qid int64 1 74.7M | question stringlengths 12 33.8k | date stringlengths 10 10 | metadata list | response_j stringlengths 0 115k | response_k stringlengths 2 98.3k |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
249,559 | I have to get the data from SharePoint(Online) List and put the data to JSON format and create a JSON file in Local drive or SharePoint list.
I am new to SharePoint online and JSON can anyone help me on this.Give me some code examples. | 2018/09/24 | [
"https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/249559",
"https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com",
"https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/users/62372/"
] | You can retrieve sharepoint list data with javascript object model (JSOM), the data is returned in JSON format
[Introduction to JSOM in SharePoint](https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/previous-versions/office/developer/sharepoint-2010/hh372944(v=office.14)) | you can try this tool that allows you to export SharePoint lists to JSON, XML, Collections Power Apps and more.
<https://export-list-sharepoint.web.app/>
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3q8re.png) |
28,932 | I picked up these two statues today. I have been searching for an hour or two, to identify them or learn anything at all I can about them. I've searched through thousands of images, been comparing Buddhas from different countries, etc.
I found this website and saw the [statue](/questions/tagged/statue "show questions tagged 'statue'") tag and now feel relieved. Please someone tell me anything you can about these.
I hope I'm not posting this in the wrong place. Thanks so much
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jHwx4.jpg) | 2018/08/26 | [
"https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/28932",
"https://buddhism.stackexchange.com",
"https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/users/14022/"
] | [This is a great source](http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/objects-symbols-weapons-senju.html) for identifying Buddhist statues by what they are holding.
The Buddha on the right is a representation of the historical Buddha (Shakyamuni). You can tell by the head-pattern, which represent [108 snails that crawled on the Buddha's head](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/18291/why-this-hair-style-on-statues-of-the-buddha). In Japanese Buddhism, a red lotus held in the left hand is called Benikairen (紅開蓮) and symbolizes compassion.
The statue on the left is more difficult to identify. It is crowned and the historical Buddha was generally not depicted with any jewelry (being worldly attachment), which leads me to believe this is a depiction of a Bodhisattva. He is holding a five-storied pagoda (Jap. gojū-no-tō 五重塔) which is identified with the "[Medicine Buddha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhaisajyaguru)" (who is actually a Bodhisattva):
>
> In Chinese depictions, he is sometimes holding a pagoda, symbolising the ten thousand Buddhas of the three periods of time.
>
>
> | I suppose the one on our right represent Gautama Buddha -- I say that because of the hairstyle, see [Why this hair style on statues of the Buddha?](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/18291/254)
He's holding a lotus ([Padma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padma_(attribute))).
The elongated earlobes are also among the physical marks of the Buddha -- [Did the Buddha have long ears?](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/1903/254)
The clothes, bases, heights (and so on) match -- they're a matched set -- I can't identify any other symbols on the clothing or base.
Perhaps they're made as a pair, rather than elements of a once-larger set.
I don't recognise the personally-identifying symbolism of the statue on our left (perhaps someone else will). Assuming that:
* They are a pair
* The one on our right is Gautama Buddha
* The one on our right is not obviously greater, grander, more venerable than the one on our left
... then I presume the one on our left is no less than a Buddha too (and is not e.g. a mere attendant).
Some schools of Buddhism identify more than one Buddha (see e.g. [the Medicine Buddha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhaisajyaguru) or [the Five Wisdom Buddhas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Tathagatas)).
My guess, based only on the fact that there are only two of them, is that the second one might be Matreya ([the Future Buddha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitreya)) -- that would make sense as a pair, i.e. the previous and the future Buddha -- but I found nothing to confirm that those personal symbols represent Maitreya.
Another possibility, maybe, is that the second statue represent Gautama Buddha too. There's a beehive hair-style again. That appears to be an eight-petalled crown -- a lotus again which, like the [Dharmachakra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharmachakra), represents the [Noble Eightfold Path](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path).
He's holding what appears to be a [stupa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupa). Could it be that the pair represent the Buddha before and after [parinibbana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parinirvana)? I don't know.
When you display them it may be respectful to put them in the highest place, above other things (see e.g. [this answer](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/a/1501/254)) -- for example perhaps on top of a bookshelf, or on the top shelf. |
415,857 | I have an existing LAN with a DHCP server already dishing out IP addresses.
For various reasons I cannot replace that server so it will still need to dish out IP addresses.
I've been experimenting with Dnsmasq in Proxy mode to provide PXE boot filenames.
Now I have Dnsmasq chainloading iPXE ok, but I found that the problem with Dnsmasq is that in Proxy mode it won't send DHCP options down. So I can't seem to send option 17 to boot iSCSI SAN.
I read somewhere that it's not enabled in the source code. Oh well, so I thought perhaps I should try ISC DHCPD (default version4 with Ubuntu), but I can't find any configuration examples that work as a Proxy.
1. Does ISC DHCPD even work in Proxy mode? Examples on the web imply patching the source.
2. What other options do I have? | 2012/08/09 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/415857",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/14631/"
] | No, the ISC DHCPD server doesn't support ProxyDHCP mode. We've had an idea for a GSoC project in the iPXE community for some while to implement that, but no student has been willing to take up the task yet. On the other hand, dnsmasq can be configured to work in ProxyDHCP mode, but it's configuration is purely static. We have an idea for this year's GSoC to extend dnsmasq so that it can send DHCP requests to a web server that can take care of the logic and send back a response to dnsmasq, which should then relay this to the ProxyDHCP client. You can read more about this at this page: <http://ipxe.org/gsoc> | You can use `dnsmasq` (versions >=2.48) for this purpose.
Read more here:
<https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSP/ProxyDHCP> |
406,691 | I need to do voltage shifting (3.3V Papilio FPGA <--> 5V RAM chip).
Most of the pins are output 3.3V -> input 5V, and 3.3V qualifies as "high" to a 5V device, so I can connect them directly.
The databus is bidirectional, so that won't work - the spec sheet for the FPGA says up to 0.8V for low, and 2V to 4.1V for high; the SRAM takes less than 0.8V for low and above 2.2V for high.
I worked out this very simple voltage shifter, which seems like it would do the trick, and is within the tolerance of each device, but then I found various circuits online, and they all seem to be an order of magnitude more complicated. This says to me that there is something wrong with my design, but I can't figure out what.
[simulate this circuit](/plugins/schematics?image=http%3a%2f%2fi.stack.imgur.com%2f4DytD.png) – Schematic created using [CircuitLab](https://www.circuitlab.com/)
This either makes a voltage divider between +5V and the FPGA-out, or between SRAM out and 0V.
Some experimentation with a spreadsheet shows that ratios of 2:1:15 for the 3 resistors (e.g 2MΩ, 1MΩ, 3MΩ) give numbers within the allowed tolerances (the FPGA would get 0V for low and 3.3V for high, and the SRAM would get 0.31V for low and 3.41V for high).
So what did I miss? It seems easier and cheaper than all the other examples.
The only thing I could find was that it might affect the rise & fall speed, but I couldn't follow the maths as to how much. The SRAM I have is rated at 100ns, and I hope to read/write it at 2Mhz, so I do have a little leeway. The control signals will be direct, so would end up a little ahead of the databus, which would work in my favour. | 2018/11/14 | [
"https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/406691",
"https://electronics.stackexchange.com",
"https://electronics.stackexchange.com/users/64442/"
] | If you look at the Xilinx data sheet, you can see that the input current per pin could be 10 - 15 uA. So you would have to use a resistor divider network with much lower values, which would in turn mean that you would require more power.
As far as rise time goes, the same thing applies. The input capacitance is 10 pF, plus whatever capacitance is associated with your board layout and other devices on the trace. So your RC time constant for the output impedance of your network with the input plus stray capacitance is going to be in the microsecond range, making the rise time unacceptable for a 2 MHz write speed. | Your overall approach is completely, umm... unrealistic. Simply put, "voltage dividers" especially in megaOhm range on a 100-ns bus is completely wrong. Pin/wire capacitances are 5-15pF, which will bring you into 10-us area. The entire approach is wrong.
First, get rid of 5-V RAM, there is no more 5-V signaling in modern electronics. You won't gain anything by using 5-V digital ICs, this is a blast from 30-years past. No one will look at this as any achievement of yours.
If you want to learn about level translation (there are cases when people need to translate 1.8V to 2.5 or 3.3V), then there there are whole families of integrated circuits that do this job. They are not that complicated.
Get at least 3.3V SRAM chips, from ISSI or Cypress for example. Then the problem of interface to FPGA goes away naturally, since FPGA I/O buffers are configurable to pretty much any interface level and type.
Also, if you would open up and post the exact type of "5V SRAM", things could be easier. Chances are that you misinterpreted the datasheets, and you might need no level translation at all.
AMPLIFICATION: It appears that the RAM in question is HITACHI HM628128ALP-10 chip. The datasheet states "Directly TTL compatible All inputs and outputs"
This [appnote from Analog Devices](https://www.analog.com/media/en/training-seminars/tutorials/MT-098.pdf) elaborates on logic levels, stating that TTL and CMOS-3-3 are level-compatible (0.8v Low, 2.4V High):
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/mDTie.png)
Therefore there is no need in level translators to interface this memory chip to Spartan-3 FPGA. |
11,814 | I am a second year, learning C/C++ and Java.
In our first year of university we did basic C++, no classes. This year we have been introduced to classes and inheritance. We have not yet done pointers, virtual functions, abstract classes, operator overloading, exception handling, linked lists, stacks, queues, binary trees, graphs, etc.
I am very curious, so I like to teach myself some things that we haven't yet done. I enjoy the technical side of things a lot, my friends think I am weird to want to learn more than I have to..
**But heres my problem:**
Our C++ lecturer has decided to take a different approach this term to learning. He said, form a group, think of a project you would like to do and implement it over the year.
**Let me give you a break down of our group:**
Theres five of us in the group. Myself and another member are much more experienced than the other three and we like the technical side of things, and are quite motivated to do something with an **interesting** challenge. Then we have a group member who has been extremely hard to motivate, and he was very unsure why he wanted to be a programmer. He did some thinking and decided he wanted to work towards becoming a game programmer. The next member of ours is not the most reliable and has let us down a few times. Finally we have a new member that is keen to learn, but his programming needs work, as do the previous two members.
We are all friends, of course -- which probably isn't the ideal solution to a good group.
**The project idea:**
Our lecturer gave us an initial idea for a project: a timetable scheduler. Of course this is no trivial task, but most of our members were not really interested in the project at all. So, then I thought -- one member wants to be a game programmer (the hardest member to motivate), most of us would probably enjoy the experience of doing a game, as it would be a big challenge, so why not give it a go?
**So what is my question?**
Do you think that we should take on the task of making a game, or aim for something else?
Initially we thought of a 2D, top-down, ARPG. Then it became a 3D ARPG.
Obviously 3D would be harder, but as we have time to learn, it wouldn't be such a bad idea would it?
Personally I think that the learning will be the most fun part of this project, even if we don't end up with a great game, we should have learned a lot (including being forced to learn and implement new C++ topics). | 2011/05/01 | [
"https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/11814",
"https://gamedev.stackexchange.com",
"https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/users/6970/"
] | Honestly, in the space of time you've got where you have to factor in learning time as well, design a 2D game rather than 3D. As quoted a few times on this site, 3D is orders of magnitude harder than 2D.
It's definitely possible to make a game but you must make sure that you clamp your gameplay features right at the beginning. You don't want to situation of "Well wouldn't it be cool if we did X as well as Y?" 7-8 months down the line.
Just remember that it doesn't have to have fancy graphics or the polish of a AAA game.
Depending on your game idea and how complete you want it (and try to keep it as simple as possible, especially as some members are less experienced than others) you will need something for:
* Graphics
* Input
* Audio - potentially optional
* Collision Detection
* Physics - depending on the idea, you
can easily get away with your own
physics for a Tetris clone, for
example.
* AI - completely optional
There are plenty of sites available that you can get free assets and content from.
I have heard good things regarding [SDL](http://www.libsdl.org/) and [SFML](http://www.sfml-dev.org/) so have a look at them to make your 2D implementation a lot easier.
If you really want physics, you could use [Box2D](http://www.box2d.org/) but you should take note that it's a fine balance you're after. The more libraries you use the longer it will take to learn them and integrate them to a satisfactory degree. On the other hand, depending on the complexities of your game, you should make use of more libraries rather than reinvent the wheel.
You can simplify this headache just by keeping your game simple. There's nothing wrong with a Tetris, Mario or Asteroids clone.
Personally, I wouldn't bother with AI. You can have some enemies that move about randomly and that would be sufficient to make it a challenging game.
Just as a final note, I'd get used to using pointers and references at the very least, so I'd recommend learning a bit more about C++ too in your own time.
Good luck! | I am guessing that none of you have done a project like this. You should definitely use a game engine or some kind of third party library. Do not try to roll your own.
Use something like C4, Irrlicht, Horde3D, NeoAxis, or anything that looks like it will fit your needs (decent list here: [Easy to use cross-platform 3D engines for C++ game development?](https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/21/easy-to-use-cross-platform-3d-engines-for-c-game-development)). You should probably stick with C++ since this is a C++ class your talking about.
Also, consider content. Programming isn't the only thing that will go into this project. Some games need a lot of assets: sounds, music, models, meshes, textures, etc. Another important asset is game content like maps, items, etc (depending on the game). My foremost recommendation is to make a game that doesn't require too many assets so you guys can focus on the programming aspect. That's why I recommend you stay away from certain genres like RPGs (usually require vast amounts of game content like maps, items, monsters, art, sound, etc).
This isn't to say you can't make a game where art or sound is required, just be ready to use things that are already out there. This will save you vast amounts of time.
If you make a game, it should be a game that is focused on something programming wise. For instance: a game where you have to catch shapes as music plays. The varying pitches and other aspects of the music would change the flow of shapes. This game would be neat because it doesn't require a lot of assets (no maps and very minimal amount of art and sounds). You would also have to focus on programming tasks like manipulating and responding to the music your game is playing. Try to do a game that is neat, but also doesn't require a lot of content.
My core suggestion: Aim for a game that you think you can finish. Low amounts of content (or content from free/usable sources) is essential in my opinion for a first project like this. You should also develop other games before your "end game" project (clones like tic-tac-toe, break out, and tetris are good examples). Also, don't reinvent the wheel. Use other people's code! It'll save you time and it'll probably be better than your code if your doing this for the first time. Don't code an engine, code a game.
3D verse 2D isn't a huge deal in my opinion. The math is a bit more imposing, but it isn't like 3D is far harder than 2D. Yeah, your not going to make WoW, but you can make a decent-looking 3D game. It's all about where you set your sights.
Notes on your team: Your team is only as strong as it's weakest link. If you feel that certain team members will have troubles, than you should anticipate picking up the slack or making changes. Your team members should fully realize how hard making game can be. It's not an easy project by far.
Honestly, I think you guys can do it in a year. Five people can definitely learn and implement a game. It all depends on the game your making, set your sights just right and you'll hit your mark. Sorry for the horribly long answer, just my opinions from what I've learned in the past year. |
11,814 | I am a second year, learning C/C++ and Java.
In our first year of university we did basic C++, no classes. This year we have been introduced to classes and inheritance. We have not yet done pointers, virtual functions, abstract classes, operator overloading, exception handling, linked lists, stacks, queues, binary trees, graphs, etc.
I am very curious, so I like to teach myself some things that we haven't yet done. I enjoy the technical side of things a lot, my friends think I am weird to want to learn more than I have to..
**But heres my problem:**
Our C++ lecturer has decided to take a different approach this term to learning. He said, form a group, think of a project you would like to do and implement it over the year.
**Let me give you a break down of our group:**
Theres five of us in the group. Myself and another member are much more experienced than the other three and we like the technical side of things, and are quite motivated to do something with an **interesting** challenge. Then we have a group member who has been extremely hard to motivate, and he was very unsure why he wanted to be a programmer. He did some thinking and decided he wanted to work towards becoming a game programmer. The next member of ours is not the most reliable and has let us down a few times. Finally we have a new member that is keen to learn, but his programming needs work, as do the previous two members.
We are all friends, of course -- which probably isn't the ideal solution to a good group.
**The project idea:**
Our lecturer gave us an initial idea for a project: a timetable scheduler. Of course this is no trivial task, but most of our members were not really interested in the project at all. So, then I thought -- one member wants to be a game programmer (the hardest member to motivate), most of us would probably enjoy the experience of doing a game, as it would be a big challenge, so why not give it a go?
**So what is my question?**
Do you think that we should take on the task of making a game, or aim for something else?
Initially we thought of a 2D, top-down, ARPG. Then it became a 3D ARPG.
Obviously 3D would be harder, but as we have time to learn, it wouldn't be such a bad idea would it?
Personally I think that the learning will be the most fun part of this project, even if we don't end up with a great game, we should have learned a lot (including being forced to learn and implement new C++ topics). | 2011/05/01 | [
"https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/11814",
"https://gamedev.stackexchange.com",
"https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/users/6970/"
] | I am guessing that none of you have done a project like this. You should definitely use a game engine or some kind of third party library. Do not try to roll your own.
Use something like C4, Irrlicht, Horde3D, NeoAxis, or anything that looks like it will fit your needs (decent list here: [Easy to use cross-platform 3D engines for C++ game development?](https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/21/easy-to-use-cross-platform-3d-engines-for-c-game-development)). You should probably stick with C++ since this is a C++ class your talking about.
Also, consider content. Programming isn't the only thing that will go into this project. Some games need a lot of assets: sounds, music, models, meshes, textures, etc. Another important asset is game content like maps, items, etc (depending on the game). My foremost recommendation is to make a game that doesn't require too many assets so you guys can focus on the programming aspect. That's why I recommend you stay away from certain genres like RPGs (usually require vast amounts of game content like maps, items, monsters, art, sound, etc).
This isn't to say you can't make a game where art or sound is required, just be ready to use things that are already out there. This will save you vast amounts of time.
If you make a game, it should be a game that is focused on something programming wise. For instance: a game where you have to catch shapes as music plays. The varying pitches and other aspects of the music would change the flow of shapes. This game would be neat because it doesn't require a lot of assets (no maps and very minimal amount of art and sounds). You would also have to focus on programming tasks like manipulating and responding to the music your game is playing. Try to do a game that is neat, but also doesn't require a lot of content.
My core suggestion: Aim for a game that you think you can finish. Low amounts of content (or content from free/usable sources) is essential in my opinion for a first project like this. You should also develop other games before your "end game" project (clones like tic-tac-toe, break out, and tetris are good examples). Also, don't reinvent the wheel. Use other people's code! It'll save you time and it'll probably be better than your code if your doing this for the first time. Don't code an engine, code a game.
3D verse 2D isn't a huge deal in my opinion. The math is a bit more imposing, but it isn't like 3D is far harder than 2D. Yeah, your not going to make WoW, but you can make a decent-looking 3D game. It's all about where you set your sights.
Notes on your team: Your team is only as strong as it's weakest link. If you feel that certain team members will have troubles, than you should anticipate picking up the slack or making changes. Your team members should fully realize how hard making game can be. It's not an easy project by far.
Honestly, I think you guys can do it in a year. Five people can definitely learn and implement a game. It all depends on the game your making, set your sights just right and you'll hit your mark. Sorry for the horribly long answer, just my opinions from what I've learned in the past year. | I wrote a game for my final year project alone so it is possible with five of you.
I would advise you think about these things:
1. check how lenient your professor is going to be. I nearly failed my first review because I used to much 3rd party code and they felt that I wasn't doing any real work.
2. resources. I wasn't allowed to use any graphics or sounds that were copyrighted so its more difficult than just googleing it.
3. plan to fail. the amount of times I thought I knew what I was doing and it turned out it wasn't as simple as that such as adding text to a graphic window.
and I cannot stress enough plan before you code, or two months in you will realise that should be a class. a good plan will save you time especially if there are 5 of you.
also dont feel bad if you dont create a big hit. a game is an incredibly big project. Though your classmates projects may look a lot better two thirds of a game will get you a better mark that all of a easier project.
I never made it past a demo world and still got the top grade in my class (first with honours) |
11,814 | I am a second year, learning C/C++ and Java.
In our first year of university we did basic C++, no classes. This year we have been introduced to classes and inheritance. We have not yet done pointers, virtual functions, abstract classes, operator overloading, exception handling, linked lists, stacks, queues, binary trees, graphs, etc.
I am very curious, so I like to teach myself some things that we haven't yet done. I enjoy the technical side of things a lot, my friends think I am weird to want to learn more than I have to..
**But heres my problem:**
Our C++ lecturer has decided to take a different approach this term to learning. He said, form a group, think of a project you would like to do and implement it over the year.
**Let me give you a break down of our group:**
Theres five of us in the group. Myself and another member are much more experienced than the other three and we like the technical side of things, and are quite motivated to do something with an **interesting** challenge. Then we have a group member who has been extremely hard to motivate, and he was very unsure why he wanted to be a programmer. He did some thinking and decided he wanted to work towards becoming a game programmer. The next member of ours is not the most reliable and has let us down a few times. Finally we have a new member that is keen to learn, but his programming needs work, as do the previous two members.
We are all friends, of course -- which probably isn't the ideal solution to a good group.
**The project idea:**
Our lecturer gave us an initial idea for a project: a timetable scheduler. Of course this is no trivial task, but most of our members were not really interested in the project at all. So, then I thought -- one member wants to be a game programmer (the hardest member to motivate), most of us would probably enjoy the experience of doing a game, as it would be a big challenge, so why not give it a go?
**So what is my question?**
Do you think that we should take on the task of making a game, or aim for something else?
Initially we thought of a 2D, top-down, ARPG. Then it became a 3D ARPG.
Obviously 3D would be harder, but as we have time to learn, it wouldn't be such a bad idea would it?
Personally I think that the learning will be the most fun part of this project, even if we don't end up with a great game, we should have learned a lot (including being forced to learn and implement new C++ topics). | 2011/05/01 | [
"https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/11814",
"https://gamedev.stackexchange.com",
"https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/users/6970/"
] | Honestly, in the space of time you've got where you have to factor in learning time as well, design a 2D game rather than 3D. As quoted a few times on this site, 3D is orders of magnitude harder than 2D.
It's definitely possible to make a game but you must make sure that you clamp your gameplay features right at the beginning. You don't want to situation of "Well wouldn't it be cool if we did X as well as Y?" 7-8 months down the line.
Just remember that it doesn't have to have fancy graphics or the polish of a AAA game.
Depending on your game idea and how complete you want it (and try to keep it as simple as possible, especially as some members are less experienced than others) you will need something for:
* Graphics
* Input
* Audio - potentially optional
* Collision Detection
* Physics - depending on the idea, you
can easily get away with your own
physics for a Tetris clone, for
example.
* AI - completely optional
There are plenty of sites available that you can get free assets and content from.
I have heard good things regarding [SDL](http://www.libsdl.org/) and [SFML](http://www.sfml-dev.org/) so have a look at them to make your 2D implementation a lot easier.
If you really want physics, you could use [Box2D](http://www.box2d.org/) but you should take note that it's a fine balance you're after. The more libraries you use the longer it will take to learn them and integrate them to a satisfactory degree. On the other hand, depending on the complexities of your game, you should make use of more libraries rather than reinvent the wheel.
You can simplify this headache just by keeping your game simple. There's nothing wrong with a Tetris, Mario or Asteroids clone.
Personally, I wouldn't bother with AI. You can have some enemies that move about randomly and that would be sufficient to make it a challenging game.
Just as a final note, I'd get used to using pointers and references at the very least, so I'd recommend learning a bit more about C++ too in your own time.
Good luck! | I wrote a game for my final year project alone so it is possible with five of you.
I would advise you think about these things:
1. check how lenient your professor is going to be. I nearly failed my first review because I used to much 3rd party code and they felt that I wasn't doing any real work.
2. resources. I wasn't allowed to use any graphics or sounds that were copyrighted so its more difficult than just googleing it.
3. plan to fail. the amount of times I thought I knew what I was doing and it turned out it wasn't as simple as that such as adding text to a graphic window.
and I cannot stress enough plan before you code, or two months in you will realise that should be a class. a good plan will save you time especially if there are 5 of you.
also dont feel bad if you dont create a big hit. a game is an incredibly big project. Though your classmates projects may look a lot better two thirds of a game will get you a better mark that all of a easier project.
I never made it past a demo world and still got the top grade in my class (first with honours) |
42,128 | I'm working on a filtered search. While the term "filter" perfectly describes its functionality, some of the parts being filtered are...filters. There might be some confusion with users thinking of actual filters and not filters for the search engine.
Are there any other generally accepted terms for a set of terms meant to reduce a search result set? | 2013/07/12 | [
"https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/42128",
"https://ux.stackexchange.com",
"https://ux.stackexchange.com/users/31950/"
] | You can do pretty much anything by combining a verb from group A and a noun from group B:
**Group A**
* Refine
* Filter
* Narrow
* Sort by
etc.
**Group B**
* Results
* Options
etc.
Keep in mind the existing microcopy on your site to make sure it fits into the whole UX. I'm sure there are more options, combos, etc.
Hope that helps. | A common term used for the controls that assist in filtering search results is "facets".
A specific "facet" might be a filter, or a combination of filters. |
4,656,298 | Working on my personal knowledge base... I want to format my documents, even on local hard disk in wiki syntax. Sometimes I would upload them to a (corporate) wiki, sometimes I would download them from there. Planned are some tools to support this flow and searching my knowledge base (documents) for later. Obviously I want the markdown to be compatible with most, minimising conversion work.
So my question is similar to [this related question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4008212/which-markup-language-markdown-or), but
* What wiki text version or Markdown (dialect) should I use when I start something new? (i.e. documentation project and kind of wiki).
* What are the most wiedely used/recognized ones?
* And where is tool support (editors and or libraries) best? Concerned prog. languages are Java, Ruby, Scala. | 2011/01/11 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/4656298",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/104143/"
] | [Wikipedia says](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki_markup) that there is no commonly accepted standard wikitext language.
[Creole](http://www.wikicreole.org/) is one effort for a "common wiki markup language to be used across different Wikis". There is a version 1.0 of the specification and several [wikis and wiki engines](http://wikicreole.org/wiki/Implementation) implement it. MediaWiki does not implement it.
[Markdown](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown) has a large number of implementations and seems to be used quite a lot.
As there is no agreed standard, the language might be selected depending on [features and available implementations](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_markup_language) depending on the use case. | Unfortunately there is very little format standardization in the wiki world, although some wikis (notably Atlassian's [Confluence](http://confluence.atlassian.com/), a commercial product) are moving towards XHTML.
The most widely used Wiki software is [MediaWiki](http://www.mediawiki.org) (of Wikipedia fame). Mediawiki's markup is famously hard to parse, but it has been around and used widely enough that there are lots of [existing tools](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia%3aTools#Importing_.28converting.29_content_to_Wikipedia_.28MediaWiki.29_format) for converting both to and from MediaWiki format, as well as editing content with lots of different online and offline editors.
MediaWiki also has a full-featured API with lots of client libraries in various programming languages (see [Client code](http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API%3aClient_code)), including eg. [MediaWiki::Gateway](https://github.com/jpatokal/mediawiki-gateway) for Ruby. |
4,656,298 | Working on my personal knowledge base... I want to format my documents, even on local hard disk in wiki syntax. Sometimes I would upload them to a (corporate) wiki, sometimes I would download them from there. Planned are some tools to support this flow and searching my knowledge base (documents) for later. Obviously I want the markdown to be compatible with most, minimising conversion work.
So my question is similar to [this related question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4008212/which-markup-language-markdown-or), but
* What wiki text version or Markdown (dialect) should I use when I start something new? (i.e. documentation project and kind of wiki).
* What are the most wiedely used/recognized ones?
* And where is tool support (editors and or libraries) best? Concerned prog. languages are Java, Ruby, Scala. | 2011/01/11 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/4656298",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/104143/"
] | **(1)** While there are a lot of wiki markups I suggest to stick to **well defined markup language**.
There are **only 3 plain text markup with well defined specs**:
* [CommonMark](http://commonmark.org/) attempt to define strong syntax and standardize common extensions of popular MarkDown. All love it. Very HTML oriented.
* [reStructuredText](http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html) is consistent framework for markup and well established project (started from 2001!!). If you need extensibility built into core specs, inline foreign markups, generate HTML/PDF/docbook/etc it is your choice. Several books and many software project was documented via *reStructuredText*. Check <https://readthedocs.org/> With [Sphinx](http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/stable/) publishing software you ever can build HTML with *off-line* JS search!!
* [AsciiDoc](http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/) is competitive to *reStructuredText* but lack of build-in extensibility. It is very DocBook oriented. Several books was written in *AsciiDoc*.
[Textile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile_%28markup_language%29) markup didn't gain well defined specs and has weak community around. I recommend consider above 3 options instead.
**(2)** You definitely should stick to plain text files.
Support software for all above formats able to produce high quality output for printing and on-line publishing.
I stick to RST because I need extendibility and ability to inline foreign markup (math with LaTeX, graph with graphviz/dot, plotting with imagemagic, etc)
I search over personal tips inside *Emacs* editor or inside *bash/grep*. For advertising purpose I publish my tips online, for example: <http://tips.defun.work/> | Unfortunately there is very little format standardization in the wiki world, although some wikis (notably Atlassian's [Confluence](http://confluence.atlassian.com/), a commercial product) are moving towards XHTML.
The most widely used Wiki software is [MediaWiki](http://www.mediawiki.org) (of Wikipedia fame). Mediawiki's markup is famously hard to parse, but it has been around and used widely enough that there are lots of [existing tools](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia%3aTools#Importing_.28converting.29_content_to_Wikipedia_.28MediaWiki.29_format) for converting both to and from MediaWiki format, as well as editing content with lots of different online and offline editors.
MediaWiki also has a full-featured API with lots of client libraries in various programming languages (see [Client code](http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API%3aClient_code)), including eg. [MediaWiki::Gateway](https://github.com/jpatokal/mediawiki-gateway) for Ruby. |
4,656,298 | Working on my personal knowledge base... I want to format my documents, even on local hard disk in wiki syntax. Sometimes I would upload them to a (corporate) wiki, sometimes I would download them from there. Planned are some tools to support this flow and searching my knowledge base (documents) for later. Obviously I want the markdown to be compatible with most, minimising conversion work.
So my question is similar to [this related question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4008212/which-markup-language-markdown-or), but
* What wiki text version or Markdown (dialect) should I use when I start something new? (i.e. documentation project and kind of wiki).
* What are the most wiedely used/recognized ones?
* And where is tool support (editors and or libraries) best? Concerned prog. languages are Java, Ruby, Scala. | 2011/01/11 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/4656298",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/104143/"
] | [Wikipedia says](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki_markup) that there is no commonly accepted standard wikitext language.
[Creole](http://www.wikicreole.org/) is one effort for a "common wiki markup language to be used across different Wikis". There is a version 1.0 of the specification and several [wikis and wiki engines](http://wikicreole.org/wiki/Implementation) implement it. MediaWiki does not implement it.
[Markdown](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown) has a large number of implementations and seems to be used quite a lot.
As there is no agreed standard, the language might be selected depending on [features and available implementations](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_markup_language) depending on the use case. | **(1)** While there are a lot of wiki markups I suggest to stick to **well defined markup language**.
There are **only 3 plain text markup with well defined specs**:
* [CommonMark](http://commonmark.org/) attempt to define strong syntax and standardize common extensions of popular MarkDown. All love it. Very HTML oriented.
* [reStructuredText](http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html) is consistent framework for markup and well established project (started from 2001!!). If you need extensibility built into core specs, inline foreign markups, generate HTML/PDF/docbook/etc it is your choice. Several books and many software project was documented via *reStructuredText*. Check <https://readthedocs.org/> With [Sphinx](http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/stable/) publishing software you ever can build HTML with *off-line* JS search!!
* [AsciiDoc](http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/) is competitive to *reStructuredText* but lack of build-in extensibility. It is very DocBook oriented. Several books was written in *AsciiDoc*.
[Textile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile_%28markup_language%29) markup didn't gain well defined specs and has weak community around. I recommend consider above 3 options instead.
**(2)** You definitely should stick to plain text files.
Support software for all above formats able to produce high quality output for printing and on-line publishing.
I stick to RST because I need extendibility and ability to inline foreign markup (math with LaTeX, graph with graphviz/dot, plotting with imagemagic, etc)
I search over personal tips inside *Emacs* editor or inside *bash/grep*. For advertising purpose I publish my tips online, for example: <http://tips.defun.work/> |
54,421 | I moved into a regional town in Australia, that is mostly surrounded by Blues, Rock, Pop or Top-40 musicians.
The closest answer I found here is [this one](https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/7276/finding-bandmates-in-a-new-city), which has some good suggestions that apply to almost any new environment. Thank you.
However, I feel my situation is somewhat special.
I perform flamenco guitar, and out here in outback Australia - flamenco is mostly akin to "flamingos" - the bird! That's about as much as they know of it! The Gipsy Kings is another. I do play GK music, but only because most people recognise those songs - Bamboleo, Djobi Djoba, etc. And it's "easy" to dance to, and easier to play of course.
Sorry, but aside from **some** blues, I dislike the other genres. They are too common and fraught with people that think they can perform them, and worse - think they can sing.
I am not a snob, but I have been performing for over 20 years as a solo artist mostly, and I know music - from "that music". About the only people that appreciate flamenco are middle-aged retirees that also appreciate jazz, world music, and classical. I might as well play at retirement villagers (which I've done btw).
However, I want to try and form a flamenco group, with cajonero (cajon player), cante jondo singers (flamenco style), and maybe a bass player. YouTube "Paco de Lucia" and you'll know what I mean.
I know looking for Spanish or Latin people in this town is one option, which I've done, but unfortunately there is only ONE Spanish girl that also happens to dance flamenco, but for some reason she's not into it anymore and has resorted to partying, drinking, or dancing out at clubs for all I know.
So any tips on how I can convince Australians to join me!? Yeah - almost impossible. | 2017/03/16 | [
"https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/54421",
"https://music.stackexchange.com",
"https://music.stackexchange.com/users/37744/"
] | No matter what the style of music, in this day an age it's getting harder to find people who want to get together and play. The emphasis is so much less on performance and so much more on recording. Being in a similar situation in that I've recently begun playing after a long layoff I've found that the best way to find people is to make yourself visible in music stores, teaching areas and try to introduce yourself to every musician you can find regardless of style. Also, attend as many live music events as you can regardless of style.
The more you expose yourself to the people who do actually play, the better your odds are of meeting someone. You are in a very specialized area and it won't be easy but persistence pays off. | The times I wanted to form a band, I just called up a few friends and said, "Let's form a band." It always worked. Of course, I was always forming a Western Swing dance band, so it was pretty easy. We did play a large range of music though (almost as many types as a ballroom orchestra.) |
521,128 | I'm having much difficulty modifying a "state variable" bandpass filter from being dual supply to single supply. (<https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/filter/state-variable-filter.html>)
Here is what the circuit and frequency response should look like, screenshot from the website. I am only concerned about the bandpass filter response.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/B4dZ3.png)
The following LTSpice simulation is done with dual supply rails and matches the expected graph:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/U3K4F.png)
But when I try changing the supply rails to what I think would work, I don't get much of anything at the output. I've tried variations on this but all them end up being down in the -50dB to -60dB range.
What I've done is simply change all the negative rails over to ground, then changed the (+) terminals of the op amps to a bias voltage at half-rail (2.5V).
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/mRy6W.png)
I'm not quite sure what's going wrong, and have been stuck for some time.
Any help appreciated.
Edit:
In response to the comment below, here is what you get when you change the AC source ground to vbias. Adding or removing the cap between V2 and R1 doesn't change much, adding or removing the 1M resistor also doesn't change much.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ctZof.png)
**Update with answer:**
I picked an op amp at "random" in LTSpice's menu. Changing the type and adding the cap between the source and R1 fixed the simulation. I breadboarded the circuit below, but am still getting the response above - more debug necessary. But that is a separate issue and this question here is resolved. Here is what I ended up with.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/burmh.png)
Thanks everyone! | 2020/09/12 | [
"https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/521128",
"https://electronics.stackexchange.com",
"https://electronics.stackexchange.com/users/262811/"
] | The OP227 op-amp is not designed to work down to a single power rail as low as 5 volts. I'm not saying that some PSPICE models of the device wouldn't come up with the goods at 5 volts though but, you have to be mindful about your expectations. If you look at TPC 27 in the [data sheet](https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data-sheets/OP227.pdf) you'll see that the minimum overall rail voltage is about 7 volts: -
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/C5Cca.png)
And if you read the data sheet for input voltage range it is typically +/-12.3 volts on +/-15 volt rails. If you did the maths and worked out what the input voltage range is on a single 5 volt rail it would be nonsensical.
A half-decent SPICE model would fall-flat on a single supply of 5 volts (as you would expect). Try running it on a 30 volt rail just to see that it works then, opt for a different op-amp that is 5 volt rail compatible.
And yes, you do need to put a series capacitor on the input unless you bias it appropriately to mid rail. | If yo apply DC at the input, the servo loop will attempt to force output of A2 to also be at 0 volts.
Opamps don't work down at -rail, or up at +rail.
Add the DC\_blocking.
================================================
DC\_ground the signal input. Then run the simulation.
I expect you only need ONE CAP, in series with that left\_most resistor.. |
51,603,893 | I noticed that a blocking gPRC call might be blocked for a long, long time, if not for ever.
I checked and found the following page:<https://grpc.io/docs/guides/concepts.html#deadlines>
However, the page does not tell the default deadline/timeout value for Java.
So, I am wondering if there is a default java value.
I probably have to set a deadline value for all the calls, if not. Which is inconvenient... | 2018/07/31 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/51603893",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3836941/"
] | There is no default deadline, in gRPC for any language. If there are network failures and keepalive is enabled on client-side, the call will eventually fail. But if the server takes an unbounded amount of time, then the client may wait an unbounded amount of time. | It is equivalent to "infinity" according to this issue <https://github.com/grpc/grpc-java/issues/1495> |
51,603,893 | I noticed that a blocking gPRC call might be blocked for a long, long time, if not for ever.
I checked and found the following page:<https://grpc.io/docs/guides/concepts.html#deadlines>
However, the page does not tell the default deadline/timeout value for Java.
So, I am wondering if there is a default java value.
I probably have to set a deadline value for all the calls, if not. Which is inconvenient... | 2018/07/31 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/51603893",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3836941/"
] | There is no default deadline, in gRPC for any language. If there are network failures and keepalive is enabled on client-side, the call will eventually fail. But if the server takes an unbounded amount of time, then the client may wait an unbounded amount of time. | Just like @Eric Anderson said, there's no default deadline. But, it's highly recommended to set one for each RPC in the client and service provider should also specify the longest deadline they support as mentioned in the blog: <https://grpc.io/blog/deadlines>
>
> In general, when you don’t set a deadline, resources will be held for all in-flight requests, and all requests can potentially reach the maximum timeout. This puts the service at risk of running out of resources, like memory, which would increase the latency of the service, or could crash the entire process in the worst case.
>
>
>
>
> To avoid this, services should specify the longest default deadline they technically support, and clients should wait until the response is no longer useful to them. For the service this can be as simple as providing a comment in the .proto file. For the client this involves setting useful deadlines.
>
>
> |
51,603,893 | I noticed that a blocking gPRC call might be blocked for a long, long time, if not for ever.
I checked and found the following page:<https://grpc.io/docs/guides/concepts.html#deadlines>
However, the page does not tell the default deadline/timeout value for Java.
So, I am wondering if there is a default java value.
I probably have to set a deadline value for all the calls, if not. Which is inconvenient... | 2018/07/31 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/51603893",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3836941/"
] | It is equivalent to "infinity" according to this issue <https://github.com/grpc/grpc-java/issues/1495> | Just like @Eric Anderson said, there's no default deadline. But, it's highly recommended to set one for each RPC in the client and service provider should also specify the longest deadline they support as mentioned in the blog: <https://grpc.io/blog/deadlines>
>
> In general, when you don’t set a deadline, resources will be held for all in-flight requests, and all requests can potentially reach the maximum timeout. This puts the service at risk of running out of resources, like memory, which would increase the latency of the service, or could crash the entire process in the worst case.
>
>
>
>
> To avoid this, services should specify the longest default deadline they technically support, and clients should wait until the response is no longer useful to them. For the service this can be as simple as providing a comment in the .proto file. For the client this involves setting useful deadlines.
>
>
> |
392,201 | I'm looking at an 8TB Mac Pro machine for business. I have found 4 year old articles stating there is a 2.2tb size limit on Boot Camp.
There is no current data.
Called and spoke with a senior advisor who could find no documentation. Was told to just buy and try it or reach out to the community....
Has anyone put more than 2.2tb on the windows side of a machine with a larger hard drive?
Will be running windows10. | 2020/05/26 | [
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/392201",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/377086/"
] | Mac Pro models introduced in 2013 or later do not have a 2.2 TB size limit for 64 bit Windows 10. If there is a limitation with respect to using the Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows 10, then Windows 10 could be installed without the use of the Boot Camp Assistant. Although, you would still want to use the Boot Camp Assistant to download Windows Support Software (i.e. the Windows drivers).
Windows runs on a Mac the same as any PC. Boot Camp refers to several entities, such as:
* There is a Boot Camp Assistant application which can download the Windows Support Software and simplify the installation of Windows.
* There is the Boot Camp installer, which installs the Windows Support Software.
* There is Boot Camp software installed in Windows that can configure hardware and set the default operating system to boot.
* The volume (partition) where Windows is installed is given the label `BOOTCAMP` and thus is referred to as Boot Camp in the Apple documentation. | I believe it had to do with block sizes and what the Apple Disk Utility could do formatting the bootcamp partition using exFAT.
If you are at all concerned, create a 2Tb partition while doing the install and then use a partitioning utility to change its size and modify the file system before restoring files and installing apps. Tools like Acronis, etc. should allow you to do this. |
261,620 | I work at a clinic where we need to pseudonymize patient data. I wrote a small app for this using R (RStudio). R will be installed on computers with access to internet but my idea is to use R offline, i.e. fully blocking it with a firewall in order to prevent hacks on our pseudonymization app.
But before anything gets installed on any computer in our clinic it must be approved by our unit responsible for security. One worker from the unit asked me how the security updates will be installed since I want to use R offline. But I learnt that [there are no security updates in R at all](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/72047685/security-updates-in-r-and-or-rstudio?noredirect=1#comment127305655_72047685). Therefore it seems like my R app will get no approval from the security unit. I am surprised because R and RStudio seem to be widely used in professional context.
I am completely unfamiliar with cyber security. So in simple terms: How secure is the usage of R and RStudio in my context?
**Edit**
* Internet access: Not the computer itself will be connected to the internet but it will be connected to the local work network.
* "how do you get the data onto your computer to begin with": Data will be entered by the staff. This is also now the case. There will be no need for usb transfer. | 2022/04/29 | [
"https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/261620",
"https://security.stackexchange.com",
"https://security.stackexchange.com/users/277541/"
] | Let's chat about the general security model for software.
Other than supply-chain attacks, software does not just wake up one day and decide to have a security incident. Broadly speaking, security incidents happen when a bad guy sends input to your software that causes it do something that it shouldn't. Generally that input comes from a network connection; a web server handling a malicious request, a browser connecting to a malicious website, an SMS app handling a malicious message, etc.
I assume that your R program will not make or receive any network connections of any kind (you imply as much by calling it "offline"), so that entire category of attacks is moot.
You could also consider that the data file it's processing could be crafted to exploit vulnerabilities in the R program, but you can probably convince your security people that your data files are created by your employees and so is a very low-risk attack surface. | >
> How secure is the usage of R and RStudio in my context?
>
>
>
You have not provided enough details about your "context" for anyone to give you a definitive answer.
You said that the R/Shiny computer is not "connected to the Internet." But is it connected to any network whatsoever? E.g., your local work network? If so, then it is connected to some computer that is connected to the Internet.
If it is really not connected to any network whatsoever, it would be referred to as "air gapped." In that case, I would not be very worried about attacks, since most come from the network. But, in that case, how do you get the data onto your computer to begin with? You have to plug in a USB every time you want to look at new data?
If it is air gapped it can not easily receive updates, but this is usually offset by the protection air gapping provides.
Anyways, I think you should just explain what you want to do to your IS team as clearly as you can and then go with their recommendation unless it seems totally crazy. |
394,696 | I have a spare 256GB SSD from my 2015 Macbook Pro that I would like to re-use in my PC. I have an Acer laptop that comes with an M2 slot. Are adapters available that would allow me to reuse this SSD in my PC? | 2020/06/25 | [
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/394696",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/380473/"
] | ### Heavily edited answer:
In theory, [the answer is yes](https://www.howtogeek.com/320421/what-is-the-m.2-expansion-slot/). But as @benwiggy has pointed out in his comment, as a **practical matter, the answer is: *"It depends"***. Apple's proprietary design of the SSD's connector/interface means that an adapter will be needed to use it in a device with one of the industry standard M.2 interfaces. In other words, you can only re-use an *Apple SSD* in another machine **IF** you have the correct adapter. Making this still more difficult is the fact that Apple changed the SSD interface design periodically, and so the adapter required may be unique to a model or model year.
Your question has now been closed as duplicative, but in reviewing the [*duplicated Q&A*](https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/200907/how-to-mount-pcie-ssd-from-macbook-air-in-another-computer), it will be noted:
1. that Q&A pertains to a *Macbook Air early 2014* which requires a different adapter than your *Macbook Pro 2015*, and
2. some of the links are now broken, meaning some of the recommended adapters and sources are no longer available.
However, ferreting through one of the [manufacturer's websites (Sintech)](http://www.pc-adapter.net/) provided in [this answer](https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/200921/149366) led to [this page of macbook SSD adapters](http://www.pc-adapter.net/categories/0/0/57/1.html) which may be of some use. I saw no prices provided on Sintech's website, but [another answer](https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/285307/149366) stated that his cost was $13.99. You can factor cost & your research time into your tradeoffs for buying a new drive vs. buying an adapter to re-use the Apple SSD. You might also want to consider the environment in your decision. | The SSD module in a 2015 MacBook Pro uses an Apple-proprietary "12+16-pin" connector, which is different from the normal standard m2 connector used on Windows PC computers.
There is a market for adaptors that allow the fitting of generic m2 blades into a Mac's 12+16 socket; but I suspect that adaptors going the other way will be rare.
You can buy 256 GB m2 modules for less money than an adaptor is likely to cost you, even if you find one. |
7,185 | I've always wondered why some creative hockey team doesn't find a sumo wrestler, strap a pair of size XXXXXXXL skates to his feet, and tell him "sit there in front of the goal". Simply based on their size they should cover most (if not all) of the goal, making it all but impossible for the other team to score.
Why not? | 2014/11/24 | [
"https://sports.stackexchange.com/questions/7185",
"https://sports.stackexchange.com",
"https://sports.stackexchange.com/users/6108/"
] | First goalies must be able to skate outside of the net to control the puck for their team 10-20 times a game. Can you imagine putting in a player that led to 10 less possessions?
Second they may take up 50% of the goal compared to 25% of a normal human (given that the person isn't morbidly obese and bed ridden). But they won't be able to move at all. If they stand up chances are they let up most shots (ice level). If they play on the ground then any flip shot is a goal.
Third would be player safety. Given that your goalie will probably never be able to control the puck on shots, guys would just tee off on the guy all game. It will probably be close to impossible to pad the big guy and stay within NHL equipment guidelines (leg pads are restricted in width). | The subject of really fat hockey goalies was actually covered in the book ["Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan"](http://books.google.com/books/about/Andy_Roddick_Beat_Me_with_a_Frying_Pan.html) by Todd Gallagher, which answered a lot of drunken-bar-discussion type questions like that. It seems like the primary concerns would be (a) safety of the goalie, (b) the ability of that goalie to pass a physical, and (c) a sense of fair play. From [an excerpt from the book](http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB119143109983647814):
>
> if there was a team that was more concerned with winning than with their reputation, and if they could find a genetic marvel, a man pushing 2,000 pounds who's fatter than anyone the world has ever seen, who could survive making it onto the ice and withstand the pain of frozen hockey pucks being fired off his exposed body, and if that team could then win a legal battle against the NHL, and if the players didn't go on strike over the matter or beat the rotund goalie to death on the ice, that historically obese man could be a cost-efficient and effective goaltender.
>
>
> |
7,185 | I've always wondered why some creative hockey team doesn't find a sumo wrestler, strap a pair of size XXXXXXXL skates to his feet, and tell him "sit there in front of the goal". Simply based on their size they should cover most (if not all) of the goal, making it all but impossible for the other team to score.
Why not? | 2014/11/24 | [
"https://sports.stackexchange.com/questions/7185",
"https://sports.stackexchange.com",
"https://sports.stackexchange.com/users/6108/"
] | Sports science actually "tested" this: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP8ZVWiZUMA>. They grabbed a professional sumo wrestler and dressed him up in goalie gear (even managing to put his leg pads on the wrong legs). They had NHL player George Parros shoot on him; they note in the video that Parros is not really known for scoring. This is true, and any average NHL scorer would demolish the goalie even more than Parros did.
The fact of the matter comes down to how accurate NHL players truly are with their shots. The puck is incredibly small and can find even the smallest holes when on the stick of a sharpshooter. Goalies need to be agile and mobile, and even when they had two large people in net at the end of the video, Parros was able to snipe the "5 hole" of a mega-goalie. | First goalies must be able to skate outside of the net to control the puck for their team 10-20 times a game. Can you imagine putting in a player that led to 10 less possessions?
Second they may take up 50% of the goal compared to 25% of a normal human (given that the person isn't morbidly obese and bed ridden). But they won't be able to move at all. If they stand up chances are they let up most shots (ice level). If they play on the ground then any flip shot is a goal.
Third would be player safety. Given that your goalie will probably never be able to control the puck on shots, guys would just tee off on the guy all game. It will probably be close to impossible to pad the big guy and stay within NHL equipment guidelines (leg pads are restricted in width). |
7,185 | I've always wondered why some creative hockey team doesn't find a sumo wrestler, strap a pair of size XXXXXXXL skates to his feet, and tell him "sit there in front of the goal". Simply based on their size they should cover most (if not all) of the goal, making it all but impossible for the other team to score.
Why not? | 2014/11/24 | [
"https://sports.stackexchange.com/questions/7185",
"https://sports.stackexchange.com",
"https://sports.stackexchange.com/users/6108/"
] | First goalies must be able to skate outside of the net to control the puck for their team 10-20 times a game. Can you imagine putting in a player that led to 10 less possessions?
Second they may take up 50% of the goal compared to 25% of a normal human (given that the person isn't morbidly obese and bed ridden). But they won't be able to move at all. If they stand up chances are they let up most shots (ice level). If they play on the ground then any flip shot is a goal.
Third would be player safety. Given that your goalie will probably never be able to control the puck on shots, guys would just tee off on the guy all game. It will probably be close to impossible to pad the big guy and stay within NHL equipment guidelines (leg pads are restricted in width). | Hockey Goals are 6 feet wide and 4 feet tall. 24sqft in area makes it impossible for a player to completely cover the goal. Even the most morbidly obese people are not 6 feet wide. Covering the entire goal is impossible, which is why quickness, flexibility, and positioning are the skills most often found in goalies. |
7,185 | I've always wondered why some creative hockey team doesn't find a sumo wrestler, strap a pair of size XXXXXXXL skates to his feet, and tell him "sit there in front of the goal". Simply based on their size they should cover most (if not all) of the goal, making it all but impossible for the other team to score.
Why not? | 2014/11/24 | [
"https://sports.stackexchange.com/questions/7185",
"https://sports.stackexchange.com",
"https://sports.stackexchange.com/users/6108/"
] | Sports science actually "tested" this: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP8ZVWiZUMA>. They grabbed a professional sumo wrestler and dressed him up in goalie gear (even managing to put his leg pads on the wrong legs). They had NHL player George Parros shoot on him; they note in the video that Parros is not really known for scoring. This is true, and any average NHL scorer would demolish the goalie even more than Parros did.
The fact of the matter comes down to how accurate NHL players truly are with their shots. The puck is incredibly small and can find even the smallest holes when on the stick of a sharpshooter. Goalies need to be agile and mobile, and even when they had two large people in net at the end of the video, Parros was able to snipe the "5 hole" of a mega-goalie. | The subject of really fat hockey goalies was actually covered in the book ["Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan"](http://books.google.com/books/about/Andy_Roddick_Beat_Me_with_a_Frying_Pan.html) by Todd Gallagher, which answered a lot of drunken-bar-discussion type questions like that. It seems like the primary concerns would be (a) safety of the goalie, (b) the ability of that goalie to pass a physical, and (c) a sense of fair play. From [an excerpt from the book](http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB119143109983647814):
>
> if there was a team that was more concerned with winning than with their reputation, and if they could find a genetic marvel, a man pushing 2,000 pounds who's fatter than anyone the world has ever seen, who could survive making it onto the ice and withstand the pain of frozen hockey pucks being fired off his exposed body, and if that team could then win a legal battle against the NHL, and if the players didn't go on strike over the matter or beat the rotund goalie to death on the ice, that historically obese man could be a cost-efficient and effective goaltender.
>
>
> |
7,185 | I've always wondered why some creative hockey team doesn't find a sumo wrestler, strap a pair of size XXXXXXXL skates to his feet, and tell him "sit there in front of the goal". Simply based on their size they should cover most (if not all) of the goal, making it all but impossible for the other team to score.
Why not? | 2014/11/24 | [
"https://sports.stackexchange.com/questions/7185",
"https://sports.stackexchange.com",
"https://sports.stackexchange.com/users/6108/"
] | The subject of really fat hockey goalies was actually covered in the book ["Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan"](http://books.google.com/books/about/Andy_Roddick_Beat_Me_with_a_Frying_Pan.html) by Todd Gallagher, which answered a lot of drunken-bar-discussion type questions like that. It seems like the primary concerns would be (a) safety of the goalie, (b) the ability of that goalie to pass a physical, and (c) a sense of fair play. From [an excerpt from the book](http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB119143109983647814):
>
> if there was a team that was more concerned with winning than with their reputation, and if they could find a genetic marvel, a man pushing 2,000 pounds who's fatter than anyone the world has ever seen, who could survive making it onto the ice and withstand the pain of frozen hockey pucks being fired off his exposed body, and if that team could then win a legal battle against the NHL, and if the players didn't go on strike over the matter or beat the rotund goalie to death on the ice, that historically obese man could be a cost-efficient and effective goaltender.
>
>
> | Hockey Goals are 6 feet wide and 4 feet tall. 24sqft in area makes it impossible for a player to completely cover the goal. Even the most morbidly obese people are not 6 feet wide. Covering the entire goal is impossible, which is why quickness, flexibility, and positioning are the skills most often found in goalies. |
7,185 | I've always wondered why some creative hockey team doesn't find a sumo wrestler, strap a pair of size XXXXXXXL skates to his feet, and tell him "sit there in front of the goal". Simply based on their size they should cover most (if not all) of the goal, making it all but impossible for the other team to score.
Why not? | 2014/11/24 | [
"https://sports.stackexchange.com/questions/7185",
"https://sports.stackexchange.com",
"https://sports.stackexchange.com/users/6108/"
] | Sports science actually "tested" this: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP8ZVWiZUMA>. They grabbed a professional sumo wrestler and dressed him up in goalie gear (even managing to put his leg pads on the wrong legs). They had NHL player George Parros shoot on him; they note in the video that Parros is not really known for scoring. This is true, and any average NHL scorer would demolish the goalie even more than Parros did.
The fact of the matter comes down to how accurate NHL players truly are with their shots. The puck is incredibly small and can find even the smallest holes when on the stick of a sharpshooter. Goalies need to be agile and mobile, and even when they had two large people in net at the end of the video, Parros was able to snipe the "5 hole" of a mega-goalie. | Hockey Goals are 6 feet wide and 4 feet tall. 24sqft in area makes it impossible for a player to completely cover the goal. Even the most morbidly obese people are not 6 feet wide. Covering the entire goal is impossible, which is why quickness, flexibility, and positioning are the skills most often found in goalies. |
15,204,756 | i'm working with segues and i want to transition from one view to another when i press the addButton uiBarbutton object. Anyway, i added a table view object from the objects library under the inspector and i changed the table's style to grouped and changed the cells to be static. when i run the app everything works fine as long as the table view object is a subclass of UITableViewController. when i change the class of the table in inspector to a class i made (also subclasses UITableViewController) the cells don't appear in the simulator as before. is there anything i should be adding to the prepareForSegue:sender method ? | 2013/03/04 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/15204756",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1938695/"
] | when using a table view with a class you created plus being group styled and static cells, make sure you don't implement the following:
* (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView \*)tableView
{
}
* (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView \*)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
}
* (UITableViewCell \*)tableView:(UITableView \*)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath \*)indexPath
{
}
erase them all! | The answer is, read the documentation! In the document "About Table Views in iOS Apps", there is this note:
"Note: If a table view in a storyboard is static, the custom subclass of UITableViewController that contains the table view should not implement the data source protocol. Instead, the table view controller should use its viewDidLoad method to populate the table view’s data. For more information, see “Populating a Static Table View With Data.” |
12,036,492 | How can I send a mouse onclick message to TWebBrowser in Delphi? The OnClick message must be sent to specific control appears in website.
for Example i have a radio button appears in the website named XXXRB and I want send the message to that Radio button (which is named XXXRB) to select it.
How can I do it?
Regards. | 2012/08/20 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/12036492",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1512094/"
] | can you call JS from Delphi ?
<http://www.delphidabbler.com/articles?article=21>
<http://jansfreeware.com/articles/delphi-ie-javascript.html>
<http://www.programmersheaven.com/article/12946-How+to+call+JavaScript+functions+in+a+TWebBrowser+from+Delphi/info.aspx>
---
probably there should be way
<http://www.roseindia.net/javascript/javascript-click-method.shtml>
---
To locate the control DOM Object you may try collections such as GetXXXByName or libraries like jQuery or custom JS code.
however that is the question on Internet Epxlorer + JavaScript, not on Delphi. | No need for javascript as Arioch implies.
You can have access to the complete DOM via TWebBrowser.Document.
There are many resources on the net on this subject, this is the most complete one:
<http://www.cryer.co.uk/brian/delphi/twebbrowser/read_write_form_elements.htm>
if you look around on SO you also will find some [snippets](https://stackoverflow.com/a/11454482/800214). |
3,359,720 | We have to insert thousands of record into Salesforce using Apex Data Loader. We use csv files to load data. | 2010/07/29 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/3359720",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/400200/"
] | Well, there's no real limit in the Data Loader itself. From the **[Data Loader guide](https://na1.salesforce.com/help/doc/en/salesforce_data_loader.pdf)**:
>
> Use the Data Loader when: You need to
> load 50,000 to 5,000,000 records. If
> you need to load more than 5,000,000
> records, we recommend you work with a
> Salesforce.com partner.
>
>
>
Really check out the PDF, especially for the (little) info about "bulk API" if the speed of normal loading is insufficient for you and you have already tweaked the number of records sent in one batch (by default 100 or 200 I think).
And if the **[bulk API](http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/api_asynchpre/api_bulk.pdf)** looks too complex, you can always use very simple parallelization of the task - one username can have up to 4 sessions open, so you could invoke Data Loader 4 times with 1/4 of original CSV. | [Data Loader](http://wiki.developerforce.com/index.php/Apex_Data_Loader) definitely works fine with thousands of records. I have a setup that does this on a daily basis.
One good feature of the Data Loader is the ability to import data from, or export data to, a database. This way, you can avoid having to use CSV files (assuming that your data is available in a database).
By using a database as the source of your data, you can implement incremental loads. The Data Loader remembers the last time it ran, so you can write a database query that extracts all records added/changed since the last Data Loader run. That way, you won't need to load the complete dataset each time.
Also, Data Loader can perform an "Upsert", which combines an INSERT and UPDATE. That means you can load new records and existing records at the same time, with the existing records simply being updated. That's a feature not normally available in SQL situations. |
6,068,288 | I am going to encrypt appSettings in Web.config:
Many ways worked on local, but the issue is I need to encrypt/decrypt webconfig many times on production server, and I don't want to Network admins, to change web.config permissions every time we do this?
is there any better way of securing appsettings? | 2011/05/20 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/6068288",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/341806/"
] | If you want to secure the appsettings content this way you have to do it. But there may be issues if you want to deploy the web app in a farm. In the case you may have to look at [Creating and Exporting an RSA Key Container](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2w117ede%28v=VS.100%29.aspx). Or you can have the appsettings values to a database and read it from there. | I would recommend you have your application encrypt the values after it is started. That will make sure that the values are always encrypted.
Then keep the values unencrypted in your source control tree or the installer files that you use to deploy the application. |
6,068,288 | I am going to encrypt appSettings in Web.config:
Many ways worked on local, but the issue is I need to encrypt/decrypt webconfig many times on production server, and I don't want to Network admins, to change web.config permissions every time we do this?
is there any better way of securing appsettings? | 2011/05/20 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/6068288",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/341806/"
] | aspnet\_regiis -pe is the method Im assuming you are referring to.
First, this should occur only when you deploy to the server (which you are prob planning on). Secondly, net admins just need to run an admin prompt to do this - they don't need to change permissions on the file. I talk about this a little in the video at: <http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2011/DEV333> | If you want to secure the appsettings content this way you have to do it. But there may be issues if you want to deploy the web app in a farm. In the case you may have to look at [Creating and Exporting an RSA Key Container](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2w117ede%28v=VS.100%29.aspx). Or you can have the appsettings values to a database and read it from there. |
6,068,288 | I am going to encrypt appSettings in Web.config:
Many ways worked on local, but the issue is I need to encrypt/decrypt webconfig many times on production server, and I don't want to Network admins, to change web.config permissions every time we do this?
is there any better way of securing appsettings? | 2011/05/20 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/6068288",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/341806/"
] | If you want to secure the appsettings content this way you have to do it. But there may be issues if you want to deploy the web app in a farm. In the case you may have to look at [Creating and Exporting an RSA Key Container](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2w117ede%28v=VS.100%29.aspx). Or you can have the appsettings values to a database and read it from there. | You can use aspnet\_regiis.exe application that comes with the .net framework(NOTE: every framework is having a different aspnet\_regiis.exe application)
If your application is in framework 2.0 you can use aspnet\_regiss.exe -pef or aspnet\_regiss.exe -pe for encrypting the selected section from your configuration file.
for more information you can refer to the link
<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/k6h9cz8h(v=vs.80).aspx>
Hope the information gets you a resolution!!!!!!
:) |
6,068,288 | I am going to encrypt appSettings in Web.config:
Many ways worked on local, but the issue is I need to encrypt/decrypt webconfig many times on production server, and I don't want to Network admins, to change web.config permissions every time we do this?
is there any better way of securing appsettings? | 2011/05/20 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/6068288",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/341806/"
] | aspnet\_regiis -pe is the method Im assuming you are referring to.
First, this should occur only when you deploy to the server (which you are prob planning on). Secondly, net admins just need to run an admin prompt to do this - they don't need to change permissions on the file. I talk about this a little in the video at: <http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2011/DEV333> | I would recommend you have your application encrypt the values after it is started. That will make sure that the values are always encrypted.
Then keep the values unencrypted in your source control tree or the installer files that you use to deploy the application. |
6,068,288 | I am going to encrypt appSettings in Web.config:
Many ways worked on local, but the issue is I need to encrypt/decrypt webconfig many times on production server, and I don't want to Network admins, to change web.config permissions every time we do this?
is there any better way of securing appsettings? | 2011/05/20 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/6068288",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/341806/"
] | aspnet\_regiis -pe is the method Im assuming you are referring to.
First, this should occur only when you deploy to the server (which you are prob planning on). Secondly, net admins just need to run an admin prompt to do this - they don't need to change permissions on the file. I talk about this a little in the video at: <http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2011/DEV333> | You can use aspnet\_regiis.exe application that comes with the .net framework(NOTE: every framework is having a different aspnet\_regiis.exe application)
If your application is in framework 2.0 you can use aspnet\_regiss.exe -pef or aspnet\_regiss.exe -pe for encrypting the selected section from your configuration file.
for more information you can refer to the link
<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/k6h9cz8h(v=vs.80).aspx>
Hope the information gets you a resolution!!!!!!
:) |
25,797 | I have a server that has 4GB of RAM. On it, I have installation of 32bit Slackware Linux 12.1. Of course, it is not using all of 4GB of RAM. I'd soon like to increase the RAM to 8GB, and am looking for a way for the system to use it. The system is used as a database server and is under high load during the day.
AFAICT, I have two options: stay with 32bit and rebuild the kernel and lose some performance. Or go with 64bit and reinstall everything. Looking at 64bit versions of Slackware, I could run -current or Slamd64.
Now, on to the questions:
1. Should I stay with 32bit or go with 64bit?
2. If I go 64bit, should I use -current or Slamd64?
*P.S. I hope to get answers from someone actually using any of these configurations in production, not just copy/paste something I could find myself via Google.* | 2009/06/15 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/25797",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/8741/"
] | 64-bit is the only way. On 32-bit, it's an inventive hack to get to >1GB, and an even bigger hack for >4GB.[1] You say it's a heavily loaded system, so why waste cycles in a bodge to get to memory when it can be mapped directly?
The only reason you should use 32bit is for vendor support. As you're on Slackware, I doubt that would be a reason.
[1] See, for example, ["Linux Memory Allocation Limit on 32-bit Platform"](http://www.kxcad.net/ugs/NX-Nastran/nastranhelp/NXNastran/nast/misc/doc/docs/cog/04a3config_26248_11.html), from the *UGS NX Nastran 5.0 Installation and Operations Guide*, which briefly mentions the 1GB barrier. | If you want to increase your memory, you have no choice, but to run a 64bit kernel. You can keep a 32bit userland if you want, but each process will be limited to a maximum of 2GB (maybe 3GB). You shouldn't need to reinstall everything, just a new kernel. |
25,797 | I have a server that has 4GB of RAM. On it, I have installation of 32bit Slackware Linux 12.1. Of course, it is not using all of 4GB of RAM. I'd soon like to increase the RAM to 8GB, and am looking for a way for the system to use it. The system is used as a database server and is under high load during the day.
AFAICT, I have two options: stay with 32bit and rebuild the kernel and lose some performance. Or go with 64bit and reinstall everything. Looking at 64bit versions of Slackware, I could run -current or Slamd64.
Now, on to the questions:
1. Should I stay with 32bit or go with 64bit?
2. If I go 64bit, should I use -current or Slamd64?
*P.S. I hope to get answers from someone actually using any of these configurations in production, not just copy/paste something I could find myself via Google.* | 2009/06/15 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/25797",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/8741/"
] | The main danger of running on a 32 bit system with lots of highmem (more than 8GB) is that the kernel could end up needing to allocate more data than what fits in ZONE\_NORMAL. This means the machine can effectively run out of memory, even if there were still lots of high memory free.
Another issue is that the system will more aggressively reclaim kernel data structures like cached inodes, buffer heads and other caches that can help system performance.
The third issue is that, on a 32 bit system, no process will be able to effectively use more than 3GB of memory. This means that buying more than 4GB of memory is only useful if none of the processes on your system need all of the memory.
For these reasons it is recommended that if you buy a system with more than 4GB of memory, you should consider getting a 64 bit CPU and installing a 64 bit operating system. The price difference between 32 and 64 bit systems is practically nonexistant, so there is no real need to experience the pains of highmem any more...
[More info...](http://kerneltrap.org/node/2450) | If you want to increase your memory, you have no choice, but to run a 64bit kernel. You can keep a 32bit userland if you want, but each process will be limited to a maximum of 2GB (maybe 3GB). You shouldn't need to reinstall everything, just a new kernel. |
25,797 | I have a server that has 4GB of RAM. On it, I have installation of 32bit Slackware Linux 12.1. Of course, it is not using all of 4GB of RAM. I'd soon like to increase the RAM to 8GB, and am looking for a way for the system to use it. The system is used as a database server and is under high load during the day.
AFAICT, I have two options: stay with 32bit and rebuild the kernel and lose some performance. Or go with 64bit and reinstall everything. Looking at 64bit versions of Slackware, I could run -current or Slamd64.
Now, on to the questions:
1. Should I stay with 32bit or go with 64bit?
2. If I go 64bit, should I use -current or Slamd64?
*P.S. I hope to get answers from someone actually using any of these configurations in production, not just copy/paste something I could find myself via Google.* | 2009/06/15 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/25797",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/8741/"
] | Most modern 32-bit CPUs support PAE which allows them to address more than 4GB of physical memory, although a single process can only see 4GB at a time. The kernel will take some of this address space. [This Stackoverflow post](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/181050/can-you-allocate-a-very-large-single-chunk-of-memory-4gb-in-c-or-c/188564#188564) discusses how PAE works.
Many operating systems (including Linux and MS Windows) offer an API that allows you to manipulate the MMU and page overlays in and out of the virtual address space of a process. This facility allows you to use extra memory for disk buffers. However, as far as I am aware the only DBMS platform with direct support for this is MS SQL Server.
Additional memory will improve your database read performance (which will probably improve your overall throughput), but write performance will be constrained by I/O. If you have a low DB cache hit rate (say less than 95%) then additional memory will probably improve your overall throughput. Otherwise, you may need to look at your disk subsystem (see 1 below).
Assuming you need or can benefit from more memory, the best approach is to move to a 64 bit platform. A modern Xeon or Opteron server will let you install up to 32-144GB depending on the model. This is likely to be your best option.
1. SANs are good for transactional applications. For a high-volume application you should have write-through caching on the DB logs but you may be able to get away with write-back caching on the data volumes. This will get you good log-reader performance as the random data writes can be absorbed by the controller's battery-backed cache and the controller can optimise disk writes to improve throughput.
However, this arrangement has failure modes that can leave the data volumes inconsistent (corrupted). Using write-through on the log volumes mitigates this (as the logs are not vulnerable to these failure modes). Practicaly this limits you to a restore/roll-forward recovery model, so it will only work if you can tolerate a (say) 4-hour recovery window. | I'm nearly in the same scenario as you ([Is there any reason to use 64bit MySQL (and OS) on small databases?](https://serverfault.com/questions/25758/is-there-any-reason-to-use-64bit-mysql-and-os-on-small-databases)), and from what I could find out: MySQL on 32bit can not use more than 2GB RAM per instance no matter what you do with your kernel.
If you're not running MySQL the situation might be different. |
25,797 | I have a server that has 4GB of RAM. On it, I have installation of 32bit Slackware Linux 12.1. Of course, it is not using all of 4GB of RAM. I'd soon like to increase the RAM to 8GB, and am looking for a way for the system to use it. The system is used as a database server and is under high load during the day.
AFAICT, I have two options: stay with 32bit and rebuild the kernel and lose some performance. Or go with 64bit and reinstall everything. Looking at 64bit versions of Slackware, I could run -current or Slamd64.
Now, on to the questions:
1. Should I stay with 32bit or go with 64bit?
2. If I go 64bit, should I use -current or Slamd64?
*P.S. I hope to get answers from someone actually using any of these configurations in production, not just copy/paste something I could find myself via Google.* | 2009/06/15 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/25797",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/8741/"
] | I'm nearly in the same scenario as you ([Is there any reason to use 64bit MySQL (and OS) on small databases?](https://serverfault.com/questions/25758/is-there-any-reason-to-use-64bit-mysql-and-os-on-small-databases)), and from what I could find out: MySQL on 32bit can not use more than 2GB RAM per instance no matter what you do with your kernel.
If you're not running MySQL the situation might be different. | If you want to increase your memory, you have no choice, but to run a 64bit kernel. You can keep a 32bit userland if you want, but each process will be limited to a maximum of 2GB (maybe 3GB). You shouldn't need to reinstall everything, just a new kernel. |
25,797 | I have a server that has 4GB of RAM. On it, I have installation of 32bit Slackware Linux 12.1. Of course, it is not using all of 4GB of RAM. I'd soon like to increase the RAM to 8GB, and am looking for a way for the system to use it. The system is used as a database server and is under high load during the day.
AFAICT, I have two options: stay with 32bit and rebuild the kernel and lose some performance. Or go with 64bit and reinstall everything. Looking at 64bit versions of Slackware, I could run -current or Slamd64.
Now, on to the questions:
1. Should I stay with 32bit or go with 64bit?
2. If I go 64bit, should I use -current or Slamd64?
*P.S. I hope to get answers from someone actually using any of these configurations in production, not just copy/paste something I could find myself via Google.* | 2009/06/15 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/25797",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/8741/"
] | Per process memory on 32-bit systems is 4GB (which is divided into 3GB for the process and 1GB for the kernel, by default). If you want your database to be able to access more memory /per process/ you have little choice but to install a 64-bit operating system. If the limit of 3GB per process is not bothering you, you might as well stay with the current setup. There are other options to the 3GiB/1GiB division, btw, but they won't help you in your specific situation.
Further limits on per-process memory usage exist in the form of what is called 'ZONE NORMAL' which never exceeds a little below 1GiB (896MiB to be exact). When using memory above 1GiB (ZONE HIGHMEM), the kernel has to map that memory into ZONE NORMAL, creating even further possible bottlenecks. ZONE HIGHMEM does not exist on a 64-bit system, on which everything is ZONE NORMAL. This can be a good reason to go with 64-bit as well.
As for the 'having in production'-part: I don't even know what database you are using. My Oracle setups almost always run 64-bit for the exact reason I've stated above. I don't run Slackware in production though and don't know anyone who does.
My €0.02: go for 64-bit. The re-install is trivial compared to possible benefits. | 64-bit is the only way. On 32-bit, it's an inventive hack to get to >1GB, and an even bigger hack for >4GB.[1] You say it's a heavily loaded system, so why waste cycles in a bodge to get to memory when it can be mapped directly?
The only reason you should use 32bit is for vendor support. As you're on Slackware, I doubt that would be a reason.
[1] See, for example, ["Linux Memory Allocation Limit on 32-bit Platform"](http://www.kxcad.net/ugs/NX-Nastran/nastranhelp/NXNastran/nast/misc/doc/docs/cog/04a3config_26248_11.html), from the *UGS NX Nastran 5.0 Installation and Operations Guide*, which briefly mentions the 1GB barrier. |
25,797 | I have a server that has 4GB of RAM. On it, I have installation of 32bit Slackware Linux 12.1. Of course, it is not using all of 4GB of RAM. I'd soon like to increase the RAM to 8GB, and am looking for a way for the system to use it. The system is used as a database server and is under high load during the day.
AFAICT, I have two options: stay with 32bit and rebuild the kernel and lose some performance. Or go with 64bit and reinstall everything. Looking at 64bit versions of Slackware, I could run -current or Slamd64.
Now, on to the questions:
1. Should I stay with 32bit or go with 64bit?
2. If I go 64bit, should I use -current or Slamd64?
*P.S. I hope to get answers from someone actually using any of these configurations in production, not just copy/paste something I could find myself via Google.* | 2009/06/15 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/25797",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/8741/"
] | 64-bit is the only way. On 32-bit, it's an inventive hack to get to >1GB, and an even bigger hack for >4GB.[1] You say it's a heavily loaded system, so why waste cycles in a bodge to get to memory when it can be mapped directly?
The only reason you should use 32bit is for vendor support. As you're on Slackware, I doubt that would be a reason.
[1] See, for example, ["Linux Memory Allocation Limit on 32-bit Platform"](http://www.kxcad.net/ugs/NX-Nastran/nastranhelp/NXNastran/nast/misc/doc/docs/cog/04a3config_26248_11.html), from the *UGS NX Nastran 5.0 Installation and Operations Guide*, which briefly mentions the 1GB barrier. | 64bit + more ram, if you're using innodb then set your inndb\_buffer\_pool\_size to about 70-75% of your total system ram. Tune cache sizes. If you're using recent versions of MySQL set your /tmp directory to use tmpfs (memory) which will allow MySQL to create temp tables in memory rather than on physical disk. Make sure MySQL is then configured to use /tmp for temp tables. |
25,797 | I have a server that has 4GB of RAM. On it, I have installation of 32bit Slackware Linux 12.1. Of course, it is not using all of 4GB of RAM. I'd soon like to increase the RAM to 8GB, and am looking for a way for the system to use it. The system is used as a database server and is under high load during the day.
AFAICT, I have two options: stay with 32bit and rebuild the kernel and lose some performance. Or go with 64bit and reinstall everything. Looking at 64bit versions of Slackware, I could run -current or Slamd64.
Now, on to the questions:
1. Should I stay with 32bit or go with 64bit?
2. If I go 64bit, should I use -current or Slamd64?
*P.S. I hope to get answers from someone actually using any of these configurations in production, not just copy/paste something I could find myself via Google.* | 2009/06/15 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/25797",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/8741/"
] | I think it would be better to ask the question, "Why would I stay with a 32-bit kernel?"
I went all 64-bit on every piece of hardware that supports it as soon as I could and I have no regrets. At work we are running PostgreSQL servers on 64-bit CentOS 5 with 32 GB RAM and it is pretty great (Except for certain limitations with PostgreSQL itself, but nothing to do with 32 or 64 bits.) | 64bit + more ram, if you're using innodb then set your inndb\_buffer\_pool\_size to about 70-75% of your total system ram. Tune cache sizes. If you're using recent versions of MySQL set your /tmp directory to use tmpfs (memory) which will allow MySQL to create temp tables in memory rather than on physical disk. Make sure MySQL is then configured to use /tmp for temp tables. |
25,797 | I have a server that has 4GB of RAM. On it, I have installation of 32bit Slackware Linux 12.1. Of course, it is not using all of 4GB of RAM. I'd soon like to increase the RAM to 8GB, and am looking for a way for the system to use it. The system is used as a database server and is under high load during the day.
AFAICT, I have two options: stay with 32bit and rebuild the kernel and lose some performance. Or go with 64bit and reinstall everything. Looking at 64bit versions of Slackware, I could run -current or Slamd64.
Now, on to the questions:
1. Should I stay with 32bit or go with 64bit?
2. If I go 64bit, should I use -current or Slamd64?
*P.S. I hope to get answers from someone actually using any of these configurations in production, not just copy/paste something I could find myself via Google.* | 2009/06/15 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/25797",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/8741/"
] | Per process memory on 32-bit systems is 4GB (which is divided into 3GB for the process and 1GB for the kernel, by default). If you want your database to be able to access more memory /per process/ you have little choice but to install a 64-bit operating system. If the limit of 3GB per process is not bothering you, you might as well stay with the current setup. There are other options to the 3GiB/1GiB division, btw, but they won't help you in your specific situation.
Further limits on per-process memory usage exist in the form of what is called 'ZONE NORMAL' which never exceeds a little below 1GiB (896MiB to be exact). When using memory above 1GiB (ZONE HIGHMEM), the kernel has to map that memory into ZONE NORMAL, creating even further possible bottlenecks. ZONE HIGHMEM does not exist on a 64-bit system, on which everything is ZONE NORMAL. This can be a good reason to go with 64-bit as well.
As for the 'having in production'-part: I don't even know what database you are using. My Oracle setups almost always run 64-bit for the exact reason I've stated above. I don't run Slackware in production though and don't know anyone who does.
My €0.02: go for 64-bit. The re-install is trivial compared to possible benefits. | The main danger of running on a 32 bit system with lots of highmem (more than 8GB) is that the kernel could end up needing to allocate more data than what fits in ZONE\_NORMAL. This means the machine can effectively run out of memory, even if there were still lots of high memory free.
Another issue is that the system will more aggressively reclaim kernel data structures like cached inodes, buffer heads and other caches that can help system performance.
The third issue is that, on a 32 bit system, no process will be able to effectively use more than 3GB of memory. This means that buying more than 4GB of memory is only useful if none of the processes on your system need all of the memory.
For these reasons it is recommended that if you buy a system with more than 4GB of memory, you should consider getting a 64 bit CPU and installing a 64 bit operating system. The price difference between 32 and 64 bit systems is practically nonexistant, so there is no real need to experience the pains of highmem any more...
[More info...](http://kerneltrap.org/node/2450) |
25,797 | I have a server that has 4GB of RAM. On it, I have installation of 32bit Slackware Linux 12.1. Of course, it is not using all of 4GB of RAM. I'd soon like to increase the RAM to 8GB, and am looking for a way for the system to use it. The system is used as a database server and is under high load during the day.
AFAICT, I have two options: stay with 32bit and rebuild the kernel and lose some performance. Or go with 64bit and reinstall everything. Looking at 64bit versions of Slackware, I could run -current or Slamd64.
Now, on to the questions:
1. Should I stay with 32bit or go with 64bit?
2. If I go 64bit, should I use -current or Slamd64?
*P.S. I hope to get answers from someone actually using any of these configurations in production, not just copy/paste something I could find myself via Google.* | 2009/06/15 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/25797",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/8741/"
] | 64bit + more ram, if you're using innodb then set your inndb\_buffer\_pool\_size to about 70-75% of your total system ram. Tune cache sizes. If you're using recent versions of MySQL set your /tmp directory to use tmpfs (memory) which will allow MySQL to create temp tables in memory rather than on physical disk. Make sure MySQL is then configured to use /tmp for temp tables. | Most people are answering question #1, but let me chip in on question #2.
If you choose to run 64-bit Slackware, you only really have one choice: Slackware64. Slamd64 was an unofficial port of Slackware which has ceased to be necessary now that Slackware has an official 64-bit port. In terms of versions, you have the choice of the 13.0, 13.1, 13.37 and -current releases of Slackware64. Also note that 14.0 will likely be released soon, so you could also wait for that. |
25,797 | I have a server that has 4GB of RAM. On it, I have installation of 32bit Slackware Linux 12.1. Of course, it is not using all of 4GB of RAM. I'd soon like to increase the RAM to 8GB, and am looking for a way for the system to use it. The system is used as a database server and is under high load during the day.
AFAICT, I have two options: stay with 32bit and rebuild the kernel and lose some performance. Or go with 64bit and reinstall everything. Looking at 64bit versions of Slackware, I could run -current or Slamd64.
Now, on to the questions:
1. Should I stay with 32bit or go with 64bit?
2. If I go 64bit, should I use -current or Slamd64?
*P.S. I hope to get answers from someone actually using any of these configurations in production, not just copy/paste something I could find myself via Google.* | 2009/06/15 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/25797",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/8741/"
] | The main danger of running on a 32 bit system with lots of highmem (more than 8GB) is that the kernel could end up needing to allocate more data than what fits in ZONE\_NORMAL. This means the machine can effectively run out of memory, even if there were still lots of high memory free.
Another issue is that the system will more aggressively reclaim kernel data structures like cached inodes, buffer heads and other caches that can help system performance.
The third issue is that, on a 32 bit system, no process will be able to effectively use more than 3GB of memory. This means that buying more than 4GB of memory is only useful if none of the processes on your system need all of the memory.
For these reasons it is recommended that if you buy a system with more than 4GB of memory, you should consider getting a 64 bit CPU and installing a 64 bit operating system. The price difference between 32 and 64 bit systems is practically nonexistant, so there is no real need to experience the pains of highmem any more...
[More info...](http://kerneltrap.org/node/2450) | Most people are answering question #1, but let me chip in on question #2.
If you choose to run 64-bit Slackware, you only really have one choice: Slackware64. Slamd64 was an unofficial port of Slackware which has ceased to be necessary now that Slackware has an official 64-bit port. In terms of versions, you have the choice of the 13.0, 13.1, 13.37 and -current releases of Slackware64. Also note that 14.0 will likely be released soon, so you could also wait for that. |
80,553 | I'm currently working on an endless runner and was wondering about the growth of difficulty in the game. Is the acceleration of difficulty highly specific to games or are there standard growth functions that most endless runners adhere to and fine tune above and beyond that? | 2014/07/20 | [
"https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/80553",
"https://gamedev.stackexchange.com",
"https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/users/48168/"
] | The difficulty of an endless runner is dependent on a few things, first of all the size of the obstacles and different types of obstacles, typically it's best to just hardcode when different obstacles can appear and use a formula for sizes (especially when you can only use a given dodge ability for a certain amount of time).
A good formula for the size of obstacles is [time you can use ability to dodge]*[speed]*(1-([scaling constant])^[time]) or d\*v\*(1-C^t) remember that the scaling constant (C) must be between 0 and 1. This will create a difficulty scaling that always starts easy but moves to more and more difficult never becoming impossible.
Second scale is speed, moving faster means having less time to react means a more difficult game, here a less complicated formula is needed and this can be done fairly linearly (or a similar formula, maybe a root experiment here).
Third is number of obstacles, note that speed also increases number of obstacles, a good way of determining whatever or not to create an obstacle is to first determine the minimal distance theoretically required between obstacles, this is likely to be the time needed to complete an animation between key release and key press for next dodge ability and then multiplied by speed to get a distance (or just use raw time). You can then generate a random value and if it' s smaller then (1-C^t) you generate a obstacle here (and reset the minimal distance until after the obstacle).
Of course you don't have to scale all 3 things at the same time (doing so makes for a very fast phased game). Each of these methodes will likely feel somewhat smooth (if you get the parameters right, especially C which you might want to start with something like 0.99 just to see how it behaves and maybe plot it on wolfram alpha and look at what values it is at given time points (maybe scale time accordingly)). | From what I've seen it depends on the target audience of your game and your content.
For example Flappy Bird has almost no content, with an insane difficulty level and no difficulty growth. It's meant to appeal to persons who want to have fun trying something difficult as a quick time sink.
However if you're building something like an adventure game with loads of beautiful content the game might start out easy and never get much harder except for the learning of new tricks every once in a while. Most of the enjoyment comes from experiencing the game.
The games in between usually have the biggest difficulty growth curves. You can have split content or achievements, and increase the difficulty level between them. You'd start out real easy to get them hooked on the game play, and increase the difficulty real slowly too to get them hooked on receiving the rewards (new content, achievements). Only towards your last good rewards will you increase the difficulty more steeply, to really make it a challenge to get those last rewards. After that it's just high scores, so you could increase the difficulty linearly, or superlinearly if you hate your players ;)
Note that the only difference here between an adventure side scroller and an infinirunner is that there's no stop between level transitions, and they can forever keep on playing after the last level.
The only way to make the game predictably good is by having it play tested, often and always by new persons that are in your target audience. They'll let you know if they feel your game is too easy or too hard, and if it gets boring at all. Ask questions like if they ever give up because it's too hard whether they're going to pick it up later and try again. |
245 | I am currently using a Drupal 7.35 CiviCRM 4.4.14 build for a new website. I have all of contacts set up, with their relationships and memberships, and all the rules in place so that as it changes in Civi it pushed the changes on Drupal.
What I do not understand however, is how to migrate the 1000 or so contacts in Civi to create their log-ins in Drupal.
Some webpages suggest exporting to CSV and importing from CSV; and I have not even started looking into Drush.... surely there must be an easier way? | 2015/04/01 | [
"https://civicrm.stackexchange.com/questions/245",
"https://civicrm.stackexchange.com",
"https://civicrm.stackexchange.com/users/102/"
] | I've done this a few times using the [User Import](https://www.drupal.org/project/user_import) module. You just get a contact listing of all the contacts in CiviCRM that need an account (for example, all of the contacts in a particular group or those that are returned from a particular search) and then do a simple CSV export of the relevant information.
You could export the email address, first name, last name, and then edit the list in a spreadsheet if you need to generate custom usernames or passwords. The module will allow you to construct usernames on the fly by using multiple fields. You can optionally abbreviate them as well, so you could do a username as any of the following without any extra editing of the CSV data:
* FirstLast
* FLast
* FirstL
The module will also allow you to send the welcome email (or a custom welcome email), assign roles, and more. | I've had good results using Drupal rules. The recipe is set in detail here by Pete from Fuzion in NZ - thanks Pete: <https://civicrm.org/blog/petednz/creating-drupal-users-made-easy-for-single-or-multiple-contacts-via-civi-imports-and>
I guess I would first be sure that you need to create user accounts for all your users all at the same time. Using this recipe, you can manage when accounts get created. |
10,281,660 | I have to implement code to rotate a image placed in customized view. Please help me. I am dumb in creating customized view and also have to rotate it. help me.
Thanks in advance. | 2012/04/23 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/10281660",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1201479/"
] | Since you have a custom view override onDraw() and call canvas.rotate(..) inside that function. | If you create a custom view you will draw it manually so you can have a boolean value (or a int angle value) representing the state of your view (either rotated or normal).
Depending on this value, your onDraw method will behave differently (for example, coordinates will be inverted)
Maybe, this will be easier for you : <http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/animation/RotateAnimation.html>
Create your rotate animation with the values you want (using the right constructor) and then apply it to your view using View.startAnimation. It should do what you want |
551,493 | I have an EC2 instance running a web server that stores users' uploaded files to S3. The files are written once and never change, but are retrieved occasionally by the users. We will likely accumulate somewhere around 200-500GB of data per year. We would like to ensure this data is safe, particularly from accidental deletions and would like to be able to restore files that were deleted regardless of the reason.
I have read about the versioning feature for S3 buckets, but I cannot seem to find if recovery is possible for files with no modification history. See the AWS docs here on versioning:
<http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/ObjectVersioning.html>
In those examples, they don't show the scenario where data is uploaded, but never modified, and then deleted. Are files deleted in this scenario recoverable?
Then, we thought we may just backup the S3 files to Glacier using object lifecycle management:
<http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/object-lifecycle-mgmt.html>
But, it seems this will not work for us, as the file object is not copied to Glacier but moved to Glacier (more accurately it seems it is an object attribute that is changed, but anyway...).
So it seems there is no direct way to backup S3 data, and transferring the data from S3 to local servers may be time-consuming and may incur significant transfer costs over time.
Finally, we thought we would create a new bucket every month to serve as a monthly full backup, and copy the original bucket's data to the new one on Day 1. Then using something like duplicity (<http://duplicity.nongnu.org/>) we would synchronize the backup bucket every night. At the end of the month we would put the backup bucket's contents in Glacier storage, and create a new backup bucket using a new, current copy of the original bucket...and repeat this process. This seems like it would work and minimize the storage / transfer costs, but I'm not sure if duplicity allows bucket-to-bucket transfers directly without bringing data down to the controlling client first.
So, I guess there are a couple questions here. First, does S3 versioning allow recovery of files that were never modified? Is there some way to "copy" files from S3 to Glacier that I have missed? Can duplicity or any other tool transfer files between S3 buckets directly to avoid transfer costs? Finally, am I way off the mark in my approach to backing up S3 data?
Thanks in advance for any insight you could provide!
Update
------
[Amazon recently announced that versioning now works with life cycle rules](http://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2014/05/20/amazon-s3-now-supports-lifecycle-rules-for-versioning/?sc_icountry=en&sc_ichannel=ha&sc_isegment=3&sc_idetail=ha_en_35&sc_icontent=ha_en_1&sc_icampaigntype=1&sc_ipage=homepage&sc_iplace=ha_en_ed&sc_icampaign=ha_en_S3_Lifecycle_2014_05&trkCampaign=&trk=) | 2013/11/07 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/551493",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/197647/"
] | i dont like to have s3 mounted, because its slow and can hang and performs like old school nfs. better to just up/down as needed.
>
> <http://s3tools.org/s3cmd>
>
>
>
its easy to script... dont forget your ~/.s3cfg file | Sounds like you might need S3FS which basically mounts your S3 buckets as if they were local file systems:
<http://code.google.com/p/s3fs/wiki/FuseOverAmazon>
I prefer to use this forked version since it retains the same folder structure as what is created in the web control panel for Amazon S3:
<https://github.com/tongwang/s3fs-c>
Then I have some shell scripts in place that basically use `rsync` to sync the data to my local setups.
In general, I find S3FS works best for reading content placed within Amazon S3 buckets. Writing is not as consistent. But for the purposes of backing up S3 buckets, the Tony Wang fork of S3FS works great. |
551,493 | I have an EC2 instance running a web server that stores users' uploaded files to S3. The files are written once and never change, but are retrieved occasionally by the users. We will likely accumulate somewhere around 200-500GB of data per year. We would like to ensure this data is safe, particularly from accidental deletions and would like to be able to restore files that were deleted regardless of the reason.
I have read about the versioning feature for S3 buckets, but I cannot seem to find if recovery is possible for files with no modification history. See the AWS docs here on versioning:
<http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/ObjectVersioning.html>
In those examples, they don't show the scenario where data is uploaded, but never modified, and then deleted. Are files deleted in this scenario recoverable?
Then, we thought we may just backup the S3 files to Glacier using object lifecycle management:
<http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/object-lifecycle-mgmt.html>
But, it seems this will not work for us, as the file object is not copied to Glacier but moved to Glacier (more accurately it seems it is an object attribute that is changed, but anyway...).
So it seems there is no direct way to backup S3 data, and transferring the data from S3 to local servers may be time-consuming and may incur significant transfer costs over time.
Finally, we thought we would create a new bucket every month to serve as a monthly full backup, and copy the original bucket's data to the new one on Day 1. Then using something like duplicity (<http://duplicity.nongnu.org/>) we would synchronize the backup bucket every night. At the end of the month we would put the backup bucket's contents in Glacier storage, and create a new backup bucket using a new, current copy of the original bucket...and repeat this process. This seems like it would work and minimize the storage / transfer costs, but I'm not sure if duplicity allows bucket-to-bucket transfers directly without bringing data down to the controlling client first.
So, I guess there are a couple questions here. First, does S3 versioning allow recovery of files that were never modified? Is there some way to "copy" files from S3 to Glacier that I have missed? Can duplicity or any other tool transfer files between S3 buckets directly to avoid transfer costs? Finally, am I way off the mark in my approach to backing up S3 data?
Thanks in advance for any insight you could provide!
Update
------
[Amazon recently announced that versioning now works with life cycle rules](http://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2014/05/20/amazon-s3-now-supports-lifecycle-rules-for-versioning/?sc_icountry=en&sc_ichannel=ha&sc_isegment=3&sc_idetail=ha_en_35&sc_icontent=ha_en_1&sc_icampaigntype=1&sc_ipage=homepage&sc_iplace=ha_en_ed&sc_icampaign=ha_en_S3_Lifecycle_2014_05&trkCampaign=&trk=) | 2013/11/07 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/551493",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/197647/"
] | >
> I have read about the versioning feature for S3 buckets, but I cannot seem to find if >recovery is possible for files with no modification history. See the AWS docs here on >versioning:
>
>
>
I've just tried this. Yes, you can restore from the original version. When you delete the file it makes a delete marker and you can restore the version before that, i.e: the single, only, revision.
>
> Then, we thought we may just backup the S3 files to Glacier using object lifecycle >management:
>
>
> But, it seems this will not work for us, as the file object is not copied to Glacier but >moved to Glacier (more accurately it seems it is an object attribute that is changed, but >anyway...).
>
>
>
Glacier is really meant for long term storage, which is very infrequently accessed. It can also get very expensive to retrieve a large portion of your data in one go, as it's not meant for point-in-time restoration of lots of data (percentage wise).
>
> Finally, we thought we would create a new bucket every month to serve as a monthly full >backup, and copy the original bucket's data to the new one on Day 1. Then using something >like duplicity (<http://duplicity.nongnu.org/>) we would synchronize the backup bucket every >night.
>
>
>
Don't do this, you can only have 100 buckets per account, so in 3 years you'll have taken up a third of your bucket allowance with just backups.
>
> So, I guess there are a couple questions here. First, does S3 versioning allow recovery of >files that were never modified?
>
>
>
Yes
>
> Is there some way to "copy" files from S3 to Glacier that I have missed?
>
>
>
Not that i know of | Sounds like you might need S3FS which basically mounts your S3 buckets as if they were local file systems:
<http://code.google.com/p/s3fs/wiki/FuseOverAmazon>
I prefer to use this forked version since it retains the same folder structure as what is created in the web control panel for Amazon S3:
<https://github.com/tongwang/s3fs-c>
Then I have some shell scripts in place that basically use `rsync` to sync the data to my local setups.
In general, I find S3FS works best for reading content placed within Amazon S3 buckets. Writing is not as consistent. But for the purposes of backing up S3 buckets, the Tony Wang fork of S3FS works great. |
551,493 | I have an EC2 instance running a web server that stores users' uploaded files to S3. The files are written once and never change, but are retrieved occasionally by the users. We will likely accumulate somewhere around 200-500GB of data per year. We would like to ensure this data is safe, particularly from accidental deletions and would like to be able to restore files that were deleted regardless of the reason.
I have read about the versioning feature for S3 buckets, but I cannot seem to find if recovery is possible for files with no modification history. See the AWS docs here on versioning:
<http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/ObjectVersioning.html>
In those examples, they don't show the scenario where data is uploaded, but never modified, and then deleted. Are files deleted in this scenario recoverable?
Then, we thought we may just backup the S3 files to Glacier using object lifecycle management:
<http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/object-lifecycle-mgmt.html>
But, it seems this will not work for us, as the file object is not copied to Glacier but moved to Glacier (more accurately it seems it is an object attribute that is changed, but anyway...).
So it seems there is no direct way to backup S3 data, and transferring the data from S3 to local servers may be time-consuming and may incur significant transfer costs over time.
Finally, we thought we would create a new bucket every month to serve as a monthly full backup, and copy the original bucket's data to the new one on Day 1. Then using something like duplicity (<http://duplicity.nongnu.org/>) we would synchronize the backup bucket every night. At the end of the month we would put the backup bucket's contents in Glacier storage, and create a new backup bucket using a new, current copy of the original bucket...and repeat this process. This seems like it would work and minimize the storage / transfer costs, but I'm not sure if duplicity allows bucket-to-bucket transfers directly without bringing data down to the controlling client first.
So, I guess there are a couple questions here. First, does S3 versioning allow recovery of files that were never modified? Is there some way to "copy" files from S3 to Glacier that I have missed? Can duplicity or any other tool transfer files between S3 buckets directly to avoid transfer costs? Finally, am I way off the mark in my approach to backing up S3 data?
Thanks in advance for any insight you could provide!
Update
------
[Amazon recently announced that versioning now works with life cycle rules](http://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2014/05/20/amazon-s3-now-supports-lifecycle-rules-for-versioning/?sc_icountry=en&sc_ichannel=ha&sc_isegment=3&sc_idetail=ha_en_35&sc_icontent=ha_en_1&sc_icampaigntype=1&sc_ipage=homepage&sc_iplace=ha_en_ed&sc_icampaign=ha_en_S3_Lifecycle_2014_05&trkCampaign=&trk=) | 2013/11/07 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/551493",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/197647/"
] | >
> I have read about the versioning feature for S3 buckets, but I cannot seem to find if >recovery is possible for files with no modification history. See the AWS docs here on >versioning:
>
>
>
I've just tried this. Yes, you can restore from the original version. When you delete the file it makes a delete marker and you can restore the version before that, i.e: the single, only, revision.
>
> Then, we thought we may just backup the S3 files to Glacier using object lifecycle >management:
>
>
> But, it seems this will not work for us, as the file object is not copied to Glacier but >moved to Glacier (more accurately it seems it is an object attribute that is changed, but >anyway...).
>
>
>
Glacier is really meant for long term storage, which is very infrequently accessed. It can also get very expensive to retrieve a large portion of your data in one go, as it's not meant for point-in-time restoration of lots of data (percentage wise).
>
> Finally, we thought we would create a new bucket every month to serve as a monthly full >backup, and copy the original bucket's data to the new one on Day 1. Then using something >like duplicity (<http://duplicity.nongnu.org/>) we would synchronize the backup bucket every >night.
>
>
>
Don't do this, you can only have 100 buckets per account, so in 3 years you'll have taken up a third of your bucket allowance with just backups.
>
> So, I guess there are a couple questions here. First, does S3 versioning allow recovery of >files that were never modified?
>
>
>
Yes
>
> Is there some way to "copy" files from S3 to Glacier that I have missed?
>
>
>
Not that i know of | i dont like to have s3 mounted, because its slow and can hang and performs like old school nfs. better to just up/down as needed.
>
> <http://s3tools.org/s3cmd>
>
>
>
its easy to script... dont forget your ~/.s3cfg file |
43,971 | I'd like to be able to stack multiple images to reduce noise. In the past, I've followed the approach found at [Cambridge in Colour](http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/image-averaging-noise.htm): averaging images. Simply put, I bring all of the images into Photoshop, one on each layer. Then I change the opacity of each layer such that image 1 has opacity 1/1 (100%), image 2 has opacity 1/2 (50%), image 3 has opacity 1/3 (33%) and so on. This process operates under the assumption that each of the images were taken with the same settings, therefore they have roughly the same amount of noise.
What I'd like to know is how I could average images that I've taken such that the exposure level ends up the same, but the amount of noise is different due to using different ISO values.
For example, I have 4 exposures at ISO 1600, each with an aperture of f/4 and a shutter speed of 1 second. Theoretically, if I had another exposure at ISO 400, f/4 and 4 seconds, it should have the same exposure level as any of the first four exposures but have 1/4th the amount of noise. (Right?)
If I wanted to stack all five of these images to reduce noise (4 @ ISO1600 plus 1 @ ISO400), how would I set the opacity levels of these layers? 100%, 50%, 33%, 20% for the first four, but what would the fifth image have for its opacity? | 2013/11/06 | [
"https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/43971",
"https://photo.stackexchange.com",
"https://photo.stackexchange.com/users/10372/"
] | If you shoot under 400iso and don't print large, you won't notice much difference in the image quality. If you shoot higher ISOs, the Mk II has less noise.
Practically speaking, the screen on the MK I is the most annoying thing if you're used to the MK II. Colour accuracy and sharpness during playback are poor compared to the MKII and newer cameras- and far less useful for evaluating focus. | The main benefits of the 5D MkII over the 5D MkI include:
* Addition of ISO 3200 and 6400 native ISOs
* 21MP over 13MP
* Addition of dust reduction features
* New menus and interface
* Vignetting correction built in
* AF Micro Adjustment
* 98% viewfinder instead of 96%
* Higher resolution larger LCD screen
* Live view for composition
* Twice the battery capacity/frames per battery
* Silent modes
Sure most of the above isn't obviously impacting image quality(beyond the high ISO features), but it sure will make it more comfortable and easy to get those shots. |
12,940 | I have an idea for a Young Adult fantasy, a small number of teens are visited by characters from 'fantasy' world, at which point they learn that most of our fantasy worlds exist and that magic works in our present world. They are attacked by a few people selected by an enemy as their opposite number, also empowered by magic.
My big problem is guns getting in way of a more magical & sword vibe I want to go with. I'm okay with guns being present to some degree, but I don't want them to be the main characters primary weapons. I also don't like how instantly fatal they are. I want my heroes to be strong enough to have a significant effect in the world, but it doesn't matter how much magic they possess if a single sniper rifle can stop them effortlessly. Thus I would like to come up with some way of justifying the limited use of guns or cut their ability to completely neutralizer the protagonists.
**The Premise**
It's a pretty straightforward plot as described above, other than the fact that it's going to have some actual death involved. In some ways, it's a partially deconstruct the standard YA magic hero story. The sudden presence of magic can't stay a secret and ends up being national news and even starting battles. The heroes can't resolve things without the use of force, there will be a need for some to be willing to fight and kill, and at least one of the heroes and some of their fantasy guides will fall in the fight. I'm not going entirely gritty deconstruction, some of the general YA optimism will exist and the teens won't be completely destroyed emotionally by the need to fight, but I am trying towards a more realistic [Reality Ensues](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityEnsues) story while still keeping some of the YA tropes and general fantasy.
Lots of the fantasy guides are from Eastern Style RPGs, so think of any Final Fantasy to get a general feel for what the combat should be like. Lots of magic and swords and protagonist with a bit of [Charles Atles Superpower](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharlesAtlasSuperpower) when it comes to their skill with melee weapons.
The heroes all gain some level of enhanced physical fighting ability (the ways very, but generally fit under 'knowledge of fighting magically bestowed upon them' or 'prior training in actual martial arts or fencing, but with their magic abilities used to enhanced their physical skills'), with two characters playing the 'pure mage' role of no physical fighting skills.
One of the 'enemy' teens has a gift for bringing in people from other fantasy worlds. He declares himself the president of the US and starts bringing in the military from a fantasy world to enforce it. This military goes up against both the disorganized US government's military and our heroes as sort of 'mooks'. Generally, they're treated as less dangerous then our present military, but they have numbers.
My problem is that I want to try to justify a group of a few dozen, at most, heroes, all either larger than life fantasy heroes or teens with powerful magic, going up against a larger force of 'mook' soldiers. I want a real fight scene, so saying the teens just nuked everything with fire before the enemy knew what was happening is not really a possibility. the teens can do lots of 'weak' attacks, maybe toss a lightning bolt that zaps 3-5 soldiers at once, but they can't just nuke everything at once. I want a real challenge in such fights.
The enemy force consists of soldiers from a world that is a little past fantasy, but where swords and magic are used as often as guns. I'm going to claim that military tradition causes them to frown on guns and that a combination of limited gun crafting ability and armors that are effective against guns but not close range weapons all combined to lead to an emphasis on close range and magical fighting with guns used only to supplement the main force. However, *OUR* guns are still powerful, and it wouldn't take long for the enemy forces to realize they can go out and buy better guns at the local shop, or hire soldiers & mercenaries. How can I either limit adoption of our weapons or create a believable way to limit the power of adopted weapons?
**The Magic**
The premise of this world is [human belief in something can make it happen](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve). The fantasy characters that come to our world to meet with the heroes come from real worlds that mimic popular literature because of the combined belief of people reading these literary works, and allowing themselves to imagine them as being real, was sufficient to make these worlds actually exist, giving life to the characters within them. The reason that our present world doesn't see any magic is that we all collectively believe magic shouldn't exist, and our collective belief in magic not existing keeps it from happening. However, if one person believes hard enough in something magical happening their one strong belief in something occurring can be enough to overcome the passive disbelief of others long enough to make the magic real.
The protagonists do not know this, they simply know that people showed up that shouldn't be able to exist and tried to drag them to a meeting without explaining why; only later did they discover they could work magic (having been inspired to believe in it by the sudden presence of so many other fantastical things). They were each selected by their creativity and ability to believe, effectively they were chosen as the teens most capable of using magic, but the fact that they don't know *why* they can do it limits their belief in their abilities and thus the power of their magic.
Each hero's magic feels very different because they each believe that magic should work differently, and each subconsciously places limits on what they can do because they believe those limits should exist. The enemy has been told how magic actually works and as such they better believe in their magic without limits and are therefore individually stronger than the heroes. | 2015/03/25 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/12940",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/4857/"
] | There are a lot of things that could be done here...but here's an option for you that I think plays well thematically with how you describe magic working. In short, belief-based probability bending... aka, your main characters literally have belief-induced plot armor.
People believe that heroes don't just go down in a hail of gunfire. We see this in film and literature all the time. Batman flips his way through gunfire all the time and is generally unscathed unless he needs to be injured for a plot related reason...and even then, it's seldom a debilitating injury that causes serious damage. And James Freaking Bond...heaven only knows how much lead has fruitlessly been fired at him.
This is something well engrained into culture and into the human mindset. In reality, a few targets against many with guns ends in a hail of lead. But a hero has plot armor. Bullets simply fail to hit him, explosions knock him away instead of pulping his innards, and so on.
It is that belief that protects the heroes. Sure, in close combat against a few enemies, they can be defeated...in a duel they can be killed...but against a hail of lead from faceless mooks? Meh. Against a cheapshot from a sniper? He'll miss and shoot the glass out of their hand instead.
It's not that they are messing with the aim of their enemies...it's that their 'plot armor' basically bends bullets around them to protect them.
Maybe this is a little too meta for you...but hey, I thought it was fun. | This is a two-part answer.
As you said, magic can be influenced by the subconscious. This means that the reality bending magic of your world would in fact make it totally plausible that if a character believes he or she is the hero of the story, bullets can't touch him or her. The subconscious then acts to make it so.
If you're asking for a non hero-armor answer, guns are very... delicate. Take for example the protagonist of The Irregular at Magic High School, he can disassemble most guns with a sweep of his hand or a simple spell. Guns are at an almost irreducible complexity level. Undo a few screws and viola the gun is no longer operational. This would also keep archery to a minimum as bow-string are easy targets for cutting spells. Also, if the magic user is at all good with fire, seeing a gun's magazine would allow them to ignite all the bullets in it at once causing much damage to the gun and whoever had the gun. |
12,940 | I have an idea for a Young Adult fantasy, a small number of teens are visited by characters from 'fantasy' world, at which point they learn that most of our fantasy worlds exist and that magic works in our present world. They are attacked by a few people selected by an enemy as their opposite number, also empowered by magic.
My big problem is guns getting in way of a more magical & sword vibe I want to go with. I'm okay with guns being present to some degree, but I don't want them to be the main characters primary weapons. I also don't like how instantly fatal they are. I want my heroes to be strong enough to have a significant effect in the world, but it doesn't matter how much magic they possess if a single sniper rifle can stop them effortlessly. Thus I would like to come up with some way of justifying the limited use of guns or cut their ability to completely neutralizer the protagonists.
**The Premise**
It's a pretty straightforward plot as described above, other than the fact that it's going to have some actual death involved. In some ways, it's a partially deconstruct the standard YA magic hero story. The sudden presence of magic can't stay a secret and ends up being national news and even starting battles. The heroes can't resolve things without the use of force, there will be a need for some to be willing to fight and kill, and at least one of the heroes and some of their fantasy guides will fall in the fight. I'm not going entirely gritty deconstruction, some of the general YA optimism will exist and the teens won't be completely destroyed emotionally by the need to fight, but I am trying towards a more realistic [Reality Ensues](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityEnsues) story while still keeping some of the YA tropes and general fantasy.
Lots of the fantasy guides are from Eastern Style RPGs, so think of any Final Fantasy to get a general feel for what the combat should be like. Lots of magic and swords and protagonist with a bit of [Charles Atles Superpower](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharlesAtlasSuperpower) when it comes to their skill with melee weapons.
The heroes all gain some level of enhanced physical fighting ability (the ways very, but generally fit under 'knowledge of fighting magically bestowed upon them' or 'prior training in actual martial arts or fencing, but with their magic abilities used to enhanced their physical skills'), with two characters playing the 'pure mage' role of no physical fighting skills.
One of the 'enemy' teens has a gift for bringing in people from other fantasy worlds. He declares himself the president of the US and starts bringing in the military from a fantasy world to enforce it. This military goes up against both the disorganized US government's military and our heroes as sort of 'mooks'. Generally, they're treated as less dangerous then our present military, but they have numbers.
My problem is that I want to try to justify a group of a few dozen, at most, heroes, all either larger than life fantasy heroes or teens with powerful magic, going up against a larger force of 'mook' soldiers. I want a real fight scene, so saying the teens just nuked everything with fire before the enemy knew what was happening is not really a possibility. the teens can do lots of 'weak' attacks, maybe toss a lightning bolt that zaps 3-5 soldiers at once, but they can't just nuke everything at once. I want a real challenge in such fights.
The enemy force consists of soldiers from a world that is a little past fantasy, but where swords and magic are used as often as guns. I'm going to claim that military tradition causes them to frown on guns and that a combination of limited gun crafting ability and armors that are effective against guns but not close range weapons all combined to lead to an emphasis on close range and magical fighting with guns used only to supplement the main force. However, *OUR* guns are still powerful, and it wouldn't take long for the enemy forces to realize they can go out and buy better guns at the local shop, or hire soldiers & mercenaries. How can I either limit adoption of our weapons or create a believable way to limit the power of adopted weapons?
**The Magic**
The premise of this world is [human belief in something can make it happen](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve). The fantasy characters that come to our world to meet with the heroes come from real worlds that mimic popular literature because of the combined belief of people reading these literary works, and allowing themselves to imagine them as being real, was sufficient to make these worlds actually exist, giving life to the characters within them. The reason that our present world doesn't see any magic is that we all collectively believe magic shouldn't exist, and our collective belief in magic not existing keeps it from happening. However, if one person believes hard enough in something magical happening their one strong belief in something occurring can be enough to overcome the passive disbelief of others long enough to make the magic real.
The protagonists do not know this, they simply know that people showed up that shouldn't be able to exist and tried to drag them to a meeting without explaining why; only later did they discover they could work magic (having been inspired to believe in it by the sudden presence of so many other fantastical things). They were each selected by their creativity and ability to believe, effectively they were chosen as the teens most capable of using magic, but the fact that they don't know *why* they can do it limits their belief in their abilities and thus the power of their magic.
Each hero's magic feels very different because they each believe that magic should work differently, and each subconsciously places limits on what they can do because they believe those limits should exist. The enemy has been told how magic actually works and as such they better believe in their magic without limits and are therefore individually stronger than the heroes. | 2015/03/25 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/12940",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/4857/"
] | Guns have no defenses against magic and lots of fiddly little moving parts. This means that you could have it trivial for the heroes to disable the enemy guns with a simple spell or ability.
Snipers are harder but defenses could still be put in place. For example being able to detect hostile intent/an attack even without needing to see the attacker. | First off, **limiting of spells**. In order to receive assistance or not arouse the wrath of some governing authority, the kids must sign the "Covenant of One". After they do, no single spell can help or hurt more than one person at a time. This creates single combat situations, and a the all-too-human search for a loophole.
Next, **guns**. In *Dune* there was a personal shield that slowed things down, like bullets. This prevented lasers (which would cause the whole block to explode, killing shooter and target). It meant that they practiced knife combat a lot. Maybe there is a shield spell that slows all rapid objects down if they approach the body, permitting an adept to dodge. It will still allow air molecules to enter, allowing breathing, but it would make the air frosty after awhile, because all the warm molecules would be kept out but the cold ones admitted.
More about **guns**. Another approach is to fire the O'Reilly curse: the "No-spin zone". It prevents bullets from rifling as they exit the gun, increasing friction and making the bullets veer off after they leave the barrel. Or an anti-fever spell that prevents anything from getting hotter than 98.6, which prevents ignition of the bullet's propellant. (To cast this spell, you need more cowbell.) |
12,940 | I have an idea for a Young Adult fantasy, a small number of teens are visited by characters from 'fantasy' world, at which point they learn that most of our fantasy worlds exist and that magic works in our present world. They are attacked by a few people selected by an enemy as their opposite number, also empowered by magic.
My big problem is guns getting in way of a more magical & sword vibe I want to go with. I'm okay with guns being present to some degree, but I don't want them to be the main characters primary weapons. I also don't like how instantly fatal they are. I want my heroes to be strong enough to have a significant effect in the world, but it doesn't matter how much magic they possess if a single sniper rifle can stop them effortlessly. Thus I would like to come up with some way of justifying the limited use of guns or cut their ability to completely neutralizer the protagonists.
**The Premise**
It's a pretty straightforward plot as described above, other than the fact that it's going to have some actual death involved. In some ways, it's a partially deconstruct the standard YA magic hero story. The sudden presence of magic can't stay a secret and ends up being national news and even starting battles. The heroes can't resolve things without the use of force, there will be a need for some to be willing to fight and kill, and at least one of the heroes and some of their fantasy guides will fall in the fight. I'm not going entirely gritty deconstruction, some of the general YA optimism will exist and the teens won't be completely destroyed emotionally by the need to fight, but I am trying towards a more realistic [Reality Ensues](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityEnsues) story while still keeping some of the YA tropes and general fantasy.
Lots of the fantasy guides are from Eastern Style RPGs, so think of any Final Fantasy to get a general feel for what the combat should be like. Lots of magic and swords and protagonist with a bit of [Charles Atles Superpower](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharlesAtlasSuperpower) when it comes to their skill with melee weapons.
The heroes all gain some level of enhanced physical fighting ability (the ways very, but generally fit under 'knowledge of fighting magically bestowed upon them' or 'prior training in actual martial arts or fencing, but with their magic abilities used to enhanced their physical skills'), with two characters playing the 'pure mage' role of no physical fighting skills.
One of the 'enemy' teens has a gift for bringing in people from other fantasy worlds. He declares himself the president of the US and starts bringing in the military from a fantasy world to enforce it. This military goes up against both the disorganized US government's military and our heroes as sort of 'mooks'. Generally, they're treated as less dangerous then our present military, but they have numbers.
My problem is that I want to try to justify a group of a few dozen, at most, heroes, all either larger than life fantasy heroes or teens with powerful magic, going up against a larger force of 'mook' soldiers. I want a real fight scene, so saying the teens just nuked everything with fire before the enemy knew what was happening is not really a possibility. the teens can do lots of 'weak' attacks, maybe toss a lightning bolt that zaps 3-5 soldiers at once, but they can't just nuke everything at once. I want a real challenge in such fights.
The enemy force consists of soldiers from a world that is a little past fantasy, but where swords and magic are used as often as guns. I'm going to claim that military tradition causes them to frown on guns and that a combination of limited gun crafting ability and armors that are effective against guns but not close range weapons all combined to lead to an emphasis on close range and magical fighting with guns used only to supplement the main force. However, *OUR* guns are still powerful, and it wouldn't take long for the enemy forces to realize they can go out and buy better guns at the local shop, or hire soldiers & mercenaries. How can I either limit adoption of our weapons or create a believable way to limit the power of adopted weapons?
**The Magic**
The premise of this world is [human belief in something can make it happen](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve). The fantasy characters that come to our world to meet with the heroes come from real worlds that mimic popular literature because of the combined belief of people reading these literary works, and allowing themselves to imagine them as being real, was sufficient to make these worlds actually exist, giving life to the characters within them. The reason that our present world doesn't see any magic is that we all collectively believe magic shouldn't exist, and our collective belief in magic not existing keeps it from happening. However, if one person believes hard enough in something magical happening their one strong belief in something occurring can be enough to overcome the passive disbelief of others long enough to make the magic real.
The protagonists do not know this, they simply know that people showed up that shouldn't be able to exist and tried to drag them to a meeting without explaining why; only later did they discover they could work magic (having been inspired to believe in it by the sudden presence of so many other fantastical things). They were each selected by their creativity and ability to believe, effectively they were chosen as the teens most capable of using magic, but the fact that they don't know *why* they can do it limits their belief in their abilities and thus the power of their magic.
Each hero's magic feels very different because they each believe that magic should work differently, and each subconsciously places limits on what they can do because they believe those limits should exist. The enemy has been told how magic actually works and as such they better believe in their magic without limits and are therefore individually stronger than the heroes. | 2015/03/25 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/12940",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/4857/"
] | There are a lot of things that could be done here...but here's an option for you that I think plays well thematically with how you describe magic working. In short, belief-based probability bending... aka, your main characters literally have belief-induced plot armor.
People believe that heroes don't just go down in a hail of gunfire. We see this in film and literature all the time. Batman flips his way through gunfire all the time and is generally unscathed unless he needs to be injured for a plot related reason...and even then, it's seldom a debilitating injury that causes serious damage. And James Freaking Bond...heaven only knows how much lead has fruitlessly been fired at him.
This is something well engrained into culture and into the human mindset. In reality, a few targets against many with guns ends in a hail of lead. But a hero has plot armor. Bullets simply fail to hit him, explosions knock him away instead of pulping his innards, and so on.
It is that belief that protects the heroes. Sure, in close combat against a few enemies, they can be defeated...in a duel they can be killed...but against a hail of lead from faceless mooks? Meh. Against a cheapshot from a sniper? He'll miss and shoot the glass out of their hand instead.
It's not that they are messing with the aim of their enemies...it's that their 'plot armor' basically bends bullets around them to protect them.
Maybe this is a little too meta for you...but hey, I thought it was fun. | Depending on how you WANT your magic system to work, this could go MANY different ways.. But I think you underestimate just how much of an impact a so-called "weak" attack like a lightning bolt that zaps 3-5 people at once really would have on a real-world situation.
A lightning bolt is an INCREDIBLE amount of energy packed into a compact space. Therefore, your protagonists are already not "weak" by any stretch if they can manifest such amounts of energy with little to no effort. Guns work and are effective because they are a quick and easy way to mimic the effect of putting a lot of energy into a relatively small space.
Eastern style RPGs VASTLY underestimate the effect guns would have on a battle. Even steel plate armor was insufficient against medieval guns, therefore armor is out of the question. Especially if you are talking about defense against MODERN guns. In a story that tries to mimic real-world battles, guns will ALWAYS win against swords. And, honestly, no military leader worth anything would frown on guns, unless those guns were INCREDIBLY expensive or otherwise not worth the cost...
However, if your protagonists can cast an enchantment that, perhaps, creates a magnetic field or energy shield around themselves, such that the bullets are deflected or stopped, that would work even against things like grenades or other small arm explosives. |
12,940 | I have an idea for a Young Adult fantasy, a small number of teens are visited by characters from 'fantasy' world, at which point they learn that most of our fantasy worlds exist and that magic works in our present world. They are attacked by a few people selected by an enemy as their opposite number, also empowered by magic.
My big problem is guns getting in way of a more magical & sword vibe I want to go with. I'm okay with guns being present to some degree, but I don't want them to be the main characters primary weapons. I also don't like how instantly fatal they are. I want my heroes to be strong enough to have a significant effect in the world, but it doesn't matter how much magic they possess if a single sniper rifle can stop them effortlessly. Thus I would like to come up with some way of justifying the limited use of guns or cut their ability to completely neutralizer the protagonists.
**The Premise**
It's a pretty straightforward plot as described above, other than the fact that it's going to have some actual death involved. In some ways, it's a partially deconstruct the standard YA magic hero story. The sudden presence of magic can't stay a secret and ends up being national news and even starting battles. The heroes can't resolve things without the use of force, there will be a need for some to be willing to fight and kill, and at least one of the heroes and some of their fantasy guides will fall in the fight. I'm not going entirely gritty deconstruction, some of the general YA optimism will exist and the teens won't be completely destroyed emotionally by the need to fight, but I am trying towards a more realistic [Reality Ensues](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityEnsues) story while still keeping some of the YA tropes and general fantasy.
Lots of the fantasy guides are from Eastern Style RPGs, so think of any Final Fantasy to get a general feel for what the combat should be like. Lots of magic and swords and protagonist with a bit of [Charles Atles Superpower](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharlesAtlasSuperpower) when it comes to their skill with melee weapons.
The heroes all gain some level of enhanced physical fighting ability (the ways very, but generally fit under 'knowledge of fighting magically bestowed upon them' or 'prior training in actual martial arts or fencing, but with their magic abilities used to enhanced their physical skills'), with two characters playing the 'pure mage' role of no physical fighting skills.
One of the 'enemy' teens has a gift for bringing in people from other fantasy worlds. He declares himself the president of the US and starts bringing in the military from a fantasy world to enforce it. This military goes up against both the disorganized US government's military and our heroes as sort of 'mooks'. Generally, they're treated as less dangerous then our present military, but they have numbers.
My problem is that I want to try to justify a group of a few dozen, at most, heroes, all either larger than life fantasy heroes or teens with powerful magic, going up against a larger force of 'mook' soldiers. I want a real fight scene, so saying the teens just nuked everything with fire before the enemy knew what was happening is not really a possibility. the teens can do lots of 'weak' attacks, maybe toss a lightning bolt that zaps 3-5 soldiers at once, but they can't just nuke everything at once. I want a real challenge in such fights.
The enemy force consists of soldiers from a world that is a little past fantasy, but where swords and magic are used as often as guns. I'm going to claim that military tradition causes them to frown on guns and that a combination of limited gun crafting ability and armors that are effective against guns but not close range weapons all combined to lead to an emphasis on close range and magical fighting with guns used only to supplement the main force. However, *OUR* guns are still powerful, and it wouldn't take long for the enemy forces to realize they can go out and buy better guns at the local shop, or hire soldiers & mercenaries. How can I either limit adoption of our weapons or create a believable way to limit the power of adopted weapons?
**The Magic**
The premise of this world is [human belief in something can make it happen](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve). The fantasy characters that come to our world to meet with the heroes come from real worlds that mimic popular literature because of the combined belief of people reading these literary works, and allowing themselves to imagine them as being real, was sufficient to make these worlds actually exist, giving life to the characters within them. The reason that our present world doesn't see any magic is that we all collectively believe magic shouldn't exist, and our collective belief in magic not existing keeps it from happening. However, if one person believes hard enough in something magical happening their one strong belief in something occurring can be enough to overcome the passive disbelief of others long enough to make the magic real.
The protagonists do not know this, they simply know that people showed up that shouldn't be able to exist and tried to drag them to a meeting without explaining why; only later did they discover they could work magic (having been inspired to believe in it by the sudden presence of so many other fantastical things). They were each selected by their creativity and ability to believe, effectively they were chosen as the teens most capable of using magic, but the fact that they don't know *why* they can do it limits their belief in their abilities and thus the power of their magic.
Each hero's magic feels very different because they each believe that magic should work differently, and each subconsciously places limits on what they can do because they believe those limits should exist. The enemy has been told how magic actually works and as such they better believe in their magic without limits and are therefore individually stronger than the heroes. | 2015/03/25 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/12940",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/4857/"
] | The latent magical fields that surround spellcasters have a weird, sort of dampening effect on ordinary matter. Almost as if the caster is incased in a sort of jello. While the effect is fairly weak, anyone non-magical moving near a mage can feel the drag. You move more sluggishly. Your arms feel heavier. Your punches swing slower. The more powerful the magician, the stronger the effect. The lighter the object in question, the stronger the effect.
So yeah, a competent mage getting shot at? You can visibly see the bullets slowing down as they approach and bounce into the magical field around him. He can dodge them by stepping aside. If he gets hit, he'll have maybe a bruise.
An arrow, being much heavier, can still have enough stopping power to kill, although most mages are quite capable of sidestepping those as well. Or take the time to cast a spell to block them. A sword to the face would still hurt, although the stronger the wizard, the harder you have to swing to be fast enough to wound him.
Other magical fields seem to ignore the effect completely; a magical sword cuts through even the most powerful mage's field with impunity. A magical arrow flies in at ordinary speed. A magical bullet... well... it would kill a wizard easy. Only problem is; magically enhanced materials are much harder to work with during smithing, are ridiculously expensive to obtain and almost every part of the proces has to be done by hand. There´s simply nobody in the world who has the kind of resources to build a factory that produces magically enhances rifles. Crafting a modern gun by hand is hard enough, but using a magical material to do it? You simply cannot work it well enough to make such a device. Maybe a primitive gun, if you try really hard, but even those are probably no match for tossing a lightning bolt, so none are known to exist.
* Yes, this is just making plot armor an inherent property of magic.
* Allows sudden, enhanced fighting ability for mages
* Bullets are useless against mages
* Arrows are not
* A magical artefact gun could still be a potential threat, but it'd be a major plot point | Well, most gunshot wounds are not in fact immediately fatal or incapacitating. That's why [stopping power](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stopping_power) is a concern for weapon users.
Usually if you need to immediately kill someone, you need to shoot for the brain, and landing such a hit on a moving target is so difficult that most military and law enforcement professionals are trained not to even attempt those shots. If your magic is based on willpower and *clap your hands if you believe* principle, then you could have the heroes simply shrug single gunshot wounds off as "just a flesh wound", action hero style, and magically heal them after the fight.
This gives your heroes/magic users a superhuman capability to withstand gunfire. Guns are, however, still somewhat effective - if a gunslinger can land a headshot with his handgun (a *really* exceptional feat), a sniper can get a headshot in (pretty tough to do - real snipers don't generally attempt this) or someone can manage to hit the hero close in with a shotgun, they can kill them. They have to fight for it though; either they need to get close enough for the heroes to fight back with magic, or need to be really elite. This might or might not fit your intentions. |
12,940 | I have an idea for a Young Adult fantasy, a small number of teens are visited by characters from 'fantasy' world, at which point they learn that most of our fantasy worlds exist and that magic works in our present world. They are attacked by a few people selected by an enemy as their opposite number, also empowered by magic.
My big problem is guns getting in way of a more magical & sword vibe I want to go with. I'm okay with guns being present to some degree, but I don't want them to be the main characters primary weapons. I also don't like how instantly fatal they are. I want my heroes to be strong enough to have a significant effect in the world, but it doesn't matter how much magic they possess if a single sniper rifle can stop them effortlessly. Thus I would like to come up with some way of justifying the limited use of guns or cut their ability to completely neutralizer the protagonists.
**The Premise**
It's a pretty straightforward plot as described above, other than the fact that it's going to have some actual death involved. In some ways, it's a partially deconstruct the standard YA magic hero story. The sudden presence of magic can't stay a secret and ends up being national news and even starting battles. The heroes can't resolve things without the use of force, there will be a need for some to be willing to fight and kill, and at least one of the heroes and some of their fantasy guides will fall in the fight. I'm not going entirely gritty deconstruction, some of the general YA optimism will exist and the teens won't be completely destroyed emotionally by the need to fight, but I am trying towards a more realistic [Reality Ensues](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityEnsues) story while still keeping some of the YA tropes and general fantasy.
Lots of the fantasy guides are from Eastern Style RPGs, so think of any Final Fantasy to get a general feel for what the combat should be like. Lots of magic and swords and protagonist with a bit of [Charles Atles Superpower](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharlesAtlasSuperpower) when it comes to their skill with melee weapons.
The heroes all gain some level of enhanced physical fighting ability (the ways very, but generally fit under 'knowledge of fighting magically bestowed upon them' or 'prior training in actual martial arts or fencing, but with their magic abilities used to enhanced their physical skills'), with two characters playing the 'pure mage' role of no physical fighting skills.
One of the 'enemy' teens has a gift for bringing in people from other fantasy worlds. He declares himself the president of the US and starts bringing in the military from a fantasy world to enforce it. This military goes up against both the disorganized US government's military and our heroes as sort of 'mooks'. Generally, they're treated as less dangerous then our present military, but they have numbers.
My problem is that I want to try to justify a group of a few dozen, at most, heroes, all either larger than life fantasy heroes or teens with powerful magic, going up against a larger force of 'mook' soldiers. I want a real fight scene, so saying the teens just nuked everything with fire before the enemy knew what was happening is not really a possibility. the teens can do lots of 'weak' attacks, maybe toss a lightning bolt that zaps 3-5 soldiers at once, but they can't just nuke everything at once. I want a real challenge in such fights.
The enemy force consists of soldiers from a world that is a little past fantasy, but where swords and magic are used as often as guns. I'm going to claim that military tradition causes them to frown on guns and that a combination of limited gun crafting ability and armors that are effective against guns but not close range weapons all combined to lead to an emphasis on close range and magical fighting with guns used only to supplement the main force. However, *OUR* guns are still powerful, and it wouldn't take long for the enemy forces to realize they can go out and buy better guns at the local shop, or hire soldiers & mercenaries. How can I either limit adoption of our weapons or create a believable way to limit the power of adopted weapons?
**The Magic**
The premise of this world is [human belief in something can make it happen](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve). The fantasy characters that come to our world to meet with the heroes come from real worlds that mimic popular literature because of the combined belief of people reading these literary works, and allowing themselves to imagine them as being real, was sufficient to make these worlds actually exist, giving life to the characters within them. The reason that our present world doesn't see any magic is that we all collectively believe magic shouldn't exist, and our collective belief in magic not existing keeps it from happening. However, if one person believes hard enough in something magical happening their one strong belief in something occurring can be enough to overcome the passive disbelief of others long enough to make the magic real.
The protagonists do not know this, they simply know that people showed up that shouldn't be able to exist and tried to drag them to a meeting without explaining why; only later did they discover they could work magic (having been inspired to believe in it by the sudden presence of so many other fantastical things). They were each selected by their creativity and ability to believe, effectively they were chosen as the teens most capable of using magic, but the fact that they don't know *why* they can do it limits their belief in their abilities and thus the power of their magic.
Each hero's magic feels very different because they each believe that magic should work differently, and each subconsciously places limits on what they can do because they believe those limits should exist. The enemy has been told how magic actually works and as such they better believe in their magic without limits and are therefore individually stronger than the heroes. | 2015/03/25 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/12940",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/4857/"
] | A little precognition could go a long way. Not even that much or that specific... 5 seconds of a bad feeling would be more than enough.
Sniper pulls the trigger, the hero senses it and moves 3 inches to the left until the bad feeling goes away, and the bullet goes whisking by.
This wouldn't be plot breaking because enough bullets, or being distracted and ignoring the feeling would prevent the hero from dodging.
Also, not all the heros need it, just the ones you don't want to get shot. | They get magic rings, bracelets or necklaces to wear, these are specifically crafted to protect against anything traveling more than X feet per second, and if it does, it is slowed to that speed.
The slowest 22 bullets travel at about 500 feet per second (340 mph). The fastest thrown baseball was 105 mph (154 feet per second), which is also (logically) about the limit of how fast an arm can strike. I am not sure what damage a bullet (with much less mass than a baseball) would do at 150 fps, but I should think it is not much unless it is sharp and lucky (in the eye, in the carotid artery, etc). for the most part it would scratch muscle and bounce off, and light leather armor would stop it.
The protagonists do not have to know it works because they believe it works, they just believe it works because they SEE it work, either in an explicit demonstration by a helper, or in battle, people with the protective device are effectively protected in a hail of bullets, others without it get slaughtered as they would expect.
Of course, knives, swords, spears, mace, or a board with nails in it all continue to work normally, being human powered they don't exceed the speed limit. Arrows may be slowed a bit, but with greater mass than a bullet could still be sharp and lethal.
The excuse for not having an even **greater** restriction is that the wearer is subject to the **same limitation** within the field generated by the object, so to fight effectively the field cannot slow **them** down, and thus cannot slow projectiles down any further than how fast a human can move. |
12,940 | I have an idea for a Young Adult fantasy, a small number of teens are visited by characters from 'fantasy' world, at which point they learn that most of our fantasy worlds exist and that magic works in our present world. They are attacked by a few people selected by an enemy as their opposite number, also empowered by magic.
My big problem is guns getting in way of a more magical & sword vibe I want to go with. I'm okay with guns being present to some degree, but I don't want them to be the main characters primary weapons. I also don't like how instantly fatal they are. I want my heroes to be strong enough to have a significant effect in the world, but it doesn't matter how much magic they possess if a single sniper rifle can stop them effortlessly. Thus I would like to come up with some way of justifying the limited use of guns or cut their ability to completely neutralizer the protagonists.
**The Premise**
It's a pretty straightforward plot as described above, other than the fact that it's going to have some actual death involved. In some ways, it's a partially deconstruct the standard YA magic hero story. The sudden presence of magic can't stay a secret and ends up being national news and even starting battles. The heroes can't resolve things without the use of force, there will be a need for some to be willing to fight and kill, and at least one of the heroes and some of their fantasy guides will fall in the fight. I'm not going entirely gritty deconstruction, some of the general YA optimism will exist and the teens won't be completely destroyed emotionally by the need to fight, but I am trying towards a more realistic [Reality Ensues](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityEnsues) story while still keeping some of the YA tropes and general fantasy.
Lots of the fantasy guides are from Eastern Style RPGs, so think of any Final Fantasy to get a general feel for what the combat should be like. Lots of magic and swords and protagonist with a bit of [Charles Atles Superpower](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharlesAtlasSuperpower) when it comes to their skill with melee weapons.
The heroes all gain some level of enhanced physical fighting ability (the ways very, but generally fit under 'knowledge of fighting magically bestowed upon them' or 'prior training in actual martial arts or fencing, but with their magic abilities used to enhanced their physical skills'), with two characters playing the 'pure mage' role of no physical fighting skills.
One of the 'enemy' teens has a gift for bringing in people from other fantasy worlds. He declares himself the president of the US and starts bringing in the military from a fantasy world to enforce it. This military goes up against both the disorganized US government's military and our heroes as sort of 'mooks'. Generally, they're treated as less dangerous then our present military, but they have numbers.
My problem is that I want to try to justify a group of a few dozen, at most, heroes, all either larger than life fantasy heroes or teens with powerful magic, going up against a larger force of 'mook' soldiers. I want a real fight scene, so saying the teens just nuked everything with fire before the enemy knew what was happening is not really a possibility. the teens can do lots of 'weak' attacks, maybe toss a lightning bolt that zaps 3-5 soldiers at once, but they can't just nuke everything at once. I want a real challenge in such fights.
The enemy force consists of soldiers from a world that is a little past fantasy, but where swords and magic are used as often as guns. I'm going to claim that military tradition causes them to frown on guns and that a combination of limited gun crafting ability and armors that are effective against guns but not close range weapons all combined to lead to an emphasis on close range and magical fighting with guns used only to supplement the main force. However, *OUR* guns are still powerful, and it wouldn't take long for the enemy forces to realize they can go out and buy better guns at the local shop, or hire soldiers & mercenaries. How can I either limit adoption of our weapons or create a believable way to limit the power of adopted weapons?
**The Magic**
The premise of this world is [human belief in something can make it happen](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve). The fantasy characters that come to our world to meet with the heroes come from real worlds that mimic popular literature because of the combined belief of people reading these literary works, and allowing themselves to imagine them as being real, was sufficient to make these worlds actually exist, giving life to the characters within them. The reason that our present world doesn't see any magic is that we all collectively believe magic shouldn't exist, and our collective belief in magic not existing keeps it from happening. However, if one person believes hard enough in something magical happening their one strong belief in something occurring can be enough to overcome the passive disbelief of others long enough to make the magic real.
The protagonists do not know this, they simply know that people showed up that shouldn't be able to exist and tried to drag them to a meeting without explaining why; only later did they discover they could work magic (having been inspired to believe in it by the sudden presence of so many other fantastical things). They were each selected by their creativity and ability to believe, effectively they were chosen as the teens most capable of using magic, but the fact that they don't know *why* they can do it limits their belief in their abilities and thus the power of their magic.
Each hero's magic feels very different because they each believe that magic should work differently, and each subconsciously places limits on what they can do because they believe those limits should exist. The enemy has been told how magic actually works and as such they better believe in their magic without limits and are therefore individually stronger than the heroes. | 2015/03/25 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/12940",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/4857/"
] | A little precognition could go a long way. Not even that much or that specific... 5 seconds of a bad feeling would be more than enough.
Sniper pulls the trigger, the hero senses it and moves 3 inches to the left until the bad feeling goes away, and the bullet goes whisking by.
This wouldn't be plot breaking because enough bullets, or being distracted and ignoring the feeling would prevent the hero from dodging.
Also, not all the heros need it, just the ones you don't want to get shot. | A difficult question. I can only think to solve it in 3 ways.
* Why you want a pistol if your magical arrow can hit the target behind a wall? This have the problem than then how you protect them from magic.
* The use of advanced weapons is dishonest and enemy society is very honourable and prohibited it clearly. (about this). This is very strange in a "evil" society.
* They are protected by magic of another powerfull (and provably ancient) source like a wizard or a prophecy that must happen. |
12,940 | I have an idea for a Young Adult fantasy, a small number of teens are visited by characters from 'fantasy' world, at which point they learn that most of our fantasy worlds exist and that magic works in our present world. They are attacked by a few people selected by an enemy as their opposite number, also empowered by magic.
My big problem is guns getting in way of a more magical & sword vibe I want to go with. I'm okay with guns being present to some degree, but I don't want them to be the main characters primary weapons. I also don't like how instantly fatal they are. I want my heroes to be strong enough to have a significant effect in the world, but it doesn't matter how much magic they possess if a single sniper rifle can stop them effortlessly. Thus I would like to come up with some way of justifying the limited use of guns or cut their ability to completely neutralizer the protagonists.
**The Premise**
It's a pretty straightforward plot as described above, other than the fact that it's going to have some actual death involved. In some ways, it's a partially deconstruct the standard YA magic hero story. The sudden presence of magic can't stay a secret and ends up being national news and even starting battles. The heroes can't resolve things without the use of force, there will be a need for some to be willing to fight and kill, and at least one of the heroes and some of their fantasy guides will fall in the fight. I'm not going entirely gritty deconstruction, some of the general YA optimism will exist and the teens won't be completely destroyed emotionally by the need to fight, but I am trying towards a more realistic [Reality Ensues](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityEnsues) story while still keeping some of the YA tropes and general fantasy.
Lots of the fantasy guides are from Eastern Style RPGs, so think of any Final Fantasy to get a general feel for what the combat should be like. Lots of magic and swords and protagonist with a bit of [Charles Atles Superpower](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharlesAtlasSuperpower) when it comes to their skill with melee weapons.
The heroes all gain some level of enhanced physical fighting ability (the ways very, but generally fit under 'knowledge of fighting magically bestowed upon them' or 'prior training in actual martial arts or fencing, but with their magic abilities used to enhanced their physical skills'), with two characters playing the 'pure mage' role of no physical fighting skills.
One of the 'enemy' teens has a gift for bringing in people from other fantasy worlds. He declares himself the president of the US and starts bringing in the military from a fantasy world to enforce it. This military goes up against both the disorganized US government's military and our heroes as sort of 'mooks'. Generally, they're treated as less dangerous then our present military, but they have numbers.
My problem is that I want to try to justify a group of a few dozen, at most, heroes, all either larger than life fantasy heroes or teens with powerful magic, going up against a larger force of 'mook' soldiers. I want a real fight scene, so saying the teens just nuked everything with fire before the enemy knew what was happening is not really a possibility. the teens can do lots of 'weak' attacks, maybe toss a lightning bolt that zaps 3-5 soldiers at once, but they can't just nuke everything at once. I want a real challenge in such fights.
The enemy force consists of soldiers from a world that is a little past fantasy, but where swords and magic are used as often as guns. I'm going to claim that military tradition causes them to frown on guns and that a combination of limited gun crafting ability and armors that are effective against guns but not close range weapons all combined to lead to an emphasis on close range and magical fighting with guns used only to supplement the main force. However, *OUR* guns are still powerful, and it wouldn't take long for the enemy forces to realize they can go out and buy better guns at the local shop, or hire soldiers & mercenaries. How can I either limit adoption of our weapons or create a believable way to limit the power of adopted weapons?
**The Magic**
The premise of this world is [human belief in something can make it happen](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve). The fantasy characters that come to our world to meet with the heroes come from real worlds that mimic popular literature because of the combined belief of people reading these literary works, and allowing themselves to imagine them as being real, was sufficient to make these worlds actually exist, giving life to the characters within them. The reason that our present world doesn't see any magic is that we all collectively believe magic shouldn't exist, and our collective belief in magic not existing keeps it from happening. However, if one person believes hard enough in something magical happening their one strong belief in something occurring can be enough to overcome the passive disbelief of others long enough to make the magic real.
The protagonists do not know this, they simply know that people showed up that shouldn't be able to exist and tried to drag them to a meeting without explaining why; only later did they discover they could work magic (having been inspired to believe in it by the sudden presence of so many other fantastical things). They were each selected by their creativity and ability to believe, effectively they were chosen as the teens most capable of using magic, but the fact that they don't know *why* they can do it limits their belief in their abilities and thus the power of their magic.
Each hero's magic feels very different because they each believe that magic should work differently, and each subconsciously places limits on what they can do because they believe those limits should exist. The enemy has been told how magic actually works and as such they better believe in their magic without limits and are therefore individually stronger than the heroes. | 2015/03/25 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/12940",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/4857/"
] | The latent magical fields that surround spellcasters have a weird, sort of dampening effect on ordinary matter. Almost as if the caster is incased in a sort of jello. While the effect is fairly weak, anyone non-magical moving near a mage can feel the drag. You move more sluggishly. Your arms feel heavier. Your punches swing slower. The more powerful the magician, the stronger the effect. The lighter the object in question, the stronger the effect.
So yeah, a competent mage getting shot at? You can visibly see the bullets slowing down as they approach and bounce into the magical field around him. He can dodge them by stepping aside. If he gets hit, he'll have maybe a bruise.
An arrow, being much heavier, can still have enough stopping power to kill, although most mages are quite capable of sidestepping those as well. Or take the time to cast a spell to block them. A sword to the face would still hurt, although the stronger the wizard, the harder you have to swing to be fast enough to wound him.
Other magical fields seem to ignore the effect completely; a magical sword cuts through even the most powerful mage's field with impunity. A magical arrow flies in at ordinary speed. A magical bullet... well... it would kill a wizard easy. Only problem is; magically enhanced materials are much harder to work with during smithing, are ridiculously expensive to obtain and almost every part of the proces has to be done by hand. There´s simply nobody in the world who has the kind of resources to build a factory that produces magically enhances rifles. Crafting a modern gun by hand is hard enough, but using a magical material to do it? You simply cannot work it well enough to make such a device. Maybe a primitive gun, if you try really hard, but even those are probably no match for tossing a lightning bolt, so none are known to exist.
* Yes, this is just making plot armor an inherent property of magic.
* Allows sudden, enhanced fighting ability for mages
* Bullets are useless against mages
* Arrows are not
* A magical artefact gun could still be a potential threat, but it'd be a major plot point | Depending on how you WANT your magic system to work, this could go MANY different ways.. But I think you underestimate just how much of an impact a so-called "weak" attack like a lightning bolt that zaps 3-5 people at once really would have on a real-world situation.
A lightning bolt is an INCREDIBLE amount of energy packed into a compact space. Therefore, your protagonists are already not "weak" by any stretch if they can manifest such amounts of energy with little to no effort. Guns work and are effective because they are a quick and easy way to mimic the effect of putting a lot of energy into a relatively small space.
Eastern style RPGs VASTLY underestimate the effect guns would have on a battle. Even steel plate armor was insufficient against medieval guns, therefore armor is out of the question. Especially if you are talking about defense against MODERN guns. In a story that tries to mimic real-world battles, guns will ALWAYS win against swords. And, honestly, no military leader worth anything would frown on guns, unless those guns were INCREDIBLY expensive or otherwise not worth the cost...
However, if your protagonists can cast an enchantment that, perhaps, creates a magnetic field or energy shield around themselves, such that the bullets are deflected or stopped, that would work even against things like grenades or other small arm explosives. |
12,940 | I have an idea for a Young Adult fantasy, a small number of teens are visited by characters from 'fantasy' world, at which point they learn that most of our fantasy worlds exist and that magic works in our present world. They are attacked by a few people selected by an enemy as their opposite number, also empowered by magic.
My big problem is guns getting in way of a more magical & sword vibe I want to go with. I'm okay with guns being present to some degree, but I don't want them to be the main characters primary weapons. I also don't like how instantly fatal they are. I want my heroes to be strong enough to have a significant effect in the world, but it doesn't matter how much magic they possess if a single sniper rifle can stop them effortlessly. Thus I would like to come up with some way of justifying the limited use of guns or cut their ability to completely neutralizer the protagonists.
**The Premise**
It's a pretty straightforward plot as described above, other than the fact that it's going to have some actual death involved. In some ways, it's a partially deconstruct the standard YA magic hero story. The sudden presence of magic can't stay a secret and ends up being national news and even starting battles. The heroes can't resolve things without the use of force, there will be a need for some to be willing to fight and kill, and at least one of the heroes and some of their fantasy guides will fall in the fight. I'm not going entirely gritty deconstruction, some of the general YA optimism will exist and the teens won't be completely destroyed emotionally by the need to fight, but I am trying towards a more realistic [Reality Ensues](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityEnsues) story while still keeping some of the YA tropes and general fantasy.
Lots of the fantasy guides are from Eastern Style RPGs, so think of any Final Fantasy to get a general feel for what the combat should be like. Lots of magic and swords and protagonist with a bit of [Charles Atles Superpower](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharlesAtlasSuperpower) when it comes to their skill with melee weapons.
The heroes all gain some level of enhanced physical fighting ability (the ways very, but generally fit under 'knowledge of fighting magically bestowed upon them' or 'prior training in actual martial arts or fencing, but with their magic abilities used to enhanced their physical skills'), with two characters playing the 'pure mage' role of no physical fighting skills.
One of the 'enemy' teens has a gift for bringing in people from other fantasy worlds. He declares himself the president of the US and starts bringing in the military from a fantasy world to enforce it. This military goes up against both the disorganized US government's military and our heroes as sort of 'mooks'. Generally, they're treated as less dangerous then our present military, but they have numbers.
My problem is that I want to try to justify a group of a few dozen, at most, heroes, all either larger than life fantasy heroes or teens with powerful magic, going up against a larger force of 'mook' soldiers. I want a real fight scene, so saying the teens just nuked everything with fire before the enemy knew what was happening is not really a possibility. the teens can do lots of 'weak' attacks, maybe toss a lightning bolt that zaps 3-5 soldiers at once, but they can't just nuke everything at once. I want a real challenge in such fights.
The enemy force consists of soldiers from a world that is a little past fantasy, but where swords and magic are used as often as guns. I'm going to claim that military tradition causes them to frown on guns and that a combination of limited gun crafting ability and armors that are effective against guns but not close range weapons all combined to lead to an emphasis on close range and magical fighting with guns used only to supplement the main force. However, *OUR* guns are still powerful, and it wouldn't take long for the enemy forces to realize they can go out and buy better guns at the local shop, or hire soldiers & mercenaries. How can I either limit adoption of our weapons or create a believable way to limit the power of adopted weapons?
**The Magic**
The premise of this world is [human belief in something can make it happen](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve). The fantasy characters that come to our world to meet with the heroes come from real worlds that mimic popular literature because of the combined belief of people reading these literary works, and allowing themselves to imagine them as being real, was sufficient to make these worlds actually exist, giving life to the characters within them. The reason that our present world doesn't see any magic is that we all collectively believe magic shouldn't exist, and our collective belief in magic not existing keeps it from happening. However, if one person believes hard enough in something magical happening their one strong belief in something occurring can be enough to overcome the passive disbelief of others long enough to make the magic real.
The protagonists do not know this, they simply know that people showed up that shouldn't be able to exist and tried to drag them to a meeting without explaining why; only later did they discover they could work magic (having been inspired to believe in it by the sudden presence of so many other fantastical things). They were each selected by their creativity and ability to believe, effectively they were chosen as the teens most capable of using magic, but the fact that they don't know *why* they can do it limits their belief in their abilities and thus the power of their magic.
Each hero's magic feels very different because they each believe that magic should work differently, and each subconsciously places limits on what they can do because they believe those limits should exist. The enemy has been told how magic actually works and as such they better believe in their magic without limits and are therefore individually stronger than the heroes. | 2015/03/25 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/12940",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/4857/"
] | This is a two-part answer.
As you said, magic can be influenced by the subconscious. This means that the reality bending magic of your world would in fact make it totally plausible that if a character believes he or she is the hero of the story, bullets can't touch him or her. The subconscious then acts to make it so.
If you're asking for a non hero-armor answer, guns are very... delicate. Take for example the protagonist of The Irregular at Magic High School, he can disassemble most guns with a sweep of his hand or a simple spell. Guns are at an almost irreducible complexity level. Undo a few screws and viola the gun is no longer operational. This would also keep archery to a minimum as bow-string are easy targets for cutting spells. Also, if the magic user is at all good with fire, seeing a gun's magazine would allow them to ignite all the bullets in it at once causing much damage to the gun and whoever had the gun. | First off, **limiting of spells**. In order to receive assistance or not arouse the wrath of some governing authority, the kids must sign the "Covenant of One". After they do, no single spell can help or hurt more than one person at a time. This creates single combat situations, and a the all-too-human search for a loophole.
Next, **guns**. In *Dune* there was a personal shield that slowed things down, like bullets. This prevented lasers (which would cause the whole block to explode, killing shooter and target). It meant that they practiced knife combat a lot. Maybe there is a shield spell that slows all rapid objects down if they approach the body, permitting an adept to dodge. It will still allow air molecules to enter, allowing breathing, but it would make the air frosty after awhile, because all the warm molecules would be kept out but the cold ones admitted.
More about **guns**. Another approach is to fire the O'Reilly curse: the "No-spin zone". It prevents bullets from rifling as they exit the gun, increasing friction and making the bullets veer off after they leave the barrel. Or an anti-fever spell that prevents anything from getting hotter than 98.6, which prevents ignition of the bullet's propellant. (To cast this spell, you need more cowbell.) |
12,940 | I have an idea for a Young Adult fantasy, a small number of teens are visited by characters from 'fantasy' world, at which point they learn that most of our fantasy worlds exist and that magic works in our present world. They are attacked by a few people selected by an enemy as their opposite number, also empowered by magic.
My big problem is guns getting in way of a more magical & sword vibe I want to go with. I'm okay with guns being present to some degree, but I don't want them to be the main characters primary weapons. I also don't like how instantly fatal they are. I want my heroes to be strong enough to have a significant effect in the world, but it doesn't matter how much magic they possess if a single sniper rifle can stop them effortlessly. Thus I would like to come up with some way of justifying the limited use of guns or cut their ability to completely neutralizer the protagonists.
**The Premise**
It's a pretty straightforward plot as described above, other than the fact that it's going to have some actual death involved. In some ways, it's a partially deconstruct the standard YA magic hero story. The sudden presence of magic can't stay a secret and ends up being national news and even starting battles. The heroes can't resolve things without the use of force, there will be a need for some to be willing to fight and kill, and at least one of the heroes and some of their fantasy guides will fall in the fight. I'm not going entirely gritty deconstruction, some of the general YA optimism will exist and the teens won't be completely destroyed emotionally by the need to fight, but I am trying towards a more realistic [Reality Ensues](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityEnsues) story while still keeping some of the YA tropes and general fantasy.
Lots of the fantasy guides are from Eastern Style RPGs, so think of any Final Fantasy to get a general feel for what the combat should be like. Lots of magic and swords and protagonist with a bit of [Charles Atles Superpower](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharlesAtlasSuperpower) when it comes to their skill with melee weapons.
The heroes all gain some level of enhanced physical fighting ability (the ways very, but generally fit under 'knowledge of fighting magically bestowed upon them' or 'prior training in actual martial arts or fencing, but with their magic abilities used to enhanced their physical skills'), with two characters playing the 'pure mage' role of no physical fighting skills.
One of the 'enemy' teens has a gift for bringing in people from other fantasy worlds. He declares himself the president of the US and starts bringing in the military from a fantasy world to enforce it. This military goes up against both the disorganized US government's military and our heroes as sort of 'mooks'. Generally, they're treated as less dangerous then our present military, but they have numbers.
My problem is that I want to try to justify a group of a few dozen, at most, heroes, all either larger than life fantasy heroes or teens with powerful magic, going up against a larger force of 'mook' soldiers. I want a real fight scene, so saying the teens just nuked everything with fire before the enemy knew what was happening is not really a possibility. the teens can do lots of 'weak' attacks, maybe toss a lightning bolt that zaps 3-5 soldiers at once, but they can't just nuke everything at once. I want a real challenge in such fights.
The enemy force consists of soldiers from a world that is a little past fantasy, but where swords and magic are used as often as guns. I'm going to claim that military tradition causes them to frown on guns and that a combination of limited gun crafting ability and armors that are effective against guns but not close range weapons all combined to lead to an emphasis on close range and magical fighting with guns used only to supplement the main force. However, *OUR* guns are still powerful, and it wouldn't take long for the enemy forces to realize they can go out and buy better guns at the local shop, or hire soldiers & mercenaries. How can I either limit adoption of our weapons or create a believable way to limit the power of adopted weapons?
**The Magic**
The premise of this world is [human belief in something can make it happen](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve). The fantasy characters that come to our world to meet with the heroes come from real worlds that mimic popular literature because of the combined belief of people reading these literary works, and allowing themselves to imagine them as being real, was sufficient to make these worlds actually exist, giving life to the characters within them. The reason that our present world doesn't see any magic is that we all collectively believe magic shouldn't exist, and our collective belief in magic not existing keeps it from happening. However, if one person believes hard enough in something magical happening their one strong belief in something occurring can be enough to overcome the passive disbelief of others long enough to make the magic real.
The protagonists do not know this, they simply know that people showed up that shouldn't be able to exist and tried to drag them to a meeting without explaining why; only later did they discover they could work magic (having been inspired to believe in it by the sudden presence of so many other fantastical things). They were each selected by their creativity and ability to believe, effectively they were chosen as the teens most capable of using magic, but the fact that they don't know *why* they can do it limits their belief in their abilities and thus the power of their magic.
Each hero's magic feels very different because they each believe that magic should work differently, and each subconsciously places limits on what they can do because they believe those limits should exist. The enemy has been told how magic actually works and as such they better believe in their magic without limits and are therefore individually stronger than the heroes. | 2015/03/25 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/12940",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/4857/"
] | Guns have no defenses against magic and lots of fiddly little moving parts. This means that you could have it trivial for the heroes to disable the enemy guns with a simple spell or ability.
Snipers are harder but defenses could still be put in place. For example being able to detect hostile intent/an attack even without needing to see the attacker. | They get magic rings, bracelets or necklaces to wear, these are specifically crafted to protect against anything traveling more than X feet per second, and if it does, it is slowed to that speed.
The slowest 22 bullets travel at about 500 feet per second (340 mph). The fastest thrown baseball was 105 mph (154 feet per second), which is also (logically) about the limit of how fast an arm can strike. I am not sure what damage a bullet (with much less mass than a baseball) would do at 150 fps, but I should think it is not much unless it is sharp and lucky (in the eye, in the carotid artery, etc). for the most part it would scratch muscle and bounce off, and light leather armor would stop it.
The protagonists do not have to know it works because they believe it works, they just believe it works because they SEE it work, either in an explicit demonstration by a helper, or in battle, people with the protective device are effectively protected in a hail of bullets, others without it get slaughtered as they would expect.
Of course, knives, swords, spears, mace, or a board with nails in it all continue to work normally, being human powered they don't exceed the speed limit. Arrows may be slowed a bit, but with greater mass than a bullet could still be sharp and lethal.
The excuse for not having an even **greater** restriction is that the wearer is subject to the **same limitation** within the field generated by the object, so to fight effectively the field cannot slow **them** down, and thus cannot slow projectiles down any further than how fast a human can move. |
12,940 | I have an idea for a Young Adult fantasy, a small number of teens are visited by characters from 'fantasy' world, at which point they learn that most of our fantasy worlds exist and that magic works in our present world. They are attacked by a few people selected by an enemy as their opposite number, also empowered by magic.
My big problem is guns getting in way of a more magical & sword vibe I want to go with. I'm okay with guns being present to some degree, but I don't want them to be the main characters primary weapons. I also don't like how instantly fatal they are. I want my heroes to be strong enough to have a significant effect in the world, but it doesn't matter how much magic they possess if a single sniper rifle can stop them effortlessly. Thus I would like to come up with some way of justifying the limited use of guns or cut their ability to completely neutralizer the protagonists.
**The Premise**
It's a pretty straightforward plot as described above, other than the fact that it's going to have some actual death involved. In some ways, it's a partially deconstruct the standard YA magic hero story. The sudden presence of magic can't stay a secret and ends up being national news and even starting battles. The heroes can't resolve things without the use of force, there will be a need for some to be willing to fight and kill, and at least one of the heroes and some of their fantasy guides will fall in the fight. I'm not going entirely gritty deconstruction, some of the general YA optimism will exist and the teens won't be completely destroyed emotionally by the need to fight, but I am trying towards a more realistic [Reality Ensues](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityEnsues) story while still keeping some of the YA tropes and general fantasy.
Lots of the fantasy guides are from Eastern Style RPGs, so think of any Final Fantasy to get a general feel for what the combat should be like. Lots of magic and swords and protagonist with a bit of [Charles Atles Superpower](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharlesAtlasSuperpower) when it comes to their skill with melee weapons.
The heroes all gain some level of enhanced physical fighting ability (the ways very, but generally fit under 'knowledge of fighting magically bestowed upon them' or 'prior training in actual martial arts or fencing, but with their magic abilities used to enhanced their physical skills'), with two characters playing the 'pure mage' role of no physical fighting skills.
One of the 'enemy' teens has a gift for bringing in people from other fantasy worlds. He declares himself the president of the US and starts bringing in the military from a fantasy world to enforce it. This military goes up against both the disorganized US government's military and our heroes as sort of 'mooks'. Generally, they're treated as less dangerous then our present military, but they have numbers.
My problem is that I want to try to justify a group of a few dozen, at most, heroes, all either larger than life fantasy heroes or teens with powerful magic, going up against a larger force of 'mook' soldiers. I want a real fight scene, so saying the teens just nuked everything with fire before the enemy knew what was happening is not really a possibility. the teens can do lots of 'weak' attacks, maybe toss a lightning bolt that zaps 3-5 soldiers at once, but they can't just nuke everything at once. I want a real challenge in such fights.
The enemy force consists of soldiers from a world that is a little past fantasy, but where swords and magic are used as often as guns. I'm going to claim that military tradition causes them to frown on guns and that a combination of limited gun crafting ability and armors that are effective against guns but not close range weapons all combined to lead to an emphasis on close range and magical fighting with guns used only to supplement the main force. However, *OUR* guns are still powerful, and it wouldn't take long for the enemy forces to realize they can go out and buy better guns at the local shop, or hire soldiers & mercenaries. How can I either limit adoption of our weapons or create a believable way to limit the power of adopted weapons?
**The Magic**
The premise of this world is [human belief in something can make it happen](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve). The fantasy characters that come to our world to meet with the heroes come from real worlds that mimic popular literature because of the combined belief of people reading these literary works, and allowing themselves to imagine them as being real, was sufficient to make these worlds actually exist, giving life to the characters within them. The reason that our present world doesn't see any magic is that we all collectively believe magic shouldn't exist, and our collective belief in magic not existing keeps it from happening. However, if one person believes hard enough in something magical happening their one strong belief in something occurring can be enough to overcome the passive disbelief of others long enough to make the magic real.
The protagonists do not know this, they simply know that people showed up that shouldn't be able to exist and tried to drag them to a meeting without explaining why; only later did they discover they could work magic (having been inspired to believe in it by the sudden presence of so many other fantastical things). They were each selected by their creativity and ability to believe, effectively they were chosen as the teens most capable of using magic, but the fact that they don't know *why* they can do it limits their belief in their abilities and thus the power of their magic.
Each hero's magic feels very different because they each believe that magic should work differently, and each subconsciously places limits on what they can do because they believe those limits should exist. The enemy has been told how magic actually works and as such they better believe in their magic without limits and are therefore individually stronger than the heroes. | 2015/03/25 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/12940",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/4857/"
] | This is a two-part answer.
As you said, magic can be influenced by the subconscious. This means that the reality bending magic of your world would in fact make it totally plausible that if a character believes he or she is the hero of the story, bullets can't touch him or her. The subconscious then acts to make it so.
If you're asking for a non hero-armor answer, guns are very... delicate. Take for example the protagonist of The Irregular at Magic High School, he can disassemble most guns with a sweep of his hand or a simple spell. Guns are at an almost irreducible complexity level. Undo a few screws and viola the gun is no longer operational. This would also keep archery to a minimum as bow-string are easy targets for cutting spells. Also, if the magic user is at all good with fire, seeing a gun's magazine would allow them to ignite all the bullets in it at once causing much damage to the gun and whoever had the gun. | Kinetic energy shields such as those featured in the 'Dune' series by Frank Herbert. The shield could be a protective amulet or a spell. It would also give you a reason for using swords and stabbing weapons in the modern era. |
68,253 | My chain fell out while switching the gears and now it is stuck between the chainring and the frame. (I'm not a native speaker nor a bicycle expert, the terms may be wrong)
I tried to unscrew the bolts on the crank arm to remove the crank arm and the chain ring, but it didn't move after removing the bolt. How do I remove it or is there even a better option to get the chain out there?
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/QSugn.jpg)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/sDfjM.jpg)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1XaPY.jpg)
**Update:** I managed to wiggle the chain free with some force and it looked like the limit of the derailleur was not set correctly. In the picture you see like it looked before adjusting.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/lOOZR.jpg) | 2020/05/20 | [
"https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/68253",
"https://bicycles.stackexchange.com",
"https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/users/49617/"
] | I've managed that before more often than I'd like to admit.
Normally you can wiggle the chain free, though it does take some force and may damage paint. Pull some slack in the chain by moving the derailleur forwards, or it will pull back on the chain you are trying to free up.
You've tried removing the middle and outer chainrings, but I think not the little chainring which is the one pinching the chain against the frame. This has four bolts of its own holding it on, accessible on the inboard side of the small ring. You can remove these one at a time while the crank is still fitted. It should give enough play to release the chain. I would try this first but if you can't rotate the crank to access enough of the bolts then it might not work.
So that gives option 2, removing the crank. To remove the whole crank needs a tool called a cotterless crank puller, cranks won't come off on their own just by taking the bolt out. Very searchable online for instructions. With the right tool available you'd probably just do this first anyway.
Remember to do all the bolts up tightly again. It's a good opportunity to clean them and add a little grease to all the threads.
If the chain likes to fall off the inner chain ring it needs looking at. maybe a tooth is bent, or the chainring is worn, or the limit screw on the derailleur is not set properly. | Happened to me a couple times. It depends on your frame and the gap between the bottom bracket and the chainring, but usually it can be fixed without removing the whole crank arm and chainring.
What I usually do is pull the chain **downwards** from below and the rear part of the frame and gradually try to make my way forwards until the chain gets freed.
It sometimes require to play a bit with the cranks, slightly turning them to use the leverage they provide to move the chain.
Because the chain often gets obstructed by chainring bolts and some lateral pressure applies (chain gets bent sideways), the process is tedious and difficult.
The bottom line is that you will need latex gloves or a good wash and that you should certainly be prepared to do it again if your front derailleur is not adjusted well. |
68,253 | My chain fell out while switching the gears and now it is stuck between the chainring and the frame. (I'm not a native speaker nor a bicycle expert, the terms may be wrong)
I tried to unscrew the bolts on the crank arm to remove the crank arm and the chain ring, but it didn't move after removing the bolt. How do I remove it or is there even a better option to get the chain out there?
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/QSugn.jpg)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/sDfjM.jpg)
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1XaPY.jpg)
**Update:** I managed to wiggle the chain free with some force and it looked like the limit of the derailleur was not set correctly. In the picture you see like it looked before adjusting.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/lOOZR.jpg) | 2020/05/20 | [
"https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/68253",
"https://bicycles.stackexchange.com",
"https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/users/49617/"
] | I've managed that before more often than I'd like to admit.
Normally you can wiggle the chain free, though it does take some force and may damage paint. Pull some slack in the chain by moving the derailleur forwards, or it will pull back on the chain you are trying to free up.
You've tried removing the middle and outer chainrings, but I think not the little chainring which is the one pinching the chain against the frame. This has four bolts of its own holding it on, accessible on the inboard side of the small ring. You can remove these one at a time while the crank is still fitted. It should give enough play to release the chain. I would try this first but if you can't rotate the crank to access enough of the bolts then it might not work.
So that gives option 2, removing the crank. To remove the whole crank needs a tool called a cotterless crank puller, cranks won't come off on their own just by taking the bolt out. Very searchable online for instructions. With the right tool available you'd probably just do this first anyway.
Remember to do all the bolts up tightly again. It's a good opportunity to clean them and add a little grease to all the threads.
If the chain likes to fall off the inner chain ring it needs looking at. maybe a tooth is bent, or the chainring is worn, or the limit screw on the derailleur is not set properly. | I kept having this problem after I changed to a new crank set. The new crank had a larger gap between the smallest chainring and the bottom bracket. I fixed the problem using a plastic wheelbarrow bushing that I cut to fit between the crank and the frame. It works great to keep the chain out of that little space. |
11,604 | There are some scenes in *The Matrix* that seem like they take a long time in the Matrix, but not as long in real life. Do people in the Matrix experience events in real time, or is the Matrix time speeded up (or even slowed down)? | 2012/02/21 | [
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/11604",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/users/1693/"
] | Well, operators (outside The Matrix) can telephone with people inside The Matrix. Anything other than a negligible drift would be obvious to the operator, the person in The Matrix and the audience (i.e. you).
In addition, The Matrix merely fakes the sensory input to your brain. Unless you're The One, your brain works exactly the same in The Matrix than in "the real world" -- you can *perform* fancy stuff inside The Matrix, if you're trained, but your cognitive abilities are the same.
Last but not least: Neo's physical age matches his residual image -- he aged at the same speed in his prison as his physical body did.
Edit: The reason that some things look extremely slow in The Matrix is completely out-of-universe for theatric effect. | Matrix is a real-time simulation. Telephone conversations between those within the Matrix and those still in the hoverships take place without any noticeable pitch difference or time shift to either party. Neo's very first phone conversation with Morpheus lasts minutes, but Neo is able to follow Morpheus' instructions to the second to evade the agents searching the cubicles. If there was a temporal shear, timing would have been off the more time passed. |
11,604 | There are some scenes in *The Matrix* that seem like they take a long time in the Matrix, but not as long in real life. Do people in the Matrix experience events in real time, or is the Matrix time speeded up (or even slowed down)? | 2012/02/21 | [
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/11604",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/users/1693/"
] | Well, operators (outside The Matrix) can telephone with people inside The Matrix. Anything other than a negligible drift would be obvious to the operator, the person in The Matrix and the audience (i.e. you).
In addition, The Matrix merely fakes the sensory input to your brain. Unless you're The One, your brain works exactly the same in The Matrix than in "the real world" -- you can *perform* fancy stuff inside The Matrix, if you're trained, but your cognitive abilities are the same.
Last but not least: Neo's physical age matches his residual image -- he aged at the same speed in his prison as his physical body did.
Edit: The reason that some things look extremely slow in The Matrix is completely out-of-universe for theatric effect. | The passage of time in the Matrix is relative to each individual; the point made in Goliath (comic S1,C1). Years could go by in a manner of minutes and time could also repeat in an infinite loop. In the end, the protagonist experienced a lifetime of events in 57 minutes. |
11,604 | There are some scenes in *The Matrix* that seem like they take a long time in the Matrix, but not as long in real life. Do people in the Matrix experience events in real time, or is the Matrix time speeded up (or even slowed down)? | 2012/02/21 | [
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/11604",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/users/1693/"
] | Matrix is a real-time simulation. Telephone conversations between those within the Matrix and those still in the hoverships take place without any noticeable pitch difference or time shift to either party. Neo's very first phone conversation with Morpheus lasts minutes, but Neo is able to follow Morpheus' instructions to the second to evade the agents searching the cubicles. If there was a temporal shear, timing would have been off the more time passed. | The passage of time in the Matrix is relative to each individual; the point made in Goliath (comic S1,C1). Years could go by in a manner of minutes and time could also repeat in an infinite loop. In the end, the protagonist experienced a lifetime of events in 57 minutes. |
10,378,966 | Is it possible to self host asp.net mvc inside another application ie. console, windows forms, service etc etc.
I'd like to build an app that offers a web interface to control it and I'd like to use asp.net mvc for the web part of it.
I did take a quick look at Nancy which looks like it would work, though its not asp.net mvc it did support razor although it doesn't have quite the same level of support for it as asp.net (eg. strongly typed views)
I did also find this question but it doesn't really go into much depth
[Possible to use ASPNET MVC2 without IIS?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4795717/possible-to-use-aspnet-mvc2-without-iis) | 2012/04/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/10378966",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/351614/"
] | You can use "IIS 7.0 Hostable Web Core" and host the web server as part of any user process, even a console application. The benefit is that it is very similar to full blown IIS (incl config etc) but the web server itself is running in your process.
Have a look at the following articles:
1. [Host your own Web Server in your application using IIS 7.0 Hostable Web Core](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/carlosag/archive/2008/04/14/hostyourownwebserverusingiis7.aspx)
2. [Creating Hosted Web Core Applications](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms689327%28v=vs.90%29.aspx) | Please have a look at <http://cassinidev.codeplex.com/>
It has many advantages for example
* No need IIS 7 on client machine
* Support MVC (I have tested myself)
* Work well with Windows Form and Web Browser Control for packaging as Windows App
* Cross Win OS platform ( Windows XP, Vista, 7) I have test XP with .NET 4 installed
Hope this helps. |
10,378,966 | Is it possible to self host asp.net mvc inside another application ie. console, windows forms, service etc etc.
I'd like to build an app that offers a web interface to control it and I'd like to use asp.net mvc for the web part of it.
I did take a quick look at Nancy which looks like it would work, though its not asp.net mvc it did support razor although it doesn't have quite the same level of support for it as asp.net (eg. strongly typed views)
I did also find this question but it doesn't really go into much depth
[Possible to use ASPNET MVC2 without IIS?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4795717/possible-to-use-aspnet-mvc2-without-iis) | 2012/04/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/10378966",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/351614/"
] | You can use "IIS 7.0 Hostable Web Core" and host the web server as part of any user process, even a console application. The benefit is that it is very similar to full blown IIS (incl config etc) but the web server itself is running in your process.
Have a look at the following articles:
1. [Host your own Web Server in your application using IIS 7.0 Hostable Web Core](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/carlosag/archive/2008/04/14/hostyourownwebserverusingiis7.aspx)
2. [Creating Hosted Web Core Applications](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms689327%28v=vs.90%29.aspx) | I know this question is old, but it is still relevant, so with the .NET Core 1.0 + ASP.NET MVC 6 you can self-host your MVC application easily. You can even combine MVC and WebAPI applications into one, and you can decide later if you want to use IIS, IIS Express or the self-hosting feature of the .NET Core.
You can try it if you follow the Yeoman approach from this post:
<https://stackoverflow.com/a/30314393/980247> |
10,378,966 | Is it possible to self host asp.net mvc inside another application ie. console, windows forms, service etc etc.
I'd like to build an app that offers a web interface to control it and I'd like to use asp.net mvc for the web part of it.
I did take a quick look at Nancy which looks like it would work, though its not asp.net mvc it did support razor although it doesn't have quite the same level of support for it as asp.net (eg. strongly typed views)
I did also find this question but it doesn't really go into much depth
[Possible to use ASPNET MVC2 without IIS?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4795717/possible-to-use-aspnet-mvc2-without-iis) | 2012/04/30 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/10378966",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/351614/"
] | Please have a look at <http://cassinidev.codeplex.com/>
It has many advantages for example
* No need IIS 7 on client machine
* Support MVC (I have tested myself)
* Work well with Windows Form and Web Browser Control for packaging as Windows App
* Cross Win OS platform ( Windows XP, Vista, 7) I have test XP with .NET 4 installed
Hope this helps. | I know this question is old, but it is still relevant, so with the .NET Core 1.0 + ASP.NET MVC 6 you can self-host your MVC application easily. You can even combine MVC and WebAPI applications into one, and you can decide later if you want to use IIS, IIS Express or the self-hosting feature of the .NET Core.
You can try it if you follow the Yeoman approach from this post:
<https://stackoverflow.com/a/30314393/980247> |
88,838 | Can we use the phrase "for a change" to make a sarcastic comment or insulting comment like
>
> Why don't we let her say this good news to others, for a change
>
>
>
Or
>
> You have made quite a good point, for a change
>
>
> | 2016/05/01 | [
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/88838",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/users/31665/"
] | I would call it a **{baby/kid/child} handstand or headstand**. If I search Google images for those phrases, the image in your post comes up, as well as some other examples (click for larger size).
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/crgwP.jpg) [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/kMRWw.jpg)[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/s1NTR.jpg)
Handstand was the first thing I thought of, even though a real handstand would have the person's feet and head lifted off of the ground. A headstand has some of the weight of the person's body resting on the head, so in the image above where the child has their cheek on the floor, it looks more like a headstand than your example picture, which seems more like a baby handstand.
Another phrase would be "[upside down baby](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/349380883566061225/)" - That describes the content of the image, not exactly the pose. | For babies and toddlers, it's usually called
>
> looking between their legs
>
>
>
For adults it could be
>
> looking between their legs
>
> bending over and touching the ground
>
> toe touching *( callisthenics )*
>
> Downward Dog *( yoga )*
>
>
> |
88,838 | Can we use the phrase "for a change" to make a sarcastic comment or insulting comment like
>
> Why don't we let her say this good news to others, for a change
>
>
>
Or
>
> You have made quite a good point, for a change
>
>
> | 2016/05/01 | [
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/88838",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/users/31665/"
] | For babies and toddlers, it's usually called
>
> looking between their legs
>
>
>
For adults it could be
>
> looking between their legs
>
> bending over and touching the ground
>
> toe touching *( callisthenics )*
>
> Downward Dog *( yoga )*
>
>
> | In Yoga this pose might be called a 'forward fold' or a 'standing forward bend'
(Also may be called: Padangusthasana or Uttanasana but that is not English) |
88,838 | Can we use the phrase "for a change" to make a sarcastic comment or insulting comment like
>
> Why don't we let her say this good news to others, for a change
>
>
>
Or
>
> You have made quite a good point, for a change
>
>
> | 2016/05/01 | [
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/88838",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/users/31665/"
] | I would call it a **{baby/kid/child} handstand or headstand**. If I search Google images for those phrases, the image in your post comes up, as well as some other examples (click for larger size).
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/crgwP.jpg) [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/kMRWw.jpg)[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/s1NTR.jpg)
Handstand was the first thing I thought of, even though a real handstand would have the person's feet and head lifted off of the ground. A headstand has some of the weight of the person's body resting on the head, so in the image above where the child has their cheek on the floor, it looks more like a headstand than your example picture, which seems more like a baby handstand.
Another phrase would be "[upside down baby](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/349380883566061225/)" - That describes the content of the image, not exactly the pose. | In Yoga this pose might be called a 'forward fold' or a 'standing forward bend'
(Also may be called: Padangusthasana or Uttanasana but that is not English) |
31,774 | I am using google custom search for my website, every search results in a big list of results. I want only limited number of results to be shown to the customer say first 10 so that he/she is not confused. Please help. | 2012/07/06 | [
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/31774",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/users/16794/"
] | 1. It depends. If your client does not understand the process of registering a domain, you should do it, but enter their details for the records. With hosting, again, it depends. If it's a large website that might require one or more servers or a complex setup, it's probably better for you to organize this. If not, there is no harm in them ordering it and you working on their web space. Usually for small clients that will not require their own server, I just set an account up for them and assign some resources on my own server. If things grow, we can discuss transferring their site to a more powerful setup to handle the load.
So in general - it depends how tech-savvy your client is - you never know, they may have an idea in mind as to how they want to organize these kinds of things.
2. This depends on the requirements and purpose of the website, but generally yes. More work may be required to implement a responsive design for tablets, mobiles and other media but these are all things you should discuss in the initial meeting with your client.
3. If you're doing all the work yourself, this would usually happen during 'stage 2' (previous answer).
4. If you need to buy stock images, this is unavoidable. I'd be weary over what images you buy, I'm sure I can't be the only one that is sick of seeing the same stock images across multiple websites, if at all possible it would be best to source your own or get exclusive rights to a set of images.
5. "Copyright stuff". I assume by this, you mean things like your terms and conditions, privacy policy, etc. There is not much required of you here, there are [many templates](http://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=website%20terms%20and%20conditions%20template&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gl=uk) that make a google starting point, likewise for privacy policies. It would be wise to put links like this in the footer with a "Copyright 2012 mysite.com" or something along those lines to make it clear that your content is not for reuse and distribution or consent. Consult a lawyer if you're working on sizeable projects.
6. I would usually implement these when initially building the site (steps 2 and 3, as per your layout).
7. This isn't really how it works. The search engines find you, though perhaps not easily at first depending on a number of factors. Your best bet is to create a [Google Webmasters account](http://www.google.com/webmasters/), which allows you to submit a sitemap directly to Google. Anything else you can do in the meantime to promote your site online (without spamming...) will make your site more visible to other SE's - so sharing with friends and so on would be a good start.
Some of your questions seemed to be bordering on asking about cash flow - should you buy hosting etc, or let the client buy it. Again, it depends on the job, but for smaller companies I would usually just factor all these things into my pricing and take a sufficient deposit to cater for any purchases I may have to make, as well as leaving some left over for security. | 1 - Usually web admins have all the passwords they need, as the client might not be technical at all (not even uploading files)
3 - SEO Stuff is not something you add at the end: you would need to take it into account when you design your website (keywords to target, URL structure, titles, meta desc, and more).
7 - Just register with Google Webmaster Tools, and other equivalent tools for other search engines. If you want to make sure your site is everywhere, you could add it to a few directories (i.e. DMOZ), where search engines will look and index your site.
It would be good to also add an XML sitemap to your site, and submit it to search engines (mainly for SEO reasons), and create a robots.txt |
31,774 | I am using google custom search for my website, every search results in a big list of results. I want only limited number of results to be shown to the customer say first 10 so that he/she is not confused. Please help. | 2012/07/06 | [
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/31774",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/users/16794/"
] | Take a look at this checklist: <http://webdevchecklist.com/> | 1 - Usually web admins have all the passwords they need, as the client might not be technical at all (not even uploading files)
3 - SEO Stuff is not something you add at the end: you would need to take it into account when you design your website (keywords to target, URL structure, titles, meta desc, and more).
7 - Just register with Google Webmaster Tools, and other equivalent tools for other search engines. If you want to make sure your site is everywhere, you could add it to a few directories (i.e. DMOZ), where search engines will look and index your site.
It would be good to also add an XML sitemap to your site, and submit it to search engines (mainly for SEO reasons), and create a robots.txt |
31,774 | I am using google custom search for my website, every search results in a big list of results. I want only limited number of results to be shown to the customer say first 10 so that he/she is not confused. Please help. | 2012/07/06 | [
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/31774",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com",
"https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/users/16794/"
] | 1. It depends. If your client does not understand the process of registering a domain, you should do it, but enter their details for the records. With hosting, again, it depends. If it's a large website that might require one or more servers or a complex setup, it's probably better for you to organize this. If not, there is no harm in them ordering it and you working on their web space. Usually for small clients that will not require their own server, I just set an account up for them and assign some resources on my own server. If things grow, we can discuss transferring their site to a more powerful setup to handle the load.
So in general - it depends how tech-savvy your client is - you never know, they may have an idea in mind as to how they want to organize these kinds of things.
2. This depends on the requirements and purpose of the website, but generally yes. More work may be required to implement a responsive design for tablets, mobiles and other media but these are all things you should discuss in the initial meeting with your client.
3. If you're doing all the work yourself, this would usually happen during 'stage 2' (previous answer).
4. If you need to buy stock images, this is unavoidable. I'd be weary over what images you buy, I'm sure I can't be the only one that is sick of seeing the same stock images across multiple websites, if at all possible it would be best to source your own or get exclusive rights to a set of images.
5. "Copyright stuff". I assume by this, you mean things like your terms and conditions, privacy policy, etc. There is not much required of you here, there are [many templates](http://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=website%20terms%20and%20conditions%20template&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gl=uk) that make a google starting point, likewise for privacy policies. It would be wise to put links like this in the footer with a "Copyright 2012 mysite.com" or something along those lines to make it clear that your content is not for reuse and distribution or consent. Consult a lawyer if you're working on sizeable projects.
6. I would usually implement these when initially building the site (steps 2 and 3, as per your layout).
7. This isn't really how it works. The search engines find you, though perhaps not easily at first depending on a number of factors. Your best bet is to create a [Google Webmasters account](http://www.google.com/webmasters/), which allows you to submit a sitemap directly to Google. Anything else you can do in the meantime to promote your site online (without spamming...) will make your site more visible to other SE's - so sharing with friends and so on would be a good start.
Some of your questions seemed to be bordering on asking about cash flow - should you buy hosting etc, or let the client buy it. Again, it depends on the job, but for smaller companies I would usually just factor all these things into my pricing and take a sufficient deposit to cater for any purchases I may have to make, as well as leaving some left over for security. | Take a look at this checklist: <http://webdevchecklist.com/> |
1,025,565 | My company has a website product (ASP.NET) which is sold to customers. It means we don't host the website. They install it on their server and run it in the intranet.
I need to implement some sort of copy protection mechanism so that not everyone ends up installing the website. It has following aspects:
1. It has to be completely software based (no dongles).
2. Hiding usage information in registry or some folder in c:\ (basically outside virtual directory) is not an option for a website
Please can you suggest any scheme/method? | 2009/06/22 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/1025565",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/23671/"
] | One suggestion is to use some kind of web service running, of course you need to have a main server to do so. In this server you can have some of your clients servers data (IP of the authorized servers, CPU and Motherboard ID's, and other important data).
This web service has to run some important logic of the program and return a value to the authorized servers. If the data of autorization sent by the client doesn't match, the server do will not execute the routine.
Of course I assume that this side of the logic is included in a DLL in the application and not in plain code. | Something you could try. Compile binaries for each client, obfuscate the code, lock the site down to a single domain. If its an internal app the domain might be something like "productname.clientname.internal". The app checks the domain of all the incoming requests, refuses anything that doesn't match.
As already pointed out by jeffamaphone: people will find ways around it, but it's enough to 'slow down' those not super determined. |
1,025,565 | My company has a website product (ASP.NET) which is sold to customers. It means we don't host the website. They install it on their server and run it in the intranet.
I need to implement some sort of copy protection mechanism so that not everyone ends up installing the website. It has following aspects:
1. It has to be completely software based (no dongles).
2. Hiding usage information in registry or some folder in c:\ (basically outside virtual directory) is not an option for a website
Please can you suggest any scheme/method? | 2009/06/22 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/1025565",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/23671/"
] | A technique that worked well for a buddy of mine was to install a web bug on an administrative page which would report back to their server. You can monitor when and where the application is installed. It *could* be easily removed, but won't by most customers.
Simple, easy to do, and works relatively well. | Something you could try. Compile binaries for each client, obfuscate the code, lock the site down to a single domain. If its an internal app the domain might be something like "productname.clientname.internal". The app checks the domain of all the incoming requests, refuses anything that doesn't match.
As already pointed out by jeffamaphone: people will find ways around it, but it's enough to 'slow down' those not super determined. |
1,025,565 | My company has a website product (ASP.NET) which is sold to customers. It means we don't host the website. They install it on their server and run it in the intranet.
I need to implement some sort of copy protection mechanism so that not everyone ends up installing the website. It has following aspects:
1. It has to be completely software based (no dongles).
2. Hiding usage information in registry or some folder in c:\ (basically outside virtual directory) is not an option for a website
Please can you suggest any scheme/method? | 2009/06/22 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/1025565",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/23671/"
] | One suggestion is to use some kind of web service running, of course you need to have a main server to do so. In this server you can have some of your clients servers data (IP of the authorized servers, CPU and Motherboard ID's, and other important data).
This web service has to run some important logic of the program and return a value to the authorized servers. If the data of autorization sent by the client doesn't match, the server do will not execute the routine.
Of course I assume that this side of the logic is included in a DLL in the application and not in plain code. | [disclaimer]I sell the product I am recommending.[/disclaimer]
Take a look at [DeployLX](http://www.xheo.com/products/licensing/default.aspx). You can add licensing to your web based application to require one of a couple different options.
1. Hardware based locking so it can only be used on one machine.
2. Domain based locking so it's tied to a specific domain name.
3. IP based locking to tie it to an IP address.
4. License server locking to that your app checks in periodically with a centralized web service.
It's pretty flexible and should let you create a balance between protection and not frustrating your users. |
1,025,565 | My company has a website product (ASP.NET) which is sold to customers. It means we don't host the website. They install it on their server and run it in the intranet.
I need to implement some sort of copy protection mechanism so that not everyone ends up installing the website. It has following aspects:
1. It has to be completely software based (no dongles).
2. Hiding usage information in registry or some folder in c:\ (basically outside virtual directory) is not an option for a website
Please can you suggest any scheme/method? | 2009/06/22 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/1025565",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/23671/"
] | A technique that worked well for a buddy of mine was to install a web bug on an administrative page which would report back to their server. You can monitor when and where the application is installed. It *could* be easily removed, but won't by most customers.
Simple, easy to do, and works relatively well. | [disclaimer]I sell the product I am recommending.[/disclaimer]
Take a look at [DeployLX](http://www.xheo.com/products/licensing/default.aspx). You can add licensing to your web based application to require one of a couple different options.
1. Hardware based locking so it can only be used on one machine.
2. Domain based locking so it's tied to a specific domain name.
3. IP based locking to tie it to an IP address.
4. License server locking to that your app checks in periodically with a centralized web service.
It's pretty flexible and should let you create a balance between protection and not frustrating your users. |
2,704 | Are there any resources or databases that catalog how companies perform along ethical or sustainable lines? I'm particularly interested in things like workers rights and pay, affect on the environment, etc. | 2014/04/07 | [
"https://sustainability.stackexchange.com/questions/2704",
"https://sustainability.stackexchange.com",
"https://sustainability.stackexchange.com/users/1326/"
] | There are several databases like this online. Just google on 'sustainability OR csr database companies' and you’ll find a lot of hits. However, I have found that very few are easy to use.
For example, the [Sustainability Disclosure Database](http://database.globalreporting.org/) lists data on thousands of companies on sustainability and environmental and social and governance transparency. I did try to use it once, but I quickly gave up because I didn't really understand how it works and what everything means. The site is too complicated for me (a non-professional) to use.
Another example that seems easier to use is [CSRHUB](http://www.csrhub.com/csrhub/) but it requires a subscription to access in-depth information.
A site I am familiar with and often use is [rankabrand.org](http://www.rankabrand.org). It ranks brands (so not companies) according to information found on a company website and in their annual reports. Rankabrand assesses brands on
>
> their environmental performances, climate change efforts and labour conditions.
>
>
>
If no information is present on a particular topic, the brand gets 0 points so it is indirectly ranking transparency as well. | The Better World Shopper is a good source. I got the book from my mother for Christmas one year and found it amazingly enlightening (and at the same time shocking). It's small enough to keep with you as well.
[BETTER WORLD SHOPPER](http://betterworldshopper.com/) is a site dedicated to providing people with a comprehensive, up-to-date, reliable account of the social and environmental responsibility of every company on the planet AND making it available in practical forms that individuals can use in their everyday lives. Coming out of more than 5 years of intensive research, this work is based on a comprehensive database of over 1000 companies and utilizes 25+ reliable sources of data to cover everything from the environment to human rights, community development to animal protection.
**5 key issues**
HUMAN RIGHTS: sweatshops, 3rd world community exploitation, international health issues, divestment, child labor, code of conduct.
THE ENVIRONMENT: global warming, rainforest destruction, pollution, recycling, renewable energy, greenwashing, toxic waste, eco-innovations, illegal dumping, sustainable farming.
ANIMAL PROTECTION: factory farming, animal testing, humane treatment, wild animal habitat.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: family farms, local business support, volunteer efforts, sustainable growth, philanthropic donations, nonprofit alliances, establishing foundations.
SOCIAL JUSTICE : fair wages, fatalities, union busting efforts, health & safety records, discrimination based on: race, gender, age, ability, religion, sexuality, ethnicity.
*A second resource* would be [Green America's Responsible Shopper](http://www.greenamerica.org/programs/responsibleshopper/index.cfm) "Your Guide To Promoting a Responsible Economy"
Best of Luck. In our consumer based society every dollar is a vote! |
142,561 | I've been trying to get a new job for the last 10 months since I started the one I'm on. The pay is good, but my management has no experience managing a software product (in this case, a company web site). My company bought a vendor-customized expensive software package that's bankrupting them on maintenance and enhancements, and I'm now the poor guy who gets called when something's wrong because the management is pretty useless for production support.
They keep shooting themselves in the foot in hiring additional staff for coverage, and I don't want to invite (and likely burn) any of my colleagues to work in a mess. It's frustrating that I'm basically having to train a development manager and CIO on how to manage the product, and that I have to now set many MANY boundaries to keep them from encroaching on my work-life balance.
Other than these hero-save-the-day contributions after management blows it again, the work I've done on this job and for about the last three years prior has been exceedingly pedestrian - not by choice. I've done some self-led courses just to expand my horizons, and I share info about those on my resume. I also have a pretty sophisticated, technically challenging, independent project that I've been reluctant to share in interviews, because it's been my experience that employers frown on any independent work.
Now - on recent interviews, I've been told "not technical enough", or "not enough explanation". I actually got that response on an interview today, and had to (figuratively) sit on the guy to get any feedback at the point where he was looking to escort me out. So as a last-ditch, I show him my independent project (which is functional, and is a mobile web site) and after a short demo he says, "You should have put that on the resume!" I came home and wrote the guy a full technical summary of my project, thanking him for being frank -- but I don't know it that'll turn the tide on this opportunity.
I bought a new suit, and was excited about this interview, and *blehhhhhhhhh*. So for future - put my personal projects on the resume, or nah? | 2019/08/21 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/142561",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/108128/"
] | >
> put my personal projects on the resume or nah?
>
>
>
If I had a fairly challenging technical project that I was working on ***in my spare time***, I would definitely put it on my resume as it helps demonstrate my technical capabilities.
In fact, as an interviewer, I've seen many a personal projects on the resumes of candidates, some of whom went on to get offers, as long as they were able to convey that the project was done on their time, and company work did not suffer due to it.
---
That said, there are few things that stand out in your post:
>
> but my management has no experience managing a software product
>
>
>
It doesn't matter how incompetent your management is, you have to find something positive amidst all that they are doing, and use these positive things to talk during your interviews. This could be the domain they are in, the purpose of the website (someone paid for it, so they must see some positive value in it) or anything else.
>
> They keep shooting themselves in the foot in hiring additional staff for coverage
>
>
>
Again, don't talk negative about your current employers. what is to stop an employee who talks bad about current employer to talk bad about the next one?
>
> Other than these hero-save-the-day contributions after management blows it again, the work I've done on this job and for about the last three years prior has been exceedingly pedestrian
>
>
>
This should not be a deal breaker if you have personal projects to demonstrate your technical capabilities | If you are proud of your personal project I would absolutely include it onto your resume, especially if the project is completed. It demonstrates that you are self-motivated and am able to follow through on a goal. If it showcases other skills outside of your usual work it also highlights that you have the ability to learn and adapt to new techniques on your own.
Just make sure that if either of you mention it during an interview that you have someway to showcase it, like having a video or blog online to demo your personal project. |
2,160,691 | I've written some fancy Flex app, which doesn't really require any server side integration.
Now if someone took that SWF and put it in their server then it will very well run.
What code can recognize that the SWF is not under my domain and stop from execution during startup? I don't mind making some server side calls just to do a check. But how can this be achieved? | 2010/01/29 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/2160691",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/82985/"
] | Check out **loaderinfo.url**, it can do this for you.
[Here's an example on how it can be used to determine where the SWF is being loaded from.](http://blog.flexexamples.com/2007/08/09/determining-which-serverdomain-a-swf-is-hosted-on/)
So, you could detect where the swf is loading from, and if it's not from your server, block out the good stuff. :)
Good luck | Why don't you just watermark your app? But I think if someone steals your app, he would hack it too, to remove any protection. |
2,160,691 | I've written some fancy Flex app, which doesn't really require any server side integration.
Now if someone took that SWF and put it in their server then it will very well run.
What code can recognize that the SWF is not under my domain and stop from execution during startup? I don't mind making some server side calls just to do a check. But how can this be achieved? | 2010/01/29 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/2160691",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/82985/"
] | Check out **loaderinfo.url**, it can do this for you.
[Here's an example on how it can be used to determine where the SWF is being loaded from.](http://blog.flexexamples.com/2007/08/09/determining-which-serverdomain-a-swf-is-hosted-on/)
So, you could detect where the swf is loading from, and if it's not from your server, block out the good stuff. :)
Good luck | As has been mentioned the bottom line is anything you can put in, the baddie can rip right out, so all that you can really do is make the amount of work necessary to do this an obstacle to anyone even trying. What has been suggested so far would at least deter the casual thief and maybe that's enough.
The way I found around it was to actually have quite a tight integration with server-side data, such that even if you removed all of that integration (which would most likely take you days ... it's a big app) you would still have no data at all with which to use it. This obviously depends quite a lot on what your app is doing in the first place, but if you make an architectural decision to move any data over to the server side that will increase your protection.
(This should really be a comment rather than an answer, but posting here due to length.) |
27,549,806 | I have a sample web API hosted in an OWIN process (self hosted, not in IIS). I get a JWT token in my controller and I want to be able to retreive it in another part of the application, a class that implements NserviceBus IMutateOutgoingTransportMessages. In my other web application POC (hosted in IIS), I used a simple session variable and it works just fine. But I'd like to know what would be the best way to do it in my new OWIN self hosted environment ? Static property in static class ? | 2014/12/18 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/27549806",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/301795/"
] | This question is really broad and difficult to answer without detailed knowledge of your specific needs. Here's my interpretation of your issue:
* You're already signing each request, perhaps storing the token in the browser sessionStorage (or even localStorage), but this does not suffice
* You need to retrieve the token outside of or not in relation to any request cycle (if not, this is probably where you should be looking for answers)
* Your application does not need to be stateless
Just one static property for one token in a static class would of course start breaking as soon as more than one request hits the application at the same time. Implementing a class that maintains a list of tokens may be a solution, although I can't tell what key you should use to identify each token. Interface details would vary depending on things like if you need to retrieve the token more than once.
Thread safety issues would apply to all handling and implementation of such a class. Using [Immutable Collections](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn385366%28v=vs.110%29.aspx) and functional programming practices as an inspiration may help.
If lingering tokens poses a problem (and they probably would from a security perspective, if nothing else), you need to figure out how to make sure that tokens do not outstay their welcome, even if the cycle is for some reason not completed.
Seeing how you used `Session` as a solution in your POC, I'm assuming you want some similar behavior, and that one user should not be allowed to carry two tokens at the same time. You could store the tokens i a database, or even in the local file system, making maintenance and validity a separate issue all together.
There are implementations of cache-like functionality already available for OWIN self-hosted applications, and maybe one of those would serve as a shortcut to implementing everything yourself.
If this token business in fact is the only reason for introducing state in your application, then the best solution IMHO would be to rethink your architecture so that the application can remain stateless. | I'm facing a similar dilemma on a server i'm currently developing for a customer. My problem is that the server must make calls (and retain a live connection) with a legacy, multithreaded DLL, (aka the SDK).
I struggled to get this working on IIS with a regular Web API project. Failed badly since IIS recycles threads when it determines that a thread is going rogue... witch is what the SDK thread looks like in that perspective. Also, the SDK must be able to callback on the caller (client - single page app) and for this I'm using SignalR.
I then tried a multi-part system (single page + web api on IIS + WCF service for the SDK integration). But it is a real nightmare to manage because of the 2 way async communication that must occur between all apps. Again: failure.
So I reverted to a single self hosted OWIN + WebAPI service in a console app (for now). My problem is that some of the calls are lengthy and are processed in a worker thread. I managed to pass the SignalR client id in each ajax calls via headers. I can extract the id when in web api controller. But when the task goes async, I need to get the id (via an Unity injected service) from the class that manages the async task. **This is where my problem is similar to yours**. In IIS hosted apps, we have HttpContext. It is contextualized on each client calls, and follows any thread changes in the pipeline... But not in self hosted OWIN WCF apps...
I'm looking into Thread Local Storage, CallContext... and other means of keeping track of the original caller info during the lifecycle of the async call. I have read about OWIN pipeline, I can capture the info in a OWIN middleware... but how to safely keep that info for use in injected services? I'm still searching for an answer...
I was wondering if you have found a solution to this rather interesting problem ?
I prefer adding to your thread rather than start another parallel thread / SO question. |
20,028 | I am working on my debut story. In my freetime, I write another story that will be the start of a series. The series consists of Steampunk fairytale retellings.
Lately, I have been worrying that it copies *The Lunar Chronicles* by Marissa Meyer. To its credit, it is the reason I even knew what a fairytale was.
I understand that there are going to be similarities between certain books. A group banding together to overthrow a corrupt leader... that is nothing new in the world of dystopian books.
But the fact that mine is a Fairytale retelling series along with other details, that is what scares me. I have chosen not to read *The Lunar Chronicles* so I can keep my stories as original as possible. However, whenever I hear of a detail, I worry that I will be under legal fire if I publish my story. I am willing to move on to other projects after my debut and write this series to keep my sanity.
If anyone has advice, please respond as I am anxious with fear. | 2015/12/11 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/20028",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/16157/"
] | You're probably fine. In all actuality, they probably won't even be aware of your book. Instead of being afraid of being sued, worry about being called unoriginal.
There are a ton of fairy-tale inspired books, especially around Snow white and Little Red Riding Hood. They're all *technically* derivative, but each has characterization, plot, and tone that makes it dramatically different.
I'd recommend finding a plot outline of TLC and comparing it against yours. Read just a random chapter or two. See what reviewers say about it, what they latched onto. That will let you know your novel is different.
**Sure, on the face of it, your concept may seem the same. But your premise will likely read differently.**
Now, like all people giving lazy writing advice, I'll use my own work as an example. I'm certain my novel will be compared to Harry Potter (a guy goes to a magic school - OMG, it's just like Harry Potter!). Even though my story features a nephilim, is New Adult, doesn't make up new magical creatures, and is incredibly violent and dark.
Concept: A young man struggles to find his meaning. That is literally thousands of books, including Harry Potter.
Premise: Yukki must learn to control his powers to protect himself from what appear to be the good guys. His only help is from a mentor, a few classmates, and his stalker “girlfriend” - all of whom seem to be completely evil.
Not at all Harry Potter, from what plot summaries I've read. There is a heavy romance plotline. And the adult content, violence, and dark tone of my book is bad enough I'm putting a warning label on it. But, I've already had my first comparison from a group critique. =)
Most main characters follow The Hero's Journey. Just because they do doesn't make them copies.
In short, **as long as you don't have an extremely similar plotline (complete with settings and what role does what) or perfectly-matching characters (complete with descriptions, personalities, and flaws), don't worry about the similarities. Worry about writing a good book with a unique premise and tone.** | "Ideas" can't be copyrighted. Only *expressions* of *ideas.*
That means that when "West Side Story" substituted warring gangs for warring families in a teen-aged love tragedy, that was not "copying." Nor would a story about two lovers, one of whom was Union and the other Confederate in the American Civil War.
What could get you into trouble is copying e.g. Shakespeare's style and expression. For instance, if you used something like "Roberto, why are you Roberto?" in place of "Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" that would be copying. And this would be true even if you changed the context from a "dating" to say, a professional situation.
The most important thing to do in your story is to change the names of characters and descriptions, and make sure they don't say the same things as the characters from the original. They can even *mean* the same things, but that's a different story. |
20,028 | I am working on my debut story. In my freetime, I write another story that will be the start of a series. The series consists of Steampunk fairytale retellings.
Lately, I have been worrying that it copies *The Lunar Chronicles* by Marissa Meyer. To its credit, it is the reason I even knew what a fairytale was.
I understand that there are going to be similarities between certain books. A group banding together to overthrow a corrupt leader... that is nothing new in the world of dystopian books.
But the fact that mine is a Fairytale retelling series along with other details, that is what scares me. I have chosen not to read *The Lunar Chronicles* so I can keep my stories as original as possible. However, whenever I hear of a detail, I worry that I will be under legal fire if I publish my story. I am willing to move on to other projects after my debut and write this series to keep my sanity.
If anyone has advice, please respond as I am anxious with fear. | 2015/12/11 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/20028",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/16157/"
] | There are often similarities in plot. Some people make it obvious and acknowledge the source of their inspiration. "West Side Story," for example, is Romeo and Juliet set in New York City in the 1950s. Some authors steal unintentionally when they should know better. The plot in Woody Allen's "Small Time Crooks" (2000) is nearly identical to the plot in the 1942 Edward G. Robinson comedy "Larceny, Inc.," although Allen has never acknowledged that and no one has sued.
Now let me discuss the law. The U.S. copyright laws are codified at [vol. 17 of the United States Code (U.S.C.) §§ 101 et seq.](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/chapter-1) In a copyright infringement case, the plaintiff must show: "(i) ownership of a valid copyright; and (ii) unauthorized copying of the copyrighted work.” [Jorgensen v. Epic/Sony Records, 351 F.3d 46, 51 (2d Cir.2003)](http://openjurist.org/351/f3d/46/jorgensen-v-epicsony-records-bmg). "To satisfy the second element of an infringement claim—the ‘unauthorized copying’ element—a plaintiff must show both that his work was actually copied and that the portion copied amounts to an improper or unlawful appropriation." Id.
Direct evidence of copying is seldom available, so the case law allows a plaintiff to establish copying circumstantially by demonstrating that the defendant accused of copying "had access to the copyrighted material, ... and that there are similarities between the two works that are probative of copying.” Id. However, a showing of similarities between the two works, coupled with access, does not necessarily prove copying because there would still be insufficient evidence of unlawful appropriation. [A Slice of Pie Prods., LLC v. Wayans Bros. Entm't](https://casetext.com/case/a-slice-of-pie-productions-v-wayans-bros-entert), 487 F. Supp. 2d 41, 47 (D. Conn. 2007).
To prove "unlawful appropriation" the plaintiff must show the existence of a “substantial similarity of protectible material in the two works,” with substantial similarity turning on “whether, in the eyes of the average lay observer, the [allegedly infringing work] [is] substantially similar to the protectible expression in the [allegedly infringed work].” [Williams v. Crichton](http://openjurist.org/84/f3d/581/williams-v-crichton), 84 F.3d 581, 587 (2d Cir.1996). To determine substantial similarity, the Court or jury “examine[s] the similarities in such aspects as the total concept and feel, theme, characters, plot, sequence, pace, and setting.” Williams, 84 F.3d at 588.
What a copyright owner can't sue you for copying are such things as “scenes a faire, sequences of events that ‘necessarily result from the choice of a setting or situation," ‘stock’ themes commonly linked to a particular genre, and ideas, because “a copyright does not protect an idea, but only the expression of an idea,” A Slice of Pie Prods., 487 F. Supp. at 47 (citations omitted).
In sum: If you read anything that is like the work you are writing, be careful. You can adopt the idea (e.g. war is hell, power corrupts, etc.) or the stock theme (e.g. lovers who are forbidden to each other by their families) If you get sued, a legitimate defense is that you never heard of the plaintiff's work.
With that in mind, recognize that George Harrison's song "My Sweet Lord" was found to be substantially similar to the 1962 Chiffon's hit, "He's So Fine," and Harrison [admitted](http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/mysweet.htm) that he was familiar with the song.
The Beach Boys' brilliant composer, Brian Wilson, however, now admits that "Surfin' USA" was written as an homage to Chuck Berry. "I just took 'Sweet Little Sixteen' and rewrote it into something of our own," he told the [Los Angeles Times](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-brian-wilson-talks-blurred-lines-chuck-berry-and-surfin-usa-20150312-story.html). Wilson's problem is that his version is substantially similar to "Sweet Little Sixteen," so much so that Wilson often slips in Berry's lyrics when singing "Surfin' USA" in concert. Id.
If you try to write something "in the style" of another author, be very very careful. It is a jury that decides whether your work is substantially similar to the plaintiff's work, and sometimes their decision may not exactly be "substantially similar" to the boundaries drawn in copyright law. I personally didn't think that "Blurred Lines" was substantially similar to Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give it Up," aside from the party-type atmosphere, which shouldn't be a protected aspect of the song. But a jury thought otherwise. Fortunately, a jury verdict is not precedential or controlling beyond that case. | "Ideas" can't be copyrighted. Only *expressions* of *ideas.*
That means that when "West Side Story" substituted warring gangs for warring families in a teen-aged love tragedy, that was not "copying." Nor would a story about two lovers, one of whom was Union and the other Confederate in the American Civil War.
What could get you into trouble is copying e.g. Shakespeare's style and expression. For instance, if you used something like "Roberto, why are you Roberto?" in place of "Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" that would be copying. And this would be true even if you changed the context from a "dating" to say, a professional situation.
The most important thing to do in your story is to change the names of characters and descriptions, and make sure they don't say the same things as the characters from the original. They can even *mean* the same things, but that's a different story. |
4,135,828 | I am trying to create an interface for my application using Qt Designer. I want it to have a tabbed, ribbon-style set of controls at the top, and a MDI-style area with docked windows which I plan to show and hide depending on which tab of the ribbon is currently selected. I am just beginning with Qt Designer as well as Qt4 itself for that matter so I'm not quite sure how to setup the window, which widgets and layouts should I use etc.
It's quite obvious there should be a QTabWidget at the top, but I'm not sure about the bottom. Should I use a QFrame? A QMdiArea? A dock widget? What layouts can I use to make sure the tab widget has a fixed height, occupies the whole width of the window at all times and the bottom area scales as the window is resized?
I've read in the manual that splitter layouts allow for manual adjustment of the size of the widgets they contain, but I can't drag the box size of a widget after I place them inside a splitter. Thus I'm unable to setup the area below the ribbon. Anyone, help? | 2010/11/09 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/4135828",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/190600/"
] | You should look into the [QMainWindow](http://doc.qt.nokia.com/4.6/qmainwindow.html#details) and check the multiple utilities it can provide you (Toolbar, StatusBar, DockWidgets, CentralWidget, etc...).
The way I understood your case is that you will always have the MDI Area visible, and that the tab bar will only be used to change the dockWidgets. Here's how I would do it.
The centralWidget of the mainWindow would be a QWidget with a [QVBoxLayout](http://doc.qt.nokia.com/4.6/qvboxlayout.html#details) containing a [QTabBar](http://doc.qt.nokia.com/4.6/qtabbar.html#details) widget first (up) and a QMdiArea under it. The sizes should be handled automatically.
This will allow the user (or you) to dock widgets on the left, bottom, top or right areas of the mainWindow's central widget. Keep pointers to the dockWidgets to be able to move and show/hide them at will.
Hope this helps. | VTK Designer, which is built on Qt, has a [Ribbon-ish interface](http://qt.nokia.com/images/products/vtk-designer-opengl-screenshot). You might take a look at the [source code](http://sourceforge.net/projects/vtkdesigner/) for reference. |
2,860 | I noticed that all answers to [this question](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/q/22604/2703) have been deleted.
IMO at least one of those answers was better than nothing (i.e. arguably imperfect but shouldn't/needn't have been deleted).
Assuming they were deleted by one moderator:
* Is there consensus or discussion between moderators before deletion (i.e. does more than one moderator believe that these answers should have been deleted)?
* Do moderators invariably agree with other's decisions, and give each other carte blanche to delete whatever they don't agree with?
* Does something (e.g. a private consensus between moderators) prevent a single moderator deleting things, which neither the community nor other moderators think should have been deleted?
May I suggest to the moderator in question that you:
* Consider simply down-voting any answer you don't like, instead of deleting it
* Seek the opinion of a second moderator (and/or of the community) before you delete an answer, unless that opinion has already been clearly expressed for example by the answer's having several downvotes. | 2014/08/12 | [
"https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2860",
"https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2703/"
] | I was the moderator that removed all three answers. The whole issue was brought up by one moderator in our chat room, that moderator didn't declare which action they favor (deletion was one of the possible actions they brought up). I wrote that I would tend to remove all the answer because they're original research, and later another moderator recommended to go through with the deletion.
To answer your questions, in more complicated issues we moderators tend to discuss them. There are no hard rules here, if time is an issue we usually act unilaterally, and for clear issues we tend to act alone as well.
All the moderators tend to have a similar view of what the site should be. This was even more pronounced in the original set of pro-temp mods, especially as the direction of the site was not entirely clear at that point. My impression is that this view is supported by a majority of the community, as the elections also have shown. But that doesn't mean we mods don't disagree. We tend to agree on the major stuff, but we're not always the same opinion on individual actions. This is mostly not visible as such disagreements might be discussed in the mod-only chat.
In a case where we mods strongly disagree, I think the only sane choice would be to discuss the whole thing on meta. There are no technical barriers preventing a moderator from going against the rest, but we can override the decisions of other mods. If we strongly disagree that is a sign that the issue should be discussed with the whole community. | It is also worth noting here that questions & answers on Skeptics often get temporarily deleted to stop a rush of downvotes where we're of the opinion that they could well be turned into good questions/answers. Maybe not in this case, but true in plenty of others. |
2,860 | I noticed that all answers to [this question](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/q/22604/2703) have been deleted.
IMO at least one of those answers was better than nothing (i.e. arguably imperfect but shouldn't/needn't have been deleted).
Assuming they were deleted by one moderator:
* Is there consensus or discussion between moderators before deletion (i.e. does more than one moderator believe that these answers should have been deleted)?
* Do moderators invariably agree with other's decisions, and give each other carte blanche to delete whatever they don't agree with?
* Does something (e.g. a private consensus between moderators) prevent a single moderator deleting things, which neither the community nor other moderators think should have been deleted?
May I suggest to the moderator in question that you:
* Consider simply down-voting any answer you don't like, instead of deleting it
* Seek the opinion of a second moderator (and/or of the community) before you delete an answer, unless that opinion has already been clearly expressed for example by the answer's having several downvotes. | 2014/08/12 | [
"https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2860",
"https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2703/"
] | I was the moderator that removed all three answers. The whole issue was brought up by one moderator in our chat room, that moderator didn't declare which action they favor (deletion was one of the possible actions they brought up). I wrote that I would tend to remove all the answer because they're original research, and later another moderator recommended to go through with the deletion.
To answer your questions, in more complicated issues we moderators tend to discuss them. There are no hard rules here, if time is an issue we usually act unilaterally, and for clear issues we tend to act alone as well.
All the moderators tend to have a similar view of what the site should be. This was even more pronounced in the original set of pro-temp mods, especially as the direction of the site was not entirely clear at that point. My impression is that this view is supported by a majority of the community, as the elections also have shown. But that doesn't mean we mods don't disagree. We tend to agree on the major stuff, but we're not always the same opinion on individual actions. This is mostly not visible as such disagreements might be discussed in the mod-only chat.
In a case where we mods strongly disagree, I think the only sane choice would be to discuss the whole thing on meta. There are no technical barriers preventing a moderator from going against the rest, but we can override the decisions of other mods. If we strongly disagree that is a sign that the issue should be discussed with the whole community. | Coming back to the specific question here:
All three answers did back-of-the-envelope calculations, which have [caused controversy here before](https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1080/math-does-not-need-to-be-cited-or-sourced).
As then, it wasn't the act of, say, adding two numbers that was the problem. It was the act of declaring that adding the two numbers is the most appropriate calculation to perform.
Did that calculation neglect to include tax, friction, management overhead, spoilage, sick days or any number of other factors that make calculations more difficult? What other hidden assumptions are there? How would we know?
The popularity of the [Martingale Betting System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martingale_(betting_system)) and [pyramid schemes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme) are examples where people can be taken in by back-of-the-envelope calculations that don't consider all the issues.
For this reason, we want to avoid answers that rely on [original research](https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2924/what-constitutes-original-research), and instead look at peer-reviewed research where we can also see the reactions of the scientific community to the calculations. |
158,997 | I am looking for a generic word that can be used to refer to a fairly large industrial part or component such as a generator, motor, control box or possibly a circuit board.
We are using the word "part" to refer the much smaller items (like screws and wires) the go into the larger things.
What is a good word o use for the larger items that are comprised of parts, which can be used in context with the word "part?"
example: We only use the best parts to fix your parts. | 2014/03/21 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/158997",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/68855/"
] | [*Module*](https://www.google.co.uk/search?num=40&safe=active&site=&source=hp&q=module&oq=module) may fit your needs.
A module is comprised of a number of components but is then itself built into larger equipment. | * Best tools
* Best equipment (as already pointed out by jboneca)
Or
* "We have the best infrastructure for all repairs". |
158,997 | I am looking for a generic word that can be used to refer to a fairly large industrial part or component such as a generator, motor, control box or possibly a circuit board.
We are using the word "part" to refer the much smaller items (like screws and wires) the go into the larger things.
What is a good word o use for the larger items that are comprised of parts, which can be used in context with the word "part?"
example: We only use the best parts to fix your parts. | 2014/03/21 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/158997",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/68855/"
] | [*Module*](https://www.google.co.uk/search?num=40&safe=active&site=&source=hp&q=module&oq=module) may fit your needs.
A module is comprised of a number of components but is then itself built into larger equipment. | Another example:
For the small parts I would use **hardware**. Example "We use the best hardware to fix your furniture". Also I would use **industrial machinery** for the bigger ones. "We use the best hardware to fix your industrial machinery". |
158,997 | I am looking for a generic word that can be used to refer to a fairly large industrial part or component such as a generator, motor, control box or possibly a circuit board.
We are using the word "part" to refer the much smaller items (like screws and wires) the go into the larger things.
What is a good word o use for the larger items that are comprised of parts, which can be used in context with the word "part?"
example: We only use the best parts to fix your parts. | 2014/03/21 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/158997",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/68855/"
] | You could call it an *[assembly](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/assembly)* (second definition, meaning 4):-
>
> *machinery* a group of mating components before or after fitting together
>
>
> | Another example:
For the small parts I would use **hardware**. Example "We use the best hardware to fix your furniture". Also I would use **industrial machinery** for the bigger ones. "We use the best hardware to fix your industrial machinery". |
158,997 | I am looking for a generic word that can be used to refer to a fairly large industrial part or component such as a generator, motor, control box or possibly a circuit board.
We are using the word "part" to refer the much smaller items (like screws and wires) the go into the larger things.
What is a good word o use for the larger items that are comprised of parts, which can be used in context with the word "part?"
example: We only use the best parts to fix your parts. | 2014/03/21 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/158997",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/68855/"
] | **Equipment** is the word I typically see for such items, especially if you prefer to not use component.
[Here's](http://www.qerentals.com/catalog.php) a site I've used that relies loosely on a tools/parts/equipment categorization. And [another](http://www.pdqrentals.com/parts-service.asp). Maybe a [third](http://www.simonrents.com/)? | *Device*, *building block*, *component block* or *apparatus* could work for you.
The owner of a conglomeration of devices, modules, and other equipment probably thinks of it as a *system*. The things you buy could be considered *products*.
We only use the best *parts* (or *products*) to repair your *system* sounds (just) okay to me.
Your *system* will be lovingly constructed of the finest hand-crafted *component blocks*, including the Swiss-made **[Rockwell Retro Encabulator](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpnEiOOfu1Q)** *apparatus*. |
158,997 | I am looking for a generic word that can be used to refer to a fairly large industrial part or component such as a generator, motor, control box or possibly a circuit board.
We are using the word "part" to refer the much smaller items (like screws and wires) the go into the larger things.
What is a good word o use for the larger items that are comprised of parts, which can be used in context with the word "part?"
example: We only use the best parts to fix your parts. | 2014/03/21 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/158997",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/68855/"
] | Another example:
For the small parts I would use **hardware**. Example "We use the best hardware to fix your furniture". Also I would use **industrial machinery** for the bigger ones. "We use the best hardware to fix your industrial machinery". | * Best tools
* Best equipment (as already pointed out by jboneca)
Or
* "We have the best infrastructure for all repairs". |
158,997 | I am looking for a generic word that can be used to refer to a fairly large industrial part or component such as a generator, motor, control box or possibly a circuit board.
We are using the word "part" to refer the much smaller items (like screws and wires) the go into the larger things.
What is a good word o use for the larger items that are comprised of parts, which can be used in context with the word "part?"
example: We only use the best parts to fix your parts. | 2014/03/21 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/158997",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/68855/"
] | You could call it an *[assembly](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/assembly)* (second definition, meaning 4):-
>
> *machinery* a group of mating components before or after fitting together
>
>
> | * Best tools
* Best equipment (as already pointed out by jboneca)
Or
* "We have the best infrastructure for all repairs". |
158,997 | I am looking for a generic word that can be used to refer to a fairly large industrial part or component such as a generator, motor, control box or possibly a circuit board.
We are using the word "part" to refer the much smaller items (like screws and wires) the go into the larger things.
What is a good word o use for the larger items that are comprised of parts, which can be used in context with the word "part?"
example: We only use the best parts to fix your parts. | 2014/03/21 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/158997",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/68855/"
] | *Device*, *building block*, *component block* or *apparatus* could work for you.
The owner of a conglomeration of devices, modules, and other equipment probably thinks of it as a *system*. The things you buy could be considered *products*.
We only use the best *parts* (or *products*) to repair your *system* sounds (just) okay to me.
Your *system* will be lovingly constructed of the finest hand-crafted *component blocks*, including the Swiss-made **[Rockwell Retro Encabulator](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpnEiOOfu1Q)** *apparatus*. | * Best tools
* Best equipment (as already pointed out by jboneca)
Or
* "We have the best infrastructure for all repairs". |
158,997 | I am looking for a generic word that can be used to refer to a fairly large industrial part or component such as a generator, motor, control box or possibly a circuit board.
We are using the word "part" to refer the much smaller items (like screws and wires) the go into the larger things.
What is a good word o use for the larger items that are comprised of parts, which can be used in context with the word "part?"
example: We only use the best parts to fix your parts. | 2014/03/21 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/158997",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/68855/"
] | **Equipment** is the word I typically see for such items, especially if you prefer to not use component.
[Here's](http://www.qerentals.com/catalog.php) a site I've used that relies loosely on a tools/parts/equipment categorization. And [another](http://www.pdqrentals.com/parts-service.asp). Maybe a [third](http://www.simonrents.com/)? | [*Module*](https://www.google.co.uk/search?num=40&safe=active&site=&source=hp&q=module&oq=module) may fit your needs.
A module is comprised of a number of components but is then itself built into larger equipment. |
158,997 | I am looking for a generic word that can be used to refer to a fairly large industrial part or component such as a generator, motor, control box or possibly a circuit board.
We are using the word "part" to refer the much smaller items (like screws and wires) the go into the larger things.
What is a good word o use for the larger items that are comprised of parts, which can be used in context with the word "part?"
example: We only use the best parts to fix your parts. | 2014/03/21 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/158997",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/68855/"
] | **Equipment** is the word I typically see for such items, especially if you prefer to not use component.
[Here's](http://www.qerentals.com/catalog.php) a site I've used that relies loosely on a tools/parts/equipment categorization. And [another](http://www.pdqrentals.com/parts-service.asp). Maybe a [third](http://www.simonrents.com/)? | You could call it an *[assembly](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/assembly)* (second definition, meaning 4):-
>
> *machinery* a group of mating components before or after fitting together
>
>
> |
158,997 | I am looking for a generic word that can be used to refer to a fairly large industrial part or component such as a generator, motor, control box or possibly a circuit board.
We are using the word "part" to refer the much smaller items (like screws and wires) the go into the larger things.
What is a good word o use for the larger items that are comprised of parts, which can be used in context with the word "part?"
example: We only use the best parts to fix your parts. | 2014/03/21 | [
"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/158997",
"https://english.stackexchange.com",
"https://english.stackexchange.com/users/68855/"
] | **Equipment** is the word I typically see for such items, especially if you prefer to not use component.
[Here's](http://www.qerentals.com/catalog.php) a site I've used that relies loosely on a tools/parts/equipment categorization. And [another](http://www.pdqrentals.com/parts-service.asp). Maybe a [third](http://www.simonrents.com/)? | * Best tools
* Best equipment (as already pointed out by jboneca)
Or
* "We have the best infrastructure for all repairs". |
326,364 | I've been reading a number of articles on "what is an API" but they're either too high level or two low level for me... I can't seem to quite grasp the entire concept, or have that sneaking feeling that i'm "missing something big"
I understand an API exposes functions which help to "talk" to a more complex backend... i.e. Google API lets you create Google maps on your website, or OpenGL API helps you draw graphics without having to talk directly to your video card driver.
And I understand (i think) the concept of an "abstract API" which provides a kind of guide for developers to build software e.g. a RobotAPI might have functions for MoveForward(Speed), TurnLeft(Degrees) etc and a community of robot builders might all want to use that RobotAPI.
But what I don't quite get is the implementation... Lets say there's an application called "ComplexApplication" and it's written in C
Someone wants to use ComplexApplication and either doesn't have access or can't be bothered learning the source code... and they want to use Python to build "PythonApplication". Then someone else has the same issue but they want to use Java to build "JavaApplication"
I understand (I think) that an API can work as a "go between", but it would seem to me that there would need to be two API's: one for the Python developer to use, and one for the Java developer to use. It would seem to me that the API would be provided as a Python module, or a Java Module, and then each programmer can use the API by sending/recieving data to the methods/members defined by that API. Both the Python and Java implementations of the API would share the same abstract API definition... same functions etc... but the code would be different: is that correct? Then however each function talks to the ComplexApplication, is not important... i.e. black box, designed by the ComplexApplication folk
I would also assume that in some cases (like Google maps) the API could be flexible.. it seems some API's are just XML or JSON data formats, and it's expected that you can send/receive data using common protocols like HTTP etc?
Am I on the right track here? It seems in implementing an API, you would have to either a) built a separate API for each language with (ideally) exactly the same functionality or b) use a common "go between" protocol which all languages have an existing implementation for
From what I know about OpenGL (not much), it's a C specific API implementation: there are Java implementations but I believe they just "wrap" the same C API rather than being something that actually facilitates calls from Java straight to the video card?
I just get the feeling there's something about how different programming languages can interact that removes the need for language specific APIs? | 2016/08/02 | [
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/326364",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com",
"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/users/239532/"
] | The wikipage on [Application Programming Interface](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface) is explaining quite well what APIs are.
Often APIs are a set of declarations (of functions, types, variables, or "names") provided by some library, with the documented knowledge about how to use them (including some of their invariants and pre- & post- conditions).
In web contexts, the API could be a set of HTTP requests specifications (since an HTTP web request is nearly seen as some [remote procedure call](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_procedure_call)), also with the documented knowledge about how to use them.
Notice that some languages (e.g. Ocaml) formalize a notion of [module](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_programming) (and module type) by giving some "shape" of the set of declarations visible from them (and related [types](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_system) or typing properties); but you generally still need to document (e.g. in comments at least) how to use these. For some theory about that, read Pierce's [Types and Programming Languages](https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/tapl/). For an interesting overview of several programming languages, read Scott's [Programming Languages Pragmatics](https://www.cs.rochester.edu/~scott/pragmatics/).
For C and C++, an API also provides (in practice) some set of header files (that you would [`#include`](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Include_directive) from your code) declaring it. You probably need to understand what the [linker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linker_%28computing%29) does (e.g. by reading Levine's [Linkers & Loaders](http://www.iecc.com/linker/)), and what [calling conventions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calling_convention) & [ABI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_binary_interface)s are. Read also more about OSes, e.g. [Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces](http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/).
>
> how different programming languages can interact....
>
>
>
It is the programming language *implementations* which are interacting (since a programming language is not a software, but a specification written in some report, often in English with additional formalizations). Read about [foreign function interface](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_function_interface). A practically important point is the interaction between the [garbage collector](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_collection_%28computer_science%29) used in some language implementation (e.g. Python, Ocaml, Scheme) and C code.
>
> Someone wants to use ComplexApplication and either doesn't have access or can't be bothered learning the source code... and they want to use Python to build "PythonApplication".
>
>
>
Then that someone needs to get (or write) the [glue code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glue_code) between Python & C. Read the chapters on [extending & embedding the Python Interpreter](https://docs.python.org/3/extending/index.html) & on [Python C/API Reference Manual](https://docs.python.org/3/c-api/index.html#c-api-index).
---
A compiler textbook like the purple [Dragon Book](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compilers:_Principles,_Techniques,_and_Tools) could also help you understand how several programming languages implementations can interact.
PS. I am not sure that APIs are conceptually important, even if they are tremendously useful. They are more an engineering thing than a scientific one. | If you want to build a multi-language API, the easiest approach is likely to be to initially write it in one language - probably C - and then write a series of thin wrappers for the other languages. The wrappers would expose the same set of functions, just in a different language.
C is the obvious choice for the base API as so many other languages have methods of interfacing to it. |
38,212 | >
> But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity (yom olam).
> [Micah 5](https://parabible.com/Micah/5):2 NASB
>
>
>
What are the "days of eternity" (yom olam) in Micah asserting about the ruler? | 2019/01/10 | [
"https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/38212",
"https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com",
"https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/users/28028/"
] | To understand the verse in question it helps to understand the military context:
>
> ESV Micah 5:
>
>
> 1a Now **muster your troops**, O **daughterb of troops**;
> **siege** is laid against us;
> **with a rod they strike the judge** of Israel
> on the cheek.
> 2c But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
> who are too little [insignificant] **to be among the clans [armies] of Judah**,
> from you shall come forth for me
> one who is **to be ruler in Israel**,
> **whose coming forth** is from of old,
> from ancient days.
>
>
> Footnotes:
> a 1 Ch 4:14 in Hebrew
> b 1 That is, city
> c 2 Ch 5:1 in Hebrew
>
>
>
So the prophet is saying that from the city of David, Bethlehem, the house of bread, which was nothing but a few women and children, the promised ruler of Israel would arise.
But then he says "whose coming forth..." which is apparently taken by the ESV to refer to his birth in Bethlehem. However, (and I'm no Hebrew guru) the word is plural and is rendered in other translations as "whose comings forth" (IE: given the context, "sorties" or "military campaigns").
Now, if I'm correct concerning this then this would be, I believe [in a notional sense](http://www.21stcr.org/multimedia-2015/1_pdf/ds_john_and_jewish_preexistence.pdf), similar to this:
>
> [Rom 4:17 KJV] 17 (**As it is written, I have made** thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, [even] God, who quickeneth the dead, **and calleth those things which be not as though they were**.
>
>
>
But most important, I believe is the concern in the original question that perhaps the form of one usage of OLAM might tell us the meaning of a similar use. However, that isn't necessarily the case. Context is always the key factor.
The NET Bible renders Micah 5:2 like this:
>
> NET Bible Micah 5:2 As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, seemingly insignificant among the clans of Judah--from you a king will emerge who will rule over Israel on my behalf, one whose origins **are in the distant past**.
>
>
>
That's about all I think we can load OLAM with in actual usage.
And if his military campaigns from OLAM then we must not imagine that his first battle was in eternity past. Surely there was no war on day one!
The point is that the exploits of the Messiah have been in the scriptures from long ago and in God's mind longer than that. To that agree all the scriptures.
Notice this similar verbiage from the mouth of Gideon:
>
> [Jdg 6:14-16 NLT] (14) Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go with the strength you have, and **rescue Israel** from the Midianites. I am sending you!" (15) "But Lord," Gideon replied, **"how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!" (16) The LORD said to him, "I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man."**
>
>
>
I should also point out that interpreting Micah 5:2 as saying that Jesus IS the "ancient of days" clashes with Daniel where the Messiah ascends and appears before God who is referred to as "the Ancient of Days":
>
> [Dan 7:13-14 KJV] 13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, [one] like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion [is] an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom [that] which shall not be destroyed.
>
>
> | Autodidact asked: ‘***What are ‘the days of eternity’ (yom olam) in Micah*** [5:1 (BHS)] ***asserting about the ruler?***’
---
**One**
We’ve understand better the meaning of the term עלם/עולם (OLM/OULM [two variants commonly used in TaNaKh]) translated ‘*eternity*’ by NASB, along with a number of translations.
First of all, the basic meaning of עלם (OLM) is not ‘to be eternal’, but ‘to be indistinct, indefinite’, and, in reference to time, ‘and unsighted time’.
A homologous (in a semantic way) term in Akkadian (ancient Babylonian) was DA’AMU, ‘to became dark’ (Chicago Assyrian Dictionary [= CAD] III:1). From this term – probably – was derived, through a number of linguistical steps, the English verb ‘to dim’ (referring to ‘something hard to see at’).
Granted, **also ‘eternity’** (NASB et al.) **– from men’s viewpoint – could be included into the well established concept of ‘indistinctness’, because we humans cannot understand, or, simply imagine, fully, what can indicates a time without a start and/or an end. Nevertheless, there are other situations of ‘indistinctness’ that are not linked with ‘eternity’, necessarily**.
For an example, we know – from the Bible account – that the earth had surely a start\*\* (ראשׁית) inside the creation time-frame (Genesis 1:1). Still, **Psalm 78:69 applies עלם (OLM) to the ‘earth’**.
Also the physical ‘hills’ on the earth had a start, when God did perform the separation between waters and soil (Genesis 1:9). Still, **Deuteronomy 33:15 applies עלם (OLM) to the ‘hills’** (very interestingly, this passage has the same two sequential terms used in Micah 5:1 - BHS [קדם > עלם]).
Again, **was a ancient Israelite slave able to serve his master ‘eternally’? Exodus 21:6 says he may do עלם (OLM)**.
These examples would be sufficient to understand that the best translation of עלם(OLM) is one which revolves themselves around the concept of ‘indefinite, indistinct time’. Granted, **sometimes עלם (OLM) is linked with ‘eternity’ (or alike), but other times not, as we have seen**.
---
**Two**
Returning to Micah 5:1 (BHS), **Septuagint (LXX) translated the Hebrew term עלם (OLM) with αιωνος**, that – strangely enough – has the same meaning of עלם (for one example, the αιωνος [‘era’, ‘epoch’] mentioned in Matthew 24:3 & 28:20 had a start and – according Jesus Christ – will have an end, also).
Probably, from עלם (OLM) derived a number of words that were utilized in the past, but, we also are using some of these derivative words.
For example, Latin language had (the ‘>’ simbol indicates samples of passages of this term in other languages):
- *olim*, ‘that time’, ‘time ago’ > Anglosaxon *hwilum*, ‘formerly, times ago’ > Old English *whilom* > Contemporary English *while* (as in the expressions like ‘long while ago’, or, ‘it takes a while to read’).
* *velum*, ‘a veil’ (that is ‘something that hide’) > English *veil*.
English:
- *gloom*, that retains all the letters of עלם (OLM) [according John Parkhurst, ‘A Hebrew and English Lexicon’].
Icelandic:
- *hilma*, ‘to hide’.
In view of the information above presented **the ‘ruler’ cited by Micah had a time start**. We may understand so on the basis of the MT verbal used there יצא (‘to go out’, ‘to go forth’, ‘to spring up’, et cetera), that implies, necessarily, **an action that starts on a given time point**. So, the Micah’s ‘ruler’ must possess a beginning. Then, in this case, the bynomial link between קדם and עלם point to a translation different from the concept of ‘eternity’. In other words, **the origin of the Micah’s ‘ruler’ was ‘lost in the mists of time’, from the viewpoint of a common human**.
These clues well refer – from the viewpoint of christian Bible commentators – to the Messiah Jesus Christ.
Then, **the translators are justified to translate as a derivative of ‘to be eternal’ only if the Bible context permits so**.
---
**Three**
As regards Mac’s Musings assertions about the claimed lack of ‘precision’ of Hebrew language (regarding abstract concepts), I think Ruminator was right when he seemed to doubt about that.
Mac’s Musings said: “*Hebrew does not have any abstract nouns for a start. As stated above, Hebrew is excellent (and precise) for spiritual ideas and action but not abstract thought*.”
It seems a hasty conclusion, because to assert so we should have a corpus of Hebrew texts at least of a size alike the ancient Greek texts have. Unfortunately, the amount of Hebrew texts (at our disposal, today) is a risible fraction compared to the huge amount of ancient Greek texts.
But, even supposing the two corpora of texts (ancient Hebrew vs ancient Greek) were alike (in amount of texts), we have to ask ourselves, ‘what an abstract noun is, really’? And, ‘did ancient Hebrew language possess abstract nouns?’
Cambridge Dictionary (online): “*A noun that refers to a thing that does not exist as a material object*”.
This being the case, we may easily test the Mac’s Musings claim with the following couple of reference-book’s definitions of ‘abstract noun’:
Collins Dictionary (online): “*A noun that refers to an abstract concept, as for example ‘kindness’*”.
Just a moment. Ask ourselves: ‘Has the Bible Hebrew language a specific term for ‘kindness’’?.
Surely it has. It is חסד, and it mentioned on hundreds of occurrences in TaNaKh.
MacMillan Dictionary (online): “*A common noun that refers to a quality, idea, or feeling rather than to a person or a physical object. For example ‘thought’, ‘problem’, ‘law’, and ‘opportunity’ are all abstract nouns*.”
Oops! Sorry, but the TaNaKh do possess them all:
‘thought’ = חשׁב (as in Gen 6:5);
‘problem’ = חוד (as in Pro 1:6);
‘law’ = תורה (as in hundreds of occurrences in TaNaKh). Today, it is worlwide used the term ‘Torah’.
‘opportunity’ = תאנה (as in Judges 14:4).
So, avoiding to expand this argument to other topics, like Hebrew subjective and non-subjective tenses, along with the 3D structure of prepositions, and so on, we may conclude that ‘Biblical’ Hebrew has abstract nouns, because also that people (ancient Israelites) – like all people - needed to think and to speak/write through abstractions, in certain cases).
I hope these information will help. |
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