To learn about aperture and shutter speed, try taking a DSLR out for some night time shooting where you play with apertures from f/5.6 to f/16 and shutter speeds of 10s to 30s (you need a tripod obviously). Basically there are three variables to balance: sensitivity, aperture and shutter speed. Once you have a feel for how that works, use aperture priority in daytime to let the camera choose shutter speed automatically based on light and get a feel for the choices the camera makes (you can look at the screen at the back to see the camera's choice changing). Then play with shutter speed for capturing something like moving cars (just to play with the camera rather than serious shooting). Once you've done this, play with the other features of the camera, but understanding sensitivity, aperture and shutter speed is a must for anybody who goes beyond point and shoot.

It is optical, but is the equivalent FOV for a 35mm camera. Actual focal length is something like 5mm-90mm (just a guess). They manage this by having a tiny sensor that seriously compromises quality compared to a DLSR -- I was suprised just how much better photos my D3100 took when I got it a few months after my Lumix.

I doubt China or Russia would follow suit, and this kind of stupidity is just what will give them the lead in computer tech.

Try this or this for examples of a real Western religion.

And eliminating gasoline will prevent useful applications of it, in effect throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot didn't need God to believe in their version of the truth that justified mass killings. It is easy to blame belief in God where one sees atrocities, but there is too much evidence that atrocities happen with and without belief in God, it's just whatever aspects of the underlying culture a tyrant picks up to justify their actions, and because theistic religion is present in the culture, it gets drawn on for justification of evil.

I run Unity, but I use the Guake console and have a 'u' command so that I press F12 to get the console and 'u m' for my mail program, 'u c' for chromium, etc. I have an n command so that n f.pdf launces evince, n t.tex latex's it etc. I doesn't reflect well on UI design that I like linux because a drop down command line console is a useabiliy feature I need.

'You will effectively not exclusively own root on a windows box' -- like the TrustedInstaller user on Win7??

Or 'killall men' or 'kill husband' (or even 'kill -9 ex-husband') etc.

If you haven't read The Unix Haters Handbook, it's a great read for all those *nix lovers. I say this as one who prefers Linux for most everyday stuff.

I remember when I first installed Linux in 1995, which came on a cover CD with essentially no instructions. I had to reinstall two or three times and watch carefully the list of packages installed to get an idea of what to type. I took a while to find my way around the /bin and usr/bin stuff, and it took me a week, and the confirmation dialog in the openlookalike file manager (do you want to Remove), including getting X up and working, before I guessed that rm and not del or era was the command to delete a file. I guessed man correctly, having seen that the package man was installed and the installer screen indicated that this was the manual. But I was determined to play with this new toy, and few users today will try so hard. What fun.

Apple are dumbing down the Mac, moving it away from being a high end professional computer, turning it into an overgrown iPad. Microsoft are turning Windows into an oversized Windows Phone OS. PCs are turning into consoles, and it is the serious personal computer that is threatened with extinction.

Though for starting out, it will be a while before you need what the D7000 gives over the D3100. The D5100 is also worth a look if you have the cash, though if you plan on spending more than a D3100 and don't need the tilting screen of the D5100, possibly the D7000 is the next step up.

I have a Lumix FZ100 and the quality sucks compared to either my Canon S95 or my Nikon D3100. If you want to capture things that are moving, the shutter lag on a non-DSLR tends to get in the way: you have to be prescient to know to press the shutter half a second before the shot you want to take appears: DSLRs are much quicker to respond. As a starter DSLR there is no need for more than either a D3100 or a Canon 550D. If portability is an issue, get a good compact such as a Canon S95 -- I love the fact that this has a face-autofocus that focuses the faces in the picture wherever they are, something a DSLR will probably never do.

I find that the biggest advantage of a DSLR is in being able to get a shot of something that is changing -- when you press the button on a DSLR, that is when the photo is taken -- with every compact I've used, there is a roughly 0.5sec lag which means that what you get a shot of is not what was in front of the camera when you pressed the shutter release. On the other hand, a camera you can have with you at all times is terribly useful. For this reason I have a Nikon D3100, which for a first DLSR is ideal, and a Canon S95 which is a great high quality compact.