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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1,754,508 | Say I have some 2D artwork in Flash CS4 format .FLAs, and I'd like to put it into an iPhone game that uses OpenGL ES, keeping it in vector format. An OpenGL-ready format could just be a list of vertex positions and colors for a triangle strip.
Is there a converter available that can do that easily? | 2009/11/18 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/1754508",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/82515/"
] | You could port [gameswf](http://tulrich.com/geekstuff/gameswf.html) to iPhone, it supports most SWF tags, it loads and renders in OpenGL. It's coded in C++ so it's easy to embed it into your iPhone application. Be warned that's it's usable but it has its limits. | I would recommend converting the swfs to .svg format, Either in Illustrator, or with this [online tool](http://www.eprg.org/~sgp/swf2svg.html). I actually used a [small java console app](http://www.mgatelabs.com/wiki/Flash_Exploit_Tutorials#FECL) to automate this part for what I had to do recently, it worked pretty well.
Once that's done, you can use Qt to do the rendering bit for you as [commented on here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1027179/displaying-svg-in-opengl-without-intermediate-raster). |
1,754,508 | Say I have some 2D artwork in Flash CS4 format .FLAs, and I'd like to put it into an iPhone game that uses OpenGL ES, keeping it in vector format. An OpenGL-ready format could just be a list of vertex positions and colors for a triangle strip.
Is there a converter available that can do that easily? | 2009/11/18 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/1754508",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/82515/"
] | You could port [gameswf](http://tulrich.com/geekstuff/gameswf.html) to iPhone, it supports most SWF tags, it loads and renders in OpenGL. It's coded in C++ so it's easy to embed it into your iPhone application. Be warned that's it's usable but it has its limits. | You could use smokescreen to convert the flash to html5, and then use the stock HTML viewer found In interface builder. Just my 2 cents. |
1,754,508 | Say I have some 2D artwork in Flash CS4 format .FLAs, and I'd like to put it into an iPhone game that uses OpenGL ES, keeping it in vector format. An OpenGL-ready format could just be a list of vertex positions and colors for a triangle strip.
Is there a converter available that can do that easily? | 2009/11/18 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/1754508",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/82515/"
] | [Claus Wahlers](http://wahlers.com.br/claus/blog/hacking-swf-1-shapes-in-flash/)'s project looks pretty cool, check out: <https://github.com/claus/as3swf/wiki/shape-export-to-objective-c>
 | I would recommend converting the swfs to .svg format, Either in Illustrator, or with this [online tool](http://www.eprg.org/~sgp/swf2svg.html). I actually used a [small java console app](http://www.mgatelabs.com/wiki/Flash_Exploit_Tutorials#FECL) to automate this part for what I had to do recently, it worked pretty well.
Once that's done, you can use Qt to do the rendering bit for you as [commented on here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1027179/displaying-svg-in-opengl-without-intermediate-raster). |
1,754,508 | Say I have some 2D artwork in Flash CS4 format .FLAs, and I'd like to put it into an iPhone game that uses OpenGL ES, keeping it in vector format. An OpenGL-ready format could just be a list of vertex positions and colors for a triangle strip.
Is there a converter available that can do that easily? | 2009/11/18 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/1754508",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/82515/"
] | I would recommend converting the swfs to .svg format, Either in Illustrator, or with this [online tool](http://www.eprg.org/~sgp/swf2svg.html). I actually used a [small java console app](http://www.mgatelabs.com/wiki/Flash_Exploit_Tutorials#FECL) to automate this part for what I had to do recently, it worked pretty well.
Once that's done, you can use Qt to do the rendering bit for you as [commented on here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1027179/displaying-svg-in-opengl-without-intermediate-raster). | You could use smokescreen to convert the flash to html5, and then use the stock HTML viewer found In interface builder. Just my 2 cents. |
1,754,508 | Say I have some 2D artwork in Flash CS4 format .FLAs, and I'd like to put it into an iPhone game that uses OpenGL ES, keeping it in vector format. An OpenGL-ready format could just be a list of vertex positions and colors for a triangle strip.
Is there a converter available that can do that easily? | 2009/11/18 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/1754508",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/82515/"
] | [Claus Wahlers](http://wahlers.com.br/claus/blog/hacking-swf-1-shapes-in-flash/)'s project looks pretty cool, check out: <https://github.com/claus/as3swf/wiki/shape-export-to-objective-c>
 | You could use smokescreen to convert the flash to html5, and then use the stock HTML viewer found In interface builder. Just my 2 cents. |
30,804 | I mainly use my road bike during the triathlon season and now that the season is coming back around again, I am finding some old, unused CO2 cartridges from last season (fall).
I typically use 16 gram CO2 cartridges and they usually fill my bike *to about* 90 psi.
Are these cartridges still safe to use after months of inactivity?
I've tried researching the matter online but all I've read applies to airsoft, etc. and not necessarily the 16g bicycling cartridges I'm concerned about. But, from what I did read CO2 cartridges have a *chance of leaking* if not stored correcty and may indeed have a shelf life. | 2015/05/25 | [
"https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/30804",
"https://bicycles.stackexchange.com",
"https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/users/19649/"
] | They last pretty much forever provided they haven't been damaged (e.g. punctured or rusted or something), so go ahead and use them.
If you really want to check them, you can buy a few new ones and weigh them on a scale (and compare the weights of the old cartridges to the new ones). If they're significantly lighter, they've leaked and throw them out. Else, go ahead and use them. But a few years (say less than a decade) is pretty much nothing in terms of having issues with the cartridges leaking. | I inherited a Crossman pellet pistol from my father along with some cartridges .They were about 20 years old when I tried to use them.They worked but only had power for a few shots. Another 20 years later I tried again. This time They did not have enough for even one shot.
SO..They last a long time but Not Forever |
30,804 | I mainly use my road bike during the triathlon season and now that the season is coming back around again, I am finding some old, unused CO2 cartridges from last season (fall).
I typically use 16 gram CO2 cartridges and they usually fill my bike *to about* 90 psi.
Are these cartridges still safe to use after months of inactivity?
I've tried researching the matter online but all I've read applies to airsoft, etc. and not necessarily the 16g bicycling cartridges I'm concerned about. But, from what I did read CO2 cartridges have a *chance of leaking* if not stored correcty and may indeed have a shelf life. | 2015/05/25 | [
"https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/30804",
"https://bicycles.stackexchange.com",
"https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/users/19649/"
] | They last pretty much forever provided they haven't been damaged (e.g. punctured or rusted or something), so go ahead and use them.
If you really want to check them, you can buy a few new ones and weigh them on a scale (and compare the weights of the old cartridges to the new ones). If they're significantly lighter, they've leaked and throw them out. Else, go ahead and use them. But a few years (say less than a decade) is pretty much nothing in terms of having issues with the cartridges leaking. | Yesterday I was out biking and got a flat. My CO2 canisters are many years old, Iโm going to guess about 5 to 10 years old. When I went to fill up the flat absolutely no aire came out. The canister was undamaged and any visible way. In hindsight was quite light. So yeah after many years your CO2 canisters can apparently totally let you down. I was calling for ride. It makes sense. PHI extinguishers for example do lose pressure over years and this is why they are inspected and expire. Believe it or not air molecules can move through the metal wall just happens at a very slow rate. In fact thatโs the principle by which your bike tire loses pressure overtime. And easily seen in a birthday balloon On a short time scale |
12,180 | Are there any acrobatic-category aircraft that are also type-certificated/rated and equipped for flight under the instrument flight rules? What limitations would be placed on such an airplane when flying as an IFR aircraft vs. a VFR aircraft? | 2015/01/30 | [
"https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/12180",
"https://aviation.stackexchange.com",
"https://aviation.stackexchange.com/users/3825/"
] | Yes: Consider the [Zlin Z 242](http://www.zlinaircraft.eu/en/Aircraft/Z-242-L-Guru-en/). The [type certificate](http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgMakeModel.nsf/0/90b7d75a300cdb3d86257829005d4563/$FILE/A76EU%20Rev%205.pdf) shows that it is certified in the Acrobatic, Utility, and Normal categories. In the section for Optional Equipment, the aircraft can be sold with
>
> Communication and navigation equipment VFR DAY, VFR NIGHT OR IFR according to actual requirements of the customers
>
>
>
Generally, if the aircraft meets the [minimum equipment requirements](https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/1378/what-are-the-faa-requirements-for-an-aircraft-to-be-ifr-certified) and inspections, and the POH, Type Certificate or other manufacturer's documents [allow it](https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/9651/can-a-cessna-162-skycatcher-be-flown-ifr-in-imc/9664#9664), an aircraft may be flown IFR in IMC.
There would be no particular limitation on operations specifically because the aircraft is capable of aerobatics, but the pilot would still need to follow their clearance. This would significantly limit the benefit of the instrument certification. (Note that even if deviations in altitude and flight path were approved, aerobatics [still wouldn't really be possible](https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/12179/aerobatics-in-firm-imc-how-would-one-do-it).) | Most combat trainers are equipped and rated for IFR. For example, [Pilatus makes the PC-21](http://www.pilatus-aircraft.com/#39)!. |
439,124 | I recently started exploring [OpenTSDB](http://opentsdb.net) for monitoring a cluster that we have in our development environment. As a newbie, I have not delved deep into it, but was wondering if anyone successfully used OpenTSDB to monitor those.
Any pointers is helpful. | 2012/10/16 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/439124",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/94031/"
] | OpenTSDB has a child project to help collect system data from Linux servers and report it to OpenTSDB, called [tcollector](http://opentsdb.net/tcollector.html).
It's a simple data collection system written in Python, and it comes with a dozen+ collectors out of the box, including collectors for vmstat and iostat data. On a standard Linux server you'll get over a hundred system metrics. | OpenTSDB is basically built to handle *very* large amounts of monitoring data, so it is really only applicable if you monitor hundreds over servers, and you want to keep data in full fidelity indefinitely.
If not, you should really look into stuff like [CollectD](http://collectd.org/) or [Graphite](http://graphite.wikidot.com/). |
4,071 | I'm currently using ArcGIS 10 on a Windows 7 64 bit Macbook Pro (2.53 Ghz and 8GB of RAM) using VMWare. However, when I am using ArcGIS I find it quite slow even with Windows 7 (64-bit) optimized for performance (no shiny graphics). My work involves making some python scripts and testing them, and whenever I run them, that is also slow, but even opening ArcMap and adding a small shapefile takes a long time (30s to 1 minute).
Is it possible to make my python program in OSX, import the ArcPy module and somehow run them from the Mac side? I realize that ArcGIS runs on Windows, but I was not sure whether any of the ArcPy part can be run separately. Or, could it be quicker to use the 'Unity' feature on Vmware to run these scripts?
I would also appreciate any tips on how much memory/processors to allocate for the virtual machine. At the moment it is 1 processor, and ~4gb of RAM and I would expect it to be quite a bit quicker. | 2010/12/02 | [
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/4071",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/users/803/"
] | For ArcGIS to work faster on a MAC ( arcgis is not that fast in the first place) in comparison to old arcview 3.2 on startup,geoprocessing & joins.
have successfully created a faster environment using parallels - which is tested against windows xp pro
<http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/>
(a 30 days trial is available to prove your concept)
is capable of using more than 4GB which xp is limited.
**Until there is a 64-bit version of ArcGIS** products most are stuck with slow processing. | I think this is possible. I do not use the Arc tool suite, but I have other programs that I run in Linux and Windows virtual machines on my Mac.
I only run the Linux or Windows specific code in the VM. Even then, I have mounted my OS X box in the VM, and work in OS X folders. Anything which does not require the VM is run on OS X, in those same folders, but from the OS X machine.
This also allows me to keep everything non-critical on the OS X side of the machine, so it is backed up with everything else, and the VM is not backed up, as that would required 5-10GB for even a small file change in the VM. |
4,071 | I'm currently using ArcGIS 10 on a Windows 7 64 bit Macbook Pro (2.53 Ghz and 8GB of RAM) using VMWare. However, when I am using ArcGIS I find it quite slow even with Windows 7 (64-bit) optimized for performance (no shiny graphics). My work involves making some python scripts and testing them, and whenever I run them, that is also slow, but even opening ArcMap and adding a small shapefile takes a long time (30s to 1 minute).
Is it possible to make my python program in OSX, import the ArcPy module and somehow run them from the Mac side? I realize that ArcGIS runs on Windows, but I was not sure whether any of the ArcPy part can be run separately. Or, could it be quicker to use the 'Unity' feature on Vmware to run these scripts?
I would also appreciate any tips on how much memory/processors to allocate for the virtual machine. At the moment it is 1 processor, and ~4gb of RAM and I would expect it to be quite a bit quicker. | 2010/12/02 | [
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/4071",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/users/803/"
] | For ArcGIS to work faster on a MAC ( arcgis is not that fast in the first place) in comparison to old arcview 3.2 on startup,geoprocessing & joins.
have successfully created a faster environment using parallels - which is tested against windows xp pro
<http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/>
(a 30 days trial is available to prove your concept)
is capable of using more than 4GB which xp is limited.
**Until there is a 64-bit version of ArcGIS** products most are stuck with slow processing. | You're going to need to stand up a Win XP or Win7 machine with ArcGIS installed. You're going to need to use that VM's Python to test the scripts. Unity will make ArcMap run seamlessly, but you're really just using Windows with OSX window borders. |
4,071 | I'm currently using ArcGIS 10 on a Windows 7 64 bit Macbook Pro (2.53 Ghz and 8GB of RAM) using VMWare. However, when I am using ArcGIS I find it quite slow even with Windows 7 (64-bit) optimized for performance (no shiny graphics). My work involves making some python scripts and testing them, and whenever I run them, that is also slow, but even opening ArcMap and adding a small shapefile takes a long time (30s to 1 minute).
Is it possible to make my python program in OSX, import the ArcPy module and somehow run them from the Mac side? I realize that ArcGIS runs on Windows, but I was not sure whether any of the ArcPy part can be run separately. Or, could it be quicker to use the 'Unity' feature on Vmware to run these scripts?
I would also appreciate any tips on how much memory/processors to allocate for the virtual machine. At the moment it is 1 processor, and ~4gb of RAM and I would expect it to be quite a bit quicker. | 2010/12/02 | [
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/4071",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/users/803/"
] | I am running ArcGIS 10 on a VMWare virtual machine with Win XP Pro. Performance is as good as expected, and it runs as fast as my 9.3.1 on my laptop (also XP Pro). VMWare is installed on a well equipped server, which properly has something to say regarding performance on the virtual machines. I access the virtual machine via remote desktop. I know this answer isn't that helpful, but I am only trying to say that ArcGIS 10 can run fine in a virtual environment. If I were you, I would try it on a Win XP VM, if possible, as suggested before. | For ArcGIS to work faster on a MAC ( arcgis is not that fast in the first place) in comparison to old arcview 3.2 on startup,geoprocessing & joins.
have successfully created a faster environment using parallels - which is tested against windows xp pro
<http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/>
(a 30 days trial is available to prove your concept)
is capable of using more than 4GB which xp is limited.
**Until there is a 64-bit version of ArcGIS** products most are stuck with slow processing. |
4,071 | I'm currently using ArcGIS 10 on a Windows 7 64 bit Macbook Pro (2.53 Ghz and 8GB of RAM) using VMWare. However, when I am using ArcGIS I find it quite slow even with Windows 7 (64-bit) optimized for performance (no shiny graphics). My work involves making some python scripts and testing them, and whenever I run them, that is also slow, but even opening ArcMap and adding a small shapefile takes a long time (30s to 1 minute).
Is it possible to make my python program in OSX, import the ArcPy module and somehow run them from the Mac side? I realize that ArcGIS runs on Windows, but I was not sure whether any of the ArcPy part can be run separately. Or, could it be quicker to use the 'Unity' feature on Vmware to run these scripts?
I would also appreciate any tips on how much memory/processors to allocate for the virtual machine. At the moment it is 1 processor, and ~4gb of RAM and I would expect it to be quite a bit quicker. | 2010/12/02 | [
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/4071",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/users/803/"
] | I run ArcGIS on OSX pretty much every day using VMWare. The only difference is that I do not have it installed in a Virtual Machine - it is a [bootcamp partition](http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/) - and let me explain to you why, IMHO, this has more advantages over a standard VM installation for ArcGIS.
First let's take VMWare out of the equation and talk about pure Bootcamp.
When you use Bootcamp, you are actually creating a separate partition for Windows on your disk. They are completely separate installations of Operating Systems. At boot time you can hold the option key and choose whether you boot to Windows or boot to OSX. As long as you have the [proper bootcamp Windows drivers](http://support.apple.com/downloads/#macoscomponents) installed, this guarantees that it is **the fastest way you can run Windows on that hardware** since it is **only** running on Windows at that point. The disadvantage is clear - you need to pick what OS you are going to run at startup time and if you need to switch OS, well you have to reboot.
Yeah that sucks.
Welcome to VMWare Fusion. VMWare allows you to do two things with Bootcamp. One of them is [import your bootcamp partition into a new virtual machine](http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1015088) effectively creating a full clone of that bootcamp partition and dumping it in a VM inside OSX - **do NOT do this**.
The other thing that it allows you to do is to [boot your Bootcamp partition from inside OSX](http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1014618) by accessing that portion of the disk. This is cool and is what I use. Make sure that you do have the [VMWare tools installed](http://www.vmware.com/support/ws55/doc/new_guest_tools_ws.html) in your bootcamp partition when you run it from within OSX - otherwise things are slow.
What this configuration allows you to do is to *choose* how fast you want ArcGIS to run.
When you want the advantage of running both OSX and Windows, you can use VMWare Fusion and run your Bootcamp partition virtualized.
When you want maximum ArcGIS speed, reboot the machine and use it natively.
As far as how many resources to give Windows when running in inside OSX, I usually give it half of [whatever I have (half memory, half CPUs)](http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8473.html) and this seems to work optimally. Since I have all the drivers installed for whatever mode I am running (bootcamp drivers and vmware fusion tools), it runs fine in either mode.
In regards to your question of ArcPy - don't get fooled by what Unity Mode in VMWare Fusion is doing. It is allowing you to make it seem like Windows and OSX are running as one because the individual windows looks the same - but they are still, *mostly*, isolated. Yes you have access to both file systems and network resources, but that's pretty much it. So you can your ArcPy from the windows environment just fine... but **don't** expect to be able to "import" any libraries that you have installed only on the OSX side and everything will work fine - those are two isolated python environments and if you wanted to have this work you are getting too greedy :) | For ArcGIS to work faster on a MAC ( arcgis is not that fast in the first place) in comparison to old arcview 3.2 on startup,geoprocessing & joins.
have successfully created a faster environment using parallels - which is tested against windows xp pro
<http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/>
(a 30 days trial is available to prove your concept)
is capable of using more than 4GB which xp is limited.
**Until there is a 64-bit version of ArcGIS** products most are stuck with slow processing. |
4,071 | I'm currently using ArcGIS 10 on a Windows 7 64 bit Macbook Pro (2.53 Ghz and 8GB of RAM) using VMWare. However, when I am using ArcGIS I find it quite slow even with Windows 7 (64-bit) optimized for performance (no shiny graphics). My work involves making some python scripts and testing them, and whenever I run them, that is also slow, but even opening ArcMap and adding a small shapefile takes a long time (30s to 1 minute).
Is it possible to make my python program in OSX, import the ArcPy module and somehow run them from the Mac side? I realize that ArcGIS runs on Windows, but I was not sure whether any of the ArcPy part can be run separately. Or, could it be quicker to use the 'Unity' feature on Vmware to run these scripts?
I would also appreciate any tips on how much memory/processors to allocate for the virtual machine. At the moment it is 1 processor, and ~4gb of RAM and I would expect it to be quite a bit quicker. | 2010/12/02 | [
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/4071",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/users/803/"
] | I think this is possible. I do not use the Arc tool suite, but I have other programs that I run in Linux and Windows virtual machines on my Mac.
I only run the Linux or Windows specific code in the VM. Even then, I have mounted my OS X box in the VM, and work in OS X folders. Anything which does not require the VM is run on OS X, in those same folders, but from the OS X machine.
This also allows me to keep everything non-critical on the OS X side of the machine, so it is backed up with everything else, and the VM is not backed up, as that would required 5-10GB for even a small file change in the VM. | You're going to need to stand up a Win XP or Win7 machine with ArcGIS installed. You're going to need to use that VM's Python to test the scripts. Unity will make ArcMap run seamlessly, but you're really just using Windows with OSX window borders. |
4,071 | I'm currently using ArcGIS 10 on a Windows 7 64 bit Macbook Pro (2.53 Ghz and 8GB of RAM) using VMWare. However, when I am using ArcGIS I find it quite slow even with Windows 7 (64-bit) optimized for performance (no shiny graphics). My work involves making some python scripts and testing them, and whenever I run them, that is also slow, but even opening ArcMap and adding a small shapefile takes a long time (30s to 1 minute).
Is it possible to make my python program in OSX, import the ArcPy module and somehow run them from the Mac side? I realize that ArcGIS runs on Windows, but I was not sure whether any of the ArcPy part can be run separately. Or, could it be quicker to use the 'Unity' feature on Vmware to run these scripts?
I would also appreciate any tips on how much memory/processors to allocate for the virtual machine. At the moment it is 1 processor, and ~4gb of RAM and I would expect it to be quite a bit quicker. | 2010/12/02 | [
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/4071",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/users/803/"
] | I am running ArcGIS 10 on a VMWare virtual machine with Win XP Pro. Performance is as good as expected, and it runs as fast as my 9.3.1 on my laptop (also XP Pro). VMWare is installed on a well equipped server, which properly has something to say regarding performance on the virtual machines. I access the virtual machine via remote desktop. I know this answer isn't that helpful, but I am only trying to say that ArcGIS 10 can run fine in a virtual environment. If I were you, I would try it on a Win XP VM, if possible, as suggested before. | I think this is possible. I do not use the Arc tool suite, but I have other programs that I run in Linux and Windows virtual machines on my Mac.
I only run the Linux or Windows specific code in the VM. Even then, I have mounted my OS X box in the VM, and work in OS X folders. Anything which does not require the VM is run on OS X, in those same folders, but from the OS X machine.
This also allows me to keep everything non-critical on the OS X side of the machine, so it is backed up with everything else, and the VM is not backed up, as that would required 5-10GB for even a small file change in the VM. |
4,071 | I'm currently using ArcGIS 10 on a Windows 7 64 bit Macbook Pro (2.53 Ghz and 8GB of RAM) using VMWare. However, when I am using ArcGIS I find it quite slow even with Windows 7 (64-bit) optimized for performance (no shiny graphics). My work involves making some python scripts and testing them, and whenever I run them, that is also slow, but even opening ArcMap and adding a small shapefile takes a long time (30s to 1 minute).
Is it possible to make my python program in OSX, import the ArcPy module and somehow run them from the Mac side? I realize that ArcGIS runs on Windows, but I was not sure whether any of the ArcPy part can be run separately. Or, could it be quicker to use the 'Unity' feature on Vmware to run these scripts?
I would also appreciate any tips on how much memory/processors to allocate for the virtual machine. At the moment it is 1 processor, and ~4gb of RAM and I would expect it to be quite a bit quicker. | 2010/12/02 | [
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/4071",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/users/803/"
] | I run ArcGIS on OSX pretty much every day using VMWare. The only difference is that I do not have it installed in a Virtual Machine - it is a [bootcamp partition](http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/) - and let me explain to you why, IMHO, this has more advantages over a standard VM installation for ArcGIS.
First let's take VMWare out of the equation and talk about pure Bootcamp.
When you use Bootcamp, you are actually creating a separate partition for Windows on your disk. They are completely separate installations of Operating Systems. At boot time you can hold the option key and choose whether you boot to Windows or boot to OSX. As long as you have the [proper bootcamp Windows drivers](http://support.apple.com/downloads/#macoscomponents) installed, this guarantees that it is **the fastest way you can run Windows on that hardware** since it is **only** running on Windows at that point. The disadvantage is clear - you need to pick what OS you are going to run at startup time and if you need to switch OS, well you have to reboot.
Yeah that sucks.
Welcome to VMWare Fusion. VMWare allows you to do two things with Bootcamp. One of them is [import your bootcamp partition into a new virtual machine](http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1015088) effectively creating a full clone of that bootcamp partition and dumping it in a VM inside OSX - **do NOT do this**.
The other thing that it allows you to do is to [boot your Bootcamp partition from inside OSX](http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1014618) by accessing that portion of the disk. This is cool and is what I use. Make sure that you do have the [VMWare tools installed](http://www.vmware.com/support/ws55/doc/new_guest_tools_ws.html) in your bootcamp partition when you run it from within OSX - otherwise things are slow.
What this configuration allows you to do is to *choose* how fast you want ArcGIS to run.
When you want the advantage of running both OSX and Windows, you can use VMWare Fusion and run your Bootcamp partition virtualized.
When you want maximum ArcGIS speed, reboot the machine and use it natively.
As far as how many resources to give Windows when running in inside OSX, I usually give it half of [whatever I have (half memory, half CPUs)](http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8473.html) and this seems to work optimally. Since I have all the drivers installed for whatever mode I am running (bootcamp drivers and vmware fusion tools), it runs fine in either mode.
In regards to your question of ArcPy - don't get fooled by what Unity Mode in VMWare Fusion is doing. It is allowing you to make it seem like Windows and OSX are running as one because the individual windows looks the same - but they are still, *mostly*, isolated. Yes you have access to both file systems and network resources, but that's pretty much it. So you can your ArcPy from the windows environment just fine... but **don't** expect to be able to "import" any libraries that you have installed only on the OSX side and everything will work fine - those are two isolated python environments and if you wanted to have this work you are getting too greedy :) | I think this is possible. I do not use the Arc tool suite, but I have other programs that I run in Linux and Windows virtual machines on my Mac.
I only run the Linux or Windows specific code in the VM. Even then, I have mounted my OS X box in the VM, and work in OS X folders. Anything which does not require the VM is run on OS X, in those same folders, but from the OS X machine.
This also allows me to keep everything non-critical on the OS X side of the machine, so it is backed up with everything else, and the VM is not backed up, as that would required 5-10GB for even a small file change in the VM. |
4,071 | I'm currently using ArcGIS 10 on a Windows 7 64 bit Macbook Pro (2.53 Ghz and 8GB of RAM) using VMWare. However, when I am using ArcGIS I find it quite slow even with Windows 7 (64-bit) optimized for performance (no shiny graphics). My work involves making some python scripts and testing them, and whenever I run them, that is also slow, but even opening ArcMap and adding a small shapefile takes a long time (30s to 1 minute).
Is it possible to make my python program in OSX, import the ArcPy module and somehow run them from the Mac side? I realize that ArcGIS runs on Windows, but I was not sure whether any of the ArcPy part can be run separately. Or, could it be quicker to use the 'Unity' feature on Vmware to run these scripts?
I would also appreciate any tips on how much memory/processors to allocate for the virtual machine. At the moment it is 1 processor, and ~4gb of RAM and I would expect it to be quite a bit quicker. | 2010/12/02 | [
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/4071",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/users/803/"
] | I am running ArcGIS 10 on a VMWare virtual machine with Win XP Pro. Performance is as good as expected, and it runs as fast as my 9.3.1 on my laptop (also XP Pro). VMWare is installed on a well equipped server, which properly has something to say regarding performance on the virtual machines. I access the virtual machine via remote desktop. I know this answer isn't that helpful, but I am only trying to say that ArcGIS 10 can run fine in a virtual environment. If I were you, I would try it on a Win XP VM, if possible, as suggested before. | You're going to need to stand up a Win XP or Win7 machine with ArcGIS installed. You're going to need to use that VM's Python to test the scripts. Unity will make ArcMap run seamlessly, but you're really just using Windows with OSX window borders. |
4,071 | I'm currently using ArcGIS 10 on a Windows 7 64 bit Macbook Pro (2.53 Ghz and 8GB of RAM) using VMWare. However, when I am using ArcGIS I find it quite slow even with Windows 7 (64-bit) optimized for performance (no shiny graphics). My work involves making some python scripts and testing them, and whenever I run them, that is also slow, but even opening ArcMap and adding a small shapefile takes a long time (30s to 1 minute).
Is it possible to make my python program in OSX, import the ArcPy module and somehow run them from the Mac side? I realize that ArcGIS runs on Windows, but I was not sure whether any of the ArcPy part can be run separately. Or, could it be quicker to use the 'Unity' feature on Vmware to run these scripts?
I would also appreciate any tips on how much memory/processors to allocate for the virtual machine. At the moment it is 1 processor, and ~4gb of RAM and I would expect it to be quite a bit quicker. | 2010/12/02 | [
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/4071",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/users/803/"
] | I run ArcGIS on OSX pretty much every day using VMWare. The only difference is that I do not have it installed in a Virtual Machine - it is a [bootcamp partition](http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/) - and let me explain to you why, IMHO, this has more advantages over a standard VM installation for ArcGIS.
First let's take VMWare out of the equation and talk about pure Bootcamp.
When you use Bootcamp, you are actually creating a separate partition for Windows on your disk. They are completely separate installations of Operating Systems. At boot time you can hold the option key and choose whether you boot to Windows or boot to OSX. As long as you have the [proper bootcamp Windows drivers](http://support.apple.com/downloads/#macoscomponents) installed, this guarantees that it is **the fastest way you can run Windows on that hardware** since it is **only** running on Windows at that point. The disadvantage is clear - you need to pick what OS you are going to run at startup time and if you need to switch OS, well you have to reboot.
Yeah that sucks.
Welcome to VMWare Fusion. VMWare allows you to do two things with Bootcamp. One of them is [import your bootcamp partition into a new virtual machine](http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1015088) effectively creating a full clone of that bootcamp partition and dumping it in a VM inside OSX - **do NOT do this**.
The other thing that it allows you to do is to [boot your Bootcamp partition from inside OSX](http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1014618) by accessing that portion of the disk. This is cool and is what I use. Make sure that you do have the [VMWare tools installed](http://www.vmware.com/support/ws55/doc/new_guest_tools_ws.html) in your bootcamp partition when you run it from within OSX - otherwise things are slow.
What this configuration allows you to do is to *choose* how fast you want ArcGIS to run.
When you want the advantage of running both OSX and Windows, you can use VMWare Fusion and run your Bootcamp partition virtualized.
When you want maximum ArcGIS speed, reboot the machine and use it natively.
As far as how many resources to give Windows when running in inside OSX, I usually give it half of [whatever I have (half memory, half CPUs)](http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8473.html) and this seems to work optimally. Since I have all the drivers installed for whatever mode I am running (bootcamp drivers and vmware fusion tools), it runs fine in either mode.
In regards to your question of ArcPy - don't get fooled by what Unity Mode in VMWare Fusion is doing. It is allowing you to make it seem like Windows and OSX are running as one because the individual windows looks the same - but they are still, *mostly*, isolated. Yes you have access to both file systems and network resources, but that's pretty much it. So you can your ArcPy from the windows environment just fine... but **don't** expect to be able to "import" any libraries that you have installed only on the OSX side and everything will work fine - those are two isolated python environments and if you wanted to have this work you are getting too greedy :) | You're going to need to stand up a Win XP or Win7 machine with ArcGIS installed. You're going to need to use that VM's Python to test the scripts. Unity will make ArcMap run seamlessly, but you're really just using Windows with OSX window borders. |
4,071 | I'm currently using ArcGIS 10 on a Windows 7 64 bit Macbook Pro (2.53 Ghz and 8GB of RAM) using VMWare. However, when I am using ArcGIS I find it quite slow even with Windows 7 (64-bit) optimized for performance (no shiny graphics). My work involves making some python scripts and testing them, and whenever I run them, that is also slow, but even opening ArcMap and adding a small shapefile takes a long time (30s to 1 minute).
Is it possible to make my python program in OSX, import the ArcPy module and somehow run them from the Mac side? I realize that ArcGIS runs on Windows, but I was not sure whether any of the ArcPy part can be run separately. Or, could it be quicker to use the 'Unity' feature on Vmware to run these scripts?
I would also appreciate any tips on how much memory/processors to allocate for the virtual machine. At the moment it is 1 processor, and ~4gb of RAM and I would expect it to be quite a bit quicker. | 2010/12/02 | [
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/4071",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com",
"https://gis.stackexchange.com/users/803/"
] | I run ArcGIS on OSX pretty much every day using VMWare. The only difference is that I do not have it installed in a Virtual Machine - it is a [bootcamp partition](http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/) - and let me explain to you why, IMHO, this has more advantages over a standard VM installation for ArcGIS.
First let's take VMWare out of the equation and talk about pure Bootcamp.
When you use Bootcamp, you are actually creating a separate partition for Windows on your disk. They are completely separate installations of Operating Systems. At boot time you can hold the option key and choose whether you boot to Windows or boot to OSX. As long as you have the [proper bootcamp Windows drivers](http://support.apple.com/downloads/#macoscomponents) installed, this guarantees that it is **the fastest way you can run Windows on that hardware** since it is **only** running on Windows at that point. The disadvantage is clear - you need to pick what OS you are going to run at startup time and if you need to switch OS, well you have to reboot.
Yeah that sucks.
Welcome to VMWare Fusion. VMWare allows you to do two things with Bootcamp. One of them is [import your bootcamp partition into a new virtual machine](http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1015088) effectively creating a full clone of that bootcamp partition and dumping it in a VM inside OSX - **do NOT do this**.
The other thing that it allows you to do is to [boot your Bootcamp partition from inside OSX](http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1014618) by accessing that portion of the disk. This is cool and is what I use. Make sure that you do have the [VMWare tools installed](http://www.vmware.com/support/ws55/doc/new_guest_tools_ws.html) in your bootcamp partition when you run it from within OSX - otherwise things are slow.
What this configuration allows you to do is to *choose* how fast you want ArcGIS to run.
When you want the advantage of running both OSX and Windows, you can use VMWare Fusion and run your Bootcamp partition virtualized.
When you want maximum ArcGIS speed, reboot the machine and use it natively.
As far as how many resources to give Windows when running in inside OSX, I usually give it half of [whatever I have (half memory, half CPUs)](http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8473.html) and this seems to work optimally. Since I have all the drivers installed for whatever mode I am running (bootcamp drivers and vmware fusion tools), it runs fine in either mode.
In regards to your question of ArcPy - don't get fooled by what Unity Mode in VMWare Fusion is doing. It is allowing you to make it seem like Windows and OSX are running as one because the individual windows looks the same - but they are still, *mostly*, isolated. Yes you have access to both file systems and network resources, but that's pretty much it. So you can your ArcPy from the windows environment just fine... but **don't** expect to be able to "import" any libraries that you have installed only on the OSX side and everything will work fine - those are two isolated python environments and if you wanted to have this work you are getting too greedy :) | I am running ArcGIS 10 on a VMWare virtual machine with Win XP Pro. Performance is as good as expected, and it runs as fast as my 9.3.1 on my laptop (also XP Pro). VMWare is installed on a well equipped server, which properly has something to say regarding performance on the virtual machines. I access the virtual machine via remote desktop. I know this answer isn't that helpful, but I am only trying to say that ArcGIS 10 can run fine in a virtual environment. If I were you, I would try it on a Win XP VM, if possible, as suggested before. |
335,696 | I would like Low Power Mode to be the default state of my device.
When I get to 80% battery it toggles itself off automatically.
How can I stop it turning itself off?
How can I always keep my phone in low power mode (or some other equivalent)? | 2018/09/05 | [
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/335696",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/150109/"
] | You can configure most of your phone's settings to be the same as their Low Power Mode equivalents. This includes turning off email fetch, background app refresh, automatic downloads, and iCloud photo sync. As well as setting screen lock to 30 seconds and keeping the brightness low.
[List of Low Power Mode settings](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205234) | There is no way to achieve this functionality as it will always turn off at 80% as the purpose of it is to extend your phone when at low battery.
From [this Apple Support discussion:](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7268548)
>
> Low Power Mode reduces or turns off Email fetch, Hey Siri, Background
> app refresh, Automatic downloads, Wi-Fi associations, and some visual
> effects. If you can live without having those features available on
> the phone, you can keep it on low power mode. But after you charge
> your iPhone to 80% or higher, Low Power Mode automatically turns off,
> so you'll have to turn it back on again.
>
>
> |
335,696 | I would like Low Power Mode to be the default state of my device.
When I get to 80% battery it toggles itself off automatically.
How can I stop it turning itself off?
How can I always keep my phone in low power mode (or some other equivalent)? | 2018/09/05 | [
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/335696",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/150109/"
] | There is no way to achieve this functionality as it will always turn off at 80% as the purpose of it is to extend your phone when at low battery.
From [this Apple Support discussion:](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7268548)
>
> Low Power Mode reduces or turns off Email fetch, Hey Siri, Background
> app refresh, Automatic downloads, Wi-Fi associations, and some visual
> effects. If you can live without having those features available on
> the phone, you can keep it on low power mode. But after you charge
> your iPhone to 80% or higher, Low Power Mode automatically turns off,
> so you'll have to turn it back on again.
>
>
> | Cronios lets you do so with help from shortcuts. It is not officially possible to run shortcuts in background for long.
I would like some community help in making the shortcut which runs in the background or is triggered by battery percentage hitting 80 and then toggling Low power mode on.
This workflow is not as understandable to me as compared to other languages I generally code in.
<https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/df0f2c800dc748d2903ccc54e2b99c24>
<https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/aau4iq/cronios_run_your_shortcuts_on_an_automatic/>
<https://routinehub.co/shortcut/1370>
Also I am **not** affiliated to this product in any development or business. |
335,696 | I would like Low Power Mode to be the default state of my device.
When I get to 80% battery it toggles itself off automatically.
How can I stop it turning itself off?
How can I always keep my phone in low power mode (or some other equivalent)? | 2018/09/05 | [
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/335696",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/150109/"
] | With ios13, you can make an automation that turns on low power mode when your phone turns it off.
 | There is no way to achieve this functionality as it will always turn off at 80% as the purpose of it is to extend your phone when at low battery.
From [this Apple Support discussion:](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7268548)
>
> Low Power Mode reduces or turns off Email fetch, Hey Siri, Background
> app refresh, Automatic downloads, Wi-Fi associations, and some visual
> effects. If you can live without having those features available on
> the phone, you can keep it on low power mode. But after you charge
> your iPhone to 80% or higher, Low Power Mode automatically turns off,
> so you'll have to turn it back on again.
>
>
> |
335,696 | I would like Low Power Mode to be the default state of my device.
When I get to 80% battery it toggles itself off automatically.
How can I stop it turning itself off?
How can I always keep my phone in low power mode (or some other equivalent)? | 2018/09/05 | [
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/335696",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/150109/"
] | You can configure most of your phone's settings to be the same as their Low Power Mode equivalents. This includes turning off email fetch, background app refresh, automatic downloads, and iCloud photo sync. As well as setting screen lock to 30 seconds and keeping the brightness low.
[List of Low Power Mode settings](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205234) | Cronios lets you do so with help from shortcuts. It is not officially possible to run shortcuts in background for long.
I would like some community help in making the shortcut which runs in the background or is triggered by battery percentage hitting 80 and then toggling Low power mode on.
This workflow is not as understandable to me as compared to other languages I generally code in.
<https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/df0f2c800dc748d2903ccc54e2b99c24>
<https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/aau4iq/cronios_run_your_shortcuts_on_an_automatic/>
<https://routinehub.co/shortcut/1370>
Also I am **not** affiliated to this product in any development or business. |
335,696 | I would like Low Power Mode to be the default state of my device.
When I get to 80% battery it toggles itself off automatically.
How can I stop it turning itself off?
How can I always keep my phone in low power mode (or some other equivalent)? | 2018/09/05 | [
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/335696",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/150109/"
] | With ios13, you can make an automation that turns on low power mode when your phone turns it off.
 | You can configure most of your phone's settings to be the same as their Low Power Mode equivalents. This includes turning off email fetch, background app refresh, automatic downloads, and iCloud photo sync. As well as setting screen lock to 30 seconds and keeping the brightness low.
[List of Low Power Mode settings](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205234) |
335,696 | I would like Low Power Mode to be the default state of my device.
When I get to 80% battery it toggles itself off automatically.
How can I stop it turning itself off?
How can I always keep my phone in low power mode (or some other equivalent)? | 2018/09/05 | [
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/335696",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com",
"https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/150109/"
] | With ios13, you can make an automation that turns on low power mode when your phone turns it off.
 | Cronios lets you do so with help from shortcuts. It is not officially possible to run shortcuts in background for long.
I would like some community help in making the shortcut which runs in the background or is triggered by battery percentage hitting 80 and then toggling Low power mode on.
This workflow is not as understandable to me as compared to other languages I generally code in.
<https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/df0f2c800dc748d2903ccc54e2b99c24>
<https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/aau4iq/cronios_run_your_shortcuts_on_an_automatic/>
<https://routinehub.co/shortcut/1370>
Also I am **not** affiliated to this product in any development or business. |
53,487 | In Harry Potter, where did the magicians come from? Like Tolkien gives idea about Eru creating the Valars and so on. How did the magic begin, was the first being created Muggle or magician?
Is there some original event and/or creator that gave rise to wizards, witches, and other magical people? Is there any explanation for their existence? | 2014/04/07 | [
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/53487",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/users/24697/"
] | Magic is a natural occurring force in Harry Potter as portrayed by J.K Rowling.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_in_Harry_Potter>
>
> In the Harry Potter series created by J. K. Rowling, magic is depicted
> as a natural force that can be used to override the usual laws of
> nature. Many fictional magical creatures exist in the series, while
> ordinary creatures sometimes exhibit new magical properties in the
> novels' world. Objects, too, can be enhanced or imbued with magical
> property. The small percentage of humans who are able to perform magic
> are referred to as witches and wizards, in contrast to the non-magical
> muggles.
>
>
>
Magicians in general are humans whom have the genetic ability to perform magic.
>
> In humans, magic or the lack thereof is an inborn attribute. It is
> inherited, carried on "dominant resilient genes".[1] Magic is the norm
> in the children of magical couples and less common in those of
> muggles. Exceptions exist: those unable to do magic who are born to
> magical parents are known as squibs, whereas a witch or wizard born to
> muggle parents is known as a muggle-born, or by the pejorative
> "mudblood". While muggle-borns are quite common, squibs are extremely
> rare.
>
>
>
Also recall that people with magical abilities are called Wizards and not magicians in Harry Potter.
<http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Wizardkind>
>
> Wizardkind are humans born with the ability to use magic. An
> individual male human with magical ability, is known as a wizard
> (plural: wizards), and an individual female human with magical ability
> is known as a witch (plural: witches), though "wizard" is sometimes
> used as a gender-neutral singular noun like "man".
>
>
> Magical ability is an inherited trait usually passed from parent to
> child. While pure-bloods are born of two wizarding parents and
> half-bloods are often born of one wizard and one muggle or muggle-born
> parent, Muggle-born wizards and witches are born with their magical
> abilities because they are distantly descended from a Squib who often
> marries into a Muggle family. From this point on, that branch of the
> wizarding family often loses all traces of its wizarding legacy, which
> resurfaces many generations later in a Muggle-born descendant.
>
>
>
As far as where magic "comes" from there is no canon source as to where it originated, as previously stated it is a natural occurring force in the Harry Potter Universe. In fact according the to Harry Potter Wiki the earliest recorded magic was done by Egyptians, Indians, and people from Ancient Greece. This doesn't mean they were the first humans to perform magic however.
<http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Magic>
>
> Early History
>
>
> Ancient Egypt, India and Greece
>
>
> Egyptian wizards put curses on tombs. Nowadays Curse-Breakers for
> Gringotts Wizarding Bank try to regain the treasure locked in those
> tombs; one pyramid has mutant skeletons of Muggles who'd broken in and
> "grown extra heads and stuff." Indian wizards created the Snake
> Summons Spell, which is occasionally used by wizards known as "Snake
> Charmers". Magic is integrated into society and wizards are held in
> high esteem. However, Dark Magic is already being practised in ancient
> Greece. Herpo the Foul created the first basilisk as well as the evil
> magic of Horcruxes during that time.
>
>
>
Also I wanted to point out that in the wikia for Magic it also states that it's possible that if Magic were ever revealed to Muggles that it would be considered a fourth branch of science.
>
> As per the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, wizards and
> witches must constantly hide their magic abilities from the Muggle
> world, and thus most Muggles are unaware that magic exists. It is
> possible that magic, should it be revealed to the Muggle world, could
> be treated as a fourth branch of science, along with chemistry,
> biology and physics.
>
>
>
Sources:
Snake Charmers as per my quote above being real...
<http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Snake_Charmer>
Herpo the Foul (Ancient Greek Dark Wizard)
<http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Herpo_the_Foul>
>
> Herpo the Foul was an Ancient Greek Dark Wizard. He is one of the
> earliest known Dark Wizards and his work is still a lasting aspect of
> dark magic to date. He is best known as the first wizard to hatch a
> Basilisk. He is reputed to have invented many vile curses and was also
> the first wizard known to successfully create a Horcrux, perhaps
> having designed the ritual himself. Accordingly, he must have
> committed murder to split his soul. He is one of the earliest known
> Parselmouths.
>
>
> Appearances
>
>
> * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
> * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
> * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
> * Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
>
>
> | Human beings stole magic very long ago as was very briefly touched upon by Griphook in book 7. In simple terms Humans learned it from the magical creatures they probably lived closer with in ancient days and then over a long period of hanging around magic they became infused with it. The elites who had this gift guarded it very aggressively which is why the "purest" of the Wizarding families like the Malfoys and the Weasleys have such close families that only married other pure bloods. This undoubtedly also explains some of the attitudes towards Muggles and to goblins or house elves. Notice how House Elves are able to use magic without a wand? Human beings need wands to use concentrated magical spells because thats how they originally used magic: through stolen artifacts. Griphook also briefly touches on that there were laws Wizards placed upon other magical creatures that prevented non humans from carrying wands. |
53,487 | In Harry Potter, where did the magicians come from? Like Tolkien gives idea about Eru creating the Valars and so on. How did the magic begin, was the first being created Muggle or magician?
Is there some original event and/or creator that gave rise to wizards, witches, and other magical people? Is there any explanation for their existence? | 2014/04/07 | [
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/53487",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/users/24697/"
] | Magic is a natural occurring force in Harry Potter as portrayed by J.K Rowling.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_in_Harry_Potter>
>
> In the Harry Potter series created by J. K. Rowling, magic is depicted
> as a natural force that can be used to override the usual laws of
> nature. Many fictional magical creatures exist in the series, while
> ordinary creatures sometimes exhibit new magical properties in the
> novels' world. Objects, too, can be enhanced or imbued with magical
> property. The small percentage of humans who are able to perform magic
> are referred to as witches and wizards, in contrast to the non-magical
> muggles.
>
>
>
Magicians in general are humans whom have the genetic ability to perform magic.
>
> In humans, magic or the lack thereof is an inborn attribute. It is
> inherited, carried on "dominant resilient genes".[1] Magic is the norm
> in the children of magical couples and less common in those of
> muggles. Exceptions exist: those unable to do magic who are born to
> magical parents are known as squibs, whereas a witch or wizard born to
> muggle parents is known as a muggle-born, or by the pejorative
> "mudblood". While muggle-borns are quite common, squibs are extremely
> rare.
>
>
>
Also recall that people with magical abilities are called Wizards and not magicians in Harry Potter.
<http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Wizardkind>
>
> Wizardkind are humans born with the ability to use magic. An
> individual male human with magical ability, is known as a wizard
> (plural: wizards), and an individual female human with magical ability
> is known as a witch (plural: witches), though "wizard" is sometimes
> used as a gender-neutral singular noun like "man".
>
>
> Magical ability is an inherited trait usually passed from parent to
> child. While pure-bloods are born of two wizarding parents and
> half-bloods are often born of one wizard and one muggle or muggle-born
> parent, Muggle-born wizards and witches are born with their magical
> abilities because they are distantly descended from a Squib who often
> marries into a Muggle family. From this point on, that branch of the
> wizarding family often loses all traces of its wizarding legacy, which
> resurfaces many generations later in a Muggle-born descendant.
>
>
>
As far as where magic "comes" from there is no canon source as to where it originated, as previously stated it is a natural occurring force in the Harry Potter Universe. In fact according the to Harry Potter Wiki the earliest recorded magic was done by Egyptians, Indians, and people from Ancient Greece. This doesn't mean they were the first humans to perform magic however.
<http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Magic>
>
> Early History
>
>
> Ancient Egypt, India and Greece
>
>
> Egyptian wizards put curses on tombs. Nowadays Curse-Breakers for
> Gringotts Wizarding Bank try to regain the treasure locked in those
> tombs; one pyramid has mutant skeletons of Muggles who'd broken in and
> "grown extra heads and stuff." Indian wizards created the Snake
> Summons Spell, which is occasionally used by wizards known as "Snake
> Charmers". Magic is integrated into society and wizards are held in
> high esteem. However, Dark Magic is already being practised in ancient
> Greece. Herpo the Foul created the first basilisk as well as the evil
> magic of Horcruxes during that time.
>
>
>
Also I wanted to point out that in the wikia for Magic it also states that it's possible that if Magic were ever revealed to Muggles that it would be considered a fourth branch of science.
>
> As per the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, wizards and
> witches must constantly hide their magic abilities from the Muggle
> world, and thus most Muggles are unaware that magic exists. It is
> possible that magic, should it be revealed to the Muggle world, could
> be treated as a fourth branch of science, along with chemistry,
> biology and physics.
>
>
>
Sources:
Snake Charmers as per my quote above being real...
<http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Snake_Charmer>
Herpo the Foul (Ancient Greek Dark Wizard)
<http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Herpo_the_Foul>
>
> Herpo the Foul was an Ancient Greek Dark Wizard. He is one of the
> earliest known Dark Wizards and his work is still a lasting aspect of
> dark magic to date. He is best known as the first wizard to hatch a
> Basilisk. He is reputed to have invented many vile curses and was also
> the first wizard known to successfully create a Horcrux, perhaps
> having designed the ritual himself. Accordingly, he must have
> committed murder to split his soul. He is one of the earliest known
> Parselmouths.
>
>
> Appearances
>
>
> * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
> * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
> * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
> * Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
>
>
> | JK Rowling has said herself that wizards and witches are BORN with their magic; it is a post of their DNA. Magical People are a different type of human than muggles. Magic came to a certain group of humans close to the beginning of time. It all comes from inside of them.
Wizards and witches use wands because it's easier to control their magic and keep a focus on it. However ALL wizards and witches can do magic without a wand, it would just be uncontrollable and come out more intense than it would have been originally planned. Only very advanced witches and wizards can use wandless magic, like Dumbledore for example.
If a muggle tried to use a wand, NOTHING would happen, since magic obviously does not come from the wand, but from within the magical person themselves. Again, the wand is only used as a focused type of tool. |
53,487 | In Harry Potter, where did the magicians come from? Like Tolkien gives idea about Eru creating the Valars and so on. How did the magic begin, was the first being created Muggle or magician?
Is there some original event and/or creator that gave rise to wizards, witches, and other magical people? Is there any explanation for their existence? | 2014/04/07 | [
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/53487",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/users/24697/"
] | Magic is a natural occurring force in Harry Potter as portrayed by J.K Rowling.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_in_Harry_Potter>
>
> In the Harry Potter series created by J. K. Rowling, magic is depicted
> as a natural force that can be used to override the usual laws of
> nature. Many fictional magical creatures exist in the series, while
> ordinary creatures sometimes exhibit new magical properties in the
> novels' world. Objects, too, can be enhanced or imbued with magical
> property. The small percentage of humans who are able to perform magic
> are referred to as witches and wizards, in contrast to the non-magical
> muggles.
>
>
>
Magicians in general are humans whom have the genetic ability to perform magic.
>
> In humans, magic or the lack thereof is an inborn attribute. It is
> inherited, carried on "dominant resilient genes".[1] Magic is the norm
> in the children of magical couples and less common in those of
> muggles. Exceptions exist: those unable to do magic who are born to
> magical parents are known as squibs, whereas a witch or wizard born to
> muggle parents is known as a muggle-born, or by the pejorative
> "mudblood". While muggle-borns are quite common, squibs are extremely
> rare.
>
>
>
Also recall that people with magical abilities are called Wizards and not magicians in Harry Potter.
<http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Wizardkind>
>
> Wizardkind are humans born with the ability to use magic. An
> individual male human with magical ability, is known as a wizard
> (plural: wizards), and an individual female human with magical ability
> is known as a witch (plural: witches), though "wizard" is sometimes
> used as a gender-neutral singular noun like "man".
>
>
> Magical ability is an inherited trait usually passed from parent to
> child. While pure-bloods are born of two wizarding parents and
> half-bloods are often born of one wizard and one muggle or muggle-born
> parent, Muggle-born wizards and witches are born with their magical
> abilities because they are distantly descended from a Squib who often
> marries into a Muggle family. From this point on, that branch of the
> wizarding family often loses all traces of its wizarding legacy, which
> resurfaces many generations later in a Muggle-born descendant.
>
>
>
As far as where magic "comes" from there is no canon source as to where it originated, as previously stated it is a natural occurring force in the Harry Potter Universe. In fact according the to Harry Potter Wiki the earliest recorded magic was done by Egyptians, Indians, and people from Ancient Greece. This doesn't mean they were the first humans to perform magic however.
<http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Magic>
>
> Early History
>
>
> Ancient Egypt, India and Greece
>
>
> Egyptian wizards put curses on tombs. Nowadays Curse-Breakers for
> Gringotts Wizarding Bank try to regain the treasure locked in those
> tombs; one pyramid has mutant skeletons of Muggles who'd broken in and
> "grown extra heads and stuff." Indian wizards created the Snake
> Summons Spell, which is occasionally used by wizards known as "Snake
> Charmers". Magic is integrated into society and wizards are held in
> high esteem. However, Dark Magic is already being practised in ancient
> Greece. Herpo the Foul created the first basilisk as well as the evil
> magic of Horcruxes during that time.
>
>
>
Also I wanted to point out that in the wikia for Magic it also states that it's possible that if Magic were ever revealed to Muggles that it would be considered a fourth branch of science.
>
> As per the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, wizards and
> witches must constantly hide their magic abilities from the Muggle
> world, and thus most Muggles are unaware that magic exists. It is
> possible that magic, should it be revealed to the Muggle world, could
> be treated as a fourth branch of science, along with chemistry,
> biology and physics.
>
>
>
Sources:
Snake Charmers as per my quote above being real...
<http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Snake_Charmer>
Herpo the Foul (Ancient Greek Dark Wizard)
<http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Herpo_the_Foul>
>
> Herpo the Foul was an Ancient Greek Dark Wizard. He is one of the
> earliest known Dark Wizards and his work is still a lasting aspect of
> dark magic to date. He is best known as the first wizard to hatch a
> Basilisk. He is reputed to have invented many vile curses and was also
> the first wizard known to successfully create a Horcrux, perhaps
> having designed the ritual himself. Accordingly, he must have
> committed murder to split his soul. He is one of the earliest known
> Parselmouths.
>
>
> Appearances
>
>
> * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
> * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
> * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
> * Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
>
>
> | There are no deities described in the Harry Potter universe. No one was created Muggle or "Magician" (Wizard). The ability to wield magic is an evolutionary trait that some humans have. |
53,487 | In Harry Potter, where did the magicians come from? Like Tolkien gives idea about Eru creating the Valars and so on. How did the magic begin, was the first being created Muggle or magician?
Is there some original event and/or creator that gave rise to wizards, witches, and other magical people? Is there any explanation for their existence? | 2014/04/07 | [
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/53487",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/users/24697/"
] | JK Rowling has said herself that wizards and witches are BORN with their magic; it is a post of their DNA. Magical People are a different type of human than muggles. Magic came to a certain group of humans close to the beginning of time. It all comes from inside of them.
Wizards and witches use wands because it's easier to control their magic and keep a focus on it. However ALL wizards and witches can do magic without a wand, it would just be uncontrollable and come out more intense than it would have been originally planned. Only very advanced witches and wizards can use wandless magic, like Dumbledore for example.
If a muggle tried to use a wand, NOTHING would happen, since magic obviously does not come from the wand, but from within the magical person themselves. Again, the wand is only used as a focused type of tool. | Human beings stole magic very long ago as was very briefly touched upon by Griphook in book 7. In simple terms Humans learned it from the magical creatures they probably lived closer with in ancient days and then over a long period of hanging around magic they became infused with it. The elites who had this gift guarded it very aggressively which is why the "purest" of the Wizarding families like the Malfoys and the Weasleys have such close families that only married other pure bloods. This undoubtedly also explains some of the attitudes towards Muggles and to goblins or house elves. Notice how House Elves are able to use magic without a wand? Human beings need wands to use concentrated magical spells because thats how they originally used magic: through stolen artifacts. Griphook also briefly touches on that there were laws Wizards placed upon other magical creatures that prevented non humans from carrying wands. |
53,487 | In Harry Potter, where did the magicians come from? Like Tolkien gives idea about Eru creating the Valars and so on. How did the magic begin, was the first being created Muggle or magician?
Is there some original event and/or creator that gave rise to wizards, witches, and other magical people? Is there any explanation for their existence? | 2014/04/07 | [
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/53487",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com",
"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/users/24697/"
] | JK Rowling has said herself that wizards and witches are BORN with their magic; it is a post of their DNA. Magical People are a different type of human than muggles. Magic came to a certain group of humans close to the beginning of time. It all comes from inside of them.
Wizards and witches use wands because it's easier to control their magic and keep a focus on it. However ALL wizards and witches can do magic without a wand, it would just be uncontrollable and come out more intense than it would have been originally planned. Only very advanced witches and wizards can use wandless magic, like Dumbledore for example.
If a muggle tried to use a wand, NOTHING would happen, since magic obviously does not come from the wand, but from within the magical person themselves. Again, the wand is only used as a focused type of tool. | There are no deities described in the Harry Potter universe. No one was created Muggle or "Magician" (Wizard). The ability to wield magic is an evolutionary trait that some humans have. |
74,955 | This question is related to the Canadian eTA application that I had discussed previously (see [here](https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/72907/eta-application-does-declined-us-esta-application-count-as-refused-visa-or-per)). It has now been a whole month since I applied and my application status is "In Progress". I will be travelling to present at a conference in two months (October) and wish to resolve this issue as quickly as possible!
I've used the online [web form](https://secure.cic.gc.ca/enquiries-renseignements/canada-case-cas-eng.aspx) and submitted a case-specific query and have heard nothing in response. The only confirmation was an automated email from question@cic.gc.ca with (I kid you not) nothing but the text "AUTOREPLY TEST" in the email body.
Furthermore, when applying originally I selected "United Kingdom And Colonies" as my passport's Country of Issue. Since I applied, they have changed the options in the Country of Issue drop-down list to several categories for British people (e.g. British overseas citizen, British subject, British protected person etc.). I am officially a "British Citizen" but the system seems to have transferred me to "British subject" (not the same as citizen!), as I can only see my eTA application status if I choose that option in [this form](https://onlineservices-servicesenligne.cic.gc.ca/eta/applicationQuery?lang=en).
I hope to contact someone regarding my application, as the system seems fundamentally flawed. There is the [IRCC Call Centre](http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/contacts/call.asp) but it appears this is for Canadian citizens/residents only.
Given the terrible application process and the lack of response, what are my options? I have read that for stuck (USA) ESTA applications, applying a second time can help resolve the issue - should I try this for the eTA? Otherwise, if a visa is the best solution, do I apply for "business" or "tourist", as I am attending a scientific conference and then planning to travel in the following week?
\*\*\* UPDATE: I have had my eTA approved, so I guess I can stop panicking! It's taken over two months to get approval but I have had absolutely no response to my online web form queries, besides the automated email responses, and nothing explaining the delay (though I can infer the reason). Thank you to everyone who offered advice - I will be following pnuts advice of providing feedback in terms of the technical issues with the site.
Of interest is that my colleagues who selected "United Kingdom And Colonies" when applying now also have to select "British subject" if they want to check the status of their (successful) applications, so my issue here is probably not an isolated case. | 2016/08/03 | [
"https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/74955",
"https://travel.stackexchange.com",
"https://travel.stackexchange.com/users/43074/"
] | There is an option to [Give feedback](http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/contacts/web-form.asp) that might follow a different route to your last enquiry (the web page is of course different). Also, given that if no decision within minutes [you can expect an email from IRCC within 72 hours that tells you what your next steps are](http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/index.asp) you might reasonably report "AUTOREPLY TEST" as a technical fault (and also perhaps that the button "Tell us more" on the same page as "Give feedback" seems to do nothing). However that button is the route to report a technical issue (maybe the technical people who wrote the code were making sure they would not be disturbed!).
There is also an offer to ["rate your experience"](https://na1.se.voxco.com/A4Survey.SurveyEngine/56/eta_ave/?lang=en&tui=1c97dc82-1504-471d-a99f-4bb17502a0b5). That is more of a survey but one day somebody might read its content.
The Government of Canada claims to be contactable in respect of passport and consular services by Email, Telephone, Fax, Post or In person as shown [here](http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/united_kingdom-royaume_uni/offices-bureaux/contact_consul_contactez.aspx?lang=eng). I think you might need desperate measures since it seems quite possible "the system" thinks it has sent you details of "the next steps" and is awaiting a response to these from you. | The best way of getting meaningful help is to email the local Canadian High Commission or Embassy. Certainly in the UK the Canadian High Commission give very quick email response.
The eTA system is a total mess, to put it mildly. The policy decision to refuse to answer queries by telephone exacerbates the situation greatly.
Another approach which can bear fruit is to approach a Canadian MP who can then contact the relevant Candian government minister directly. |
23,623,295 | I want to know how i can make my app work in offline mode and store the data on a local database on the android device.
I am using mongodb database and fetching the data by using JSON Parsing.
What should i use to make my app run in offline mode and also update the changes made on the server ?
Which tools should i use ,also which is the best and easy method to implement this?
Thanks in advance. | 2014/05/13 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/23623295",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3278684/"
] | 1. first you create local SQLite Date Base
2. in that create one extra column like "noNet" ...
3. In this column you save your data when phone in offline mode and then send data to web server when phone is online | If you have an option, you can go for couchdb or couchbase which provide couchlite for android and sync is taken care by itself.
you can also refer this thread here [SQLite on Android and MongoDB with synchronization](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13295960/sqlite-on-android-and-mongodb-with-synchronization) |
23,623,295 | I want to know how i can make my app work in offline mode and store the data on a local database on the android device.
I am using mongodb database and fetching the data by using JSON Parsing.
What should i use to make my app run in offline mode and also update the changes made on the server ?
Which tools should i use ,also which is the best and easy method to implement this?
Thanks in advance. | 2014/05/13 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/23623295",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/3278684/"
] | This question is a bit older now, but I'd like to add what I believe is a good architecture approach to solving this.
Take a look at the tech talk given by Yigit and Adam at the Android Dev summit. <https://plus.google.com/+AndroidDevelopers/posts/3C4GPowmWLb>
Seems the core components are:
* Job Scheduler/Queue, via <https://github.com/yigit/android-priority-jobqueue>
* DBFlow to make interaction with the SQLite database easier: <https://github.com/Raizlabs/DBFlow>
* And an EventBus <https://github.com/greenrobot/EventBus> to easily broadcast when the actual jobs complete (so the UI and other components can be notified).
Those 3 together get you most of what you will probably need. Their tech talk (first link above) really details these things better, and there's a final example application you can take a look at as well: <https://github.com/yigit/dev-summit-architecture-demo> | If you have an option, you can go for couchdb or couchbase which provide couchlite for android and sync is taken care by itself.
you can also refer this thread here [SQLite on Android and MongoDB with synchronization](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13295960/sqlite-on-android-and-mongodb-with-synchronization) |
314,865 | I start with the assumption that the following sentence is correct.
>
> John told me that his father *had been ill* since Christmas.
>
>
>
My question is whether the above sentence can also accommodate the present perfect, depending on the context.
>
> John told me that his father *has been ill* since Christmas.
>
>
>
Hereโs the context I believe would permit the present perfect. If the telling occurred very recently and itโs May, it means that Johnโs father has been ill for several months, and thus one can infer that he is still ill now, therefore the use of present perfect is appropriate.
>
> [I saw John yesterday at the farmersโ market.] He told me that his father *has been ill* since Christmas.
>
>
>
Is my grammatical hunch (and its justification) correct? TIA | 2022/05/09 | [
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/314865",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com",
"https://ell.stackexchange.com/users/155448/"
] | You are perfectly correct.
The past perfect could be used when reporting a conversation in an earlier year. At the time of speaking, the father *had been* ill; he may or may not have recovered since. | Your assumption is correct.
If it's May now and you saw John yesterday and he told you that his father had been ill since Christmas, which makes it a long-term illness, it's very unlikely for his father to have recovered since yesterday.
You are therefore perfectly justified in assuming John's father is still suffering from his long-term illness today and say:
>
> I saw John yesterday at the farmersโ market. He told me that his father **has been** ill since Christmas.
>
>
> |
706,869 | Situation: The server calls accept(). The client sends a SYN to the server. The server gets the SYN, and then sends a SYN/ACK back to the client. However, the client now hangs up / dies, so it never sends an ACK back to the server.
What happens? Does accept() return as soon as it receives the SYN, or does block until the client's ACK is returned? If it blocks, does it eventually time-out? | 2009/04/01 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/706869",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/15055/"
] | If the client never sends an ACK, accept() will either block or return EAGAIN if the socket is marked non-blocking. | It will eventually time out, because that scenario is in actual face a DoS (Denial of Service) and the resource for the accept returned to for use by the operating system. if might cause the master socket to block, since client is connected to the server once the accept returns with a valid file discriptor
In the event that a error occurs during the connection from the client, the value errno will be set and a good idea would be log or display an error message. , however read the man pages it is the best source of info in most cases. |
706,869 | Situation: The server calls accept(). The client sends a SYN to the server. The server gets the SYN, and then sends a SYN/ACK back to the client. However, the client now hangs up / dies, so it never sends an ACK back to the server.
What happens? Does accept() return as soon as it receives the SYN, or does block until the client's ACK is returned? If it blocks, does it eventually time-out? | 2009/04/01 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/706869",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/15055/"
] | It will eventually time out, because that scenario is in actual face a DoS (Denial of Service) and the resource for the accept returned to for use by the operating system. if might cause the master socket to block, since client is connected to the server once the accept returns with a valid file discriptor
In the event that a error occurs during the connection from the client, the value errno will be set and a good idea would be log or display an error message. , however read the man pages it is the best source of info in most cases. | In the case there is a failure, say, a timeout because a handshake does not complete, it will return -1 and set errno. I believe, after looking at the man page, that it will set errno to ECONNABORTED. |
706,869 | Situation: The server calls accept(). The client sends a SYN to the server. The server gets the SYN, and then sends a SYN/ACK back to the client. However, the client now hangs up / dies, so it never sends an ACK back to the server.
What happens? Does accept() return as soon as it receives the SYN, or does block until the client's ACK is returned? If it blocks, does it eventually time-out? | 2009/04/01 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/706869",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/15055/"
] | If the client never sends an ACK, accept() will either block or return EAGAIN if the socket is marked non-blocking. | In the case there is a failure, say, a timeout because a handshake does not complete, it will return -1 and set errno. I believe, after looking at the man page, that it will set errno to ECONNABORTED. |
23,871 | Total newbie here, not sure if this is the right place to post this. I'm trying to record some station IDs for an online radio station thingamajig I'm doing. I'm using a Samson C03U. My voiceovers sound okay when isolated.
However, I've noticed that my voice sounds very quiet when played over music, even when I lower the volume of the music and raise that of my voice. I've made sure to record my voice at the highest possible volume without generating peaks and to stay close to the microphone. The waveform doesn't look odd to my untrained eye.
I've found [these](https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/1178/why-do-my-vocal-recordings-sound-thin-and-muffled) [related](https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/3162/voice-recording-for-radio-what-effects-are-used) threads on the matter, but I'm wondering specifically if there are any audio FX plugins for Sonar I can run my voice through to help me achieve better results.
As I said, I'm a total newbie so I don't know anything about compression and all that jazz. I find it hard to wrap my head around abstract sound theory without *hearing* how certain effects affect input. Until now I've just been trying out stuff and seeing what sticks.
My microphone has a bunch of recording modes but I don't know if they're relevant to what I want to do. The theoretical explanation in the manual isn't doing it for me. | 2012/02/13 | [
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/23871",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/users/19700/"
] | In addition to the fine suggestion from 50ndr33 to compress your voice channel, you might also set up your compressor to use a side channel: use your voice channel as a trigger to compress everything including the music. This will cause the music to "duck" when you speak. | "Trying out stuff" is still an option for even the seasoned recording engineer who is faced with some thing they have not experienced yet. There is no end to the over all learning curve as technology changes the target moves.
Before you try to compress your voice over track, review your signal path from mic to recording software to be sure all is optimized. Try another mic to see if you see any improvements, also with the original mic try a different recording package. Are you getting the same result when changing these variables?
Where are you recording the voice? Are you in an isolation booth like environment that blocks all the ambient background sounds?
Consider that there are natural born talented voices and some of these folks have developed this talent with a lot of hard work and now make a living to do VO work.
Their voices are already pleasing and interesting and carry volume without compression from the get go. Although audio engineers like to boost things anyways.
:>
Treat your voice over like you are going on stage at the MET. Warm up your voice. Sing some scales, hold long notes, take deep breaths, stand up right, learn to manage your diaphragm, and rehearse the content. Get a friend to listen to you while you perform for positive feedback.
Link:
<http://www.vocalsplendor.com/diaphragm.html>
Lastly, you might not be cut out for this kind of work, so don't be too proud to allow a substitute to see if this is better or not. |
23,871 | Total newbie here, not sure if this is the right place to post this. I'm trying to record some station IDs for an online radio station thingamajig I'm doing. I'm using a Samson C03U. My voiceovers sound okay when isolated.
However, I've noticed that my voice sounds very quiet when played over music, even when I lower the volume of the music and raise that of my voice. I've made sure to record my voice at the highest possible volume without generating peaks and to stay close to the microphone. The waveform doesn't look odd to my untrained eye.
I've found [these](https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/1178/why-do-my-vocal-recordings-sound-thin-and-muffled) [related](https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/3162/voice-recording-for-radio-what-effects-are-used) threads on the matter, but I'm wondering specifically if there are any audio FX plugins for Sonar I can run my voice through to help me achieve better results.
As I said, I'm a total newbie so I don't know anything about compression and all that jazz. I find it hard to wrap my head around abstract sound theory without *hearing* how certain effects affect input. Until now I've just been trying out stuff and seeing what sticks.
My microphone has a bunch of recording modes but I don't know if they're relevant to what I want to do. The theoretical explanation in the manual isn't doing it for me. | 2012/02/13 | [
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/23871",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/users/19700/"
] | A lot's been said about compression but nothing's been said about **intelligibility**. If you're producing VOs, trails, bumpers, idents or jingles with vocals over a bed, EQ is also your friend here. If you critically listen to professional productions, they often lowpass AND highpass music under speech in addition to heavily compressing and EQing the vocals. Here's how I'd produce a jingle with music:
on the music:
1. compress at a high ratio (start at 5:1 and consider anything up to or over 10:1)
2. lowpass the bed at ~15 kHz and highpass at ~200 Hz
3. take some of the high end (10 khz+) out of the music and also notch out a little at 1, 2 and 5 kHz
...and on the vocals:
9. add an exciter to the vocals and adjust to taste (basically adds some 'shimmer' in the high frequencies, the smallest amount of short-tail reverb and likely also some gentle mid-side compression to subtly widen the stereo image
* If you want to do it the manual way, sculpt the EQ - fill in the gaps you made in the music, so 1, 2 and 5 kHz (area of greatest intelligibility in human speech to begin with) and also crank the frequencies above 10 kHz and below 150 Hz.
11. compress the vocals at a high ratio (>=5:1, <=10:1) with moderate attack, sustain and release to bring up the level and iron out transients and peaky phrases
12. set the master buss compressor so it 'pumps' nicely; the audio rides at a consistent level until the vocal, at a much higher level, makes the compressor duck the level of the mixed signals whilst keeping the main output level the same.
You could even slap a multiband compressor on the output instead if you want to further sculpt the response in frequency bands.
Overengineered? Probably. However, that's the standard process I'd go through for "pro" radio jingles. You can get all fancy-pants on them but think of the following whilst editing:
* **what kind medium am I producing for?** (radio which is always heavily processed to begin with to deal with small speakers and their limited frequency response)
* **ASSUME MONO!** Clock radios, portables, in-store PAs and even TVs don't necessarily have two speakers so if you apply loads of mid/side processing or 'stereo widening' effects your music might disappear when summed to mono!
* **how obnoxiously in peoples' faces do you want to be?** The station will likely use processing to 'calm' any severely loud signals, but there are now established EBU standards for "loudness" which you would do well to read up on. Nobody likes having to reach for the radio to turn it down during the ad breaks. *I vastly prefer a jingle / advert / ident where it's CLEAR but not simply LOUD.*
Final afterthoughts: when setting up a mic, set it to cardioid or super-/hypercardioid (to eliminate as much room noise as possible) and experiment with 'working' the mic; the closer you are to the capsule, the more 'presence' you will hear in the resulting sound.
The same voice recorded six inches and thirty-six inches from the same microphone will sound remarkably different, and you usually want to go for the close-miced option for the desirable boost in the midrange.
Happy producing :) | "Trying out stuff" is still an option for even the seasoned recording engineer who is faced with some thing they have not experienced yet. There is no end to the over all learning curve as technology changes the target moves.
Before you try to compress your voice over track, review your signal path from mic to recording software to be sure all is optimized. Try another mic to see if you see any improvements, also with the original mic try a different recording package. Are you getting the same result when changing these variables?
Where are you recording the voice? Are you in an isolation booth like environment that blocks all the ambient background sounds?
Consider that there are natural born talented voices and some of these folks have developed this talent with a lot of hard work and now make a living to do VO work.
Their voices are already pleasing and interesting and carry volume without compression from the get go. Although audio engineers like to boost things anyways.
:>
Treat your voice over like you are going on stage at the MET. Warm up your voice. Sing some scales, hold long notes, take deep breaths, stand up right, learn to manage your diaphragm, and rehearse the content. Get a friend to listen to you while you perform for positive feedback.
Link:
<http://www.vocalsplendor.com/diaphragm.html>
Lastly, you might not be cut out for this kind of work, so don't be too proud to allow a substitute to see if this is better or not. |
23,871 | Total newbie here, not sure if this is the right place to post this. I'm trying to record some station IDs for an online radio station thingamajig I'm doing. I'm using a Samson C03U. My voiceovers sound okay when isolated.
However, I've noticed that my voice sounds very quiet when played over music, even when I lower the volume of the music and raise that of my voice. I've made sure to record my voice at the highest possible volume without generating peaks and to stay close to the microphone. The waveform doesn't look odd to my untrained eye.
I've found [these](https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/1178/why-do-my-vocal-recordings-sound-thin-and-muffled) [related](https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/3162/voice-recording-for-radio-what-effects-are-used) threads on the matter, but I'm wondering specifically if there are any audio FX plugins for Sonar I can run my voice through to help me achieve better results.
As I said, I'm a total newbie so I don't know anything about compression and all that jazz. I find it hard to wrap my head around abstract sound theory without *hearing* how certain effects affect input. Until now I've just been trying out stuff and seeing what sticks.
My microphone has a bunch of recording modes but I don't know if they're relevant to what I want to do. The theoretical explanation in the manual isn't doing it for me. | 2012/02/13 | [
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/23871",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/users/19700/"
] | Are you using an effect called "ducking"? Ducking is used all over the place. Basically what it does is automatically reduce the volume of backing tracks (music in this case) when it detects input from an audio source such as a microphone.
This effect is used in DJing all the time and it's also used in many video games and movies. | "Trying out stuff" is still an option for even the seasoned recording engineer who is faced with some thing they have not experienced yet. There is no end to the over all learning curve as technology changes the target moves.
Before you try to compress your voice over track, review your signal path from mic to recording software to be sure all is optimized. Try another mic to see if you see any improvements, also with the original mic try a different recording package. Are you getting the same result when changing these variables?
Where are you recording the voice? Are you in an isolation booth like environment that blocks all the ambient background sounds?
Consider that there are natural born talented voices and some of these folks have developed this talent with a lot of hard work and now make a living to do VO work.
Their voices are already pleasing and interesting and carry volume without compression from the get go. Although audio engineers like to boost things anyways.
:>
Treat your voice over like you are going on stage at the MET. Warm up your voice. Sing some scales, hold long notes, take deep breaths, stand up right, learn to manage your diaphragm, and rehearse the content. Get a friend to listen to you while you perform for positive feedback.
Link:
<http://www.vocalsplendor.com/diaphragm.html>
Lastly, you might not be cut out for this kind of work, so don't be too proud to allow a substitute to see if this is better or not. |
23,871 | Total newbie here, not sure if this is the right place to post this. I'm trying to record some station IDs for an online radio station thingamajig I'm doing. I'm using a Samson C03U. My voiceovers sound okay when isolated.
However, I've noticed that my voice sounds very quiet when played over music, even when I lower the volume of the music and raise that of my voice. I've made sure to record my voice at the highest possible volume without generating peaks and to stay close to the microphone. The waveform doesn't look odd to my untrained eye.
I've found [these](https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/1178/why-do-my-vocal-recordings-sound-thin-and-muffled) [related](https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/3162/voice-recording-for-radio-what-effects-are-used) threads on the matter, but I'm wondering specifically if there are any audio FX plugins for Sonar I can run my voice through to help me achieve better results.
As I said, I'm a total newbie so I don't know anything about compression and all that jazz. I find it hard to wrap my head around abstract sound theory without *hearing* how certain effects affect input. Until now I've just been trying out stuff and seeing what sticks.
My microphone has a bunch of recording modes but I don't know if they're relevant to what I want to do. The theoretical explanation in the manual isn't doing it for me. | 2012/02/13 | [
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/23871",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/users/19700/"
] | A lot's been said about compression but nothing's been said about **intelligibility**. If you're producing VOs, trails, bumpers, idents or jingles with vocals over a bed, EQ is also your friend here. If you critically listen to professional productions, they often lowpass AND highpass music under speech in addition to heavily compressing and EQing the vocals. Here's how I'd produce a jingle with music:
on the music:
1. compress at a high ratio (start at 5:1 and consider anything up to or over 10:1)
2. lowpass the bed at ~15 kHz and highpass at ~200 Hz
3. take some of the high end (10 khz+) out of the music and also notch out a little at 1, 2 and 5 kHz
...and on the vocals:
9. add an exciter to the vocals and adjust to taste (basically adds some 'shimmer' in the high frequencies, the smallest amount of short-tail reverb and likely also some gentle mid-side compression to subtly widen the stereo image
* If you want to do it the manual way, sculpt the EQ - fill in the gaps you made in the music, so 1, 2 and 5 kHz (area of greatest intelligibility in human speech to begin with) and also crank the frequencies above 10 kHz and below 150 Hz.
11. compress the vocals at a high ratio (>=5:1, <=10:1) with moderate attack, sustain and release to bring up the level and iron out transients and peaky phrases
12. set the master buss compressor so it 'pumps' nicely; the audio rides at a consistent level until the vocal, at a much higher level, makes the compressor duck the level of the mixed signals whilst keeping the main output level the same.
You could even slap a multiband compressor on the output instead if you want to further sculpt the response in frequency bands.
Overengineered? Probably. However, that's the standard process I'd go through for "pro" radio jingles. You can get all fancy-pants on them but think of the following whilst editing:
* **what kind medium am I producing for?** (radio which is always heavily processed to begin with to deal with small speakers and their limited frequency response)
* **ASSUME MONO!** Clock radios, portables, in-store PAs and even TVs don't necessarily have two speakers so if you apply loads of mid/side processing or 'stereo widening' effects your music might disappear when summed to mono!
* **how obnoxiously in peoples' faces do you want to be?** The station will likely use processing to 'calm' any severely loud signals, but there are now established EBU standards for "loudness" which you would do well to read up on. Nobody likes having to reach for the radio to turn it down during the ad breaks. *I vastly prefer a jingle / advert / ident where it's CLEAR but not simply LOUD.*
Final afterthoughts: when setting up a mic, set it to cardioid or super-/hypercardioid (to eliminate as much room noise as possible) and experiment with 'working' the mic; the closer you are to the capsule, the more 'presence' you will hear in the resulting sound.
The same voice recorded six inches and thirty-six inches from the same microphone will sound remarkably different, and you usually want to go for the close-miced option for the desirable boost in the midrange.
Happy producing :) | In addition to the fine suggestion from 50ndr33 to compress your voice channel, you might also set up your compressor to use a side channel: use your voice channel as a trigger to compress everything including the music. This will cause the music to "duck" when you speak. |
23,871 | Total newbie here, not sure if this is the right place to post this. I'm trying to record some station IDs for an online radio station thingamajig I'm doing. I'm using a Samson C03U. My voiceovers sound okay when isolated.
However, I've noticed that my voice sounds very quiet when played over music, even when I lower the volume of the music and raise that of my voice. I've made sure to record my voice at the highest possible volume without generating peaks and to stay close to the microphone. The waveform doesn't look odd to my untrained eye.
I've found [these](https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/1178/why-do-my-vocal-recordings-sound-thin-and-muffled) [related](https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/3162/voice-recording-for-radio-what-effects-are-used) threads on the matter, but I'm wondering specifically if there are any audio FX plugins for Sonar I can run my voice through to help me achieve better results.
As I said, I'm a total newbie so I don't know anything about compression and all that jazz. I find it hard to wrap my head around abstract sound theory without *hearing* how certain effects affect input. Until now I've just been trying out stuff and seeing what sticks.
My microphone has a bunch of recording modes but I don't know if they're relevant to what I want to do. The theoretical explanation in the manual isn't doing it for me. | 2012/02/13 | [
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/23871",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com",
"https://sound.stackexchange.com/users/19700/"
] | A lot's been said about compression but nothing's been said about **intelligibility**. If you're producing VOs, trails, bumpers, idents or jingles with vocals over a bed, EQ is also your friend here. If you critically listen to professional productions, they often lowpass AND highpass music under speech in addition to heavily compressing and EQing the vocals. Here's how I'd produce a jingle with music:
on the music:
1. compress at a high ratio (start at 5:1 and consider anything up to or over 10:1)
2. lowpass the bed at ~15 kHz and highpass at ~200 Hz
3. take some of the high end (10 khz+) out of the music and also notch out a little at 1, 2 and 5 kHz
...and on the vocals:
9. add an exciter to the vocals and adjust to taste (basically adds some 'shimmer' in the high frequencies, the smallest amount of short-tail reverb and likely also some gentle mid-side compression to subtly widen the stereo image
* If you want to do it the manual way, sculpt the EQ - fill in the gaps you made in the music, so 1, 2 and 5 kHz (area of greatest intelligibility in human speech to begin with) and also crank the frequencies above 10 kHz and below 150 Hz.
11. compress the vocals at a high ratio (>=5:1, <=10:1) with moderate attack, sustain and release to bring up the level and iron out transients and peaky phrases
12. set the master buss compressor so it 'pumps' nicely; the audio rides at a consistent level until the vocal, at a much higher level, makes the compressor duck the level of the mixed signals whilst keeping the main output level the same.
You could even slap a multiband compressor on the output instead if you want to further sculpt the response in frequency bands.
Overengineered? Probably. However, that's the standard process I'd go through for "pro" radio jingles. You can get all fancy-pants on them but think of the following whilst editing:
* **what kind medium am I producing for?** (radio which is always heavily processed to begin with to deal with small speakers and their limited frequency response)
* **ASSUME MONO!** Clock radios, portables, in-store PAs and even TVs don't necessarily have two speakers so if you apply loads of mid/side processing or 'stereo widening' effects your music might disappear when summed to mono!
* **how obnoxiously in peoples' faces do you want to be?** The station will likely use processing to 'calm' any severely loud signals, but there are now established EBU standards for "loudness" which you would do well to read up on. Nobody likes having to reach for the radio to turn it down during the ad breaks. *I vastly prefer a jingle / advert / ident where it's CLEAR but not simply LOUD.*
Final afterthoughts: when setting up a mic, set it to cardioid or super-/hypercardioid (to eliminate as much room noise as possible) and experiment with 'working' the mic; the closer you are to the capsule, the more 'presence' you will hear in the resulting sound.
The same voice recorded six inches and thirty-six inches from the same microphone will sound remarkably different, and you usually want to go for the close-miced option for the desirable boost in the midrange.
Happy producing :) | Are you using an effect called "ducking"? Ducking is used all over the place. Basically what it does is automatically reduce the volume of backing tracks (music in this case) when it detects input from an audio source such as a microphone.
This effect is used in DJing all the time and it's also used in many video games and movies. |
327,750 | I have this issue that is driving me crazy and has me going around in circles. I am unable to find anything relating to a solution online so hoping someone here will be able to answer this.
We have a 2.3.5p1 store that we put in production mode to test and then back into developer mode.
Since then, I am trying to disable a module but I get:
"The directory "/home/redacted/public\_html/generated/code/Magento" cannot be deleted Warning!rmdir(/home/redacted/public\_html/generated/code/Magento): Directory not empty"
So I ran rm -rf generated/metadata/\* generated/code/\* and this clears almost all of the generated/code contents except /generated/code/Magento/Framework because "Directory not empty".
A philosopher would argue as to the need to delete a directory that was already empty, but hey...
Anyway, I can see all other folders are gone but as I refresh my view they all start popping up again until the full folder and file structure is back to how it was. Nobody is visiting the front end of the site in order to create generated code on the fly and the site is definitely in developer mode (as deploy:mode:show tells me and also as I see inside env.php).
So I am stuck needing to empty the generated directory in order to disable the extension and not being able to empty it because "it's not empty".
Grateful for your feedback. | 2020/12/10 | [
"https://magento.stackexchange.com/questions/327750",
"https://magento.stackexchange.com",
"https://magento.stackexchange.com/users/93265/"
] | I know its too late to answer, but adding my finding to help others. I have tested this in Magento 2.4.x and below solution is working fine.
1. Create your custom theme.
2. Under Magento\_Theme/layout folder create default\_head\_blocks.xml file.
3. Add you font by using below code:
>
> <font src="fonts/fontawesome-webfont.woff2"/>
>
>
>
4. Flush the cache & do static-content deploy.
Above code will automatically add in the font. For reference you can check the Luma theme default\_head\_blocks.xml file.
**Note**: For example, if you want to add fontawesome-webfont.woff2?v=4.5.0 then it will not work. It will only work with the exact filename as I mentioned above.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DYbnB.png) | Hei!
Have a look on this. I guess you can add that on the HTML head.
<https://docs.magento.com/user-guide/design/html-head.html> |
47,028 | We have a specific table that has a lot of activity and it creates a lot of change records. The consequence is that the flashback data only goes back a couple of days. That is OK for many cases but it would be beneficial to have access to more historical data.
We would like to either restrict logging on that table. Or disable it completely. I imagine that we may be able to do this by tablespace, I just have not found much on how to make these changes. | 2013/07/25 | [
"https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/47028",
"https://dba.stackexchange.com",
"https://dba.stackexchange.com/users/26388/"
] | You can declare table as NOLOGGING. Then some of the DML and DDL operations will not be recorded in redo logs.
**[Oracle logging\_clause](http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e26088/clauses005.htm#i999782)**
Of course this has many caveats:
* if you have many NOLOGGING operations basically you won't be able to flashback or restore the table
* UPDATE or DELETE operations are logged in any case
* only direct path INSERTS can skip logging. But that means that such INSERT will not reuse empty space in table segment and will extend it every time you do such INSERT.
In my experience in some situations one can save a lot of redo/archivelog space using NOLOGGING but you have to adapt your code to it. | In addition to miracle173's good answer, here is a thought on limiting the undo impact of the table that while workable probably isn't advisable.
Undo on a table (and therefore the ability to do flashback queries) is removed when a DDL operation occurs for a table. So, if there is a quiet time on the table (during the night for example) you could alter the table (such as by adding a column that you immediately remove). As long as no in progress transaction is occurring on the table this should allow the undo associated with the table to be overwritten therefore allowing more undo from other tables.
No, I don't really think you should try this. |
6,858,058 | I am on heroku and have the Redis to go add-on, I am using it for store my translations and now I want to use it for Resque background jobs as well.
Can I use the same instance or should I configure another one? | 2011/07/28 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/6858058",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/532102/"
] | Although you can use a single instance for multiple purposes, I'd generally recommend setting up a separate instance - resource usage is more related to the amount of data than the number of instances, and if you later need different settings for one app, splitting them can be non-trivial.
Security and troubleshooting also need to be considered - you can restrict an application to accessing a specific port, but there aren't any lower level permissions available.
The choice may be a little different if you are using an overpriced hosted service that charges by instance rather than usage, but having the additional flexibility is probably still worthwhile. | I can't speak specifically to Heroku's implementation of Redis, but in most cases there's nothing preventing you from using the same database. In fact, Resque assumes you might and uses the the [redis-namespace](https://github.com/defunkt/redis-namespace) gem for all of its redis keys. You could use the redis-namespace gem in your own application as well to keep every type of cache in a different namespace. |
5,608,451 | I didn't see any license information on top of a web page's source code. Now I'd like to copy/paste a javascript code to emulate the behaviour of AJAX into my software.
But can I do this? | 2011/04/09 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/5608451",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/282815/"
] | At least in the United States, every work is automatically granted copyright protection of its owner, regardless of any copyright declaration or licensing information. You can only be granted rights to use or re-use works under the explicit grant of permissions by copyright owners.
If there's no license on the files, then you have no right to re-use them in your own projects. You're free to *email* them and ask politely, or search around and see if those tools are freely available elsewhere (and the site where you found them stripped off the documenting headers), or to take *inspiration* from their site and try to replicate it yourself.
There's enough excellent libraries out there ([jQuery](http://jquery.com/) and [prototype.js](http://www.prototypejs.org/) come to mind immediately) with enough amazing functionality that you ought to be able to build something cool on your own, in case the owners of the site you found don't want to share their code. | No. Unless you have a license, you don't have a license.
Take a book, it might not be written "You allowed to read it and make a short citation. You should not print copies of it and give it away to people. Neither are you allowed to upload it on piratebay". However, usually you are not allowed to do it.
In most countries, software is covered by copyright as books and other things. |
54,020 | [Canada loses its bid for a seat on UN Security Council](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/united-nations-security-council-canada-1.5615488). Some politicians are very disappointed with that fact.
*I am of the opinion that instead of Canada, we have Norway or Ireland. I believe they will protect humanity as well, as Canada would.*
Why was the UNSC seat important for Canada? What does this loss mean for Canada and for the World? | 2020/06/18 | [
"https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/54020",
"https://politics.stackexchange.com",
"https://politics.stackexchange.com/users/32888/"
] | The ten non-permanent seats of the UNSC are distributed on something like a regional basis, but there are elections between the regional candidates. That means getting elected validates the influence and popularity of the country, and **not** getting elected despite an intensive diplomatic campaign shows a lack of diplomatic leverage.
Not trying is one thing. Trying and failing is another. Canada had six terms. Colombia has seven. That *looks* bad, even if they're in different groups and not really comparable. | In [an opinion piece](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-why-canada-cares-a-lot-about-that-un-security-council-seat/) for the Globe and Mail back in 2018, Roland Paris (an international affairs scholar and former foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau) argued that **a seat on the UN Security Council would afford Canada positive influence on the world stage**. For example:
>
> last time Canada served on the council, in 1999-2000, it led a successful campaign to establish civilian protection as a centrepiece of the UNโs activities and to control the trade in โconflict diamonds,โ which were fuelling African wars. Behind the scenes, Canada helped develop new, more effective working methods in the council.
>
>
>
I'd say this piece is worth a read but doesn't address the question of whether and why Norway or Ireland wouldn't achieve similar ends.
Maybe more to the point, [a Bloomberg / Time Magazine article](https://time.com/5855483/canada-un-security-council-seat/) explains that this recent bid was **politically important for Justin Truedea, as a central part of his foriegn policy strategy**.
>
> Trudeau waged a four-year campaign for a council seat in what he hoped would represent a vindication of his foreign policy โ a staunch defense of pluralism and multilateralism at a time of global upheaval. [...] The government had seen a return to the security council as a fulfillment of the Canadian leaderโs promise โ the day after he took power in 2015 โ to bring the country โbackโ on the world stage. โMany of you have worried that Canada has lost its compassionate and constructive voice in the world over the past 10 years,โ Trudeau said at the time. โWell, I have a simple message for you: on behalf of 35 million Canadians, weโre back.โ
>
>
>
So loss of the bid is certainly a political setback for Trudeau, if not Canada as a whole, or arguably the world if you agree with his particular vision of multilateralism. |
12,323,678 | Does the Windows console supporsts ANSI control characters? | 2012/09/07 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/12323678",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/-1/"
] | It doesn't support many ANSI control characters by default (which is also mentioned in the wikipedia article <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code>), but there are ways to make that possible.
Look into the answers to this question: [How to load ANSI escape codes or get coloured file listing in WinXP cmd shell?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/946546/how-to-load-ansi-escape-codes-or-get-coloured-file-listing-in-winxp-cmd-shell)
You might happen upon something useful. | I assume you're referring to ASCII control characters.
The answer is "some". You can read backspace keypresses, for example, and you can pipe-in things like the ASCII "Bell" character.
However if you mean that the Windows console automatically resolves escaped characters, such as converting "\b" into "Bell", then no, you have to do that yourself.
Note that I speak about entering keypresses directly into the console and not batch files, for that see @ProblemFactory's answer. |
2,089,762 | What does this icon mean is Visual studio, visual Data Set designer.
I have several stored procedures.
can you help me understand,
* why the one on top of the list has a
small "check mark"
* why I can't delete it if I need to.
* This is not the case with the rest.
Why is this "special" ?
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3ch9X.jpg)
Thanks | 2010/01/18 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/2089762",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/175216/"
] | Because that item contains the method(s) that define the schema of the table the TableAdapter is part of.
The default names are Fill and GetData. Looks like you renamed them. | Each table has a default query (The one on top with the check on it). When you dragged your tables in to the dataset to create the query, it wrote a SQL statement which it uses to schema your table. Keep that query simple, you might not actually use it in code, and you can always edit that query to update the table schema. In the picture you provided, your default query is actually a stored procedure.
Every time you open the default query it connects to your datasource and allows you to select new columns that weren't in there before. If you want to update your existing columns, delete all the columns out of the table before you attempt to open the query. When you save the query, your updated columns get added back.
Make sure your connection string has permissions to view column information. |
54,048 | I have a stackable washer dryer combo. The dryer works on 240V and the washer works 120V, but they have 1 control panel. I don't have 240V in my new apartment, and am hoping to have the power cord switched to a 120V.
I have read that this process involves:
* getting a 3 wire 120 cord-set of at least 14 gauge and a 14 gauge jumper wire.
* connect neutral to neutral terminal
* black to black terminal
* ground to ground terminal
* and jumper wire from neutral to red
I have no experience with electronics and don`t plan on doing this myself, I had an electrician come look at it for me but he has never done it before, my question is:
Does this look correct, can he or (most likely another electrician) do this?
I know it won't be code, I just need to know if it's possible. | 2014/12/09 | [
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/54048",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/users/28657/"
] | Switching out the *cord* is easy, but that does not make it a 110V dryer. It's probably not possible to convert to 110V, although you'd have to find a user manual or contact the manufacturer to confirm. And even if you could, it would probably draw more power than a standard residential 110V outlet could supply.
The only way to do this is to run a 220V outlet for the dryer. Do you rent or own this apartment? What country are you in? Most US service is 220V, even if all of the outlets are 110V. | 1. Some dryers do have the ability to run on either 110v or 220v. Bear in mind that 110v gives it roughly the same power as a hair dryer, so even if this were possible, I wouldn't recommend it, as it can take 2 hours for the clothes to dry.
2. Assuming that your apartment has 220v service at the panel, if you can find two outlets on opposite legs (i.e. 180 degrees out of phase) there is a commercial product that will give you a 220v outlet, which you could plug your dryer into. YMMV. |
54,048 | I have a stackable washer dryer combo. The dryer works on 240V and the washer works 120V, but they have 1 control panel. I don't have 240V in my new apartment, and am hoping to have the power cord switched to a 120V.
I have read that this process involves:
* getting a 3 wire 120 cord-set of at least 14 gauge and a 14 gauge jumper wire.
* connect neutral to neutral terminal
* black to black terminal
* ground to ground terminal
* and jumper wire from neutral to red
I have no experience with electronics and don`t plan on doing this myself, I had an electrician come look at it for me but he has never done it before, my question is:
Does this look correct, can he or (most likely another electrician) do this?
I know it won't be code, I just need to know if it's possible. | 2014/12/09 | [
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/54048",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/users/28657/"
] | Switching out the *cord* is easy, but that does not make it a 110V dryer. It's probably not possible to convert to 110V, although you'd have to find a user manual or contact the manufacturer to confirm. And even if you could, it would probably draw more power than a standard residential 110V outlet could supply.
The only way to do this is to run a 220V outlet for the dryer. Do you rent or own this apartment? What country are you in? Most US service is 220V, even if all of the outlets are 110V. | >
> and jumper wire from neutral to red
>
>
>
This will give you an appliance with one dead side. Assuming the motor and electronics are on the black phase, your dryer will run at one-half of the stated power - essentially on 'low' all the time.
The good news is while it will take twice as long, it's only using half the power to the total cost to dry your stuff is the same.
Do you have an exhaust vent for the dryer? Washers can go in any closet with water and drain, dryers need a vent to the outside. No, another room or the hallway won't work. Yes, a connection to the bathroom vent will work IF other units have one-way valves in the vents. Otherwise you will pump your (slightly) warm, moist air into their space.
And of course something that blows air out must have a way to draw air in. |
54,048 | I have a stackable washer dryer combo. The dryer works on 240V and the washer works 120V, but they have 1 control panel. I don't have 240V in my new apartment, and am hoping to have the power cord switched to a 120V.
I have read that this process involves:
* getting a 3 wire 120 cord-set of at least 14 gauge and a 14 gauge jumper wire.
* connect neutral to neutral terminal
* black to black terminal
* ground to ground terminal
* and jumper wire from neutral to red
I have no experience with electronics and don`t plan on doing this myself, I had an electrician come look at it for me but he has never done it before, my question is:
Does this look correct, can he or (most likely another electrician) do this?
I know it won't be code, I just need to know if it's possible. | 2014/12/09 | [
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/54048",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/users/28657/"
] | Switching out the *cord* is easy, but that does not make it a 110V dryer. It's probably not possible to convert to 110V, although you'd have to find a user manual or contact the manufacturer to confirm. And even if you could, it would probably draw more power than a standard residential 110V outlet could supply.
The only way to do this is to run a 220V outlet for the dryer. Do you rent or own this apartment? What country are you in? Most US service is 220V, even if all of the outlets are 110V. | This is a fairly complex hack. The dryer needs to work on 1/4 the available power. It was designed for a 240x30 = 7200W supply, and you need it to run on 120x15=1800W supply. So you're asking a *lot*.
You will need to get the schematics and reverse-engineer the washer-dryer. Chances are the "washer" part is easy, as they probably use a commercial-off-the-shelf design made to run on 120V.
For the dryer, you'll need to carefully go through each internal circuit and figure out how to make it accept 120V. The heating element is the easiest; simply connect the endpoints to 120V instead of 240V. This will mean the element will see half the voltage, and (thanks to Ohm's Law) 1/4 the power.
If you have a small load that insists on being 240V, then you need to use some electronic skill to deal with that.
You will also need to make sure all the loads together don't exceed the circuit capacity (15A if you are attaching to a common household outlet with 14AWG wire). Watch out that the dryer motor + heater don't exceed that. You might be able to stay under circuit capacity with an interlock to prevent washer and dryer from running simultaneously. |
54,048 | I have a stackable washer dryer combo. The dryer works on 240V and the washer works 120V, but they have 1 control panel. I don't have 240V in my new apartment, and am hoping to have the power cord switched to a 120V.
I have read that this process involves:
* getting a 3 wire 120 cord-set of at least 14 gauge and a 14 gauge jumper wire.
* connect neutral to neutral terminal
* black to black terminal
* ground to ground terminal
* and jumper wire from neutral to red
I have no experience with electronics and don`t plan on doing this myself, I had an electrician come look at it for me but he has never done it before, my question is:
Does this look correct, can he or (most likely another electrician) do this?
I know it won't be code, I just need to know if it's possible. | 2014/12/09 | [
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/54048",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/users/28657/"
] | 1. Some dryers do have the ability to run on either 110v or 220v. Bear in mind that 110v gives it roughly the same power as a hair dryer, so even if this were possible, I wouldn't recommend it, as it can take 2 hours for the clothes to dry.
2. Assuming that your apartment has 220v service at the panel, if you can find two outlets on opposite legs (i.e. 180 degrees out of phase) there is a commercial product that will give you a 220v outlet, which you could plug your dryer into. YMMV. | >
> and jumper wire from neutral to red
>
>
>
This will give you an appliance with one dead side. Assuming the motor and electronics are on the black phase, your dryer will run at one-half of the stated power - essentially on 'low' all the time.
The good news is while it will take twice as long, it's only using half the power to the total cost to dry your stuff is the same.
Do you have an exhaust vent for the dryer? Washers can go in any closet with water and drain, dryers need a vent to the outside. No, another room or the hallway won't work. Yes, a connection to the bathroom vent will work IF other units have one-way valves in the vents. Otherwise you will pump your (slightly) warm, moist air into their space.
And of course something that blows air out must have a way to draw air in. |
54,048 | I have a stackable washer dryer combo. The dryer works on 240V and the washer works 120V, but they have 1 control panel. I don't have 240V in my new apartment, and am hoping to have the power cord switched to a 120V.
I have read that this process involves:
* getting a 3 wire 120 cord-set of at least 14 gauge and a 14 gauge jumper wire.
* connect neutral to neutral terminal
* black to black terminal
* ground to ground terminal
* and jumper wire from neutral to red
I have no experience with electronics and don`t plan on doing this myself, I had an electrician come look at it for me but he has never done it before, my question is:
Does this look correct, can he or (most likely another electrician) do this?
I know it won't be code, I just need to know if it's possible. | 2014/12/09 | [
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/54048",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/users/28657/"
] | This is a fairly complex hack. The dryer needs to work on 1/4 the available power. It was designed for a 240x30 = 7200W supply, and you need it to run on 120x15=1800W supply. So you're asking a *lot*.
You will need to get the schematics and reverse-engineer the washer-dryer. Chances are the "washer" part is easy, as they probably use a commercial-off-the-shelf design made to run on 120V.
For the dryer, you'll need to carefully go through each internal circuit and figure out how to make it accept 120V. The heating element is the easiest; simply connect the endpoints to 120V instead of 240V. This will mean the element will see half the voltage, and (thanks to Ohm's Law) 1/4 the power.
If you have a small load that insists on being 240V, then you need to use some electronic skill to deal with that.
You will also need to make sure all the loads together don't exceed the circuit capacity (15A if you are attaching to a common household outlet with 14AWG wire). Watch out that the dryer motor + heater don't exceed that. You might be able to stay under circuit capacity with an interlock to prevent washer and dryer from running simultaneously. | >
> and jumper wire from neutral to red
>
>
>
This will give you an appliance with one dead side. Assuming the motor and electronics are on the black phase, your dryer will run at one-half of the stated power - essentially on 'low' all the time.
The good news is while it will take twice as long, it's only using half the power to the total cost to dry your stuff is the same.
Do you have an exhaust vent for the dryer? Washers can go in any closet with water and drain, dryers need a vent to the outside. No, another room or the hallway won't work. Yes, a connection to the bathroom vent will work IF other units have one-way valves in the vents. Otherwise you will pump your (slightly) warm, moist air into their space.
And of course something that blows air out must have a way to draw air in. |
43,734 | I am working in Saudi Arabia since aug 14, am I considered as NRI and do I need to pay tax. I applied for NRE account in ICICI bank and application was processed later I was told by officer that I dont require NRE account since I am not taking money back to Saudi, Also he mentioned that there is no tax on money transferred from Saudi only interest is taxable.
Please guide me. | 2015/01/29 | [
"https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/43734",
"https://money.stackexchange.com",
"https://money.stackexchange.com/users/25063/"
] | For the financial year 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015 as you have / will be spending more than 182 days outside of India, you are Non-Resident from tax point of view.
For the period 1 April 2014 to Aug 2014, any salary / income you have earned in India is taxable and tax need to be paid.
For the period Aug 2014 to 31 March 2015 the income you have earned in Saudi is not taxable in India. You can transfer money to India or keep in Saudi, it has no effect on the taxes. Any interest income you earn, or rental income you earn, or any other source of income in India is taxable.
You would need to file returns accordingly.
An NRE Accounts allows you to transfer funds out of India without any questions. So if you intend at some point in time in future to move funds out of India [say settling down in Saudi or UK or US etc] it is advisable to have NRE account. If you are sure you don't want to transfer funds out of India, you should open an NRO account. | In addition to above points :
Interest earned on NRE accounts are tax free. But you can deposit any foreign currency except INR. Nothing is taxable.
While the NRO account gives you a flexibility to deposit INR too, the interest will be taxable and tax will be deducted at source at the rate of 30.9%.
It is necessary to convert the existing Indian local accounts to NRO as per the Reserve Bank of India circular: RBI/2007-2008/242 Master Circular No. 03 /2007- 08 .
So basically you need:
* NRE Account : When you want to transfer money to India, keep your money liquid and earn on tax free FDs
* NRO Account : When you deposit rent or income from any other source in INR, but credit balances are subject to respective income tax bracket |
68,769 | Upon opening a workflow in SharePoint Designer 2010 I receive the following notification in SharePoint Designer:
>
> The list of workflow actions on the server references an assembly that
> does not exist. Some actions will not be available. The assembly
> strong name is Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Actions, Version=14.0.0.0,
> Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c. Contact your server
> administrator for more information.
>
>
>
I'm running SharePoint 2010.
Does anyone know how to solve this notification?
Relevant articles:
* <http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointcustomizationlegacy/thread/d939cbb9-a48d-4d39-9717-ff8586af20db/>
* <http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6504181801110055094&postID=7104288518213734231> | 2013/05/22 | [
"https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/68769",
"https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com",
"https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/users/9256/"
] | Go to your hive folder:
Then into Template\1033\workflow
and find WSS.ACTIONS
Inside there will be a reference to a custom DLL, find it and remove it and your designer should start working again.
Make sure you take a backup of the file first.
Happy hunting. | Try to clear the SharePoint Designer caches:
* %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WebsiteCache
* %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SharePoint Designer\ProxyAssemblyCache
* %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Web Server Extensions\Cache |
68,769 | Upon opening a workflow in SharePoint Designer 2010 I receive the following notification in SharePoint Designer:
>
> The list of workflow actions on the server references an assembly that
> does not exist. Some actions will not be available. The assembly
> strong name is Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Actions, Version=14.0.0.0,
> Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c. Contact your server
> administrator for more information.
>
>
>
I'm running SharePoint 2010.
Does anyone know how to solve this notification?
Relevant articles:
* <http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointcustomizationlegacy/thread/d939cbb9-a48d-4d39-9717-ff8586af20db/>
* <http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6504181801110055094&postID=7104288518213734231> | 2013/05/22 | [
"https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/68769",
"https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com",
"https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/users/9256/"
] | Go to your hive folder:
Then into Template\1033\workflow
and find WSS.ACTIONS
Inside there will be a reference to a custom DLL, find it and remove it and your designer should start working again.
Make sure you take a backup of the file first.
Happy hunting. | I think the quick fix for your problem is to [download the assembly](http://www.zhaodll.co/m/20130509/194067.html). and deploy this in the gac using [GACUTIL](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ex0ss12c%28v=vs.80%29.aspx) |
1,436,211 | many webpages use onload JavaScript to manipulate their DOM. Is there a way I can automate accessing the state of the HTML after these JavaScript operations?
A took like wget is not useful here because it just downloads the original source.
Is there perhaps a way to use a web browser rendering engine?
Ideally I am after a solution that I can interface with from Python.
thanks! | 2009/09/17 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/1436211",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/105066/"
] | The only good way I know to do such things is to automate a browser, for example via [Selenium RC](http://seleniumhq.org/projects/remote-control/). If you have no idea of how to deduce that the page has finished running the relevant javascript, then, just a real live user visiting that page, you'll just have to wait a while, grab a snapshot, wait some more, grab another, and check there was no change between them to convince yourself that it's really finished. | Please see related info at stackoverflow:
* [screen-scraping](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/screen-scraping)
* [Screen Scraping from a web page with a lot of Javascript](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/857515/screen-scraping-from-a-web-page-with-a-lot-of-javascript) |
32,453 | Would it be correct to assume that encrypting a single file in a Windows environment, for example a simple text file containing login credentials for a variety of accounts, is inherently insecure?
It is my understanding that on most Windows systems, the creation of temporary files, caches and automatic backups means that it is likely that an *unencrypted* copy would exist somewhere on the system.
To put things concisely, **what are the best practices for single file encryption on a Windows system**, (if they exist.) | 2013/03/12 | [
"https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/32453",
"https://security.stackexchange.com",
"https://security.stackexchange.com/users/21882/"
] | **Your understanding is, indeed, correct.**
Most probably you have a copy of that file on your system now. After you encrypt it, you'll either have to remove the unencrypted version yourself, or the encryption application will do that for you. As far as I know, [there's no 100% way to delete a file and be sure that it's gone along with any evidence of its existence](https://security.stackexchange.com/a/7072/16228).
You have 3 options:
1. **Search and destroy:** Learn about **all** the places in which your file might have existed. This is not just about the temp directories and caches, this means down to the sector-level and effectively destroying the data by overwriting it. While plausible, I'd say it's practically impossible.
2. **The alien approach:** Encrypt the file on a different computer, copy the encrypted file to the intended storage place, then physically destroy the hard drive on the computer used for encryption. As long as you don't open the file (because once you open it, you'll run into the risk of leaking an unencrypted copy with caching, saving temporary files, accidental backup, etc...) Possible, but silly.
3. **[Full disk encryption:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_disk_encryption#Full_disk_encryption)** This is, by far, the most secure option. While, like anything in security, not 100% secure, it's your best option. I'd recommend some industry-standard application like [TrueCrypt](http://www.truecrypt.org/). | Indeed, when a file is encrypted, its contents are unusable until decrypted, so anything you do with the data necessarily implies that the data exists somewhere on the machine in decrypted format. It will be decrypted at least in the machine RAM, and some (many) applications may copy part of the data to temporary files (Word does that a lot, for instance). Moreover, RAM contents may be copied to the disk as part of [virtual memory management](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_memory), a trick by which process see more memory than really exist in the machine, the operating system using the disk for transparently storing the less used chunks of data. When using [hibernation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibernation_%28computing%29), the whole RAM contents make it to the disk.
To *really* keep your data confidential, even if your laptop is stolen, then you must use a comprehensive solution which encrypts just about everything on the machine. [TrueCrypt](http://www.truecrypt.org/) is the oft-cited product for system encryption, and it [supports full-system encryption](http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=system-encryption).
As @Adnan points out, if the data is *already* on the machine, unencrypted, then it should be removed. However, applying full-disk encryption on the live system (as TrueCrypt pretends to be able to -- I have not tried !) should be sufficient. Possibility of recovering old data chunks from hard disks, *after having been overwritten*, is a [recurrent subject on this site](https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/10464/why-is-writing-zeros-or-random-data-over-a-hard-drive-multiple-times-better-th). If you are truly worried about it, buy a new laptop, apply full-system encryption, *then* transfer your data, and finally destroy the old laptop with your favourite annihilation method (burning and dissolving in acid tend to be health hazards, while throwing it overboard while in the middle of the Ocean is bad for the environment; [shredding](http://www.datadev.com/hard-drive-shredder.html) might be safer and easier). Half of the job of encryption is to alleviate the user's paranoia, so it is up to you to see how much your consider data confidentiality worth. |
29,055 | Some of people around me think that month of safar is unsafe, when asked how, they say Jinns (ghost) are open from hell to roam freely. It is unsafe to take new born outside, it is unsafe for women to go out etc etc. Is it true and if it is then can someone share some reference or is it just a myth. | 2015/12/10 | [
"https://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/29055",
"https://islam.stackexchange.com",
"https://islam.stackexchange.com/users/3627/"
] | Holy Prophet saww said:
ูุง ุนุฏูู ููุง ุทูุฑุฉ ููุง ูุงู
ุฉ ููุงุตูุฑ
There is no superstitious owl, bird, no star-promising rain, no bad omen in the month of Safar. [Sahih Bukhari, Hadith 5707]
ูุง ุนุฏูู ููุง ุตูุฑ ููุง ุบูู
There is no bad omen in the month of Safar and no Ghouls (evil spirits). [Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2222] | This is pure falacy. All months are Allah's and Safar Month is not of bad omen as some people talk. This is an old falsehood spread in certain societies and has nothing to do with reality. Some say not to have a nikah or not to start a new venture in this month. This all is superstitious and it is not correct view whatsoever. And this Jinn idea is even more obnoxious.
Small children should be brought in before the Mukrooh time before Maghrib and can be let out again later. |
159,879 | Why does black glass reflect better than white glass? Both of them are glasses, so they reflect light. But why black glass reflects better?
See below, shiny black glass.
 | 2015/01/17 | [
"https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/159879",
"https://physics.stackexchange.com",
"https://physics.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | You may be confusing reflectivity with contrast or other effects. When we look at a reflection from a shiny black surface, our eye/brain adjusts for the image darkness and retains the colors. Reflection from a white surface gets (I think, not absolutely sure here) overloaded with the underlying diffuse signal and it's harder to discriminate. | Glasses primarily transmit light, but part is also reflected, so that they are characterised by a number, reflectivity (or reflectance), while the transmittance is related to it by complementarity (the total intensity must be conserved, although part of the light might even be absorbed or interfere with itself and cancel out). Dark glasses are usually treated with coating (like an anti-reflex coating) that change the value of the reflectivity |
122,017 | Can a weapon wielded during combat be immediately identified as a masterwork weapon simply by looking at it, or does it require some sort of search, appraise, craft(weaponsmithing) or some other ways to see that it is in fact a masterwork weapon ? | 2018/05/07 | [
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/122017",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/users/33770/"
] | Definitely not. Even with a skill check, it's not plausible to gauge the quality of a weapon just from a glance. The characteristics that make a weapon effective as a weapon (balance, metallurgy, etc. etc.) aren't visible to the eye, or not without close inspection. (Exception: special materials may or may not be easily recognisable.)
If the weapon is distinctive, you *might* be able to make an educated guess: "only the Iron Dwarves make their axe-heads in that shape, and they're famous for the quality of their work". But that would definitely require a skill check (IMHO Appraise or Craft) and you might get fooled if somebody's making cheap knock-offs in the same style. | That's the kind of thing that would be up to the GM. Is this masterwork weapon adorned with jewels that make it appear obviously well made? Does the blade have etchings carved into it? I'd say RAW probably not because it would be difficult to tell the difference between something that was made to look fancy and something that was made Masterfully. |
122,017 | Can a weapon wielded during combat be immediately identified as a masterwork weapon simply by looking at it, or does it require some sort of search, appraise, craft(weaponsmithing) or some other ways to see that it is in fact a masterwork weapon ? | 2018/05/07 | [
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/122017",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/users/33770/"
] | I think weapons can have various visible qualities that rule out the possibility of them being considered masterwork: notches in the blade, bends where things should be straight, and so on. As a DM, I would probably use signs of poor maintenance, like rust, as a sign of low quality weaponsโafter all, even though you *can* fail to give a quality weapon proper maintenance, thatโs not expected in this game where equipment maintenance is hand-waved as assumed to be happening in the background.
But plenty of other things can be wrong with a weapon that arenโt obvious just by seeing the weapon at a distance. Issues with balance and weighting, for example. Maybe portions of it havenโt been hardened properly. Whatever. It seems easily plausible that a weapon could fail to live up to the standards of โmasterwork,โ without actually having any visible defects.
And then, on the flip side, there are certain things in the rules that are always applied solely to masterwork weapons. Most special materials, for example, specify that weapons made from that material are always masterwork. If the material can be recognized, then you can tell itโs masterwork. Likewise, certain distinctive styles might be renowned as always of the highest qualityโfor example, officially katanas are statted as โbastard swords that are always masterwork.โ So if you see a katana, you knew it was masterwork. Similar things might be true in a given campaign world for elven or dwarven or whatever weaponry, perhaps.
Finally, of course, magic weapons are always masterwork. Someone with *detect magic* or similar could therefore recognize masterwork weapons when they are also magical.
So the long and short of it is that there are some weapons that are clearly not masterwork, and other weapons that clearly are masterwork, and then a decent chunk of weapons that cannot be directly determined by visual inspection.
The other thing worth pointing out here is that D&D 3.5e has really minimal rules for โsizing upโ your opponents, at least in martial endeavors. There is no martial analogue to Spellcraft, for example. Many tables play this straight, forcing players to learn about their opponents by making rolls and seeing what is good enough and what is not, for example, to gauge their AC. If the DM rolls opponent rolls openly, attack roll and saving throw bonuses can also be found this way. The problem with this is that you only get to see so many rolls before the fight is decided: it is rare for a fight to go more than 2-3 rounds without a clear victor having emerged (even if mopping up is often necessary). Too much happens on a given turn, in a given round, for this method to really be all that effective.
Itโs also not realistic. Warriors are much better at sizing opponents upโat least in the sense of, โbetter than me,โ โworse than me,โ โabout equal,โ โ*much* better than me,โ and so on. Obviously, the real world doesnโt boil everything down to nice, neat numbers, but โgetting the measureโ of your opponent is a thingโthat phrase, along with โsizing someone up,โ is a phrase because it describes a real process.
So a warrior might not be able to tell how high-quality a weapon is at a glance, but he *will* be able to tell, very quickly, to a general degree how high-quality his opponent is. That gives hints about the quality of his equipment. An opponent *might* have been caught off-guard, and be using whatever weapon he had at hand, or somehow have recently lost his best equipment for some reason, but *most* of the time, a high-quality opponent is likely to have high-quality gear. After all, a masterwork weapon is easily affordable by 2nd level, even on NPC wealth, and well worth it for anyone who plans on hitting anyone with a weapon. Really only 1st-level characters should have non-masterwork weaponsโand even most of those will still have the masterwork version. | That's the kind of thing that would be up to the GM. Is this masterwork weapon adorned with jewels that make it appear obviously well made? Does the blade have etchings carved into it? I'd say RAW probably not because it would be difficult to tell the difference between something that was made to look fancy and something that was made Masterfully. |
122,017 | Can a weapon wielded during combat be immediately identified as a masterwork weapon simply by looking at it, or does it require some sort of search, appraise, craft(weaponsmithing) or some other ways to see that it is in fact a masterwork weapon ? | 2018/05/07 | [
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/122017",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/users/33770/"
] | By the rulesโฆ
=============
The *Rules Compendium* on page 12 clarifies and expands the skill Appraise so that a creature can take 1 min. and make an Appraise skill check to determine the value of a rare object (DC 20) like a masterwork weapon. Success means that an untrained appraiser makes an estimate thatโs inaccurate by (2d6+3) ร10% and that a trained appraiser makes an accurate estimate of the objectโs value. Failure means that the appraiser can make no estimate. A creature can instead take a 1-round action to make this check, but the check's DC is increased by +5.
(It's a rare item due to a creature having to make a Craft skill to create the masterwork component (DC 20), therefore the component's craftsman needing to possess a skill bonus of +10 to +14. It also assumes that the craftsman took 10 to create the component instead of the craftsman being an amateur who got lucky or a master who had several bad weeks.)
So far as I'm aware, if the rules are slavishly adhered toโwhich this reader does *not* recommend but totally respectsโ, the Appraise skill may be the game's sole official way to identify a masterwork itemโฆ and, then, only by implication. That is, the appraiser knows (or approximates) the item's value, thenโbecause of the stagnancy of *D&D 3.5* pricesโthe appraiser will probably believe that any item worth vastly more than its list price is *probably* a masterwork item. (The appraiser could still be wrong, of course. The item could have value as an art object rather thanโor in addition toโthe item's *functional* value, but an item's value as an art object may be obvious to even a causal observer.)
โฆBut this DM doesn't follow those rules, and everything's fine
--------------------------------------------------------------
Even this DMโwho encourages at least one PC in any party to have ranks in the skill Appraise so that loot values are easily determinedโwould *never* run things so strictly. Instead, when a creature is armed with a special weapon, I consider the creature, the circumstances, and the weapon, and describe the weapon appropriately. Further, any creature that wields a masterwork weapon knows immediately that it's a masterwork weapon; the same goes for wearing masterwork armor, using a masterwork shield, or employing masterwork tools. (This also saves the DM from having to keep *more* secrets from the PCs!)
For example, the reckless gnoll chieftain Ssorgmi lives in squalor in the Swamp of Icky Slime but wields a masterwork longspear. Ssorgmi's masterwork longspear probably won't be identifiable as a masterwork longspear until after its been cleaned and polished by the PCs who defeated her, and even then it may take the PCs stabbing folks with it a couple of times to *believe* (despite the players being told so by the DM and their PCs getting from it the +1 enhancement bonus on attack rolls) that mud gnoll's masterwork longspear is *really* a masterwork longspear.
On the other hand, Emosewaedud the hobgoblin ronin is meticulous about maintaining his masterwork bastard sword. When he whips that out, the PC's can *hear* that Cuts the Breezeโthe family weapon wielded by 10 generations of noble hobgoblin warriorsโis masterwork weapon.
In other words, rather than making skill checks, ability checks, level checks, or *whatever* to determine if a weapon a creature wields is masterwork, this DM is content with just telling the players when a weapon a foe wields is obviously masterwork and doesn't tell the players if the weapon's masterwork if it's narratively appropriate that their PCs wouldn't be able to tell at a glance. | That's the kind of thing that would be up to the GM. Is this masterwork weapon adorned with jewels that make it appear obviously well made? Does the blade have etchings carved into it? I'd say RAW probably not because it would be difficult to tell the difference between something that was made to look fancy and something that was made Masterfully. |
122,017 | Can a weapon wielded during combat be immediately identified as a masterwork weapon simply by looking at it, or does it require some sort of search, appraise, craft(weaponsmithing) or some other ways to see that it is in fact a masterwork weapon ? | 2018/05/07 | [
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/122017",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/users/33770/"
] | As part of the Appraise skill description in Rules of the game, it is true that rare items are made by craft with appropriate skills between +10 and +14 and it is also true that the masterwork component of a weapon is DC20 thus a skill modifier of +10 on a take 10 required for the crafter. But the Appraise skill is used to determine the value of an item not its nature. ie. a longsword that is worth 315 gp maybe a masterwork longsword or a ceremonial longsword (used as a normal longsword in combat). If we consider this, we could even adjudicate that someone with an appraise skill could not determine if it is a masterwork item but only that it is worth that much. A rusted/damaged masterwork longsword could be valued at 200 gp instead of the 315gp with an appraise check. On the other hand, someone with a craft skill in the appropriate craft has to recognize something he can do. The crafter would know it's a masterwork weapon, that it is damaged but won't be able to give a value of the item.
Also, it is not clear if appraise can be used on items at all as weapons are defined as weapons and armors as armors in rule books while items are all other objects.
When looking into the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Book and Rules Compendium, there is no rule that states how to recognize a weapon, an exotic weapon or a masterwork weapon. The only rule that exists is for magic weapons that can't be determined unless with something similar to detect magic.
The question is very valid but I can't see anything in the rules that would stop a character to recognize a masterwork item, the same as to recognize an exotic weapon, etc. At this point I would recommend leaving this to the DM to decide and take into consideration that a character with the weapon proficiency should know how to recognize a weapon he can wield and probably a masterwork version by handling it or by seeing someone handling it. And someone with the craft skill modifier of +10 should also be able to recognize a masterwork weapon. You can easily use the DM option of using skills with different modifiers such as a spot check with Int modifier that needs to beat the craft DC. But this is really an example. As long as it is not used to unbalance the game that you decide it is not possible to know or that the PC know automatically. (i. e. if they can't know, then the Sunder combat option for the PC is less interesting since it means they will potentially break and render worthless their loot. On the other hand, you may discover that always knowing and having your barbarians PC take Improved Sunder and Power Attack to break all weapons that are not masterwork will get too much gp value with the masterwork weapons collected to the groul, then you can easily add the "damaged weapon lesser value" that appraise will be used to figure out... or not let them know).
Good question, not sure the answer is what you were looking for but ultimately, it's yours and your players' game. | That's the kind of thing that would be up to the GM. Is this masterwork weapon adorned with jewels that make it appear obviously well made? Does the blade have etchings carved into it? I'd say RAW probably not because it would be difficult to tell the difference between something that was made to look fancy and something that was made Masterfully. |
122,017 | Can a weapon wielded during combat be immediately identified as a masterwork weapon simply by looking at it, or does it require some sort of search, appraise, craft(weaponsmithing) or some other ways to see that it is in fact a masterwork weapon ? | 2018/05/07 | [
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/122017",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/users/33770/"
] | Definitely not. Even with a skill check, it's not plausible to gauge the quality of a weapon just from a glance. The characteristics that make a weapon effective as a weapon (balance, metallurgy, etc. etc.) aren't visible to the eye, or not without close inspection. (Exception: special materials may or may not be easily recognisable.)
If the weapon is distinctive, you *might* be able to make an educated guess: "only the Iron Dwarves make their axe-heads in that shape, and they're famous for the quality of their work". But that would definitely require a skill check (IMHO Appraise or Craft) and you might get fooled if somebody's making cheap knock-offs in the same style. | I think weapons can have various visible qualities that rule out the possibility of them being considered masterwork: notches in the blade, bends where things should be straight, and so on. As a DM, I would probably use signs of poor maintenance, like rust, as a sign of low quality weaponsโafter all, even though you *can* fail to give a quality weapon proper maintenance, thatโs not expected in this game where equipment maintenance is hand-waved as assumed to be happening in the background.
But plenty of other things can be wrong with a weapon that arenโt obvious just by seeing the weapon at a distance. Issues with balance and weighting, for example. Maybe portions of it havenโt been hardened properly. Whatever. It seems easily plausible that a weapon could fail to live up to the standards of โmasterwork,โ without actually having any visible defects.
And then, on the flip side, there are certain things in the rules that are always applied solely to masterwork weapons. Most special materials, for example, specify that weapons made from that material are always masterwork. If the material can be recognized, then you can tell itโs masterwork. Likewise, certain distinctive styles might be renowned as always of the highest qualityโfor example, officially katanas are statted as โbastard swords that are always masterwork.โ So if you see a katana, you knew it was masterwork. Similar things might be true in a given campaign world for elven or dwarven or whatever weaponry, perhaps.
Finally, of course, magic weapons are always masterwork. Someone with *detect magic* or similar could therefore recognize masterwork weapons when they are also magical.
So the long and short of it is that there are some weapons that are clearly not masterwork, and other weapons that clearly are masterwork, and then a decent chunk of weapons that cannot be directly determined by visual inspection.
The other thing worth pointing out here is that D&D 3.5e has really minimal rules for โsizing upโ your opponents, at least in martial endeavors. There is no martial analogue to Spellcraft, for example. Many tables play this straight, forcing players to learn about their opponents by making rolls and seeing what is good enough and what is not, for example, to gauge their AC. If the DM rolls opponent rolls openly, attack roll and saving throw bonuses can also be found this way. The problem with this is that you only get to see so many rolls before the fight is decided: it is rare for a fight to go more than 2-3 rounds without a clear victor having emerged (even if mopping up is often necessary). Too much happens on a given turn, in a given round, for this method to really be all that effective.
Itโs also not realistic. Warriors are much better at sizing opponents upโat least in the sense of, โbetter than me,โ โworse than me,โ โabout equal,โ โ*much* better than me,โ and so on. Obviously, the real world doesnโt boil everything down to nice, neat numbers, but โgetting the measureโ of your opponent is a thingโthat phrase, along with โsizing someone up,โ is a phrase because it describes a real process.
So a warrior might not be able to tell how high-quality a weapon is at a glance, but he *will* be able to tell, very quickly, to a general degree how high-quality his opponent is. That gives hints about the quality of his equipment. An opponent *might* have been caught off-guard, and be using whatever weapon he had at hand, or somehow have recently lost his best equipment for some reason, but *most* of the time, a high-quality opponent is likely to have high-quality gear. After all, a masterwork weapon is easily affordable by 2nd level, even on NPC wealth, and well worth it for anyone who plans on hitting anyone with a weapon. Really only 1st-level characters should have non-masterwork weaponsโand even most of those will still have the masterwork version. |
122,017 | Can a weapon wielded during combat be immediately identified as a masterwork weapon simply by looking at it, or does it require some sort of search, appraise, craft(weaponsmithing) or some other ways to see that it is in fact a masterwork weapon ? | 2018/05/07 | [
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/122017",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/users/33770/"
] | By the rulesโฆ
=============
The *Rules Compendium* on page 12 clarifies and expands the skill Appraise so that a creature can take 1 min. and make an Appraise skill check to determine the value of a rare object (DC 20) like a masterwork weapon. Success means that an untrained appraiser makes an estimate thatโs inaccurate by (2d6+3) ร10% and that a trained appraiser makes an accurate estimate of the objectโs value. Failure means that the appraiser can make no estimate. A creature can instead take a 1-round action to make this check, but the check's DC is increased by +5.
(It's a rare item due to a creature having to make a Craft skill to create the masterwork component (DC 20), therefore the component's craftsman needing to possess a skill bonus of +10 to +14. It also assumes that the craftsman took 10 to create the component instead of the craftsman being an amateur who got lucky or a master who had several bad weeks.)
So far as I'm aware, if the rules are slavishly adhered toโwhich this reader does *not* recommend but totally respectsโ, the Appraise skill may be the game's sole official way to identify a masterwork itemโฆ and, then, only by implication. That is, the appraiser knows (or approximates) the item's value, thenโbecause of the stagnancy of *D&D 3.5* pricesโthe appraiser will probably believe that any item worth vastly more than its list price is *probably* a masterwork item. (The appraiser could still be wrong, of course. The item could have value as an art object rather thanโor in addition toโthe item's *functional* value, but an item's value as an art object may be obvious to even a causal observer.)
โฆBut this DM doesn't follow those rules, and everything's fine
--------------------------------------------------------------
Even this DMโwho encourages at least one PC in any party to have ranks in the skill Appraise so that loot values are easily determinedโwould *never* run things so strictly. Instead, when a creature is armed with a special weapon, I consider the creature, the circumstances, and the weapon, and describe the weapon appropriately. Further, any creature that wields a masterwork weapon knows immediately that it's a masterwork weapon; the same goes for wearing masterwork armor, using a masterwork shield, or employing masterwork tools. (This also saves the DM from having to keep *more* secrets from the PCs!)
For example, the reckless gnoll chieftain Ssorgmi lives in squalor in the Swamp of Icky Slime but wields a masterwork longspear. Ssorgmi's masterwork longspear probably won't be identifiable as a masterwork longspear until after its been cleaned and polished by the PCs who defeated her, and even then it may take the PCs stabbing folks with it a couple of times to *believe* (despite the players being told so by the DM and their PCs getting from it the +1 enhancement bonus on attack rolls) that mud gnoll's masterwork longspear is *really* a masterwork longspear.
On the other hand, Emosewaedud the hobgoblin ronin is meticulous about maintaining his masterwork bastard sword. When he whips that out, the PC's can *hear* that Cuts the Breezeโthe family weapon wielded by 10 generations of noble hobgoblin warriorsโis masterwork weapon.
In other words, rather than making skill checks, ability checks, level checks, or *whatever* to determine if a weapon a creature wields is masterwork, this DM is content with just telling the players when a weapon a foe wields is obviously masterwork and doesn't tell the players if the weapon's masterwork if it's narratively appropriate that their PCs wouldn't be able to tell at a glance. | Definitely not. Even with a skill check, it's not plausible to gauge the quality of a weapon just from a glance. The characteristics that make a weapon effective as a weapon (balance, metallurgy, etc. etc.) aren't visible to the eye, or not without close inspection. (Exception: special materials may or may not be easily recognisable.)
If the weapon is distinctive, you *might* be able to make an educated guess: "only the Iron Dwarves make their axe-heads in that shape, and they're famous for the quality of their work". But that would definitely require a skill check (IMHO Appraise or Craft) and you might get fooled if somebody's making cheap knock-offs in the same style. |
122,017 | Can a weapon wielded during combat be immediately identified as a masterwork weapon simply by looking at it, or does it require some sort of search, appraise, craft(weaponsmithing) or some other ways to see that it is in fact a masterwork weapon ? | 2018/05/07 | [
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/122017",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/users/33770/"
] | Definitely not. Even with a skill check, it's not plausible to gauge the quality of a weapon just from a glance. The characteristics that make a weapon effective as a weapon (balance, metallurgy, etc. etc.) aren't visible to the eye, or not without close inspection. (Exception: special materials may or may not be easily recognisable.)
If the weapon is distinctive, you *might* be able to make an educated guess: "only the Iron Dwarves make their axe-heads in that shape, and they're famous for the quality of their work". But that would definitely require a skill check (IMHO Appraise or Craft) and you might get fooled if somebody's making cheap knock-offs in the same style. | As part of the Appraise skill description in Rules of the game, it is true that rare items are made by craft with appropriate skills between +10 and +14 and it is also true that the masterwork component of a weapon is DC20 thus a skill modifier of +10 on a take 10 required for the crafter. But the Appraise skill is used to determine the value of an item not its nature. ie. a longsword that is worth 315 gp maybe a masterwork longsword or a ceremonial longsword (used as a normal longsword in combat). If we consider this, we could even adjudicate that someone with an appraise skill could not determine if it is a masterwork item but only that it is worth that much. A rusted/damaged masterwork longsword could be valued at 200 gp instead of the 315gp with an appraise check. On the other hand, someone with a craft skill in the appropriate craft has to recognize something he can do. The crafter would know it's a masterwork weapon, that it is damaged but won't be able to give a value of the item.
Also, it is not clear if appraise can be used on items at all as weapons are defined as weapons and armors as armors in rule books while items are all other objects.
When looking into the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Book and Rules Compendium, there is no rule that states how to recognize a weapon, an exotic weapon or a masterwork weapon. The only rule that exists is for magic weapons that can't be determined unless with something similar to detect magic.
The question is very valid but I can't see anything in the rules that would stop a character to recognize a masterwork item, the same as to recognize an exotic weapon, etc. At this point I would recommend leaving this to the DM to decide and take into consideration that a character with the weapon proficiency should know how to recognize a weapon he can wield and probably a masterwork version by handling it or by seeing someone handling it. And someone with the craft skill modifier of +10 should also be able to recognize a masterwork weapon. You can easily use the DM option of using skills with different modifiers such as a spot check with Int modifier that needs to beat the craft DC. But this is really an example. As long as it is not used to unbalance the game that you decide it is not possible to know or that the PC know automatically. (i. e. if they can't know, then the Sunder combat option for the PC is less interesting since it means they will potentially break and render worthless their loot. On the other hand, you may discover that always knowing and having your barbarians PC take Improved Sunder and Power Attack to break all weapons that are not masterwork will get too much gp value with the masterwork weapons collected to the groul, then you can easily add the "damaged weapon lesser value" that appraise will be used to figure out... or not let them know).
Good question, not sure the answer is what you were looking for but ultimately, it's yours and your players' game. |
122,017 | Can a weapon wielded during combat be immediately identified as a masterwork weapon simply by looking at it, or does it require some sort of search, appraise, craft(weaponsmithing) or some other ways to see that it is in fact a masterwork weapon ? | 2018/05/07 | [
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/122017",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/users/33770/"
] | By the rulesโฆ
=============
The *Rules Compendium* on page 12 clarifies and expands the skill Appraise so that a creature can take 1 min. and make an Appraise skill check to determine the value of a rare object (DC 20) like a masterwork weapon. Success means that an untrained appraiser makes an estimate thatโs inaccurate by (2d6+3) ร10% and that a trained appraiser makes an accurate estimate of the objectโs value. Failure means that the appraiser can make no estimate. A creature can instead take a 1-round action to make this check, but the check's DC is increased by +5.
(It's a rare item due to a creature having to make a Craft skill to create the masterwork component (DC 20), therefore the component's craftsman needing to possess a skill bonus of +10 to +14. It also assumes that the craftsman took 10 to create the component instead of the craftsman being an amateur who got lucky or a master who had several bad weeks.)
So far as I'm aware, if the rules are slavishly adhered toโwhich this reader does *not* recommend but totally respectsโ, the Appraise skill may be the game's sole official way to identify a masterwork itemโฆ and, then, only by implication. That is, the appraiser knows (or approximates) the item's value, thenโbecause of the stagnancy of *D&D 3.5* pricesโthe appraiser will probably believe that any item worth vastly more than its list price is *probably* a masterwork item. (The appraiser could still be wrong, of course. The item could have value as an art object rather thanโor in addition toโthe item's *functional* value, but an item's value as an art object may be obvious to even a causal observer.)
โฆBut this DM doesn't follow those rules, and everything's fine
--------------------------------------------------------------
Even this DMโwho encourages at least one PC in any party to have ranks in the skill Appraise so that loot values are easily determinedโwould *never* run things so strictly. Instead, when a creature is armed with a special weapon, I consider the creature, the circumstances, and the weapon, and describe the weapon appropriately. Further, any creature that wields a masterwork weapon knows immediately that it's a masterwork weapon; the same goes for wearing masterwork armor, using a masterwork shield, or employing masterwork tools. (This also saves the DM from having to keep *more* secrets from the PCs!)
For example, the reckless gnoll chieftain Ssorgmi lives in squalor in the Swamp of Icky Slime but wields a masterwork longspear. Ssorgmi's masterwork longspear probably won't be identifiable as a masterwork longspear until after its been cleaned and polished by the PCs who defeated her, and even then it may take the PCs stabbing folks with it a couple of times to *believe* (despite the players being told so by the DM and their PCs getting from it the +1 enhancement bonus on attack rolls) that mud gnoll's masterwork longspear is *really* a masterwork longspear.
On the other hand, Emosewaedud the hobgoblin ronin is meticulous about maintaining his masterwork bastard sword. When he whips that out, the PC's can *hear* that Cuts the Breezeโthe family weapon wielded by 10 generations of noble hobgoblin warriorsโis masterwork weapon.
In other words, rather than making skill checks, ability checks, level checks, or *whatever* to determine if a weapon a creature wields is masterwork, this DM is content with just telling the players when a weapon a foe wields is obviously masterwork and doesn't tell the players if the weapon's masterwork if it's narratively appropriate that their PCs wouldn't be able to tell at a glance. | I think weapons can have various visible qualities that rule out the possibility of them being considered masterwork: notches in the blade, bends where things should be straight, and so on. As a DM, I would probably use signs of poor maintenance, like rust, as a sign of low quality weaponsโafter all, even though you *can* fail to give a quality weapon proper maintenance, thatโs not expected in this game where equipment maintenance is hand-waved as assumed to be happening in the background.
But plenty of other things can be wrong with a weapon that arenโt obvious just by seeing the weapon at a distance. Issues with balance and weighting, for example. Maybe portions of it havenโt been hardened properly. Whatever. It seems easily plausible that a weapon could fail to live up to the standards of โmasterwork,โ without actually having any visible defects.
And then, on the flip side, there are certain things in the rules that are always applied solely to masterwork weapons. Most special materials, for example, specify that weapons made from that material are always masterwork. If the material can be recognized, then you can tell itโs masterwork. Likewise, certain distinctive styles might be renowned as always of the highest qualityโfor example, officially katanas are statted as โbastard swords that are always masterwork.โ So if you see a katana, you knew it was masterwork. Similar things might be true in a given campaign world for elven or dwarven or whatever weaponry, perhaps.
Finally, of course, magic weapons are always masterwork. Someone with *detect magic* or similar could therefore recognize masterwork weapons when they are also magical.
So the long and short of it is that there are some weapons that are clearly not masterwork, and other weapons that clearly are masterwork, and then a decent chunk of weapons that cannot be directly determined by visual inspection.
The other thing worth pointing out here is that D&D 3.5e has really minimal rules for โsizing upโ your opponents, at least in martial endeavors. There is no martial analogue to Spellcraft, for example. Many tables play this straight, forcing players to learn about their opponents by making rolls and seeing what is good enough and what is not, for example, to gauge their AC. If the DM rolls opponent rolls openly, attack roll and saving throw bonuses can also be found this way. The problem with this is that you only get to see so many rolls before the fight is decided: it is rare for a fight to go more than 2-3 rounds without a clear victor having emerged (even if mopping up is often necessary). Too much happens on a given turn, in a given round, for this method to really be all that effective.
Itโs also not realistic. Warriors are much better at sizing opponents upโat least in the sense of, โbetter than me,โ โworse than me,โ โabout equal,โ โ*much* better than me,โ and so on. Obviously, the real world doesnโt boil everything down to nice, neat numbers, but โgetting the measureโ of your opponent is a thingโthat phrase, along with โsizing someone up,โ is a phrase because it describes a real process.
So a warrior might not be able to tell how high-quality a weapon is at a glance, but he *will* be able to tell, very quickly, to a general degree how high-quality his opponent is. That gives hints about the quality of his equipment. An opponent *might* have been caught off-guard, and be using whatever weapon he had at hand, or somehow have recently lost his best equipment for some reason, but *most* of the time, a high-quality opponent is likely to have high-quality gear. After all, a masterwork weapon is easily affordable by 2nd level, even on NPC wealth, and well worth it for anyone who plans on hitting anyone with a weapon. Really only 1st-level characters should have non-masterwork weaponsโand even most of those will still have the masterwork version. |
122,017 | Can a weapon wielded during combat be immediately identified as a masterwork weapon simply by looking at it, or does it require some sort of search, appraise, craft(weaponsmithing) or some other ways to see that it is in fact a masterwork weapon ? | 2018/05/07 | [
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/122017",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/users/33770/"
] | I think weapons can have various visible qualities that rule out the possibility of them being considered masterwork: notches in the blade, bends where things should be straight, and so on. As a DM, I would probably use signs of poor maintenance, like rust, as a sign of low quality weaponsโafter all, even though you *can* fail to give a quality weapon proper maintenance, thatโs not expected in this game where equipment maintenance is hand-waved as assumed to be happening in the background.
But plenty of other things can be wrong with a weapon that arenโt obvious just by seeing the weapon at a distance. Issues with balance and weighting, for example. Maybe portions of it havenโt been hardened properly. Whatever. It seems easily plausible that a weapon could fail to live up to the standards of โmasterwork,โ without actually having any visible defects.
And then, on the flip side, there are certain things in the rules that are always applied solely to masterwork weapons. Most special materials, for example, specify that weapons made from that material are always masterwork. If the material can be recognized, then you can tell itโs masterwork. Likewise, certain distinctive styles might be renowned as always of the highest qualityโfor example, officially katanas are statted as โbastard swords that are always masterwork.โ So if you see a katana, you knew it was masterwork. Similar things might be true in a given campaign world for elven or dwarven or whatever weaponry, perhaps.
Finally, of course, magic weapons are always masterwork. Someone with *detect magic* or similar could therefore recognize masterwork weapons when they are also magical.
So the long and short of it is that there are some weapons that are clearly not masterwork, and other weapons that clearly are masterwork, and then a decent chunk of weapons that cannot be directly determined by visual inspection.
The other thing worth pointing out here is that D&D 3.5e has really minimal rules for โsizing upโ your opponents, at least in martial endeavors. There is no martial analogue to Spellcraft, for example. Many tables play this straight, forcing players to learn about their opponents by making rolls and seeing what is good enough and what is not, for example, to gauge their AC. If the DM rolls opponent rolls openly, attack roll and saving throw bonuses can also be found this way. The problem with this is that you only get to see so many rolls before the fight is decided: it is rare for a fight to go more than 2-3 rounds without a clear victor having emerged (even if mopping up is often necessary). Too much happens on a given turn, in a given round, for this method to really be all that effective.
Itโs also not realistic. Warriors are much better at sizing opponents upโat least in the sense of, โbetter than me,โ โworse than me,โ โabout equal,โ โ*much* better than me,โ and so on. Obviously, the real world doesnโt boil everything down to nice, neat numbers, but โgetting the measureโ of your opponent is a thingโthat phrase, along with โsizing someone up,โ is a phrase because it describes a real process.
So a warrior might not be able to tell how high-quality a weapon is at a glance, but he *will* be able to tell, very quickly, to a general degree how high-quality his opponent is. That gives hints about the quality of his equipment. An opponent *might* have been caught off-guard, and be using whatever weapon he had at hand, or somehow have recently lost his best equipment for some reason, but *most* of the time, a high-quality opponent is likely to have high-quality gear. After all, a masterwork weapon is easily affordable by 2nd level, even on NPC wealth, and well worth it for anyone who plans on hitting anyone with a weapon. Really only 1st-level characters should have non-masterwork weaponsโand even most of those will still have the masterwork version. | As part of the Appraise skill description in Rules of the game, it is true that rare items are made by craft with appropriate skills between +10 and +14 and it is also true that the masterwork component of a weapon is DC20 thus a skill modifier of +10 on a take 10 required for the crafter. But the Appraise skill is used to determine the value of an item not its nature. ie. a longsword that is worth 315 gp maybe a masterwork longsword or a ceremonial longsword (used as a normal longsword in combat). If we consider this, we could even adjudicate that someone with an appraise skill could not determine if it is a masterwork item but only that it is worth that much. A rusted/damaged masterwork longsword could be valued at 200 gp instead of the 315gp with an appraise check. On the other hand, someone with a craft skill in the appropriate craft has to recognize something he can do. The crafter would know it's a masterwork weapon, that it is damaged but won't be able to give a value of the item.
Also, it is not clear if appraise can be used on items at all as weapons are defined as weapons and armors as armors in rule books while items are all other objects.
When looking into the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Book and Rules Compendium, there is no rule that states how to recognize a weapon, an exotic weapon or a masterwork weapon. The only rule that exists is for magic weapons that can't be determined unless with something similar to detect magic.
The question is very valid but I can't see anything in the rules that would stop a character to recognize a masterwork item, the same as to recognize an exotic weapon, etc. At this point I would recommend leaving this to the DM to decide and take into consideration that a character with the weapon proficiency should know how to recognize a weapon he can wield and probably a masterwork version by handling it or by seeing someone handling it. And someone with the craft skill modifier of +10 should also be able to recognize a masterwork weapon. You can easily use the DM option of using skills with different modifiers such as a spot check with Int modifier that needs to beat the craft DC. But this is really an example. As long as it is not used to unbalance the game that you decide it is not possible to know or that the PC know automatically. (i. e. if they can't know, then the Sunder combat option for the PC is less interesting since it means they will potentially break and render worthless their loot. On the other hand, you may discover that always knowing and having your barbarians PC take Improved Sunder and Power Attack to break all weapons that are not masterwork will get too much gp value with the masterwork weapons collected to the groul, then you can easily add the "damaged weapon lesser value" that appraise will be used to figure out... or not let them know).
Good question, not sure the answer is what you were looking for but ultimately, it's yours and your players' game. |
122,017 | Can a weapon wielded during combat be immediately identified as a masterwork weapon simply by looking at it, or does it require some sort of search, appraise, craft(weaponsmithing) or some other ways to see that it is in fact a masterwork weapon ? | 2018/05/07 | [
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/122017",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com",
"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/users/33770/"
] | By the rulesโฆ
=============
The *Rules Compendium* on page 12 clarifies and expands the skill Appraise so that a creature can take 1 min. and make an Appraise skill check to determine the value of a rare object (DC 20) like a masterwork weapon. Success means that an untrained appraiser makes an estimate thatโs inaccurate by (2d6+3) ร10% and that a trained appraiser makes an accurate estimate of the objectโs value. Failure means that the appraiser can make no estimate. A creature can instead take a 1-round action to make this check, but the check's DC is increased by +5.
(It's a rare item due to a creature having to make a Craft skill to create the masterwork component (DC 20), therefore the component's craftsman needing to possess a skill bonus of +10 to +14. It also assumes that the craftsman took 10 to create the component instead of the craftsman being an amateur who got lucky or a master who had several bad weeks.)
So far as I'm aware, if the rules are slavishly adhered toโwhich this reader does *not* recommend but totally respectsโ, the Appraise skill may be the game's sole official way to identify a masterwork itemโฆ and, then, only by implication. That is, the appraiser knows (or approximates) the item's value, thenโbecause of the stagnancy of *D&D 3.5* pricesโthe appraiser will probably believe that any item worth vastly more than its list price is *probably* a masterwork item. (The appraiser could still be wrong, of course. The item could have value as an art object rather thanโor in addition toโthe item's *functional* value, but an item's value as an art object may be obvious to even a causal observer.)
โฆBut this DM doesn't follow those rules, and everything's fine
--------------------------------------------------------------
Even this DMโwho encourages at least one PC in any party to have ranks in the skill Appraise so that loot values are easily determinedโwould *never* run things so strictly. Instead, when a creature is armed with a special weapon, I consider the creature, the circumstances, and the weapon, and describe the weapon appropriately. Further, any creature that wields a masterwork weapon knows immediately that it's a masterwork weapon; the same goes for wearing masterwork armor, using a masterwork shield, or employing masterwork tools. (This also saves the DM from having to keep *more* secrets from the PCs!)
For example, the reckless gnoll chieftain Ssorgmi lives in squalor in the Swamp of Icky Slime but wields a masterwork longspear. Ssorgmi's masterwork longspear probably won't be identifiable as a masterwork longspear until after its been cleaned and polished by the PCs who defeated her, and even then it may take the PCs stabbing folks with it a couple of times to *believe* (despite the players being told so by the DM and their PCs getting from it the +1 enhancement bonus on attack rolls) that mud gnoll's masterwork longspear is *really* a masterwork longspear.
On the other hand, Emosewaedud the hobgoblin ronin is meticulous about maintaining his masterwork bastard sword. When he whips that out, the PC's can *hear* that Cuts the Breezeโthe family weapon wielded by 10 generations of noble hobgoblin warriorsโis masterwork weapon.
In other words, rather than making skill checks, ability checks, level checks, or *whatever* to determine if a weapon a creature wields is masterwork, this DM is content with just telling the players when a weapon a foe wields is obviously masterwork and doesn't tell the players if the weapon's masterwork if it's narratively appropriate that their PCs wouldn't be able to tell at a glance. | As part of the Appraise skill description in Rules of the game, it is true that rare items are made by craft with appropriate skills between +10 and +14 and it is also true that the masterwork component of a weapon is DC20 thus a skill modifier of +10 on a take 10 required for the crafter. But the Appraise skill is used to determine the value of an item not its nature. ie. a longsword that is worth 315 gp maybe a masterwork longsword or a ceremonial longsword (used as a normal longsword in combat). If we consider this, we could even adjudicate that someone with an appraise skill could not determine if it is a masterwork item but only that it is worth that much. A rusted/damaged masterwork longsword could be valued at 200 gp instead of the 315gp with an appraise check. On the other hand, someone with a craft skill in the appropriate craft has to recognize something he can do. The crafter would know it's a masterwork weapon, that it is damaged but won't be able to give a value of the item.
Also, it is not clear if appraise can be used on items at all as weapons are defined as weapons and armors as armors in rule books while items are all other objects.
When looking into the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Book and Rules Compendium, there is no rule that states how to recognize a weapon, an exotic weapon or a masterwork weapon. The only rule that exists is for magic weapons that can't be determined unless with something similar to detect magic.
The question is very valid but I can't see anything in the rules that would stop a character to recognize a masterwork item, the same as to recognize an exotic weapon, etc. At this point I would recommend leaving this to the DM to decide and take into consideration that a character with the weapon proficiency should know how to recognize a weapon he can wield and probably a masterwork version by handling it or by seeing someone handling it. And someone with the craft skill modifier of +10 should also be able to recognize a masterwork weapon. You can easily use the DM option of using skills with different modifiers such as a spot check with Int modifier that needs to beat the craft DC. But this is really an example. As long as it is not used to unbalance the game that you decide it is not possible to know or that the PC know automatically. (i. e. if they can't know, then the Sunder combat option for the PC is less interesting since it means they will potentially break and render worthless their loot. On the other hand, you may discover that always knowing and having your barbarians PC take Improved Sunder and Power Attack to break all weapons that are not masterwork will get too much gp value with the masterwork weapons collected to the groul, then you can easily add the "damaged weapon lesser value" that appraise will be used to figure out... or not let them know).
Good question, not sure the answer is what you were looking for but ultimately, it's yours and your players' game. |
129,659 | >
> *For the sake of simplicity, the prototypical character of this sort will be Bob. He is as normal as normal gets.*
>
>
>
The elongated form of my question: **If a normal human from our world was transported to a world where magic exists but is only usable because biological processes make it possible, what would allow a normal human to be able to use magic despite not having those processes?** (Clarification is in the following explanation.)
Character Background
====================
Assume a regular human from our world who CAN'T use magic. He's transported to a fantasy world with magic. He has average skills and knowledge that doesn't help in being able to use or learn magic in this world. He's NOT the only person isekai'd away. **Whatever works for him should work for anyone else who wants to do the same.**
World Background
================
The world is your standard medieval, high fantasy world. The world is effectively a combination of an MMO and a unique world in its own right. There are many, many different races, more than a few unique to my story, albeit some of them share similarities to other concepts out there.
Some people in this world can use their mana to effect magic. Manipulation of their magical energy is a biological process that *some* have developed access to. (These people are what you'd consider mages, spell-casters, etc.) Not everybody can do so, but only because not everybody has taken the time to learn how. It's a process all of these humans have access to, but cont everybody does so, just like how not everybody chooses to become a singer in a rock band from the 80s.
Everyone in this world is "low-level". While the higher level characters can do some special skills like alchemy, it's a rarity. Magic usage is limited and mostly relegated to the basics. (It's pronounced, "*Leviosaaaa*!") The "master alchemists" by this world's standards can barely make potions, but those basic potions are still a marked improvement over the salves and powders made by pharmacists. Whereas a master alchemist in the game could not only make extremely potent HP and Mana potions, a master alchemist in this world can barely make a healing potion, but it's the fact they succeed that makes them referred to as "masters". This means these otherworldly immigrants can NOT rely on the people of this world to create something to give them magic or to have advanced or complex equipment to do so.
Mana Biological Process Explanation
===================================
Mana is everywhere. Think of it like oxygen. If oxygen binds to hemoglobin, we can call the chemical (likely a protein much in the same vein as hemoglobin) in the body that mana binds to managlobin (because I am very creative). Bob does not have any managlobin, meaning his body cannot absorb and maintain a supply of mana for him to use. If he does manage to get a usable supply of mana from an outside source by some means, it would dissipate fairly quickly as it can't bind to him as is.
As for people being able to use magic, think of it like breathing. Everyone breathes, obviously, but not everybody can control their breathing well without practice and training. You can look at singers and athletes as a comparison for this. They control their breathing so that they can perform as they do. Have someone who doesn't know how to control their breathing do the same thing, and they will struggle if not outright fail. As a result, most people in this world don't know/use magic. It's a minority of people who either dabbled in it in their spare time, were trained specifically to use magic, or were born incredibly lucky meaning they're basically cheating at life. (You know the type.) While there would be enough people to teach the basics of magic, that doesn't solve the issue of the natural inability of these otherworlders to hold mana to use in their magic.
Complications
=============
Mana is basically woven into the life of this world. So, by this world's standards, Bob isn't technically any more "alive" than a rock is. A golem at least has mana flowing into it to animate it, meaning a golem is considered to be more alive than Bob as far as their indication of life is concerned.
On the upside, because his body doesn't use mana at all, he's protected from the side effects of mana deficiency: headache, loss of consciousness, pain, and (if prolonged) death.
Additionally, *Bob isn't the only one from "our" world who was sent to this world.* Meaning, if any of these people want to learn magic, any process that works for Bob needs to be equally available to them. Solutions need to reflect this.
Additional Notes:
=================
We *could* cheat by giving him an artifact or skill that also makes it so he can use magic despite not having mana, but that is cheating and cheating is wrong. Let's not cheat. Even though it may exist in the world, Bob would have no way of knowing that, no way of finding those items, and no way of getting to the items without major acts of god basically handing them over to him. Also, others wouldn't be able to replicate that since the artifact would be gone.
They could just relax and live an easy life without needing to know how to use magic, but that is a boring answer that doesn't actually solve the root of the question.
Since these people are not built for this world they're now in, being able to manipulate mana to use magic should be a challenge; success in learning and using magic needs to make sense and be limited due to this status.
*Everything* in this world that is living or animated has mana in it. It is this world's version of determining life. Just as we determine life by certain variable factors; this is no different. If they try to join the local adventurer's guild, they should be unable to formally join because the registration system won't be able to recognize them as "living".
When someone like Bob gets the ability to learn/use magic, I want it to be limited, but able to grow.
They also can't just be gifted "managlobin" by one of the more inherently magical races.
This question was edited in response to the question being put on hold. I hope by cleaning it up and removing story-specific details it better fits policy.
For the sake of making sure there can be a Correct Answer:
==========================================================
The following is a checklist for a correct answer using only things from my
original Question. (Meaning it shouldn't invalidate any previously given answers if they were valid in the first place.)
* **A correct answer will have something that ANY character from the "real world" would be able to do and gain benefit from.**
* **It needs to be something that is a challenge to attain but it can't be a matter of immense fortune** (in the respect of money or luck) in order to be able to hold mana/use magic. While I could make it be something where a degree of money or luck is involved, it can't be something that comes across as deus ex machina or overly restrictive. *The challenge very well could be something that simply takes a long time to occur, though. It doesn't have to be physically grueling.*
* **It cannot be something done exclusively through a rare artifact.** As far as the people trapped in this world know, items from the game world don't necessarily exist in this world. There will be notable similarities between the worlds, but it'd be a leap in logic to say, "These places share similarities so there MUST be this powerful item somewhere in this world." Even if they do come to that conclusion, there'd be no way of finding this item without going on a Quest. (It's not that they don't exist, it's just that it'd be impossible to make use of for the average person.)
* **It cannot be done through a Quest.** Not to say a quest line is out of the question *(kill 10 slimes, now kill 3 beavers, now take me to see my granddaughter in the next town over, now kill 25 giant spiders, now fetch my glasses which I left back at my house when we left)*, but assume going on a major capital-Q Quest to an undisclosed location is too prohibitive.
* **It should not be something that could in turn make a person more or less capable of otherwise using magic.** For example, a dietary reason. (Just an example.) It should only give the potential to use magic. If a person eats 50 of a fruit, they should not be inherently superior to somebody who eats 20 of the same fruit or 60 of a different fruit. While it can give some degree of boost and benefit, it shouldn't be that important that whoever has the most fruit is now god. Alternatively, if a native from that world refuses to ever eat that fruit, (still just an example,) they should not be inherently incapable of using magic if they so wished to learn. Use of magic for the natives should still be a skill derived from an evolved trait (like with good singing), but use of magic for those from "our" world should be something they can still gain.
* **It should be something that could occur through a biological or pseudo-scientific process.** Eating a substance, absorption of a chemical native and common to this world, and so forth are ways people have already recommended that are similar in nature of "ingest the necessary compound and hope the body can digest and use it." Alternatively, a recommendation of "emulating the effects of magic through distilling the compound from the blood" was another way. It should be a matter of Occam's Razor for the answer. While I'm fine with using a scientific method, there should be a reason why the characters would find that as the answer and be able to use it. In short:
* **It should also be simple in its complexity.** The answer shouldn't convoluted. The answer should be something accessible even if hidden. (Hidden in plain sight is valid.) This is sort of the reason why "naturally developed by eating the local cuisine where the compound is commonly available" is a better answer than "go through a long, complex process of SCIENCE! in order to synthesize a compound that can be mixed with other materials to emulate the effects of magic." Science can be an answer, but it should be a simpler form fitting of medieval science.
Most of the answers so far hit a couple of these boxes. One of which (the ingestion answer) is so far the best answer I have so far seen when combined with details given by other users in its comments. None of the answers so far hits every last one of these checkboxes, though. The whole "it can't be something that abuse makes one overpowered and lack of use makes someone underpowered" criteria being the check box that isn't being filled in the so far best answer. That said, I hope this checklist helps make the criteria more clear and to help re-open this post. | 2018/11/09 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/129659",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/56536/"
] | One possibility is a virus.
A virus can damage DNA. So it can be used to alter the DNA.
Bob gets sick after meeting some of the indigenous people. This changes his DNA to a certain extend. Over time as his cells reproduce with the new DNA he will get mana in his body. The longer he lives the more Mana he will produce until finaly all his cells were produced with the new DNA. The more mana he has the easier it gets for him to learn and use magic.
If you talk about viruses in your story you might want to give Bob a decontamination before entering this new world. Otherwise he will introduce the viruses from earth to the indigenous people like it happened to america.
Another posibility would be a symbiant. This symbiant may like his body which has no own managlobin so there is no clash between its magic and its hosts. As the symbiant gets stronger Bob will be able to leach more mana from it. | Bob has detailled knowledge about the game he played, so he knows about items that enhance abilities either permanently or temporarily. As in any game, these items are quite rare.
Initially, since he is virtually "dead", he is not affected by spells that target living matter (like mind control or paralyze). But he is very much affected by spells that target nonliving matter (like necromancer spells). His only luck is that these spells are usually not casted in populated areas and on moving and breathing targets.
Bob needs to find a permanent magic enhancer and use it. It could be a potion he drinks that causes his body to create managlobin or a prolonged stay in a sacred cave where he inhales natural gases that enrich his body with managlobin. He should feel the effect of the enhancement like a high, feeling connected with his surroundings and experiencing everything more intense.
Bob notices that he is now affected by spells targeting living matter.
Then he needs to start training the control of mana. He should realize that the amount of managlobin in his blood is barely enough to create the smallest magical effects (no more than harmless poltergeist stuff), so he starts searching for the next magic enhancer.
During his adventure, he realizes that temporary magic enhancers work on him as well, giving him enough managlobin to cast one bigger spell for a limited amount of time. But the more managlobin in his blood, the more intense the effects of spells are on him.
That adds the strategic element to magical confrontations. Is the opponent casting a fireball and he needs to drink his mana potion *now* to defend against it or is the opponent casting a paralyzing spell and *not* drinking the mana potion protects Bob against the effect? |
129,659 | >
> *For the sake of simplicity, the prototypical character of this sort will be Bob. He is as normal as normal gets.*
>
>
>
The elongated form of my question: **If a normal human from our world was transported to a world where magic exists but is only usable because biological processes make it possible, what would allow a normal human to be able to use magic despite not having those processes?** (Clarification is in the following explanation.)
Character Background
====================
Assume a regular human from our world who CAN'T use magic. He's transported to a fantasy world with magic. He has average skills and knowledge that doesn't help in being able to use or learn magic in this world. He's NOT the only person isekai'd away. **Whatever works for him should work for anyone else who wants to do the same.**
World Background
================
The world is your standard medieval, high fantasy world. The world is effectively a combination of an MMO and a unique world in its own right. There are many, many different races, more than a few unique to my story, albeit some of them share similarities to other concepts out there.
Some people in this world can use their mana to effect magic. Manipulation of their magical energy is a biological process that *some* have developed access to. (These people are what you'd consider mages, spell-casters, etc.) Not everybody can do so, but only because not everybody has taken the time to learn how. It's a process all of these humans have access to, but cont everybody does so, just like how not everybody chooses to become a singer in a rock band from the 80s.
Everyone in this world is "low-level". While the higher level characters can do some special skills like alchemy, it's a rarity. Magic usage is limited and mostly relegated to the basics. (It's pronounced, "*Leviosaaaa*!") The "master alchemists" by this world's standards can barely make potions, but those basic potions are still a marked improvement over the salves and powders made by pharmacists. Whereas a master alchemist in the game could not only make extremely potent HP and Mana potions, a master alchemist in this world can barely make a healing potion, but it's the fact they succeed that makes them referred to as "masters". This means these otherworldly immigrants can NOT rely on the people of this world to create something to give them magic or to have advanced or complex equipment to do so.
Mana Biological Process Explanation
===================================
Mana is everywhere. Think of it like oxygen. If oxygen binds to hemoglobin, we can call the chemical (likely a protein much in the same vein as hemoglobin) in the body that mana binds to managlobin (because I am very creative). Bob does not have any managlobin, meaning his body cannot absorb and maintain a supply of mana for him to use. If he does manage to get a usable supply of mana from an outside source by some means, it would dissipate fairly quickly as it can't bind to him as is.
As for people being able to use magic, think of it like breathing. Everyone breathes, obviously, but not everybody can control their breathing well without practice and training. You can look at singers and athletes as a comparison for this. They control their breathing so that they can perform as they do. Have someone who doesn't know how to control their breathing do the same thing, and they will struggle if not outright fail. As a result, most people in this world don't know/use magic. It's a minority of people who either dabbled in it in their spare time, were trained specifically to use magic, or were born incredibly lucky meaning they're basically cheating at life. (You know the type.) While there would be enough people to teach the basics of magic, that doesn't solve the issue of the natural inability of these otherworlders to hold mana to use in their magic.
Complications
=============
Mana is basically woven into the life of this world. So, by this world's standards, Bob isn't technically any more "alive" than a rock is. A golem at least has mana flowing into it to animate it, meaning a golem is considered to be more alive than Bob as far as their indication of life is concerned.
On the upside, because his body doesn't use mana at all, he's protected from the side effects of mana deficiency: headache, loss of consciousness, pain, and (if prolonged) death.
Additionally, *Bob isn't the only one from "our" world who was sent to this world.* Meaning, if any of these people want to learn magic, any process that works for Bob needs to be equally available to them. Solutions need to reflect this.
Additional Notes:
=================
We *could* cheat by giving him an artifact or skill that also makes it so he can use magic despite not having mana, but that is cheating and cheating is wrong. Let's not cheat. Even though it may exist in the world, Bob would have no way of knowing that, no way of finding those items, and no way of getting to the items without major acts of god basically handing them over to him. Also, others wouldn't be able to replicate that since the artifact would be gone.
They could just relax and live an easy life without needing to know how to use magic, but that is a boring answer that doesn't actually solve the root of the question.
Since these people are not built for this world they're now in, being able to manipulate mana to use magic should be a challenge; success in learning and using magic needs to make sense and be limited due to this status.
*Everything* in this world that is living or animated has mana in it. It is this world's version of determining life. Just as we determine life by certain variable factors; this is no different. If they try to join the local adventurer's guild, they should be unable to formally join because the registration system won't be able to recognize them as "living".
When someone like Bob gets the ability to learn/use magic, I want it to be limited, but able to grow.
They also can't just be gifted "managlobin" by one of the more inherently magical races.
This question was edited in response to the question being put on hold. I hope by cleaning it up and removing story-specific details it better fits policy.
For the sake of making sure there can be a Correct Answer:
==========================================================
The following is a checklist for a correct answer using only things from my
original Question. (Meaning it shouldn't invalidate any previously given answers if they were valid in the first place.)
* **A correct answer will have something that ANY character from the "real world" would be able to do and gain benefit from.**
* **It needs to be something that is a challenge to attain but it can't be a matter of immense fortune** (in the respect of money or luck) in order to be able to hold mana/use magic. While I could make it be something where a degree of money or luck is involved, it can't be something that comes across as deus ex machina or overly restrictive. *The challenge very well could be something that simply takes a long time to occur, though. It doesn't have to be physically grueling.*
* **It cannot be something done exclusively through a rare artifact.** As far as the people trapped in this world know, items from the game world don't necessarily exist in this world. There will be notable similarities between the worlds, but it'd be a leap in logic to say, "These places share similarities so there MUST be this powerful item somewhere in this world." Even if they do come to that conclusion, there'd be no way of finding this item without going on a Quest. (It's not that they don't exist, it's just that it'd be impossible to make use of for the average person.)
* **It cannot be done through a Quest.** Not to say a quest line is out of the question *(kill 10 slimes, now kill 3 beavers, now take me to see my granddaughter in the next town over, now kill 25 giant spiders, now fetch my glasses which I left back at my house when we left)*, but assume going on a major capital-Q Quest to an undisclosed location is too prohibitive.
* **It should not be something that could in turn make a person more or less capable of otherwise using magic.** For example, a dietary reason. (Just an example.) It should only give the potential to use magic. If a person eats 50 of a fruit, they should not be inherently superior to somebody who eats 20 of the same fruit or 60 of a different fruit. While it can give some degree of boost and benefit, it shouldn't be that important that whoever has the most fruit is now god. Alternatively, if a native from that world refuses to ever eat that fruit, (still just an example,) they should not be inherently incapable of using magic if they so wished to learn. Use of magic for the natives should still be a skill derived from an evolved trait (like with good singing), but use of magic for those from "our" world should be something they can still gain.
* **It should be something that could occur through a biological or pseudo-scientific process.** Eating a substance, absorption of a chemical native and common to this world, and so forth are ways people have already recommended that are similar in nature of "ingest the necessary compound and hope the body can digest and use it." Alternatively, a recommendation of "emulating the effects of magic through distilling the compound from the blood" was another way. It should be a matter of Occam's Razor for the answer. While I'm fine with using a scientific method, there should be a reason why the characters would find that as the answer and be able to use it. In short:
* **It should also be simple in its complexity.** The answer shouldn't convoluted. The answer should be something accessible even if hidden. (Hidden in plain sight is valid.) This is sort of the reason why "naturally developed by eating the local cuisine where the compound is commonly available" is a better answer than "go through a long, complex process of SCIENCE! in order to synthesize a compound that can be mixed with other materials to emulate the effects of magic." Science can be an answer, but it should be a simpler form fitting of medieval science.
Most of the answers so far hit a couple of these boxes. One of which (the ingestion answer) is so far the best answer I have so far seen when combined with details given by other users in its comments. None of the answers so far hits every last one of these checkboxes, though. The whole "it can't be something that abuse makes one overpowered and lack of use makes someone underpowered" criteria being the check box that isn't being filled in the so far best answer. That said, I hope this checklist helps make the criteria more clear and to help re-open this post. | 2018/11/09 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/129659",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/56536/"
] | One possibility is a virus.
A virus can damage DNA. So it can be used to alter the DNA.
Bob gets sick after meeting some of the indigenous people. This changes his DNA to a certain extend. Over time as his cells reproduce with the new DNA he will get mana in his body. The longer he lives the more Mana he will produce until finaly all his cells were produced with the new DNA. The more mana he has the easier it gets for him to learn and use magic.
If you talk about viruses in your story you might want to give Bob a decontamination before entering this new world. Otherwise he will introduce the viruses from earth to the indigenous people like it happened to america.
Another posibility would be a symbiant. This symbiant may like his body which has no own managlobin so there is no clash between its magic and its hosts. As the symbiant gets stronger Bob will be able to leach more mana from it. | Perhaps the solution to your problem is magic; some powerful good witch casts a spell to transform Bob, out of kindness for something brave and selfless that Bob did. Or she gives him a device, a ring or bracelet that once he puts it on he cannot remove it, that is (magically) taking mana from the air and transfusing it into his blood.
So you have a mentor or ally or grateful stranger Bob meets; early on he has no magic, but after a week wearing this device he starts being able to do small conjurings, then more, etc. Turns out he is a natural. |
129,659 | >
> *For the sake of simplicity, the prototypical character of this sort will be Bob. He is as normal as normal gets.*
>
>
>
The elongated form of my question: **If a normal human from our world was transported to a world where magic exists but is only usable because biological processes make it possible, what would allow a normal human to be able to use magic despite not having those processes?** (Clarification is in the following explanation.)
Character Background
====================
Assume a regular human from our world who CAN'T use magic. He's transported to a fantasy world with magic. He has average skills and knowledge that doesn't help in being able to use or learn magic in this world. He's NOT the only person isekai'd away. **Whatever works for him should work for anyone else who wants to do the same.**
World Background
================
The world is your standard medieval, high fantasy world. The world is effectively a combination of an MMO and a unique world in its own right. There are many, many different races, more than a few unique to my story, albeit some of them share similarities to other concepts out there.
Some people in this world can use their mana to effect magic. Manipulation of their magical energy is a biological process that *some* have developed access to. (These people are what you'd consider mages, spell-casters, etc.) Not everybody can do so, but only because not everybody has taken the time to learn how. It's a process all of these humans have access to, but cont everybody does so, just like how not everybody chooses to become a singer in a rock band from the 80s.
Everyone in this world is "low-level". While the higher level characters can do some special skills like alchemy, it's a rarity. Magic usage is limited and mostly relegated to the basics. (It's pronounced, "*Leviosaaaa*!") The "master alchemists" by this world's standards can barely make potions, but those basic potions are still a marked improvement over the salves and powders made by pharmacists. Whereas a master alchemist in the game could not only make extremely potent HP and Mana potions, a master alchemist in this world can barely make a healing potion, but it's the fact they succeed that makes them referred to as "masters". This means these otherworldly immigrants can NOT rely on the people of this world to create something to give them magic or to have advanced or complex equipment to do so.
Mana Biological Process Explanation
===================================
Mana is everywhere. Think of it like oxygen. If oxygen binds to hemoglobin, we can call the chemical (likely a protein much in the same vein as hemoglobin) in the body that mana binds to managlobin (because I am very creative). Bob does not have any managlobin, meaning his body cannot absorb and maintain a supply of mana for him to use. If he does manage to get a usable supply of mana from an outside source by some means, it would dissipate fairly quickly as it can't bind to him as is.
As for people being able to use magic, think of it like breathing. Everyone breathes, obviously, but not everybody can control their breathing well without practice and training. You can look at singers and athletes as a comparison for this. They control their breathing so that they can perform as they do. Have someone who doesn't know how to control their breathing do the same thing, and they will struggle if not outright fail. As a result, most people in this world don't know/use magic. It's a minority of people who either dabbled in it in their spare time, were trained specifically to use magic, or were born incredibly lucky meaning they're basically cheating at life. (You know the type.) While there would be enough people to teach the basics of magic, that doesn't solve the issue of the natural inability of these otherworlders to hold mana to use in their magic.
Complications
=============
Mana is basically woven into the life of this world. So, by this world's standards, Bob isn't technically any more "alive" than a rock is. A golem at least has mana flowing into it to animate it, meaning a golem is considered to be more alive than Bob as far as their indication of life is concerned.
On the upside, because his body doesn't use mana at all, he's protected from the side effects of mana deficiency: headache, loss of consciousness, pain, and (if prolonged) death.
Additionally, *Bob isn't the only one from "our" world who was sent to this world.* Meaning, if any of these people want to learn magic, any process that works for Bob needs to be equally available to them. Solutions need to reflect this.
Additional Notes:
=================
We *could* cheat by giving him an artifact or skill that also makes it so he can use magic despite not having mana, but that is cheating and cheating is wrong. Let's not cheat. Even though it may exist in the world, Bob would have no way of knowing that, no way of finding those items, and no way of getting to the items without major acts of god basically handing them over to him. Also, others wouldn't be able to replicate that since the artifact would be gone.
They could just relax and live an easy life without needing to know how to use magic, but that is a boring answer that doesn't actually solve the root of the question.
Since these people are not built for this world they're now in, being able to manipulate mana to use magic should be a challenge; success in learning and using magic needs to make sense and be limited due to this status.
*Everything* in this world that is living or animated has mana in it. It is this world's version of determining life. Just as we determine life by certain variable factors; this is no different. If they try to join the local adventurer's guild, they should be unable to formally join because the registration system won't be able to recognize them as "living".
When someone like Bob gets the ability to learn/use magic, I want it to be limited, but able to grow.
They also can't just be gifted "managlobin" by one of the more inherently magical races.
This question was edited in response to the question being put on hold. I hope by cleaning it up and removing story-specific details it better fits policy.
For the sake of making sure there can be a Correct Answer:
==========================================================
The following is a checklist for a correct answer using only things from my
original Question. (Meaning it shouldn't invalidate any previously given answers if they were valid in the first place.)
* **A correct answer will have something that ANY character from the "real world" would be able to do and gain benefit from.**
* **It needs to be something that is a challenge to attain but it can't be a matter of immense fortune** (in the respect of money or luck) in order to be able to hold mana/use magic. While I could make it be something where a degree of money or luck is involved, it can't be something that comes across as deus ex machina or overly restrictive. *The challenge very well could be something that simply takes a long time to occur, though. It doesn't have to be physically grueling.*
* **It cannot be something done exclusively through a rare artifact.** As far as the people trapped in this world know, items from the game world don't necessarily exist in this world. There will be notable similarities between the worlds, but it'd be a leap in logic to say, "These places share similarities so there MUST be this powerful item somewhere in this world." Even if they do come to that conclusion, there'd be no way of finding this item without going on a Quest. (It's not that they don't exist, it's just that it'd be impossible to make use of for the average person.)
* **It cannot be done through a Quest.** Not to say a quest line is out of the question *(kill 10 slimes, now kill 3 beavers, now take me to see my granddaughter in the next town over, now kill 25 giant spiders, now fetch my glasses which I left back at my house when we left)*, but assume going on a major capital-Q Quest to an undisclosed location is too prohibitive.
* **It should not be something that could in turn make a person more or less capable of otherwise using magic.** For example, a dietary reason. (Just an example.) It should only give the potential to use magic. If a person eats 50 of a fruit, they should not be inherently superior to somebody who eats 20 of the same fruit or 60 of a different fruit. While it can give some degree of boost and benefit, it shouldn't be that important that whoever has the most fruit is now god. Alternatively, if a native from that world refuses to ever eat that fruit, (still just an example,) they should not be inherently incapable of using magic if they so wished to learn. Use of magic for the natives should still be a skill derived from an evolved trait (like with good singing), but use of magic for those from "our" world should be something they can still gain.
* **It should be something that could occur through a biological or pseudo-scientific process.** Eating a substance, absorption of a chemical native and common to this world, and so forth are ways people have already recommended that are similar in nature of "ingest the necessary compound and hope the body can digest and use it." Alternatively, a recommendation of "emulating the effects of magic through distilling the compound from the blood" was another way. It should be a matter of Occam's Razor for the answer. While I'm fine with using a scientific method, there should be a reason why the characters would find that as the answer and be able to use it. In short:
* **It should also be simple in its complexity.** The answer shouldn't convoluted. The answer should be something accessible even if hidden. (Hidden in plain sight is valid.) This is sort of the reason why "naturally developed by eating the local cuisine where the compound is commonly available" is a better answer than "go through a long, complex process of SCIENCE! in order to synthesize a compound that can be mixed with other materials to emulate the effects of magic." Science can be an answer, but it should be a simpler form fitting of medieval science.
Most of the answers so far hit a couple of these boxes. One of which (the ingestion answer) is so far the best answer I have so far seen when combined with details given by other users in its comments. None of the answers so far hits every last one of these checkboxes, though. The whole "it can't be something that abuse makes one overpowered and lack of use makes someone underpowered" criteria being the check box that isn't being filled in the so far best answer. That said, I hope this checklist helps make the criteria more clear and to help re-open this post. | 2018/11/09 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/129659",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/56536/"
] | It may not entirely fit with a typical medieval fantasy world, but what if Bob were to receive a blood transfusion after a serious injury, and the blood he was given (being of the magical world) contained managlobins and started his body producing them itself.
The biggest issue is probably one of technology, in our world the first blood transfusion didn't happen till 1665, well over 150 years after the end of the late medieval period.
But perhaps the use of magic allows some kind of rudimentary blood transfusion to take place despite the other inferior technology level?
The upside of this explanation is that unlike absorbing mana through eating or just living in the world he would only develop magical abilities after being saved from a life threatening injury (so you can control exactly where it happens in the story).
And due to the dangerous and experimental nature of the transfusion process it's unlikely others like Bob would voluntarily undergo it in an attempt to receive magical powers unless they were really desperate.
Of course you might also have to explain how the blood types of the people in your fantasy world are compatible with Bob or other real world humans, but I think that's a fairly minor hand wave in the grand scheme of things. | Perhaps the solution to your problem is magic; some powerful good witch casts a spell to transform Bob, out of kindness for something brave and selfless that Bob did. Or she gives him a device, a ring or bracelet that once he puts it on he cannot remove it, that is (magically) taking mana from the air and transfusing it into his blood.
So you have a mentor or ally or grateful stranger Bob meets; early on he has no magic, but after a week wearing this device he starts being able to do small conjurings, then more, etc. Turns out he is a natural. |
129,659 | >
> *For the sake of simplicity, the prototypical character of this sort will be Bob. He is as normal as normal gets.*
>
>
>
The elongated form of my question: **If a normal human from our world was transported to a world where magic exists but is only usable because biological processes make it possible, what would allow a normal human to be able to use magic despite not having those processes?** (Clarification is in the following explanation.)
Character Background
====================
Assume a regular human from our world who CAN'T use magic. He's transported to a fantasy world with magic. He has average skills and knowledge that doesn't help in being able to use or learn magic in this world. He's NOT the only person isekai'd away. **Whatever works for him should work for anyone else who wants to do the same.**
World Background
================
The world is your standard medieval, high fantasy world. The world is effectively a combination of an MMO and a unique world in its own right. There are many, many different races, more than a few unique to my story, albeit some of them share similarities to other concepts out there.
Some people in this world can use their mana to effect magic. Manipulation of their magical energy is a biological process that *some* have developed access to. (These people are what you'd consider mages, spell-casters, etc.) Not everybody can do so, but only because not everybody has taken the time to learn how. It's a process all of these humans have access to, but cont everybody does so, just like how not everybody chooses to become a singer in a rock band from the 80s.
Everyone in this world is "low-level". While the higher level characters can do some special skills like alchemy, it's a rarity. Magic usage is limited and mostly relegated to the basics. (It's pronounced, "*Leviosaaaa*!") The "master alchemists" by this world's standards can barely make potions, but those basic potions are still a marked improvement over the salves and powders made by pharmacists. Whereas a master alchemist in the game could not only make extremely potent HP and Mana potions, a master alchemist in this world can barely make a healing potion, but it's the fact they succeed that makes them referred to as "masters". This means these otherworldly immigrants can NOT rely on the people of this world to create something to give them magic or to have advanced or complex equipment to do so.
Mana Biological Process Explanation
===================================
Mana is everywhere. Think of it like oxygen. If oxygen binds to hemoglobin, we can call the chemical (likely a protein much in the same vein as hemoglobin) in the body that mana binds to managlobin (because I am very creative). Bob does not have any managlobin, meaning his body cannot absorb and maintain a supply of mana for him to use. If he does manage to get a usable supply of mana from an outside source by some means, it would dissipate fairly quickly as it can't bind to him as is.
As for people being able to use magic, think of it like breathing. Everyone breathes, obviously, but not everybody can control their breathing well without practice and training. You can look at singers and athletes as a comparison for this. They control their breathing so that they can perform as they do. Have someone who doesn't know how to control their breathing do the same thing, and they will struggle if not outright fail. As a result, most people in this world don't know/use magic. It's a minority of people who either dabbled in it in their spare time, were trained specifically to use magic, or were born incredibly lucky meaning they're basically cheating at life. (You know the type.) While there would be enough people to teach the basics of magic, that doesn't solve the issue of the natural inability of these otherworlders to hold mana to use in their magic.
Complications
=============
Mana is basically woven into the life of this world. So, by this world's standards, Bob isn't technically any more "alive" than a rock is. A golem at least has mana flowing into it to animate it, meaning a golem is considered to be more alive than Bob as far as their indication of life is concerned.
On the upside, because his body doesn't use mana at all, he's protected from the side effects of mana deficiency: headache, loss of consciousness, pain, and (if prolonged) death.
Additionally, *Bob isn't the only one from "our" world who was sent to this world.* Meaning, if any of these people want to learn magic, any process that works for Bob needs to be equally available to them. Solutions need to reflect this.
Additional Notes:
=================
We *could* cheat by giving him an artifact or skill that also makes it so he can use magic despite not having mana, but that is cheating and cheating is wrong. Let's not cheat. Even though it may exist in the world, Bob would have no way of knowing that, no way of finding those items, and no way of getting to the items without major acts of god basically handing them over to him. Also, others wouldn't be able to replicate that since the artifact would be gone.
They could just relax and live an easy life without needing to know how to use magic, but that is a boring answer that doesn't actually solve the root of the question.
Since these people are not built for this world they're now in, being able to manipulate mana to use magic should be a challenge; success in learning and using magic needs to make sense and be limited due to this status.
*Everything* in this world that is living or animated has mana in it. It is this world's version of determining life. Just as we determine life by certain variable factors; this is no different. If they try to join the local adventurer's guild, they should be unable to formally join because the registration system won't be able to recognize them as "living".
When someone like Bob gets the ability to learn/use magic, I want it to be limited, but able to grow.
They also can't just be gifted "managlobin" by one of the more inherently magical races.
This question was edited in response to the question being put on hold. I hope by cleaning it up and removing story-specific details it better fits policy.
For the sake of making sure there can be a Correct Answer:
==========================================================
The following is a checklist for a correct answer using only things from my
original Question. (Meaning it shouldn't invalidate any previously given answers if they were valid in the first place.)
* **A correct answer will have something that ANY character from the "real world" would be able to do and gain benefit from.**
* **It needs to be something that is a challenge to attain but it can't be a matter of immense fortune** (in the respect of money or luck) in order to be able to hold mana/use magic. While I could make it be something where a degree of money or luck is involved, it can't be something that comes across as deus ex machina or overly restrictive. *The challenge very well could be something that simply takes a long time to occur, though. It doesn't have to be physically grueling.*
* **It cannot be something done exclusively through a rare artifact.** As far as the people trapped in this world know, items from the game world don't necessarily exist in this world. There will be notable similarities between the worlds, but it'd be a leap in logic to say, "These places share similarities so there MUST be this powerful item somewhere in this world." Even if they do come to that conclusion, there'd be no way of finding this item without going on a Quest. (It's not that they don't exist, it's just that it'd be impossible to make use of for the average person.)
* **It cannot be done through a Quest.** Not to say a quest line is out of the question *(kill 10 slimes, now kill 3 beavers, now take me to see my granddaughter in the next town over, now kill 25 giant spiders, now fetch my glasses which I left back at my house when we left)*, but assume going on a major capital-Q Quest to an undisclosed location is too prohibitive.
* **It should not be something that could in turn make a person more or less capable of otherwise using magic.** For example, a dietary reason. (Just an example.) It should only give the potential to use magic. If a person eats 50 of a fruit, they should not be inherently superior to somebody who eats 20 of the same fruit or 60 of a different fruit. While it can give some degree of boost and benefit, it shouldn't be that important that whoever has the most fruit is now god. Alternatively, if a native from that world refuses to ever eat that fruit, (still just an example,) they should not be inherently incapable of using magic if they so wished to learn. Use of magic for the natives should still be a skill derived from an evolved trait (like with good singing), but use of magic for those from "our" world should be something they can still gain.
* **It should be something that could occur through a biological or pseudo-scientific process.** Eating a substance, absorption of a chemical native and common to this world, and so forth are ways people have already recommended that are similar in nature of "ingest the necessary compound and hope the body can digest and use it." Alternatively, a recommendation of "emulating the effects of magic through distilling the compound from the blood" was another way. It should be a matter of Occam's Razor for the answer. While I'm fine with using a scientific method, there should be a reason why the characters would find that as the answer and be able to use it. In short:
* **It should also be simple in its complexity.** The answer shouldn't convoluted. The answer should be something accessible even if hidden. (Hidden in plain sight is valid.) This is sort of the reason why "naturally developed by eating the local cuisine where the compound is commonly available" is a better answer than "go through a long, complex process of SCIENCE! in order to synthesize a compound that can be mixed with other materials to emulate the effects of magic." Science can be an answer, but it should be a simpler form fitting of medieval science.
Most of the answers so far hit a couple of these boxes. One of which (the ingestion answer) is so far the best answer I have so far seen when combined with details given by other users in its comments. None of the answers so far hits every last one of these checkboxes, though. The whole "it can't be something that abuse makes one overpowered and lack of use makes someone underpowered" criteria being the check box that isn't being filled in the so far best answer. That said, I hope this checklist helps make the criteria more clear and to help re-open this post. | 2018/11/09 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/129659",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/56536/"
] | It may not entirely fit with a typical medieval fantasy world, but what if Bob were to receive a blood transfusion after a serious injury, and the blood he was given (being of the magical world) contained managlobins and started his body producing them itself.
The biggest issue is probably one of technology, in our world the first blood transfusion didn't happen till 1665, well over 150 years after the end of the late medieval period.
But perhaps the use of magic allows some kind of rudimentary blood transfusion to take place despite the other inferior technology level?
The upside of this explanation is that unlike absorbing mana through eating or just living in the world he would only develop magical abilities after being saved from a life threatening injury (so you can control exactly where it happens in the story).
And due to the dangerous and experimental nature of the transfusion process it's unlikely others like Bob would voluntarily undergo it in an attempt to receive magical powers unless they were really desperate.
Of course you might also have to explain how the blood types of the people in your fantasy world are compatible with Bob or other real world humans, but I think that's a fairly minor hand wave in the grand scheme of things. | **If he hasn't mana in his body, he uses the mana around him.**
Mana should be everywhere. And Bob takes the mana around him to cast spells. The spells are not always the same, since mana around him is either stronger or weaker, or has ,if you have a system like that, different elements or properties than other mana.
Bob just has trained to or, if you're quite the funny guy, if he's drunken he can feel and use the mana around him to cast magic. There are plenty of other reasons why he could gain this ability. (You could ask another question on worldbuilding).
**But:** people feel, when their mana is robbed and try to keep it. So he cannot take mana from persons.
Like Naruto can collect chakra from the surrounding, Bob ... well he cannot collect but use mana instantly
I hope this helps :) |
129,659 | >
> *For the sake of simplicity, the prototypical character of this sort will be Bob. He is as normal as normal gets.*
>
>
>
The elongated form of my question: **If a normal human from our world was transported to a world where magic exists but is only usable because biological processes make it possible, what would allow a normal human to be able to use magic despite not having those processes?** (Clarification is in the following explanation.)
Character Background
====================
Assume a regular human from our world who CAN'T use magic. He's transported to a fantasy world with magic. He has average skills and knowledge that doesn't help in being able to use or learn magic in this world. He's NOT the only person isekai'd away. **Whatever works for him should work for anyone else who wants to do the same.**
World Background
================
The world is your standard medieval, high fantasy world. The world is effectively a combination of an MMO and a unique world in its own right. There are many, many different races, more than a few unique to my story, albeit some of them share similarities to other concepts out there.
Some people in this world can use their mana to effect magic. Manipulation of their magical energy is a biological process that *some* have developed access to. (These people are what you'd consider mages, spell-casters, etc.) Not everybody can do so, but only because not everybody has taken the time to learn how. It's a process all of these humans have access to, but cont everybody does so, just like how not everybody chooses to become a singer in a rock band from the 80s.
Everyone in this world is "low-level". While the higher level characters can do some special skills like alchemy, it's a rarity. Magic usage is limited and mostly relegated to the basics. (It's pronounced, "*Leviosaaaa*!") The "master alchemists" by this world's standards can barely make potions, but those basic potions are still a marked improvement over the salves and powders made by pharmacists. Whereas a master alchemist in the game could not only make extremely potent HP and Mana potions, a master alchemist in this world can barely make a healing potion, but it's the fact they succeed that makes them referred to as "masters". This means these otherworldly immigrants can NOT rely on the people of this world to create something to give them magic or to have advanced or complex equipment to do so.
Mana Biological Process Explanation
===================================
Mana is everywhere. Think of it like oxygen. If oxygen binds to hemoglobin, we can call the chemical (likely a protein much in the same vein as hemoglobin) in the body that mana binds to managlobin (because I am very creative). Bob does not have any managlobin, meaning his body cannot absorb and maintain a supply of mana for him to use. If he does manage to get a usable supply of mana from an outside source by some means, it would dissipate fairly quickly as it can't bind to him as is.
As for people being able to use magic, think of it like breathing. Everyone breathes, obviously, but not everybody can control their breathing well without practice and training. You can look at singers and athletes as a comparison for this. They control their breathing so that they can perform as they do. Have someone who doesn't know how to control their breathing do the same thing, and they will struggle if not outright fail. As a result, most people in this world don't know/use magic. It's a minority of people who either dabbled in it in their spare time, were trained specifically to use magic, or were born incredibly lucky meaning they're basically cheating at life. (You know the type.) While there would be enough people to teach the basics of magic, that doesn't solve the issue of the natural inability of these otherworlders to hold mana to use in their magic.
Complications
=============
Mana is basically woven into the life of this world. So, by this world's standards, Bob isn't technically any more "alive" than a rock is. A golem at least has mana flowing into it to animate it, meaning a golem is considered to be more alive than Bob as far as their indication of life is concerned.
On the upside, because his body doesn't use mana at all, he's protected from the side effects of mana deficiency: headache, loss of consciousness, pain, and (if prolonged) death.
Additionally, *Bob isn't the only one from "our" world who was sent to this world.* Meaning, if any of these people want to learn magic, any process that works for Bob needs to be equally available to them. Solutions need to reflect this.
Additional Notes:
=================
We *could* cheat by giving him an artifact or skill that also makes it so he can use magic despite not having mana, but that is cheating and cheating is wrong. Let's not cheat. Even though it may exist in the world, Bob would have no way of knowing that, no way of finding those items, and no way of getting to the items without major acts of god basically handing them over to him. Also, others wouldn't be able to replicate that since the artifact would be gone.
They could just relax and live an easy life without needing to know how to use magic, but that is a boring answer that doesn't actually solve the root of the question.
Since these people are not built for this world they're now in, being able to manipulate mana to use magic should be a challenge; success in learning and using magic needs to make sense and be limited due to this status.
*Everything* in this world that is living or animated has mana in it. It is this world's version of determining life. Just as we determine life by certain variable factors; this is no different. If they try to join the local adventurer's guild, they should be unable to formally join because the registration system won't be able to recognize them as "living".
When someone like Bob gets the ability to learn/use magic, I want it to be limited, but able to grow.
They also can't just be gifted "managlobin" by one of the more inherently magical races.
This question was edited in response to the question being put on hold. I hope by cleaning it up and removing story-specific details it better fits policy.
For the sake of making sure there can be a Correct Answer:
==========================================================
The following is a checklist for a correct answer using only things from my
original Question. (Meaning it shouldn't invalidate any previously given answers if they were valid in the first place.)
* **A correct answer will have something that ANY character from the "real world" would be able to do and gain benefit from.**
* **It needs to be something that is a challenge to attain but it can't be a matter of immense fortune** (in the respect of money or luck) in order to be able to hold mana/use magic. While I could make it be something where a degree of money or luck is involved, it can't be something that comes across as deus ex machina or overly restrictive. *The challenge very well could be something that simply takes a long time to occur, though. It doesn't have to be physically grueling.*
* **It cannot be something done exclusively through a rare artifact.** As far as the people trapped in this world know, items from the game world don't necessarily exist in this world. There will be notable similarities between the worlds, but it'd be a leap in logic to say, "These places share similarities so there MUST be this powerful item somewhere in this world." Even if they do come to that conclusion, there'd be no way of finding this item without going on a Quest. (It's not that they don't exist, it's just that it'd be impossible to make use of for the average person.)
* **It cannot be done through a Quest.** Not to say a quest line is out of the question *(kill 10 slimes, now kill 3 beavers, now take me to see my granddaughter in the next town over, now kill 25 giant spiders, now fetch my glasses which I left back at my house when we left)*, but assume going on a major capital-Q Quest to an undisclosed location is too prohibitive.
* **It should not be something that could in turn make a person more or less capable of otherwise using magic.** For example, a dietary reason. (Just an example.) It should only give the potential to use magic. If a person eats 50 of a fruit, they should not be inherently superior to somebody who eats 20 of the same fruit or 60 of a different fruit. While it can give some degree of boost and benefit, it shouldn't be that important that whoever has the most fruit is now god. Alternatively, if a native from that world refuses to ever eat that fruit, (still just an example,) they should not be inherently incapable of using magic if they so wished to learn. Use of magic for the natives should still be a skill derived from an evolved trait (like with good singing), but use of magic for those from "our" world should be something they can still gain.
* **It should be something that could occur through a biological or pseudo-scientific process.** Eating a substance, absorption of a chemical native and common to this world, and so forth are ways people have already recommended that are similar in nature of "ingest the necessary compound and hope the body can digest and use it." Alternatively, a recommendation of "emulating the effects of magic through distilling the compound from the blood" was another way. It should be a matter of Occam's Razor for the answer. While I'm fine with using a scientific method, there should be a reason why the characters would find that as the answer and be able to use it. In short:
* **It should also be simple in its complexity.** The answer shouldn't convoluted. The answer should be something accessible even if hidden. (Hidden in plain sight is valid.) This is sort of the reason why "naturally developed by eating the local cuisine where the compound is commonly available" is a better answer than "go through a long, complex process of SCIENCE! in order to synthesize a compound that can be mixed with other materials to emulate the effects of magic." Science can be an answer, but it should be a simpler form fitting of medieval science.
Most of the answers so far hit a couple of these boxes. One of which (the ingestion answer) is so far the best answer I have so far seen when combined with details given by other users in its comments. None of the answers so far hits every last one of these checkboxes, though. The whole "it can't be something that abuse makes one overpowered and lack of use makes someone underpowered" criteria being the check box that isn't being filled in the so far best answer. That said, I hope this checklist helps make the criteria more clear and to help re-open this post. | 2018/11/09 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/129659",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/56536/"
] | So it sounds like magic is a evolved biological process in this new world and your Main Characters simply doesn't have it. Infact his system doesn't interact with mana and instead uses oxygen.
Instead of being able to bind and use mana, your Character is able to leech off the mana of other peoples magic. When someone casts a strong spell near him, the mana is cast out and some of the mana binds to his blood like it would for any other person. This gives your character access to mana and magic, however he needs to slowly accumulate it from the people around him who use magic in their daily lives.
This is also how other species and people can gift him spells and magics that are one time use only. They bind the spell and required mana to his blood like their own mana. Your character can't generate more mana and can't interact with it properly, so he can only activate the mana/spell once before its gone and used up.
Now to allow him to slowly build up more power, as your Character is introduced to more magic, his body slowly changes. He is able to start harnessing the magic, as the magic interacts with and changes his body. Since he was originally a blank sheet with no mana, as he develops, he is able to combine the magics of different species and continue to use their spells. It takes him much longer to learn, because he has to figure it out from scratch and his mind is no longer developing and discovering things like a babies would be, and this is a foreign concept/feeling for him. | One possibility is a virus.
A virus can damage DNA. So it can be used to alter the DNA.
Bob gets sick after meeting some of the indigenous people. This changes his DNA to a certain extend. Over time as his cells reproduce with the new DNA he will get mana in his body. The longer he lives the more Mana he will produce until finaly all his cells were produced with the new DNA. The more mana he has the easier it gets for him to learn and use magic.
If you talk about viruses in your story you might want to give Bob a decontamination before entering this new world. Otherwise he will introduce the viruses from earth to the indigenous people like it happened to america.
Another posibility would be a symbiant. This symbiant may like his body which has no own managlobin so there is no clash between its magic and its hosts. As the symbiant gets stronger Bob will be able to leach more mana from it. |
129,659 | >
> *For the sake of simplicity, the prototypical character of this sort will be Bob. He is as normal as normal gets.*
>
>
>
The elongated form of my question: **If a normal human from our world was transported to a world where magic exists but is only usable because biological processes make it possible, what would allow a normal human to be able to use magic despite not having those processes?** (Clarification is in the following explanation.)
Character Background
====================
Assume a regular human from our world who CAN'T use magic. He's transported to a fantasy world with magic. He has average skills and knowledge that doesn't help in being able to use or learn magic in this world. He's NOT the only person isekai'd away. **Whatever works for him should work for anyone else who wants to do the same.**
World Background
================
The world is your standard medieval, high fantasy world. The world is effectively a combination of an MMO and a unique world in its own right. There are many, many different races, more than a few unique to my story, albeit some of them share similarities to other concepts out there.
Some people in this world can use their mana to effect magic. Manipulation of their magical energy is a biological process that *some* have developed access to. (These people are what you'd consider mages, spell-casters, etc.) Not everybody can do so, but only because not everybody has taken the time to learn how. It's a process all of these humans have access to, but cont everybody does so, just like how not everybody chooses to become a singer in a rock band from the 80s.
Everyone in this world is "low-level". While the higher level characters can do some special skills like alchemy, it's a rarity. Magic usage is limited and mostly relegated to the basics. (It's pronounced, "*Leviosaaaa*!") The "master alchemists" by this world's standards can barely make potions, but those basic potions are still a marked improvement over the salves and powders made by pharmacists. Whereas a master alchemist in the game could not only make extremely potent HP and Mana potions, a master alchemist in this world can barely make a healing potion, but it's the fact they succeed that makes them referred to as "masters". This means these otherworldly immigrants can NOT rely on the people of this world to create something to give them magic or to have advanced or complex equipment to do so.
Mana Biological Process Explanation
===================================
Mana is everywhere. Think of it like oxygen. If oxygen binds to hemoglobin, we can call the chemical (likely a protein much in the same vein as hemoglobin) in the body that mana binds to managlobin (because I am very creative). Bob does not have any managlobin, meaning his body cannot absorb and maintain a supply of mana for him to use. If he does manage to get a usable supply of mana from an outside source by some means, it would dissipate fairly quickly as it can't bind to him as is.
As for people being able to use magic, think of it like breathing. Everyone breathes, obviously, but not everybody can control their breathing well without practice and training. You can look at singers and athletes as a comparison for this. They control their breathing so that they can perform as they do. Have someone who doesn't know how to control their breathing do the same thing, and they will struggle if not outright fail. As a result, most people in this world don't know/use magic. It's a minority of people who either dabbled in it in their spare time, were trained specifically to use magic, or were born incredibly lucky meaning they're basically cheating at life. (You know the type.) While there would be enough people to teach the basics of magic, that doesn't solve the issue of the natural inability of these otherworlders to hold mana to use in their magic.
Complications
=============
Mana is basically woven into the life of this world. So, by this world's standards, Bob isn't technically any more "alive" than a rock is. A golem at least has mana flowing into it to animate it, meaning a golem is considered to be more alive than Bob as far as their indication of life is concerned.
On the upside, because his body doesn't use mana at all, he's protected from the side effects of mana deficiency: headache, loss of consciousness, pain, and (if prolonged) death.
Additionally, *Bob isn't the only one from "our" world who was sent to this world.* Meaning, if any of these people want to learn magic, any process that works for Bob needs to be equally available to them. Solutions need to reflect this.
Additional Notes:
=================
We *could* cheat by giving him an artifact or skill that also makes it so he can use magic despite not having mana, but that is cheating and cheating is wrong. Let's not cheat. Even though it may exist in the world, Bob would have no way of knowing that, no way of finding those items, and no way of getting to the items without major acts of god basically handing them over to him. Also, others wouldn't be able to replicate that since the artifact would be gone.
They could just relax and live an easy life without needing to know how to use magic, but that is a boring answer that doesn't actually solve the root of the question.
Since these people are not built for this world they're now in, being able to manipulate mana to use magic should be a challenge; success in learning and using magic needs to make sense and be limited due to this status.
*Everything* in this world that is living or animated has mana in it. It is this world's version of determining life. Just as we determine life by certain variable factors; this is no different. If they try to join the local adventurer's guild, they should be unable to formally join because the registration system won't be able to recognize them as "living".
When someone like Bob gets the ability to learn/use magic, I want it to be limited, but able to grow.
They also can't just be gifted "managlobin" by one of the more inherently magical races.
This question was edited in response to the question being put on hold. I hope by cleaning it up and removing story-specific details it better fits policy.
For the sake of making sure there can be a Correct Answer:
==========================================================
The following is a checklist for a correct answer using only things from my
original Question. (Meaning it shouldn't invalidate any previously given answers if they were valid in the first place.)
* **A correct answer will have something that ANY character from the "real world" would be able to do and gain benefit from.**
* **It needs to be something that is a challenge to attain but it can't be a matter of immense fortune** (in the respect of money or luck) in order to be able to hold mana/use magic. While I could make it be something where a degree of money or luck is involved, it can't be something that comes across as deus ex machina or overly restrictive. *The challenge very well could be something that simply takes a long time to occur, though. It doesn't have to be physically grueling.*
* **It cannot be something done exclusively through a rare artifact.** As far as the people trapped in this world know, items from the game world don't necessarily exist in this world. There will be notable similarities between the worlds, but it'd be a leap in logic to say, "These places share similarities so there MUST be this powerful item somewhere in this world." Even if they do come to that conclusion, there'd be no way of finding this item without going on a Quest. (It's not that they don't exist, it's just that it'd be impossible to make use of for the average person.)
* **It cannot be done through a Quest.** Not to say a quest line is out of the question *(kill 10 slimes, now kill 3 beavers, now take me to see my granddaughter in the next town over, now kill 25 giant spiders, now fetch my glasses which I left back at my house when we left)*, but assume going on a major capital-Q Quest to an undisclosed location is too prohibitive.
* **It should not be something that could in turn make a person more or less capable of otherwise using magic.** For example, a dietary reason. (Just an example.) It should only give the potential to use magic. If a person eats 50 of a fruit, they should not be inherently superior to somebody who eats 20 of the same fruit or 60 of a different fruit. While it can give some degree of boost and benefit, it shouldn't be that important that whoever has the most fruit is now god. Alternatively, if a native from that world refuses to ever eat that fruit, (still just an example,) they should not be inherently incapable of using magic if they so wished to learn. Use of magic for the natives should still be a skill derived from an evolved trait (like with good singing), but use of magic for those from "our" world should be something they can still gain.
* **It should be something that could occur through a biological or pseudo-scientific process.** Eating a substance, absorption of a chemical native and common to this world, and so forth are ways people have already recommended that are similar in nature of "ingest the necessary compound and hope the body can digest and use it." Alternatively, a recommendation of "emulating the effects of magic through distilling the compound from the blood" was another way. It should be a matter of Occam's Razor for the answer. While I'm fine with using a scientific method, there should be a reason why the characters would find that as the answer and be able to use it. In short:
* **It should also be simple in its complexity.** The answer shouldn't convoluted. The answer should be something accessible even if hidden. (Hidden in plain sight is valid.) This is sort of the reason why "naturally developed by eating the local cuisine where the compound is commonly available" is a better answer than "go through a long, complex process of SCIENCE! in order to synthesize a compound that can be mixed with other materials to emulate the effects of magic." Science can be an answer, but it should be a simpler form fitting of medieval science.
Most of the answers so far hit a couple of these boxes. One of which (the ingestion answer) is so far the best answer I have so far seen when combined with details given by other users in its comments. None of the answers so far hits every last one of these checkboxes, though. The whole "it can't be something that abuse makes one overpowered and lack of use makes someone underpowered" criteria being the check box that isn't being filled in the so far best answer. That said, I hope this checklist helps make the criteria more clear and to help re-open this post. | 2018/11/09 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/129659",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/56536/"
] | Bob has detailled knowledge about the game he played, so he knows about items that enhance abilities either permanently or temporarily. As in any game, these items are quite rare.
Initially, since he is virtually "dead", he is not affected by spells that target living matter (like mind control or paralyze). But he is very much affected by spells that target nonliving matter (like necromancer spells). His only luck is that these spells are usually not casted in populated areas and on moving and breathing targets.
Bob needs to find a permanent magic enhancer and use it. It could be a potion he drinks that causes his body to create managlobin or a prolonged stay in a sacred cave where he inhales natural gases that enrich his body with managlobin. He should feel the effect of the enhancement like a high, feeling connected with his surroundings and experiencing everything more intense.
Bob notices that he is now affected by spells targeting living matter.
Then he needs to start training the control of mana. He should realize that the amount of managlobin in his blood is barely enough to create the smallest magical effects (no more than harmless poltergeist stuff), so he starts searching for the next magic enhancer.
During his adventure, he realizes that temporary magic enhancers work on him as well, giving him enough managlobin to cast one bigger spell for a limited amount of time. But the more managlobin in his blood, the more intense the effects of spells are on him.
That adds the strategic element to magical confrontations. Is the opponent casting a fireball and he needs to drink his mana potion *now* to defend against it or is the opponent casting a paralyzing spell and *not* drinking the mana potion protects Bob against the effect? | Perhaps the solution to your problem is magic; some powerful good witch casts a spell to transform Bob, out of kindness for something brave and selfless that Bob did. Or she gives him a device, a ring or bracelet that once he puts it on he cannot remove it, that is (magically) taking mana from the air and transfusing it into his blood.
So you have a mentor or ally or grateful stranger Bob meets; early on he has no magic, but after a week wearing this device he starts being able to do small conjurings, then more, etc. Turns out he is a natural. |
129,659 | >
> *For the sake of simplicity, the prototypical character of this sort will be Bob. He is as normal as normal gets.*
>
>
>
The elongated form of my question: **If a normal human from our world was transported to a world where magic exists but is only usable because biological processes make it possible, what would allow a normal human to be able to use magic despite not having those processes?** (Clarification is in the following explanation.)
Character Background
====================
Assume a regular human from our world who CAN'T use magic. He's transported to a fantasy world with magic. He has average skills and knowledge that doesn't help in being able to use or learn magic in this world. He's NOT the only person isekai'd away. **Whatever works for him should work for anyone else who wants to do the same.**
World Background
================
The world is your standard medieval, high fantasy world. The world is effectively a combination of an MMO and a unique world in its own right. There are many, many different races, more than a few unique to my story, albeit some of them share similarities to other concepts out there.
Some people in this world can use their mana to effect magic. Manipulation of their magical energy is a biological process that *some* have developed access to. (These people are what you'd consider mages, spell-casters, etc.) Not everybody can do so, but only because not everybody has taken the time to learn how. It's a process all of these humans have access to, but cont everybody does so, just like how not everybody chooses to become a singer in a rock band from the 80s.
Everyone in this world is "low-level". While the higher level characters can do some special skills like alchemy, it's a rarity. Magic usage is limited and mostly relegated to the basics. (It's pronounced, "*Leviosaaaa*!") The "master alchemists" by this world's standards can barely make potions, but those basic potions are still a marked improvement over the salves and powders made by pharmacists. Whereas a master alchemist in the game could not only make extremely potent HP and Mana potions, a master alchemist in this world can barely make a healing potion, but it's the fact they succeed that makes them referred to as "masters". This means these otherworldly immigrants can NOT rely on the people of this world to create something to give them magic or to have advanced or complex equipment to do so.
Mana Biological Process Explanation
===================================
Mana is everywhere. Think of it like oxygen. If oxygen binds to hemoglobin, we can call the chemical (likely a protein much in the same vein as hemoglobin) in the body that mana binds to managlobin (because I am very creative). Bob does not have any managlobin, meaning his body cannot absorb and maintain a supply of mana for him to use. If he does manage to get a usable supply of mana from an outside source by some means, it would dissipate fairly quickly as it can't bind to him as is.
As for people being able to use magic, think of it like breathing. Everyone breathes, obviously, but not everybody can control their breathing well without practice and training. You can look at singers and athletes as a comparison for this. They control their breathing so that they can perform as they do. Have someone who doesn't know how to control their breathing do the same thing, and they will struggle if not outright fail. As a result, most people in this world don't know/use magic. It's a minority of people who either dabbled in it in their spare time, were trained specifically to use magic, or were born incredibly lucky meaning they're basically cheating at life. (You know the type.) While there would be enough people to teach the basics of magic, that doesn't solve the issue of the natural inability of these otherworlders to hold mana to use in their magic.
Complications
=============
Mana is basically woven into the life of this world. So, by this world's standards, Bob isn't technically any more "alive" than a rock is. A golem at least has mana flowing into it to animate it, meaning a golem is considered to be more alive than Bob as far as their indication of life is concerned.
On the upside, because his body doesn't use mana at all, he's protected from the side effects of mana deficiency: headache, loss of consciousness, pain, and (if prolonged) death.
Additionally, *Bob isn't the only one from "our" world who was sent to this world.* Meaning, if any of these people want to learn magic, any process that works for Bob needs to be equally available to them. Solutions need to reflect this.
Additional Notes:
=================
We *could* cheat by giving him an artifact or skill that also makes it so he can use magic despite not having mana, but that is cheating and cheating is wrong. Let's not cheat. Even though it may exist in the world, Bob would have no way of knowing that, no way of finding those items, and no way of getting to the items without major acts of god basically handing them over to him. Also, others wouldn't be able to replicate that since the artifact would be gone.
They could just relax and live an easy life without needing to know how to use magic, but that is a boring answer that doesn't actually solve the root of the question.
Since these people are not built for this world they're now in, being able to manipulate mana to use magic should be a challenge; success in learning and using magic needs to make sense and be limited due to this status.
*Everything* in this world that is living or animated has mana in it. It is this world's version of determining life. Just as we determine life by certain variable factors; this is no different. If they try to join the local adventurer's guild, they should be unable to formally join because the registration system won't be able to recognize them as "living".
When someone like Bob gets the ability to learn/use magic, I want it to be limited, but able to grow.
They also can't just be gifted "managlobin" by one of the more inherently magical races.
This question was edited in response to the question being put on hold. I hope by cleaning it up and removing story-specific details it better fits policy.
For the sake of making sure there can be a Correct Answer:
==========================================================
The following is a checklist for a correct answer using only things from my
original Question. (Meaning it shouldn't invalidate any previously given answers if they were valid in the first place.)
* **A correct answer will have something that ANY character from the "real world" would be able to do and gain benefit from.**
* **It needs to be something that is a challenge to attain but it can't be a matter of immense fortune** (in the respect of money or luck) in order to be able to hold mana/use magic. While I could make it be something where a degree of money or luck is involved, it can't be something that comes across as deus ex machina or overly restrictive. *The challenge very well could be something that simply takes a long time to occur, though. It doesn't have to be physically grueling.*
* **It cannot be something done exclusively through a rare artifact.** As far as the people trapped in this world know, items from the game world don't necessarily exist in this world. There will be notable similarities between the worlds, but it'd be a leap in logic to say, "These places share similarities so there MUST be this powerful item somewhere in this world." Even if they do come to that conclusion, there'd be no way of finding this item without going on a Quest. (It's not that they don't exist, it's just that it'd be impossible to make use of for the average person.)
* **It cannot be done through a Quest.** Not to say a quest line is out of the question *(kill 10 slimes, now kill 3 beavers, now take me to see my granddaughter in the next town over, now kill 25 giant spiders, now fetch my glasses which I left back at my house when we left)*, but assume going on a major capital-Q Quest to an undisclosed location is too prohibitive.
* **It should not be something that could in turn make a person more or less capable of otherwise using magic.** For example, a dietary reason. (Just an example.) It should only give the potential to use magic. If a person eats 50 of a fruit, they should not be inherently superior to somebody who eats 20 of the same fruit or 60 of a different fruit. While it can give some degree of boost and benefit, it shouldn't be that important that whoever has the most fruit is now god. Alternatively, if a native from that world refuses to ever eat that fruit, (still just an example,) they should not be inherently incapable of using magic if they so wished to learn. Use of magic for the natives should still be a skill derived from an evolved trait (like with good singing), but use of magic for those from "our" world should be something they can still gain.
* **It should be something that could occur through a biological or pseudo-scientific process.** Eating a substance, absorption of a chemical native and common to this world, and so forth are ways people have already recommended that are similar in nature of "ingest the necessary compound and hope the body can digest and use it." Alternatively, a recommendation of "emulating the effects of magic through distilling the compound from the blood" was another way. It should be a matter of Occam's Razor for the answer. While I'm fine with using a scientific method, there should be a reason why the characters would find that as the answer and be able to use it. In short:
* **It should also be simple in its complexity.** The answer shouldn't convoluted. The answer should be something accessible even if hidden. (Hidden in plain sight is valid.) This is sort of the reason why "naturally developed by eating the local cuisine where the compound is commonly available" is a better answer than "go through a long, complex process of SCIENCE! in order to synthesize a compound that can be mixed with other materials to emulate the effects of magic." Science can be an answer, but it should be a simpler form fitting of medieval science.
Most of the answers so far hit a couple of these boxes. One of which (the ingestion answer) is so far the best answer I have so far seen when combined with details given by other users in its comments. None of the answers so far hits every last one of these checkboxes, though. The whole "it can't be something that abuse makes one overpowered and lack of use makes someone underpowered" criteria being the check box that isn't being filled in the so far best answer. That said, I hope this checklist helps make the criteria more clear and to help re-open this post. | 2018/11/09 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/129659",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/56536/"
] | Mana processing may depend on some chemical available in this world, which your protagonist initially lacks. As time goes by, some amount of this chemical is accumulated in his body, allowing him to use magic to some extent. But he probably can never match in magic ability the native people whose bodies are fully saturated with this chemical. | Bob will learn to be an alchemist and a blood mage
--------------------------------------------------
Bob does not have managlobin. But other things around him do like plants and animals. He can use basic processes (like distillation) to harvest the managlobin from the plants in the world and, after some trial and error, he can reproduce some of the reactions that make certain kind of spells (distilled managlobin + sulfate = fireball for example). Some of the more powerful rituals will require him to acquire bodily fluids from animals and people (like blood). This could have social implications, but he might even be able to create more powerful effects if given enough basic materials. |
129,659 | >
> *For the sake of simplicity, the prototypical character of this sort will be Bob. He is as normal as normal gets.*
>
>
>
The elongated form of my question: **If a normal human from our world was transported to a world where magic exists but is only usable because biological processes make it possible, what would allow a normal human to be able to use magic despite not having those processes?** (Clarification is in the following explanation.)
Character Background
====================
Assume a regular human from our world who CAN'T use magic. He's transported to a fantasy world with magic. He has average skills and knowledge that doesn't help in being able to use or learn magic in this world. He's NOT the only person isekai'd away. **Whatever works for him should work for anyone else who wants to do the same.**
World Background
================
The world is your standard medieval, high fantasy world. The world is effectively a combination of an MMO and a unique world in its own right. There are many, many different races, more than a few unique to my story, albeit some of them share similarities to other concepts out there.
Some people in this world can use their mana to effect magic. Manipulation of their magical energy is a biological process that *some* have developed access to. (These people are what you'd consider mages, spell-casters, etc.) Not everybody can do so, but only because not everybody has taken the time to learn how. It's a process all of these humans have access to, but cont everybody does so, just like how not everybody chooses to become a singer in a rock band from the 80s.
Everyone in this world is "low-level". While the higher level characters can do some special skills like alchemy, it's a rarity. Magic usage is limited and mostly relegated to the basics. (It's pronounced, "*Leviosaaaa*!") The "master alchemists" by this world's standards can barely make potions, but those basic potions are still a marked improvement over the salves and powders made by pharmacists. Whereas a master alchemist in the game could not only make extremely potent HP and Mana potions, a master alchemist in this world can barely make a healing potion, but it's the fact they succeed that makes them referred to as "masters". This means these otherworldly immigrants can NOT rely on the people of this world to create something to give them magic or to have advanced or complex equipment to do so.
Mana Biological Process Explanation
===================================
Mana is everywhere. Think of it like oxygen. If oxygen binds to hemoglobin, we can call the chemical (likely a protein much in the same vein as hemoglobin) in the body that mana binds to managlobin (because I am very creative). Bob does not have any managlobin, meaning his body cannot absorb and maintain a supply of mana for him to use. If he does manage to get a usable supply of mana from an outside source by some means, it would dissipate fairly quickly as it can't bind to him as is.
As for people being able to use magic, think of it like breathing. Everyone breathes, obviously, but not everybody can control their breathing well without practice and training. You can look at singers and athletes as a comparison for this. They control their breathing so that they can perform as they do. Have someone who doesn't know how to control their breathing do the same thing, and they will struggle if not outright fail. As a result, most people in this world don't know/use magic. It's a minority of people who either dabbled in it in their spare time, were trained specifically to use magic, or were born incredibly lucky meaning they're basically cheating at life. (You know the type.) While there would be enough people to teach the basics of magic, that doesn't solve the issue of the natural inability of these otherworlders to hold mana to use in their magic.
Complications
=============
Mana is basically woven into the life of this world. So, by this world's standards, Bob isn't technically any more "alive" than a rock is. A golem at least has mana flowing into it to animate it, meaning a golem is considered to be more alive than Bob as far as their indication of life is concerned.
On the upside, because his body doesn't use mana at all, he's protected from the side effects of mana deficiency: headache, loss of consciousness, pain, and (if prolonged) death.
Additionally, *Bob isn't the only one from "our" world who was sent to this world.* Meaning, if any of these people want to learn magic, any process that works for Bob needs to be equally available to them. Solutions need to reflect this.
Additional Notes:
=================
We *could* cheat by giving him an artifact or skill that also makes it so he can use magic despite not having mana, but that is cheating and cheating is wrong. Let's not cheat. Even though it may exist in the world, Bob would have no way of knowing that, no way of finding those items, and no way of getting to the items without major acts of god basically handing them over to him. Also, others wouldn't be able to replicate that since the artifact would be gone.
They could just relax and live an easy life without needing to know how to use magic, but that is a boring answer that doesn't actually solve the root of the question.
Since these people are not built for this world they're now in, being able to manipulate mana to use magic should be a challenge; success in learning and using magic needs to make sense and be limited due to this status.
*Everything* in this world that is living or animated has mana in it. It is this world's version of determining life. Just as we determine life by certain variable factors; this is no different. If they try to join the local adventurer's guild, they should be unable to formally join because the registration system won't be able to recognize them as "living".
When someone like Bob gets the ability to learn/use magic, I want it to be limited, but able to grow.
They also can't just be gifted "managlobin" by one of the more inherently magical races.
This question was edited in response to the question being put on hold. I hope by cleaning it up and removing story-specific details it better fits policy.
For the sake of making sure there can be a Correct Answer:
==========================================================
The following is a checklist for a correct answer using only things from my
original Question. (Meaning it shouldn't invalidate any previously given answers if they were valid in the first place.)
* **A correct answer will have something that ANY character from the "real world" would be able to do and gain benefit from.**
* **It needs to be something that is a challenge to attain but it can't be a matter of immense fortune** (in the respect of money or luck) in order to be able to hold mana/use magic. While I could make it be something where a degree of money or luck is involved, it can't be something that comes across as deus ex machina or overly restrictive. *The challenge very well could be something that simply takes a long time to occur, though. It doesn't have to be physically grueling.*
* **It cannot be something done exclusively through a rare artifact.** As far as the people trapped in this world know, items from the game world don't necessarily exist in this world. There will be notable similarities between the worlds, but it'd be a leap in logic to say, "These places share similarities so there MUST be this powerful item somewhere in this world." Even if they do come to that conclusion, there'd be no way of finding this item without going on a Quest. (It's not that they don't exist, it's just that it'd be impossible to make use of for the average person.)
* **It cannot be done through a Quest.** Not to say a quest line is out of the question *(kill 10 slimes, now kill 3 beavers, now take me to see my granddaughter in the next town over, now kill 25 giant spiders, now fetch my glasses which I left back at my house when we left)*, but assume going on a major capital-Q Quest to an undisclosed location is too prohibitive.
* **It should not be something that could in turn make a person more or less capable of otherwise using magic.** For example, a dietary reason. (Just an example.) It should only give the potential to use magic. If a person eats 50 of a fruit, they should not be inherently superior to somebody who eats 20 of the same fruit or 60 of a different fruit. While it can give some degree of boost and benefit, it shouldn't be that important that whoever has the most fruit is now god. Alternatively, if a native from that world refuses to ever eat that fruit, (still just an example,) they should not be inherently incapable of using magic if they so wished to learn. Use of magic for the natives should still be a skill derived from an evolved trait (like with good singing), but use of magic for those from "our" world should be something they can still gain.
* **It should be something that could occur through a biological or pseudo-scientific process.** Eating a substance, absorption of a chemical native and common to this world, and so forth are ways people have already recommended that are similar in nature of "ingest the necessary compound and hope the body can digest and use it." Alternatively, a recommendation of "emulating the effects of magic through distilling the compound from the blood" was another way. It should be a matter of Occam's Razor for the answer. While I'm fine with using a scientific method, there should be a reason why the characters would find that as the answer and be able to use it. In short:
* **It should also be simple in its complexity.** The answer shouldn't convoluted. The answer should be something accessible even if hidden. (Hidden in plain sight is valid.) This is sort of the reason why "naturally developed by eating the local cuisine where the compound is commonly available" is a better answer than "go through a long, complex process of SCIENCE! in order to synthesize a compound that can be mixed with other materials to emulate the effects of magic." Science can be an answer, but it should be a simpler form fitting of medieval science.
Most of the answers so far hit a couple of these boxes. One of which (the ingestion answer) is so far the best answer I have so far seen when combined with details given by other users in its comments. None of the answers so far hits every last one of these checkboxes, though. The whole "it can't be something that abuse makes one overpowered and lack of use makes someone underpowered" criteria being the check box that isn't being filled in the so far best answer. That said, I hope this checklist helps make the criteria more clear and to help re-open this post. | 2018/11/09 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/129659",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/56536/"
] | Mana processing may depend on some chemical available in this world, which your protagonist initially lacks. As time goes by, some amount of this chemical is accumulated in his body, allowing him to use magic to some extent. But he probably can never match in magic ability the native people whose bodies are fully saturated with this chemical. | So it sounds like magic is a evolved biological process in this new world and your Main Characters simply doesn't have it. Infact his system doesn't interact with mana and instead uses oxygen.
Instead of being able to bind and use mana, your Character is able to leech off the mana of other peoples magic. When someone casts a strong spell near him, the mana is cast out and some of the mana binds to his blood like it would for any other person. This gives your character access to mana and magic, however he needs to slowly accumulate it from the people around him who use magic in their daily lives.
This is also how other species and people can gift him spells and magics that are one time use only. They bind the spell and required mana to his blood like their own mana. Your character can't generate more mana and can't interact with it properly, so he can only activate the mana/spell once before its gone and used up.
Now to allow him to slowly build up more power, as your Character is introduced to more magic, his body slowly changes. He is able to start harnessing the magic, as the magic interacts with and changes his body. Since he was originally a blank sheet with no mana, as he develops, he is able to combine the magics of different species and continue to use their spells. It takes him much longer to learn, because he has to figure it out from scratch and his mind is no longer developing and discovering things like a babies would be, and this is a foreign concept/feeling for him. |
129,659 | >
> *For the sake of simplicity, the prototypical character of this sort will be Bob. He is as normal as normal gets.*
>
>
>
The elongated form of my question: **If a normal human from our world was transported to a world where magic exists but is only usable because biological processes make it possible, what would allow a normal human to be able to use magic despite not having those processes?** (Clarification is in the following explanation.)
Character Background
====================
Assume a regular human from our world who CAN'T use magic. He's transported to a fantasy world with magic. He has average skills and knowledge that doesn't help in being able to use or learn magic in this world. He's NOT the only person isekai'd away. **Whatever works for him should work for anyone else who wants to do the same.**
World Background
================
The world is your standard medieval, high fantasy world. The world is effectively a combination of an MMO and a unique world in its own right. There are many, many different races, more than a few unique to my story, albeit some of them share similarities to other concepts out there.
Some people in this world can use their mana to effect magic. Manipulation of their magical energy is a biological process that *some* have developed access to. (These people are what you'd consider mages, spell-casters, etc.) Not everybody can do so, but only because not everybody has taken the time to learn how. It's a process all of these humans have access to, but cont everybody does so, just like how not everybody chooses to become a singer in a rock band from the 80s.
Everyone in this world is "low-level". While the higher level characters can do some special skills like alchemy, it's a rarity. Magic usage is limited and mostly relegated to the basics. (It's pronounced, "*Leviosaaaa*!") The "master alchemists" by this world's standards can barely make potions, but those basic potions are still a marked improvement over the salves and powders made by pharmacists. Whereas a master alchemist in the game could not only make extremely potent HP and Mana potions, a master alchemist in this world can barely make a healing potion, but it's the fact they succeed that makes them referred to as "masters". This means these otherworldly immigrants can NOT rely on the people of this world to create something to give them magic or to have advanced or complex equipment to do so.
Mana Biological Process Explanation
===================================
Mana is everywhere. Think of it like oxygen. If oxygen binds to hemoglobin, we can call the chemical (likely a protein much in the same vein as hemoglobin) in the body that mana binds to managlobin (because I am very creative). Bob does not have any managlobin, meaning his body cannot absorb and maintain a supply of mana for him to use. If he does manage to get a usable supply of mana from an outside source by some means, it would dissipate fairly quickly as it can't bind to him as is.
As for people being able to use magic, think of it like breathing. Everyone breathes, obviously, but not everybody can control their breathing well without practice and training. You can look at singers and athletes as a comparison for this. They control their breathing so that they can perform as they do. Have someone who doesn't know how to control their breathing do the same thing, and they will struggle if not outright fail. As a result, most people in this world don't know/use magic. It's a minority of people who either dabbled in it in their spare time, were trained specifically to use magic, or were born incredibly lucky meaning they're basically cheating at life. (You know the type.) While there would be enough people to teach the basics of magic, that doesn't solve the issue of the natural inability of these otherworlders to hold mana to use in their magic.
Complications
=============
Mana is basically woven into the life of this world. So, by this world's standards, Bob isn't technically any more "alive" than a rock is. A golem at least has mana flowing into it to animate it, meaning a golem is considered to be more alive than Bob as far as their indication of life is concerned.
On the upside, because his body doesn't use mana at all, he's protected from the side effects of mana deficiency: headache, loss of consciousness, pain, and (if prolonged) death.
Additionally, *Bob isn't the only one from "our" world who was sent to this world.* Meaning, if any of these people want to learn magic, any process that works for Bob needs to be equally available to them. Solutions need to reflect this.
Additional Notes:
=================
We *could* cheat by giving him an artifact or skill that also makes it so he can use magic despite not having mana, but that is cheating and cheating is wrong. Let's not cheat. Even though it may exist in the world, Bob would have no way of knowing that, no way of finding those items, and no way of getting to the items without major acts of god basically handing them over to him. Also, others wouldn't be able to replicate that since the artifact would be gone.
They could just relax and live an easy life without needing to know how to use magic, but that is a boring answer that doesn't actually solve the root of the question.
Since these people are not built for this world they're now in, being able to manipulate mana to use magic should be a challenge; success in learning and using magic needs to make sense and be limited due to this status.
*Everything* in this world that is living or animated has mana in it. It is this world's version of determining life. Just as we determine life by certain variable factors; this is no different. If they try to join the local adventurer's guild, they should be unable to formally join because the registration system won't be able to recognize them as "living".
When someone like Bob gets the ability to learn/use magic, I want it to be limited, but able to grow.
They also can't just be gifted "managlobin" by one of the more inherently magical races.
This question was edited in response to the question being put on hold. I hope by cleaning it up and removing story-specific details it better fits policy.
For the sake of making sure there can be a Correct Answer:
==========================================================
The following is a checklist for a correct answer using only things from my
original Question. (Meaning it shouldn't invalidate any previously given answers if they were valid in the first place.)
* **A correct answer will have something that ANY character from the "real world" would be able to do and gain benefit from.**
* **It needs to be something that is a challenge to attain but it can't be a matter of immense fortune** (in the respect of money or luck) in order to be able to hold mana/use magic. While I could make it be something where a degree of money or luck is involved, it can't be something that comes across as deus ex machina or overly restrictive. *The challenge very well could be something that simply takes a long time to occur, though. It doesn't have to be physically grueling.*
* **It cannot be something done exclusively through a rare artifact.** As far as the people trapped in this world know, items from the game world don't necessarily exist in this world. There will be notable similarities between the worlds, but it'd be a leap in logic to say, "These places share similarities so there MUST be this powerful item somewhere in this world." Even if they do come to that conclusion, there'd be no way of finding this item without going on a Quest. (It's not that they don't exist, it's just that it'd be impossible to make use of for the average person.)
* **It cannot be done through a Quest.** Not to say a quest line is out of the question *(kill 10 slimes, now kill 3 beavers, now take me to see my granddaughter in the next town over, now kill 25 giant spiders, now fetch my glasses which I left back at my house when we left)*, but assume going on a major capital-Q Quest to an undisclosed location is too prohibitive.
* **It should not be something that could in turn make a person more or less capable of otherwise using magic.** For example, a dietary reason. (Just an example.) It should only give the potential to use magic. If a person eats 50 of a fruit, they should not be inherently superior to somebody who eats 20 of the same fruit or 60 of a different fruit. While it can give some degree of boost and benefit, it shouldn't be that important that whoever has the most fruit is now god. Alternatively, if a native from that world refuses to ever eat that fruit, (still just an example,) they should not be inherently incapable of using magic if they so wished to learn. Use of magic for the natives should still be a skill derived from an evolved trait (like with good singing), but use of magic for those from "our" world should be something they can still gain.
* **It should be something that could occur through a biological or pseudo-scientific process.** Eating a substance, absorption of a chemical native and common to this world, and so forth are ways people have already recommended that are similar in nature of "ingest the necessary compound and hope the body can digest and use it." Alternatively, a recommendation of "emulating the effects of magic through distilling the compound from the blood" was another way. It should be a matter of Occam's Razor for the answer. While I'm fine with using a scientific method, there should be a reason why the characters would find that as the answer and be able to use it. In short:
* **It should also be simple in its complexity.** The answer shouldn't convoluted. The answer should be something accessible even if hidden. (Hidden in plain sight is valid.) This is sort of the reason why "naturally developed by eating the local cuisine where the compound is commonly available" is a better answer than "go through a long, complex process of SCIENCE! in order to synthesize a compound that can be mixed with other materials to emulate the effects of magic." Science can be an answer, but it should be a simpler form fitting of medieval science.
Most of the answers so far hit a couple of these boxes. One of which (the ingestion answer) is so far the best answer I have so far seen when combined with details given by other users in its comments. None of the answers so far hits every last one of these checkboxes, though. The whole "it can't be something that abuse makes one overpowered and lack of use makes someone underpowered" criteria being the check box that isn't being filled in the so far best answer. That said, I hope this checklist helps make the criteria more clear and to help re-open this post. | 2018/11/09 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/129659",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/56536/"
] | Mana processing may depend on some chemical available in this world, which your protagonist initially lacks. As time goes by, some amount of this chemical is accumulated in his body, allowing him to use magic to some extent. But he probably can never match in magic ability the native people whose bodies are fully saturated with this chemical. | **If he hasn't mana in his body, he uses the mana around him.**
Mana should be everywhere. And Bob takes the mana around him to cast spells. The spells are not always the same, since mana around him is either stronger or weaker, or has ,if you have a system like that, different elements or properties than other mana.
Bob just has trained to or, if you're quite the funny guy, if he's drunken he can feel and use the mana around him to cast magic. There are plenty of other reasons why he could gain this ability. (You could ask another question on worldbuilding).
**But:** people feel, when their mana is robbed and try to keep it. So he cannot take mana from persons.
Like Naruto can collect chakra from the surrounding, Bob ... well he cannot collect but use mana instantly
I hope this helps :) |
129,659 | >
> *For the sake of simplicity, the prototypical character of this sort will be Bob. He is as normal as normal gets.*
>
>
>
The elongated form of my question: **If a normal human from our world was transported to a world where magic exists but is only usable because biological processes make it possible, what would allow a normal human to be able to use magic despite not having those processes?** (Clarification is in the following explanation.)
Character Background
====================
Assume a regular human from our world who CAN'T use magic. He's transported to a fantasy world with magic. He has average skills and knowledge that doesn't help in being able to use or learn magic in this world. He's NOT the only person isekai'd away. **Whatever works for him should work for anyone else who wants to do the same.**
World Background
================
The world is your standard medieval, high fantasy world. The world is effectively a combination of an MMO and a unique world in its own right. There are many, many different races, more than a few unique to my story, albeit some of them share similarities to other concepts out there.
Some people in this world can use their mana to effect magic. Manipulation of their magical energy is a biological process that *some* have developed access to. (These people are what you'd consider mages, spell-casters, etc.) Not everybody can do so, but only because not everybody has taken the time to learn how. It's a process all of these humans have access to, but cont everybody does so, just like how not everybody chooses to become a singer in a rock band from the 80s.
Everyone in this world is "low-level". While the higher level characters can do some special skills like alchemy, it's a rarity. Magic usage is limited and mostly relegated to the basics. (It's pronounced, "*Leviosaaaa*!") The "master alchemists" by this world's standards can barely make potions, but those basic potions are still a marked improvement over the salves and powders made by pharmacists. Whereas a master alchemist in the game could not only make extremely potent HP and Mana potions, a master alchemist in this world can barely make a healing potion, but it's the fact they succeed that makes them referred to as "masters". This means these otherworldly immigrants can NOT rely on the people of this world to create something to give them magic or to have advanced or complex equipment to do so.
Mana Biological Process Explanation
===================================
Mana is everywhere. Think of it like oxygen. If oxygen binds to hemoglobin, we can call the chemical (likely a protein much in the same vein as hemoglobin) in the body that mana binds to managlobin (because I am very creative). Bob does not have any managlobin, meaning his body cannot absorb and maintain a supply of mana for him to use. If he does manage to get a usable supply of mana from an outside source by some means, it would dissipate fairly quickly as it can't bind to him as is.
As for people being able to use magic, think of it like breathing. Everyone breathes, obviously, but not everybody can control their breathing well without practice and training. You can look at singers and athletes as a comparison for this. They control their breathing so that they can perform as they do. Have someone who doesn't know how to control their breathing do the same thing, and they will struggle if not outright fail. As a result, most people in this world don't know/use magic. It's a minority of people who either dabbled in it in their spare time, were trained specifically to use magic, or were born incredibly lucky meaning they're basically cheating at life. (You know the type.) While there would be enough people to teach the basics of magic, that doesn't solve the issue of the natural inability of these otherworlders to hold mana to use in their magic.
Complications
=============
Mana is basically woven into the life of this world. So, by this world's standards, Bob isn't technically any more "alive" than a rock is. A golem at least has mana flowing into it to animate it, meaning a golem is considered to be more alive than Bob as far as their indication of life is concerned.
On the upside, because his body doesn't use mana at all, he's protected from the side effects of mana deficiency: headache, loss of consciousness, pain, and (if prolonged) death.
Additionally, *Bob isn't the only one from "our" world who was sent to this world.* Meaning, if any of these people want to learn magic, any process that works for Bob needs to be equally available to them. Solutions need to reflect this.
Additional Notes:
=================
We *could* cheat by giving him an artifact or skill that also makes it so he can use magic despite not having mana, but that is cheating and cheating is wrong. Let's not cheat. Even though it may exist in the world, Bob would have no way of knowing that, no way of finding those items, and no way of getting to the items without major acts of god basically handing them over to him. Also, others wouldn't be able to replicate that since the artifact would be gone.
They could just relax and live an easy life without needing to know how to use magic, but that is a boring answer that doesn't actually solve the root of the question.
Since these people are not built for this world they're now in, being able to manipulate mana to use magic should be a challenge; success in learning and using magic needs to make sense and be limited due to this status.
*Everything* in this world that is living or animated has mana in it. It is this world's version of determining life. Just as we determine life by certain variable factors; this is no different. If they try to join the local adventurer's guild, they should be unable to formally join because the registration system won't be able to recognize them as "living".
When someone like Bob gets the ability to learn/use magic, I want it to be limited, but able to grow.
They also can't just be gifted "managlobin" by one of the more inherently magical races.
This question was edited in response to the question being put on hold. I hope by cleaning it up and removing story-specific details it better fits policy.
For the sake of making sure there can be a Correct Answer:
==========================================================
The following is a checklist for a correct answer using only things from my
original Question. (Meaning it shouldn't invalidate any previously given answers if they were valid in the first place.)
* **A correct answer will have something that ANY character from the "real world" would be able to do and gain benefit from.**
* **It needs to be something that is a challenge to attain but it can't be a matter of immense fortune** (in the respect of money or luck) in order to be able to hold mana/use magic. While I could make it be something where a degree of money or luck is involved, it can't be something that comes across as deus ex machina or overly restrictive. *The challenge very well could be something that simply takes a long time to occur, though. It doesn't have to be physically grueling.*
* **It cannot be something done exclusively through a rare artifact.** As far as the people trapped in this world know, items from the game world don't necessarily exist in this world. There will be notable similarities between the worlds, but it'd be a leap in logic to say, "These places share similarities so there MUST be this powerful item somewhere in this world." Even if they do come to that conclusion, there'd be no way of finding this item without going on a Quest. (It's not that they don't exist, it's just that it'd be impossible to make use of for the average person.)
* **It cannot be done through a Quest.** Not to say a quest line is out of the question *(kill 10 slimes, now kill 3 beavers, now take me to see my granddaughter in the next town over, now kill 25 giant spiders, now fetch my glasses which I left back at my house when we left)*, but assume going on a major capital-Q Quest to an undisclosed location is too prohibitive.
* **It should not be something that could in turn make a person more or less capable of otherwise using magic.** For example, a dietary reason. (Just an example.) It should only give the potential to use magic. If a person eats 50 of a fruit, they should not be inherently superior to somebody who eats 20 of the same fruit or 60 of a different fruit. While it can give some degree of boost and benefit, it shouldn't be that important that whoever has the most fruit is now god. Alternatively, if a native from that world refuses to ever eat that fruit, (still just an example,) they should not be inherently incapable of using magic if they so wished to learn. Use of magic for the natives should still be a skill derived from an evolved trait (like with good singing), but use of magic for those from "our" world should be something they can still gain.
* **It should be something that could occur through a biological or pseudo-scientific process.** Eating a substance, absorption of a chemical native and common to this world, and so forth are ways people have already recommended that are similar in nature of "ingest the necessary compound and hope the body can digest and use it." Alternatively, a recommendation of "emulating the effects of magic through distilling the compound from the blood" was another way. It should be a matter of Occam's Razor for the answer. While I'm fine with using a scientific method, there should be a reason why the characters would find that as the answer and be able to use it. In short:
* **It should also be simple in its complexity.** The answer shouldn't convoluted. The answer should be something accessible even if hidden. (Hidden in plain sight is valid.) This is sort of the reason why "naturally developed by eating the local cuisine where the compound is commonly available" is a better answer than "go through a long, complex process of SCIENCE! in order to synthesize a compound that can be mixed with other materials to emulate the effects of magic." Science can be an answer, but it should be a simpler form fitting of medieval science.
Most of the answers so far hit a couple of these boxes. One of which (the ingestion answer) is so far the best answer I have so far seen when combined with details given by other users in its comments. None of the answers so far hits every last one of these checkboxes, though. The whole "it can't be something that abuse makes one overpowered and lack of use makes someone underpowered" criteria being the check box that isn't being filled in the so far best answer. That said, I hope this checklist helps make the criteria more clear and to help re-open this post. | 2018/11/09 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/129659",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/56536/"
] | Mana processing may depend on some chemical available in this world, which your protagonist initially lacks. As time goes by, some amount of this chemical is accumulated in his body, allowing him to use magic to some extent. But he probably can never match in magic ability the native people whose bodies are fully saturated with this chemical. | Perhaps the solution to your problem is magic; some powerful good witch casts a spell to transform Bob, out of kindness for something brave and selfless that Bob did. Or she gives him a device, a ring or bracelet that once he puts it on he cannot remove it, that is (magically) taking mana from the air and transfusing it into his blood.
So you have a mentor or ally or grateful stranger Bob meets; early on he has no magic, but after a week wearing this device he starts being able to do small conjurings, then more, etc. Turns out he is a natural. |
3,959,064 | I have a requirement to print data exactly in a particular position in paper. How can these kind of formatting be done using Java? | 2010/10/18 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/3959064",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/322897/"
] | [Jasper](http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/), [iText](http://itextpdf.com/) will work for you. | Which kind of data ?
If it's form, the use of reporting library can help you:
* <http://jasperforge.org/projects/jasperreports>
If it's graphic you can try using 'raw' java api:
* <http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/2d/printing/printable.html> |
3,959,064 | I have a requirement to print data exactly in a particular position in paper. How can these kind of formatting be done using Java? | 2010/10/18 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/3959064",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/322897/"
] | Which kind of data ?
If it's form, the use of reporting library can help you:
* <http://jasperforge.org/projects/jasperreports>
If it's graphic you can try using 'raw' java api:
* <http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/2d/printing/printable.html> | Or use the Java print API:
<http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-mer0322/index.html>
<http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-mer0424.html> |
3,959,064 | I have a requirement to print data exactly in a particular position in paper. How can these kind of formatting be done using Java? | 2010/10/18 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/3959064",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/322897/"
] | Which kind of data ?
If it's form, the use of reporting library can help you:
* <http://jasperforge.org/projects/jasperreports>
If it's graphic you can try using 'raw' java api:
* <http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/2d/printing/printable.html> | If you really need full control, you can print Graphics2D objects directly. See <http://java.sun.com/developer/onlineTraining/Programming/JDCBook/render.html> and the next page.
Another possibility would be printing PDF, e.g. using iText. I think exact positioning is possible, but probably harder than using Graphics2D. |
3,959,064 | I have a requirement to print data exactly in a particular position in paper. How can these kind of formatting be done using Java? | 2010/10/18 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/3959064",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/322897/"
] | [Jasper](http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/), [iText](http://itextpdf.com/) will work for you. | Or use the Java print API:
<http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-mer0322/index.html>
<http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-mer0424.html> |
3,959,064 | I have a requirement to print data exactly in a particular position in paper. How can these kind of formatting be done using Java? | 2010/10/18 | [
"https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/3959064",
"https://Stackoverflow.com",
"https://Stackoverflow.com/users/322897/"
] | [Jasper](http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/), [iText](http://itextpdf.com/) will work for you. | If you really need full control, you can print Graphics2D objects directly. See <http://java.sun.com/developer/onlineTraining/Programming/JDCBook/render.html> and the next page.
Another possibility would be printing PDF, e.g. using iText. I think exact positioning is possible, but probably harder than using Graphics2D. |
435,160 | Praveen here ,I have registered www.abc.com and i have my web server sitting at our corporate office aand a public ip mapped to it . i am able to access the application from the external network directly typing the ip address , but i want to access this application using the registered dns name ie abc.com fromt the external network, upon typing the abc.com where it should directly go the public ip and open up the application sitting in there.
Can anyone help me in this , how to do it step by step... | 2012/10/05 | [
"https://serverfault.com/questions/435160",
"https://serverfault.com",
"https://serverfault.com/users/139775/"
] | You need to use your domain registrar's tools to create DNS A records that point your domain name to your IP address. | Go to your domain registrar's site ---> Under your domain(abc.com), click manage domains----> Now add your A record as
@ your-ip
here '@' specifies your domain name. |
1,348 | If you are thoroughly confused by the title of this question then I completely understand because it confuses me a bit too, so I will elaborate on my situation.
A while ago I applied for a job at a large non-profit employer in my area that I later found out was actually a position at a really small shell for-profit company. This company was started as an initiative to fill a need for the non-profit but also potentially provide a service in a growing market for profit, probably for directors and upper management to get around the fact that they can't actually seek profit for sake of profit and still maintain their special tax status as a non-profit.
My paycheck and benefits come directly through the non-profit. My retirement is through a 403(b) *(potential legal issue?)*, I deal with the non-profit HR department and I even have a keycard badge that identifies me as an employee of the non-profit.
The **for**-profit company however has its own federal tax ID number and come tax season I *actually* get a W2 for the company and NOT for the non-profit.
This is only the beginning of where the lines are blurred on where I am employed and who I work for...
A recent business opportunity presented itself that doesn't really fit with the company mission and focus but i have been delegated on researching and planning the project so far. The CEO was really excited by what was found and wants to pursue it, but doesn't want to put the current company at risk with the large amount of capital needed to fund such an endeavor, so he made the decision to form a new company around this new product.
I am not sure of much of the details yet but I imagine the new company will have the same mailing address and exist for tax purposes, but it looks like the current team will just be delegated to work on the project for the other company *(Again, possible legal issues but legal advice is likely offtopic here)*.
And to top it all off me and my direct boss were working on an unrelated side project for the past year that my direct boss is soon going to incorporate for us as 50/50 owners, all of this the CEO is aware of and actually gave us his verbal blessing on.
Oh and I also put a few hours a week in as a 1099 contractor for a friends company that I really haven't told my employers about...
So basically my situation is:
* **Non-Profit Organization:** Pay + Benefits + ability to transfer to other divisions as an internal move
* **Company A:** W2 + Office and work location + some of my work effort
* **Company B:** No pay or W2 in addition that I know of (possibly 1099 to avoid legal issues?), most of my work effort
* **Company C:** Partial owner, work at home, possibility of a small amount of money being made but not a lot, CEO aware and cool with this
* **Company D:** 1099 contractor, work from home, small amount of money, nobody really knows that I am doing this on the side as well.
I find myself at dismay over how complicated my employment situation has become but somehow right now everything seems to work out for me pretty great. I am not looking but always try to keep my resume updated however and I have NO IDEA where to start here.
If I were to hand my resume to an employer with 5 different organizations listed on it for a single period then I am sure it will raise eyebrows. A positive side I can see is that for good or bad I will indeed stand out from the crowd.
What is the best way to fully capture the breadth of my employment experience during this era of my life on my resume?
Are there certain aspects of my employment history here that would seem suspicious or cause problems during a normal background check? | 2012/05/16 | [
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/1348",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com",
"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/70/"
] | As the viewer of your resume, what I want to know is: Who is your contract with? What were you doing? What have you achieved?
I certainly don't need all the information you've listed above, although it may come up in interview, which will be lucky for you cause you could *easily* kill 10 minutes with that story.
Guessing a little, but judging by what you've said, I would suggest listing everything for the non-profit and Companies A and B under one heading -- mark that as whoever your contract is with (the non-profit?).
Companies C and D are basically hobbies, as far as I am concerned, unless they've offered you experience that I'm interested in. List them as such. | >
> What is the best way to fully capture the breadth of my employment
> experience during this era of my life on my resume?
>
>
>
All you have to do is list your current employeer. Which sounds like is the non-profit and the company you are a partial owner of. You can list your contract work if you want.
As long as you outline your skills on your resume, the fact your employement status is really complicate does not matter, some new employeer isn't going to care you work for the same company in 4 different ways.
Unless you are being paid for the work, then that activity might not even be worth listing on your resume, you control every single detail of your past employement.
List your Hobbies, Pass Employement, and any other sigificant experience you might have.
Its not exactly like anyone interested in offering you a job will be able to prove anything on your resume is false, unless they happen to know the same people you know, which is the reason you tell the truth.
There is nothing wrong with filtering your hobbies and employement status to the most important details provided it is the truth. |
67,372 | Once you're past the first few levels and not desperate for any little bump you can get, is it at all worth picking up the whites and greys littering the average battlefield?
I'm know that every penny counts but would you make more by pushing forward and slaying gold dropping foes or getting to Nightmare and seeing more blues? | 2012/05/17 | [
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/67372",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/users/10260/"
] | In general, I completely ignore whites and grays - typically they're worth less than 10 gold a piece, which is not even worth dragging back to town. **Do note** that some "special" objects such as health potions and gems have white text, which might be confusing if you're completely ignoring that font color categorically.
In the very early going, when you have equipment slots that are completely empty, they're worth grabbing just so you're not *completely naked*. In particular, when you're just starting out, keep an eye out for a Targe shield - it's got typically around 50 defense, which outclasses most of the defense you'll find on any other item at this stage of the game.
In the very early phase of the game, you can occasionally find a white weapon/armor piece that has slightly better DPS than your current weapon - I've found white weapons better than blues I had from previous dungeons in the early levels previously. For this reason, sometimes I'll grab (or do a quick check by hovering over it and pressing CTRL, as bwarner notes) the first white item of a type I find, just to see if it's a class better than my current gear.
Past about level 5 or so, though, you're better off leaving them where they drop. Once you have items that give you beneficial stat boosts beyond the basic defense/DPS rating of the item, whites and grays are almost always going to be worthless to you. Even if you can get a few extra DPS or defense points out of a "higher tier" white, it probably won't offset the utility of the other bonuses on your current gear. | No. Whites (with the exception of gems and crafting pages) and greys vendor for far less than even the worst blues.
You can safely ignore them, and save the space for something more valuable. |
67,372 | Once you're past the first few levels and not desperate for any little bump you can get, is it at all worth picking up the whites and greys littering the average battlefield?
I'm know that every penny counts but would you make more by pushing forward and slaying gold dropping foes or getting to Nightmare and seeing more blues? | 2012/05/17 | [
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/67372",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/users/10260/"
] | White and grey items are intentionally worthless, even according to Blizzard:
>
> **[Bashiok:](http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3941414508?page=3#54)** Diablo is about loot explosions. We can't realistically have loot explosions without a bunch of confetti and glitter that makes it all look exciting, but has **no value** except to make the explosions more satisfying. Gold still did this to a degree, but we were missing the "arrows and bolts" of yesteryear. White items were worth something and we really didn't have any junk we could just throw out with no limit. Now we do.
>
>
>
This was posted in response to concerns similar to yours, which came up because whites used to be worth something: you could salvage them into crafting materials, or convert them directly to gold (using character abilities in the beta, now removed).
Blizzard intentionally changed this, both to prevent the mentality that you needed to pick up every single item, and to add to the "loot explosion" idea Bashiok mentions. | No. Whites (with the exception of gems and crafting pages) and greys vendor for far less than even the worst blues.
You can safely ignore them, and save the space for something more valuable. |
67,372 | Once you're past the first few levels and not desperate for any little bump you can get, is it at all worth picking up the whites and greys littering the average battlefield?
I'm know that every penny counts but would you make more by pushing forward and slaying gold dropping foes or getting to Nightmare and seeing more blues? | 2012/05/17 | [
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/67372",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/users/10260/"
] | In general, I completely ignore whites and grays - typically they're worth less than 10 gold a piece, which is not even worth dragging back to town. **Do note** that some "special" objects such as health potions and gems have white text, which might be confusing if you're completely ignoring that font color categorically.
In the very early going, when you have equipment slots that are completely empty, they're worth grabbing just so you're not *completely naked*. In particular, when you're just starting out, keep an eye out for a Targe shield - it's got typically around 50 defense, which outclasses most of the defense you'll find on any other item at this stage of the game.
In the very early phase of the game, you can occasionally find a white weapon/armor piece that has slightly better DPS than your current weapon - I've found white weapons better than blues I had from previous dungeons in the early levels previously. For this reason, sometimes I'll grab (or do a quick check by hovering over it and pressing CTRL, as bwarner notes) the first white item of a type I find, just to see if it's a class better than my current gear.
Past about level 5 or so, though, you're better off leaving them where they drop. Once you have items that give you beneficial stat boosts beyond the basic defense/DPS rating of the item, whites and grays are almost always going to be worthless to you. Even if you can get a few extra DPS or defense points out of a "higher tier" white, it probably won't offset the utility of the other bonuses on your current gear. | They're practically worthless. The amount of money you make by picking up an entire inventory of whites and greys and selling them can easily be made by pickung up one blue and selling it.
They also don't get you more money in higher difficulties, at all. |
67,372 | Once you're past the first few levels and not desperate for any little bump you can get, is it at all worth picking up the whites and greys littering the average battlefield?
I'm know that every penny counts but would you make more by pushing forward and slaying gold dropping foes or getting to Nightmare and seeing more blues? | 2012/05/17 | [
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/67372",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/users/10260/"
] | White and grey items are intentionally worthless, even according to Blizzard:
>
> **[Bashiok:](http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3941414508?page=3#54)** Diablo is about loot explosions. We can't realistically have loot explosions without a bunch of confetti and glitter that makes it all look exciting, but has **no value** except to make the explosions more satisfying. Gold still did this to a degree, but we were missing the "arrows and bolts" of yesteryear. White items were worth something and we really didn't have any junk we could just throw out with no limit. Now we do.
>
>
>
This was posted in response to concerns similar to yours, which came up because whites used to be worth something: you could salvage them into crafting materials, or convert them directly to gold (using character abilities in the beta, now removed).
Blizzard intentionally changed this, both to prevent the mentality that you needed to pick up every single item, and to add to the "loot explosion" idea Bashiok mentions. | They're practically worthless. The amount of money you make by picking up an entire inventory of whites and greys and selling them can easily be made by pickung up one blue and selling it.
They also don't get you more money in higher difficulties, at all. |
67,372 | Once you're past the first few levels and not desperate for any little bump you can get, is it at all worth picking up the whites and greys littering the average battlefield?
I'm know that every penny counts but would you make more by pushing forward and slaying gold dropping foes or getting to Nightmare and seeing more blues? | 2012/05/17 | [
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/67372",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/users/10260/"
] | In general, I completely ignore whites and grays - typically they're worth less than 10 gold a piece, which is not even worth dragging back to town. **Do note** that some "special" objects such as health potions and gems have white text, which might be confusing if you're completely ignoring that font color categorically.
In the very early going, when you have equipment slots that are completely empty, they're worth grabbing just so you're not *completely naked*. In particular, when you're just starting out, keep an eye out for a Targe shield - it's got typically around 50 defense, which outclasses most of the defense you'll find on any other item at this stage of the game.
In the very early phase of the game, you can occasionally find a white weapon/armor piece that has slightly better DPS than your current weapon - I've found white weapons better than blues I had from previous dungeons in the early levels previously. For this reason, sometimes I'll grab (or do a quick check by hovering over it and pressing CTRL, as bwarner notes) the first white item of a type I find, just to see if it's a class better than my current gear.
Past about level 5 or so, though, you're better off leaving them where they drop. Once you have items that give you beneficial stat boosts beyond the basic defense/DPS rating of the item, whites and grays are almost always going to be worthless to you. Even if you can get a few extra DPS or defense points out of a "higher tier" white, it probably won't offset the utility of the other bonuses on your current gear. | White and grey items are intentionally worthless, even according to Blizzard:
>
> **[Bashiok:](http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3941414508?page=3#54)** Diablo is about loot explosions. We can't realistically have loot explosions without a bunch of confetti and glitter that makes it all look exciting, but has **no value** except to make the explosions more satisfying. Gold still did this to a degree, but we were missing the "arrows and bolts" of yesteryear. White items were worth something and we really didn't have any junk we could just throw out with no limit. Now we do.
>
>
>
This was posted in response to concerns similar to yours, which came up because whites used to be worth something: you could salvage them into crafting materials, or convert them directly to gold (using character abilities in the beta, now removed).
Blizzard intentionally changed this, both to prevent the mentality that you needed to pick up every single item, and to add to the "loot explosion" idea Bashiok mentions. |
67,372 | Once you're past the first few levels and not desperate for any little bump you can get, is it at all worth picking up the whites and greys littering the average battlefield?
I'm know that every penny counts but would you make more by pushing forward and slaying gold dropping foes or getting to Nightmare and seeing more blues? | 2012/05/17 | [
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/67372",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/users/10260/"
] | In general, I completely ignore whites and grays - typically they're worth less than 10 gold a piece, which is not even worth dragging back to town. **Do note** that some "special" objects such as health potions and gems have white text, which might be confusing if you're completely ignoring that font color categorically.
In the very early going, when you have equipment slots that are completely empty, they're worth grabbing just so you're not *completely naked*. In particular, when you're just starting out, keep an eye out for a Targe shield - it's got typically around 50 defense, which outclasses most of the defense you'll find on any other item at this stage of the game.
In the very early phase of the game, you can occasionally find a white weapon/armor piece that has slightly better DPS than your current weapon - I've found white weapons better than blues I had from previous dungeons in the early levels previously. For this reason, sometimes I'll grab (or do a quick check by hovering over it and pressing CTRL, as bwarner notes) the first white item of a type I find, just to see if it's a class better than my current gear.
Past about level 5 or so, though, you're better off leaving them where they drop. Once you have items that give you beneficial stat boosts beyond the basic defense/DPS rating of the item, whites and grays are almost always going to be worthless to you. Even if you can get a few extra DPS or defense points out of a "higher tier" white, it probably won't offset the utility of the other bonuses on your current gear. | Grey items are essentially useless and white items aren't much better. Their sell value is next to nothing, no more than 10 gold per item so it is not worth it very much to carry them back to sell.
Your inventory space is better occupied by blues which you can scavenge for crafting materials.
This also makes will make it feel less like you have to go back to town to sell things to empty your bags, whereas going back to town to scavenge an entire backpack of blues is much more rewarding.
The less time you spend travelling back to town the more time you have to push forward in the game and story. |
67,372 | Once you're past the first few levels and not desperate for any little bump you can get, is it at all worth picking up the whites and greys littering the average battlefield?
I'm know that every penny counts but would you make more by pushing forward and slaying gold dropping foes or getting to Nightmare and seeing more blues? | 2012/05/17 | [
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/67372",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com",
"https://gaming.stackexchange.com/users/10260/"
] | White and grey items are intentionally worthless, even according to Blizzard:
>
> **[Bashiok:](http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3941414508?page=3#54)** Diablo is about loot explosions. We can't realistically have loot explosions without a bunch of confetti and glitter that makes it all look exciting, but has **no value** except to make the explosions more satisfying. Gold still did this to a degree, but we were missing the "arrows and bolts" of yesteryear. White items were worth something and we really didn't have any junk we could just throw out with no limit. Now we do.
>
>
>
This was posted in response to concerns similar to yours, which came up because whites used to be worth something: you could salvage them into crafting materials, or convert them directly to gold (using character abilities in the beta, now removed).
Blizzard intentionally changed this, both to prevent the mentality that you needed to pick up every single item, and to add to the "loot explosion" idea Bashiok mentions. | Grey items are essentially useless and white items aren't much better. Their sell value is next to nothing, no more than 10 gold per item so it is not worth it very much to carry them back to sell.
Your inventory space is better occupied by blues which you can scavenge for crafting materials.
This also makes will make it feel less like you have to go back to town to sell things to empty your bags, whereas going back to town to scavenge an entire backpack of blues is much more rewarding.
The less time you spend travelling back to town the more time you have to push forward in the game and story. |
81,702 | My body leaves; my core can stay,
Where I shall breathe another way.
The route of south I always linger.
My arms have arms; my ring no finger.
What am I? | 2019/04/12 | [
"https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/81702",
"https://puzzling.stackexchange.com",
"https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/9802/"
] | Are you a:
>
> tree?
>
>
>
My body leaves; my core can stay,
>
> A double meaning: The body is leafs/leaves, and when they go away for the winter, the trunk/core remains
>
>
>
Where I shall breathe another way.
>
> With no leaves, a tree can still exchange oxygen and CO2, just in a more dormant state
>
>
>
The route of south I always linger.
>
> Route/root is another double meaning. [Via OP: roots stretch downward, and are harder to move the deeper they go]
>
>
>
My arms have arms; my ring no finger.
>
> The arms are branches, which can have more branches stemming from them. Tree trunks can have rings, but do not have fingers.
>
>
> | Partial answer.
Are you:
>
> A planet or galaxy?
>
>
>
My rough thinking:
>
> When a big planet explodes, it leaves its core behind. Also, planets have rings...
> A galaxy have arms :) I have no idea how the other hints apply to this.
>
>
> |
81,702 | My body leaves; my core can stay,
Where I shall breathe another way.
The route of south I always linger.
My arms have arms; my ring no finger.
What am I? | 2019/04/12 | [
"https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/81702",
"https://puzzling.stackexchange.com",
"https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/9802/"
] | Are you a:
>
> tree?
>
>
>
My body leaves; my core can stay,
>
> A double meaning: The body is leafs/leaves, and when they go away for the winter, the trunk/core remains
>
>
>
Where I shall breathe another way.
>
> With no leaves, a tree can still exchange oxygen and CO2, just in a more dormant state
>
>
>
The route of south I always linger.
>
> Route/root is another double meaning. [Via OP: roots stretch downward, and are harder to move the deeper they go]
>
>
>
My arms have arms; my ring no finger.
>
> The arms are branches, which can have more branches stemming from them. Tree trunks can have rings, but do not have fingers.
>
>
> | Are you a
>
> Black hole ?
>
>
>
Because :
>
> A black hole is the core of a former star, whose most of its matter was expulsed through space via a supernova.
> Black holes are often surrounded by rings of hot gas. No idea for the arms or the south hints though.
>
>
> |
59,599 | I said or it came into my heart that Islam doesn't make sense but I didn't act toward it. Is this a kufr act? And while I was watching a TV show its was a Hindu show there it was about cleanliness the boy said that soon our city would world's most cleaned city but after awhile there came a monster who made it unclean so I said if Allah's doesn't will something it doesn't happen but it's a Hindu show so I said it not about Rabb so did I do a sin? Did I do kufr? How should I repent!?? | 2020/04/09 | [
"https://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/59599",
"https://islam.stackexchange.com",
"https://islam.stackexchange.com/users/37662/"
] | If you did not act upon what you thought there is no sin on you. Ask Allah to guide you and seek information on Islam from authentic sources so that your doubts can be addressed. Be patient as the answer may not come right away. | Such thoughts are not taken on you.
The biggest problem in our islamic world is that we prohibit such questions. It is totally legal to ask, but you have to direct your question to specialist. Specially when it is related to faith and Allah acts.
Be more specific, what exactly motivated you to think that Islam does not make sense?
You have to distinguish between two things, willing and satisfaction.
As you said, if Allah does not will something, then it will not happen. So WILL is about good and bad. When people choose kufr, this is totally by Allah will. Allah give them the ability to choose kufr. However, this not to satisfy Allah. Quran said that.
>
> ูุงู ุชุนุงูู: "ุฅูู ุชูููููุฑููุง ููุฅูููู ุงูููููู ุบูููููู ุนููููู
ู ููููุง ููุฑูุถูู ููุนูุจูุงุฏููู ุงููููููุฑู ููุฅูู ุชูุดูููุฑููุง ููุฑูุถููู ููููู
ู ููููุง ุชูุฒูุฑู ููุงุฒูุฑูุฉู ููุฒูุฑู ุฃูุฎูุฑูู ุซูู
ูู ุฅูููู ุฑูุจููููู
ู
ููุฑูุฌูุนูููู
ู ููููููุจููุฆูููู
ุจูู
ูุง ูููุชูู
ู ุชูุนูู
ูููููู ุฅูููููู ุนููููู
ู ุจูุฐูุงุชู ุงูุตููุฏููุฑู" [ุงูุฒู
ุฑ : 7]
> ุชุฑุฌู
ุฉ ููููุงูู-ุฎุงู ุงูุขูุฉ 7 ู
ู ุณูุฑุฉ ุงูุฒู
ุฑ:
>
> "If you disbelieve, then verily, Allah is not in need of you, He likes not disbelief for His slaves. And if you are grateful (by being believers), He is pleased therewith for you. No bearer of burdens shall bear the burden of another. Then to your Lord is your return, so He will inform you what you used to do. Verily, He is the All-Knower of that which is in (men's) breasts." (39:7) [Translation by al-Hilali/Khan]
>
>
>
To repent, you should seek forgiveness by estighfar |
59,599 | I said or it came into my heart that Islam doesn't make sense but I didn't act toward it. Is this a kufr act? And while I was watching a TV show its was a Hindu show there it was about cleanliness the boy said that soon our city would world's most cleaned city but after awhile there came a monster who made it unclean so I said if Allah's doesn't will something it doesn't happen but it's a Hindu show so I said it not about Rabb so did I do a sin? Did I do kufr? How should I repent!?? | 2020/04/09 | [
"https://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/59599",
"https://islam.stackexchange.com",
"https://islam.stackexchange.com/users/37662/"
] | If you did not act upon what you thought there is no sin on you. Ask Allah to guide you and seek information on Islam from authentic sources so that your doubts can be addressed. Be patient as the answer may not come right away. | Ibn Taymiyyah wrote: โSeeking forgiveness is from the greatest of the good deeds; and its door is extensive. So whoever senses a deficiency in his statement or his action or his circumstance or his sustenance or in the fluctuation of the heart; then upon him is Tawheed and seeking forgiveness. For in the both of them is a cure if they occur by way of truthfulness and sincerity.โ (Majmuโ Fataawa 11/698) |
190,924 | I have a 240 volt dust collector with an NEMA 6-15 plug. I want to plug it into an NEMA 14-50 receptacle. The 6-15 has three leads, while the 14-50 has a fourth (neutral). Can I change the plug and if so how do I wire it? | 2020/04/24 | [
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/190924",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com",
"https://diy.stackexchange.com/users/116209/"
] | You can't do that. You can't put at 50A plug on a 15A appliance.
What you can do is change the NEMA 14-50 to a NEMA 6-15. You will also need to change the breaker in the panel, and will need to pigtail the wires because #6 wires will not fit on either a 15A or 20A breaker or a NEMA 6-15 recep.
Now, if you need both sockets to be active, you can install a small subpanel at the NEMA 14-50 site. That subpanel will have 2 breakers: a 2-pole 50A and a 2-pole 15A or 20A. The 50A will supply the NEMA 14-50 recep. The 15A/20A will supply the dual NEMA 6-15. | You need to change the breaker or add some kind of fusing, then you can skip the neutral.
Receptacle configurations aren't just different to indicate what circuits are big enough for large tools, they also intend to protect by tripping when current too high exists.
If that dust collector draws 8 amps and some bearings go bad and the motor slows way down and the motor draws 5x it's rating it won't trip the 50A breaker that is suppose to feed that receptacle. If you're in the room and hear something is wrong you can shut it off you could be just buying a some new bearings.
Let's say maybe you can't hear it binding up or you left it on and went to the bathroom, and that motor completely binds up and draws 10x the current the cord, motor insulation, motor windings were all designed for. **Yes, 80 amps should trip the 50A breaker, somewhere between [90 seconds and 5 minutes](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/aX9MD-ZA7HJIrcMix6SyC3AJpQ5Zx1j47PyYHBgqHaW5AR-evHCqrgGlDvXZKUQW2azy5LxXE5i7JecP-w6hvcZ0ay80WMy-BrE_Nr41YHpkWDMseciKcpmXbAaCnsiGAACHLhs) !!!** Take a look at that cord and ask yourself how long do you think it will take for that cord to melt and maybe start a fire if it has 80 amps running through it.
So one option is too tap the 50A circuit, install a $12 [fusible disconnect](https://amzn.to/3cKTqat), and add a proper NEMA 6-15 receptacle. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.