What stuff gets used in rituals?

Question: As far as I know, most of the "rituals" that are mentioned don't include a list of ingredients (because I think they're not actually required). Do any of the books include a list of things that would actually be used for rituals?
Comment: As in the ones in core? Page ref would be nice.
You mean things like Exorcisms, right?
Comment: @Oxinabox I'm being very general, character is running a *Magic* shop, I'm mostly looking into it for the purpose of adding fluff. The kinds of things customers might request as specialty items.
Comment: right. Ok. Are answers that refer to things that have no actual magical properties Ok?
For example I know a Mage going on a asteral journey needs to succeed on a hard extended action meditation roll.
Incense and calming music and a yoga mat all give about a +1 to the roll.
Also certain Mage magics require things like Crystal balls, or Pools of water to scry though.
There is a Demon power (I can't remember which), the to activate the PC had to do something to focus. This particular PC chain-smoked. For him his tobacco was magic. These object are more or less useless on their own.
Comment: @Oxinabox I would guess that *most* of the things in the shop are going to be things that have no magical properties. We did give her "Esoteric Armory". Also thinking of things for werewolf rituals, circle of the crone, etc. So I'm betting that although they might be *useless* on their own, not all of them are the kinds of things you want the cops knowing you have. She might have a few imbued, or fetish, etc, items, but she currently isn't aware of it.
Answer: p141 of Hunter: Witch Finders

The tier of the spell affects the quality and rarity of the
  exotic ingredients that must be gathered in preparation of,
  and for use during, the ritual.
Tier one ingredient examples: toadstools, incense, pure
  water, various herbs, ritual tools (athame, wand, chalice,
  sword), sympathetic representations of the target (pictures,
  voodoo dolls) and candles.
Tier two ingredient examples: eye of newt, blood from an
  unborn child, tears from a virgin, ashes from the combined burn-
  ing of the sacred woods, continual recitation of the name(s) of
  the target, use of glyphs and sigils and animal sacrifice.
Tier three ingredients examples: fresh hemlock flowers
  gathered during the dark of the moon, a physical representation of the target carved from the wood of Yggdrasil, an apology from the unrepentant, the horn from a demon, bodily fluids of a saint, a vial of water taken from the Sea of Tranquility and human sacrifice.

What stuff gets used in rituals?


API or Datababse for Atlas like data

Question: Is there any database or API that can provide data present in Atlas books for example, list of countries, population, temperature etc.
Answer: For the climate data, there is PlanetOS API with a number of public datasets that have modelled and reanalysis data. You can access that data per geo point (LonLat) and time range in JSON or CSV format. Or you can acquire raster data via OpenDAP API.
Disclaimer: I work for PlanetOS, we support & promote public and open source projects.
So here are some examples of datasets and details about the API:

Global forecasts dataset (temperature, humidity, etc)
Re-analysis (from satellite data) of global ocean temperature
Each dataset has a list of variables with pre-generated API queries

API documentation

I suggest to look into CartoDB for the civic data, they have a bunch of civic data sources integrated.

API or Datababse for Atlas like data


problem to pop up a window in firefox plugin

Question: hi
  I am creating firefox plugin.I have one button-1.png image and I have added it to customize toolbar.I have used one button.xul file to add button in toolbar.I have also used chrome.manifest, install.rdf,button.css,button.js.
It is showing button in toolbar,I dragged that button and dropped on toolbar.
Now my question is, when I click on that button, I want to pop up a small window.
so please tell me,what should I write in button.xul & button.js to pop up a small window.
How will I get a pop up window,when I click on a button?
What changes I need to do in button.xul & button.js?
Answer: You can use the window.open method to open a popup window. Take a look at this link. If you want to open a popup(and not a window) then you can use a panel. You can anchor a panel to an element (say button) when opening it using the openpopup method. Some examples are available here as well.


How Big can Hydrofoils get?

Question: Is there a limit to the size of ships that can have hydrofoils (would an aircraft carrier work)? Would there be cavitation if the load was high enough, and to what extent would using larger foils help, and would they stop providing any advantage over non-hydrofoils at some point?
Comment: Hydrofoils turn engine thrust into lift in order to reduce the friction on the hull. At some point, it becomes a question of just how much thrust you can economically produce, and whether the reduction in the amount of power lost to friction remains greater than the other losses in the system.
Answer: There is no hard limit on the size of an airfoil/hydrofoil. A ships hull is a hydrofoil. This is how a sailboat sails into the wind for example. A keel is a large hydrofoil used in addition to the boats hull for directional stability or to counteract the force of the sails on a sailboat.
Hydrodynamic lifting of vessels for higher speed and higher efficiency is possible too, and have some very promising applications. However, like everything, there are economic/practicality constraints, especially when going big.

Adding hydrofoils to an aircraft carrier, for example, would require:

Lots of engineering, prototyping, money, more money, and risk.
Multiple long cord (maybe 10ft) hydrofoils added 20ft below the lowest part of the hull. They would be designed to lift half of the hull or maybe even all of the hull out of the water at cruising speed.
More exposed hull at cruise speed; more vulnerable.
Can the structure withstand failure of one or multiple hydrofoils at cruise speed.
Deep hydrofoils limit traversable depth at lower speeds.
Hydrofoils would be more easily damaged in a combat situation and
    would need to be discardable, or other emergency provisions.

Benefits of this would be:

This would reduce power consumption at top speed
Increase top speed with current powerplant.
Better rough water stability at cruise speed if hydrofoils have a computer controlled leveling system.

While such an aircraft carrier might be advantageous to current designs, it comes with significant opportunity cost. Would that money be better spent on higher performance jets, better nuclear power systems for ships, or even peace-making efforts ;-)
These engineering efforts may make more sense for more cost conscious industries such as bulk transportation. Again, lots of details to contend with. Some new ships use bubbles to reduce drag; so there are opportunities in this area.
Comment: would it be less efficient than non-hydrofoils at some point?
Comment: It would be less efficient at low speeds because the hydrofoils would contribute to drag but would not be lifting the hull. Low speed has relatively low power consumption though so it isnt too big of a concern. Provided the system is properly engineered, I don't believe a hydrofoil would ever be less efficient when comparing identical cruise speeds.

How Big can Hydrofoils get?


`values` vs `list` for returning multiple values from Lisp form

Question: What's the difference between using (values …) versus (list …) (or literally '(one two three …)) to return multiple values from a lambda (or other implicit progn)? Does it create some special glue to multiple-value-bind? Superficially, I can't see any difference and am curious whether it's merely a convention for multiple return values.
Comment: Can the downvoter take the time to drop a note on how to improve this question?
Comment: +1 @Giorgio — i know i asked this a bit hastily, however there's not exactly a lot of model Lisp questions (on many sites, not just SE), and i'd appreciate any pointers to help build the community! :]
Answer: This question has been already answered on SO: values function in Common Lisp.
Briefly, multiple values is a facility to return many objects without allocating extra memory.
E.g. floor
must return two values - quotient and remainder.
It can return a list (or a pair) or it can return two values.
In the former case it will have to allocate a cons cell on each call, in
the second it will not.
This means that multiple values have certain limitations
(one cannot return more than 20 values portably).
Comment: I'd be quite happy if you pulled the entirety of your answer here too (and linked back to it).  Note also that if you use the link provided in 'share' (`http://stackoverflow.com/a/22796346/850781`) as the link instead, it would allow you to get the Announcer badge if people click through it.
Comment: Note that it's completely implementation dependant how the values are actually stored. It could be registers, or on the stack, or a thread-local vector, or a series of thread-local vectors for different amounts of values, or a top-of-the-stack-allocated vector, or a heap-allocated user-hidden vector type (thus no longer saving you from consing), or a freshly consed list in an interpreter, or a combination of these, or yet something else.  I've seen a few of these in actual implementations.


I really want to pick up weight I'm too skinny

Question: I am a 18 year old boy which suppose to look healthy n fit and have a great built but instead I look like a broomstick and I hate that so much I have tried many things such as drinking eggs and milk daily,tablets etc I have also tried working out but I don't see an improvement I need some advice on picking up weight please help me out being skinny changes your entire lifestyle your clothes does not suit you even if you the best ones,your face is small and you just look horrible please tell me something that will really me thanks.
Comment: Lift heavy weights--*no, heavier!*--eat more--*more eggs!*--and stop doing things that make people skinny--*stop running and playing sports and staying up all night instead of sleeping*.
Comment: What's your current diet like?
Answer: EAT GODDAMIT.
No matter how much you think you are eating it is no-where near enough.
As a Male in his young twenties I aim for like 6000 calories, your metabolism is crazy at this stage and you have to eat to its rules.
Comment: That's fine, and I agree the base sentiment should be eat more, but blind exaggeration does not make for a good answer.
Comment: -1. We can do without the profanity, and caloric intake is highly person and activity dependent.
Comment: @JohnP as a young male his caloric intake requirements are going to be huge irregardless of whether he sits on the couch every day or runs marathons. Yes 6000 is an exaggeration but its in the right direction


Concerning ideals of $\mathbb Z[\sqrt m]$ and $\mathbb Z[\sqrt m] [x] $

Question: For a given integer $m<-1$ or non-square integer $m>1$ , how do we calculate the quotient ring $\mathbb Z[\sqrt m]/I$ , for example its order or whether it is a field or has zero divisors or not , for ideal $I$ ? I will be at least happy if some procedure can be given for only principal ideals $I$ . Where can I read about ideals of such rings $\mathbb Z[\sqrt m]$ and also about its polynomial ring $\mathbb Z[\sqrt m] [x] $ ? Please give some links or/and references .Thanks in advance
Answer: If $\mathbb Z[\sqrt m]$ is not integral domain, I think it's common to view it as $\mathbb Z[X]/(X^2-m)$. Similarly we can view $\mathbb Z[\sqrt m]/I$ as $\mathbb Z[X]/J$ where $X^2-m\in J$ (to ask $I$ being principle is the same to ask $J$ being principle or 2-generated) and view $\mathbb Z[\sqrt m] [x]$ as $\mathbb Z[X,Y]/(X^2-m)$. For a systematic investigation of properties of ideal structures of $\mathbb Z[X]$ and $\mathbb Z[X,Y]$, I need to read some commutative algebra or algebraic number theory. I recommend GTM150(Commutative Algebra: with a View Toward Algebraic Geometry, by David Eisenbud).
For the case I being principal, things become a little bit simpler. We have $\mathbb Z[\sqrt m]/I\simeq \mathbb Z[X]/(X^2-m,f(X))$. without loss of generality, we assume $f=aX-b$ (since we can  always divide $f$ by $X^2-m$). Let $d:=\gcd(a,b)$ and write $a=da^\prime$, $b=db^\prime$. Then $(X^2-m,aX-b)=(X^2-m,a^\prime X-b^\prime)\cap(X^2-m,d)$, and $\mathbb Z[X]/(X^2-m,aX+b)$ can be embedded into $\mathbb Z[X]/(X^2-m,d)\times\mathbb Z[X]/(X^2-m,a^\prime X-b^\prime)$. Furthermore, we have $\mathbb Z[X]/(X^2-m,a^\prime X-b^\prime)\simeq\mathbb Z[\frac1{a^\prime}]/((\frac{b^\prime}{a^\prime})^2-m)=\mathbb Z[\frac1{a^\prime}]/({b^\prime}^2-{a^\prime}^2m)$, so the structure of $\mathbb Z[X]/(X^2-m,a^\prime X-b^\prime)$ depends on the factorization of ${b^\prime}^2-{a^\prime}^2m$. Similarly we can analyze the structure of $\mathbb Z[X]/(X^2-m,d)$ by factorizing $d$: if $d=\prod p_i^{n_i}$, then $\mathbb Z[X]/(X^2-m,d)\simeq\times\mathbb Z_{p_i^{n_i}}[X]/(X^2-m)$.


Activating a non-genuine version of Windows XP using genuine key

Question: Talking hyperthetically, suppose I had a non-legitimate version of Windows XP, but I have now obtained a legitimate key (it belonged to an old computer that has now been trashed). How can I make the version legitimate without having to reinstall?
Comment: Whether a non-legit XP _can_ be activated depends on what version it is. If it's a "Corporate" Professional version, then it never needed to be activated anyway, and no matter how much you try, you won't be able to deactivate it. But otherwise, you can follow the method suggested.
Answer: For the solution given by whitequark to work, the two XP versions must be of the same kind, since one cannot activate an non-OEM version with OEM serial.
If the versions don't match, the solution will be to reinstall XP using the boot CD of the thrashed computer (if you still have it), or search elsewhere. It is not illegal to download via torrent a copy of a software that you own legally.
However, if the thrashed computer had an OEM version, then the license is "hardwired" to the computer and cannot be used on another, so the activation may not work.
Comment: @Casebash: You can go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx and there you should be able to see SHA-1 for all media that was released by Microsoft. Once you download ISO from torrents just use some SHA-1 calculator on your side (e.g.Summae at http://www.jmedved.com/default.aspx?page=summae) and compare sum that you got with official one. If they match, you have unmodified CD/DVD.
Comment: If I were to torrent a version, is there any way I can know that it doesn't have a virus or been otherwise modified?
Comment: No way, except by looking for a suitable torrent on community sites where there are enough comments vouching for it. And of course running a few full antivirus scans as first thing.
Answer: This article describes how to de-activate your system. Then you can just launch the standard activation process again.


How to simplify a discord bot remote tool

Question: After a bit of struggling I've come up with the code

import discord
import os
import subprocess as sub
import psutil

client = discord.Client()

my_path = os.getcwd()
program_instance = False
currently_installed = os.path.isdir("web-application")

def run_command(command):
    value = sub.Popen(command, stdout = sub.PIPE, stderr = sub.PIPE)
    return value.communicate()

def kill():
    global program_instance
    if not program_instance:
        return "Program instance not initiated";
    process = psutil.Process(program_instance.pid)
    for proc in process.children(recursive = True):
        proc.kill()
    process.kill()
    program_instance = False
    return "Instance Killed"

def delete_if_exists():
    global currently_installed
    kill()
    if currently_installed:
        os.system("rmdir /S /Q web-application")
        while currently_installed:
            currently_installed = os.path.isdir("web-application")

def download_from_git():
    #pull from git
    global currently_installed
    kill()
    delete_if_exists()
    instance = sub.Popen("git clone LINKTOWEBAPPLICATION")
    instance.communicate()
    currently_installed = True
    return "Successfully downloaded"

def run(download = False):
    global program_instance
    folders = run_command("dir")
    if not currently_installed or download:
        download_from_git()
    kill()
    path = my_path+"\\web-application"
    #installing values in pipenv
    install_command_instance = sub.Popen("pipenv install", cwd = path)
    install_command_instance.communicate()

    program_instance = sub.Popen("pipenv run app.py", cwd = path)
    return "App Running"

@client.event
async def on_ready():
    print("Gitty woke")

@client.event
async def on_message(message):
    if message.author.bot or not message.channel.id == MYDISCORDUSERID:
        return;
    command = message.content

    checker = lambda command_name: command == command_name

    if checker("run"):
        await message.channel.send(run())

    if checker("kill"):
        await message.channel.send(kill())

    if checker("download"):
        await message.channel.send(download_from_git())

    if checker("run download"):
        await message.channel.send(run(download = True))

    if checker("ping"):
        currently_installed = os.path.isdir("web-application")
        await message.channel.send("Running:" + f"\n{program_instance=}, {currently_installed=}")

with open(".key", "r") as key:
    client.run(key.read())

The biggest problem with this code was killing running processes. I just wanted to know if there are any easier ways to do this. And if I made any choices which are over complicated.
Edit:
This bot is built to pull a repo from GitHub which contains a web-application that needs to be run. The reason I have to kill the application is so I can download a new version and rerun the code (as multiple instances of the website would be bad). The issue is that when the website is running I also have to be able to send the bot commands and thus have to run it as a separate instance so that the bot doesn't get "clogged" up running the site and can still take inputs
Answer: This depends on the nature and purpose of the process.
For example, you might schedule your process as a coroutine, and cancel its execution with Future.cancel: https://docs.python.org/3/library/asyncio-future.html#asyncio.Future.cancel
Your process killing method is aggressive and quite risky, some more context around why you're cancelling processes and the nature of the processes would be useful for providing answers.


How to copy all the text of a nano editor file to windows clipboard?

Question: I am connected from windows to linux using Putty. I have a file result.csv I want to copy all the text from this file to windows clipboard and then paste the text to a notepad? Please help me.
Answer: On the Linux machine, logged into within PuTTY, cat result.csv. Within the PuTTY-window, hold shift and mark what you want to copy. That should be copied to Window's clipboard then.
Comment: PuTTY behaves unusually for Windows: anything you highlight by shift+drag (including autoscroll at top/bottom) or double or triple click (word or line) is immediately copied; conversely rightclick justs pastes and does not pop a menu. This method works as long as the data fits in scrollback memory, which you can adjust in the config dialog at Window (although if I try more than about 15million lines it thrashes and dies; using 0.64 on W8.1-64bit).
Comment: it never copy from nano online server to my windows notepad the only thing saves me was the `winscp`
Answer: So my suggestion would be to copy the file to your local computer using scp instead. If you have ssh working then you should have the possibility to connect with scp.
Try using a program called winscp
Comment: Since the OP is using PuTTY, why do you recommend winscp instead of pscp or psftp?
Comment: You are right any scp client will work. Personally if I don't have cygwin around I'm going with winscp to avoid the pain of using cmd.
Answer: Nano is a terminal application, so it doesn't have cross-application copy-paste, only an internal clipboard.
It's possible to copy a file to the clipboard on a Linux machine, but that requires a GUI (an X server), you can't do that with a pure text connection. You can actually use PuTTY to make a text+graphics connection by activating X11 forwarding, but that requires additional software on the Windows side, because Windows doesn't support X11. If you want to do that, see How to use X11 forwarding with PuTTY or Installing/Configuring PuTTy and Xming or X11 Forwarding using Xming and PuTTY. Then you can use xsel -b <myfile.txt or xclip <myfile.txt to copy the content of myfile.txt to the clipboard.
Alternatively, you can use the PuTTY companion programs PSFTP and PSCP to copy files.
Comment: Why not call an "internal clipboard" a buffer?
Comment: @SergeyBushmanov Why call an internal clipboard a buffer? That's a very generic term and not particularly appropriate there.
Comment: Because it's called so in the nanorc, and my understanding system clipboard -- where clipboard is appropriate I believe -- is different from nano's buffer. This is why the OP, and this is why I came here. Am I missing something?
Comment: @SergeyBushmanov Ah, ok, I didn't realize nano called it a buffer (or rather a _cutbuffer_, which is a precise term). _Clipboard_ is the modern term that everyone understands these days. "Buffer" is a very generic term and I thought mostly only vi(m) users would use the term in that sense nowadays. The difference between the system clipboard and nano's is that nano's is internal to nano, whereas a system clipboard allows copying between applications. _That_ is the important difference and not the name. X11 has an inter-application "cutbuffer" as well as an inter-application "clipboard".
Answer: If you have a file open in nano in a putty window, you will have to turn off mouse support (Alt-M will toggle). After that, you can select text in nano with the left mouse drag. Then left-click on the selected text to copy it to the windows clipboard. Anywhere you can now paste that clipboard text with a right-click. I often use this method to copy a single command from a bash script file, open in nano, to the bash command line to execute.
Answer: If you have the file open in Putty. Press ESC and then $ which enables "soft Wrapping" which will make the contents wrap as you would usually see in a text editor.
You can then highlight the contents as usual and paste them into your desktop file.


Multisite default theme and child applied to network

Question: I have an existing WP Multisite network. I want to simplify the maintenance of the themes. I'd like all subsites to have the same parent and child theme applied across the network.I saw several posts on WP_DEFAULT_THEME in the wp-config.php file but am unclear what the code would look like when applying both the parent and child to all.
Answer: The WP_DEFAULT_THEME constant actually just overrides what WordPress sets as default theme (which per default is the latest of the bundled themes). It does not really help you to define your parent theme. In fact you just have to "Network enable" your parent and child themes and then set the parent theme in the child themes header. No need to do more than that:
/**
 * Theme Name: Awesome Child Theme Name
 * Template:   parent-theme-folder-name
 * ...
 */

Answer: The configuration of what is the father theme on WordPress lies on the Child Theme you just need to setup WP_DEFAULT_THEME to be your child theme.
Now if you want to update all the sites to a theme programmatically you can do the following:
add_action( 'wpmu_upgrade_site', 'p167109_switch_theme' );
function p167109_switch_theme( $blog_id ){
    switch_theme( $template, $stylesheet );
}

Comment: Ok, I'll give both a try on a staging site first. Thanks for the info @Bordoni


How to add field to ALL webforms?

Question: How do I add a field to all webforms?
I have a website where I'm using webform for surveys and I want that on each survey there will be a field that is the same in all of the nodes/webforms.
Thank you.
Comment: did you mean to show the webform everywhere in nodes and webform pages?  in that case there is an option in webfrom settings that you can have your webform available as a block. and after doing that you can configure your webform block every where you want. :)
Answer: You have 2 options:

Go to /admin/structure/types/manage/webform/fields and add a field. Then all your new webforms will use the new field.
Install the Webform Share module, create a webform as usual, create your field, click the Export tab, go to /admin/structure/types/manage/webform and paste your configuration in the Publishing options > Webform default components box.

If all you need is one simple field, I recommend the former option.
Answer:
Go to /admin/structure/types and find your webform content type.
Go to manage fields of your webform content type
Add your new field like any other content type
After setting your desired field, go to manage display of your content type and decide the order of your fields
In my case I have a full node

How to add field to ALL webforms?


free equity screeners with export to excel

Question: I am having a tough time finding a free equity screener that allows me to download the following data into excel: P/E or EV/EBITDA, Growth, Return on capital or any return measures would be helpful. Any ideas? thanks so much!
Comment: What have you tried so far?
Answer: Yahoo Finance requires a premium account to download their statistics, but often they offer a free trial.
Answer: FINVIZ.com offers about a dozen screeners.  The Valuation screener might be of interest to you.   Unfortunately, it's 382 pages so you'll either need a clever way to capture them or you'll have to subscribe for at least a month in order to export the data.  I offer no assurance that the data is accurate.
Comment: Second Finviz, well worth it.


SSTP VPN Ubuntu 16.04

Question: I have a problem adding a sstp vpn to the network manager. I did follow:
How to set up an sstp vpn connection?
and
http://encryptedshadow.blogspot.dk/2016/06/remote-desktop-connection-from-ubuntu.html
But after installation even after restarting the network manager the option SSTP does not appear in the VPN menu. I did look around for some answers but I could not find anything 3rd day all ready.
Answer: I was struggling with this on Ubuntu Gnome 16.04 and I tried this:
nm-connection-editor
This will open GUI for network-manager and there was new button and create SSTP connection there.
Original post

SSTP VPN Ubuntu 16.04


Smith Normal Form for block matrices over the integers

Question: Are there any known results on the Smith Normal Form for block matrices over the integers?
In particular, I am interested in matrices of size $kr \times ks$ made of square blocks of size $k$ such that each block has one $1$ and one $-1$ in each row and column and the rest are zeros. This is for computing the cohomology of a certain chain complex.
Comment: I would like to prove that this kind of matrix have always the same type of smith normal form: an identity matrix and than only zeros.
Comment: What kind of results? Special properties of the Smith form in that case? Efficient computation? A "block-Smith" variant that works on the matrix ring of $k\times k$ matrices?
Answer: On efficient sparse integer matrix Smith normal form computations (Dumas, Saunders, Villard, 2001)

We present a new algorithm to compute the Integer Smith normal form of
  large sparse matrices. We reduce the computation of the Smith form to
  independent, and therefore parallel, computations modulo powers of
  word-size primes. Our method has
  proven useful in algebraic topology for the computation of the
  homology of some large simplicial complexes.


Custom page with user selected nodes

Question: I want to allow my users to print a pdf with the nodes they want.
I thought to create a view and use the Print module to generate the pdf, but I don't know how to let them choose the nodes.
I tried with Panels, but it's a bit complicated for standard user.
I thought to use some cck field to manage this, but since the custom page is per user, this is not possible.
Did anybody face the same problem?
Answer: You can use the Flag module to allow users to select nodes. Flag integrates nicely with Views, so you can create a view of nodes flagged by the current user.
Answer: You can try with nodequeue, or flag, and views.
If you use nodequeue, take a look at (for printing) : http://drupal.org/node/348682

Custom page with user selected nodes


Bluetooth my GPS signal to windows 10 tablet using QGIS

Question: Could anyone tell me how they pair their mobile phone gps to a (windows 10) tablet that can be picked up by qgis live tracking? I have tried a few apps which i believe is broadcasting the gps to my tablet (checking against google maps) but qgis is not picking up the gps information.
Comment: what bluetooth device are you using? is the COM port set? https://docs.qgis.org/2.2/en/docs/user_manual/working_with_gps/live_GPS_tracking.html
Comment: Thank you. The COM port was not set up properly. I posted my fix in another comment below
Answer: I successfully used extGPS apps to perform this tricks.
the steps are:

download extGPS from internet as it's not available from store... : http://downloadapk.net/ExtGPS.html
Copy the .APK file on your mobile phone
Install it by simply click on it from your phone
connect your tablet to your phone by bluetooth
launch the extGPS app on your phone, it will be ready when a localisation will be find, it will also display no client until you connect it to QGIS (or another software)
find the COM port use by Symartic ExtGPS in the tablet settings
Run QGIS
connect the GPS to the good COM port
the cursor will be set to your current position in the QGIS canvas.
Comment: Thank you. I actually did something very similar which I will post below for future users:

I downloaded an app on my android phone called "Bluetooth GPS Output".
I paired the phone with the tablet via Bluetooth, and opened the application on the mobile phone. I broadcast the signal to the tablet, and went into bluetooth connections and set up the COM port (this was the fix, as the COM port was not set up properly). I then had the option to choose the COM Port (COM Port 5 in this case) to connect to in QGIS. Surprised at the accuracy - usually under 5m in London open spaces using galaxy s6
Comment: Yes I also try this one. But i was not able to make it works with my devices... Only extGPS is working for me


Avoid alter and drop command on a Table and SP in SQL Server

Question: I have a table and a SP in SQL Server. I want to add Permissions on a table and SP that no one can change the Structure of table and Logic of SP. Is there any way to specify such type of Permissions. Any Trigger which avoids drop and alter commands, or any other way to do this.
Thanks in Advance.
Comment: If you have no control over the permissions, then you may also consider creating database DDL triggers to notify you if something has been changed. [Designing DDL Triggers](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186406(v=sql.105).aspx)
Comment: What you meant by `constraints` is actually `permissions`.
Comment: yes thanx... Any triggers for drop procedure and alter procedure..
Comment: The permissions to alter tables and stored procedures are quite substantial, and shouldn't be granted (in the first place) to many people. It sounds like your actual issue is that you've over-granted permissions to other users already.
Answer: You need to create and use a separate user that has only privileges that you explicitly allow it to (eg GRANT SELECT from table or GRANT EXECUTE on your stored procedure).
Rather than looking at it as disallowing certain actions you should consider what actions are allowed (see Principle of Least Privilege).
Answer: Yes, this is possible but not using constraint . Constraint is a bussiness rule kind of validation and here your question about Permission on Objects so now
this is clear that you need to define permission on object for specific user.If you want to
secure your Table and Stored Procedure then please follow this step.

Create one new User/Login with specific Database/Objects permission.
Give grant on your Secure table using - GRANT SELECT ON <TableName> TO <Username>
GIVE grant on your Secure Stored Procedure using - GRANT EXECUTE ON <SP Name> TO <Username>

for further regarding permission please do some search on Google .
Comment: oops, are you going set permission base on some action ? I cant understand this.
Answer: It is highly recommended that you manage the permissions on the objects. However, if you have no control over the permissions, consider setting up a database DDL trigger to at least log the events.
create table AuditTable
(
    event_type      varchar(max)    not null
    , tsql_command  varchar(max)    not null
    , modified_by   varchar(128)    not null default (current_user)
    , modified_time datetime        not null default (getdate())
)
go

create trigger log_database_level_event
on database
for ddl_database_level_events
as

insert AuditTable
(
    event_type
    , tsql_command
)
values
(
    eventdata().value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/EventType)[1]', 'varchar(max)')
    , eventdata().value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/TSQLCommand)[1]', 'varchar(max)')
)
go

create user tester without login
go

execute as user = 'tester'
go

create proc test_proc
as
select @@version
go

alter proc test_proc
as
select 1
go

revert
go

select * from AuditTable
go


Alter Webform email body

Question: I'm unable to find an example of altering the body of the Webform email confirmation according to the value submitted.
I've got in my form a select field, I would like to change the body of the email according to the selected value (not only include the value in the body but change completely the message).
I have thought about something like this but not sure if it works (unable to test at the moment, sorry):
<code> if (isset($message['params']['email']['eid']) && $message['params']['email']['eid'] != 1) {
      if ($message['params']['submission']->data[1][0] == 'company') {
        $message['body'][0] = 'Thank you .. bla bla.
        Bla bla bla.
        ';
      }
    }
</code>
Or is it possible to do in form_alter hook or maybe some module ?
Answer: You can use hook_mail_alter to alter the body of the mail:
Something like
<code>/**
 * Implements hook_mail_alter().
 */
function YOURMODULENAME_mail_alter(&$message) {
  // Check here for your mail key
  if ($message['id'] == 'modulename_messagekey') {
    $message['body'][] = 'Thank you .. bla bla.
        Bla bla bla.
        ';;
  }
}
</code>
Check here https://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/modules%21system%21system.api.php/function/hook_mail_alter/7.x for more exemples in comments.

Alter Webform email body


Adobe fireworks transparent text area

Question: How can I achieve this with Fireworks? Or what is the exact name of this technique, so I can Google it?
Answer: I know this is really old, but this technique is really useful, make a black square and text layer on top white; group them; go to live filters "other > convert to alpha", go to "adjust color > color fill" and choose your color in this case white, after that you can change the opacity as you want. The good thing about this, text is still editable just use the text tool or the alternate selection and double click the text ;).
Answer: Method 1:
Place your text object above the block. Set blend bode of the text object to Erase. Flatten Text+Block.
Drawback: you have to flatten Text+Block. Both objects will not be editable (unless you save editable copies before flattening).
Method 2:
Convert the text to vector path (Right click > Convert to Path). Then select text paths and do Path panel > Join paths to join all letter paths into one. Now select both text path and block path then do Path panel > Punch paths.
Drawback: Both objects lose (some of) their original properties. Text is still not editable.
Answer: You mention Fireworks but you tagged this Photoshop so this is my answer for Photoshop:
For editable text.

Have your image on the first layer
Create your box on a new layer
Type the text out you want over the box on another new layer
Right click text layer and go to blending options
Under blending options choose Fill Opacity 0 and change knockout to Shallow.

Adobe fireworks transparent text area


How to Texture Paint on an Object using Local Symmetry of Another Intersecting Object?

Question: Watching a tutorial online for Substance Painter's new tools, I was intrigued by the way they can use a secondary widget to define the orientation of an object's symmetry such that they can move the widget and then paint a symmetrical shape on the object's surface. This is similar to how our paint system uses the optional X, Y and Z axis for symmetry painting. Is there a possible work around in Blender already that I have missed?
Answer: I saw a Kent Trammel video on youtube that partially gave clues to how this might be possible, so I set up a basic scene in 2.8 to try my hand at applying the sculpting workaround to Texture Paint. You can see the normal symmetry painting there in the first screen.
I then turn on Face select mask mode and select the faces I want to paint on.
I go to edit mode and shift-s snap cursor to selection(this is where we will bring in another object as a helper)
I then scale the Plane object down once we have it in place - the local coordinates of this object are what we will use to get our symmetry set up.
I modified the plane in edit mode to extrude after creating the two loopcuts - these will be a cross that will help see the center of symmetry.
Select your paint object and then shift-select your helper object(the plane) and join them(ctrl-j)You will lose subdivision modifier, and will need to add it back before painting.
In edit mode, select the edge of the helper mesh and select linked(L) to select all of it, and use separate by selection.
Set the Helper object to Wire draw type in the Object Properties, and you can also turn off ability to render it in the Outliner.
Select your paint object and return to Texture Paint mode (Face Select Masking on to avoid painting on the opposite side of the object) and paint your desired design - here i test with just a cartoon face, as if Suzanne has a poorly made tattoo on her face like a rap artist. Painting one side of the cross hairs gets me the symmetrical result on the other side based on the helper object's local orientation.
After you are done, you can turn off Face Select masking and go back to Object mode and apply Location, Rotation and Scale to return the object origin to center of the paint object.


Risks of pinging/resolving malicious sites?

Question: If I do ping malicioussite.com or nslookup malicioussite.com, is there any risk for me? Will the people behind the malicious site know I'm looking them up?
I'd like to make a program to use an IP address to find the domain and vice versa.
Answer: Doing nslookup will only contact your configured DNS server (and then that server might forward the query to other DNS servers, but not in your name), no packet will arrive from your computer to malicioussite.com.
pinging will send icmp packets to the server of malicioussite.com and if they track packets they will see your ip address. Though ping itself is a pretty safe program strictly speaking, if you're worried that by exposing your ip address to someone is bad intentions is a risk, than you could do so with a proxy, vpn, or via the Tor network.
as far as reverse lookups go, see the following answer here: https://serverfault.com/questions/74042/resolve-host-name-from-ip-address#74044
Comment: Thanks for the reply! For nsloookup, what about the DNS server? Is the DNS server traceable by the malicious site? Might be configured by my company so I'm unsure if I should do nslookups
Comment: You can see what is your DNS server by running `ipconfig /all` on windows, or `cat /etc/resolv.conf` on linux machines. It should not be traceable by the malicious site.
Comment: @qnxyy: If `malicioussite.com` controls their authoritative DNS server, then they _would_ be able to tell which DNS server made the request to it. If this is a local one in your organisation then be able to trace it to your organisation.
Answer: Some authoritative DNS servers may reveal the first 24 bits of an IPv4 address if they are configured with Google's extension EDNS Client Subnet:

In addition, Google Public DNS engineers have proposed a technical
  solution called EDNS Client Subnet. This proposal allows resolvers to
  pass in part of the client's IP address (the first 24/64 bits or less
  for IPv4/IPv6 respectively) as the source IP in the DNS message, so
  that name servers can return optimized results based on the user's
  location rather than that of the resolver. To date, we have deployed
  an implementation of the proposal for many large CDNs (including
  Akamai) and Google properties. The majority of geo-sensitive domain
  names are already covered.

Therefore if you make a query to a DNS server
PC @ 203.0.113.224 --> DNS Resolver @ 198.51.100.50:53
                              --> Authoritative DNS @ 192.0.2.100:53

And if DNS Resolver supports the extension, the Authoritative DNS will see 203.0.113.X as your IP address.
If not, but DNS Resolver is at your company and malicioussite.com controls their Authoritative DNS server, then they will see that 198.51.100.50 has made a query for malicioussite.com, revealing your company to them.
Ping sends an ICMP packet from 203.0.113.224 to malicioussite.com, so the source IP would be viewable by them should they be logging or monitoring packets on this protocol. Ping of course uses DNS to lookup the IP address, so the points in my previous paragraph apply here as well.
Realistically speaking there is little risk to you as domains get queried all the time, and servers get pinged all the time. Privacy could be a concern if it is a domain name that only you (or a subset of people) would be privy to - e.g. the domain mrji8g45vcxa5.malicioussite.example.com can't really be accidentally looked up without you knowing that it exists somehow. If they know that only you know it, this could leak your whereabouts.
To ensure privacy of your program if it is indeed looking up such private domains, you could ensure it uses a public DNS server that does not support EDNS Client Subnet for its forward and reverse lookups. You could host such a server yourself if you are making this program for clients, and you are happy that target systems know that it is your program that is looking them up, but not necessarily which client.


Exporting a large data from oracle

Question: I want to export a large amount of data from oracle something like 7 million records and then import it in mysql. but during the exporting a data from oracle(using oracle sql developer), the sql developer freezed. Any ideas how to export a large amount of data from oracle and then import it in the mysql.
Comment: you can use method described here: http://stackoverflow.com/q/14209971/copying-a-very-large-table-from-one-db2-to-another-using-perl-and-dbi
Answer: To do that you need an ETL tool (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extract,_transform,_load)
There is one open source good product called Pentaho Data Integration.
Website: http://community.pentaho.com/
Download: http://forums.pentaho.com/showthread.php?133266-Kettle-4-4-0-stable-has-been-posted-to-SourceForge-net
How to use it: http://pldwh.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/pentaho-data-integration-how-to-use.html
NOTE: You do not have to create any repository (file/db) you can just create:
a new transformation -> add table input and table output -> define connections
and you are done.
Answer: SQL Developer doesn't handle large data sets very well, but SQL*Plus is very capable in that respect and has been used for this for decades. Spooling out a file of that size is no problem, and it's a free tool of course.
You have to pay attention to various settings to override the default headings, linesize, pagesize, feedback etc..
Run tests on a select of about 1,000 records to establish that you have the correct settings. Off the top of my head ...
<code>set heading off
set feedback off
set echo off
set termout off
set linesize 2000
set define off
set trimspool on
</code>
There may be a few I've forgotten -- if you see undesirable formatting issues in the output post a followup if you can't resolve them yourself.

Exporting a large data from oracle


What visa is required for a TV-L PhD position in Germany

Question: I am a citizen of a non EU country with an offer for a PhD position in a research training group with a TV-L E13 (65%) salary. I was told getting a student visa would be problematic. Which visa would I require to work under TV-L salary.
Comment: Have you tried asking the university administration? They usually know this because they get this question several times a year. Another option is to ask the German embassy in your country.
Answer: A student visa is definitely wrong (and something you can't fix afterwards!) You need a visa for a long-term stay that allows you to earn money; this is usually called a "national visa type D". This will allow multiple entries. Be aware that it will usually only be issued for three or six months (I've seen both), and you need to get the "real" visa for the full duration of the contract ("Aufenthaltserlaubnis") at the foreign office ("Ausländerbehörde") once you have arrived in Germany.
To get the visa, you need to provide some documentation about your employment in Germany; specifically,

date and place where the contract will be signed,
duration of the contract,
exact description of your position,
income.

The university should know about this and provide you a letter of confirmation
In your case, something like

$NAME, born $BIRTHDAY, is supposed to be employed from $STARTING_DATE
  to $ENDING_DATE as a wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter (TV-L E13) with
  65% of full working time at the $DEPARTMENT of $UNIVERSITY.

would suffice, since it's a standard position the embassy will be familiar with. You also need to present your Masters diploma to verify that you are qualified for the position.
Comment: An "Aufenthaltserlaubnis" is not a Visa. From my experience, the whole ordeal was a major pain, even when I was in Germany. What helps a lot is to get your "Sachbearbeterin" in contact with the "Personalabteilung" from the University. Seriously, do this as soon as possible.


Is it safe to combine these?

Question: It was suggested to me by a co-worker that I could create a very powerful and highly effective weed killer by combining One gallon of chlorine bleach,One gallon of vinegar and One pound of salt. Would these react to each other? would it be dangerous to combine them?
Comment: it's dangerous, could make chlorine gas
Comment: https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/34006/does-bleach-without-rinsing-leave-residues-and-can-vinegar-baking-soda-neutra
Comment: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's simpley "layoing" with  chemicals.
Answer: Read the bleach label. Does it or does it not answer your question? The bottle I have in front of me states:"DO NOT use or mix with other household chemicals, such as toilet bowl cleaners, rust removers, acid or ammonia containing products." In case you don't know: vinegar contains acetic acid. Life skill: before you take random advice, have a pretty good reason to trust the person giving it to you. The person giving you this advice may not be an idiot; it's possible s/he's just an idiot when it comes to chemistry...or perhaps s/he is out to get your job. Mixing vinegar with chlorine bleach generates chlorine gas. Chlorine gas is a poison gas. Poison gas kills people. Interestingly, the chlorine poison gas used in the First World War killed very few, but injured many - mostly blindness and (often permanent) lung damage. Salt and bleach might kill weeds, but it will kill most other plants, too. And could hurt any animal that touches it. If you want a "very powerful and highly effective" weed killer, why not just pour gasoline onto the area and light a match? At least then you won't leave behind an area where little or nothing will grow (salt makes soil infertile). Once it's burned off, it's gone (well, any left might cause cancer, but don't sweat the small stuff...). [I'm hoping I don't have to tell you not to do this...] In all fairness to your co-worker, I just mixed some of bleach with vinegar and while it did generate chlorine gas, there wasn't much generated. You might be able to do this without killing yourself, especially if you did it in a well ventilated area. Although I only tried it with a couple of tablespoon fulls, I suspect using a gallon would still not be lethal. I sure wouldn't try it. Nor do I think it would make a particularly effective herbicide. If you really really need to check this out, forget the vinegar, buy some thickened chlorine bleach (will better cling to leaves) and mix with salt and use that. I have no idea what it will do. Its possible that any animal seeking salt will be (severely) hurt, and it will damage lots of surfaces it comes in contact with. But I'd expect (I don't know, I've no experience nor direct knowledge on this) that it would kill the leaves it was on (I would expect the plant to survive). But its safe enough (unless children are around) for you to try that. Keep away from adding cleaners containing acid, including vinegar, and keep away from adding ammonia.

Is it safe to combine these?


How to avoid forwarding ports?

Question: I am doing UDP socket programming in C. In order to listen to a port, I need to forward ports in my router. My question is how to avoid doing that and still being able to communicate over the internet, if not possible with sockets, what is the lowest level possible? In other words, every device can listen to an http server, so is http the only unlocked way to go?
Answer: Usually, your ISP gives you a single IP address, and your home router does network address translation (NAT) to pretend to your ISP that all the devices in your home network are just a single device with the same address as the router itself.
Because of this, if anyone wants to contact your home network from the outside, the router has to "forward a port" to the device in your home network where the service is running, because the only IP address visible from the outside is the router's IP address.
If you don't want that, the only alternative is either to run your service directly on the router, or disconnect the router from your ISP and instead connect the computer where the services run directly (if it has the hardware to do so).
There is no other way, no matter what protocol you use.
You can also pay your ISP to give your more than one IPv4 address (this will be expensive). Or, if your ISP gives you an IPv6 global prefix, then each of the devices in your home network will have its own IPv6 address, which is reachable from the outside. So there's no NAT, no port forwarding is necessary, but it will only work for IPv6.
OTOH, setting up port forwarding isn't exactly black magic, so just do it.
Edit
When you "visit a web site", i.e. your local http client will contact the remote http server, the NAT in the router will rewrite the source address of the outgoing packets from the address of your private device to the ISP's IP address. It will also remember that a local device opened an outgoing connection, and when incoming packets arrive that belong to that connection, it will conversely rewrite the destination address and send them to the local device. That's what NAT is.
So for outgoing connections from your local device, you don't need port forwarding. NAT handles this for you. For incoming connections, e.g. if you run a http server, you need to tell your router "please forward port 80 to the following local device".

How can i open the port without accesing router settings?

For incoming connections, you can't. As I already tried to explain.
Edit
If you google example programs for UDP, there'll always be a server listening on a port, and a client not listening, but contacting the server (and after that both server and client can exchange packets in any direction). So "how do you receive info without listening to a port" is that you write the client, not the server, and then the server can send data to the client, so the client "receives info".
You can't run the server behind NAT without port forwarding. Period. No matter how often you ask. Not for TCP, not for UDP, not by "using a low level protocol".
If you don't want to enable port forwarding in the GUI of the router: Many routers allow you to set port forwarding, sometimes even temporary port forwarding, via UPnP. Your router may or may not have this feature.
There are also other tricks, like first contacting a general kind of server, which then will establish a connection with some other peer behind NAT (see e.g. the STUN protocol).
But if you are behind NAT, you first have to contact a server on the "real" internet. This server will be listening on a port, your client won't. Or, if you have a server listening to a port, you need to set up port forwarding. There is no other choice. Live with it.
Comment: I mean how an http client listens to the server, i see the port forwarding setting of the router and browsers don't add port forwardings for every device that is browsing the web
Comment: Which part of the explanation why browsers (http clients with outgoing connections) don't need to add port forwardings is not clear?
Comment: How does my phone receive  a website if it is not listening?
Comment: Clients always contact the server, so it's an outgoing **connection**, even though the answers are **incoming** and get rewritten, as described above. Your phone also runs a web browser as client, not as server, so it's not "listening" in the technical sense. It receives incoming packets which are part of a connection.
Comment: How can i receive info without listening to a port?, i want to receive packets as the browser does, is that only possible with TCP or can also be done with UDP?

How to avoid forwarding ports?


Output voltage accuracy vs output ripple of a linear regulator

Question: I am trying to select an LDO for powering the analog domain of a sensor that has a ripple requirement of < 50 mVpp @ 1.8 V. The 1.8 V LDO I intend to use has an output voltage accuracy of +/- 2% which means the voltage can vary by +/- 36 mV, which translates to 72 mVpp voltage. Should the output voltage inaccuracy be treated as a contributor to the ripple?
Comment: I recommend linking the data of the LDO that you are talking about so that people can be more specific with their answers. If I knew the ripple rejection of your regulator, I could have given you a more specific number for the output noise in my answer.
Comment: @PrathikPrashanth Link added.
Answer: There are three contributors to output ripple on an LDO. Those are the line regulation, the load regulation, and regulator noise.
Assuming your load draws a reasonably constant current, the ripple due to this should be negligible. No practical LDO will have a noise approaching 50 mV. If you were worried about 50 uV then you may have to do some digging in datasheets.
What's the input ripple to the regulator? This can be reduced with larger input reservoir capacitors if required. This is now reduced by the line regulation of the LDO. For any reasonable LDO and input ripple, your output ripple will be waaay below 50 mV.
The 2% voltage accuracy is a DC specification, and does not contribute to ripple.
Answer:
Should the output voltage inaccuracy be treated as a contributor to the ripple?

No.
The output voltage accuracy is the deviation from the nominal output voltage and the output ripple is the amount of AC component that is present in the output.
An LDO should easily meet your requirement as its 'output noise', which is the term used for linear regulators, will definitely be less than 50mV. In fact, you can expect it to be in the 100uV range or lower.
Comment: The datasheet says that the output noise is 39uVrms. So yea, you can expect 100uVpp of ripple @ashare
Answer:
The 1.8 V LDO I intend to use has an output voltage accuracy of +/- 2% which means the voltage can vary by +/- 36 mV, which translates to 72 mVpp voltage.

That's accuracy, not ripple. It includes effects like part-to-part variation and thermal drift, but unless you look at it on a very slow timescale, drift is not ripple.
If your sensor is ratiometric (like a resistor divider) and it outputs a voltage proportional to its supply voltage, then you have to worry about the accuracy and drift of your regulator. A simple solution is to use the same voltage reference for the ADC and the sensor, since the ADC measures the ratio of input voltage to reference voltage, that solves the problem.
If your sensor is not ratiometric, but instead outputs a specified voltage like "10mV per °C" then most likely its "maximum ripple" spec comes from its own power supply rejection. In that case you should ensure low enough ripple on the power supply, but the accuracy isn't really relevant as long as the sensor gets the voltage it needs. So what matters in this case is the product of the PSRR of your LDO and how noisy its own power supply is. If the sensor draws pulsed current, then also consider transient response.
Answer: For the voltage of a chip, ripple would mainly introduces jitter to the point of failing timing altogether and not working as expected. Lower/higher DC voltages don't cause much jitter but make the chip globally faster/slower.
If your only concern is jitter, then the inaccuracy of the voltage would be inconsequential.
If your chip is rated only for maximum allowed ripple, but not for maximum DC range, then I suppose it will work no problem with higher/lower DC and the ripple rating in its datasheet is just there to guarantee performance.
In general, the inaccuracy is the harder problem to get right from a PSU point of view though, because ripple can be substantially reduced with large output bulk capacitors. So even though ripple+ inaccuracy might exceed your tolerance, check for which output capacitance and current draw this ripple is given. If the capacitance/current is larger in your application, the ripple will be lower.
Answer: Try more to find the best way to get what you want. But, if you didn't get your suitable answer, I suggest this way:

Connect the output of your power supply to an oscilloscope (it's better to use a digital oscilloscope, because it gives you your P.S. output's ripple-frequency).

Put its channel on AC mode.

Look at your ripples and measure minimum and maximum frequency of your ripples.

Then make a band-reject filter on your output (you can find how to design it in internet).
But you have to select your components carefully, because your pk-pk voltage is very low. For example if you use a capacitor like ...uf - 100v, maybe it's not working in your circuit because of your low pk-pk voltage.

Find the lowest possible capacitor's voltage of your circuit.

I'm not sure actually, I never deal with this issue before but your components must work in that voltage limit (pk-pk ripple voltage) and follow this rule for the other components.


Can I use family share to send Css textures to brother's Gmod?

Question: My brother and I both own a copy of Gmod. However, only I own Css. Can I use the family share function to let him download counter strike and use the textured for Gmod?
Answer: If you both play the game on the same computer the textures will be installed and copied over anyway. However if not you could go to this website go to the garrycontent page and scroll down to the part where it says Source Textures or something like that and add it to your
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steamapps\Common\Garry's Mod\addons
This will install the textures for you no matter what :D
Answer: This will probably not help you in any scenario, but there are multiple CSS Textures already in the Steam Workshop of Garry's Mod: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse/?appid=4000
They are freely downloadable.
I didn't find much if family sharing would fix the problem, but I would give it a try since you own it anyway.
Answer: You don't need to own CSS to get the textures for Garry's Mod! Most people I would say don't own CSS :p It's also legal so no Issues there.
Link: GMOD Textures
Literally only takes a couple minutes. That page has a video tutorial and the download links.


side effects of disabling selinux

Question: A few days ago I ran into a big problem and asked it here and I found out that selinux was the cause of that. I have some virtual and physical machines with CentOS 6.7 or 6.9 as OS. They all have databases and I want to disable selinux on them, but i'm not sure if disabling it would effect my databases or not. I wanted to know what happen if I disable selinux to check if it has any bad effects on my system or not. What exactly does selinux do and what happens when it is disabled? Can I disable it without reboot, or is just restarting network or other services is enough?
Comment: @BlackCrystal It's like saying "the permissions were the cause for me failing to delete that file" (the real cause here is executing `rm` as the wrong user). I'm just shifting the blame from something that can't really be blamed, to the behaviour that made the operation fail (which is something you can do something about). It's just me doing a bit of psychology on a Saturday morning. Don't mind me.
Comment: Disabling SELinux may reduce the *security* of your databases by allowing an attacker to read or write to it without authorization.
Comment: Copy the system configurations to a test machine, and test. No need to copy the data of the database services, script creation of lots of similar entries.
Comment: i can't test on them because they support really important services. i have virtual machine on my system that sometimes i use them for test but in this case they are useless because i want to know effects when system is under heavy load of requests from different applications, users and ..
Comment: I am not clear. Creating test machines is a good pratice.
Comment: SELinux was not the _cause_ of your previous issues, strictly speaking.
Comment: @Kusalananda why it wasn't?
Answer: Side effects are that additional access restrictions of SELinux are not used anymore. Most of the time, when software is operating normally, there isn't expected to be anything different (usual access control mechanisms are preventing unintended access before SELinux is involved).
However, you should consider investigating the cause of the issue and fixing it (might be due incorrect file labels etc.; impossible to tell without precise details available in logs). Even if you decide to disable SELinux, it is possible to disable the policy module (see semodule) causing the issues or setting the problematic domain in permissive mode (rules are not enforced but are still logged, see semanage-permissive).
Comment: I prefer to have them disabled them having them generating logs
Comment: @RuiFRibeiro It is possible to disable a SELinux policy module. Afterwards there should not be any related SELinux log messages as the service runs in unconfined domain. This still allows leaving the rest of SELinux policy in place (how useful it is not so clear). One clear advantage is that should SELinux be enabled again some later time, the configuration is likely much easier.
Comment: @RuiFRibeiro And this is why optional security measures are no security measures.
Answer: There can be side effects from disabling the security theater that is selinux (watch exploit after exploit for Linux and ask where selinux is (one CVE exploits sudo compiled with selinux--thanks for holding the door, selinux) and then discover that selinux is helpfully preventing BIOS passwords from being set on lab machines, which was the final straw for selinux for me); in particular KVM virt servers on Centos Linux 7 that host virts that were built with selinux enabled will fail to start those virts after selinux is disabled (setting security_driver="none" did not help), so after wasting yet more time on selinux I ended up with selinux disabled on almost everything, but set to enabled-but-permissive on the virt servers where virts where setup when selinux was enabled. There will likely be other such edge cases and gotchas; selinux was disabled without incident for some mysql and postgresql database servers, but we're not doing much complicated with those database servers.

side effects of disabling selinux


MySQL is trimming my numbers and I can't figure out why

Question: I've got a table with a bunch of decimal(12,2) fields that are supposed to hold money amounts.  For some reason which I can't figure out one of them is trimming the value when either inserted or updated to a whole number.  So if I enter in 2.2 into the PHP web form all that is saved is 2.00.  It's not rounding because if I put in 2.9 it still saves 2.00.
All the columns are updated with a single update statement to the table, and this is the only one with a problem.  For all the values all I'm doing is grabbing the value via $_POST['n'] and sticking the value into an array which I'm then passing to the WordPress $wpdb->query via $wpdb->prepare as shown below.
<code>$wpdb->query(
    $wpdb->prepare($sql,$params)
);
</code>
If I go into phpmyadmin I can change the value and it'll take it.
The only difference between this column and the other columns is that this one was added to the table after the table was created, so it's farther to the right and was added via an ALTER TABLE command instead of being part of the CREATE table command.
If I dump the array from $params I can see the correct value, so it's being passed into the the database engine correctly (best I can tell).
I've tried changing the data type to decimal(12,3) and back but that didn't help any.  Anyone seen this before or have an idea where to look?
UPDATE:
As requested, the code to create the table.
<code>        $sql = "CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `{$wpdb->prefix}timesheet` (
            timesheet_id bigint(20) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
            user_id bigint(20) NOT NULL,
            start_date datetime NOT NULL,
            entered_date datetime NOT NULL,
            client_name mediumtext NOT NULL,
            project_name mediumtext NULL,
            monday_hours numeric(12,2) NOT NULL,
            tuesday_hours numeric(12,2) NOT NULL,
            wednesday_hours numeric(12,2) NOT NULL,
            thursday_hours numeric(12,2) NOT NULL,
            friday_hours numeric(12,2) NOT NULL,
            saturday_hours numeric(12,2) NOT NULL,
            sunday_hours numeric(12,2) NOT NULL,
            total_hours numeric(12,2) NOT NULL,
            monday_desc mediumtext NULL,
            tuesday_desc mediumtext NULL,
            wednesday_desc mediumtext NULL,
            thursday_desc mediumtext NULL,
            friday_desc mediumtext NULL,
            saturday_desc mediumtext NULL,
            sunday_desc mediumtext NULL,
            per_diem_days numeric(6,2) NULL,
            hotel_charges numeric(12,2) NULL,
            rental_car_charges numeric(12,2) NULL,
            tolls numeric(12,2) NULL,
            other_expenses numeric(12,2) NULL,
            other_expenses_notes longtext NULL,
            week_complete tinyint(1) NOT NULL,
            marked_complete_by bigint(20) NULL,
            marked_complete_date datetime NULL,
            approved tinyint(1) NOT NULL,
            approved_by bigint(20) NULL,
            approved_date datetime NULL,
            invoiced tinyint(1) NOT NULL,
            invoiced_by bigint(20) NULL,
            invoiced_date datetime NULL,
            invoiceid bigint(20) NULL,
            ClientId bigint(20) NULL,
            mileage bigint(20) NULL,
            EmbargoPendingProjectClose tinyint(1) NULL,
            project_complete tinyint(1) NULL,
            ProjectId bigint(20),
            PRIMARY KEY (timesheet_id),
            INDEX IX_user_id_start_date (user_id, start_date),
            INDEX IX_approved (approved),
            INDEX IX_invoiced (invoiced)
            ) $charset_collate";
        $wpdb->query($sql);
</code>
Then later on the new problem column was added.
<code>        $sql = "ALTER TABLE `{$wpdb->prefix}timesheet`
            ADD COLUMN flight_cost decimal(12,2)";
        $wpdb->query($sql);
</code>
Comment: Sorry, been slammed and haven't had a chance to look back at this.

@MaxVernon it's a WordPress plugin that I built myself.  I'll update the question with the create table code that I used for the initial table creation.
Comment: What is the base class of `$wpdb`?
Comment: Sounds like something in the plugin.
Comment: When I dump the values from the POST the values are correct.  The INSERT statement is just grabbing the values from the POST and sticking them into an array, which is passed to the function which uses the code in the original section to run the query.  The query is pretty simple.  When I var_dump the array it has the decimal data in the value.
Answer: Sounds like your PHP code is converting the string to a integer and chopping off the decimal place. Possibly in the prepare statement. You could try binding the param as a string, or possibly a cast as a (float).
Example PHP:
<code>  $number='2.90';
  echo (int)$number;
</code>
Will output 2
<code>$number='2.90';
echo (float)$number;
</code>
Will output 2.9
I would just leave it as a %s string.
Answer: I'm still not sure why it was happening, but I was able to fix it by changing the parameter to be passed in as a string (%s) instead of a number (%d).


Popup with StaysOpen to false is not closing

Question: I have a telerik grid view and when I right click the header, I'm showing a  with a ListBox inside containing the list of columns.
The item template is redefined to show a check box so I can set the column visible or not.
I can also drag/drop columns to reorder them.
So here is how I create my Popup:
var view = new ColumnsOrderer.ColumnsOrderer
            {
                DataContext = new ColumnsOrderer.ViewModelColumnsOrderer(Columns)
            };

var codePopup = new Popup
                    {
                        Child = view,
                        MaxHeight = 400,
                        StaysOpen = false,
                        Placement = PlacementMode.Mouse
                    };
codePopup.IsOpen = true;

Now everything seems to work correctly, but it's not.
If I set columns visible or hidden and then click outside the popup, it closes correctly.
Though if I drag an item to reorder it, the popup seems to lose focus and then it won't close if I click outside the popup. I have to click back in the list box inside the popup and then it closes by clicking outside.
Here is my drag/drop events:
public ColumnsOrderer()
{
    InitializeComponent();
    InitialiazeListBoxDragDrop();
}

private void InitialiazeListBoxDragDrop()
{
    var itemContainerStyle = new Style(typeof(ListBoxItem));

    itemContainerStyle.Setters.Add(new Setter(AllowDropProperty, true));
    itemContainerStyle.Setters.Add(new EventSetter(PreviewMouseMoveEvent, new MouseEventHandler(OnMouseMove)));
    itemContainerStyle.Setters.Add(new EventSetter(DropEvent, new DragEventHandler(OnDrop)));

    listColumns.ItemContainerStyle = itemContainerStyle;
}

void OnMouseMove(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.OriginalSource is CheckBox || e.LeftButton == MouseButtonState.Released)
        return;

    if (sender is ListBoxItem)
    {
        var draggedItem = sender as ListBoxItem;
        draggedItem.IsSelected = true;

        DragDrop.DoDragDrop(draggedItem, draggedItem.DataContext, DragDropEffects.Move);
    }
}

void OnDrop(object sender, DragEventArgs e)
{
    if (!(sender is ListBoxItem))
        return;
}

An interesting thing is that if I remove the OnDrop handler, the problem is not there.
I tried many ways to set back the focus to the popup, but it's not working.
Could anyone help me on that?
Answer: How about trying to re-focus your Popup control after the drag and drop operation?
void OnDrop(object sender, DragEventArgs e)
{
    if (!(sender is ListBoxItem))
        return;
    codePopup.Focus();
}

Comment: OnDrop is in codeBehind of a control inside the popup. I don't want get the parent casted as Popup to set its focus. This control could be use elsewhere...
Comment: Even if I don't want to do it, I tried it and it's not working


Best way to complete Through the Fire and Flames if you dont play guitar

Question: What is the best way to complete Through the Fire and Flames if you don't play guitar?
Comment: Practice, practice, practice!
Answer: Well, you can complete the song with any of the other available instruments. I find singing easiest. It's just figuring out what you're good at and using that. Unless you mean you don't have a guitar controller? In that case you're kind of out of luck as far as I know. You need an instrument and or microphone.


What is the equivalent of a C pointer in VB.NET?

Question: What is the most similar thing in VB.NET to a pointer, meaning like C pointers?
I have a TreeView within a class. I need to expose some specific nodes (or leaves) that can be modified by external objects.
Answer: C#, and I also believe VB.Net, will work on the concept of references. Essentially, it means when you say
A a = new A()
the 'a' is a reference, and not the actual object.
So if I go
B b = a
b is another reference to the same underlying object.
When you want to expose any internal objects, you can simply do so by exposing 'properties'. Make sure, that you do not provide setters for the properties, or that if you do, there is code to check if the value is legal.
ByRef is used when you want to pass the object as a parameter, and when you want the called method to be able to change the reference (as opposed to the object).
As mentioned above, if you post some code, it will be easier to explain.
Answer: Nathan W has already suggested the IntPtr structure which can represent a pointer or handle, however, whilst this structure is part and parcel of the .NET framework, .NET really doesn't have pointers per-say, and certainly not like C pointers.
This is primarily because the .NET Framework is a "managed" platform and memory is managed, assigned, allocated and deallocated by the CLR without you, the developer, having to worry about it (i.e. no malloc commands!)  It's mostly because of this memory management that you don't really have access to direct memory addresses.
The closest thing within the .NET Framework that can be thought of as a "pointer" (but really isn't one) is the delegate.  You can think of a delegate as a "function pointer", however, it's not really a pointer in the strictest sense.  Delegates add type-safety to calling functions, allowing code that "invokes" a delegate instance to ensure that it is calling the correct method with the correct parameters.  This is unlike "traditional" pointers as they are not type-safe, and merely reference a memory address.
Delegates are everywhere in the .NET Framework, and whenever you use an event, or respond to an event, you're using delegates.
If you want to use C# rather than VB.NET, you can write code that is marked as "unsafe".  This allows code within the unsafe block to run outside of the protection of the CLR.  This, in turn, allows usage of "real" pointers, just like C, however, they still do have some limitations (such as what can be at the memory address that is pointed to).
Answer: Best way to do it is to just allocate everything manually:
You can move up OR down each Stack at free will without Pushing or Popping.
Dim Stack(4095) as Byte    'for 8bit   - 1 bytes each entry
Dim Stack(4095) as Integer 'for 16bit  - 2 bytes each entry
Dim Stack(4095) as Long    'for 32bit  - 4 bytes each entry
Dim Stack(4095) as Double  'for 64 bit - 8 bytes each entry

Dim i as integer           'Where i is your Stack Pointer(0 through 4095)
Dim int as integer         'Byte Integer Long or Double  (8, 16, 32, 64 bit)

for i = 0 to 4095

    int = i

    Stack(i) = int/256                         'For 8bit  Byte
    Stack(i) = int                             'For 16bit Integer
    Stack(i) = Microsoft.VisualBasic.MKL$(int) 'For 32bit Long
    Stack(i) = Microsoft.VisualBasic.MKD$(int) 'For 64bit Double

    MsgBox(Microsoft.VisualBasic.HEX$(Stack(i))) 'To See Bitwise Length Per Entry

next i

Comment: Might want to throw in If int <> 0 between Stack() & MsgBox in the For Next Clause because divide by 0 is deadly.
Answer: If you are using VB the only thing that is really close to a pointer is a IntPtr.  If you have access to C# you can use unsafe C# code to do pointer work.
Answer: If you're looking to pass something back from a subroutine you can pass it by reference - as in "ByRef myParamter as Object".
Best answer depends, to some degree, on what you're trying to do.


What four TV series appeared on Sci-Fi channel about the same time around March 1999?

Question: I recall seeing four new TV series that appeared on the SciFi channel about the same time.  Two of them were Farscape and First Wave.  Unfortunately, I cannot recall the other two.  According to IMDb, they both started in the US on the SciFi channel in early 1999.  Can anyone tell me the other two?
Comment: @Moriarty - Possibly for a lack of research?
Comment: "*The big day is tomorrow, when the Sci-Fi Channel launches two new series [Farscape and First Wave[ along with new episodes of "Sliders" -- that show is harder to kill than Rasputin -- and "Poltergeist: The Legacy."*" - - https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Invasion-Sci-Fi-Channel-expands-its-universe-2941269.php
Comment: Why the votedown?
Answer: According to Wikipedia, Farscape debuted on the Sci-Fi (SyFy) Channel on March 19, 1999 and First Wave debuted on September 9, 1998.
Other shows that debuted in that general time frame were:

Sliders, which was not a new show.  It debuted on Sci-Fi on Jun 6, 1998, but previously had been on FOX.
Poltergeist: The Legacy debuted on the Sci-Fi Channel on March 19, 1999, but it previously had been on Showtime.
Welcome to Paradox debuted on August 17, 1998. This was an anthology series where all the stories took place in Betaville.
Good vs. Evil debuted on July 18, 1999.  A comedy sci-fi series about God recruiting people who had died to help fight demons.  It is currently showing on NBC's Chiller channel.

Other shows debuted before 1998 or after 1999.


My job has changed and my performance has suffered in a key area, what should I do?

Question: I recently had a mediocre performance review. My job has changed as the company has become more "call center" like. I have high ratings with client organizations I serve, co-workers as mentor and trainer for both clients and staff. When a new team member joined last year, I did spend time mentoring him to learn the job which he did well. I did my work for client companies but my "call center" numbers were slightly below average such as times available on a new Queue system, restroom breaks--which was never an issue before, and I even came up with a plan to share the workload efficiently, mentor and train new staff and connect with clients--which was turned around in my review as a highlight to my own deficiencies. I am so close to leaving. I have a great deal of education, even more than many of my supervisors, but I am uncertain what to do. My low ratings pretty much guarantee I would not be considered for a promotion as the "numbers" aren't right. FYI, my typing skills are decent but I am not lightening on the keyboard with a random queue call. Thoughts?
Comment: Questions asking specifically "what should I do" or left open ended ("Thoughts?") don't fit the Q&A model on The Workplace very well. You will likely get better results if you rephrase your question to mention your specific goals, what you're trying to achieve, what your options are, and other details.
Comment: How to I adapt to a call center world which is purely about numbers for the day?
Answer: You have a few options:

Speak to management in hopes of making changes.    Maybe you will positively effect change by expressing your concerns.
Accept the new system, and change your work habits to succeed in the new system.
Leave.

This wouldn't be the first time a company simply changed how they did business, and the employees beholden to the old system simply got left in the dust.  I've been that employee myself -- hired to program in Microsoft technologies, then had the company decide to switch to Java a few months later.   Ultimately, I left when I could not resist the change any further.
Make a choice.   Do you like the company enough to stay and try to change it, or accept it?   Or go find a new job.
Comment: I enjoy training and mentoring new staff and planning programs for the organization. My company is about the phones, the numbers and your typing skills. I may leave.
Comment: @Westerling, it sounds like what you want to do and what your company values are not in alignment. What is keeping you from leaving?
Comment: The pay is good and so are the benefits, but man ( and woman) does not live by bread alone, so I hear. I have  been looking around, more exploratory at this point. One senior leader was saying how in a few years an AI will be able to do many of the mundane things. What I hear is we can do more with fewer people.


Exchange 2010, 2013 and 2016 maximum mailbox size

Question: Which is the maximum size limit for a single mailbox in exchange 2010, 2013 and 2016?
Answer: The default limit is 2gb.
However the only limit will be the physical limit of the database, which is 2TB.
However a mailbox of that size will be almost impossible to view. The practical limit would be somewhere between 30 and 60gb, depending on the Outlook version being used.
Simon.
Answer: To know about the memory consumption in Exchange, Please visit this informative Blog regarding Mailbox Database Size of Exchange 2010, 2013, 2016 Server. As Size for mailboxes Different version in Exchange for Example:

For 2007: Maximum storage allows 250 GB and 50 storage groups
For 2010: Maximum total drive storage capacity 2TB and 100 Storage groups.
For 2013: Maximum storage allows 2TB, and storage groups reduced from 100 to 50.
Answer: The default limit for a mailbox is 2GB which can be extended to unlimited. But
unlimited again will be restricted by the max database size which is in Exchange 2010 16TB (default is 1TB).
I recommend to not look at the maximum mailbox size but look after the recommended max mailbox size.
The Exchange Team wrote a blog article about this: Recommended Mailbox Size Limits.
Currently Microsoft offers max 100GB per mailbox via Office 365, and I would strongly recommend to not extend this limit. They have a highly skilled tech team; they should know why they set this limit.
I see an Exchange mailbox always as a type of work space. Therefore I recommend always to have some archiving rules in place. People shouldn't hoard mails over 2 years which don't have any relevance anymore.
See also MSDN TechNet Magazine 2012 article Microsoft Exchange Server 2010: Exchange Archiving and Compliance.
Answer: The maximum size limit for a single mailbox in exchange is 2GB.
Comment: Where did you get this number from? It's completely wrong. You might be thinking of the maximum file size for an ANSI format PST file.


Can I install kde neon amd64 on i686 architecture?

Question: Recently I downloaded latest kde neon amd64.iso. I don't know how it's corrupt. But can I install amd64 software on i686 architecture ?
Answer: No, sorry, but i686 architecture is 32-bit only. And amd64 is a 64-bit software iso. The image isn't corrupt, the machine just can't read it.
Comment: Sir I don't know but when I checked with lscpu it saying  Architecture:          i686
CPU op-mode(s):        32-bit, 64-bit . Also I re-download image for 10 mb and tried to extract and its done. But I can't extract or open as archive my prior downloaded 1.4 gb iso. May Its corrupted.  Thank you .
Comment: I re-download and I wonder it's working.
Answer: You CAN run 64bit (=x86_64 in redhat and relatives, =amd64 in debian relatives) or 32bit (i386-i686) software (code, kernel, OS) on 64bit (AMD64,EM64T) enabled x86 compatible hardware (CPU).
Check support with HW vendor. Generally speaking AMD Athlon64 and newer, Intel Xeon Nocona/Pentium Prescott and later are 64bit CPUs.More in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86
Note: Intel IA-64 Itanium are (usually) not 32bit enabled.
You CAN NOT run 64bit software on 32bit hardware unless you use full HW virtualization (like qemu - not KVM).
You may have 32bit OS running on 64bit HW while running lscpu. Your reported architecture (SW) is then i686 but you can still boot 64bit ISO if it's not corrupted. You may check MD5/SHA checksum to check for corruption.


Wacom Tablet - Photoshop stop brush size changing

Question: In photoshop I'd like to be able to use my wacom to draw straight lines by the click-shift-click method but the brush size changes from large to very small as it would it was pressure related. Has anyone found at solution for this problem?
Answer: Disable the Shape dynamic on the Brush Panel.

I believe it's on by default.
It's the Size Jitter there which causes a brush to change size as you paint.
Answer: Here's a video that goes into the details, but basically you need to disable shape dynamics. There's a button in the command bar that does that:
You can also disable it in the brush settings panel by setting the size control to off:


I can't remember the email or password i used for Pokemon Go

Question: I broke my phone and I never backed it up so I lost everything. Including Pokemon Go. It would've saved my account though, right? I tried to sign in using my username and password but my password won't work! I USE THE EXACT SAME PASSWORD FOR LITERALLY EVERYTHING I HAVE!!! Why would I use something different this one time??? I asked my friends if my username was right or wrong and they all sent me a screenshot of my profile that I sent them and the username was right. I have so many emails that I cant remember which one I used. Any advice on what I should do?
Comment: It's not wise to openly tell people on the internet you use the same password for everything.
Answer: Your best plan of action is to throw your email addresses into the username recovery page until you get a hit. This will identify which address your account is attached to, which, along with your username, will let you fill in the password recovery form.
After that, you should do something to consolidate all those email accounts and diversify your password situation, because... Damn, dude. This is some 101-level shit.


Can two new and one old mobile phones be taken to India?

Question: I am an Indian residing in Italy. Am I allowed to take two new mobile phones purchased in Italy along with the one I use to India? Can someone get me the rules/law about the gadgets? Thank you.
Answer: Of course.  But you'll have to declare them at Customs when you return, and you'll likely have to pay tax and duty on them.


Wordpress Post page list view seems broken

Question: The post list page in the backend admin for my wordpress seems broken. The post title and other details are broken down every character. I have not modified any css or theme file. Anyone has any idea why this might be happening? Please see the attached image.
Comment: It looks like you're using several plugins that customise the list. I would start deactivating those so that you can identify which one is causing the issue.
Answer: Try hiding some columns by pulling down the Screen Options drawer and unchecking a few.
If that doesn't work, then follow Jacob Peattie's recommendation on deactivating plugins.


Running defaults command as root vs regular user

Question: I've used the defaults command to tweak my settings to some sane defaults, but I have been unsure if I should run them as root or as my regular user. Seems to work either way. It is possible to do both, so my question is: is there a difference?
Scripts like these that use defaults usually needs root, but I don't see why. Sometimes I have to reboot in order to see the change in effect.
Answer: Yes , it's different if you run as root or regular user. In the first case you have all permissions, the second you have the permission of the domain of the application. Not every time the permissions are the same.


How to check for an operator property

Question: Trying to modify this to show up in the keymap instead of in toolsettings
https://developer.blender.org/D6322
Creator says it was done as a tool setting so it can know when to draw facedots in xray. Don't really care about that either way. Can live without it, but I am pretty sure if I get an understanding of my problem it would allow this functionality.
What I'm interested in is getting this in the keymap, so it can be mapped to a modifier similar to the different selection modes.
I figured out how to get another checkbox in keymap, and where I want it to be, but I don't know how to make a script check if that property is true/false, the same way it is currently checking if a tool setting is true/false.
Here is my new property 'mesh_select_through' in wm_operator_props.c
void WM_operator_properties_border(wmOperatorType *ot)
{
  PropertyRNA *prop;

  prop = RNA_def_int(ot->srna, "xmin", 0, INT_MIN, INT_MAX, "X Min", "", INT_MIN, INT_MAX);
  RNA_def_property_flag(prop, PROP_HIDDEN | PROP_SKIP_SAVE);
  prop = RNA_def_int(ot->srna, "xmax", 0, INT_MIN, INT_MAX, "X Max", "", INT_MIN, INT_MAX);
  RNA_def_property_flag(prop, PROP_HIDDEN | PROP_SKIP_SAVE);
  prop = RNA_def_int(ot->srna, "ymin", 0, INT_MIN, INT_MAX, "Y Min", "", INT_MIN, INT_MAX);
  RNA_def_property_flag(prop, PROP_HIDDEN | PROP_SKIP_SAVE);
  prop = RNA_def_int(ot->srna, "ymax", 0, INT_MIN, INT_MAX, "Y Max", "", INT_MIN, INT_MAX);
  RNA_def_property_flag(prop, PROP_HIDDEN | PROP_SKIP_SAVE);

  prop = RNA_def_boolean(ot->srna, "wait_for_input", true, "Wait for Input", "");
  RNA_def_property_flag(prop, PROP_HIDDEN | PROP_SKIP_SAVE);
  prop = RNA_def_boolean(ot->srna, "mesh_select_through", true, "Select Through", "");
  RNA_def_property_flag(prop, PROP_HIDDEN | PROP_SKIP_SAVE);
}

It shows up in the keymap under 'Wait for Input' which is what I was hoping for. Now I just need the script to check for that property instead of its tool setting equivalent. This is done in two scripts from what I can tell, and getting it to work in one should be the same process as in the other.
I think I probably have to add an Include to something in that script, and then set a *prop variable to it? That's the way it is checking for the tool setting, so it should work the same way, right?
Here's what it does to check the 'mesh_select_through' tool setting and then do something about facedots in view3d_select.c
static bool do_mesh_box_select(ViewContext *vc,
                               wmGenericUserData *wm_userdata,
                               const rcti *rect,
                               const eSelectOp sel_op)
{
#ifdef DEBUG_TIME
  double t1 = PIL_check_seconds_timer();
#endif
  BoxSelectUserData data;
  ToolSettings *ts = vc->scene->toolsettings;

  view3d_userdata_boxselect_init(&data, vc, rect, sel_op);

  if (SEL_OP_USE_PRE_DESELECT(sel_op)) {
    if (vc->em->bm->totvertsel) {
      EDBM_flag_disable_all(vc->em, BM_ELEM_SELECT);
      data.is_changed = true;
    }
  }

  /*for non zbuf projections, dont change the GL state */
  ED_view3d_init_mats_rv3d(vc->obedit, vc->rv3d);

 GPU_matrix_set(vc->rv3d->viewmat);

  const bool use_zbuf = !(ts->mesh_select_through || XRAY_FLAG_ENABLED(vc->v3d));
  const bool show_face_dots = (vc->v3d->overlay.edit_flag & V3D_OVERLAY_EDIT_FACE_DOT) != 0;

It does a bunch of other stuff in view3d_select.c to make it all work, and something else in another script to draw facedots or not.
So I'm thinking all I have to do is set this up to check my operator property instead of the tool setting. But I don't know how, and looking around has gotten me nothing, sorry.
edit:
It occured to me to check wm_operators.c to see how it makes use of properties, so I did this:
  BoxSelectUserData data;
  ToolSettings *ts = vc->scene->toolsettings;
  wmOperator *op;
  PointerRNA *ptr;
  PropertyRNA *mesh_select_through = RNA_struct_find_property(op->ptr,
                                                                "mesh_select_through");

and
  const bool use_zbuf = !(mesh_select_through || XRAY_FLAG_ENABLED(vc->v3d));

and
if (ts->selectmode & SCE_SELECT_EDGE && !mesh_select_through) {
      mesh_foreachScreenEdge_clip_bb_segment(
          vc, do_mesh_box_select__doSelectEdge_pass0, &cb_data, clip_flag);
}

and
  if (ts->selectmode & SCE_SELECT_FACE) {
    if (mesh_select_through) {
    mesh_foreachScreenFaceVerts(
            vc, do_mesh_box_select__doSelectFace, &data, V3D_PROJ_TEST_CLIP_NEAR | V3D_PROJ_TEST_CLIP_BB);
    }
    else {
       if (use_zbuf) {
        data.is_changed |= edbm_backbuf_check_and_select_faces(
            esel, vc->depsgraph, vc->obedit, vc->em, sel_op);
      }
      /* Xray Mode with face center selection */
      else {
        mesh_foreachScreenFaceCenter(
            vc, do_mesh_box_select__doSelectFaceCenter, &data, V3D_PROJ_TEST_CLIP_DEFAULT);
      }
    }
  }

And at least it builds, but it will crash when trying to box select.
The worst part is I don't know why, other than something done here.
And apparently no crash log on windows, hilarious.
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/troubleshooting/crash.html
Thanks for helping. There's probably reasons to not do this, and other ways around it, but if anybody could please point me in a direction so I can become competent with dealing with this type of situation I would be grateful.
I wonder if I could just do something else entirely like getting a Tool Setting inside of the keymap?
Answer: Ok finally figured it out.
What I needed was to know if a boolean operator property was true or false.
To do that, I did this:
  PropertyRNA *prop = RNA_boolean_get(op->ptr, "name_of_property");

Before, I was doing 'RNA_struct_find_property' which will only see if the property exists. It will return true regardless of the boolean being true or false. Not useful for my problem.
To figure out why Blender was crashing, use a debugger instead of building and just hoping for the best like I was doing ;)
For blender, follow this guide
https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Tools/Debugging/Python_Visual_Studio
Mine was crashing because I was using 'op' without initializing it. To do that, I put it here:
static bool do_mesh_box_select(ViewContext *vc,
                               wmGenericUserData *wm_userdata,
                               const rcti *rect,
                               const eSelectOp sel_op,
                               wmOperator *op)

How to check for an operator property


In Matthew 6:10 should it be translated "on the earth" or "in the earth?

Question: Matthew 6:10  in the Authorized King James version. Say IN Earth and most other versions says ON Earth. To me there is a difference of In and On. Also the Earth and World are not the same. God created the Earth, Man created the World. And there are scripture with IN this world. What is the true version IN or ON Earth?
Comment: That's not a matter of translation.  It's a matter of preposition usage in Middle English and Modern English.
Answer: The last part of the Matt 6:10 reads: "os en ourano kai epi ges", which I would literally render: "as in heaven, also on earth/land".
The simple answer to the question: the Greek preposition "epi" simply means "upon", or "on".  The preposition preceding heaven is "en" which is generally translated "in".  Interestingly, the Greek word "ge", when preceeded by a preposition, it is most often "epi" = "upon" or "on" or "eis" = "into" or in.  "Into the land" (eg Matt 2:20) usually refers to some country, while "upon the land/earth" usually refers to activity that is conducted or something that happens (eg, Matt 10:29).
Lastly, recall, that the ancients had no concept that we inhabit a planet that orbits the sun - such is very modern.  The word for earth is the Greek "ge" which is better translated "land", or "earth" meaning arable land or soil and is the consistent meaning throughout Scripture.  This is the same word that LXX uses in Gen 1:1, "... God created the heavens and the earth (Gr: "ge"; see also Gen 1:10 where this definition is explicit.).
The word for "world" is generally a translation of the Greek, "kosmos", meaning orderly or well arranged (see ANLEX).  By extension it is used to refer to what we now describe as the universe.
Comment: My understanding of κοσμος, _cosmos_, is that it is the 'habitable world' or 'civilised world' as opposed to γε, _ge_, the entirety of the created earth. The 'heavens' is that which is beyond and above the earth. In my own understanding.
Comment: @Nigel J - I agree with you about kosmos.  However, some versions translate it "universe" in 1 Cor 4:9 and Phil 4:9.
Answer: I was taught in seminary:  "IN Earth" - Adam, first man, his name is derived from "earth or dirt", not kosmos like, "...For God so loved the WORLD - Kosmos.." but,  "...thy will be done IN earth (or man/Adam) as it is IN heaven (or God)..."  Conclusion: "...may your will be done in ME, as in You/God..."
Your thoughts please.
Answer: In earth. Our faith should dictate His Will is going to be done ON Earth no matter what so we don't need to ask Him that. Instead, man is created from earth and we should pray His Will, which is to glorify Him, be done in us
Comment: Hi Ron, welcome to the site. This answer would benefit from a little more elaboration. Please be sure to take the [site tour](https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/tour), and thanks for contributing!
Comment: Further is Heaven is a place of agape and we ask for His help to keep this in us (earth).


Upon trying to login to an Active Directory, I am alerted with a window saying the account has expired. How can I enable it?

Question: Upon trying to login to an all domains in Directory Utility, I am alerted with a window saying the account has expired. How can I re-enable it or fix this problem another way? I am able to unlock it with my administrator password, but it will not work for all domains.
Answer: You would need to use an app that connects to AD (ldap app of some sort) or remote into your domain controller using screen sharing or PowerShell to unlock the account.
Even a tool  Apple Enterprise Connect or Nomad (https://nomad.menu) where the tool calls to the Active Directory only serves to change an existing account password and doesn't have hooks to unlock a different account when you log in as a domain administrator account.