Not able to run spoon.bat or any other batch file in Pentaho Data Integration (Kettle)

Question: Tried pdi-ce-4.1.0-stable and pdi-ce-4.2.0-stable
My Machine  - Windows 7 64 bit
When I run Spoon.bat cmd line window appears and disappears and then nothing happens.
When I tried to run it from command line, I get

DEBUG: Using JAVA_HOME
  DEBUG: _PENTAHO_JAVA_HOME=C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_22
  DEBUG: _PENTAHO_JAVA=C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_22\bin\javaw
C:\pentaho\data-integration>start "Spoon" "C:\Program
  Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_22\bin \javaw" "-Xmx512m" "-XX:MaxPermSize=256m"
  "-Djava.library.path=libswt\win64" "-D KETTLE_HOME="
  "-DKETTLE_REPOSITORY=" "-DKETTLE_USER=" "-DKETTLE_PASSWORD=" "-DKE
  TTLE_PLUGIN_PACKAGES=" "-DKETTLE_LOG_SIZE_LIMIT=" -jar
  launcher\launcher.jar -li b ..\libswt\win64

But then again the PDI GUI doesn't open. I have run the same on another 32 bit machine and it runs perfectly.
Comment: Try it without the "start" command at the front of the line. Then you should see the actual error.  Suspect it's getting confused about 32/64 bit....  Oh; Also you have a space between bin and \javaw, that can't help!  (your java_home is wrong)
Answer: Their are few things which are not supportable by jdk which are 1.6 or lower then that, try to download jsk 1.7 and configure it may be your problem will solved, because i faced few errors in the past which are because of lower version of jdk.
Answer: I know it is an old commend, but maybe this can help someone.
you just need to replace all "JAVAW" to "JAVA", inside the .bat file.
It worked for me.
tks.
Answer: There seem to be a few folders missing when downloading community edition vs installing EE. Try to install both, and take the "ui" folder from EE and copy it to the CE folder. Running spoon.bat should work now. This worked for me, hope it helps.
Answer: I had the same problem yesterday with the same message after updating Java 7 Update 55.
Kettle: pdi-ce-5.0.1.A-stable
Windows 7 32 bits
Solved: I set the PENTAHO_JAVA_HOME variable to jr6 and now the spoon.bat opens.
Answer: Thanks for posting the problem and for all the hints above. I was using latest version of spoon with an older version of Java. when I ran spoon.bat in command line without the start.. it told me that the class file major.minor version is not supported. I installed latest version of Java (X64) and pointed my JAVA_HOME folder to the new folder and here you go... In my case the folder path was "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_111". I copied UI folder too from EE to CE.
If you are using latest version of spoon then use the latest version of Java. I needed to add JAVA_HOME or JAVA_JRE variable pointing to the java's latest version folder on my system.


How to update custom field of a posts in a particular category

Question: I have a lot of posts under category 'tution', which has custom field called 'video'. i need to update the 'video' value with same youtubeurl i.e all post would have the same value in the custom field 'video'. how should i proceed. Is their a query?
Answer: Use get_posts to get all the posts in this category, then loop over it and update the post meta for every post.
<?php
//get_posts uses same parameters as WP_Query hence using 'category_name'
$tut_posts = get_posts(array('category_name'=>'tution', 'post_status'=>'publish'));
$url = //some youtube video url here
if(!empty($tut_posts)){
    foreach($tut_posts as $tut_post){
        update_post_meta($tut_post->ID, 'video', $url);
    }
}

Please check if this works for you.


Can the fluid volume in a control volume change over time?

Question: For a control volume, am I right in thinking it's just the boundary of the volume that is fixed? The volume of fluid inside the control volume can change, over time?
Comment: the boundary is fixed, and thus so is the volume. The volume cannot change, but the pressure , mass, and other variables of the gas or fluid inside can
Answer: A control volume can move. It can do anything you want it to do. You introduce a control volume so that you can focus on what happens inside it, but you must take account of anything that passes through the control volume. It does not matter whether material flows through the control volume or the control volume passes through the material. A very useful control volume is one that moves with the material, so that there is no flow through the control volume and it always encloses the same material.
Comment: A control volume that moves with the material is situationally useful, but not always.
Comment: I never said always
Comment: "A very useful control volume is one that moves with the material, so that there is no flow through the control volume and it always encloses the same material."  Just saying there are plenty of caveats to this statement.  Sometimes that's actually the opposite of "very useful" and that's not clear from your answer.
Comment: Its the basis for Lagrangean fluid dynamics; Id say that's useful. Should I have written an essay? It was just a comment.
Answer: Yes That's right. for example You want to do an experiment inside a beaker. you put your fluid inside that control volume (Beaker's volume) and determine the volume of fluid.
in thermodynamic we always talk about a "System". and control volume is the volume of our system.
remember when we are talking about ideal gases, the volume of the gas is equal to the control volume.


How often does Miranium and Revenue tick?

Question: There doesn't seem to be a discernible pattern to how often you get Miranium and credits from mining/research probes. Additionally, they seem to go at different intervals - sometimes mining will trigger, sometimes the money will trigger, and sometimes the rare materials will trigger. Is there a pattern or timer to this behavior?
Answer: It seems like Revenue ticks every 30 minutes, Miranium ticks every 45 minutes, and items tick every 15 minutes. This would explain them sometimes overlapping, and sometimes not.
Comment: According to this thread, seems like there's some anti-idle functionality that may prevent ticks from happening: https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/701151-xenoblade-chronicles-x/72951245
Comment: @RahatAhmed This is correct. It seems as though you can only leave the game run for a max of one hour unattended. I heard someone worked around this by using a fan to keep the gyro on the gamepad constantly in motion, which let them idle indefinitely. Fortunately when you beat the game, idling is no longer necessary.


How to control a robot wirelessly using xbee modules?

Question: I want to be able to control my robot wirelessly from my pc via xbee modules. So one xbee should be connected to my computer while the other one will be to the arduino on my robot. I've done a lot of research on xbees but Im still very confused. For example I'd like to control it manually using arrow keys and also be able to control other functions on the robot like headlights etc. But frankly I dont know where to start. Can someone give me a brief introduction to how this can be achieved? Thankyou.
Answer: First you need to write a program that reads input from the PCs keyboard and sends commands to a serial xbee connection. Then you need software on the robot arduino that reads the commands from the serial connection and does what needs to be done.
The definition of this protocol (the data sent over the serial connection) is entirely up to you. For example an "F" coming from the serial connection could mean that the robot should move forward, "S100" means "set speed to 100", "H1" means "turn on headlights" and so on. You can use linebreak or space to separate different commands.
This tutorial should get you started: http://tutorial.cytron.com.my/2013/01/14/remote-mobile-robot-with-xbee-wifi/
Answer: You didn't mention what version of the XBee and/or Arduino you intend to use. I'm assuming the XBee series 1 (cheapest) on a Uno (reasonably cheap). In addition to the obvious XBee -> Arduino "breakout" board (that will convert the 5v Uno signals to 3.3v XBee signals and vice versa) - you will also need the USB -> XBee interface (what they call "explorer boards" often).
Option A - write your software on the PC to send serial data out through the PC-XBee to the Uno-XBee, which will then translate your commands into appropriate Arduino-ish pin actions. (see other answer provided)
Option B - more relevant to this site. Forget the PC (except for programming your Uno and XBees). The XBees have a wondrous feature, line passing, utilizing their built in ports and ADC circuitry.  As an extreme simplification - a change in voltage at an IO pin on the source XBee will be reflected on the destination XBee(s) pin(s). Directional buttons can then easily be constructed on a PCB/breadboard as a control transmitter, and the corresponding actions programmed into the UNO on the far end that reads these IO signals from its XBee. One fun variation is the ability to get multiple XBees to listen, allow you to build robot swarms that all follow the commands being sent. If this is more to your liking, you can ask a more specific question about line passing on XBees.


How should I be building a ranged Vanquisher?

Question: I've been playing a Vanquisher for some time, using mostly dual-pistols and ranged attacks. I've been upgrading my Dexterity and picking up skills like Exploding shot and other things that seem like they'd increase my damage, but I've largely just been "winging it": picking things that sound cool or upgrading to items with more lines of attributes on them.
It's worked okay so far, but I'd like to aim for something in the rest of my play-through. I think I'm comfortable with my skill selections (Exploding shot and Ricochet, and spending almost all the rest in passives), but what should I be looking for—with respect to attributes—when trying to build a ranged vanquisher?
Should I be dumping all my attribute points into Dexterity, or is there a more balanced allocation?
Assuming I'm not trying to create a novelty build (like maxing out one stat—say, crit chance—at the sake of ignoring everything else that might be needed to get through the game without grinding my teeth—like say, survivability), what item attributes and runes should I be looking at?
Are there must-have attributes for Vanquishers, regardless of playstyle? Are there attributes that look good on paper, but don't really work as advertised?
Comment: Str is useful for wearing armor. Unfortunately, it's not obvious how much STR you will need for that *epic drop of awesome* until its too late. Other gear requries DEF or Magic. I usually build straight 3Dex / 2Def, getting STR or MAG as needed for gear.
Answer: I can't say for sure what is the 'best' build, but one thing I've found that made the game much easier when I played it is having a very high chance to reflect projectiles.  I built my vanquisher mostly like you, focusing a lot on ricochet and exploding shot, ranged damage, and critical hit and putting most points into dex, with some into other stats as needed for better gear.  Basically I was a glass cannon, the only problem I had was survivability from ranged and magic attacks.
One thing that made my game exceedingly easy was to find a pretty low leveled shield with +20% or higher chance to reflect projectiles, and then enchanting it a few times.  You need to get very lucky (and let the enchanting succeed 8-10 times without wiping the item).  On top of that, what you want is to have the item to go over 100% chance to reflect ranged attacks.  This, in effect, made you immune to all ranged attacks as well as magic (I'm not sure if this is currently still the case as I haven't played the game for a year).  This made the Dark Zealots (and their insane damage magic attack) much easier to handle.  All I had to do after getting that shield was to maintain my distance and kill everything with exploding shot.


How To update contextMenu after it shows in flex

Question: The thing is I load context menu items dynamically and it takes time to load, so context menu appears with default values the first time. But if you right-click again, yo see the loaded values.
Is there a way to refresh items while the menu is still opened?
or someway to reload it?
Answer: Nope.  All you can do is set the menu items right before it displays.


Frequency dependance of sound wave reflection

Question: Why are high frequencies reflected more than low frequencies off an 'acoustically hard' surface such as concrete? I basically understand that the amount of reflection is determined by the impedance ratio between the two mediums (i.e air/concrete). But does that mean that high frequency sound waves have a lower acoustic impedance than low frequencies (hence why high frequencies are reflected and more than low frequencies?).
Answer: First off, much of this answer is based on the amazingly helpful University of New South Wales website on acoustic impedance. This is a topic I'm very interested in and this is a great opportunity to reduce the complex topic of impedance down for my own learning purposes as well as to provide an answer.
You ask,

does that mean that high frequency sound waves have a lower acoustic impedance than low frequencies (hence why high frequencies are reflected and more than low frequencies?)

Actually, specific acoustic impedance, $z$, is a property of the medium, not of the waves themselves.
It has both a real part, resistance $r(\omega)$ and an imaginary part, reactance $x(\omega)$:
$$z(\omega) = r(\omega) + i \space x(\omega)$$
Where $\omega$ is the angular frequency, $2 \pi f$.

Reactance has a positive and a negative part:  compliance (capacative) reactance $x_C(\omega)$, and inertive (inductive) reactance $x_L(\omega)$:
$$x(\omega) = x_L(\omega) - x_C(\omega)$$

Without going into exhaustive detail, I want to point out the relevant fact that inertiance, associated with the density of the medium, is proportional to frequency:
$$x_L(\omega) \propto \omega$$
While compliance, associated with the elasticity of the medium, is inversely proportional to frequency:
$$x_C(\omega) \propto \frac{1}{\omega}$$
In other words,

denser media are more likely to impede high-frequency waves
more elastic media are more likely to impede high-frequency waves

In the example of your concrete wall - a dense, inelastic media relative to air - we might expect more of an impedance missmatch (between the two media) for higher-frequency energy than for the lower frequency energy.  This would result in the higher frequency energy being reflected more.


What's the impact of PhD Advisor on your faculty job?

Question: Are there people out there who can provide first hand account or refer me to literature that discusses the influence of PhD advisor on your chances of getting a faculty job?
Answer: Well, there is the less direct answer to your question, which is that between providing funding, data, infrastructure, reaching out to colleagues, etc. your PhD advisor will have a profound amount of impact on your work, which will then have an impact on your faculty job search. For example, my project really took off when my advisor told me to email someone who had data, and to make sure to mention I was his student.
But I expect what you mean is the more direct question of how does one's advisor impact the actual job search. And, as with many things in academia, the answer is "It depends."
At the profoundly influential side of the spectrum, I have known people who have called in favors for their students and essentially conjured up jobs, or at the very least prompted a search that might have been a long time down the line. At the same time, I have also known advisors who have been reasonably hands off about the entire thing beyond writing letters, positive advice, and providing a supportive research environment. It all depends on how much they're willing to throw their weight around, how receptive their audience is to that, and whether they have favors in the right "place" (for example, if you're headed to a slightly different field, someone with a lot of clout might not be able to carry it as far).
Answer: That is a very good question and more complicated to answer because of different dynamics which can occur during your PhD. I want to keep them short, but I have first- or second-hand experience in all of them:
Influential supervisor: Is Lead-PI; has several projects; has some PhD and Pos-doc students; has a high h-index; etc.

You have an influential supervisor and you come along with him during your PhD: You will have high chances to get into a good position; the recommendation letter will look great, and you will have done a good job publishing high-impact papers.
You have an influential supervisor and you both get not really along: You need to count one or two extra years for your PhD; your publication record will be ok (generally, also depending on the requirements of the university); your recommendation letter will be more or less. From my experience, people in this situation always go to industry even though I think they are good scientists,but they just got disappointed.
You don't have an influential supervisor and you both don't get along with each other: Disaster!

My recommendation: It is more important that you have a good working atmosphere with your supervisor than to have a supervisor which is involved in too many things and he/she will not have time for you.
Comment: There was a comment (which disappear now) which says that (3) doesn't make sense and that you can make a good work anyway. My comment to this is: That is right, but at the end your supervisor will assess your work and "allow" the submission to a conference or journal and that is where he or she can make your way difficult even if you have done a good work.
Comment: Life is not linear and has so many choices than the ones you propose.E.g., you do not have an "influential supervisor" but you get along with him fine and manage to do excellent work. You may also have a good supervisor that you get along with but you discover research is not for you and you drop out. Or you drop out for other reasons (health, personal, a better job offer). You may have an excellent supervisor but you produce mediocre work. And so-on.


Will I damage my HDD if I transport my MacBook in sleep mode?

Question: Is it safe to carry MacBook with HDD in a bag while it has been put sleep? I.e. I know there are some risks of hard disk drive damage if one tries to shake them or rotate them while they're working. But is the HDD working while the Macbook is asleep?
Answer: MacBooks are fine to be transported when in sleep mode.  When a MacBook goes into sleep, it takes 20-30 seconds to save the current state to the HDD, while this is happening you'll see the status light shine brightly.  Once it goes into a slow pulse, the MacBook is asleep and the HDD is inactive so there is no risk to the HDD from normal movement in a bag for example.  Just make sure you don't throw it into the bag until it's fully asleep.  MacBooks also have a 'Sudden Motion Sensor' which can prevent damage to the HDD by the computer parking the head of the HDD if it detects that it is being shaken or is falling.  Read about it on the apple support pages or in the excerpt below:

Sudden Motion Sensor technology is built-in protection for the hard
  disk, designed to help prevent disk issues if the computer is dropped
  or if it senses unusually strong vibration. Apple has adjusted this
  feature carefully to provide the best balance between protecting the
  hard drive and preventing unwanted activation of the Sudden Motion
  Sensor. Most Apple portable owners never need to turn this feature
  off. Apple suggests that you not modify the settings unless absolutely
  necessary.
In some environments, such as live concert halls, recording studios,
  or dance clubs, external vibrations may be major enough to cause the
  module to unexpectedly park the hard drive heads, resulting in
  interrupted sound or video playback. In these situations, you may find
  that you want to disable the feature temporarily.

Also see page 23 of this manual
and page 16 of this manual
Comment: A great answer. Many people don't realise the importance of waiting for the pulse to begin.
Comment: Thanks, great answer! Nevertheless, I couldn't find any information regarding disabling hdds in sleeping mode at apple.com
Comment: All the links above are from apple.com
Comment: Sometimes it's quicker to ask on SE ;o)
Comment: regardless of the hard drives reaction to being dropped, all hard drives have a "parking zone" in which the heads are placed whilst not in use as to keep them from damaging the platter
Answer: The HDD is put to sleep while the computer is sleeping. Unless you wake up the computer, the HDD will be safely spun down with the needle out of the way.
Comment: needle? lol u make it seem like a gramophone


Simple Radius authentication

Question: I'm looking into using Radius as an authentication server for a few Ubuntu servers when accessing through SSH. I have tried using libpam-radius-auth but it doesn't work quite as I need.
My goal is to have a solution similar to Cisco devices using TACACS/Radius as Authentication. However, they can't authenticate if they aren't local users.
sshd[3200]: Invalid user testacc from 198.18.18.22
sshd[3200]: input_userauth_request: invalid user testacc [preauth]
Solutions I have found are mounting home folders with NFS and/or setting up an LDAP service. Is there any simpler method of simply allowing a user to log in to a server through SSH, authenticating through Radius? I want to keep it as simple as possible.
Answer: libpam-radius-auth should work exactly as you need. I use it in this capacity with no problems. You just need to

Configure it in /etc/pam.d somewhere, probably common-auth.
Configure the RADIUS server in /etc/raddb/server

However, they can't authenticate if they aren't local users.

Yes, that's true. Users must exist in the first place.
It sounds like you are dealing with a different problem than authentication here. Keep in mind the difference between these two subsystems:

NSS (name service switch): implements the database of users (and groups, and hosts, etc...). This supports queries to list users and get their properties such as name, uid, home directory, and shell. The most common NSS backend is "files", which gets user information from /etc/passwd, but you can use many other backends that get information from DB files, from LDAP, and so on.
PAM (pluggable authentication modules): implements authentication (and accounting and password changes). This system uses pluggable modules which check a user's authentication and allow or disallow logins. The most common PAM backend is "files", which asks the user for a simple password and checks it against a hash in /etc/shadow but you can use many other backends that query services like RADIUS, one time password systems, Kerberos, and so on.

It sounds like you are doing authentication (PAM) with RADIUS but you would also like to use something network-based for the user database (NSS) itself. That's a completely different question, not related to authentication.
You can't use RADIUS as a database backend because the RADIUS protocol does not provide database functionality. That is, it doesn't allow you to query users for details like uid, home directory, and shell, much less to enumerate users in the database. Hence there does not exist a RADIUS NSS backend (hypothetical libnss-radius).
For a network-based database of users, you can use LDAP, or maybe MySQL or Postgres. LDAP is probably the best recomendation.
Comment: Thank you for this excellent answer. NSS was a new term for me. I will consider using LDAP for solving my problem.

Simple Radius authentication


Can btrfs handle different RAID levels for different subvolumes?

Question: I'd like to assign different RAID levels to different subvolumes in my btrfs filesystem, eg have a subvolume /home that uses RAID 1 and a subvolume /var that uses RAID 0. Is that at all possible (if so, how?) or do I have to rely on separate filesystems / partitions to achieve this?
Comment: IIRC BTRFS does RAID between block devices. To get RAID for a particular filesystem hierarchy you would need to use LVM and only do the desired RAID level for a logical volume. All the `-m raid*` options to `mkfs.btrfs` appear to take block devices as arguments as well.
Answer: I've just cross-posted this question to the developers on email@example.com, and I've got the following answer from Hugo Mills:

No, not yet.
It's planned at some point (probably in the fairly distant future),
  but hasn't arrived yet.


How do I find out the address of [Settings>Display->Cast] devices?

Question: I see a [TV] Samsung 6 Series (50) wireless display in the list from display settings. But I do not own a Samsung television, so I would like to know the IP or MAC address of this device to double check with my router's list of connected devices.
Comment: Its just detecting  a device compatible with WiDi and not necessarily connected to it besides it doesn't require an access point.
Comment: So it's not inside the LAN ?
Comment: Its more like bluetooth technology (thinking backwardly) you can't really identify a device's bluetooth MAC let alone without even made  connection/pairing. It is just scanned and put on a list of available devices
Answer: You can't easily identify its MAC address as its not connected to any AP.
Wireless display (WiDi) does not require any Wi-Fi Access Point or router or hotspot for operation. It uses WiFi Direct® (or Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ Miracast®) technology, for wireless connection to WiDi compliant receiver.
Having said that, it therefore implies that by your device identifying [TV] Samsung 6 Series (50) in Settings→ Display →Cast is not connected to any AP, but it just being detected by your device as a "nearby device" and does not even reveal its MAC/IP explicitly even if you make the connection.

However the easiest way to identify its MAC/IP is allowing it to connect to any of available wireless AP:

Go to your TV's menu and choose Network → Network Settings
Choose Wireless for your connection type
Choose to connect to the  SSID
At this point, the Smart TVs will show you a screen with the Wireless MAC address.
If not, go back to the Menu and choose Network → Network Status.

Alternatively check on your device's list of connected devices and get the IP.

Note: I have even observed that my Smart TV (Samsung) shows in the list of Available Wireless Display devices on my tablet, even before connection.


Running a 12VDC motor for adjustable interval

Question: I want to set up a timer circuit that will run a high-torque, low RPM 12VDC motor (max 200mA) for an adjustable amount of time. This motor drives an auger in a home designed pet feeder and I need to be able to adjust the length of time it runs and pushes out food. I don't need to vary the motor speed. I have been trying to use a 555 chip, but I can't get it to work because I can't find a circuit to copy from that does what I want this to do. Can someone help me with a schematic? Thanks!
Answer: NE555 datasheet here and LM555 and other versions are similar. You will see (table 7.3, page 4) that the maximum recommended current is +/- 200 mA - ie it can "source" 200 mA for a ground connected load or "sink" 200 mA from 1 V+ connected load. While your motor is nominally 200 mA the start current may be higher and under load it may vary. It is possible for a motor that will run on 200 mA when operating to  be too large a load for a 555 when driven directly.
A "surefire" way to drive a motor using a 555 is to drive a relay which drives the motor. That way you can change motor size as required and do not have to contend with startup and overload currents etc. This page provides about a zillion 555 relay driving circuits - some will be useful.
Cheaper and easier and better but with slightly more chance of "a learning experience" is to use a transistor driven by the 555 to operate the motor.
This 2013 SE question discusses doing just that
This SE question posted on December 4th by Jack is dealing with a 555 and a relay - it looks like you two should talk. He is operating the 555 in monostable mode and you want MAY want "astable" or oscillating mode, but the drive principles are the same
BUT
THE BEST WAY :-) :
The best way is not to use a 555.
For a pet feeder you want a controlled on period probably in the seconds to tens of seconds range. Then if this is automatically providing feed several times a day you want a time delay of hours. If this is pet or pet-servant (that's you) triggered then you just need a "one shot" or monostable.
If you want one shot mode and it works well you WILL want to try N times a day more. Murphy says so. Or your pet may overeat and you may want to limit food request rates. Or not allow it to get food at night. Or ... .
An ideal solution is a micro-controller and an easy to tart with micro-controller with lot of support is an Arduino. You can pay $40 for an Arduino. Or $10. Or $3 with care and luck. (I import them from China for my use for $US3 each in 10's).
While making the leap to understanding an Arduino may seem challenging, once achieved you will wonder why you did not do it sooner.
A basic program can be running in minutes after you 1st connect it and load the software.
A per feeder program may take you a few days at first. Once you understand the system you could write one in a few minutes.
Unlike a 555 which MIGHT run a motor directly, an Arduino won't. You WILL need a driver but a transistor driver can cost a few 10's of cents and allow many different loads to be driven .

LONG LONG LONG DELAYS:
Failing the use of a uC a CD4060 may be your friend.
This is a 14 stage ripple counter with only outputs available from
Q4 - Q10 and Q 12 13 14.
Go figure.
HOWEVER, it also has two inverters in series on one of the clocking input pins with the inverter inputs and outputs accessible on pins.
"Is that mean to be useful?" you may well ask.
Oh Yes !!!
CD4060B datasheet here
Fig 12 shows you how to make an RC oscillator using the inverters in the clocking input.
Do that and you have a self clocking divider.
And, so?
So, you can now have time delays which are stretched to up to 2^14 x the clock period.
2^14 = 16384
To get an output at 1 cycle per hour your oscillator can run at 16384/3600 = 4.6 Hz. Slow but achievable. The Schmitt trigger input on pin 9 is there to allow such slowly rising clocks to be bearable.
Operation at one cycle in 12 hours requires an oscillator frequency of 16384 / (12 hours x 3600s) = 0.38 Hz or 2.6S per clock cycle.
In the datasheet on page 3-161 you will see that at Vdd=10V you can used Rxmax of up to 20 megOhm and Cx of up to 50 uF. Leakage will set an upper limit unless you use very carefully chosen caps. But 20 M and 50 uF have a time constant of about 1000 seconds - getting 0.38 Hz operation should be "easy enough".
Now trigger your 555 from a suitable edge and away you go.
An Arduino will do more but may initially teach you less :-).
Do a little playing around with reset and/or clock enable circuits (diode AND and OR gates are your great friends here)
Do you want "one shot" operation or a feed dispensing action every X hours or minutes? If the latter, a 555 with that sort of delay is VERY hjard to manage and accuracy and variability will be poor.
Comment: Thanks, Russell... THAT is exactly what I should have thought of, and you're right, it will work with ANY motor!  This is the answer.
Comment: ...now I just have to set up the 555 with adjustable Rt so I can adjust the amount of time the relay stays engaged.... any ideas there?  Thanks!
Comment: @CharlieW Re Rt etc - look at the zillion links via the link above.
Comment: Howdy again Russell... This project is mostly a "labor of love" for electronics. I could just use a commercial timer from Harbor Freight to run this motor, but this is far more fun! I have found the circuit (from the zillion) that I think will be exactly what I need. It drives a relay and has a pot that will allow me to set the amount of time the motor runs. Once I get that all worked out, I'll have to look into how to set this circuit up on another timer that will turn it on twice a day.... I suspect that will need to be done with a commercial timer....
Comment: ...until I can get into the Arduino stuff.... that looks fascinating!
Comment: @CharlieW Failing the use of a uC a CD4060 may be your friend. This is a 14 stage ripple counter - see addition LONG LONG LONG DELAYS to my answer.


Is a half height DVD drive for a minitower different than a half-height DVD drive for a desktop?

Question: ...Dell would have me think so, but I can't quite believe it.  Can anyone explain to me the difference between the minitower drive and the desktop drive ?  Or am I correct in thinking it's purely a marketing difference?
Comment: This post would be better suited for Superuser.com.
Answer: No, it's not......
Answer: Since the part numbers differ, I would not assume those are the same device.  They appear to be compatible, and of roughly the same capabilities.
It's possible, and somewhat likely, that Dell markets these drives for certain models so they can provide a bezel that matches the case of those systems.  Adding one of them to a computer they aren't meant for may work, but they may not fit quite right in the case.


Where is the Mountain of the Father?

Question: I couldn't find any online resources that say specifically where this is. So, I'm going to ask here: Where is the Mountain of the Father? The place where you obtain the summon Bahamut?
Answer: In the Dark Gate, the room that links you to the 4 voids, a portal opens up at the north tip after you have entered Nil for the first time. This will take you there, and there you fight Bahamut.
Answer: You'll find mountain of the father as you progress along with the story, it's almost impossible to miss as the game makes it a point to show to you that the portal to it has been opened.

Where is the Mountain of the Father?


Help links in Kohana not working

Question: So I am pretty new to Kohana, and what I have to do right now is make some changes for a client's website. The client's site is written using Kohana and I have the files and everything needed on my local system. I made the required bootstrap.php and .htaccess changes. Now when I load the site, the homepage shows up fine, but when I click on the links, they do not work.
So for example, http://localhost/kohana_site/ shows me the homepage
I click on about, the url shows: http://localhost/kohana_site/about, and I get a 404.
Now I experimented, and I tried http://localhost/index.php/about and that works!
So I am a little stumped and I dont want to change the routing of the like 50+ links on my client's site. How might I resolve this?
Comment: Are they using an add-on domain?
Answer: Does your new bootstrap file contain 'index_file' => false  while invoking the Kohana::init function?
Kohana::init(array(
    'base_url'   => 'your_site_url',
    'index_file'=> FALSE
));

Help links in Kohana not working


Animated gif in PS only shows first frame

Question: So I have a series of images that I am trying to make into an animated gif. I have an animation time line and all that basic jazz, and I have saved for the web as a gif.
When I reach the final save menu, I only get the option for html and images. The html setting shows the animation in sequence but cannot be uploaded to my webpage with out only being the first image of the animation with no action at all. The image setting just shows all the images in separate documents.
What is up with this thing?
Comment: Here is a link to a possible solution. http://www.stoneleighphotography.com/making-a-gif-in-cs6-photoshop/
Answer: When creating your animation I always set my main image as the first and last frame.
In save for web window, click Preset Gif 128 Dithered / then at the bottom where it says animation choose the Looping Option: Once or Forever / Then I always simply save as image only.
Add to you website like this:

Hope this helps.


How to claim tokens from crowdloan after winning a Parachain slot

Question: We created a crowdloan campaign. We recently won the parachain slot. Now we want to know how users can claim their tokens which they contributed in crowdloan?
Answer: Congratulations on winning the parachain slot! As the crowdloan campaign was successful, the tokens are now bonded till the end of the parachain lease. After the slot lease expires, anyone can trigger the refund for the contributed tokens through the permissionless crowdloan.refund extrinsic available on Polkadot JS Apps > Developer > Extrinsics page, by specifying the parachain ID.
Detailed information available here:
https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/learn-crowdloans#supporting-a-crowdloan-campaign


Some good ways to roast vegetables without using oil?

Question: What are some good ways to roast vegetables - such as carrots, cauliflower, peppers, or celery - without using oil? Crispy would be nice; tasty required! :-)
Comment: Hi, welcome to Stack Exchange. I think you could get better anwswers to your question on [Seasoned Advice](https://cooking.stackexchange.com/). :)
Comment: @AlexanderRossa I considered migrating it, but it reads like a recipe request (which they would close) unfortunately.
Comment: @Erica doesn't sound like a recipe request to me, this is about methods. And really not vegetarianism specific, since roasted vegetable dishes with or without oil are commonly vegan or vegetarian. Expect some legit "don't!" answers on SA though. The oil serves multiple functions - steam barrier, heat buffer, taste balancer(!), substrate for some of the flavors from the aromatics, pan protection....
Answer: There is a ton of recipes on a google search
One I suggest - https://www.forksoverknives.com/plant-based-cooking-how-to-cook-without-oil/#gs._knr2Zk

Choose Your Oil-Free Cooking Method

Sautéing and stir-frying—The most common question I get on this topic is how to sauté or stir-fry without butter or oil. The trick is
  to use small amounts of water or broth, adding just a small amount (1
  to 2 tablespoons) at a time. Do this as often as needed to cook and
  brown the food, without steaming it. Also, remember to toss and stir
  the food periodically with a wooden spoon so that it doesn't burn.
Baking—You can use a fruit purée as a healthy (and delicious!) substitute for fats like oil, butter, or shortening. Some of my
  favorites include applesauce, mashed bananas, and puréed dates. In
  some instances, nut flour or nut butters can serve as substitutions or
  additions.
Roasting—There's no need to coat your vegetables or other foods with oil before roasting them in the oven. They might take a little
  longer, but they will eventually brown and roast nicely. Before
  placing them in the oven, I like to season my vegetables with spices,
  herbs, and either a little vegetable stock or a light water-soy sauce
  mixture.
Deep frying alternative—It may take a little getting used to, but I'm confident that you will come to enjoy the not-greasy but still
  delicious (and far healthier) choice to bake your potatoes and veggies
  instead of deep frying them. You can even bake up delicious (eggless)
  breaded patties or veggies by lightly dipping them in a slurry of
  arrowroot powder or cornstarch mixed with either water or unsweetened,
  unflavored plant milk, and then coating them with whole-grain bread
  crumbs or cornmeal. Use nonstick, silicone, or parchment-lined baking
  sheets to achieve a crispy outer crust.

See site for additional tips.
Comment: @ruffle Your question as it stands is, as noted, rather broad. What exactly are you looking for besides "just don't add oil when roasting"?
Comment: If on an expert Q&A site you want to recommend performing a Google websearch, you should be able to post an answer better than this having presumably done precisely that. 1 has nothing to do with roasting; it is unclear what the difference is between 2 (roasting) and 3 (baking) unless we are talking about potatoes (a roast potato has been peeled; a baked one hasn't); the nut butter mentioned in 2 contains oil; and 4 seems to be saying "bake stuff rather than deep-frying it". This list is terribly confused, but perhaps a useful answer could be constructed from some of the ideas in it.
Comment: I posted after the question went 2 days without an answer. Baking is typically setting the over at say 350 while roasting is typically setting the over on high. #2 mentions more than nut oil. #4 has a number of suggestions. If you feel you can do better go for it. Perhaps close the original question as too broad or too little research before asking i am sure there are hundreds or thousands of options / recipes here.
Comment: @ruffle - You are welcome to be a part of the community or not. I think the problem is your question is very broad and there is not much of a technical answer other than use something other than oil.


Remove dash from blog title wordpress

Question: Hi this is my first time using wordpress and php, I created a static page for my front page of the site, and got my news on a separate section, I'm just wondering how do i remove the the dash from the wordpress title in the blog. I understand that its trying pull through the page number, but now that's not required I just need to remove the dash fromwp_title. Sorry if this post is a duplicate, as I couldn't find any information regarding this topic.
Comment: What exactly are you calling "the title"?  The actual HTML ~~ element in the page source?  Are you using an off-the-shelf theme or are you developing a custom theme?   Provide more detail in your question or add the code from your header.php if relevant, etc.
Comment: If you have Yoast plugin installed, check the settings, It might be the SEO title
Answer: This is not quite trivial in general case, since it varies depending on title implementation by specific theme.
The historical way has been wp_title() call in theme's template. The newer method is hook–based Title Tag.
So it is hard to say specifically without knowing/seeing code of a specific theme.
This is one of the reasons for high popularity of SEO plugins, for many of which manipulating titles in more user–centric ways is one of the main features.

Remove dash from blog title wordpress


Prestashop - product page errors

Question: Hello stack overflow community.
I have a problem with product page in my prestashop backend office. I will show everything on the attached screenshots.

For example: I try to add a new product:
- i cannot switch from standard product to the product with combinations
- categories to choose are not displaying correctly
- the brutto price is not counted properly
- there are no suppliers to choose from
Console logs while trying to add new product:
Uncaught Error: Syntax error, unrecognized expression: #form_step6_suppliers input[name="form[step6][default_supplier]"][value=Fashion Supplier]
at Function.Sizzle.error (main.bundle.js:49916)
at Sizzle.tokenize (main.bundle.js:50573)
at Sizzle.select (main.bundle.js:50994)
at Function.Sizzle [as find] (main.bundle.js:49317)
at jQuery.fn.init.find (main.bundle.js:51240)
at new jQuery.fn.init (main.bundle.js:51357)
at jQuery (main.bundle.js:48523)
at supplierInputManage (form.js?1.7.0:446)
at HTMLInputElement.<anonymous> (form.js?1.7.0:465)
at main.bundle.js:48590
main.bundle.js:24426 Uncaught Error: No URL provided.
at new Dropzone (main.bundle.js:24426)
at Function.Dropzone.discover (main.bundle.js:25465)
at Dropzone._autoDiscoverFunction (main.bundle.js:25747)
at HTMLDocument.init (main.bundle.js:25716)

What I've already tried:
- a lot of searching over the Internet but i didn't found the solution (expect similar unsolved problems)
- overwriting admin folder to the original one
- overwriting js folder to the original one
- migrating prestashop to the server from different company
- changing php version to all, different ones
- temporary disabling all modules by moving them to the different directory
Do you have any ideas about how to fix that?
Looking forward for help.
Comment: That seems really strange, did you try to use the options to disable non prestashop modules and overrides? (Advanced Options > Performance)
Answer: Have you tried to... delete Fashion Supplier? It is not exactly a solution but workaround, this js is missing " around the Supplier name, which shouldn't be a case in the first place but
The only way to solve this issue which is coming to my mind is to fix this issue directly in not compiled js code, though i don't have any issue with this on my installation of PrestaShop.

Prestashop - product page errors


Where can I find the path to the library of a linked material in the UI?

Question: Let's say I have lots of materials and objects and collections dynamically linked from other .blend files, how do I know which library is responsible for a specific material? I cannot find this information anywhere in the UI.
Comment: Hi :). The material dropdown in Shader Editor also lists linked materials with source paths i believe :). Can't check right now tho.
Answer: Here is a python script that accomplishes what you want, along with the bonus of naming every object that contains the material you are looking for.  I've spelled out a couple of things that could have been elided, to make it clear what it is doing.
import bpy

def find_linked_materials(wanted_name):
    """ returns a list of (object, material, linked file) tuples for every material
        that matches the wanted name and comes from a library
    """
    linked_materials = []
    for obj in bpy.context.scene.objects:
         for slot in obj.material_slots:
            mat = slot.material
            if mat.name == wanted_name and mat.library:
                linked_materials.append((obj.name, wanted_name, mat.library.name))
    return linked_materials

if __name__ == '__main__':
    wanted_name = 'Carpaint Modified'
    l = find_linked_materials(wanted_name)
    for e in l:
        print('object %s contains material %s from file %s' % e)

This script defines a function find_linked_materials that searches every object in the scene for that object's materials.
When the script finds the name you've specified, as the name of a material it checks to see if the material comes from a library.
If it does come from a library the script adds an entry to a list, a tuple containing the object, material, and library names.
You can, of course, use the function in many ways.  It could be part of an add-in where the wanted_name is taken from a user interface, or it could search for multiple names, or it could stop at as soon as it found the material once, et cetera.
The script file ends with code to test the function using a material name.
Answer: Material.name_full is the unique data-block ID name (displayed in the material dropdown) and Library.filepath returns the filepath to the linked blend file: https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.Library.html#bpy.types.Library
import bpy

for mat in bpy.data.materials:
    if mat.library:
        # Unique data-block ID name, Path to the library .blend
        print(mat.name_full, mat.library.filepath) # mat.name

If you want this to look nice:
import bpy

h = ('Linked Material', 'Filepath')
d = [h] + [(i.name, i.library.filepath) for i in bpy.data.materials if i.library]

for i, d in enumerate(d):
    line = ''.join(str(x).ljust(20) for x in d)
    print(line)
    if i == 0:
        print('-' * len(line)*2)

Output snippet:
Linked Material   Filepath
------------------------------------------------------------------
Material1         /Users/USER/Desktop/matlib3.blend
Material2         /Users/USER/Desktop/matlib2.blend
Material3         /Users/USER/Desktop/matlib1.blend


Identify connected external disks programmatically

Question: I want to write a shell script that ejects all currently-connected external drives (either USB or Firewire drives). I can use the disktuil eject <disk-path> to eject a specified drive. But I still can't figure how to find out what are the external drives. For instance, /Volumes shows internal drives, external drives, and mounted images. Is there a way to identify only external drives programmatically?
Answer: Have you considered using diskutil info /dev/disk[n|s{n}] | grep Ejectable which allows you to identify whether the device (or device slice) is ejectable.
This would need to be expanded upon in a script using awk to work through each disk device that is currently attached to determine whether it can be ejected and then eject it.
Comment: `diskutil info` is exactly what I need. I can use just `grep` to determine a "Yes" on the "Ejectable" line Here is my script as it might be useful to others: https://gist.github.com/1077064
Answer: In a terminal window (bash shell)
diskutil info /Volumes/name-of-volume
will return a list of properties of the volume, including
Protocol:                 FireWire
...
   Ejectable:                Yes
   Whole:                    No
   Internal:                 No
so, I suppose you could start with that.   I'm not clear on what
the "Internal" property implies, it might be better to look at
"Protocol" if your concern is with Firewire or USB external devices.


Leg-press for women

Question: Is it true that taking too much of weight on the leg-press machine can affect a woman's body.If so what could be an alternative to the same ?
Comment: What do you mean by "affect"?
Comment: @heenasurve The question is very vague which Dave noted. Please provide more details so that the community has a better understanding of what it is you want answered. You'll also get a better that way too.
Comment: The reason i asked this question is because there are certain exercises that are believed to have alternatives especially when it comes to women.Is it completely safe to be doing this exercise?
Comment: No exercise is "completely safe". Nothing is. I would recommend doing back squat over leg-press though as I have seen a lot more people acutely injure themselves on it over back squatting.
Answer: By "affect" do you mean make you look like a male bodybuilder? if yes, then the answer is "surely no". There is a misconception about women and weight lifting, a lot of women think that if they do some weight training they will grow huge muscles like male bodybuilders.
While increasing weight will make you build a bit more muscles of course, but there is a big difference in the physiology of men vs women, of which : Men have more muscles, have more testosterone (which helps build muscles),etc..
My personal recommendation if you want to "tone" your body, all you need to do is "body-weight" training. It will make you build the necessary nice looking muscles, strength, endurance, and will give you a much better looking shape than machines and body building. body weight training might not be suitable for someone joining a body building competition, but it is the BEST for someone who want to tone their body and have good shape. (I assume that's what you are aiming at)
Answer: Yes, the leg press will affect your body. It will help make you stronger, and look more fit. A barbell squat is often advocated as a better alternative to the leg press machine. It activates more muscles during the exercise, specifically your core (back and abs).
Answer: According my thinking as half of our body's mass consists of quadriceps, thighs, calves, and buttocks, so leg press will definitely affect your body. Not only it will make you fit but also stronger.
If you are thinking that after using the leg press machine and doing heavy weight lifting you will develop muscles like a bulky men body builder the answer is a big NO!.
If you don't want to go for a leg press, you should try Squats. But i would recommend you to go for a leg press machine. You can read more about leg press machine using this article where they have mentioned why working on leg press machine is essential for both men & women and have also outlined some of the best leg press machines including their pros and cons, features, specifications etc,.

Leg-press for women


Java - Failed to Load the JNI shared Library (JDK)

Question: I am trying to launch an application (not Eclipse) that was written in Java. When I do, I get an error that says "Failed to Load the JNI shared Library (JDK)" along with a path that points to the location of the file.
From searching Google and StackOverflow, all I can find are people saying that the Java version installed needs to match my machine. My machine is 64 bit and so is my java installation, so I don't think that is my issue.
I have also verified that C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin is in my path variable. Also, just for the record, I do not use Eclipse. I have also tried uninstalling and reinstalling Java an the application that was written in Java. Lastly, the file it is complaining about exists on the machine.
Does anyone know what else could be the cause of this problem?
Update:
Thanks for your responses. I got it resolved, but the resolution seems like more of a hack and goes against what I was reading earlier. I installed the 32 bit version of Java 7 along side of my 64 bit version of Java 7. I then added the path the 32 bit version to the system path variable.
After I did this, the application was able to launch. Is there an issue with having both 64 bit and 32 bit versions of Java 7 installed simultaneously?
Answer: This is an error from your application. The application uses JNI. It is complaining that it cannot load it. Why it says (JDK) only its author knows. You will have to ask the author.
Answer: There is no problem having both versions of Java installed.  However, the application you were using probably shipped with a 32-bit version of the JNI library.  So, it needed to be used with a 32-bit Java JRE.


Can anybody please explain the following piece of Flash ActionScript?

Question: var \x01 = -712 + \x04\x05();
for (\x01 = eval("\x01") + 242; eval("\x01") == 765; \x01 = eval("\x01") - 27)
{
}

Is this valid ActionScript? If so what does it doo?
Answer: Well, if it came fron an ActionScript file then yes, it probably does work.
It's certainly consistent in its use of strange identifiers for variables and functions. That means it's almost certainly been passed through an obfuscator of some sort to make it harder to do exactly what you're trying to do (decompile it is my guess but I may be wrong).
I'm not entirely sure that it does anything useful in its current form since there's no body in the for loop. But the code itself seems to:

Set the variable \x01 to whatever the function \x04\x05() returns less 712.
Loop with specific values of \x01 until it's not 765 (these seems unusual - terminating conditions are usually inequalities rather than equalties - in this case it seems that the loop will only execute once since you change \x01 each time through the loop).

Basically, with obfucated code, you should just replace the weird identifiers with more sensible ones to see if makes sense. That's a good first step to understanding the code (but probably not the only step required).
Answer: If this the product of something like SWFEncrypt, then this output is not a reflection of what's actually happening in the code being obfuscated and encrypted. I've seen before/after examples and there's no rhyme or reason to what it produces, at least when viewed in a code editor. There's little chance of reverse-engineering it unless you have a way to decrypt the binary.


How do you write a submission for a previously published book (taken off the market by the author) and introducing a 2nd book in the original series

Question: The original children's historical fiction picture book was self published by the author. It sold a few thousand and was on Amazon but was too expensive to continue being published by the author's publishing company that she established. We (I'm the illustrator) would like to find a publishing company for the first book (how America became a country) and the second book in the series is finished with illustrations (America's westward expansion).  How do we write up a query or submission for both books in the series? We have published copies of the first book, manuscripts and original illustrations for both books. Looking for advice. Thanks
Comment: Try doing it yourselves on BookVault or IngramSparks or KDP - if you use your own ISBNs you could do parallel releases - see how it works.
Answer: This is a tricky situation. Generally, traditional publishers don't want to republish a book unless it has been a significant success. The (non-scientific) rule of thumb I use is that 3000 sales of a previous title is enough to use it as a legitimate writing credit. But in order to make it a hot-enough property that the publisher will want to re-release this book, you'd probably need sales in the tens of thousands of copies.
Therefore, I'd recommend trying to sell the new book as a stand-alone, using the success of the previous book as a writing credit.
With that said, I'm not sure why it would be expensive to keep your previously-published book in print independently. EBooks cost nothing to keep in print, and even short print runs start around $5/copy these days for legitimate POD printers. (It might not be worth it to sell print on Amazon, but you could print up a box and sell it at local author events for a tidy markup.)


Lost internet access after installing Find My iPhone

Question: I installed Find My iPhone and was unable to connect to the internet. I deleted the application and that fixed the issue. However, through iCloud it also installed on my iPad. I cannot delete it from there because there is no icon. When I go into setting and try to turn it off it won't let me because it cannot access the internet. How can I remove it from my iPad?
Answer: Did you actually purchase "Find my iPhone"? If you did you can delete the purchase.
You must have a computer around you with iTunes. Sign into your account then, Right click on the App in iTunes, select delete.
Comment: Thanks for your response. I have my ipad connected to my computer but there are no apps listed in itunes. I did a sync but I still dont see any of my apps
Comment: Ok, I got it to work. I can see my apps in iTunes. But that one is not listed. I think because I already deleted it from my iPhone. The problem is that I have lost that ability to access the internet on the iPad so I can't turn Find My iPad off.


2 players for 2 nobles

Question: If player 1 got enough resources for noble A and B, because the game only lets players obtain 1 noble per turn, player 1 got noble A.
Then player 2 got enough resources for noble B.
Who will get noble B, is it player 1 because it is a "noble in waiting" or player 2 because of turn player priority.
Answer: Player 2 gets noble B if they have enough for that noble on their turn it doesn't matter if Player 1 had enough for it as they chose Noble A on their turn.
It doesn't matter if you have enough to get that noble if you are unable to take it on your turn due to take a different noble.
Answer: From the rules:

At the end of their turn, each player checks the noble tiles in
order to determine if they're receiving a visit from one of them.
A player can be visited if they have (at least) the quantity and
type of bonuses indicated on the noble tile.
It is impossible to refuse the visit from a noble, which is not
considered to be an action.
If a player has enough bonuses to be visited by more than one
noble at the end of their turn, that player chooses the noble to
be received.

So player 2 will receive the noble in this case. It does not matter whether player 1 also has the requirement; you only receive a noble when it is your turn.
Note that if it were the other way, and noble B also were "in waiting" for player 1, then there wouldn't be much point to limiting it to 1 noble per turn. It would only make a difference in the rare case that the second noble would cause the game to end. The point of limiting the nobles to one per turn is to give the other player(s) the chance to get the other noble for themselves.

2 players for 2 nobles


Is there a way to make 'textured' refractions in Blender?

Question: I have this color glass object, that has like a ribbed texture to it and I was wondering, is there a way to make the refractions you see on the wall also 'ribbed'? I also would want to hear about some general tips on improving reflections, refractions  and overall look of a glossy object like that. Should I use textures or the procedural glass is fine? What would be better for overall look of the object and also tips on optimizing its lightning for final animation.
Thank you in advance!
Comment: As far as I know Cycles doesn't deal with caustics well yet. You'll could possibly fake it with some texture based opacity control
Answer: Caustics in Cycles
Imperfect refraction comes from imperfect glass.
You can maybe approximate this effect with normals, but I'm getting better results with assigning a texture to the IOR input on the Principled BSDF.
After several (thousand) samples you can see the glass caustics beginning to resolve into ribs.

If you want accuracy there's no shortcut for this in Cycles, but there are render engines based on different algorithms that handle caustics better.


android get vibration settings

Question: I need to get the right settings for vibrator so that my application respects the device's sound settings. On the following code, if the vibrator is off(on my phone when I lower the volume, it is a state when the volume is off and vibrator is off and one when volume is off an vibrator is on). When the phone is set to no vibrate (verified by making a call to this device), I still get the vibrator as being on:
AudioManager audioManager = (AudioManager) PingerApplication.getInstance().getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE);
int vibrationSetting = audioManager.getVibrateSetting(AudioManager.VIBRATE_TYPE_NOTIFICATION);
boolean vibrate;
switch(vibrationSetting) {
case AudioManager.VIBRATE_SETTING_ON:
    vibrate = true;
    break;
case AudioManager.VIBRATE_SETTING_OFF:
    vibrate = false;
    break;
case AudioManager.VIBRATE_SETTING_ONLY_SILENT:
    vibrate = (audioManager.getRingerMode() == AudioManager.RINGER_MODE_VIBRATE);
    break;
default:
    vibrate = false;
}

Am I doing something wrong? vibrationSetting is always AudioManager.VIBRATE_SETTING_ON
Answer: You can also put check on AudioManager.getRingerMode(), e.g.
 AudioManager audioManager = (AudioManager) mContext.getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE);
    if(audioManager.getRingerMode() == AudioManager.RINGER_MODE_SILENT)
    {
        // should not vibrate
    }

Answer: According to the Javadoc, you should use AudioManager.shouldVibrate(int) instead.

android get vibration settings


Copyright shakedown

Question: I've been receiving threatening letters from a law firm regarding a meme I posted on my blog 2 years ago. Turns out the image was derived from a photo by Agence France Presse. I took it down immediately but they claim I owe $938 for the infringement. I can't pay this amount -- my blog makes no income -- and I originally thought it a scam. When a law firm called I told them they wouldn't see a penny of this blackmail money. Wouldn't this be covered by fair use?
Comment: 1) Where are you (a resident of)? 2) Where is the law firm from? 3) Has the claim mentioned litigation, and if so, does it mention where?
Answer: French law protecting authors' rights are fairly strong, and there is no doctrine of "fair use" there. Even in the US (where "fair use" is probably the biggest exception to copyright), it is unlikely that unauthorized distribution of a photographic work would be found to be fair use. It would have a significant effect on the market, and the amount of copying was (apparently) quite substantial (i.e. the whole photo?). However, it is possible that you could prevail on a fair use defense, as in Bramer v. Violent Hues. It probably comes down to exactly what the original photo was of and used for, and how you used it (which is where your attorney will tell you whether you should save yourself the expense of a trial, or is it worth it to fight it).
Comment: It was a popular meme featuring part of a photo of an international politician (not French) that was widely distributed at the time. In my case, I used it to illustrate a post about that politician. This was a totally non-profit blog. How can they extort money from me here in the US, when I complied with their request to take it down? And isn't $938 a completely unreasonable amount?
Comment: And isn't anyone who posts any kind of image content on the web believing fair use at a serious risk of financial destitution?
Comment: @user18905: you are a US resident then, where is the law firm from? And if they mentioned litigation, did they mention where that would take place? I.e. France or the United States?
Comment: The law firm is in California, I believe. They threatened me a $30K max penalty if I didn't pay up immediately, but didn't go further than that. I assume they must be pursuing multiple parties since this was a very popular meme.
Comment: Furthermore, it was about a year ago that I got 3 letters regarding the issue. None of them were registered mail so I assumed it was part of a scam.
Comment: The details you give here are really important to the question, so you should put this info in the question (since comments might get deleted).
Comment: It is legal, and it is a shakedown. Normally if you ignore them they go away (because of the cost of going to court). I might be inclined to ask them to prove that they are the sole source of that image, and the evidence they have that it was you who breached the copywrite. I have also had some traction tracking down the original author, and asking them what it was worth - although not a defense - if it could be acquired cheaply and it were to go further, it puts there demands in an u just light. (You could possibly pre&emptively go to a disputes tribunal for declaratory judgement of a reasona
Answer: Well, the statute of limitations on a civil copyright infringement claim in the US is 3 years, so if it has already been 2+ years, then you could always wait to see if they file suit. 17 U.S.C. 507(b).
The $30,000 max penalty is the max for non-willfull statutory damages, which are damages selected in lieu of actual damages and are set by the judge in an amount between $750 to $30k.  17 U.S.C. 504(c).  If the judge believed that you had no reason to believe that your use of the image was an infringement, then the judge can reduce the statutory damages to as little as $200.  Id.
Further, statutory damages are only available to copyright owners of published works if the owner registered the copyright within three months of publication, or if not within that three month period, then before the infringement occurred.  17 U.S.C. 412(2).  So, they may not even be able to seek statutory damages, and no attorney is going to spend time and money suing you over de minimis actual damages.
Based on my experience as an attorney, it is extremely unlikely that they will sue you to recover $938.  Even the full $30k may not be enough to cover the fees for discovery and a trial, and that amount is at the discretion of the judge.  You sound like an innocent infringer and the judge would be much more likely to award the minimum/low statutory damage amount even if he didn't think you qualified for the reduced $200 damages.
If you choose not to ignore them and hope they don't sue before the statutory deadline, then you should ask for a copy of the Copyright Office's certificate of registration.  The certificate of registration should include an effective date and other identifying information related to the work and the copyright holder.  Tell them that you want the information to be sure they are not a scam/may have a legitimate claim.  Once you have the registration certificate you can determine whether or not they could pursue statutory damages.
In the event they do sue you, definitely don't ignore the complaint and definitely hire a lawyer to respond.  Your potential defense based on the statute of limitations is an affirmative defense and must be plead in your answer or it will be waived.
Comment: Mr. Lawyer, could the OP also file an anti-SLAAP motion of dismissal?  It seems like this is more about silencing a critic of a politician than it is about actual damages from my read.  As I understand it, California is quite favorable to the defense with regard to anti-SLAAP motions.
Comment: I doubt it.  First, copyright claims arise under federal law and thus would be brought in Federal Court rather than state court.  Second, it sounds like the copyright holder would have a valid claim for infringement, so the claim isn't frivolous.  Their problem is that they likely won't win enough money damages to justify the time/cost of filing a lawsuit.

Copyright shakedown


how to ensure that the DNS server is giving me the legitimate information?

Question: if attacker poisioned the cache of DNS server then it will give me illegitimate information.so, how to identify it?
if the solution is to create the local database of domain name and ip addresses and compare it with DNS response then how/where to get the correct information about it?
Answer: If you can collect the DNS info beforehand set that data in a prioritized host file. If not you'd have to force queries to near random DNS servers on the Internet, ideally from a completely separate network to avoid man in the middle modification (possibly via a cell phone on a carrier network) and compare the results to what you got from the questionable DNS server.
As to how to collect safe DNS/IP info verify the Certificates via TLS/SSL if the remote systems support TLS/SSL (possibly other protocols that also use certificates).
A well configured Split DNS implementation where the Internal DNS servers don't pull from your Externally facing DNS servers will prevent external poisoning of your internal DNS resolutions.
It's a great question and an interesting design flaw that we all have to work with.
I think the important part is knowing how to implement Split DNS properly so your internal hosts don't get poisoned.
You could also tunnel all of your DNS requests to a trusted server or set of servers to avoid the man in the middle problem.
The more complicated solution is to rewrite your DNS client to poll various trusted DNS servers to compare their results with your local one to detect DNS poisoning.
Comment: can i get directly the database of legitimate DNS records from somewhere? if not, then can you suggest me some free trusted DNS server's ip to create local database..@Trey Blalock
Comment: @VaibhavKankal  You can get a list of all the public DNS servers in the world here. https://scans.io/    As to which one's you can trust or not I haven't tested them all yet. If you trust Google you can start with theirs at 18.104.22.168 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Public_DNS


Can I use one power supply for different ampere motors? Will it affect the motors?

Question: I have two motors, one motor uses 12 V 5 amps and another motor needs 12 V 7 amps, I have a power supply (SMPS) of 12 V 30 amp capacity. I'm planning to connect both motors to the same power supply. Will the motors be affected? When the 7 amp motor is consuming all 7 amps, will it affect the 5 amp motor?
Comment: "one motor uses 12 V 5 amps and another motor needs 12 V 7 amps"  Is that the motor's specified current draw, or is that what you've guaranteed with your circuitry or mechanical design?  If a motor is advertised as "5A" that usually means that it will work forever if _you design the mechanical load_ so the motor draws no more than 5A.  If you stall a "5A" motor it may draw many times more current than that.  A motor can stand that for short periods of time, but not for extended duration.
Comment: You should look into the datasheets of the motors for the start current when a not rotating motor is connected to 12V.
Answer: Most likely, this will work fine. Connect all three devices in parallel. The power supply will keep the voltage at 12 volts no matter how many amps are drawn - as long as it's not overloaded - which it won't be.
Answer: If these are brushed DC motors that are simply connected to the power supply with a switch, there is a good possibility that just the smaller motor alone will cause the power supply to shut off because of the inrush current.


Prime ideal and maximal ideal of an integral domain

Question: In an integral domain, $\{0\}$ is always a prime ideal. What about maximal ideal? $(0)$ is a prime ideal in $\mathbb{Z}$ which is an I.D but it is not maximal in $\mathbb{Z}$. So I can not conclude that $(0)$ is always maximal ideal in I.D, right? Then what about an example of ideal which is prime in $\mathbb{R}$ ( real numbers) but not maximal?
As every field is an integral domain, can I conclude that $(0)$ is not always maximal ideal of field?
Comment: Waiting for suitable answer.
Comment: If you have questions on my answer, you are welcome to post comments. It is indeed a complete answer to your question, however, so I'm not sure what you mean by 'suitable'.
Answer: Hint: what are the ideals in a field? More generally, do you know the fact that for any commutative ring $R$ and ideal $I$, $R/I$ is a field if and only if $I$ is maximal?
Comment: This statement is correct for commutative rings with 1, but not for arbitrary rings.
Comment: @Loic: yes. I've made this explicit in my answer now. (For me, ring always refers to ring with unity; like many others, I call a ring without $1$ a 'rng'.)
Answer: Let $R$ be a commutative ring with $1$. You can see in many books related to the topic ( Atiyah-Macdonald, 1.2 and if you want more expression, Lemma 3.1 of the book Steps in Commutative Algebra by Sharp ):

$R$ is a field if and only if $R$ has exactly two ideals: $0$ and $R$ itself.

Case 1. $R$ is a field. (e.g $\mathbb{R}$)
In this case $0$ is the only proper ideal (Hence maximal ideal) of $R$.
Case 2. The domain $R$ is not a field.
In this case $R$ has an ideal other than $0$, say $I$. Since $0\subsetneq I$, you know that $0$ is not maximal.
Comment: Alex Wertheim 's answer is complete and **suitable** +1. but i add references with a little more expression.
Comment: Good answer! Thanks for fleshing out my hints.
Comment: you are welcome.


Change the background of each post according to the category

Question: I am using the Hueman Theme. What I want to do is that the background of all the posts should change according to the category of the post.
Please suggest something
Comment: Are you talking about single posts or category posts
Answer: I do not know this theme. But you must use this two functions somewhere:
 get_theme_mod ('background_image', $default);
 set_theme_mod ('background_image', $_category_image_absolute_path);

Maybe, you can define new modification names with this functions. For example, 'backgroud_image_entertainment', 'background_image_storysode', etc. (as is shown in the referred web page) by using set_theme_mod.
set_theme_mod ('backround_image_entertainment', $_category_image_absolute_path);

Then, you should add some functions to introduce the absolute path of each image using set_theme_mod; and lately call the function get_theme_mod according the current category.
 This code can be useful (whether you find out how to adapt:
function get_background_image_modified () {
   $category = get_the_category();
    // Here it could be added some checking like:
    // * Are we showing all posts of one category?
    // * Are we in a post?
    // * Are we showing by tags?
    // * Are we in the main page?
    // and add more options
   $cat_name = $category[0]->cat_name; // the category of the first post of the list
   $url_default_image = get_theme_mod ('background_image', $aux);
   $url_cat_image = get_theme_mod ('background_image_'.$cat_name, $aux);

 return (isset($url_cat_image))? $url_cat_image : $url_dafault_image);
}

Then, you will need to find where is called the original get_background_image() in your theme, or where is defined, and include your changes. If the function does not exist, then create it, and replace the main function by using the WordPress API to replace functions. I never did it, but it is possible.
Finally, you will need to name the background image files of each category in some way (for example: background-entertainment.jpg), and include the absolute path of each one by using set_theme_mod somewhere (at the very beginning of the theme loading).
I was working on it with another theme, but I did not figure out every thing, yet. It would be easy to make a PlugIn (which still does not exist). Unfortunately, every theme is developed in different way, and there is no an standard scheme to replace such function.
If someone got the definitive solution, please, do feel comfortable to share it. Thanks!!
Answer: Wordpress usually adds the category as a class in the body/article tag of each page, you can probably style each category with a custom background through that class.


Mohnhaft 1928 meaning

Question: I have been sent a document from Lübeck dated 1928 where the word "mohnhaft" in reference to a record made about my grandmother. Can you help? I'll gladly send a copy of the document.
Comment: You should supply a copy of the document.
Comment: @HubertSchölnast, except for a misreading, this can be answered by a dictionary. An answer would not be useful to anyone else in the future. I have therefore now voted to close, I should have done that in the first place.
Answer: This word makes no sense.

Mohn (noun) = papaver
-haft (suffix) = -ish, -ly, -ous, ...

So, mohnhaft would mean papaverish, papaverly, papaverous or something like that. But that makes absolutely no sense, especially in an official document.
But there is a German word that exists and makes perfect sense, and its natural habitat is even the realm of official documents:
wohnhaft = resident
an einem Ort wohnhaft sein = to be resident in a place
The first part (wohn-) is the stem of the verb wohnen.

wohnen Wiktionary dict.leo.org
to live (at a home), to reside, to room, ...

The second part (-haft) is the same as just described, but when added to a verb, it is often better to translate is as -ing, although that is not exactly the same, but it's the best you can get in English, because by adding -haft to a word, the resulting word is an adjective. But adding -ing in English does not change the status of a verb being a verb.
Another way, that only works with a small number of verbs, is adding -ent to turn it into an adjective. This works well with to reside → resident but not with the other verbs that can be used as translation of wohnen.
So, here are translations that work:

Er ist in Wien wohnhaft. = He is living in Vienna.
Er ist in Wien wohnhaft. = He is resident in Vienna.

However, as living is not an adjective, but resident is, the word resident comes closer to the original meaning of the German word.
Comment: The question is obviously based on a reading error and has no value for anyone but OP. Everything else stated in this answer can be found in a dictionary.

Mohnhaft 1928 meaning


Apache2 Unwantingly Allowing Proxy Requests

Question: I'm not sure if this is the right location, but this is fairly urgent.  I have completely removed all traces of mod_proxy and the other mod_proxy mods, although the Apache server continues to allow proxy requests.  I have restarted numerous times, and have shut down until I can find an answer.  I've noticed lots of requests from IPs in and around China to external sites such as free movie downloads and such.  I'd like to prevent this from happening.  I'll be grateful for any help I get.
Comment: Since this is more of a local issue, and not a question, and since you don't have enough reputation to chat, would you please contact me by clicking my username, homepage, then contact page? I will try to help you get things resolved.
Answer: (from our emails, just to answer the question for future users)
Looking at your last line (access log) it seems that people are exploiting a remote-file-inclusion hole, rather than proxying via Apache directly. But you can be sure of this by forcing all possible proxy capabilities to be disabled.
You can try yourself to use your server as a proxy to access other sites and make sure that you get either a failure, or local content from your site. Among the ways to do this:
Configure your browser to use your web server as its default proxy server and then try to request foreign sites. You should get only your own website content back in reply.
    Manually construct requests using telnet:
telnet yoursite.example.com 80
GET http://www.google.com/ HTTP/1.1
Host: www.google.com

Then press enter twice. If your server is properly configured, you should receive content from your own site and not Google. Source: www.apache.org
Failing that, still try this in the main config:
ProxyRequests On
ProxyVia On
<Proxy *>
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from none
AllowOverride none
</Proxy>


Baofeng UV5R VOX Detection

Question: I'm reading at the moment the schematic of the Baofen UV5R radio (Baofeng UV5R schematic). If I understand the circuit correctly, this circuit is used to enable/disable the microphone (Q16) and to detect VOX (Voltage at C14). The question is, why do I need such a complicated circuit with Q17, D21... instead of a simple lowpass filter with recifier diode as in the second image below connected at the same node as C137?
Comment: At the C137 node, voice amplitude from MIC1 is too low...the AC amplifier Q17 is required so that D21 peak-to-peak rectifier works efficiently. In any case, your LTspice circuit won't do a similar function...C13 might change its DC voltage when you drive it with a large AC signal, but C16 will remain at 0V DC.
Answer:
why do I need such a complicated circuit with Q17, D21

Q17 has a voltage gain of of several hundred so, if your input signal is not tiny you can dispense with that amplifier stage. But you can't get rid of the 2nd diode in D21 to ground after C109 because it (and the other diode) are needed to properly rectify a signal and sustain an output DC level that is representative of the amplified microphone audio signal.
Put it another way - C139 needs to pass an AC current and the diode to ground passes negative current whilst the series diode passes the positive current to the output capacitor C140. If you didn't have the diode to ground, C139 would charge up and you'd lose the output signal after a short while.
Comment: Thank you Andy for the explanation. Makes sense with the amplifier. So I made wrong assumptions in my simulation for the microphone to not see that. Yes I've seen in the simulation that the diode to ground is needed to discharge the capacitor. Thank you!
Comment: @murmi [take the 2 minute tour to see what to do next](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/tour).
Answer: Andy is correct that you need gain but his estimate of gain is incorrect.
The gain is only 30  +/-5 with such a low bias current from 1M5 to amplify say a 50mVp to 300mVpp.  The dual Sch. Diodes clamp and rectify the signal but drop about 50mV each at this xx nA current level leaving about 200 mVdc for the ADC to decide when to enable and disable mic for fast attack and slower cutoff with software hysteresis.
Also 104 caps are 100nF and the p suffix is redundant but a reminder of the printed value on the part vs the logical value usually shown in schematics. So your schematic has the wrong cap value. (Which is why actual values are used on schematics) {rookie designer;} but a pro compared to questions on this site.
Your design barely exceeds the conduction threshold at 50mV and would need to be at least 150mVp to trigger the same threshold. So the VOX would cutout your first utterance.
So you need gain, although his circuit could be improved with better values to raise input impedance, add 500k pullup for more Ic and thus lower re =26/Ic with Ic @ 1uA , raise Rb and Rc and thus more Av, without loading the audio much.
Comment: Hi Tony, thank you! Never seen this p suffix. Is it used for capacitors only and do have resistors a similar suffix? From where did you get the value 26 without knowing the exact partnumber of the npn?
Comment: Yes the gain is a lot lower than hundreds; more like 50 to 100.
Comment: That's a BJT characteristic that is temperature sensitive , some use 25 or 26 and the gain is more like 25 after loading from clamp diodes and cap. Never 50 or 100 with 4k7 load and 1k input unless it was biased with much more current a greater supply voltage with a larger Rc/Rb ratio.
Comment: @Murmi this is another example https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/553388/can-anyone-explain-these-conditions-for-the-current-mirror/553396#553396

Baofeng UV5R VOX Detection


Problems with Intel graphics card

Question: I've got a problem with my graphics card. In Windows XP my graphics card is shown as size: 256MB, but in Windows 7 it is shown as size: 64MB, and I can't run some games. I want an explanation. Thank you.
Comment: What do you want an explanation for exactly? The size you are seeing is meaningless and probably has nothing to do with why you can't run some games. (At least, this is the most likely explanation. It's hard to be sure without knowing what graphics card you have.)
Answer: I guess you're talking about the video memory size. Intel GPUs dynamically allocate RAM as video memory, so the amount used can change. It's a good thing if Windows 7 is using less memory when GPU load is low. This is by design and problems with running some games is probably unrelated.
You can ask separate question about the games problems, then we'll try to solve them.

Problems with Intel graphics card


Sonicwall - SSH to change admin password

Question: Is it possible to reset a password for the admin account on a Sonicwall via SSH?
Comment: You should if you have another admin account.
Answer: If you have a valid configuration backup you can boot sonicwall in safe mode and change admin password, which is not stored in exported backup file.
You have to phisically access the appliace, however...
See https://support.software.dell.com/kb/sw8010
So:
-find configuration backup
-start safe mode in your sonicwall as per kb article
-change password
-reboot appliance in normal mode
-restore configuration
Answer: I found a command reference that mentioned the following, but it didn't work on the TZ appliance I had to test on.  It may be NSA only?
admin-password old-password <WORD> new-password <WORD> confirm-password <WORD>


TideSDK Windows publish timeout error

Question: I use TiDev Community and TideSDK 1.2.0 RC4, but when start compiling Windows version app get timeout error. It proceed 2 weeks.
Previously this was no error. What change?
My system is Windows7 x32, build 7600.
Comment: Did you try to launch your app for debugging reasons, or did you try to package the app for distribution?
Answer: It would be helpful to see a traceback or to have additional details on what you were doing. TiDev as an app that is reaching the end of its useful life cycle. I believe the issue for you is that you may have attempted to produce packages over the network. While TiDev has options for network packaging, Appcelerator (who used to run the service) indicated that they would not maintain it longer term.
We are currently working on the TideBuilder app that will take the place of TiDev in the near future. We have options for how we may replace the network packaging service but currently are focused on getting the 1.3.0-beta to a release. Until then, we currently recommend using tibuild, a command line utility, to create a bundle package.
If you need more information, or you feel the issue may be a different one, please provide some additional details so we can help you futher.

TideSDK Windows publish timeout error


Do most scholars agree that Shiva and Vishnu are both free from Maya?

Question: Are Shiva and Vishnu, both of them, free from Maya, and do all or almost all schools of Hindu theology believe they are?
Answer: It depends on the literature one is reading. If you browse through Devi Bhagavatam it's clear that all Trimurtis are under the maya of Shakti (Bhuvaneshwari). There are many stories that show how the Trimurtis fall victim to Maya (Ego = Ahamkara and delusion). So it's best one focuses their efforts on that which might help them uplift their consciousness rather than trying to treat the Sanatana Literature as a Singular Religions Entity/literature. It's an encyclopedia of traditions and spiritual doctrine.
Comment: Do most texts disagree and claim that Shiva and Visnu are free from Maya?
Comment: @KeoBelur Vedas say Rudra is a Conscious Knower. They also say Vishu resides in the highest stride where sages wish to go. Hence, based on the literature one Aspect of Divinity take the front seat, and the remaining play the role of seating in the back seat. They take turns so that beings with different temperaments can attain the aspect of divinity that appeals to them most. At the end, the goal is the upliftment of consciousness and not put Divinity and their aspect in a ring-match with each other.
Answer: The Vaishnavite philosophers hold that Shiva is under the influence of Vaishnavi Māyā of Vishnu while The Saivite School holds Vishnu to be under the influence of ShAmbhavi Māyā of Shiva. This is also seen in their respective texts. E.g. the Mohini-Shiva anecdote and the vrishabha-vishnu anecdote from bhagavata and Shiva Puranas respectively.
Similarly, Shaktas believe Vishnu and Shiva to be under the Maya of Adi Shakti.
So to answer the question, most scholars don't believe both of them to be free of Maya at the same time


How to install Windows on MacBook Pro 13" Early 2011

Question: Just want to know if it is possible to install Windows on my Mac. My Mac has a 1TB internal and I've only used 78GB. When I try to install using the Boot Camp Assistant, it is still asking for bootable flash drive, but I don't have one. Why is it that videos on YouTube can install Windows without asking for a flash drive?
Comment: What version of Windows are you trying to install? Which macOS is installed on your MBP?
Answer: According to everymac.com, the Boot Camp Assistant can be used to install at least the following versions of Windows. The Apple websites Install Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp and Use Windows 8.1 on your Mac with Boot Camp can confirm this information.

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (32 bit)
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (64 bit)
Windows 8 (64 bit)
Windows 8.1 (64 bit)

According to the Apple website Install Windows 10 on your Mac with Boot Camp Assistant, your Mac is not on the list of Macs that can install Windows 10 by using the Boot Camp Assistant. However, upgrading from a 64 bit Windows installed using the Boot Camp Assistant to a 64 bit Windows 10 is probably possible. If you have (or had) High Sierra installed on your Mac, then instructions for installing Windows 10 without the Boot Camp Assistant can be found here.
I should point out that Microsoft support ended for Windows 7 on January 4, 2010 and will end for Windows 8.1 on January 10, 2023.
According to the info.plist file included with the High Sierra version of the Boot Camp Assistant, your Mac (MacBookPro8,1) should require the use of DVD when using the Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows. I can not explain why the OP's question states the Boot Camp Assistant is asking for a flash drive, unless modifications have be made to the Boot Camp Assistant application.
According to this Apple website, the only newest Intel Mac models can install Windows without a DVD or flash drive and the only version is 64 bit Windows 10. Your Mac is not one of these models. While your model Mac is probably capable of installing Windows without the use of a DVD or flash drive, I am unaware any website where such instructions are posted.
Your Mac does not meet the minimum system requirements for Windows 11. However, Microsoft does leave the possibility of installing Windows 11 by use of the dism command. I used the dism command to do a clean install of Windows 11 on my iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011).

Note: You can download, install and try Windows 10 or 11 without having a product key. However, to activate Windows you may need to purchase a product key. In the past, Microsoft has allowed free upgrades from Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 to Windows 10. Also, in the past, Windows 10 would accept a Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 product key. I do not know if either of these currently hold true.  Currently, there exists the possibility to activate Windows 11 on a Mac for free if the same Mac has had an activated Windows 10 tied to your Microsoft account.


Trouble with greasemonkey script to refresh page

Question: I'm downloading data from an online database using the imacros plugin for firefox.  It works perfectly, except when the page times out.  I've moved to downloading very small chunks of data since then the website times out much less frequently, but it still times out occasionally.
The problem is there's no way to code if statements directly into the imacros macro, so I wanted to have a greasemonkey script running along side it that will refresh the page if it timesout.  The website only times out in one place for me, and when it does it shows the following:

can't open file
I never learned Java or Javascript and all of my programming experience deals with numerical methods, but I've been been piecing together code and adapting it to try and solve my problem.
The following is my base code:
var RefreshTime = '20';
var str1 = document.body.innerHTML
var str2 = "can't open file"

if (str1.search(str2) > 0) {
    if (StRefTime > 0) setTimeout("location.reload(true);",RefreshTime*1000);
}

Since the browser I'm running this in is currently being used exclusively for this script I just have @include *
Basically what this is meant to do is refresh the page every 20 seconds as long "can't open file" is found the webpage.  This works perfectly on other websites when I test it, but doesn't work at all on the website I need it to.  It might be worth noting that when I refresh, firefox asks me to confirm resending post data - but imacros does have a function that I tested and works on this site to automatically confirm whenever the dialog is displayed.
After doing some reading I found that other people had similar problems, and I think the root of the cause is that if the page is arrived at through AJAX then greasemonkey misses it.
To address this I tried to implement the suggested solutions to those people, but I've been unsuccessful.  For example I've tried putting the code I listed above into the solution given here: Run Greasemonkey script on the same page, multiple times? , for example
var RefreshTime = '20';
var str1 = document.body.innerHTML
var str2 = "can't open file"

function highlightGoodComments (jNode) {

    //***** YOUR CODE HERE *****

    if (/str2/i.test (jNode.text () ) ) {

        if (str1.search(str2) > 0) {
            if (RefreshTime > 0) setTimeout("location.reload(true);",RefreshTime*1000);
        }

    }

But this doesn't work either, and I've tried a couple variations of it (for example getting rid of str2 and just putting "open file" and things like that) and I've also tried and failed to make the following work https://gist.github.com/BrockA/2625891.  I also tried wrapping all of my initial code in a setInterval loop with the hope that it would just check constantly for "can't open file" even without any page loading, but that didn't work either.
Unfortunately the website I'm running my script on is hidden behind a paywall, and it's hard to test my code since it times out somewhat randomly so there's no way to check if my code works outside of just waiting a long time and seeing if it failed.  I know nothing about AJAX, so I'm not sure how to confirm that that is what's happening, but I still believe it to be so since my problem seemed similar to other people's - and when I enable this macro it does seem to interfere with other parts of the website but not the parts that my script works on.
I was hoping somebody could help me out, since I'm pretty stuck here and already in over my head.  Even if you can't help, having some sort of AJAX website where I could test code without waiting several hours would be helpful to me trying to figure this out myself, if anybody knows of one.  Thank you for reading through this, I really do appreciate any help anybody can offer.
Answer: The question is very long so I didn't bother to really read it. Since I don't use GreasMonkey I can tell you the iMacros solution.
Check if html element exists with iMacros and javascript
Here is a model how to built JS iMacros script and include if clause. You can make a testing macro that tests is t here "can't open" web page.
Also you can try to use
SET !TIMEOUT_PAGE 120

command to increase the time of page loading to 120 seconds. Try some of these if it can help.


Routine doctor visit for people with myopia?

Question: Should people with myopia (short-sightedness) who otherwise show no symptoms of eye problems and wear corrective lenses visit an eye doctor (whether optometrist or ophthalmologist - my country doesn't even have that distinction)? If they should, are there any recommendations as to how often these visits should happen and what exams need to be scheduled?
Answer: This probably varies from country to country. In mine (France), it is recommended to see an ophtalmologist (we have the distinction here) every three years for non-severe myopia, because your sight can vary a bit during that time. For children it's every year because children's sight vary much more than ours. For severe myopia, the ophtalmologist decides what schedule will be best - often every year as well.
The tests are generally eyesight measurements (for myopia, far-sightedness and astigmatism). Sometimes, especially in older people, you'll get a fundus examination as well.
This site has description of myopia progression that justifies the regular checks in the classification part.
Comment: I think we actually only have ophthalmologist here in Germany. So I can put this answer into context: Are eyesight measurements only done by doctors in France? I ask because I have never seen a doctor for that and thus think it's strange to go see a doctor "just" for that.
Comment: @YviDe It's probably a cultural thing, what is medical and what is paramedical varies a lot according to where you live. Optometrists exist here (although they're very rare) but they aren't recognized so, like opticians, they can do eyesight measurements but you won't get reimbursed by social security if you don't have a prescription (which is only valid 3 years) from an ophthalmologist . So in practice you go to the doctor, get your prescription, go to the optician who will often adjust it, and then you have your glasses/lenses. This could change in the years to come, however.