generated by the delay gets distorted (by the distortion).  I would always put delays/verbs after distortion either using fx loop or a chain of stomp boxes.  If you play clean all the time and don't use distortion then you insert the delays or verbs straight in the front of the amp.  Reading previous posts the use of modulation and where to place it is upto your taste and place where it sounds and feels good to you.


Ellipsis after negative comparative with 'than'?

Question: I ask NOT about comparatives stated in the positive; I ask about those involving a negation (what I tried to imply by 'negative') such as the following. Hereinafter, I interpret 'as' and 'than' as conjunctions:

1. He is not as {adjective} as she. => She is marginally more {adjective} than he.
  2. He is less {adjective} than she. => She is more {adjective} than he.

My problem involves my dispute over the comparative deletion for the predicate of the second subject. If I restore the deletion, which I bold and matches the predicate, then 1 and 2 becomes:

1.1. He is not as {adjective} as she [ is not as {adjective} ].
  2.1. He is less {adjective} than she [ is less {adjective} ].

Yet 1.1 and 2.1 don't appear to make any sense. Rather, 1 and 2 ought to mean:

1.2. He is not as {adjective} as she [ is not as {adjective} ].
  2.2. He is less {adjective} than she [ is less {adjective} ].

But now, as regards 1.2 and 2.2, the predicates for 'he' differ from those for 'she', so how do these constitute ellipsis? Or are there some other grammatical terms or phenomena that has eluded me?
Comment: The *not* takes scope over the comparison, not the the two comparands severally: He { is / is not} [as ADJ as she is [ADJ]]
Comment: @StoneyB: Please put that as an answer!
Answer: Answered in comments:

The not takes scope over the comparison, not the the two comparands severally: He { is / is not} [as ADJ as she is [ADJ]] –  StoneyB Feb 16 2015


What is the purpose of Owl Eyes in Great Gatsby?

Question: Scott Fitzgerald rarely puts characters or events that have do not either have an underlying message or support in the character development of the lead characters. Therefore I was confused as to what Owl Eyes represented. Clearly he is significant as he is one of the few people to show up to Gatsby's funeral. So what is he supposed to represent or rather what message is Fitzgerald trying to deliver through Owl Eyes?
Answer: On the surface, Owl Eyes is a perceptive character. He sees things that others miss. In reality, though, he's more easily fooled than anyone.
The large glasses, of course, tie him to the Eckleburg billboard. There's a continuous contrast between surface and reality in the book, with the nagging question of how to tell the difference. Bigger glasses? Eckleburg's are the biggest, and they don't see what's going on right in front of them.
We first meet "Owl Eyes" in Gatsby's library. His real name is never given, but he may represent Ring Lardner. He's looking at volume one of Stoddard's Lectures, one of those books nobody reads but claims they have. He notices it's a book, not a prop, but the pages haven't been cut. (In those days printers saved time by folding up large sheets and binding those together, which left the edges of the book a series of folds rather than pages. To read, then, you needed a paper knife to cut through these folds.) Gatsby has never read the book, and if he hasn't read volume one, he hasn't read any. The book is real, the house is real, but Gatsby is not. Owl Eyes sees that the book is a book, but that's all. He sees the surface but not the reality. "You can't judge a book by its cover" is inverted--he sees inside the book but not inside its owner.
We next meet Owl Eyes in the driveway after he's crashed his car. He cheerfully admits he doesn't know how to drive. However, he's managed to block everyone else from leaving, and he has no clue about how to fix the situation. Again, he sees the surface (he knows how to drive) but not the reality (he can't deal with the consequences of a crash).
Finally, he shows up at Gatsby's funeral. The only person who feels that much sympathy, besides Nick, is the person who can't see. Gatsby is a cardboard cutout. Owl Eyes has come to his parties and believes the facade is real, but Gatsby died because he wasn't the person he appeared to be. He wasn't a person at all, just a void he hoped Daisy would fill.
Comment: That is a great analysis. I didn't connect his glasses to those of Eckleburg! Thanks for clearing that up for me!
Answer: In fact, owl eyes refers to a drunk man whom Nick meets in Gatsby's library. He was in the library because he wants to discover the truth about Gatsby while other guests are very busy with silly rumors about Gatsby. Actually, he takes one of the books from the shelf, but he is shocked because they seem real , but at the same time they are new. That is mean no one read and touch them even Gatsby himself, so Gatsby used them for just showing his huge wealth.
Answer: "Owl Eyes" is seen in the library exclaiming that Gatsby was real because the books were filled with stories. He is important because he confirms to the reader that Gatsby is to make his entrance soon. He is also one of the few people who sees Gatsby as a person and not just a myth. This can also be seen when he appears at Gatsby's funeral, giving both himself and Gatsby humane qualities. You can also connect him to Eckleburg's eyes in which he sees all (all of Gatsby), and realizes that they are real.


how can i safely remove an external hard drive?

Question: Two of the three icons of the drive's  partitions show on the desktop.  One has disappeared and the contents are not accessible. Right clicking on the desktop icon of the partition gives the option to eject.  Then the error message shows that the drive is busy and cannot be shut down.  The drive is continually pinning. Kindly advise if possible how to safely remove the drive.  Can the lost icon of the third drive and the datd contained in it be found, please?
Kind regards
Comment: you said you cant see the third drive on the desktop. What did you right-click on?
Comment: See my answer [here](http://askubuntu.com/questions/56270/how-can-i-spin-down-external-hard-drive) regarding spinning down external drives
Answer: If you click on one of the partitions in the unity launcher, you can select "safely remove parent drive".  Wait a moment for any data to be written out.  If the device automounts again after a few seconds then repeat this operation and you will be able to remove the device.
If this is an earlier version that does not use unity (or does not have the remove device functionality)  You can unmount all of the partitions in Nautilus (filemanager) or with the umount command line and then it will be safe to remove the device.
Remounting partitions after they have been unmount is a different question, and you may not be able to access the device at all if you have used the "safely remove" option, until you remove the device and re-insert it again.


Mug cakes in the oven?

Question: I'm planning a party and want to make multiple mug cakes, but since I need to make about 100 and don't have a microwave that big I was wondering if I could make them in the oven and if there were oven safe mugs. I've been looking but they all seem to say dishwasher and microwave safe but nothing about the oven. Would it be easier to make them in the microwave one at a time? Just seems like a hassle.
Comment: looks like the oven safe mug questions was previously asked : http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/18525/67
Answer: A microwave has a very different mechanism of heating than an oven, and recipes for the two are not interchangeable. The results of making microwave-optimized cakes in the oven will be unpredictable. And this will be a much larger problem than having the right mugs.
A better option would be to find a recipe for muffins or cupcakes that is intended to go in the oven, and bake it in the oven. Do test it in a small batch before giving it to 100+ guests, because not all recipes floating around are good - but still, it is more likely to produce good results than baking your microwave cakes in an oven.
Answer: Not all mugs are oven safe.
I do have a couple that are from corningware that say specifically that they're used in the oven.  Mine are 20oz, but I've found 11oz ones on Amazon that are about $4.12 each if buying in lots of 6. (so 17 6-packs would be $415.82+tax to get 102 mugs).  Other places might have better prices (I know that's true for the 20oz ones).
It's also possible that restaurant supply stores might have something cheaper.
If you already have your 100 mugs, and they're all the same manufacturer & model, you can try testing one of them ... but put a sheet pan on the shelf below just in case it explodes to try to contain the mess.
If they do explode in the oven, you could run a trial in a water bath, but that's likely to affect cooking times dramatically and be more dense.  (pour in near-boiling water after the cups are in place for best results ... but then you also have to be careful about removing them (I'd recommend canning tongs).  For working in bulk, if you're really careful about sliding the shelf out so you don't slosh the water into the water or on yourself, you might be able to pull the cups, then add back in a new batch, replace any evaporated water, then bake.
As for microwaving, you could try doing it that way.  If you have a carousel and can fit a few on there, I'd try arranging them in a circle, microwaving about half way through, rotating them 180 degrees, and then finish cooking.  (but test this out before hand, so you can figure out proper time as it's likely to be longer than just cooking one (and to see if it even works)
Answer: A big part of microwave mug cakes is warm, freshly-baked cakes, and you'd expect to be able to hold the handle. So if you cooked them in the oven you would have to let them cool quite a lot before serving.
And the mug cake recipes I've eaten aren't that good when they've cooled down (some compromises must be made to make them work in the microwave I guess,  or maybe it's an effect of the microwaving process). So if you go for it I suggest a normal cupcake recipe.
While there are good reasons to be wary of some mugs in the oven, if you get plain (not painted) glazed mugs with the glaze undamaged, you should be able to just put them straight in.
Answer: If you want to try the mugs you already have (or can buy), you should test it beforehand.  You might put them into a cold oven, and let them warm up there and cool in the oven afterwards - it might not be best for the cake, but it will reduce the thermal shock to the mugs.
Another possibility you may not have thought of - you can make cupcakes, and settle them into the mugs afterwards (might take a bit of trimming to make fit).  Or make a full cake and cut pieces out to size - most of the joins will be covered over by the mug itself, if you do layers or fill one or two with all edges or something, as long as the top looks good (which can be neat and careful cutting, or else frosting or some other topping, your choice).
Your mugs should almost certainly stand up to gentle warming in the oven, as long as it doesn't get too hot (and you will want the mugs cool enough to handle, anyway).  Or you can serve it cool, if the "in mugs" part is the important bit.
I admit I got both answers from the oven-safe drinking glasses question.

Mug cakes in the oven?


no sound via HDMI using Xubuntu 13.04 32 bit AMD mesa 9.2

Question: This question has perhaps been asked before but no clear solution seems to exist for me.  I have a Radeon 6850 connected to my screen via HDMI.  The picture is fine but I get no sound at all, not even sound effects.
This is via open source drivers.  According to X.org Foundation website, it says HDMI audio is "Done."  I get no sound using my extra speakers with 3.5mm jack either into the motherboard itself or in the monitor.  The pavucontrol seems to recognize both the built-in sound card and HDMI card from Radeon, with the progress bar reacting to the Youtube video currently on.
Switching between built-in card and HDMI doesn't work.  Other things I've tried include downgrading to 12.10, adding the xorg-edgers ppa, manually updating the kernel to 3.9, adding the radeon.audio=1 to grub, and downloading an ALSA update from Ubuntu Audio Development Team.
The only thing that has worked is installing fglrx, but that makes my emulators crash sometimes.  Attached here is the lspci and aplay output...
<code>amd-fx@amd-fx:~$ lspci | grep -i audio
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)

01:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Barts HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6800 Series]

amd-fx@amd-fx:~$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****

card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 1: ALC887-VD Digital [ALC887-VD Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
</code>
Any help is appreciated.  Thank you.
Answer: If you're using a kernel version less than 3.10.1 and you can upgrade to that or a later version, that may solve the problem.
I had the same exact problem, and after updating the kernel, my problem is gone now. (Though problems with the fan spinning all the time remain.)


How can I make the spindle motor of a harddisk run by external voltage?

Question: I want to make my harddisk motor running but when I tried to give it voltage on different pins it jerks and stop I came to know it runs on continuous pulse.
How can I make it run by external voltage?
Answer: Oh you're in for a treat! Some four-pin motors, 555 timers, et. al. These should get you started:
http://letsmakerobots.com/node/2898, BLDC controller, and Drive stepper-motors. Best of luck to you!
Answer: If you want the adventure of building a controller/driver circuit that's fine but if all you want to do is get the motor to spin I'd look at a cheap Electronic Speed Controller ( ESC ) from HobbyKing or local RC store.  ( $8 )  The kind that is used to drive brushless motors in radio control models.
They're rated by supply voltage and output current.
The voltage handling is often stated in "s" units. 1s = 3.7V (nominal LiPo cell voltage). Most work on 2 or 3 LiPo cells ( 7.4v  or 11.1v )
These brushless motors are sensorless, using the undriven winding as a sensor source.  I don't suppose an HDD motor needs a lot of current so a low current ESC would only be a few dollars.   Here is a list of many low-cost speed controllers from Hobby King......
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__452__182__ESC_UBEC_VR-Under_20_Amp.html
These ESCs are usually driven by an RC receiver output but you could provide your own PWM signal OR just get a Servo tester, which will give you a compatible control signal and a knob to play with. ( $5 at Hobby King)    http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=14774
If you're ESC has a BEC( battery eliminator circuit) then you can power the Servo tester from there instead of finding a separate 5V supply.
The ESCs operate on a 1ms to 2ms pulse width (freq 30Hz-50Hz) the same as the actuator servos.
1ms = 0%, 2ms = 100%
Remember, you will be powering the motor, and NOT the circut board. You can remove the HDD circut board all together.  Power the HDD motor directly.  ( 3 wires )
Pretty simple when you understand it.  Ask anyone who flys electric RC airplanes or a hobby store to help you power this "brushless" motor.  All eclectric RC airplanes use a ESC and those guys will know what you need.  Good luck.  firstname.lastname@example.com


Is it safe to send my passport my national ID with my application for a residence card?

Question: I have a Little concern related to original identification papers. I am married to an EU national and we are already living together in the UK. In order to have my residence card, I need to apply for a "registration certificate or
residence card as the family member of a European Economic Area (EEA) or Swiss
national" We filled out the application form and now we just have to send it with our passports,  my husband's and mine, to the address indicated in the application form:
Home Office – EEA applications
PO Box 590
Durham,
DH99 1AD
Although we know this is a government address, I feel worry about putting our passports in an envelop without knowing when will they be back or whether they will get to the right address safely.
Our Passport and national IDs are the most important pieces of identification we have. This is the reason why we are concerned about sending them away from us.
According to the application form, it is a requirement to send my passport and my sponsor's.
Can you make me feel better about this please?
Is it really safe to send such important documents away from the owner?
How long will they take to come back to us ?
Comment: @DiegoSánchez do you have a reference to support the assertion that it is illegal to send your Spanish ID card in the post?
Comment: I would also check the legality of doing it. I know it would be illegal for me to send my Spanish ID card in the post, and I believe that also would apply to my passport.
Comment: I've also sent my documents via Royal Mail, and had no problems with "special delivery" tracked postage. One suggestion I have is to take a photo of all relevant pages of the documents so that if they do get lost you have all the relevant machine-readable-numbers and expiry dates etc.
Comment: Guys be careful with these home office people what they say they do and what they actually do is very different,they rejected both mine and my spouse registration certificate cause we didn't supply biometrics in which they say had sent us and which we never received and unfortunately we are back to square one
Answer: This is certainly a legitimate concern. However, the Royal Mail service can be trusted to deliver your papers reliably. For additional assurance, you can send your envelope/package using the "Royal Mail Signed For" service, which provides you confirmation of delivery.
I have sent my passport by mail several times for renewals etc, and have never had a problem. I always choose to use a tracked courier service similar to "Signed For" (I'm not in the UK).
Answer: I would recommend sending it special delivery. I have had no problem sending my US passport with UK visas through the post. I've also done it for my dual citizen daughter.
Answer: There is essentially no way to avoid sending your IDs in the post. You can use signed for service so it is better tracked, but there is no way to guarantee that it will not get lost. The important thing to realize, at least in my mind, is that while your passport and national ID card might be " are the most important pieces of identification we have", they can be replaced. Every country has a different process for replacing a lost or stolen passport. As an expat, you should be aware of these requirements and make sure you have additional forms of documentation (e.g., birth certificate and driver's license are two common forms of ID) and scanned copies of the documents you are sending. Having all the needed documentation in advance will make replacing your passport much less difficult if it does get lost.


Import/Copy/Paste Data from Excel into Existing SharePoint List

Question: How can I import data from Excel into an existing Task List (or other list) for the various column types using the Datasheet View?
Answer: The key points are recognizing the column types and formatting the data appropriately in Excel before the attempting the import. Certain column types are not able to be imported in this way, such as the Multi-line Enhanced Text. Let me break it down for you. :)

Column Types
Must be formatted as follows:
-COLUMN-                | -FORMAT / COMMENT-
Single line of text     | Any Unicode string.
Multi-line, plain       | Any Unicode string; multiple lines can be wonky.
Multi-line, rich text   | Does not import or export well from/to Excel.
Multi-line, enhanced RT | READ-ONLY.
Choice                  | Must be valid choice.
Number                  | Numeric only.
Currency                | Numeric only; symbols ignored.
Date and Time           | ISO-8601 or per Column Settings (e.g. `2017-01-31` or `1/31/2017` (M/D/YYYY); must be delimited by either '-' or '/').
Lookup                  | Additional fields are READ-ONLY.
Yes/No (check box)      | 1/0, Yes/No, or TRUE/FALSE.
Person or Group         | <Name>;#<ID>;# (e.g. `Surname, Given;#111;#`); Importing a single user does not need the ID (i.e. `Surname, Given`).
Hyperlink or Picture    | Excel '=HYPERLINK' formula or Linked Text.
Calculated              | READ-ONLY.
External Data           | Unknown.
Managed Metadata        | Unknown.

Here are the Valid HTML Tags for the Rich Text fields.
Procedure

Create a Datasheet View containing the columns you want to populate; excluding READ-ONLY fields (as indicated above).

Prepare and format your data in Excel as specified above; preferably using Excel Tables.

Open your list in Internet Explorer and change to Datasheet View (a.k.a. Quick Edit on SP2013+).
Copy/Paste from Excel into the view you prepared in Step 1.

Final Result!

Notice the resulting indentation on lines 2 & 3 of the MLineRT column using Alt+Enter in the Excel cell for adding lines.

Important! Make sure that your Excel columns line up with the appropriate list columns and that you have validated all of the values beforehand.
Partial Updates
You can slice an dice your Datasheet Views to contain any columns you like and filter appropriately when working with subsets of the list. The trick is to sort by a unique column such as the row ID, then be sure that you have a direct correlation between the data showing in your view and what you have in Excel. You have to be extremely careful not to write data intended for one row to a different row. Sorting and ID mapping are key. Do this:

Setup your view (with sort and filtering).
Export your list to Excel and make the desired updates.
Confirm everything.
Copy/Paste.

PowerShell
I used the following script (must be run on the frontend server) for gathering data for Excel:
# Get User IDs (see Gotcha) needed for formatting the People or Groups columns.
Get-SPUser -Web "https://sharepoint.net" -Limit All
    | Select-Object @{Name="Import Object"; Expression={$_.name+";#"+$_.id+";#"}}
    | Export-Csv ("{0}\SPUserIDs.csv" -f [Environment]::GetFolderPath("Desktop")) -NoTypeInformation -Encoding Unicode

Here's the full list of SPUser Properties.
Gotchas

Empty cells will overwrite existing data. For example, if you have an existing row that you wish to update only certain cells, you must copy only those cells.
Person or Group column only allows for a single selection, but you're trying to import multiple.
Person or Group column User IDs are unique to each Site Collection.
Date is formatted incorrectly (see above).
Lookup columns must have dependent rows loaded first. For example, if you have a Row 2 that has a lookup to Row 1, Row 1 must be loaded first, then refresh the page, and load Row 2. If you load them at the same time, the Lookup field on Row 2 will be empty.

Note: I am opting to not make this a wiki as I have personally invested numerous hours testing this info and would like to be rewarded for my efforts. Please feel free to add your own thoroughly tested answers. If I can verify them, I'll merge your answers (with [username] citation) to mine and give you credit... If someone could also confirm this answer in the Quick Edit view of SharePoint 2013, 2016, and sharepoint-online, that would be most helpful. :)
Comment: A note for SharePoint 2013+ is that you use the "Default" view style when using "quick edit/datasheet" views. as other styles don't always work as expected. :)
Comment: I tried in Sharepoint 2016/O365 and got nothing but I was using Edge as the browser. Switched to IE but now I get formatting error but can't pin point the issue. It is more than likely due to some hidden columns that show up when you export but not on the screen. I was just trying it since I'm trying to consolidate a bunch of list into one.
Comment: @Siemoore You basically have to do three things: 1) Ensure your export and import columns line up exactly. 2) Ensure your values are valid and data is formatted correctly as outlined in my answer. 3) Ensure you are not missing some required fields in your import...

If you cover those bases, and use IE, you should largely experience success; though keep in mind that this functionality is not well-supported by SharePoint, so it can definitely be finicky. Still, mine is the best (essentially) code-free solution I was able to find. Cheers! ;)
Comment: I'm going to venture to say that this does _NOT_ work for Microsoft365 and SPO. I cannot paste a single line from a Form's back-end Excel workbook into a SPO list. I know all the columns are set up just fine, since the Flow that was originally set up worked for more than a year before someone in IT helpfully removed the Flow's owner's access to the SPO list causing the flow to fail. Now I need to backfill and cannot do so in bulk. It seems the only option may be copy/paste cell-by-cell :(.
Comment: OK, an update to that comment. _Sometimes_ I can paste in a single row, _sometimes_ it pastes the entire row into the first cell in SPO. I do not yet understand the difference of why it does which when. I have _not_ been able to paste in multiple rows in one shot...


Working abroad and UK tax

Question: I am British, if I go and work abroad on a 1 year contract in a tax free country.  If in that year I make £50,000, will I have to pay tax on that money to the UK?
Answer: If you are still a UK resident, then yes.
Also, as I understand it, if the contract is only for a year, then unless it happens to exactly match the payroll year, you will have to remain a UK resident and hence, yes you will have to pay tax.
See here for more info (from HMRC FAQ questions)
Answer: How you pay Income Tax
Pay As You Earn (PAYE)
Most people pay Income Tax through PAYE. This is the system your employer or pension provider uses to take Income Tax and National Insurance contributions before they pay your wages or pension. Your tax code tells your employer how much to deduct.
Your tax code can take account of state benefits, so if you owe tax on them (eg the State Pension) it's usually taken automatically from your other income.
Self Assessment tax returns
If your financial affairs are more complex (eg you're self-employed or have a high income) you may pay Income Tax and National Insurance through Self Assessment. You'll need to fill in a tax return every year.
Income Tax on savings and investment interest
Income Tax is usually taken from interest on savings and investments automatically.
Income that's not automatically taxed
You must fill in a tax return if your untaxed income is over £2,500, or if you don't pay tax through your wages or pension. You must contact the Income Tax helpline if it's less than £2,500.

Working abroad and UK tax